After the important era of her marriage, she seems to have relinquished her literary ardour.  But in the year 1821, Mr Robert Purdie, an enterprising music-seller in Edinburgh, having resolved to publish a series of the more approved national songs, made application to several ladies celebrated for their musical skill, with the view of obtaining their assistance in the arrangement of the melodies.  To these ladies was known the secret of Lady Nairn’s devotedness to Scottish song, enjoying as they did her literary correspondence and private intimacy; and in consenting to aid the publisher in his undertaking, they calculated on contributions from their accomplished friend.  They had formed a correct estimate:  Lady Nairn, whose extreme diffidence had hitherto proved a barrier to the fulfilment of the best wishes of her heart, in effecting the reformation of the national minstrelsy, consented to transmit pieces for insertion, on the express condition that her name and rank, and every circumstance connected with her history, should be kept in profound secrecy.  The condition was carefully observed; so that, although the publication of “The Scottish Minstrel” extended over three years, and she had several personal interviews and much correspondence with the publisher and his editor, Mr R. A. Smith, both these individuals remained ignorant of her real name.  She had assumed the signature, “B.  B.,” in her correspondence with Mr Purdie, who appears to have been entertained by the discovery, communicated in confidence, that the name of his contributor was “Mrs Bogan of Bogan;” and by this designation he subsequently addressed her.  The nom de guerre of the two B.’s[46] is attached to the greater number of Lady Nairn’s contributions in “The Scottish Minstrel.”

The new collection of minstrelsy, unexceptionable as it was in the words attached to all the airs, commanded a wide circulation, and excited general attention.  The original contributions were especially commended, and some of them were forthwith sung by professed vocalists in the principal towns.  Much speculation arose respecting the authorship, and various conjectures were supported, each with plausible arguments, by the public journalists.  In these circumstances, Lady Nairn experienced painful alarm, lest, by any inadvertence on the part of her friends, the origin of her songs should be traced.  While the publication of the “Minstrel” was proceeding, her correspondents received repeated injunctions to adopt every caution in preserving her incognita; she was even desirous that her sex might not be made known.  “I beg the publisher will make no mention of a lady,” she wrote to one of her correspondents, “as you observe, the more mystery the better, and still the balance is in favour of the lords of creation.  I cannot help, in some degree, undervaluing beforehand what is said to be a feminine production.”  “The Scottish Minstrel” was completed in