Maria Riddell
When she went to Edinburgh in early 1792 she had a letter
of introduction from him to a publisher friend there, whom she was
hoping would aid her in her plan to have her memoirs of her West
Indies time produced (Voyages to the Madeira and Leeward and
Caribbean Islands, with Sketches of the Natural History of these
Islands, 1792). She maintained a cordial correspondence with the
publisher, William Smellie, until his death in
1795.
Maria and her family - she had a second daughter by now -
settled at Woodley Park, an estate which her husband had bought a
few years before and renamed for her. Burns was a regular visitor
there and also wrote frequently, especially with regard to his
admiration of her own poetry, until the occasion of a quarrel. The
details of this are hazy but Burns wrote afterwards to apologise
and make amends. It seems as though their friendship was
irreparably damaged, however, and Captain Riddell returned a volume
of verse that Burns had written for him.
Maria left Scotland in 1797, after moving between Ayrshire,
Dumfries and London, but she wrote of Burns' character and
intellect on his death in 1796. Correspondence between them had
been more sporadic, perhaps due to Burns' failing health and the
shadow of their estrangement, but they regained some of their
cordiality.
Her husband, Walter, passed away before her, in 1802, and
she remarried in 1807 before her own death the following
year.
