44 Maria Riddell, the Friend of Burns. 



" Sat. i8th [February, 1797]. Sophia^s has relapsed. 

 The whole system — physical as well as moral — is unhinged 

 and miserable with me : exhausted by attendance round a 

 sick bed by day, and watching" it with little less assiduity 

 even at night. All hope is yet not lost for her recovery; 

 but I somehow cannot help fancying this suspense and 

 perturbation worse than almost a certainty of the impend- 

 ing evil." 



" Sund : 26th [March, 1797]. Wrote to Cerjat.'^Q I 

 think it was on the i6th of last month I wrote last to you 

 under great perturbation of spirits and fatigue both 

 physical and mental. I will not dwell on the painful sub- 

 ject, or talk to you of all I went thro' for more than 3 

 weeks after I wrote you that last letter, because it can 

 answer no one end but imparting very uncomfortable 

 sensations to your mind, which I doubt not will continue 

 sincerely to participate in the distresses of mine. I think 

 my health is gradually recovering, the storm is past, and 

 the violence of grief subsided with the extinction of hope, 

 of fear, and all other passions that had for so long sup- 

 ported my mind to an unusual pitch of energy. I do not 

 allow myself to think; I am never alone; I fly to society, 

 to variety of scene, to the dissipation of every affection it 

 was lately a virtue to cherish, to recover from the imper- 

 fection, the inconstancy of human nature what I sought 

 for in vain from the firmness of my own character, or the 

 resources I was wont to have successful recourse [stc] to. 

 The fact is my mind is so enervated with the scenes it has 

 lately witnessed, that it is barely susceptible of being 

 diverted, and wholly incapable of any exertion." 



"^S Maria Riddell's eldest daughter; b. November 23rd, 1792- 

 d. of whooping cough, March 1st, 1797. 



■79 The identity of this correspondent is uncertain, i>ossibly it 

 was George Cerjat; b. 1755; "of the Royal Cinque-port Dragoons, 

 and aide-de-camp to General Garth," who married on November 

 15th, 1798, the only daughter of William Woodley of Eccles, Norfolk 

 (The Gentleman's Magazine, 1798, p. 1150); he died 1801. 



