A MR. LADYMAN, an English commercial traveller, alighting one day at the Brownhill Inn, found that he should have to dine with a company in which was Robert Burns.
The dinner, at which the landlord, Bacon, presided, passed off well, the principal dish being the well-known namesake of the host. The man had retired for a few minutes to see after a fresh supply of toddy, when some one called upon Burns to give the young Englishman proof of his being really Burns the poet, by composing some verses on the spur of the moment; and there was hardly an interval for reflection when the bard pronounced as follows:-
“At Brownhill we always get dainty good cheer,
And plenty of bacon each day in the year;
We’ve all things that’s nice and mostly in season;
But why always Bacon – come give me the reason?”