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Clarinda's grave, Canongate kirkyard

In 1797, during his first stay in Edinburgh, Robert Burns attended a tea party where he was introduced to an abandoned wife, Agnes McLehose, known as Nancy to her friends. He accepted her invitation to visit, but an unlucky fall from a coach prevented him from doing so. Thus began a six-week long correspondence, the so-called 'Clarinda letters', which continued after his recovery. The 40 letters, written while he convalesced at the home of his publisher in Buccleuch Street, express romantic longings. This unconsummated 'affair' with a woman of a higher social rank inspired Burns' poem, 'Ae fond kiss' which includes the lines:

Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met - or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

NT2674 : Houses on Calton Hill