Rabbie Burns - Pt 1 Growing up in Ayrshire
I thought it would be appropriate to follow up my previous posts about the islands of Bute and Arran in the Firth of Clyde with a nod to Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, who was born and raised in and around Alloway, Ayrshire (see featured pic) – but after a while I realised that he deserved a bit more than a nod, and so I’ve decided to split the story up, starting with how his upbringing made him who he was.
Today, the former historic county of Ayrshire covers three administrative areas – North, East and South Ayrshire, but for the purposes of this article I’m referring to Ayrshire as the historic county. Although it forms part of the Southern Uplands, Ayrshire is relatively flat and one of the most agriculturally fertile regions of Scotland, and it was as a farmer’s son that Robert grew up.
I’ve often wondered why he is regarded as the country’s national poet, especially as being a sassenach, I could hardly understand a word he wrote – but therein lies part of the answer. After the union of the crowns of England and Scotland, the Scots started to lose their identity, as the English way of doing things began to take over the traditional Scottish way of life. Politics, culture, religion, and even language was becoming ever more anglicized, and not all Scots were in favour of the changes – as the 18th century Jacobite rebellions showed. The 18th century was also a time when the country was transitioning from a simple agricultural world to an industrial one – and this was the world into which Robert Burns was born.
Robert was the first child of William and Agnes Burn(e)s, both of whom came from a long line of farming stock. William was a self-taught poor man’s son who worked on an estate near Alloway as a landscape gardener. While his father was still alive William remained single and looked after him financially until the time came when he could plough his own furrow in life, and with some money he had managed to squirrel away, he bought a plot of land at Alloway which he called ‘New Gardens’.
Robert’s mother Agnes, was an Ayrshire lass who had been sent to live with her maternal grandmother at the age of twelve after the death of her own mother. She met William at a local fair and within a year they were married and living together under the roof of a cottage that William built on his plot of land at Alloway.
To make ends meet, Robert continued to work on neighbouring estates while Agnes took over the running of New Gardens, which by turning most of the land into dairy pasture, created a smallholding where she could supplement growing staple food such as potatoes, leeks and carrots, with milk, butter and cheese which could be sold at the local market.
This was the way of life for many country folk when Robert came into the world on 25th January 1759. He was born in a box bed in the cottage which consisted of two rooms divided by a bed and partition, with the animals living next door.
By the time he was six Robert had a brother (Gilbert) and two sisters (Agnes and Anabella), which wouldn’t have made life any easier for his strict, but loving parents. Their father in particular was keen to see that his offspring were brought up in a proper manner, and instilled in them the virtues of being able to read and write, and he would regularly read them passages from the Bible in The Spence, which was the more formal of the two rooms (and what most people would think of as the parlour).
The main room in the cottage was the kitchen where the children’s box beds were located, and also where the family sat around the peat fire on an evening, eating, drinking, singing and telling stories.
One of the storytellers was Betty Davidson, a cousin of Robert’s mother, who paid for her lodging by helping in the dairy and around the house. Robert, especially, was captivated by her tales and songs of devils, ghosts and witches, but with the cottage becoming more and more cramped for space, William made the decision to move out and took on the tenancy at Mount Oliphant Farm, a couple of miles away.
It would have seemed a sensible thing to do at the time, but for the eleven years the family was here it was a life of poverty and hardship, especially after the death of the farm’s “generous” master. From around 1750 an agricultural revolution had been taking place; it wasn’t the first, and neither would it be the last, but smaller farms like Mount Oliphant were being bought up and incorporated into larger, more profitable farms by less compassionate owners. Not only that, the soil was poor, and there were another three hungry mouths to feed by now as well.
All this took its toll on William’s health, and by the time Robert had reached the age of fifteen he was the farm’s main labourer. Formal education for Robert therefore became irregular, but his father would always be there to plug the gaps in his education where he could. Being a teenager, Robbie wasn’t just interested in reading the ‘Farming Weekly’, but also teenage girls, and when Nelly Kilpatrick was brought in to help gather in the harvest, he tried worming his way into her affections by writing his first poem – ‘O Once I Lov’d a Bonnie Lass’. I think it’s fair to say though, that he was probably more enthusiastic about it than Nelly was.
Meanwhile, life on the farm wasn’t getting any easier, and in 1777 William and Agnes gathered up their own harvest of seven children and moved out of Mount Oliphant to another farm at Lochlea near Tarbolton. They stayed here until 1784, by which time Robert was beginning to spread his wings, and William was losing the strength to carry on. He died on 13th February and was buried in the churchyard at the Auld Kirk in Alloway.
In part 2 I’ll be describing how Robert had a way with words that attracted the Alloway lasses, but probably wished at times that he hadn’t.
POSTED – JULY 2023
Originally posted 2023-07-26 13:51:46.
Hi Malc, just come back from a fortnight’s holiday in Northumberland and trying to catch up on blogs. Of course, Rabbie Burns, is a household name, especially with his annual ‘Burns Night’ being widely celebrated in Scotland and beyond, but I have to admit I knew very little of his story.I always find that visiting the home of a famous historical or literary figure and standing where they stood takes us much closer to the person and gives us a sense of their time and how they lived, so no wonder you felt you needed to cover his life in more detail. So he started from humble beginnings, and it seems his father did him a big favour putting so much effort into his upbringing and education. Couple that with a fertile imagination captured in fantastical stories and you have the basis for a future poet of note. I love the story of his first attempt at winning the heart of a lass. Still, I suppose you’ve got to start somewhere, but I’m off to read more about his progress now! 🙂
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday up there in beautiful Northumberland and that the weather wasn’t too unkind. No doubt we’ll be getting some posts about it – at least I hope so.
As regards Rabbie Burns, you’re so right about having a closer connection with a person or an event when you’ve been to the location, providing of course it’s at a civilized time, and you know by now that I always do my level best to make it so.
When I started this post I never expected to get so engrossed, but I have, and that says a lot. I’ll try not to bore people to death about something that, like you, I’ve started to understand for the first time, but maybe, like Rabbie, I’ve got a fertile imagination as well, although his fertility went way beyond that.
Thanks, Malc. Northumberland was as beautiful, peaceful and wonderful as ever, even with a mixed bag of weather. 🙂
I know exactly what you mean about becoming engrossed in a historical person or subject as you learn more, it happened to me a lot during my degree. History can be a fantastic voyage of discovery, and I’m really enjoying reading about the Scottish Bard and his colourful life! 🙂
I’m glad you had a good time up north. It would be difficult not to wouldn’t it? As for Rabbie, he’s certainly captured my imagination more than I thought he would, especially as he wrote in the vernacular a lot of the time, but once I understood what he was on about I started to see why he became so popular north of the border 😊
You must have studied his vernacular in some detail to understand what he’s saying, but to those of us not so well acquainted with his tongue, what is crystal clear is the very high esteem in which the Scots hold him and his remarkable works. If only we had a bard we could be that proud of in England… 😉
I’m not too bad at understanding people who talk a load of gibberish, but in the next instalment you’ll begin to see why his compatriots thought so highly of him. As regards an English bard, have you ever heard of John Cooper Clarke – the Bard of Salford?
Indeed I do know John Cooper Clarke. I love his work. A true modern day bard! 🙂
Great read, Malcolm! When we visited Scotland many years ago, I don’t remember visiting the Burns Cottage, but I can see from your wonderful photos and information that I would have like to do so! As told by you, I find Mr. Burn’s life and that of his parents interesting so I look forward to your next post about him. By the way, I, too, had never heard the work ‘sassenach’, but I clearly recall a Scottish guide speak (jokingly) about the wicked English!!
Nicely done, as always, Malcolm!!
Great to hear from you Syl, and thanks for your lovely comments. The next chapter won’t be long in coming, so I hope you’ll take a look.
In a world where everyone seems to be queuing up to be offended, most of us English look on the term ‘sassenach’ as just a bit of banter, although I’m sure some Scots will say it through clenched teeth 🙂
There’s only two of Robert Burns’ works which I’m familiar with – Auld Lang Syne, which as a song I absolutely detest, and To A Mouse, for obvious reasons, however your informative style of writing and the accompanying photos make this an interesting read so I’m looking forward to the next part 🙂
Thanks Eunice. It’s rewarding for me when somebody reads something that they wouldn’t have thought twice about and found it interesting 🙂
Again I have learned a new word from your post: sassenach. Since I am not English, I don’t think I would qualify as a sassenach, even though I probably would understand even less than you do.
You don’t want to be called a sassenach Don 🙂
|I can’t wait. The lassies certainly loved him. Incredibly detailed and insightful
I’m sure you’ll be able to correct me if I don’t get it quite right. He had a complicated love life didn’t he?
He did indeed. I think I have a blog on him somewhere. Like that he had plenty ladies. I think by the standards of the time he was good looking and also very attentive and nice to the ladies. But truly I’ve not been to this neck of the woods at all, so it was great to have all the detail on the cottage and life there. .
I found it interesting to learn about his life, so I hope you do too. Pt 2 won’t be long in coming but I’m not quite sure how to deal with the rest of it yet.
Well, I will look forward to it. We are away to Arisiagn and Eigg, walking next few days. BUT there’s plenty other posts here for me to read when i come back.
Lucky you. Enjoy your trip and hope the weather’s kind
Weather was okay except for the storm that got up as left Eigg.
I’m sure you enjoyed it all the same > Never been to Eigg.
Well the Mr has never been good in boats and we really should avhe taken the ferry from Mallaig but the car journey to Arisaig was horrendous–the A9 is a disgra\ce and soto call the road you cut across to Fort William from it, an A road is joke of the first order. So we were done driving and the little boat sailed from across the raod from the hotel. Let’s just say that as we neared Eigg and someone shouted ‘ Dolphins!’ and every one leapt from one side of the boat to the other where the Mr just happened to be sitting not very well, to see them. He was lucky not to be knocked overboard and they were lucky not to be barfed on. That was when I I knew our chances of doing An Sgurr were off the table. That was going. Coming back a terrible storm had gotten up, the boat was late. At least ‘I won’t be dolphin mobbed,’ the hubby confidently said as he gingerly took his seat on the other side from the sightings. And he wasn’t. Instead he was seal mobbed, or should I say, ‘Rock that looked like a seal’ mobbed, as he sat with his head in sick bag, hoping as we all had that every time the boat listed it would right itself. Of cosrue by this point we were back near Arisaig as opposed to open sea.
It sounds like you went via Pitlochry and Spean Bridge then. It’s a shame that you weren’t able to climb up An Sgurr, especially if that was your goal, but at least you won’t forget the boat ride 🙂 At least you’re back home now preparing for the next adventure no doubt – or perhaps not 🙂
Yeah, we are off to Glencoe in two weeks. I better get planning….
That’s a great article, dear Malc.
I found myself strolling with you in that delightful place and that pretty cottage🙏💙🙏
Thanks Luisa. I thought I wouldn’t hear from you over the summer – but I’m pleased that I have 💙
I’m spending less time on WordPress, dearest Malc, but I pop in as soon as I can🤗
It’s understandable Luisa. It’s all too easy to get caught up in following your followers at the expense of doing what you want to do with your own posts. For a long time you posted every day. I couldn’t possibly manage that.
Dearest Malc, I did it during and after the pandemic period, and the blog was my only door open to others. Now I’m starting to go out that door again and I’m sorry, but I have to dedicate less time to my followers (time which, as you say, must be subtracted from the pleasure of writing new posts)🤗🤗🤗
I agree with you 100% Luisa, and like I’ve said to you before, there is absolutely no obligation whatsoever for you to check out any of my posts. Naturally, I do enjoy your comments, but I know we’re friends even if I don’t hear from you for a while 🤗
I confess that it is a pleasure to read your posts.
For the latest article, I only left a sign of my visit to you, because I’m going to read it more calmly in the near future to fully enjoy it😉
Great! Perfecto 🙂
😘😘😘
Splendid article Malc, and as Burns is one of my faves, I truly appreciated it. Both interesting and informative. All the best!
I thought you might appreciate Rabbie Burns Francesc and so I’m especially pleased that you’ve enjoyed it so far. Thank you my friend.
You’re very welcome Malc, always a delight and a pleasure.
Goodness, Malc, you too have a way with words that can rival Burns anytime! I love everything about your part 1 of Robert Burns biography, because as always, you don’t miss any detail; we can even see the back of the cottage, and the rooms are shown from every angle. The rug in front of the fire/cooking place, is made of scraps of old cloth, just like they were made in Poland long time ago. It made me feel nostalgic and sad to see the tombstones in the church yard as I would love to have one but now everyone, apart from very important people, is send to a crematorium.
I have some Burns poems, one about a red rose. and the one that was adopted by Steinbeck for his masterpiece
” Of Men and Mice”. I also love the ornate frame of Burns painting and his portrait too.
Thank you, Malc, for your beautiful post, and the historical background that is always your forte!
Joanna
I’m so pleased that you got something from this post Joanna, because if anybody knows about literature you certainly do. I think I’ll have my work cut out writing about Rabbie Burns because I’m amongst some illustrious company on here where people like him are concerned, but I’ll do my best. By the way I took the picture of Nasmyth’s famous painting in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh if you’re interested. Thanks again for your wonderful kind words.
Thank you, Malc, everything your write or include in your posts is interesting because you have unique way of looking at the world. I am now waiting for the follow up!
Joanna
The next one shouldn’t be too long in coming – and thank you again. Followers like you are priceless.
Likewise, Malc!!
Joanna
A very interesting biography on Robert Burns in process. I love Burns poetry and have found that struggling with the vernacular has strengthened my ability to read other versions of vernacular English (both UK and American versions.)
I can understand that Pat. Some books are difficult to read unless you can master that.