Pegasus at Wanlockhead, with a letter from Thomas Sloan to John Taylor
With Pegasus upon a day
Apollo, weary flying,
(Thro' frosty hills the journey lay)
On foot the way was plying. ----
Poor, slip-shod, giddy Pegasus
Was but a sorry walker,
To Vulcan then Apollo gaes
To get a frosty calker. ----
Obliging Vulcan fell to wark,
Threw by his coat & bonnet,
And did Sol's business in ^a crack,
Sol pay'd him with a sonnet.
Ye
Pity my sad disaster!
My Pegasus is poorly shod,
I'll pay you like my Master.
Robt. Burns
Ramage's
3, o'clock
it would be doing him & the Ayrshire
Bard a particular favor, if Mr T. would
be kind enough to oblige them instanter??
w. his agreeable Compy.
The road has been so slippery that the
Riders & the Brutes were equally in
danger of getting some of their bones broke,
--for the Poet has life & Limbs are some
consequence to the world, but for poor folk
it matters very little what may become of
him, excepting a few, amongst whom J
reckons his good friend Mr. Taylor. The whole of
the business to [?] the favour of getting the Horses
shoes ? spined. ----
![](https://ciim-data.nts.org.uk/media/iiif/3/pf%2F2%2F1%2F40%2F979%2FNTSBRNp07628.ptif/full/!640,640/0/default.jpg)
Key details
- Archive number
- NTS/02/25/BRN/02/192
- Alt. number
- 3.6196
- Date
- 1788
- On display
- No
- Creator
- Burns, Robert (Author)
- Archive number
- NTS/02/25/BRN/02/192
- Alt. number
- 3.6196
- Date
- 1788
- On display
- No
- Creator
- Burns, Robert (Author)
Description
Burns poem 'Pegasus at Wanlockhead', accompanied by a letter from Thomas Sloan to John Taylor
Begins "With Pegasus upon a day". A poetical epistle by Robert Burns to Mr John Taylor; 16 lines; written from "Ramage's 3 o'clock", signed "Robt. Burns."; with prose letter from Thomas Sloan.
In this first page of the poem Burns sets the scene with his horse walking rather than flying along because of his iced up shoes. He then goes to a smith in order to fix the horse's shoes to cope with the ice.
The second page of the poem carries the last verse in which Burns appeals to the farriers of Wanlockhead to help him with his poorly shod Pegasus offering to pay them in kind with a sonnet.
The poem is written at Ramage's 3, o' clock, an Inn in Wanlockhead in the winter of 1788 or 1789, after Burns has been unable to persuade to local Farrier to turn over the front edges of the shoes of his horse (frosted) to allow him to ride rather than walk on the icy ground.
Archive information
Themes
Hierarchy
-
Robert Burns, collection of poems and songs
(
a sub-fonds is a subdivision in the archival material)
- Pegasus at Wanlockhead, with a letter from Thomas Sloan to John Taylor