with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

193
The inquiry which this disputed song occasioned,
has furnished the Editor with some notices of the
life of Jean Adams, which are characteristic and in-
teresting. She was born of humble parents, and
was brought up in a state of penury and wretched-
ness. Her education was therefore nscanty, but it
may be presumed that her natural talents supplied
the deficiency, as she supported herself by keeping a
little school, and at times by assisting at needle-work
in gentlemens' families. Her poetic genius was first
awakened by the perusal of a large old folio of ro-
mances and rhymes, and she shortly afterwards pro-
duced an "Address to Grief," which was much
praised by her friends, and encouraged her to culti-
vate her acquaintance with the Muses, greatly to the
neglect of her humbler and more substantial occupa-
tions. She gave up her school, and led a precarious
and unsettled life for some time. Her Poems, which
were scattered among her friends in various parts of
the country, were collected by a Mr. Drummond, of
Greenock, and published for her, in one volume, by
subscription, at Glasgow, in 1734. Their success
highly flattered Jean's vanity, and she exported a
large bale of them to Boston, which, however,
remained unsold, and she was reduced to a state of
bare poverty, subsisting chiefly on the bounty of her
friends.
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