A Winter with Robert Burns: Being Annals of His Patrons and Associates in Edinburgh During the Year 1786-7, and Details of His Inauguration as Poet-laureate of the Can: Kil"[With] lithographed key to the picture, and fac-simile of the autograph of Burns on the Bible presented to Highland Mary, now in the Burns Monument, Banks o' Doon. The inauguration of Burns was made the subject of a fine painting by Stewart Watson, R.S.A. The minutes of the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge record the initiation which is represented in the Picture, along with the names of many celebrated characters of that day, some of whom were present on the occasion. Burns is represented as about to be crowned with the poetic wreath by the master of the Lodge, and the interior is painted with consummate ability. The picture was afterwards engraved, and a limited number thrown off for subscribers. A few copies, coloured by the artist, are rare. This little work was compiled as a guide to the painting, with a sketch of Burns in connexion with the order of Masonry, and biographical notices of the characters represented in the painting. The appendix closes with 'Lines on seeing Mr. Stewart Watson's picture of Burns,' supposed to written by W. Pringle"--Gibson. |
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92d Regiment acquaintance afterwards Ainslie Alexander ancient arrived in Edinburgh attended Ayrshire bard born Boswell brother burgh Burns wrote Campbell Canongate Kilwinning Lodge Captain Chro Chro Callan Creech Cunningham Dalrymple of Orangefield daughter death died Dugald Stewart Dunbar Earl of Buchan Edin edition elected engraved father favour Ferguson Freemason Freemasonry genius gentleman GEORGE SPANKIE Glencairn Grand Lodge Grand-Master Grose heart Henry Erskine honour INAUGURATION initiated James Boswell JAMES TYTLER Lady letter Lord Torphichen Mackenzie mason lodges masonic meetings masonry Master Millar Monboddo Muir muse Nicol night o'er occasion Orangefield painting picture poems poet Poet-Laureate poet's poetic poetry portrait present Professor published remarkable Representative Peers represented Robert Burns Royal says Scotch Scotland Scots Scottish shew songs St John STEWART WATSON succeeded Tarbolton Thomas Boswell tion took verses Warden William William Dunbar Williamson writings
Popular passages
Page 163 - Are we a piece of machinery, which, like the .¿Eolian harp, passive, takes the impression of the passing accident; or do these workings argue something within us above the trodden clod? I own myself partial to such proofs of those awful and important realities: a God that made all things, man's immaterial and immortal nature, and a world of weal or woe beyond death and the grave.
Page 105 - Hume, to the sweet and simple, but not the less sublime and pathetic morality of her Burns — how, from the bosom of a country like that, genius and character and talents should be banished to a distant, barbarous soil; condemned to pine under the horrid communion of vulgar vice and base-born profligacy for twice the period that ordinary calculation gives to the continuance of human life?
Page 99 - Thro' weary life this lesson learn, That man was made to mourn. Many and sharp the numerous ills Inwoven with our frame! More pointed still We make ourselves, Regret, remorse, and shame! And man, whose heaven-erected face The smiles of love adorn, Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn...
Page 25 - And wear thou this' — she solemn said, And bound the Holly round my head : The polish'd leaves, and berries red, Did rustling play; And, like a passing thought, she fled In light away.
Page 163 - ... or next to nothing, of the structure of our souls, so we cannot account for those seeming caprices in them, that one should be particularly pleased with this thing, or struck with that, which, on minds of a different cast, makes no extraordinary impression. I have some favourite flowers in spring, among which are the mountain-daisy, the harebell, the foxglove, the wild-brier rose, the budding birch, and the hoary hawthorn, that I view and hang over with particular delight.
Page 163 - For the words of Milton are true in all times, and were never truer than in this : ' He, who would write heroic poems, must make his whole life a heroic poem.
Page 104 - There is a sort of aspiring and adventurous credulity, which disdains assenting to obvious truths, and delights in catching at the improbability of circumstances, as its best ground of faith. To what other cause, gentlemen, can you ascribe that in the wise, the reflecting, and the philosophic nation of Great Britain, a printer has been...
Page 105 - ... her eagle flight against the blaze of every science, with an eye that never winks, and a wing that never tires — crowned, as she is, with the spoils of every art, and decked with the wreath of every muse, from the deep and scrutinizing researches of her Hume, to the sweet and simple, but not less sublime and pathetic, morality of her Burns...
Page 78 - To the feeling and the susceptible there is something wonderfully pleasing in the contemplation of genius, of that supereminent reach of mind by which some men are distinguished. In the view of highly superior talents, as in that of great and stupendous natural objects, there is a sublimity which fills the soul with wonder and delight, which expands it, as it were, beyond its usual bounds, and which, investing our nature with extraordinary powers, and extraordinary honours, interests our curiosity,...
Page 29 - Caledonia, and Caledonia's Bard, Brother Burns," which rung through the whole assembly with multiplied honours and repeated acclamations. As I had no idea such a thing would happen, I was downright thunderstruck, and, trembling in every nerve, made the best return in my power. Just as I had finished, some of the grand officers said, so loud that I could hear, with a most comforting accent,