My dear Sir,--Your _duty-free_ favour of the 25th April I received two days ago; I will not say I perused it with pleasure; that is the cold compliment of ceremony; I perused it, Sir, with delicious satisfaction;--in short, it is such a letter, that not you, nor your friend, but the legislature, by express proviso in their postage laws, should frank. A letter informed with the soul of friendship is such an honour to human nature, that they should order it free ingress and egress to and from their bags and mails, as an encouragement and mark of distinction to supereminent virtue. I have just put the last hand to a little poem, which I think will be something to your taste.[99] One morning lately, as I was out pretty early in the fields, sowing some grass seeds, I heard the burst of a shot from a neighbouring plantation, and presently a poor little wounded hare came crippling by me. You will guess my indignation at the inhuman fellow who could shoot a hare at this season, when all of them have young ones. Indeed there is something in that business of destroying, for our sport, individuals in the animal creation that do not injure us materially, which I could never reconcile to my ideas of virtue. Let me know how you like my poem. I am doubtful whether it would not be an improvement to keep out the last stanza but one altogether. Cruikshank is a glorious production of the author of man. You, he, and the noble Colonel[100] of the Crochallan Fencibles are to me Dear as the ruddy drops which warm my heart. I have got a good mind to make verses on you all, to the tune of "_Three guid fellows ayont the glen_" R. B. [Footnote 99: See the poem on the "Wounded Hare."] [Footnote 100: That is, William Dunbar, W.S.] * * * * * CXXVIL--TO MR. RICHARD BROWN. MAUCHLINE, _21st May_ 1789. My Dear Friend,--I was in the country by accident, and hearing of your safe arrival, I could not resist the temptation of wishing you joy on your return--wishing you would write to me before you sail again--wishing that you would always set me down as your bosom friend--wishing you long life and prosperity, and that every good thing may attend you--wishing Mrs. Brown and your little ones as free of the evils of this world as is consistent with humanity--wishing you and she were to make two at the ensuing lying-in, with which Mrs. B. threatens very soon to favour me--wishing I had longer time to write to you at present; and, finally, wishing that if there is to be another state of existence, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Burns, our little ones of both families, and you and I, in some snug retreat, may make a jovial party to all eternity! My direction is at Ellisland, near Dumfries.--Yours, R. B. * * * * * CXXVIIL--To MR. ROBERT AINSLIE. ELLISLAND, _8th June_ 1789.