LX.
Reading edition
TO JAMES JOHNSON.
[James Johnson was an engraver in Edinburgh, and proprietor of the Musical Museum; a truly national work, for which Burns wrote or amended many songs.]
Lawn-market, Friday noon, 3 May, 1787.
Dear Sir,
I have sent you a song never before known, for your collection; the air by M’Gibbon, but I know not the author of the words, as I got it from Dr. Blacklock.
Farewell, my dear Sir! I wished to have seen you, but I have been dreadfully throng, as I march to-morrow. Had my acquaintance with you been a little older, I would have asked the favour of your correspondence, as I have met with few people whose company and conversation gives me so much pleasure, because I have met with few whose sentiments are so congenial to my own.
When Dunbar and you meet, tell him that I left Edinburgh with the idea of him hanging somewhere about my heart.
Keep the original of the song till we meet again, whenever that may be.
R. B.