IX.  MEMORIALS OF A SECOND TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1814.

253. *_Suggested by a beautiful Ruin upon one of the islands of Loch Lomond:  a place chosen for the retreat of a solitary individual, from whom this Habitation acquired the name of the Brownie’s Cell_,[I.]

In this tour my wife and her sister Sara were my companions.  The account of the Brownie’s Cell, and the Brownies, was given me by a man we met with on the banks of Loch Lomond, a little above Tarbert, and in front of a huge mass of rock by the side of which, we were told, preachings were often held in the open air.  The place is quite a solitude, and the surrounding scenery very striking.  How much is it to be regretted that, instead of writing such poems as the ‘Holy Fair,’ and others in which the religious observances of his country are treated with so much levity, and too often with indecency, Burns had not employed his genius in describing religion under the serious and affecting aspects it must so frequently take.

254. *_Composed at Corra Linn, in sight of Wallace Tower_.[II.]

I had seen this celebrated waterfall twice before.  But the feelings to which it had given birth were not expressed till they recurred in presence of the object on this occasion.

255. *_Effusion in the Pleasure-ground on the Banks of the Braw, near Dunkeld_.[III.]

I am not aware that this condemnatory effusion was ever seen by the owner of the place.  He might be disposed to pay little attention to it; but, were it to prove otherwise, I should be glad, for the whole exhibition is distressingly puerile.

256. *_Yarrow Visited_.[IV.]

As mentioned in my verses on the death of the Ettrick Shepherd, my first visit to Yarrow was in his company.  We had lodged the night before at Traquhair, where Hogg had joined us, and also Dr. Anderson, the editor of the British Poets, who was on a visit at the Manse.  Dr. A. walked with us till we came in view of the vale of Yarrow, and being advanced in life he then turned back.  The old man was passionately fond of poetry, though with not much of a discriminating judgment, as the volumes he edited sufficiently shew.  But I was much pleased to meet with him and to acknowledge my obligation to his Collection, which had been my brother John’s companion in more than one voyage to India, and which he gave me before his departure from Grasmere never to return.  Through these volumes I became first familiar with Chaucer; and so little money had I then to spare for books, that, in all probability, but for this same work, I should have known little of Drayton, Daniel, and other distinguished poets of the Elizabethan age and their immediate successors, till a much later period of my life.  I am glad to record this, not for any importance of its own, but as a tribute of gratitude to this simple-hearted old man, whom I never again had the pleasure of meeting.  I seldom read or think of this poem without regretting that my dear sister was not of the party, as she would have had so much delight in recalling the time when, travelling together in Scotland, we declined going in search of this celebrated stream, not altogether, I will frankly confess, for the reasons assigned in the poem on the occasion.