LIFE

OF

ROBERT BURNS.

CHAPTER I.

CONTENTS.—The Poet's Birth, 1759—Circumstances and peculiar Character of his Father

and Mother-Hardships of his Early Years-Sources, such as they were, of his Mental

Improvement Commenceth Love and Poetry at 16.

"My father was a farmer upon the Carrick Border,

And soberly he brought me up in decency and order."

ROBERT BURNS was born on the 25th of January 1759, in a clay-built

cottage, about two miles to the south of the town of Ayr, and in the im-

mediate vicinity of the Kirk of Alloway, and the "Auld Brig o' Doon."

About a week afterwards, part of the frail dwelling, which his father had

constructed with his own hands, gave way at midnight; and the infant

poet and his mother were carried through the storm, to the shelter of a

neighbouring hovel. The father, William Burnes or Burness, (for so he

spelt his name), was the son of a farmer in Kincardineshire, whence he re-

moved at 19 years of age, in consequence of domestic embarrassments.

The farm on which the family lived, formed part of the estate forfeited,

in consequence of the rebellion of 1715, by the noble house of Keith

Marischall; and the poet took pleasure in saying, that his humble ances-

tors shared the principles and the fall of their chiefs. Indeed, after Wil-

liam Burnes settled in the west of Scotland, there prevailed a vague no-

tion that he himself had been out in the insurrection of 1745-6; but though

Robert would fain have interpreted his father's silence in favour of a tale

which flattered his imagination, his brother Gilbert always treated it as a

mere fiction, and such it was. Gilbert found among his father's papers a

certificate of the minister of his native parish, testifying that "the bearer,

William Burnes, had no hand in the late wicked rebellion." It is easy to

suppose that when any obscure northern stranger fixed himself in those

days in the Low Country, such rumours were likely enough to be circu-

lated concerning him,

William Burnes laboured for some years in the neighbourhood of Edin burgh as a gardener, and then found his way into Ayrshire. At the time when Robert was born, he was gardener and overseer to a gentleman of small estate, Mr. Ferguson of Doonholm; but resided on a few acres of land, which he had on lease from another proprietor, and where he had originally intended to establish himself as a nurseryman. He married Agnes Brown in December 1757, and the poet was their first-born. William Burnes seems to have been, in his humble station, a man eminently entitled to respect. He had received the ordinary learning of a Scottish parish school, and profited largely both by that and by his own experience in the world. "I have met with few," (said the poet, after he had himself seen a good deal of mankind), "who understood men, their manners, and their ways, equal to my father." He was a strictly religious man. There exists in his handwriting a little manual of theology, in the form of a dialogue, which he drew up for the use of his children, and from which it appears that he had adopted more of the Arminian than of the Calvinistic doctrine; a circumstance not to be wondered at, when we consider that he had been educated in a district which was never numbered , among the strongholds of the Presbyterian church. The affectionate reverence with which his children ever regarded him, is attested by all who have described him as he appeared in his domestic circle; but there needs no evidence beside that of the poet himself, who has painted, in colours that will never fade, "the saint, the father, and the husband," of The Cottar's Saturday Night.

Agnes Brown, the wife of this good man, is described as "a very sagacious woman, without any appearance of forwardness, or awkwardness of manner;" and it seems that, in features, and, as he grew up, in general address, the poet resembled her more than his father. She had an inexhaustible store of ballads and traditionary tales, and appears to have nourished his infant imagination by this means, while her husband paid more attention to "the weightier matters of the law." These worthy people laboured hard for the support of an increasing family. William was occupied with Mr. Ferguson's service, and Agnes contrived to manage a small dairy as well as her children. But though their honesty and diligence merited better things, their condition continued to be very uncomfortable; and our poet, (in his letter to Dr. Moore), accounts distinctly for his being born and bred "a very poor man's son," by the remark, that "stubborn ungainly integrity, and headlong ungovernable irascibility, are disqualifying circumstances."

These defects of temper did not, however, obscure the sterling worth of William Burnes in the eyes of Mr. Ferguson; who, when his gardener expressed a wish to try his for tuneon a farm of his, then vacant, and confessed at the same time his inability to meet the charges of stocking it, at once advanced £100 towards the removal of the difficulty. Burnes accordingly removed to this farm (that of Mount Oliphant, in the parish of Ayr) at Whitsuntide 1766, when his eldest son was between six and seven years of age. But the soil proved to be of the most ungrateful description; and Mr. Ferguson dying, and his affairs falling into the hands of a harsh factor, (who afterwards sat for his picture in the Twa Dogs), Burnes was glad to give up his bargain at the end of six years. He then removed about ten miles to a larger and better farm, that of Lochlea, in the parish of Tarbolton. But here, after a short interval of prosperity, some unfortunate misunderstanding took place as to the conditions of the lease; the

dispute was referred to arbitration; and, after three years of suspense, the result involved Burnes in ruin. The worthy man lived to know of this decision; but death saved him from witnessing its necessary consequences. He died of consumption on the 13th February 1784. Severe labour, and hopes only renewed to be baffled, had at last exhausted a robust but irritable structure and temperament of body and of mind.

In the midst of the harassing struggles which found this termination, William Burnes appears to have used his utmost exertions for promoting the mental improvement of his children—a duty rarely neglected by Scottish parents, however humble their station, and scanty their means may be. Robert was sent, in his sixth year, to a small school at Alloway Miln, about a mile from the house in which he was born; but Campbell, the teacher, being in the course of a few months removed to another situation, Burnes and four or five of his neighbours engaged Mr. John Murdoch to supply his place, lodging him by turns in their own houses, and ensuring to him a small payment of money quarterly. Robert Burns, and Gilbert his next brother, were the aptest and the favourite pupils of this worthy man, who survived till very lately, and who has, in a letter published at length by Currie, detailed, with honest pride, the part which he had in the early education of our poet. He became the frequent inmate and confidential friend of the family, and speaks with enthusiasm of the virtues of William Burnes, and of the peaceful and happy life of his humble abode.

"He was (says Murdoch) a tender and affectionate father; he took pleasure in leading his children in the path of virtue; not in driving them, as some parents do, to the performance of duties to which they themselves are averse. He took care to find fault but very seldom; and therefore, when he did rebuke, he was listened to with a kind of reverential awe. A look of disapprobation was felt; a reproof was severely so: and a stripe with the tawz, even on the skirt of the coat, gave heart-felt pain, produced a loud lamentation, and brought forth a flood of tears.

"He had the art of gaining the esteem and good-will of those that were labourers under him. I think I never saw him angry but twice: the one time it was with the foreman of the band, for not reaping the field as he was desired; and the other time, it was with an old man, for using smutty inuendos and double entendres."- "In this mean cottage, of which I myself was at times an inhabitant, I really believe there dwelt a larger portion of content than in any palace in Europe. The Cottar's Saturday Night will give some idea of the temper and manners that prevailed there."

The boys, under the joint tuition of Murdoch and their father, made rapid progress in reading, spelling, and writing; they committed psalms and hymns to memory with extraordinary ease the teacher taking care (as he tells us) that they should understand the exact meaning of each word in the sentence ere they tried to get it by heart. "As soon," says he," as they were capable of it, I taught them to turn verse into its natural prose order; sometimes to substitute synonymous expressions for poetical words; and to supply all the ellipses. Robert and Gilbert were generally at the upper end of the class, even when ranged with boys by far their seniors, The books most commonly used in the school were the Spelling Book. the New Testament, the Bible, Mason's Collection of Prose and Verse, and Fisher's English Grammar."—" Gilbert always appeard to me to possess a more lively imagination, and to be more of the wit, than Robert. I at