THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS EDITED BY ROBERT CHAMBERS REVISED BY WILLIAM WALLACE IN FOUR VOLUMES VOLUME IV. W. & R. CHAMBERS, LIMITED 1896 PREFACE. ALTHOUGH the final volume of the New Edition of Dr Robert Chambers's Life and Works of Robert Burns' is larger than any of its predecessors, the strictly biographical portion is comparatively small. But as the period embraced in it has been the subject of considerable controversy-especially as to the origin and dates of several of Burns's poems and as to the determining causes of his death-investigations begun by Dr Robert Chambers after the publication of the first edition have been completed, the result being a partial re-grouping of poems and songs, and a considerable recasting of narrative. Some argumentative matter bearing on the reputation and habits of Burns during the latest years of his life, which was formerly given as an appendix, is accordingly incorporated either with the text of the biography or with the closing Essay, in which an attempt is made to appraise the character of the man and the work of the poet. As in the first edition, Versicles, Songs Improved, Fragments, and Doubtful Poems are given apart from the body of the work. No effort has been spared to make the Indexes at once exhaustive and convenient for purposes of reference. In connection with this volume, as with its predecessors, I have to acknowledge my obligations to the owners and custodiers of Burns MSS. for the favours of many kinds which they have shown me. I have specially to thank the Executive Council of the recent Burns Exhibition in Glasgow, and the owners of manuscripts and books which were included in it, for giving me facilities in the work of collation. An examination of the letters written by Burns to George Thomson, which are the property of the Earl of Dalhousie, has enabled me to reproduce this correspondence accurately for the first time. For other courtesies, of which the results are to be seen in this volume, I have to thank Mr ALFRED MORRISON, of London; Mr W. CRAIBE ANGUS, of Glasgow; Mr E. M. YOUNG and Mr DAVID M'KETTRICK, of Dumfries. The labours of the various gentlemen who have aided me in the work, which has now been brought to a close, have been so valuable and of so substantial a character that I cannot but regard the book itself as being at least as much theirs as it is mine. I am deeply indebted and grateful to Mr J. C. EWING, of The Mitchell Library, Glasgow, and Mr JAMES DAVIDSON, M.A., for assistance of this character in the general work of revision and correction; and to my brother, Mr ROBERT WALLACE, M.P. for East Edinburgh, for similar help in the inception and production of an estimate of the character and genius of Burns. I cannot too heartily thank Mr WILLIAM MELVEN, M.A., of Glasgow Academy, for his strenuous exertions to make the Indexes a full and accurate guide to the whole work. The altogether unique bibliographical scholarship and special researches of Mr Ewing have saved me from many errors in alluding to works upon Burns, and have enabled me to present to the public for the first time a number of important and hitherto unpublished letters of the poet, including those relating to his 'contest with the London Newsmen.' Mr C. E. S. CHAMBERS I have cordially to thank for having placed unreservedly at my disposal the papers relating to Burns, with the help of which his grandfather, Dr Robert Chambers, prepared the first edition of this work, and various documents collected and notes made subsequently by the same careful hand. But for these and the information which they contained or directed me to, such correction and reconstruction of the original narrative as I have |