DEAR SIR,
I received yours of the 28th ult., and was happy to hear your favourable opinion of the songs. I cannot help remarking the difference of taste. The very line which you mention as being superior was condemned by a gentleman to whom I showed the song for being a low and vulgar idea. However, I own that it pleased myself tolerably. I will not praise the whole of your poem, but some parts of it please me highly. I think that anyone who writes frequently may form some little notion when he has been able to express a happy thought to advantage, and perhaps the following verse pleases you as well as any in the piece :—
“The Parson guides his flock in duty's road,
Dead to the world, he views the blest abode,
A call from thee he boldly names the voice of God !”
“Some rhyme, vain thought, for needfu' cash."
And I am not so clear of the justice of the following line:—
“And oftentimes for thee the poet makes his lay.”
The truth of the following everyone will acknowledge:—
“The man of wealth is not, nor cannot be a fool.”
And—
“The Premier always makes the most convincing speech,”
is so true that it will strike everybody. However, I sat down to write a line to accompany the enclosed volumes,[1] and find that unaware I have been writing criticisms. You may keep the books as long as you please, as I perused the whole as they came out in numbers. You will observe a few things of mine in the first vol., signed “Modestus.” I sent them anonymous, and was rather hurt on seeing the signature, as affected modesty is among the silliest of all affectations. I complained to the Editor, who mentioned on the cover that it was they who had done it.
An acquaintance has just called on me, so I'll bid you good-night.
I am,
Yours sincerely,
ROBT. TANNAHILL.
At the end of the letter is the following presentation: “To Mr. Tannahill, City of Glasgow Bank, Greenock, with Allan Park Paton's kind regards, Jan., 1868.”
This letter is in possession of Mr. James Tannahill, grand nephew of the Poet.
[1] These were the four vols. of the Selector, a periodical mentioned in the letter to James Barr, dated 1st May, 1806. See the Note to the poem No. 5.