Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

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Letter from Robert Burns, Mauchline, to Frances Anna Wallace Dunlop, 1788 August 21 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
429976
Accession number
MA 46.8
Creator
Burns, Robert, 1759-1796, sender.
Display Date
Mauchline, Scotland, 1788 August 21.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, before 1913.
Description
1 item (3 pages, with address) ; 33.1 x 20.1 cm
Notes
Postmarked, "Mauchline," with seal; address panel reads "Mrs. Dunlop of Dunlop / at Moreham Mains / by Haddington."
Part of a collection of 54 letters and poems from Robert Burns to Mrs. Dunlop between 1786 and 1796. Also housed with MA 45. See related records for more information.
Inscriptions/Markings
Watermark: rampant lion with spear & serpent inside crowned circle, PRO PATRIA in border of circle.
Watermark: Countermark: IB & Co.
Summary
Expressing his worry about her and requests updates from her constantly about her battle with distemper; writing a poem "The Thames flows proudly to sea ..." (The banks of Nith); stating who she would know in Ayrshire; writing a poem "When Eighty-five was seven months auld, ..." (The Mauchline wedding, lines 1-25); interrupting his poem to write "As I never wrote it down, my recollection does not entirely serve me" and continuing the poem (lines 26-43); adding that this was only the second time he has ever written that poem.