“WHEN Robert had not some pleasure in view in which I was not thought fit to participate, we used frequently to walk together, when the weather was favourable, on the Sunday afternoon (those precious breathing-times to the labouring part of the community), and enjoyed such Sundays as would make one regret to see their number abridged. It was in one of these walks that I first had the pleasure of hearing the author repeat the ‘Cottar’s Saturday Night.’ I do not recollect to have read or heard anything by which I was more highly electrified. The fifth and sixth and the eighteenth, stanzas thrilled with peculiar ecstasy through my soul.”
Burns and his Brother Gilbert, p.14.
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