This manuscript, written in Burns’s own hand, is a satire on the appointment of the evangelical Reverend James Mackinlay to the Laigh Kirk, Kilmarnock, opposed by the moderate or common sense elements in the parish. Burns leaned more to the latter school of theology but did not spare either side in this dispute.
He wrote this poem in January 1786 as a satirical preview of the induction ceremony (which did not actually take place until April of that year).
Clandestine copies of the poem were circulated and no doubt helped to fan the flames of the controversy - the poem is full of references to local places and people.
It was omitted from the Kilmarnock edition of 1786 but included the following year in the first Edinburgh edition.
This manuscript version - purchased at auction in 1996 - appears to be the only one now in existence.