e had contributed to Thomson's work sixty songs, but of these
only six had then appeared, as only one half-volume of Thomson's work
had then been published. Burns had given Thomson the copyright of all
the sixty songs; but as soon as a posthumous edition of the poet's
works was proposed, Thomson returned all the songs to the poet's
family, to be included in the forthcoming edition, along with (p. 154)
the interesting letters which had accompanied the songs. Thomson's
collection was not completed till 1841, when the sixth and last volume
of it appeared. It is affecting to know that Thomson himself, who was
older than Burns by two years, survived him for more than five-and-fifty,
and died in February, 1851, at the ripe old age of ninety-four.

CHAPTER VII. (p. 155)

LAST YEARS.

During those Dumfries years little is to be done by the biographer but
to trace the several incidents in Burns's quarrel with the world, his
growing exasperation, and the evil effects of it on his conduct and
his fortunes. It is a painful record, but since it must be given, it
shall be with as much brevity as is consistent with truth.

In July, 1793, Burns made an excursion into Galloway, accompanied by a
Mr. Syme, who belonging, like himself, to the Excise, admired the
poet, and agreed with his politics. Syme has preserved a record of
this journey, and the main impression left by the perusal of it is the
strange access of ill-temper which had come over Burns, who kept
venting his spleen in epigrams on all whom he disliked, high and low.
They visited Kenmure, where lived Mr. Gordon, the representative of
the old Lords Kenmure. They passed thence over the muirs to Gatehouse,
in a wild storm, during which Burns was silent and crooning to himself
what, Syme says, was the first thought of _Scots wha hae_. They were
engaged to go to St. Mary's Isle, the seat of the Earl of Selkirk, but
Burns was in such a savage mood against all lords, that he was with
difficulty persuaded to go thither, though Lord Selkirk was no Tory,
but a Whig, like himself, and the father of his old friend, Lord (p. 156)
Daer, by this time deceased, who had first convinced him that a lord
might possibly be an honest and kind-hearted man. When they were once
under the hospitable roof of St. Mary's Isle, the kindness with which
they were received appeased the poet's bitterness. The Earl was
benign, the young lad