THAT Burns erected a monument over the grave of Fergusson, the poet, is well known – not so, hitherto, a little circumstance of interest connected with this honourable tribute to a brother-poet. It now appears that two years elapsed before Burns was able to pay for the monument – as witness a letter to Hill, dated in 1793:- “I send you by the bearer, Mr. Clarke, a particular friend of mine, six pounds and a shilling, which you will dispose of as follows:- “Five pounds ten shillings, per account, I owe to Mr. R. Burn, architect, for erecting the stone over the grave of poor Fergusson. He was two years in erecting it after I had commissioned him for it, and I have been two years in paying him, after he sent me his account; so he and I are quits. He had the hardiesse to ask me interest on the sum; but considering that the money was due by one poet for putting a tombstone over another, he may, with grateful surprise, thank heaven that he ever saw a farthing of it.”
Burns and Fergusson, pp.121-122.
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