Robert Burns
Letters addressed to Clarinda
Glasgow: Printed by Niven, Napier and Khull; for T. Stewart, 1802.
Original salmon-colored wrappers, uncut, stabbed; signature of Wm. Finnie, 1802.
Robert Burns
Letters addressed to Clarinda
Glasgow: Printed by Niven, Napier and Khull; for T. Stewart, 1802.
Original salmon-colored wrappers, uncut, stabbed; signature of Wm. Finnie, 1802.
During his stay in Edinburgh Burns met Mrs. Agnes Craig M'Lehose in December 1787. It was love at first sight for both of them. In addition to numerous visits, the couple carried on what has been termed a "hothouse romance" by correspondence. The two soon decided to use "Arcadian names" as Burns called them: she was Clarinda, he Sylvander. Marriage was of course impossible, and the correspondence dwindled once Burns left Edinburgh. Mrs. M'Lehose loaned John Findley, who claimed to be writing a biography of the poet (which was apparently never written), Burns's letters. Some of them were published without her permission in 1802.
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Robert Burns
Autograph letter, signed, to Agnes M'Lehose ("Clarinda"), Edinburgh, 12 January 1788.
A letter of January 12, 1788, from Sylvander to Clarinda, the second that day. There is a suspicious-looking mark on the paper where the poet has written, "I have read yours again: it has blotted my paper." It is left to the viewer to decide whether or not he or she is looking at the dried remains of a teardrop.
Agnes Craig M'Lehose, 1759-1841
Autograph letter, signed, to Allan Cunningham, Edinburgh, 18 October 1834.
When Allan Cunningham was preparing an edition of Burns, he asked Mrs. M'Lehose for permission to use Burns's letters to her. In a letter shown in the original exhibit, she reiterated her unwillingness to give Cunningham access to them, mentioning that some of them were previously published without her permission and in an inaccurate transcription. The letter is dated October 18, 1834; Cunningham's edition appeared in eight volumes in 1834. Agnes M'Lehose died in 1841, and two years later her grandson, W.C. M'Lehose, republished the twenty-five letters that had appeared in 1802 and added twenty-three more. The edition also included letters from his grandmother to Burns. An earlier owner has combined this letter with a copy of the edition of 1843 in a sumptuous tooled binding.
Silhouette of Agnes Craig M'Lehose ("Clarinda")
John Miers, an Edinburgh silhouettist, cut likenesses of both Burns and Agnes M'Lehose. On February 7, 1788, Burns wrote, thanking Agnes M'Lehose for going to him for a silhouette, saying: "I want it for a breast-pin, to wear next my heart." Though they parted, and Burns happily married his Bonny Jean, the lovers never forgot each other. Three years after they had parted Burns wrote a song which contained these words:
Max Beerbohm, 1872-1956
Robert Burns, having set his hand to the plough, looks back at Highland Mary
from The Poet's Corner
London: W. Heinemann, 1904.
This Beerbohm cartoon is inspired by the Scriptural injunction, "And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke, 9: 62).
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This page last updated 20 June 2002 by the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.