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THE HOUSE IN WHICH ROBERT BURNS WAS BORN.

THIS cottage is situated at a short distance from Ayr, near to Kirk Alloway, and has nothing remarkable to recommend it, unless considered of consequence, on account of its being the birthplace of such an eminent poet.

The house was built by William Burness, the father of Robert, shortly after whose birth, one end of it fell down, which occasioned an alarm, easier conceived than described. This house consisted of a kitchen at one extremity, and at the other was a room, dignified with the luxury of a fire-place and chimney; things not usual, at that time, in the cottages of the peasantry of Scotland. William Burness also constructed, in the kitchen, a concealed bed, with a small closet at the end, of the same materials with the house, and being altogether cast over both outside and inside with mortar, it had a neat and comfortable appearance.

The person who occupies it at present has turned it into a snug public house; at this house, yearly, on the birth-day of Burns, a social party meet, and celebrate it with festivity and rejoicing; scarcely a traveller passes, who does not there

pay a tribute to the memory of the poet; and the possessor has contrived that none shall pass without knowing who once inhabited it, by placing the following inscription near the door:

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