RRA

or

A PRIMER OF BURNS

CHAPTER I.

AYRSHIRE.

THE life of Robert Burns falls naturally into three periods. The first of these covers the years spent in his various Ayrshire homes, down to his twenty-eighth year; the second includes the two winters spent in Edinburgh, the most brilliant period of his career, so far as worldly success and reputation go; the third comprises the eight years in Nithsdale and Dumfries, in which he fell to some extent out of acquaintance with his older friends, and out of the notice of his country, only to become more famous in death.

The family of Burnes, or Burness, belonged to Kincardineshire, where the poet's ancestors have been diligently traced back for several generations. His grandfather was a Robert Burnes, tenant of the farm of Clochnahill in the parish of Dunottar, who was the father of a family of eight or nine, born between 1717 and 1732. The third of these, born in 1721, was William Burnes, father of the poet.*

* The eldest brother, James, settled in Montrose, and it was apparently his son who adopted the spelling Burness, which the poet at first used.

B

"My forefathers," says the poet, "rented land of the famous noble Keiths of Marshal, and had the honour to share their fate." Whether Robert Burnes's misfortunes were due to this cause or not, poverty compelled his sons William and Robert to leave their native district in 1748, to seek for a living elsewhere. After two years' stay in Edinburgh, the former found his way to Ayrshire, where he obtained employment as a gardener, and afterwards leased seven acres of ground in the parish of Alloway, about a mile and a half south from Ayr, as a market garden. Here he built a clay cottage of the ordinary but-and-ben construction, and here he lived until 1766, serving as gardener to Ferguson of Doonholm, then Provost of Ayr. In December 1757 he married Agnes Brown, daughter of a Carrick farmer, and the first child of the marriage was Robert, born on January Alloway. 25, 1759. His brother Gilbert was born on September 28, 1760, and another five, three daughters and two sons, completed the family.*

1759-1766.

The poet's mother is described as being possessed of a beautiful complexion, red hair, and dark eyes. She had an unbounded admiration for her husband, and "I can by no means wonder that she highly esteemed him," says John Murdoch; "for I myself have always considered William Burnes as by far the best of the

* The youngest was Isabella, afterwards Mrs. Begg, who was born in 1771. She survived till 1858, and was able to give much information regarding the poet. The chief original sources for an account of his early years are, (1) His autobiography, addressed in letter form to Dr. Moore, and written in the summer of 1787; (2) a letter from John Murdoch (Feb. 22, 1799), printed by Currie in 1800; (3) a letter from Gilbert Burns to Mrs. Dunlop, also given by Currie. Murdoch's letter only comes down to the removal from Mount Oliphant.