[BITList] Bouquet of friendship

[John Feltham]

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Dunlop  [née Wallace],  Frances Anna  (1730-1815), letter writer and friend of Robert Burns, was born on 16 April 1730 at Craigie House, Wallacetown, near Ayr, the second child of Sir Thomas Wallace (1702-177077), advocate, of Craigie, and Lady Eleanora Agnew (1706-1761) of Lochryan. Her brother, Thomas, a guardsman, died in 1756, aged twenty-seven, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Her reverence for her father and for her inheritance as a Wallace, descended from Sir Richard Wallace of Riccarton, cousin of Sir William Wallace, made the loss of the 'old ruinous Castle of Craigie', through her eldest son Thomas's mismanagement, one of the more grievous and unforgivable 'vexations' in her life  (letters to Burns, March 1788, 12 May 1794, Wallace, 1.81, 2.274). Upon her mother's death, Lochryan became hers, while her father married Antonia Dunlop, known later as the dowager Lady Wallace of Craigie. In 1748 Frances Anna Wallace married John Dunlop of Dunlop (1707-1785), much her senior, by family tradition in a runaway match from Dunskey House. They had thirteen children, three of whom died in infancy, the remaining ten becoming, next to the 'improvement of [her] morals' and the 'pleasures of [her] mind', her dominant interest  (letters to Burns, 6 April and 30 April 1791, Wallace, 2.142-9).

Mrs Dunlop's disaffection with Thomas, exacerbated by her husband's death a year before, resulted in a 'violent fever'  (letter to Burns, 3 [or 23] May 1791) which put her mind in a frame to welcome Robert Burns's Kilmarnock Poems, in 1786. Her reading led her to initiate a correspondence with Burns; her 'very life', she attested, thereafter acquired that 'bouquet' of friendship which was to give comfort and meaning to her final years  (letters, 25 June 1793, 12 June 1794, Wallace, 2.247, 276). Burns was ever reminded of the importance to her of their mutual discovery-she of the only true 'patriot Bard'  (letter, 19 Oct 1789, Wallace, 2.8), he of a patroness to whom he could apply for a 'good word' for himself or an acquaintance.

Burns visited Mrs Dunlop at least five times between 1787 and 1792. His perceived sarcasms or neglect of her she could never understand, but typically forgave. His letters became almost her 'sole personal pleasure'  (letter, 4 June 1788, Wallace, 2.97). Already in 1786 she found herself objecting to his 'unhappy' phrasing and later to any notion which 'outrages decency'  (letter, 30 Dec 1786); of more serious consequence, however, were their political differences. Mrs Dunlop, two of whose daughters had married French royalist refugees, castigated Burns for his sympathy towards revolutionary elements in France, having made known her sentiments on the French nobility as early as 1791. Burns nevertheless valued his correspondence with Mrs Dunlop, even if he did not take her literary advice, and was dismayed when she, tired of reading of his support for radical causes, ended their correspondence in the summer of 1795. However, she relented after receiving a letter from Burns written a few days before his death and sent him an amicable response.

Mrs Dunlop read Voltaire, Necker, and Paine, as well as John Moore's Zeluco and Samuel Bourn on original sin. Her mind was restless to resolve matters of experimental philosophy, even if Burns might find them 'tiresome and ridiculous'  (her letter to him, 25 Jan 1792, Wallace, 2.185). Above all, in its 'airy fancy', it loved Hoole's Tasso and 'that glorious stanza', 'The cotter's Saturday night'  (letter, 12 July 1791, Wallace, 2.166). She died at home at Dunlop House, Dunlop, Ayrshire, on 24 May 1815.

J. C. Stewart-Robertson 

Sources  Robert Burns and Mrs Dunlop: correspondence now published in full for the first time; with elucidations, ed. W. Wallace, 1st edn, 2 vols. (1898) + J. C. Ewing, 'Burns-Dunlop correspondence: unpublished letters', The Burns Chronicle (1904), 67-75 + The letters of Robert Burns, ed. J. De Lancey Ferguson, 2 vols. (1931) + The works of Robert Burns, ed. the Ettrick Shepherd [J. Hogg] and W. Motherwell, 3 (1835) + The complete letters of Robert Burns, ed. J. A. Mackay (1987) + M. Lindsay, The Burns encyclopedia, rev. 3rd edn (1980) + J. de Lancey Ferguson, Pride and passion: Robert Burns, 1759-1796 (1964) + The complete writings of Robert Burns, with essay on Burns's life, genius, and achievement by, and with an introduction by, John Buchan, ed. W. E. Henley, 10 vols. (1926) + The letters of Robert Burns, ed. F. Allen, 1: 1779-1887: with autobiographical letter and common-place book (1927) + The works of Robert Burns, ed. C. Annandale, 5 vols. (1888) [esp. vol. 4] + D. Daiches, Robert Burns (1957) + M. Lindsay, Robert Burns the man, his work, the legend (1954-71) + A. Dent, Burns in his time (1966) + D. A. Low, ed., Robert Burns: the critical heritage (1974) + The letters of Robert Burns, ed. J. de Lancey Ferguson, 2nd edn, ed. G. Ross Roy, 2 vols. (1985) + bap. reg. Scot.
Archives Morgan L., Lochryan MSS
Likenesses  G. Mosman, portrait, 1747, repro. in Robert Burns and Mrs. Dunlop, ed. Wallace · portrait, after 1747, repro. in Complete letters of Robert Burns, ed. MacKay, facing p. 192 · J. Edgar, group portrait, wash drawing, c.1854 (Robert Burns at an evening party of Lord Monboddo's, 1786), Scot. NPG · A. C., watercolour drawing, Scot. NPG [see illus.] · H. Robinson, engraving (after unknown portrait), NL Scot.
Wealth at death  £800-in promissory notes with Messrs Carrick, Brown, & Co., Glasgow: NA Scot., CC 9/7/82, 463-4; Ewing, 'Burns-Dunlop correspondence



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