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A rhymed invitation from Agnes McLehose to Archibald Menzies, 1791

Key details

Archive number
NTS/02/25/BRN/02/149
Alt. number
3.6377
Date
1791
On display
No
Creator
McLehose, Agnes (Author)
Recipient
Menzies, Archibald

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Description

A rhymed invitation from Agnes McLehose to Archibald Menzies, 1791.

Robert met Mrs Agnes McLehose during his extended trip to Edinburgh. Although they were both involved with other people, the two began an epistolatory affair which has been immortalized through their surviving correspondence. Addressing each other as ‘Sylvander’ and ‘Clarinda’ to protect their identities in case of exposure, Robert and Agnes continued to write to each other for years, even after Robert married Jean Armour and moved to Ellisland near Dumfries.

Life continued on for Agnes after Burns's departure from Edinburgh in 1791. Here, she writes a rhymed invitation to Archibald Menzies of Canongate asking him to join in a party attending a peformance of Shakespeare's Hamlet that evening.

Archive information


Hierarchy

  1. Robert Burns, collection of poems and songs ( )
  2. A rhymed invitation from Agnes McLehose to Archibald Menzies, 1791

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