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 Nicholson, Dumfries. These articles 
were given by Mrs Burns to her servant, Mary M‘Lachlan, when 
she got married to the late Mr Andrew Nicholson, shoemaker, 
Dumfries ; and they were sold on the 3d February, 1888, by 
public auction, in Dumfries, on the death of Mr William Nichol- 
son. Two chairs, £12 10s, to Mr William M‘Kissock, Plough 
Inn, High Street, Ayr; another chair, £9 15s, to Mr J. J. Glover, 
painter, Dumfries ; the fourth chair, £8, to Mrs Smith, Globe 
Inn, Dumfries ; the round table, £5 17s 6d, to Mr Reuben Place, 
furniture and book-dealer, 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 written by Burns to his wife a few weeks before she 
joined him at Ellisland, and has been published 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 the late 
Colonel Grierson ; and it is slightly torn at several places. It is 
written on the two sides of a single quarto sheet. The following 
is a copy of it :— 
Ellisland, 12th Sep., 1788. 
My Dear Love,—I received your kind letter with a pleasure which no 
letter but one from you could have given me. I dreamed of you the whole 
night last ; but, alas! I fear it will be three weeks yet ere I can hope for 
the happiness 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. 
cor get one of Gilbert’s sweet milk cheese, and send it. 
[On] second thoughts I believe you had best get the half of Gilbert’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 about table linen, and she thinks I may have the best for two 
shillings per yard ; so, after aH, 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 home to get 
. the Baiveridge. I have written my long-thought-on letter to Mr Graham, 
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 5s. My 
Richardson was also the purchaser of the leaf from the Excise 
