Reading Burns on the Sabbath, p.41.

[Anecdotes of Burns Contents]

CUNNINGHAM informs us in his edition of the Life and Works of Burns, that, when the first edition was published, “the fame of the Bard of Mauchline flew east, west, north and south. The milkmaid sung his songs, the ploughmen and shepherds repeated his poems, while the old and sagacious quoted his verses in conversation, glad to find that matters of fancy could be made useful. My father, who was fond of poetry, procured the volume from a Cameronian clergyman, with this remarkable admonition, “Keep it out of the way of your children, John, lest ye catch them as I caught mine, reading it on the Sabbath.”