Maria Kiddki.i., thk Frikmj ok Birxs. 31 



some way, and that the whole Riddell Family showed their 

 indignation by thereafter treating Burns with a frigid cold- 

 ness. A poetical " Remorseful Apology," which has been 

 thought to have been addressed to Mrs. Walter Riddell by 

 Burns, after this incident, may therefore have been sent to 

 the hostess (whoever she was) whom he had offended. It 

 is certainly Mrs. Walter Riddell to whom the Poet writes 

 on January 12th, 1794: — " I return your Common Place 

 Book. — I have perused it with much pleasure, & would have 

 continued my criticisms; but as it seems the Critic has for- 

 feited your esteem, his strictures must lose their value." 

 The date of this letter^^ is important as indicating that the 

 rupture of their friendship must have been in the first fort- 

 night of January, 1794, when, as has been stated, Walter 

 Riddell was abroad. The evidence would therefore seem 

 conclusive that Maria Riddell cannot have been the lady on 

 whom the Poet is said to have " laid rude hands," and the 

 coldness which arose between her and Burns was probably 

 due to some after-dinner scene at which her sister-in-law 

 had been offended, and which had aroused the indignation 

 of the whole Ridtlell famil\ . In a letter dated " Dumfries, 



, 1794," Burns writes to Maria Riddell : — " I saw you 



once since I was at W[oodley] P[ark] ; and that once froze 

 the very life-blood of my heart, ^'our reception of me was 

 such, that a wretch meeting- the eye of his Judge, about to 

 pronounce sentence of death on him, could only have envied 

 my feelings and situation. But I hate the theme and never 

 more shall write or speak of it."'''' 



One would have wished that Burns might have adhered 

 to his promise, and that he might, further, have accepted his 

 position with more contrition, but in May, 1794, he must 

 needs vituperate Maria Riddell in the following stinging 

 epigram addressed to her carriage : — 



'" A facsimile of this lottor ha.s boon printed and appeals 

 opposite p. 18, of llif Coiiiphfe Poffinil IVinks of lioberf Burns <ind 

 Sir Wolter Scott (1866). 



^^ W. Scott Douglas. The Works of liohert Burns, vol. vi. (1879), 

 p. 117. 



