friend, he was preeminent. His writings want that variety, originality,
and ease, which shine so conspicuously even in the prose works of the
poet; but they have many redeeming points about them. His taste was as
pure as his judgment was masculine. He has been heard to say, that the
two most pleasurable moments of his life were--first, when he read
Mackenzie's story of La Roche, and secondly, when Robert took him apart,
at the breakfast or dinner hour, during harvest, and read to him, while
seated on a barley sheaf, his MS. copy of the far-famed Cotter's
"Saturday Night."

When Robert Burns was invited by Dr. Blacklock to visit Edinburgh,
Gilbert was struggling in the unthrifty farm of Mosgiel, and toiling
late and early to keep a house over the heads of his aged mother and
unprotected sisters. The poet's success was the first thing that stemmed
the ebbing tide of his fortunes. On settling with Mr. Creech, in
February, 1788, he received, as the profits of his second publication,
about 500l.; and, with that generosity which formed a part of his
nature, he immediately presented Gilbert with nearly half of his whole
wealth. Thus succoured, Gilbert married a Miss Breconridge, and removed
to a better farm at Dinning, in Dumfriesshire. While there, he was
recommended to Lady Blantyre, whose estates in East Lothian he
subsequently managed for nearly a quarter of a century. He died at
Grant's Braes, in the neighbourhood of Haddington, on one of the
Blantyre farms, on the 8th of April. He had no fixed complaint; but, for
several months preceding his dissolution, a gradual decay of nature had
been apparent. It is probable that his death was accelerated by severe
domestic afflictions; as, on the 4th of January, he lost a daughter, who
had long been the pride of his family hearth; and, on the 26th of
February following, his youngest son, a youth of great promise, died at
Edinburgh, of typhus fever, on the eve of his being licensed for the