Dearly bought, the hidden treasure,
Finer feelings can bestow;

Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure,
Thrill the deepest notes of woe.

A Verse composed and repeated by BURNS to the Master of the House, on taking leave at a Place in the Highlands, where he had been hospitably entertained.

WHEN death's dark stream I ferry o'er,
A time that surely shall come;
In Heaven itself, I'll ask no more,
Than just a Highland welcome.

THE

THE TOAST.

(Written with a diamond Pencil on a Glass Tumbler, and presented to Miss JESSY LEWARS, now Mrs. THOMSON, Dumfries, a deservedly great favourite of the Poet's, and a kind and soothing friend to Mrs. BURNS at the time of his death.)

FILL me with the rosy wine,
Call a toast-a toast divine;
Give the Poet's darling flame,
Lovely Jessy be the name;
Then thou mayest freely boast,
Thou hast given a peerless toast.

The same Lady, complaining of some slight indisposition, BURNS told her he should take care to have an Epitaph ready for her in case of the worst, which he likewise wrote on a Glass Tumbler, to make a pair with the other, as follows:

Epitaph on Miss Jessy Lewars.

SAY, sages, what's the charm on earth,
Can turn Death's dart aside:

It is not purity and worth,

Else Jessy had not died.

R. B.

On her Recovery.

BUT rarely seen since Nature's birth,
The natives of the sky,

Yet still one Seraph's left on earth,
For Jessy did not die.

R. B.

About the end of May, 1796, Mr. BROWN, (an unmarried man,) the Surgeon who attended BURNS in his last illness, happened to call on him at the same time with Miss JESSY LEWARS. In the course of conversation, Mr. BROWN mentioned, that he had been to see a Collection of wild Beasts just arrived in Dumfries. By way of aiding his Description, he took the Advertisement (containing a List of the Animals to be exhibited) from his pocket. As he was about to hand it to Miss LEWARS, the Poet took it out of his hand, and with some red ink standing beside him, wrote on the back of the Advertisement the following Lines, exclaiming as he returned it to Mr. BROWN, that now it was fit to be presented to the Lady.

This Advertisement, with the red Lines on the back, is still in the possession of the Lady, preserved as a precious Relique,

TALK not to me of savages
From Afric's burning sun,

No savage e'er could rend my heart
As, Jessy, thou hast done.

But Jessy's lovely hand in mine,
A mutual faith to plight,

Not even to view the heavenly choir,
Would be so blest a sight.

1

EPITAPH

EPITAPH

For Mr. GABRIEL RICHARDSON, Brewer, Dumfries; (but who, much to the Satisfaction of his Friends, has not yet needed one, 1819).

HERE Brewer Gabriel's fire's extinct,

And empty all his barrels :

He's blest―if, as he brew'd, he drink
In upright honest morals.