Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1837 edition. Excerpt:...with health, affection, and gaiety: the perfect symmetry of her slender figure; her light step in the dance; the " waist sae jimp," " the foot sae sma'," were no fancied beauties:--she had a delightful voice, and sung with much taste and enthusiasm the ballads of her native country; among which we may imagine that the songs of her lover were not forgotten. The consequences, however, of all this dancing, singing, and loving, were not quite so poetical as they were embarrassing. "A Dame whom the graces have attired in witchcraft, and whom the loves have armed with lightning--a fair one--herself the heroine of the song, insists on the amendment--and dispute her commands if you dare!"--Burns's Letters. O wha could prudence think upon, And sic a lassie by him? 0 wha could prudence think upon, And sae in lore as I am? Burns had long been distinguished in his rustic neighbourhood for his talents, for his social qualities and his conquests among the maidens of his own rank. His personal appearance is thus described from memory by Sir Walter Scott:--" His form was strong and robust, his manner rustic, not clownish; with a sort of dignified simplicity, which received part of its effect, perhaps, from one's knowledge of his extraordinary talents;. his eye alone, I think, indicated the poetical character and temperament; it was large, and of a dark cast, which glowed, (I say, literally, glowed) when he spoke with feeling and interest;"--" his address to females was extremely deferential, and always with a turn either to the pathetic or humorous, which engaged their attention particularly. I have heard the late Duchess of Gordon remark this;"--and Allan Cunningham, speaking also from recollection, says, "...