AN Octogenarian records that Burns frequently visited one Thomas Lambert, a writer in Kilmarnock, and occasionally would step in next door and see the widow and her two daughters, who had a class of girls learning knitting. Mrs. Bruce, mother of the late Mr. A. J. Bruce, banker, and daughter of J. Begbie, noted in “The Ordination” –
Than aff to Begbie’s in a raw an’ pour divine libations,
has frequently stated to the writer that she was one of these girls, and that they were all glad to have a visit from Burns, – he was so full of fun. She remembered his repeating on one occasion a humorous description of a “rocking” that he had attended a few nights before.”
