LOCKHART records an anecdote furnished to him by David MacCulloch, son of the Laird of Ardwall:-
“He was seldom more grieved than when riding into Dumfries one fine summer’s evening to attend a county ball, he saw Burns walking alone on the shady side of the principal street of the town, while the opposite side was gay with successive groups of gentlemen and ladies, all drawn together for the festivities of the night, not one of whom appeared willing to recognise him. The horseman dismounted and joined Burns, who, on his proposing to him to cross the street, said:-
‘Nay, nay, my young friend -, that’s all over now,” and quoted, after a pause, some verses of Lady Grizzel Baillie’s pathetic ballad:-
‘His bonnet stood ance fu’ fair on his brow;
His auld ane looked better than mony ane’s new;
But now he let’s ‘t wear ony way it will hing,
And casts himsel’ dowie upon the corn-bing.
–
Oh, were we young, as we ance hae been,
We suld hae been galloping down on yon green,
And linking it ower the lilywhite lea,
And werena my heart light I wad dee.’