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Description: | A seven page letter which Burns writes to his friend Cunningham replying to two of his letters and enclosing his first version of the song 'Ye flowery banks' (the Banks o Doon) and his version of an old Jacobite song both of which he included in Johnson's Musical Museum Vol 4. (letter no 441)
He recalls this occasion when at the request of his friend Alexander Wood he writes an elegy (poem no 186) on the death of Lord President Dundas (Lord Arniston). When delivered to the Dundas family, his son (the Solicitor-General) failed to acknowledge it. Although Burns knew the piece was indifferent, the slight he felt rankled with him for years thereafter.
Burns acknowledges Cunninghams' recent letters being 'highly delighted' with one of the enclosures. Cunningham appears to have suggested that Burns write something on an 'archery-subject' to which he responds that if he 'composed from the wish, rather than from the impulse' his few attempts in the past have been unsuccessful, one even resulting in a 'gnashing of teeth'. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 | Publisher: | Burns Monument Trust | Temporal: | 1791-01-01 - 1791-12-31 | Source: | Burns Scotland | Identifier: | Letter of Robert Burns to Alexander Cunn | Go to resource |
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