Tag Archives: Scottish Literature

Rabbie Burns – Pt 5 A Legend in his Own Lifetime

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Rabbie Burns - Pt 5 A Legend in his Own Lifetime

Having left his socially superior friends in Edinburgh behind, Rabbie had now retuned to country life back in his native south-west Scotland and settled down with Jean Armour and the family  for a peaceful life in the sticks – or at least that was what he was probably hoping for.

Success in this latest chapter of his life was mixed. On the one hand, his burgeoning reputation in literary circles showed no signs of abating after the publication of Tam o’ Shanter, but life on the farm wasn’t getting any easier, and then there was the added complication of leaving behind a human souvenir every time he bumped into one of the local lassies – the latest victim being Anna Park, a barmaid at the Globe Inn in Dumfries.

One of the reasons that he was frequently seen propping up the bar in the Globe was because he had taken a job as an exciseman in the town as a way to diminish his financial problems back on the farm, but spending the extra cash on a wee dram or two and encouraging the barmaid to provide another mouth to feed doesn’t seem to be the best way of using those extra resources I wouldn’t have thought.

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Originally posted 2023-08-18 14:52:49.

Rabbie Burns – Pt 4 Ellisland and Tam o’ Shanter

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Rabbie Burns - Pt 4 Ellisland and Tam o' Shanter

For the two years Rabbie lived in Edinburgh, he mixed with high society, but deep down, the ‘Ploughman Poet’ was still a country boy at heart with views that often differed from those of the establishment, and on 23rd February 1788 he moved out of the capital for good.

As we know, while he was there, he popped back to Ayrshire every so often, if only to keep the population figures up. Jean Armour had given birth to twins in September 1786, and now she was expecting another set, which her father, James, wasn’t exactly ecstatic about. At least the first time around he packed her off to a relative in Greenock out of the way, but this time he kicked her out altogether.

When Rabbie found her destitute he made sure that she had somewhere to stay, and on 3rd March she gave birth to two girls, neither of whom survived to the end of the month. As for the first set of twins, Jean died in infancy while Rabbie was in Edinburgh, and Robert Burns Junior went to live with the poet’s family at Mossgiel Farm.

So how did James Armour react when Rabbie re-appeared back on the scene? If you remember, he wanted him slung in jail the first time he messed around with Jean, and now he’s been at it again, but strangely enough, the poet’s new-found celebrity status seemed to have had a calming effect on him, and the next thing we know he’s giving his blessing for the couple to get married – and on 5th August 1788 they tied the knot in Mauchline – this time officially.

Burns had already decided to return to farming, and after consulting with a trusted friend, he took out a lease on the 170 acre Ellisland Farm, which was located on the banks of the River Nith, about 44 miles south-east of Mauchline and 7 miles north-west of Dumfries (in the adjacent historic county of Dumfriesshire, but now part of Dumfries and Galloway).

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Originally posted 2023-08-13 15:05:53.

Rabbie Burns – Pt 3 Away to Auld Reekie

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Rabbie Burns - Pt 3 Away to Auld Reekie

This chapter of the Rabbie Burns story leads on from Part 2, and will make more sense if you read that one first. I explained how his passion for lassies and poetry was a mixed blessing. Not only was he good looking, he also had a way with words that could charm the birds out of the trees, but it also got him into trouble: Fertilizing the soil on his Mauchline farm was a regular occupation for Rabbie, but so was fertilizing half the female population of Mauchline as well.

One of the people he upset was James Armour, a Mauchline stonemason, whose eldest daughter, Jean, had the unenviable task of telling her father that she was carrying Rabbie’s child. After he recovered from the shock he sent Jean off to live with her uncle in Greenock and issued a warrant for Rabbie’s arrest unless he could come up with an “enormous” sum of money. On 3rd September 1786, Jean gave birth to twins and moved back in with her parents: Rabbie, after laying low with friends for a while, went back to Mossgiel Farm.

In the meantime, after planning to go to Jamaica with Highland Mary, his literary fortunes were beginning to pick up with the publication of the Kilmarnock edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. The publication meant that he didn’t need to go to Jamaica to earn a living after all, and the prospect of producing another edition encouraged him to stay in Scotland even more. Poor Highland Mary wouldn’t have been able to accompany him to Jamaica anyway after becoming terminally ill with typhus.

It was the blind poet, Dr Thomas Blacklock, who recommended that Rabbie should produce an enlarged edition of his book of poems, but it meant travelling to Edinburgh. Being the capital and cultural centre of Scotland, Edinburgh was where the country boy needed to go if he wanted to make his name in the world of literature, and so in November he borrowed a pony and rode, not quite into the sunset, but into a world that was quite different to the one that he was used to.

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Originally posted 2023-08-04 14:43:29.

Rabbie Burns – Pt 2 Love and Poetry

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Rabbie Burns - Pt 2 Love and Poetry

In Part 1 of this series of posts about Rabbie Burns, we saw how his formative years were shaped by life in the Alloway cottage and on the farm. His father, William, was also keen to see that his education wasn’t neglected, especially as being the eldest of his seven children, he would be head of the family after he’d gone. Now that William was lying in Alloway Auld Kirk churchyard, it was time for Robbie to step up to the plate and take care of the family. Fortunately, his brother Gilbert, who was only a year younger than him, was also there to help.

The tenancy at Lochlea Farm was passed down to the two boys, but there had been some legal problems before William died, and Robbie and Gilbert made the decision to start afresh and move the family to Mossgiel Farm near Mauchline instead. Life wasn’t any easier at Mossgiel than any of the other farms they had lived at, and for the next four years they had their work cut out to make ends meet.

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Originally posted 2023-07-28 15:08:45.

Rabbie Burns – Pt 1 Growing up in Ayrshire

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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.

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Originally posted 2023-07-26 13:51:46.