THE BURNS SCRAP BOOK. Biographical Sketch of Robert Burns. BY JOHN D. ROSS. ROBERT BURNS was born near Ayr, Scotland, Jan. 25th, 1759, in a small roadside cottage, which his father had built, with his own hands, of clay and straw; but so frail was this structure that, when the poet was only ten days old, a part of the gable gave way in a storm, and he had to be carried, with his mother, to the house of a neighbor, where they remained until their own house was repaired. This primitive dwelling still stands, situated two miles south of Ayr, and is visited each year by thousands of tourists, many of whom come from distant countries to pay their homage to the place where the wonderful ploughman bard first saw the light. His father was a man of humble, although not obscure origin, and was noted among his neighbors for his strict integrity and stern religious principles. His whole ambition was for the welfare of his children,-- to bring them up in the fear of the Lord, and to give them a better education than it had been his own lot to receive. The poet in after years drew a portrait of him in his Cotter's Saturday Night — a poem which will be read as long as the world lasts. His mother was a quiet and industrious woman. Like her husband, she was of a very religious nature, although she possessed none of the higher qualities of his mind. Her memory was stored with old songs, ballads and anecdotes, with which she used to amuse her children. These, and the still more curious stories of an old woman who resided in the family, had a wonderful effect on the youthful imagination of the poet. He himself tells us: "In my infant and boyish days I owed much to an old woman, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity and superstition. She had, I suppose, the largest collection in the country of tales and songs concerning devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, warlocks, spunkies, kelpies, elf-candles, dead-lights, wraiths, apparitions, cantrips, giants, enchanted towers, dragons, and other trumpery. This cultivated the latent seeds of poetry, but had so strong an effect on my imagination that, to this hour, in my nocturnal rambles, I sometimes keep a sharp lookout in suspicious places; and though nobody can be more skeptical than I am in such matters, yet it often takes an effort of philosophy to shake off these idle terrors." At the time of the poet's birth his father acted as gardener to one of the neighboring gentry, and having a good deal of spare time to himself, he made use of it by renting some seven acres of land, which he cultivated as a nursery and vegetable garden, the products of which he sold in Ayr on the market days, thereby increasing his slender income by a few pounds each year. With reference to "In the month of May, Burns was sent to school in his fifth year, but so straitened were the means of the family that he could only afford time to acquire the meagrest rudiments of education. Even at that tender age he was frequently called upon to assist in some work in which his father was engaged. His education, however, was afterward completed by William Murdoch, a young man engaged by his father and a few of the neighbors to act as teacher, at a small salary, he boarding and lodging in their houses by turns. his pupils Murdoch tells us : 1765, I was engaged by Mr. Burns and four of his neighbors to teach the little school of Alloway. My pupil, Robert Burns, was between six and seven years of age. Robert and his brother Gilbert had been grounded a little in English before they were put under my care. They both made rapid progress in reading and tolerable progress in writing, and were generally at the head of their class, when ranged with boys far their seniors. Robert's countenance was generally grave, and expressive of a serious, contemplative and thoughtful mind. Gilbert's face said, 'Mirth, with thee I mean to live;' and certainly, if any person who knew the two boys had been asked which of them was the most likely to court the Muses, he would surely never have guessed Robert had a propensity of that kind." |