His great celebrity made him an object of interest and curiosity to strangers, and few persons of cultivated minds passed through Dumfries without attempting to see the poet, and to enjoy the pleasure of his conversation. As he could not receive them under his own humble roof these interviews passed at the inns of the towns, and often terminated in excesses, which Robert was seldom able to resist. Indeed, there were never wanting persons to share his social pleasures, to lead or accompany him to the tavern, to partake in the wildest sallies of his wit, or to witness the strength and degradation of his genius. Unfortunately he had for several years looked to an office in the excise as a certain means of livelihood, should his other expectations fail. He had been recommended to the Board of Excise before leaving Mossgiel, and had received the instructions necessary for such a situation. He now applied to be employed regularly, and was immediately appointed exciseman, or gauger, as it is vulgarly called, of the district in which he lived. His farm was after this, in a great measure, abandoned to servants, while he betook himself to the duties of his new appointment. To be sure he could still be seen at intervals directing his plow, a labor in which he excelled, but it was not at Ellisland that he was now in general to be found. Mounted on horseback, our hero was pursuing the defaulters of the revenue among the hills and vales of Nithdale, his roving eye wandering over the charms of nature, and muttering his wayward fancies as he moved along. Though by nature of an athletic form, Robert had in his constitution the peculiarities and delicacies that belong to the temperament of genius. Endowed by nature with great sensibility of nerves, he was in his corporeal, as well as in his mental system, liable to inordinate impressions, to fever of the body, as well as of mind. This predisposition to disease, which strict temperance in diet, regular exercise, and sound sleep might have subdued, habits of a very different nature, strengthened and inflamed.