30 Maria Riddell, the Friend of Burns. 



are dated except two, and the same deficiency marks most 

 of the, poems which Burns sent to her. 



In the summer of 1793 Walter Riddell returned to the 

 West Indies to look after his estate. His wife did not 

 accompany him farther than London, where, after a few 

 months' stay, she returned to Woodley Park. A letter from 

 her to William Smellie, dated " Woodley Park, 17 Nov., 

 1793, "40 besides mentioning the death of her father, ^^ is of 

 peculiar interest; here we have the first link in the chain of 

 evidence which goes to prove that she was not the affronted 

 hostess in the scene of " The Rape of the Sabines," in 

 which Burns is said to have played a leading part. This 

 letter states that her husband had been " recalled " to the 

 West Indies in June or July, 1793,^^ and later correspondence 

 with Smellie proves that he did not return home till between 

 March 3rd and May 3rd, 1794. It has always been accepted 

 that a drunken scene took place after a dinner party at 

 Woodley Park, and Burns' letter of apology written on the 

 morrow to his hostess has always been supposed to have 

 been addressed to Maria Riddell. As this letter, however, 

 expressly mentions : — " Your husband, who insisted on my 

 drinking more than I chose," and as Walter Riddell was at 

 the time in the West Indies, it is evident that his wife was 

 not the recipient of this apology written " from the regions 

 of Hell." 



Possibly the mise en scene of " The Rape " should be 

 changed from Woodley Park to Friars' Carse, where Mrs. 

 Robert Riddell may have been the offended heroine. There 

 is, however, no doubt that a Mrs. Riddell was affronted in 



40 Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Correspondence of 

 William Smellie, vol. ii. (1811), by Robert Kerr, p. 370. 



41 AVilliam Woodley, Governor of the Leeward Isles, d. at St. 

 Cbristopher, June, 1793, his wife (Frances Payne) d. at Bloxworth, 

 County Dorset, March 29th, 1813, aged seventy-five (The History 

 of the Island of Ajitigna (Vere Langford Ohver), vol. iii. (1899), 

 p. 256.) See also footnote 2. 



42 In a letter to George Thomson, dated ''July, 1793," Burns 

 writes:— ''Walter Riddell, of Woodley Park, ... is at present 

 out of the country." (W. Scott Douglas, The WorJcs of Bohert 

 Burns, vol. vi. (1879), p. 258.). 



