THE following paragraph about Burns is copied from an old London newspaper, “The Albion and Evening Advertiser,” dated May 23, 1801.
“Bon mot OF THE LATE ROBERT BURNS. – This singular character, it is well known, was addicted to the bottle. A physician who attended him in his last illness, remonstrating with him on this head, assured him that ‘the coat of his stomach was entirely gone.’ The merry bard declared that, if that was the case, he would go on drinking to the end of the chapter, ‘for, if the coat was all gone, it was not worth while carrying about the waistcoat.’ ”
