The bridegroom may forget the bride
Was made his wedded wife yestreen;
The monarch may forget the crown
That on his head an hour has been;
The mother may forget the child
That smiles sae sweetly on her knee;
But I'll remember thee, Glencairn,
And a' that thou hast done for me!

After a sojourn of a little more than five months, Burns left
Edinburgh early in May for a tour in the south of Scotland. The poet
was mounted on an old mare, Jenny Geddes, which he had bought in
Edinburgh, and which he still owned when he settled at Ellisland. He
was accompanied by his bosom friend, Robert Ainslie. The letters and
journals written during the four weeks of this tour give evidence of
his appreciation of scenery and his shrewd judgment of character. He
was received with much consideration in the houses he visited, and was
given the freedom of the burgh of Dumfries. On the ninth of June,
1787, he was back at Mauchline; and, calling at Armour's house to see
his child, he was revolted by the "mean, servile complaisance" he met
with--the result of his Edinburgh triumphs. His disgust at the family,
however, did not prevent a renewal of his intimacy with Jean. After a
few days at home, he seems to have made a short tour in the West
Highlands. July was spent at Mossgiel, and early in August he returned
to Edinburgh in order to settle his accounts with Creech, his
publisher. On the twenty-fifth he set out for a longer tour in the
North accompanied by his friend Nicol, an Edinburgh schoolmaster, the
Willie who "brewed a peck o' maut." They proceeded by Linlithgow,
Falkirk, Stirling, Crieff, Dunkeld, Aberfeldie, Blair Athole,