only man I ever saw who was a greater fool 1/
than myself, where woman was the presiding
star; but he spoke of illicit love with the levity
of a sailor, which hitherto I had regarded with
horror. Here his friendship did me a mischief;
and the consequence was, that soon after I
resumed the plough, I wrote the Poet's Wel-
come** My reading only increased, while in
this town, by two stray volumes of Pamela, and
one of Ferdinand Count Fathom, which gave me
some idea of novels. Rhyme, except some re-
ligious pieces that are in print, I had given up ;
but meeting with Fergusson's Scottish Poems,
I strung anew my wildly-sounding lyre with
emulating vigour. When my father died, his
all went among the hell-hounds that prowl in
E 2 the
* Rob the Rhymer's Welcome to his Bastard Child.
32 THE LIFE OF
the kennel of justice; but we made a shift to
collect a little money in the family amongst us,
with which, to keep us together, my brother
and I took a neighbouring farm. My brother
wanted my hair-brained imagination, as well as
my social and amorous madness : but, in good
sense, and every sober qualification, he was far
my superior.
" I entered on this farm with a full resolu-
tion, Come, go to, I will be wise ! I read farm-
ing books ; I calculated crops ; I attended mar-
kets; and, in short, inspite of the devil, and
the world, and the Jlesh, I believe I should have
been a wise man ; but the first year, from unfor-
tunately buying bad seed, the second, from a
late harvest, we lost half our crops. This over-
set all my wisdom, and I returned, like the dog
to his vomit, and the sozv that was washed, to her
wallowing in the mire.*
" I now began to be known in the neigh-
bourhood as a maker of rhymes. The first of
my poetic offspring that saw the light, was a
burlesque lamentation on a quarrel between two
reverend Calvinists, both of them dramatis per-
sona in my Holy Fair. I had a notion myself,
that the piece had some merit ; but to prevent
the
* See Jppendix, No. II. Note B.
ROBERT BURNS. 53
the worst, I gave a copy of it to a friend who
was very fond of such things, and told him that
I could not guess who was the author of it, but
that I thought it pretty clever. With a cer-
tain description of the clergy, as well as laity,
it met with a roar of applause. Holy Willie 's
Prayer next made its appearance, and alarmed
the kirk-session so much, that they held seve-
ral meetings to look over their spiritual artil-
lery, if haply any of it might be pointed against
profane rhymers. Unluckily for me, my wan-
derings led me on another side, within point-
blank shot of their heaviest metal. This is the
unfortunate story that gave rise to my printed
poem, The Lament. This was a most melan-
choly affair, which I cannot yet bear to reflect
on, and had very nearly given me one or two of
the principal qualifications for a place among
those who have lost the chart, and mistaken the
reckoning of Rationality.* I gave up my part
of the farm to my brother ; in truth it was only
nominally mine; and made what little prepara-
tion was in my power for Jamaica. But, be-
fore leaving my native country for ever, I re-
solved to publish my poems. I weighed my
productions as impartially as was in my power :
I thought they had merit; and it was a deli-
cious idea that I should be called a clever fellow,
even
* An explanation of this will be found hereafter.
54 THE LIFE OF
even though it should never reach my ears
a poor negro-driver, or perhaps a victim to
that inhospitable clime, and gone to the world
of spirits ! I can truly say, that pauvre inconnu
as I then was, I had pretty nearly as high an
idea of myself and of my works as I have at this
moment, when the public has decided in their
favour. It ever was my opinion, that the mis-
takes and blunders, both in a rational and reli-
gious point of view, of which we see thousands
daily guilty, are owing to their ignorance of
themselves. To know myself, had been all
"along my constant study. I weighed myself
alone; I balanced myself with others; I watched
every means of information, to see how much
ground I occupied as a man and as a poet : I
studied assiduously Nature's design in my forma-
tion where the lights and shades in my cha-
racter were intended. I was pretty confident
my poems would meet with some applause : but,
at the worsts the roar of the Atlantic would
deafen the voice of censure, and the novelty of
West-Indian scenes make me forget neglect.
I threw off six hundred copies, of which I had
got subscriptions for about three hundred and
fifty. My vanity was highly gratified by the
reception I met with from the public ; and be-
sides I pocketed, all expenses deducted, nearly
twenty pounds. This sum came very season-
ably, as I was thinking of indenting myself, for
want
ROBERT BURNS. 55
want of money to procure my passage. As soon
as I was master of nine guineas, the price of
wafting me to the torrid zone, I took a steerage-
passage in the first ship that was to sail from the
Clyde ; for
" Hungry ruin had me in the wind/ 7
" I had been for some days sculking from
covert to covert, under all the terrors of a jail;
as some ill-advised people had uncoupled the
merciless pack of the law at my heels. I had
taken the last farewell of my few friends ; my
chest was on the road to Greenock ; I had com-
posed the last song I should ever measure in
Caledonia. The gloomy night is gathering fast,*
when a letter from Dr. Blacklock, to a friend of
mine, overthrew all my schemes, by opening
new prospects to my poetic ambition. f The
doctor belonged to a set of critics, for whose
applause I had not dared to hope. His opinion
that I would meet with encouragement in Edin-
burgh for a second edition, fired me so much,
that away I posted for that city, without a
single acquaintance, or a single letter of intro-
duction. The baneful star that had so long
shed its blasting influence in my zenith for
once made a revolution to the nadir; and a
kind
* See vol. iii. p. 287. t See vol ii. p. 29.
56 THE LIFE OF
kind Providence placed me under the patronage
of one of the noblest of men, the Earl of Glen-
cairn. Oublie moiy Grand Dieu, si jamais je
Uoublie !
" I need relate no farther. At Edinburgh I
was in a new world ; I mingled among many
classes of men, but all of them new to me, and
I was all attention to catch the characters and
the manners living as they rise. Whether I have
profited, time will shew.
********
* c My most respectful compliments to Miss
W. Her very elegant and friendly letter I
cannot answer at present, as my presence is
requisite in Edinburgh, and I set out to-mor-
row."*
At the period of our poet's death, his bro-
ther, Gilbert Burns, was ignorant that he had
himself
* There are various copies of this letter, in the
author's hand -writing ; and one of these, evidently cor-
rected, is in the book in which he had copied several
of his letters. This has been used for the press, with
some omissions, and one slight alteration suggested by
Gilbert Burns.
ROBERT BURNS. 5?
himself written the foregoing narrative of his
life while in Ayrshire ; and having been applied
to by Mrs. Dunlop for some memoirs of his
brother, he complied with her request in a letter,
from which the following narrative is chiefly ex-
tracted. When Gilbert Burns afterwards saw
the letter of our poet to Dr. Moore, he made
some annotations upon it, which shall be noticed
as we proceed.
Robert Burns was born on the 25th day of
January, 1759, in a small house about two miles
from the town of Ayr, and within a few hun-
dred yards of Alloway Church, which his poem
of Tarn o' Shanter has rendered immortal.* The
name, which the poet and his brother modern-
ized into Burns, was originally Burnes or Burn-
ess. Their father, William Burnes, was the son
of a farmer in Kincardineshire, and had received
the education common in Scotland to persons in
his condition of life ; he could read and write,
and had some knowledge of arithmetic. His
family
* This house is on the right-hand side of the road
from Ayr to Maybole, which forms a part of the road
from Glasgow to Port-Patrick. When the poet's father
afterwards removed to Tarbolton parish, he sold his
leasehold right in this house, and a few acres of land
adjoining, to the corporation of shoemakers in Ayr. It
is now a country ale-house.
58 THE LIFE OF
family having fallen into reduced circumstances,
he was compelled to leave his home in his nine-
teenth year, and turned his steps towards the
south in quest of a livelihood. The same ne-
cessity attended his elder brother Robert. " I
have often heard my father," says Gilbert Burns,
in his letter to Mrs. Dunlop, " describe the an-
guish of mind he felt when they parted on the
top of a bill on the confines of their native
place, each going off his several way in search
of new adventures, and scarcely knowing whi-
ther he went. My father undertook to act as
a gardener, and shaped his course to Edinburgh,
where he wrought hard when he could get work,
passing through a variety of difficulties. Still,
however, he endeavoured to spare something for
the support of his aged parent; and I recollect
hearing him mention his having sent a bank-
note for this purpose, when money of that kind
was so scarce in Kincardineshire, that they scarce-
ly knew how to employ it when it arrived." From
Edinburgh, William Burnes passed westward into
the county of Ayr, where he engaged himself
as a gardener to the laird of Fairly, with whom
he lived two years -, then changing his service
for that of Crawford of Doonside. At length,
being desirous of settling in life, he took a per-
petual lease of seven acres of land from Dr.
Campbell, physician in Ayr, with the view of
commencing nurseryman and public gardener ;
and,
ROBERT BURNS. 59
and, having built a house upon it with his own
hands, married in December 1757, Agnes Brown,
the mother of our poet, who still survives. The
first fruit of this marriage was Robert, the sub-
ject of these memoirs, born on the 25th of Ja-
nuary, 1759, as has already been mentioned.
Before William Burnes had made much progress
in preparing his nursery, he was withdrawn from
that undertaking by Mr. Ferguson, who pur-
chased the estate of Doonholm, in the imme-
diate neighbourhood, and engaged him as his
gardener and overseer ; and this was his situa-
tion when our poet was born. Though in the
service of Mr. Ferguson, he lived in his own
house, his wife managing her family and her
kittle dairy, which consisted sometimes of two,
sometimes of three milch cows ; and this state
of unambitious content continued till the year
1766. His son Robert was sent by him in his
sixth year to a school at Alloway Miln, about a
mile distant, taught by a person of the name of
Campbell ; but this teacher being in a few months
appointed master of the workhouse at Ayr, Wil-
liam Burnes, in conjunction with some other
heads of families, engaged John Murdoch in
his stead. The education of our poet, and of
his brother Gilbert, was in common; and of their
proficiency under Mr. Murdoch we have the
following account : " With him we learnt to
read
60 THE LIFE OF
read English tolerably well,* and to write a
little. He taught us, too, the English grammar.
I was too young to profit much from his lessons
in grammar ; but Robert made some proficiency
in it a circumstance of considerable weight in
the unfolding of his genius and character; as
he soon became remarkable for the fluency and
correctness of his expression, and read the few
books that came in his way with much pleasure
and improvement ; for even then he was a reader
when he could get a book. Murdoch, whose
library at that time had no great variety in it,
lent him The Life of Hannibal, which was the
first book he read (the school-books excepted),
and almost the only one he had an opportunity
of reading while he was at school ; for The Life
of Wallace, which he classes with it in one of his
letters to you, he did not see for some years
afterwards, when he borrowed it from the black-
smith who shod our horses.
It appears that William Burnes approved
himself greatly in the service of Mr. Ferguson,
by his intelligence, industry, and integrity. In
consequence of this, with a view of promoting
his interest, Mr. Ferguson leased him a farm, of
which we have the following account :
" The
* Letter from Gilbert Burns to Mrs. Dunlop.
ROBERT BURNS. 61
'" The farm was upwards of seventy acres*
(between eighty and ninety, English statute mea-
sure), the rent of which was to be forty pounds
annually for the first six years, and afterwards
forty-five pounds. My father endeavoured to sell
his leasehold property, for the purpose of stock-
ing this farm, but at that time was unable, and
Mr.Ferguson lent him a hundred pounds for that
purpose. He removed to his new situation at
Whitsuntide, 1766. It was, I think, not above
two years after this, that Murdoch, our tutor
and friend, left this part of the country ; and
there being no school near us, and our little ser-
vices being useful on the farm, my father un-
dertook to teach us arithmetic in the winter
evenings, by candle-light ; and in this way my
two eldest sisters got all the education they re-
ceived. I remember a circumstance that hap-
pened at this time, which, though trifling in it-
self, is fresh in my memory, and may serve to
illustrate the early character of my brother.
Murdoch came to spend a night with us, and to
take his leave when he was about to go into
Carrick. He brought us, as a present and me-
morial of him, a small compendium of English
Grammar, and the tragedy of Titus Andronicus;
and by way of passing the evening, he began to
read
* Letter of Gilbert Burns to Mrs. Duirfop. The name
of this farm is Mount Oliphant, in Ayr parish.
62 THE LIFE OF
read the play aloud. "We were all attention for
some time, till presently the whole party was
dissolved in tears. A female in the play (I have
but a confused remembrance of it) had her hands
chopt off, and her tongue cut out, and then was
insultingly desired to call for water to wash her
hands. At this, in an agony of distress, we with
one voice desired he would read no more. Mv
father observed, that if we would not hear it
out, it would be needless to leave the play with
us. Robert replied, that if it was left he would
burn it. My father was going to chide him for
this ungrateful return to his tutor's kindness ;
but Murdoch interfered, declaring that he liked
to see so much sensibility ; and he left The School
for Love, a comedy, (translated I think from the
French,) in its place."*
" Nothing," continues Gilbert Burns, " could
be more retired than our general manner of living
at Mount Oliphant j we rarely saw any body
but the members of our own family. There were
no
* It is to be remembered that the poet was only nine
years of age, and the relater of this incident under eight,
at the time it happened. The effect was very natural in
children of sensibility at their age. At a more mature
period of the judgment, such absurd representations
are calculated rather to produce disgust or laughter,
than
ROBERT BURNS. 63
no boys of our own age, or near it, in the neigh-
bourhood. Indeed the greatest part of the land
in the vicinity was at that time possessed by
shopkeepers, and people of that stamp, who had
retired from business, or who kept their farm in
the country, at the same time that they followed
business in town. My father was for some time
almost the only companion we had. He con-
versed familiarly on all subjects with us, as if we
had been men ; and was at great pains, while we
accompanied him in the labours of the farm, to
lead the conversation to such subjects as might
tend to increase our knowledge, or confirm us
in virtuous habits. He borrowed Salmon's Geo-
graphical Grammar for us, and endeavoured to
make
than tears. The scene to which Gilbert Burns alludes,
opens thus :
Titus Andronicus, Act II. Scene 5.
Enter Demetrius and Chiron, with Lavinia ravished, her
hands cut of, and her tongue cut out.
Why is this silly play still printed as Shakespear's
against the opinion of all the best critics ? The bard of
Avon was guilty of many extravagancies, but he always
performed what he intended to perform. That he ever
excited in a British mind (for the French critics must be
set aside) disgust or ridicule, where he meant to have
awakened pity or horror, is what will not be imputed to
that master of the passions, E.
6"4 THE LIFE OF
make us acquainted with the situation and history
of the different countries in the world j while,
from a book-society in Ayr, he procured for us
the reading of Derham's Physico and Astro-
Theology, and Ray's Wisdom of God in the Crea-
tion, to give us some idea of astronomy and
natural history. Robert read all these books
with an avidity and industry scarcely to be
equalled. My father had been a subscriber to
Stackhouse's History of the Bible, then lately
published by James Meuros in Kilmarnock :
from this Robert collected a competent know-
ledge of ancient history; for no book was so
voluminous as to slacken his industry, or so an-
tiquated as to damp his researches. A brother
of my mother, who had lived with us some time,
and had learnt some arithmetic by our winter
evening's candle, went into a bookseller's shop
in Ayr, to purchase The Ready Reckoner, or
Tradesman *s sure Guide, and a book to teach
him to write letters. Luckily, in place of The
Complete Letter- Writer, he got by mistake a
small collection of letters by the most eminent
writers, with a few sensible directions for attain-
ing an easy epistolary style. This book was to
Robert of the greatest consequence. It inspired
him with a strong desire to excel in letter-
writing, while it furnished him with models by
some of the first writers in our language.
" My
ROBERT BURNS. 65
*' My brother was about thirteen or fourteen,
when my father, regretting that we wrote so ill,
sent us, week about, during a summer quarter,
to the parish school of Dalrymple, which,
though between two and three miles distant,
was the nearest to us, that we might have an
opportunity of remedying this defect. About
this time a bookish acquaintance of my father's
procured us a reading of two volumes of Ri-
chardson's Pamela, which was the first novel
we read, and the only part of Richardson's works
my brother was acquainted with till towards the
period of his commencing author. Till that time
too he remained Unacquainted with Fielding,
with Smollet, (two volumes of Ferdinand Count
Fathom, and two volumes of Peregrine Pickle
excepted,) with Hume, with Robertson, and
almost all our authors of eminence of the later
times. I recollect indeed my father borrowed a
volume of English history from Mr. Hamilton
of Bourtree-hill's gardener. It treated of the
reign of James the First, and his unfortunate son,
Charles, but I do not know who was the author ;
all that I remember of it is something of Charles's
conversation with his children. About this time
Murdoch, our former teacher, after having been
in different places in the country, and having
taught a school some time in Dumfries, came to
be the established teacher of the English lan-
guage in Ayr, a circumstance of considerable
VOL. I. F consequence
66 THE LIFE OF
consequence to us. The remembrance of my
father's former friendship, and his attachment
to my brother, made him do every thing in his
power for our improvement. He sent us Pope's
works, and some other poetry, the first that we
had an opportunity of reading, excepting what
is contained in The English Collection, and in the
volume of The Edinburgh Magazine for 1772 ;
excepting also those excellent nezv songs that are
hawked about the country in baskets, or exposed
on stalls in the streets.
" The summer after we had been at Dal-
rymple school, my father sent Robert to Ayr, to
revise his English grammar, with his former
teacher. He had been there only one week,
when he was obliged to return, to assist at the
harvest. When the harvest was over, he went
back to school, where he remained two weeks ;
and this completes the account of his school
education, excepting one summer quarter, some
time afterwards, that he attended the parish
school of Kirk-Oswald, (where he lived with a
brother of my mother's) to learn surveying.
" During the two last weeks that he was with
Murdoch, he himself was engaged in learning
French, and he communicated the instructions
he received to my brother, who, when he return-
ed, brought home with him a French dictionary
and
ROBERT BURNS. 67
and grammar, and the Adventures of Telemachus
in the original. In a little while, by the assist-
ance of these books, he had acquired such a
knowledge of the language, as to read and un-
derstand any French author in prose. This was
considered as a sort of prodigy, and, through
the medium of Murdoch, procured him the ac-
quaintance of several lads in Ayr, who were at
that time gabbling French, and the notice of
some families, particularly that of Dr. Malcolm,
where a knowledge of French was a recommend-
ation.
" Observing the facility with which he had
acquired the French language, Mr. Robinson,
the established writing-master in Ayr, and Mr.
Murdoch's particular friend, having himself ac-
quired a considerable knowledge of the Latin
language by his own industry, without ever hav-
ing learnt it at school, advised Robert to make
the same attempt, promising him every assist-
ance in his power. Agreeably to this advice, he
purchased The Rudiments of the Latin Tongue,
but finding this study dry and uninteresting, it
was quickly laid aside. He frequently returned
to his Rudiments on any little chagrin or disap-
pointment, particularly in his love affairs ; but
the Latin seldom predominated more than a day
or two at a time, or a week at most. Observing
himself the ridicule that would attach to this
F 2 sort
68 THE LIFE OF
sort of conduct if it were known, he made two
or three humorous stanzas on the subject, which
I cannot now recollect, but they all ended,
* Sa I'll to my Latin again.'
" Thus you see Mr. Murdoch was a principal
means of my brother's improvement. Worthy
man ! though foreign to my present purpose, I
cannot take leave of him without tracing his fu-
ture history. He continued for some years a
respected and useful teacher at Ayr, till one
evening that he had been overtaken in liquor,
he happened to speak somewhat disrespectfully
of Dr. Dalrymple, the parish minister, who had
not paid him that attention to which he thought
himself entitled. In Ayr he might as well have
spoken blasphemy. He found it proper to give
up his appointment. He went to London, where
he still lives, a private teacher of French. He
has been a considerable time married, and keeps
a shop of stationery wares.
" The father of Dr. Paterson, now physician
at Ayr, was, I believe, a native of Aberdeen-
shire, and was one of the established teachers in
Ayr when my father settled in the neighbour-
hood. He early recognised my father as a fel-
low native of the north of Scotland, and a cer-
tain degree of intimacy subsisted between them
during Mr. Paterson's life. After his death,
his
ROBERT BURNS. 69
his widow, who is a very genteel woman, and of
great worth, delighted in doing what she thought
her husband would have wished to have done,
and assiduously kept up her attentions to all his
acquaintance. She kept alive the intimacy with
our family, by frequently inviting my father and
mother to her house on Sundays, when she -net
them at church.
" When she came to know my brother's pas-
sion for books, she kindly offered us the use of
her husband's library, and from her we got the
Spectator, Pope's Translation of Homer, and seve-
ral other books that were of use to us. Mount
Oliphant, the farm my father possessed in the
parish of Ayr, is almost the very poorest soil I
know of in a state of cultivation. A stronger
proof of this I cannot give, than that, notwith-
standing the extraordinary rise in the value of
lands in Scotland, it was, after a considerable
sum laid out in improving it by the proprietor,
let a few years ago five pounds per annum
lower than the rent paid for it by my father
thirty years ago. My father, in consequence of
this, soon came into difficulties, which were in-
creased by the loss of several of his cattle by ac-
cidents and disease. To the bufferings of mis-
fortune, we could only oppose hard labour and