Appendix. 75 



— R. B." Table, Four Chairs, Wooden Ladle, Tongs and Poker, 

 Manuscript of Letter by Burns to his wife, and a Leaf from his 

 Excise-book — Mr William Xicholson, Dumfries. These articles 

 were given by ]\[rs Burns to her servant, Mary M'Laciilan, when 

 she got married to the late Mr Andrew Nicholson, shoemaker, 

 Dumfries; and they were sold on the 3d February, 188S, by 

 public auction, in Dumfries, on the death of ]\Ir William Nichol- 

 son. Two chairs, £12 10s, to Mr William M'Kissock, Plough 

 Imi, High Street, Ayr; another chair, £9 15s, to Mr J. J. Glover, 

 painter, Dumfries ; the fourth chair, £8, to Mi's Smith, Globe 

 Inn, Dumfries ; the round table, £5 17s 6d, to Mr Reuben Place, 

 furnitui-e and book-dealei-, Dumfries ; the ladle, £3 5s, to Mr 

 M'Kissock; tongs, £1 12s, to Mr Andrew Lawson, Dumfries. 

 Greatest interest centred in the sale of the MSS. The letter 

 was one wi-itten by Burns to his wife a few weeks before she 

 joined him at Ellisland, and has been jjublished in Dr Hately 

 Waddell's edition of his works. Its value is lessened by the 

 absence of the signature, which Mr Dunbar explained Mr 

 Nicholson had been prevailed upon to cut off and give to tlie late 

 Colonel Grierson ; and it is slightly torn at several places. It is 

 written on the two sides of a single quaito sheet. The following 



is a copy of it : — 



Ellisland, VlUx Sep., 1788. 



My Dear Love, — I received your kind letter with a pleasure which ny 

 letter but one from you could have given me. I dreamed of you the whole 

 night last ; but, alas ! I fear it will Ije three weeks yet ere I can hope for 

 the liappiness of seeing you. My harvest is going on. I have some to cut 

 down still ; but I put in two stacks to-day ; so I [am] as tired as a dog. 

 . get one of (Gilbert's sweet milk cheese, and send it. 



[On] second thoughts I believe you had best get the half of (.iilljert's web 

 of table linen, and make it up, though I think it damnably dear ; but it is 

 no outlaid money to us, you know. I have just now consulted my old 

 landlady al)0ut table linen, and she thinks I may ha\e the best for two 

 shillings per yard ; so, after aU, let it alone until I return, and some day 

 soon I will be in Dumfries and will ask the price there. I expect your 

 new gouns will be very forward or ready to make against I be liome to get 

 the Baiveridge. I have written my long-thought-on letter to Mr (iraham, 

 commissioner of excise ; and have sent him a sheetful [of poe-]try besides. 

 Now I talk of Poetry, I had . . . Strathspey long in hands of 

 . . . . for Johnson's Collection. 



This manuscript went at relatively the lowest price of any article 

 in the collection, being purchased by Mr James Richardson, 82 

 Queen Street, Glasgow (a loyal Dumfriesian) for £3 r)s. Mr 

 Richardson was also the purchaser of the leaf from the Excise 



