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Cockburn, Mrs Alison (1712 — 94)
Authoress of one of the versions of 'The Flowers of the Forest', and for 60 years one of the 'queens of Edinburgh society'. The daughter of Robert Rutherford of Fairnilee, in Selkirkshire, she married Patrick Cockburn, an advocate, in 1731. 9 years before she met Burns she had described Walter Scott as 'the most extraordinary genius of a boy.' In one of her letters she recorded her opinion of Burns: 'The town is at present (December 1786) agog with the ploughman poet, who receives adulation with native dignity, and is the figure of his profession, strong and coarse, but has a most enthusiastick heart of LOVE. He has seen dutchess Gordon and all the gay world: his favrite for looks and manners is Bess Burnett — no bad judge indeed'. In another letter she wrote: 'The man will be spoiled if he can spoil, but he keeps with his simple manners and is quite sober.' Mrs Cockburn's niece was Elizabeth Scott (1729-89), wife of Walter Scott of Wauchope, near Jedburgh. Mrs Cockburn lent her niece a copy of the Kilmarnock Poems.
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