CLXXIII.

TO CAPTAIN RIDDEL.

[Robert Riddel kept one of those present pests of society--an album--into which Burns copied the Lines on the Hermitage, and the Wounded Hare.]

_Ellisland, 1789._

SIR,

I wish from my inmost soul it were in my power to give you a more substantial gratification and return for all the goodness to the poet, than transcribing a few of his idle rhymes.--However, "an old song," though to a proverb an instance of insignificance, is generally the only coin a poet has to pay with.

If my poems which I have transcribed, and mean still to transcribe into your book, were equal to the grateful respect and high esteem I bear for the gentleman to whom I present them, they would be the finest poems in the language.--As they are, they will at least be a testimony with what sincerity I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your devoted humble Servant,

R. B.

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