the bard reckons up, with true poetical spirit, the free enjoyment
of the beauties of nature, which might counterbalance the hardship
and uncertainty of the life even of a mendicant. In one of his prose
letters, to which I have lost the reference, he details this idea yet
more seriously, and dwells upon it, as not ill adapted to his habits
and powers.

"As the life of a Scottish mendicant of the eighteenth century, seems to
have been contemplated without much horror by Robert Burns, the author
can hardly have erred in giving to Edie Ochiltree something of poetical
character and personal dignity, above the more abject of his miserable
calling. The class had, in fact, some privileges. A lodging, such as it
was, was readily granted to them in some of the outhouses, and the usual
_awmous_ (alms) of a handful of meal (called a _gowpen_) was
scarce denied by the poorest cottager. The mendicant disposed of these,
according to their different quality, in various bags around his person,
and thus carried about with him the principal part of his sustenance,
which he literally received for the asking. At the houses of the gentry,
his cheer was mended by scraps of broken meat, and perhaps a Scottish
'twal-penny,' or English penny, which was expended in snuff or whisky.
In fact, these indolent peripatetics suffered much less real hardship
and want of food, than the poor peasants from whom they received alms.

"If, in addition to his personal qualifications, the mendicant chanced
to be a King's Bedesman, or Blue Gown, he belonged, in virtue thereof,
to the aristocracy of his order, and was esteemed a person of great
importance."