Scope and arrangement
· Holograph poem, "On turning up a Mouse in her nest with the plough" : Nov 1783 : (MISC 2598) : 2 p.; begins, "Wee, sleeket, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie, / O, what a panic's in thy breastie! / Thou need na start awa sae hasty / Wi' bickerin brattle." With a note in ink, in an unidentified hand, on the verso, "The original sketch of the 'Wee Mouse' by Burns presented by Earl of Shaftesbury to Elliott Cresson.".
· Holograph poem, "To a Woodlark -- for Mrs. Johnson" : Mar 1794 : (MISC 1017) : 2 p.; begins, "O, stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay / Nor quit me for the trembling spray ..." With an ink note on the verso in an unidentified hand, "Burns Ms. / One of thee most beautiful / of Mr. Burns's latest efforts / Given to me by Mr. John / Armstrong -- 1815." Tipped into a copy of his Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh, 1787). Shelved as *Pforz B-R 02.
· To Gilbert Burns, his brother : 1 autograph letter signed : 11 Jan 1790 : (MISC 0199) : [no place] : begins, "I mean to take advantage of the Frank though I have not in my present frame of mind much appetite for exertion in writing _ My nerves are in a damnable state ..."; expresses his despair at the ill success of his farm; with a long prologue he wrote for Mr. Sutherland for the New Year's performance at Dumfries, which begins, "No song nor dance I bring from yon great City / That queens it o'er our taste -- the more's the pity ...".