BIB_ID
363795
Accession number
MA 49.89
Creator
Dunlop, Frances Anna Wallace, 1730-1815.
Display Date
1791 Sept. 22.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan before 1913.
Description
1 item (4 p., with address) ; 25.1 cm
Notes
Addressed to "Mr. Robt. Burns / Ellisland / Dumfries."
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).
Franked by W. Kerr at "Perth Twenty Seventh Sept. 1791."
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.
Part of p. [3-4] cut away with some loss of text.
With postmark and trace of a seal.
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).
Franked by W. Kerr at "Perth Twenty Seventh Sept. 1791."
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.
Part of p. [3-4] cut away with some loss of text.
With postmark and 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
Telling him that she didn't feel she could write as she usually does while she was dictating to Jenny [Janet] Little; noting that he will not have to pay for letters from her now that Mr. Kerr has come back from Ireland; asking if Mrs. Burns has returned home and if his youngest son has recovered from smallpox; giving news of her children and grandchildren; opining that "fate dooms [her] ... to mourn the loss or absence of every one [she] love[s]"; writing that she meant to have Jenny Little transcribe some verses in her last letter, but her "courage failed [her]"; promising to enclose a poem ("the address of the Once Fair Forlorn to the Benevolent Genie who kindly conducted her to the enchanted Castle of Closeburn") if she "find[s] leisure" to write it down; enclosing a letter and asking him to return it with his sentiments on it.
Catalog link
Department