22 Maria Riddell, the Friend of Burns. 



disposition, and culture may be gathered from the verses, 

 even if they have no other merit. First we are told of a 

 friend of her own sex : — 



" Within this rural cot I rest, 

 With solitude to calm my breast ; 

 And while beneath th' umbrageous bow'r 

 Content beguiles each roseate hour, 

 And while with Anna oft I rove 

 Soft friendship's mutual sweets to prove, 

 I scorn the pageants of the great, 

 Nor envy pow'r and empty state." 



The "pageants of the great" included possibly Sir 

 Ralph Payne's golden tongs, while " the empty state " may 

 recall the afore-mentioned bare-legged footmen. To the 

 young poetess in her West Indian retreat came visions of 

 " distant Albion " : — 



"Far, far remov'd, perhaps no more 

 Destin'd to hail my natal shore : 

 (Perhaps Horatio, thy dear form 

 No more these languid eyes may charm. 

 No more this faithful bosom warm!)" 



The dear " Horatio " has not been identified, unless indeed 

 he was the sportive Joseph Jekyll ; but '' Anna," we learn 

 from a manuscript note, was a Miss Richards. Maria goes 

 on to speak of the books she had read : — 



"At eve, beneath some spreading tree 

 I read th' inspired Poesie 

 Of Milton, Pope, or Spencer mild, 

 And Shakespear, Fancy's brightest child : 

 To tender Sterne I lend an ear. 

 And drop o'er Heloise the tear ; 

 Sometimes with Anna tune the lay 

 And close in song the chearful day." 



But the Leeward Islands boasted a Laureate who read 

 these artless lines, and v/as moved to send a fervent reply, 

 which survives in the original manuscript, preserved by the 



of Seliorne, by Gilbert White; Burns' "Lines written in Friars' 

 Carse Hermitage " ; etc. 



