Alison or Alicia Cockburn, nee Rutherford, was a Scottish poet, wit and socialite who collected a circle of eminent friends in 18th-century Enlightenment Edinburgh.
At her house on Castlehill, and afterwards in Crichton Street, she received many illustrious friends, among whom were Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Henry Mackenzie, William Robertson, David Hume, John Home and Lord Monboddo.
In 1765 she published her lyrics to the traditional Border Ballad The Flowers of the Forest beginning "I've seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling". It is said to have been written before her marriage in 1731 and to concern a financial crisis that had ruined the fortunes of a number of the Selkirk Lairds. Later biographers, however, think it probable that it was Alison or Alicia Cockburn, nee Rutherford, was a Scottish poet, wit and socialite who collected a circle of eminent friends in 18th-century Enlightenment Edinburgh.
At her house on Castlehill, and afterwards in Crichton Street, she received many illustrious friends, among whom were Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Henry Mackenzie, William Robertson, David Hume, John Home and Lord Monboddo.
In 1765 she published her lyrics to the traditional Border Ballad The Flowers of the Forest beginning "I've seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling". It is said to have been written before her marriage in 1731 and to concern a financial crisis that had ruined the fortunes of a number of the Selkirk Lairds. Later biographers, however, think it probable that it was written on the departure to London of a certain John Aikman, with whom Alison appears to have had an early attachment.
Cockburn was also an indefatigable letter-writer and a composer of parodies, squibs, toasts and "character sketches", then a favourite form of composition....more
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