BuRNS AND MOFFAT. 167 
of the editions of the poet’s works, Allan Cunningham’s for 
instance, give the scene as the Laggan in Nithsdale, a 
small estate which William Nichol had bought on the advice 
of the poet, and the occasion the house-heating on 
Nichol’s entry into possession. All our local guide-books and 
Kemp’s “ Convivial Caledonia ’’ refer it to a wayside ale-house 
at Craigieburn, on the site of the house now known as Burns’ 
Cottage. In the chapter on “Remarks on Scottish Songs ’’ 
Burns refers to Moffat as the scene. “This air is Masterton’s, 
the song mine. The occasion of it was this: —Mr Wm. Nichol, 
of the High School, Edinburgh, during the autumn vacation 
being at Moffat, honest Allan, who was at that time on a visit to 
Dalswinton, and I went to pay him a visit. We had such a 
joyous meeting that Mr Masterton and I agreed each in our own 
way that we should celebrate the event.’’ The probable time of 
this visit to Moffat is by Robert Chambers’ “ Life and Works of 
Robert Burns,”’ vol. iii., p. 64, fixed between August 13th and 
September 25th, 1789. There can be no dubiety about the meet- 
ing taking place in Moffat, but I very much doubt of its taking 
place at or near the present Burns Cottage at Craigieburn. In 
the licensing court minutes already referred to the name and 
address of the applicant for a license, if he resided outside the 
town of Moffat, are always given. Thus John Johnstone had a 
license for Auldhouse Hill, afterwards held by James Brand; 
Thomas Henderson for Nethermill Burnfoot, and Archibald 
Smith at Annan Bridge-end. If there had been a licensed house 
at Craigieburn the name would have been mentioned. License- 
holders in Kirkpatrick-Juxta, Wamphray, and Johnstone have all 
their residences given as well as the name of the parish. That 
being so, we may presume that place in the town of Moffat was 
the scene, and here tradition asserts that it occurred in a small 
inn at the Kirkyard gate. Now, in the year 1764 one Archibald 
Blacklock feued a site and built a house, which in its titles is 
described as bounded on its north side by “the new entrance to 
the kirkyard.’’ And this individual, Archibald Blacklock (or 
another of the same name), held a license according to the 
minute book from 1779 to 1792, so that Archibald Blacklock’s 
house fulfils all the requirements of the tradition, and unless the 
existence of an ale-house at Craigieburn can be proved from some 
other source we may reasonably conclude that the “three merry 
