DR. CLARKSON of Selkirk, along with two other gentlemen, were sitting in Veitch’s Inn at Selkirk, when Ainslie and Burns arrived from Melrose. The day had been very wet, and they reached the inn “like twa drookit craws.”
Soon after their arrival, the travellers sent Veitch in to ask the Doctor and his friends to take a glass with them.
The Doctor objected, and asked Mr. Veitch what like the men were?
Mr. Veitch said “he could hardly say; that the one spoke rather like a gentleman, but the other was a drover like chap.” So they refused to admit them.
It was not till after three days that Clarkson discovered that he had “cut” Burns, and he never forgave himself for it till his dying day.