The blood of McGonagall is up. He says he has been basely treated. The spring suit, for which he composed a beautiful poem, has arrived in town after a long delay, but, instead of being sent to his poetic retreat at Step Row, it has been exposed to the gaze of his enemies in a shop window in the centre of the city before being handed over to him in public.
To a man of the retiring disposition and high-strung temperament of the poet this is too much. He has resolved to show his independence by refusing to wear the suit. He has written Mr J. Graham Henderson, Hawick, telling him that unless the tweeds are sent direct to him at Step Row or publicly presented to him at Hawick he will hold that the bargain has not been completed. Arguing the point was no use. The poet’s mind is made up.
Dundee Courier, 27th February 1893
