I had to regret missing at Dumfries the three sons of Burns, and the
stanch friend of the family, and of the genius of the poet, Mr.
M'Diarmid. Mr. Robert Burns, the poet's eldest son, resides at Dumfries,
but was then absent at Belfast, in Ireland, where I afterward saw him,
and was much struck with his intelligence and great information. Colonel
and Major Burns had just visited Dumfries, but were gone into the
Highlands with their friend, Mr. M'Diarmid. The feelings with which I
quitted Dumfries were those which so often weigh upon you in
contemplating the closing scenes of poets' lives. "The life of the poet
at Dumfries," says Robert Chambers, "was an unhappy one; his situation
was degrading, and his income narrow." Reflecting on this as I proceeded
by the mail toward Moffat, the melancholy lines of Wordsworth recurred
to me with peculiar effect:
"My former thoughts returned; the fear that kills;
And hope that is unwilling to be fed;
Cold, pain, and labor, and all fleshly ills;
And mighty poets in their misery dead."