Maria Riddell, the Friend uf Blrns. 39 



her of his ill-lioallh, hitorms her thai he is silling" lo Reid^" 

 for his portrait in miniature, and a Hltle later he sends her 

 this " bagatelle " asking- for its return " per first oppor- 

 tunity."^^ On June 4th, 1796, he writes, in response to 

 Maria's invitation to be present at the ball lo be g:iven in 

 lionour of the anniversary of King- Georg^e lll.'s birthday 

 (June 4th) that he is "in such miserable health as to be 

 incapable of showing- my loyalty in any way." At her 

 request he came to see her when he was at Brow, whither 

 he had been ordered towards the end of June, 1796, to see 

 what benefit he could derive from sea-bathing-. The inter- 

 view must have been a painful one ; the sick man, so Maria 

 states, g-reeted her with : — " Well, madam, have you any 

 commands for the other world?" He expressed to her 

 " g^reat concern about the care of his literary fame;" 

 reg-retted the existence of " letters and verses written with 

 unguarded and improper freedom;" and lamented " that he 

 had written many epig-rams on persons ag-ainst whom he 

 entertained no enmity, and whose characters he would be 



sorry to wound We parted on the evening- of that 



day [July 5th, 1796] ; the next day I saw him ag-ain and 

 we parted to meet no more. "^^ On July i8th, 1796, the Poet 

 was broug-ht back to his own house in Dumfries, where he 

 died on July 21st. 



Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, that gossiping" and syste- 

 niatically ill-natured writer, has left a remarkable descrip- 

 tion of " a Lady " who, from the context, it would appear 

 was none other than Maria Riddell. This description is 



67 " All trace of tliis portrait has been lost " (Dirtinnary of 

 Ncitioiutl Bingrnphy). Alexander Keid, h. 1747. d. 1823 (Ice. cit). 

 P. Hately AVaddell gives a plate and also a long account of the 

 "Kerry miniatures" which came into his possession in 1866 and 

 which he identifies as the above-mentioned " bagatelle." (P. 

 Hately Waddell, The Life mid Worls of Fohrrf Biirnx, 1867, pp. 

 67-71, and plate to face p. 2, part 2.). 



68 The Works of liobert Burns (W. Scott Douglas), vol. vi., 1879. 

 p. 189. 



69 P. Hately AVaddell, The Life <nid Works of Ih.hert Burns 

 0867). p. 86. 



