Letter: Mary Morrison mystery not written in stone

THE comment by Andrew O'Hagan (Robert Burns Book, 23 January) regarding the inscription to Mary Morrison on a grave in Mauchline churchyard seems to imply she was the heroine of Burns' song Mary Morison. This is not so; these verses were, almost certainly, inspired by the young woman who gave the poet a "peremptory refusal" to his proposal of marriage, c. 1781.

Her actual name remains in doubt. Gilbert Burns suggested she was also the heroine of the song, And I'll Kiss Thee Yet, Yet. Robert Cromek traced her out to an address in Glasgow in 1807, and she gave him the words of On Cessnock Banks, a song written for her by Burns during his courtship.

Norrie Paton, Campbeltown