A MELANCHOLY person of the name of Glendinning having taken away his own life, was interred at a place called “The Old Chapel,” close beside Dumfries. Dr. Copland Hutchison, a friend of Allan Cunningham, informed him that, one day he happened to be walking out that way, he saw Burns with his foot on the grave, his hat on his knee, and paper laid on his hat, on which he was writing. He then took the paper, thrust it with his finger into the red mould of the grave, and went away. The following were the lines pencilled on the paper:-
Earth’d up here lies an imp o’ hell,
Planted by Satan’s dibble –
Poor silly wretch, he’s damn’d himsel’
To save the Lord the trouble.
