Letter from Robert Burns to Robert Graham, 13 May 1789

On the first page, Burns indicates his intention to make up a small book of unpublished poems to send to Mrs Graham but in the meantime, he enclosed one which he has recently written. This poem is no longer with the letter, but the manuscript contains the pencilled suggestion that it was 'On Seeing a Wounded Hare'.

Burns describes his meeting with John Mitchell, the excise collector in Dumfries, to whom Graham had written a letter of introduction on Burns's behalf, and reports that he has been received politely. Another meeting has been arranged. He proposes not to appear as 'a hungry rook gaping for a morsel'.

Page two finds Burns reflecting on his excise prospects, having been advised earlier by Robert Graham that he was not able to bend the rules in the way that Burns had daringly suggested the year before.

Burns also discusses briefly his thoughts arising from his current leisure reading which includes Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, a book which clearly had impressed Burns.

In page three Burns recalls an earlier remark made by Robert Graham that he intended to be in the vicinity of Ellisland with Sir William Murray during the summer. Burns invites them for dinner should they be passing.

He goes on to describe in succulent detail the possible dishes which the visitors could expect including beef, chicken or Nith salmon, and how honoured he would be by their presence even at short notice.