---
title: "To Mrs. Riddel"
author: "Robert Burns"
recipient: "Mrs. Riddel"
letter_number: 288
roman: "CCLXXXVIII"
source: "Project Gutenberg #18500 — The Complete Works of Robert Burns (ed. Allan Cunningham)"
editor: "Allan Cunningham"
source_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18500/pg18500.txt"
canonical_url: "https://robert-burns.com/letters/288-to-riddel/"
---

# To Mrs. Riddel

## Editor's note
Burns often complained in company, and sometimes in his letters, of the caprice of Mrs. Riddel.

— Allan Cunningham

## Letter
I have often told you, my dear friend, that you had a spice of caprice in your composition, and you have as often disavowed it; even perhaps while your opinions were, at the moment, irrefragably proving it. Could _anything_ estrange me from a friend such as you?—No! To-morrow I shall have the honour of waiting on you.

Farewell, thou first of friends, and most accomplished of women; even with all thy little caprices!

R. B.

---

Source: [Project Gutenberg #18500 — The Complete Works of Robert Burns (ed. Allan Cunningham)](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18500/pg18500.txt), edited by Allan Cunningham  
Canonical HTML: https://robert-burns.com/letters/288-to-riddel/