BIB_ID
363253
Accession number
MA 49.12
Creator
Dunlop, Frances Anna Wallace, 1730-1815.
Display Date
1787 Sept. 9.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan before 1913.
Description
1 item (6 p., with address) ; 23.4 cm
Notes
Addressed to "Mr. Robt. Burns / Mossgiel / near Mauchline."
Docketed.
Dunlop likely reacquired these letters after Burns's death and left them to her descendants with the Lochryan manuscripts (42 of Burns's letters to Mrs. Dunlop and some autograph poems, now MA 46 in the Morgan's collection).
Part of a large collection of letters from Frances Dunlop to Robert Burns. Letters in the collection are described in individual records; see MA 49 for more information.
With trace of a seal.
Docketed.
Dunlop likely reacquired these letters after Burns's death and left them to her descendants with the Lochryan manuscripts (42 of Burns's letters to Mrs. Dunlop and some autograph poems, now MA 46 in the Morgan's collection).
Part of a large collection of letters from Frances Dunlop to Robert Burns. Letters in the collection are described in individual records; see MA 49 for more information.
With trace of a seal.
Provenance
General Sir John Wallace; by descent to Sir William Thomas Francis Agnew Wallace; bequeathed to his brother, Colonel F.J. Wallace; acquired by Robert Borthwick Adam before 1898; purchased by Pierpont Morgan before 1913, possibly from the London dealer Pearson.
Summary
Reporting that she read his autobiography "with more pleasure than Richardson or Fielding could have afforded [her]"; commenting at length on the contents of his autobiography; noting that she is finding "great relief" from "scribbl[ing] rhyme or reason just as they come uppermost"; observing him that she has "a strong desire to see the lines [Burns] wrote on Miss [Wilhelmina] Alexander"; telling him that she thinks "immortal fame ... stand[s] clearly within [his] stretch, if past success, sanguine hope, and dissipated company don't make [him] indolent"; encouraging him to embark on "some more extensive work than any [he has] yet attempted"; commenting on how his writings "soothed [her] mind and fixed [her] attention when nothing else could"; discussing her long friendship with Dr. John Moore.
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