Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Amusements of leisure hours, or, Poetical pieces, chiefly in the Scottish dialect

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To this letter Mr Skinner's answer was as fol-
lows :
" Sir, Linshart, 14th November 1787.
w Your kind return, without date, but of post-mark
October 25th, came to my hand only this day ; and,
to testify my punctuality to my poetic engagement,
I sit down immediately to answer it in kind. Your
acknowledgment of my poor but just encomiums on
your surprising genius, and your opinion of my rhym-
ing excursions, are both, I think, by far too high.
The difference between our two tracks of education,
and ways of life, is entirely in your favour, and gives
you the preference every manner of way. I know a
classical education will not create a versifying taste,
but it mightily improves and assists it ; and though,
where both these meet, there may sometimes be
ground for approbation, yet where taste appears sin-
gle, as it were, and neither cramped nor supported
by acquisition, I will always sustain the justice of its
prior claim to applause. A small portion of taste
this way I have had almost from childhood, especial-
ly in the old Scottish dialect ; and it is as old a thing
as I remember, my fondness for " Chryste-Kirk o'
the Green" which I had by heart ere I was twelve
years of age, and which, some years ago, I attempt-
ed to turn into Latin verse. While I was young, I
dabbled a good deal in these things ; but, on getting
the black gown, I gave it pretty much over, till my
daughters grew up, who being all tolerably good
singers, plagued me for words to some of their favou-
rite tunes, and so extorted those effusions which