£4,750
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 605
Auction: 17 June 2020 at 11:00 BST
being the concluding four lines of a letter: "I acknowledge it is expensive; but, were I once fairly settled in this country, I will, look out for a Dumf. Carrier that will take our letters, by the slump, single or double, witty or dull, at pennies a piece". A collector's annotation beneath states that the fragment is part of a letter Burns wrote to Mr Robt. Ainslie from Dumfries on 16th October 1788. A further pencil annotation in an unidentified hand to the verso states that the fragment originated from the papers of Lady Louisa Stuart (1757-1851, Poet and Daughter of the Earl of Bute who had served as British Prime Minister 1762-3) and was given by her to Lady Sarah Lindsay (1813-90, served as one of the women of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1859-60), the portion of the original later pasted onto an album leaf