24 Maria Riddell, the Friend of Burns. 



estate." Owing to the absence of Walter Riddell's name 

 from the Island Records we may conclude that he drew the 

 income of these inherited sugar plantations while residing at 

 his London House in Lower Berkeley Street, Portman 

 Square, and that he was on a visit to his property in the West 

 Indies when he met his second wife. Shortly after her mar- 

 riage Maria Riddell, for so she must now be termed, sent a 

 long account^i of her new home to her sister, Mrs. Pickard.22 

 This is too long to quote, but the letter shows signs of dis- 

 satisfaction and home-sickness. There is hardly any men- 

 tion of her husband, whose estate is said to be " above a 

 looo acres," and whose " mansion " is pictured by the 

 writer as " nothing but a neat little cottage, built with the 

 greatest simplicity possible, of white stone and adorned with 

 no ornaments of architecture whatsoever. The drawing"- 

 room, which is 26 feet by 16," contains " the Harpsichord 

 and other musical instruments, .... and is hung round 

 with prints and drawings. "23 Maria Riddell did not stay 

 there long, for on August 31st, 1791, she gave birth to her 

 daughter, Anna Maria, at her father's house in South Audley 

 Street, London. 23 Early in 1792 Walter Riddell purchased 

 the estate of Holm of Dalscairth, which he renamed Woodley 

 Park24 in honour of his wife, and here they entertained many 

 interesting persons, such as Francis Grose^s the Antiquary, 

 William Smellie the Naturalist, ^6 and Robert Burns. 



21 See footnote 1. 



22 See footnote 7. 



23 See footnote 1. 



24 The actual disposition of " Woodley Park " to Walter Riddell 

 is dated May 14th, 1792. 



25 On "3rd January, 1791, [.? 1792] Grose writes to Burns 

 " after the scene between Mrs Riddell, Junr., and your humble 

 servant, to which you was witness, it is impossible I can ever come 

 under her roof again." We do not know what was the cause of 

 their quarrel, but it tends to show that Mrs Maria had a temper. 



26 SmeUie, Wilham : h. 1740, Edinburgh printer, naturahst, 

 and antiquary; printed and contributed to first edition of Encydo- 

 2xcdia Britannica, 1771; secretary to Newtonian Club, 1778, and 

 of Scottish Antiquaries' Society, 1793 (original member and keeper 

 of natural history museum); noticed in Burns's " Crochallan 



