42 Maria Riddell, the Friend of Burns. 



opinion of her by an autograph note in his copy of The 

 Metrical Miscellany : — " This collection was published by 

 Mrs. Riddell, long the friend of Burns — her maiden name 

 was Woodly [sic] ; she was a sister of Mrs. Bankes, and a 

 worthless profligate woman. "''■^ 



Whatever may have been the cause of her quarrel with 

 Burns, we know that Maria Riddell suffered severely from 

 his merciless effusions. Five days after his funeral, however, 

 she went by night to plant laurels on Burns' grave, '^'^ nor was 

 this the only service she rendered to his Manes, for it is to 

 Maria's lasting credit that none of the Poet's contemporary 

 critics have bequeathed us a more discerning or impartial 

 •essay on his character than she has done.'^^ It need only be 

 quoted, however, for one or two remarks which touch on the 

 vi^riter's own relations with Burns. She writes : — " Much 

 indeed has been said of his inconstancy and caprice ; but I 

 am inclined to believe they originated less in a levity of 

 sentiment, than from an extreme impetuosity of feeling which 

 rendered him prompt to take umbrage ; and his sensations of 

 pique, where he fancied he had discovered the traces of 

 unkindness, scorn, or neglect, took their measure of asperity 

 from the overflowing of the opposite sentiment which pre- 

 ceded them, and which seldom failed to regain its ascendency 

 in his bosom, on the return of calmer reflection. He was 

 candid and manly in the avowal of his errors and his avowal 



73 Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe's copy of The Metrical Mis- 

 cellany (1802), offered for sale by Messrs Wright & Sons, 350 

 Fulham Road, London, S.W. 



74 W. Scott Douglas, The Complete Poetical Worls of Robert 

 Burns, vol. i. (1871), p. Ixxxviii. 



75 This first appeared, shortly after Burns' death, in the 

 Dumfries Weekly Journal, from which it was copied into the Edin- 

 burgh newspapers, and into various other periodical publications. 

 Dr. James Currie in giving this essay at full length (The Works of 

 Robert Burns, vol. i. (8th ed., 1820), pp. 257-264) states "it is from 

 the elegant pen of a lady .... whose exertions for the family of 

 our bard, in the circles of literature and fashion in which she 

 movas, have done hei* so much honour." The essay is dated 

 August 7th, 1796. 



