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Elegy on the death of Captain Matthew Henderson

Key details

Archive number
NTS/02/25/BRN/02/06
Alt. number
3.6102
On display
No
Creator
Burns, Robert (Author)
Recipient
Henderson, Captain Matthew

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Description

Elegy on the death of Captain Matthew Henderson. 3 Sheets.

This is a manuscript of the poem Elegy on Capt. Matthew Henderson, A Gentleman who held the Patent for his Honours immediately from Almighty God! It was probably written in 1790.

The composition of the Elegy was accomplished in two stages. As Burns wrote to his friend Robert Cleghorn on 23rd July,

'At the time of his death I composed an elegiac stanza or two, as he was a man I much regarded; but something came in my way so that the design of an Elegy to his memory gave up. Meeting with the fragment the other day among some of old waste papers I tried to finish the Piece, and have this moment put the last hand to it.'


Henderson was a well known figure in Edinburgh. Burns met him while they both stayed at lodgings in St James Square and they subsequently struck up a friendship. Henderson later died in 1788.

Archive information

Place of creation


Hierarchy

  1. Robert Burns, collection of poems and songs ( )
  2. Elegy on the death of Captain Matthew Henderson