LETTER XI. TO THE SAME. I HEARD it mentioned at Mr Mas, that a triennial dinner, in honour of Robert Burns, was about to take place; and thinking it would be a good opportunity for me to see a larger number of the Scots literati than I had yet met with collected together, I resolved, if possible, to make one of the party. I found, on enquiring, that in consequence of the vast multitude of persons who wished to be present, the original plan of the dinner had been necessarily departed from, and the company were to assemble, not in a tavern, for no tavern in Edinburgh could accommodate them, but in the Assembly-Rooms in George-Street. Even so, I was told, there was likely to be a deficiency rather than a superfluity of room; and, indeed, when I went to buy my ticket, I found no more remained to be sold. But I procured one afterwards through arriving from the coun Mr M; and W try the same day, I went to the place in company with him. He is hand in glove with half of the stewards, and had no difficulty in getting himself smuggled in. I send you a copy of the Edinburgh Weekly Journal, which contains the best newspaper account of the affair I have met with, but shall proceed to favour you with a few of my own observations in addition. Those who are accustomed to talk and think of the Scotch as a cold phlegmatic people, would have been convinced of their mistake by a sin-> gle glance at the scene which met my eyes when I entered. I have never witnessed a more triumphant display of national enthusiasm, and had never expected to witness any display within many thousand degrees of it, under any thing less than the instantaneous impulse of some glorious victory. The room is a very large one, and I had already seen it lighted up in all the splendour of a ball; but neither its size nor its splendour had then made anything more than a very common-place impression on my mind. But now-what a sight was here! A hall of most majestic proportions-its walls, and hangings, and canopies of crimson, giving a magical richness of effect to the innumerable chan deliers with which its high roof appeared to be starred and glowing-the air overhead alive with the breath of lutes and trumpets-below, the whole mighty area paved with human faces, (for the crowd was such that nothing of the tables could at first be seen,)-the highest, and the wisest, and the best of a nation assembled together and all for what?-to do honour to the memory of one low-born peasant. What a lofty tribute to the true nobility of Nature! What a glorious vindication of the born majesty of Genius! With difficulty we procured seats at the lower extremity of the Hall, at the table where Captain Adam of the Navy presided as croupiera fine manly-looking fellow, with a world of cordial jollity in his face. W chose to sit at this table, as he afterwards told me, because, in the course of a long experience, he had found the fare of a public dinner uniformly much better in the immediate neighbourhood of the croupier or president; and indeed, whatever might be the case elsewhere, the fare where we sat was most excellent. We had turbot in perfection-a haunch of prime venison-the red-deer I believe -and every thing, in short, which could have been selected to make a private dinner delicious. The port and sherry allowed by the traiteur were by no means to be sneezed at; but Wak had determined to make himself as happy as possible, and his servant produced a bottle of hock, and another of the sparkler during dinner. Afterwards, we exchanged our port for very tolerable claret, and we had filberts and olives at will; which being the case, entre nous, no man could complain of his dessert. The chair was occupied by Mr M, an advocate of considerable note; a pleasant gentlemanlike person, so far as I could judge, (for he was quite at the other end of the room from us,) and close around him were gathered a great number of the leading members of the same profession. Among the rest J. An universal feeling of regret appeared to fill the company, on account of the absence of Mr St, who was expected to have taken his place at the right hand of the president, and would have come to town for the purpose, had he not been prevented by a severe attack of illness. In different parts of the room, a variety of distinguished individuals, of whom I had often heard, were successively pointed out to me by W; but it was some time before I could collect my senses, sufficiently to take any very accurate in spection of their physiognomies. Wherever I looked, I saw faces ennobled by all the eloquence of a pure and lofty enthusiasm. It was evident, that all had the right feeling; and at such a moment it appeared to me a comparatively small matter which of them had the celebrity even of genius. After dinner, the president rose and proposed The Memory of the Poet. The speech with which he prefaced the toast was delivered with all the ease of a practised speaker, and was by no means devoid of traces of proper feeling. But, I confess, on the whole, its effect was to me rather a disappointing one. The enthusiasm felt by the company was such, that nothing could have been pitched in a key too high for them; and the impression of Mr Mana's address had certainly, in their state of feeling at the moment, more of a chilling than an elevating effect. I thought him peculiarly unhappy in the choice of a few poetical quotations with which he diversified his speech-that from Swift's Rhapsody, in particular, was extremely unfortunate. What good effect could be produced on such an occasion as this, by repeating such lines as those about "Not beggar's brat on bulk begot, |