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MY LADY,
I would, as usual, have availed myself of the privilege your goodness
has allowed me, of sending you anything I compose in my poetical way;
but as I had resolved, so soon as the shock of my irreparable loss
would allow me, to pay a tribute to my late benefactor, I determined
to make that the first piece I should do myself the honour of sending
you. Had the wing of my fancy been equal to the ardour of my heart,
the enclosed had been much more worthy your perusal: as it is, I beg
leave to lay it at your ladyship's feet. As all the world knows my
obligations to the late Earl of Glencairn, I would wish to show as
openly that my heart glows, and will ever glow, with the most grateful
sense and remembrance of his lordship's goodness. The sables I did
myself the honour to wear to his lordship's memory, were not the
"mockery of woe." Nor shall my gratitude perish with me!--if among my
children I shall have a son that has a heart, he shall hand it down to
his child as a family honour, and a family debt, that my dearest
existence I owe to the noble house of Glencairn!
I was about to say, my lady, that if you think the poem may venture to
see the light, I would, in some way or other, give it to the world.
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