A BURNS LETTER.

Mataura Ensign, 4 July 1914, Page 7

A BURNS LETTER.

. * An interesting letter from Robert Burns to Miss Margaret Kennedy, of Dalfarnock, sending the recipient a song, was sold at Sotheby's for 102 guineas (states the 'Liverpool Weekly Mercury'). The letter was in the following terms: — "Madam, permit me to present you with the enclosed Song as a small tho' grateful tribute for tne honor of your acquaintance. I have in these verses attempted some faint- sketches of your Portrait in the unembellished simple manner of descriptive Truth. Flattery 1 leave, to your Lovers; whose exaggerating Fancies may make them imagine you still nearer, if possible, to perfection than you really are. ''Poets, madam, of all mankind feel most forcibly the powers of Beauty; as if they are really Poets of Nature's making, their feelings must be finer, and their taste more delicate than most of the world. In the cheerful bloom of Spring, in the pensive mildness of Autumn, the Grandeur of Summer ,or the lioar.v majesty of Winter, the poet feels a charm unknown to the rest of his species; even the sight of a flower, or the company of a fine Woman (by far the finest part of God's works below) have sensations for tlie poetic heart that the Herd of llan iwe strangers to, etc." The song was sold for 150 guineas.