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BURNS IN DUMFRIES -SKETCH OF
THE POET AS HE FIRST APPEARED IN THE BURGH-MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE
INHABITANTS AT THAT PERIOD: THEIR POLISH, CONVIVIALITY, AND TORYISM-BURNS'S
CONNECTION WITH THE DUMFRIES PUBLIC LIBRARY-HE GETS HIMSELF INTO TROUBLE
ON ACCOUNT OF HIS POLITICS-HE FALLS INTO DISFAVOUR-HIS PECUNIARY
CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN AN INHABITANT OF THE TOWN.
TOWARDS the close of 1791,
Dumfries could number among its citizens a man who had already made some
noise in the world, and who came to be recognized as one of Scotland's
most illustrious sons. His figure was remarkable ; so that even a cursory
observer must have at once seen that it was the outward framework of an
extraordinary individual. Five feet ten in height, firmly built,
symmetrical, with more of the roughness of a rustic than the polish of a
fine gentleman, there was a something in his bearing that bespoke
conscious pre-eminence; and the impress thus communicated was confirmed by
his swarthy countenance, every lineament of which indicated mental wealth
and power: the brow broad and high; the eyes like orbs of flame; the nose
well formed, though a professional physiognomist would have said that it
was deficient in force; the mouth impassioned, majestic, tender, as if the
social affections and poetic muse had combined to take possession of it;
and the full, rounded, dimpled chin, which made the manly face look more
soft and lovable. When this new denizen of the Burgh was followed from his
humble dwelling in Bank Street to some favourite friendly circle where the
news of the day or other less fugitive topics were discussed, his
superiority became more apparent. Then eye and tongue exercised an
irresistible sway: the one flashing with emotional warmth and the light of
genius-now scathing with its indignant glances, anon beaming with
benignity and love ; the other tipped with the fire of natural eloquence,
reasoning abstrusely, declaiming finely, discoursing delightfully,
satirizing mercilessly, or setting the table in a roar with verses thrown
off at red heat to annihilate an unworthy sentiment, or cover some unlucky
opponent with ridicule. Need it be said that these remarks apply to Robert
Burns?
His first appearance in
Dumfries was on the 4th of June, 1787, two months after the second edition
of his poems had been published. He came, on invitation, to be made an
honorary burgess; neither the givers nor the receiver of the privilege
dreaming, at that date, that he was destined to become an inhabitant of
the town. All honour to the Council that they thus promptly recognized the
genius of the poet. Provost William Clark, shaking hands with the
newly-made burgess, and wishing him joy, when he presented himself in the
veritable blue coat and yellow vest that Nasmyth has rendered familiar,
would make a good subject for a painter able to realize the
characteristics of such a scene. The burgess ticket granted to the
illustrious stranger bore the following inscription:-" The said day, 4th
June, 1787, Mr. Robert Burns, Ayrshire, was admitted burgess of this
Burgh, with liberty to exercise and enjoy the whole immunities and
privileges thereof as freely as any other does, may, or can enjoy; who
being present, accepted the same, and gave his oath of burgess-ship to his
Majesty and the Burgh in common form." Whilst tenant of Ellisland, a farm
about six miles distant from Dumfries, Burns became, by frequent visits to
it, familiarly known to the inhabitants. Soon after Martinmas, 1791,
accompanied by Bonnie Jean, he took up a permanent residence_ in the
Burgh, and there spent the remainder of his checkered life; so that
Dumfries became henceforth inseparably associated with his latest years.
He had just seen thirty-one summers when he entered upon the occupancy of
three small apartments of a second floor on the north side of Bank Street
(then called the Wee Vennel). After residing there about eighteen months
he removed to a self-contained one-story house of a higher grade in Mill
Street, which became the scene of his untimely death, in July, 1796.
What varying scenes of weal
and woe, of social enjoyments, of literary triumphs, of worldly misery and
moral loss, were crowded within the Dumfries experiences of the
illustrious poet! There he suffered his severest pangs, and also
accomplished many of his proudest achievements. If the night watches heard
at times his sorrowful plaint, and the air of the place trembled for a
moment with his latest sigh, it long burned and breathed with the immortal
products of his lyre; and when the striking figure we have faintly
sketched lay paralyzed by death, its dust was borne to old St. Michael's,
and the tomb of the national bard became a priceless heritage to the town
for ever.
Dr. Burnside says of his
parishioners, at the time when Burns became one of them:-"In their private
manners they are social and polite; and the town, together with the
neighbourhood a few miles around it, furnishes a society amongst whom a
person with a moderate income may spend his days with as much enjoyment,
perhaps, as in any part of the kingdom whatever." Other evidence tends to
show that the society of the Burgh was more intellectual than that of most
other towns of the same size in Scotland. Soon after Burns came to reside
in it, various circumstances combined to make it more than at any former
period, perhaps, a gay and fashionable place of resort. A theatre was
opened, which received liberal patronage from the upper classes of the
neighbourhood; several regiments were at intervals stationed in the Burgh,
the officers of which helped to give an aristocratic tone to its society;
and the annual races in October always drew a concourse of nobles,
squires, and ladies fair to the County town.
The Theatre was opened for the first time on the evening of Saturday the
29th of September, 1792, under the management of Mr. Williamson, from the
Theatre-Royal, Haymarket, London, assisted by Mr. Sutherland, from the
theatre of Aberdeen ; "when," says the Dumfries Weekly Journal,
[The Journal was owned and edited by Provost Jackson; and it is to his
grandson, Mr. Robert Comrie of Largs, that we are indebted for the
passages quoted from it.] "the united elegance and accommodation of the
house reflected equal honour on the liberality and taste of the
proprietors, and design and execution of the artists, and conspired with
the abilities of the performers in giving universal satisfaction to a
crowded and
polite audience. In a word, it is allowed by persons of the first taste
and opportunities, that this is the handsomest provincial theatre in
Scotland." It is added that Mr. Boyd was the architect of the building,
and that the scenery was from the pencil of Nasmyth.
How the rein was given to
fashionable dissipation and animal enjoyment, during the racing season, in
these exuberant days, is graphically described by the Journal. " The
entertainments of the hunting, races, balls, and assemblies, by the
Caledonian and the Dumfries and Galloway Hunts, being now over (October
30th, 1792), we embrace the earliest opportunity of informing the public
that they have been conducted with the utmost propriety and regularity,
and, we believe, have given general satisfaction. The sports of the field
in the morning were equal to the wishes of the gentlemen of the chase; the
diversions of the turf through the day afforded the highest satisfaction,
not only to those immediately interested, but to thousands of spectators;
and the performances of the stage in the evening gave high entertainment
to crowds of genteel people collected at the Theatre. Lady Hopetoun's box
on Thursday evening, being the play asked by the Caledonian Hunt,
exhibited an assemblage of nobility rarely to be seen in one box in the
theatres of the metropolis. Besides, the noblemen and gentlemen of the
Caledonian Hunt had drawn together almost all the genteel families in the
three southern counties of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Wigtown; and we
believe it may be safely affirmed that there never was on any occasion
such an assemblage of people distinguished for their rank, fortune, and
elegance of manners, seen in this place, or perhaps in any provincial town
in Scotland. Besides the daily entertainments at the ordinaries, there was
a ball and supper given by each of the Caledonian and Dumfries Hunts,
which for the number and distinguished rank of the company, the splendour
of the dresses, the elegance and sumptuousness of the entertainments, the
richness and variety of the wines, exceeded every thing of the kind ever
seen here."
Lest it should be thought
that the local journalist, from a feeling of partiality, should be
overcolouring the picture, let us see how it looked in the eyes of a
comparative stranger. It so happened that Robert Heron, the topographical
writer and historian; visited Dumfries in the very week of these
festivities, and put upon record his impressions of the Burgh.
[Observations made in a Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland,
by R. Heron, 1792, vol. ii., pp. 72-76.] " It is perhaps," he says, "a
place of higher gaiety and elegance than any other town in Scotland of the
same size. The proportion of the inhabitants who are descended of
respectable families, and have received a liberal education, is greater
here than in any other town in this part of the island. These give, by
consequence, a more elevated and polished tone to the manners and general
character of this city. The manner of living which prevails here, is
rather showy than luxurious. To be esteemed genteel, not to sit down to a
board overloaded with victuals, is the first wish of every one." After
sketching at greater length, in the same style, the normal condition of
the Burgh, he goes on to describe its holiday aspect. "Both the Dumfries
and Galloway and the Caledonian Hunts," he says, "were assembled here at
this time. Every inn and alehouse was crowded with guests. In the mornings
the streets presented one busy scene of hair-dressers, milliners'
apprentices, grooms and valets, carriages driving and bustling backwards
and forwards. In the forenoon almost every soul, old and young, high and
low, master and servant, hastened out to follow the hounds or view the
races. At the return of the crowd they were all equally intent, with the
same bustle and the same ardent animation, on the important concerns of
appetite. The bottle, the song, the dance, and the card table, endeared
the evening and gave social converse power to detain and to charm till the
return of morn. Dumfries of itself could not afford ministers of pleasure
enough for so great an occasion. There were waiters, pimps, chairmen,
hair-dressers, and ladies-the priests and priestesses from all those more
favourite haunts where Pleasure ordinarily holds her court. Not only all
the gayer part of the neighbouring gentry were on this occasion assembled
in Dumfries; but the members of the Caledonian Hunt had repaired hither
from Edinburgh, from England, and from the more distant counties of
Scotland. The gay of the one sex naturally draw together the gay and the
elegant of the other. There was such a show of female beauty and elegance
as, I should suppose, few country towns, whether in Scotland or England,
are likely to exhibit on any similar occasion."
A gay, refined,
intellectual town enough, truly; and quite suitable, therefore, as a place
of sojourn for Burns, the sentimental bard. But inasmuch as it was
fashionable, aristocratic, courtly, given up in no small measure to the
idolatry of rank, and fanatically afraid of any thing that could be called
ungenteel or democratic, it was no congenial home for the man who dared to
say:
"Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a
lord,
W ha struts, and stares, and a' that :
Though hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that!
For a' that, and a' that,
His riband, star, and a' that:
The man of independent mind,
He looks and laughs at a' that!"
In another respect, the
town was but too congenial to the poet's tastes and habits. "John
Barleycorn," to use his own metaphor, bore potential sway within it. "The
curse of country towns," says Robert Chambers, "is the partial and entire
idleness of large classes of the inhabitants. There is always a cluster of
men living on competencies, and a greater number of tradesmen whose shop
duties do not occupy half their time. Till a very recent period,
dissipation in greater or less intensity was the rule, and not the
exception, amongst these men; and in Dumfries, sixty years ago, this rule
held good." [Life and Works of Burns, vol. iii., p. 209.] Thrown into
company of this kind, sought after and lionized by all casual visitors, is
it at all wonderful that a man of Burns's temperament should have often
indulged too deeply? It was no disgrace then, for either lords or
commoners to fall drunk below the bacchanalian board. More's the pity that
poor Burns, so supreme in many things, was not superior to the jovial
drinking customs of his day. Had he lived in a discreeter age, he would
have been a better and happier man. Whilst the Burgh had its full share of
jovial fellows, who habitually caroused and sang, in a doubtful attempt
"to drive dull care away," and called the marvellous gauger, nothing
loath, to their assistance, he had frequent opportunities, which he
willingly embraced, of breathing a purer atmosphere, and enjoying a higher
communion than theirs. Burns was a man of many moods; he was mirthful and
gloomy by turns : the pride and paragon of a refined circle at Woodley
Hall, Friars' Carse, or Mavis Grove, one day; and on some not distant
night, the hero of a merry group, fuddling madly in the Globe tavern,
singing in all tipsy sincerity the challenge of his own rollicking song:
"Wha last frae aff his
chair shall fa',
He is the king amang us three."
The poet often sank deeply
in the mire; but he did not wallow in it. In spite of all that has been
said to the contrary, we feel justified in stating that he never became
habitually intemperate, or a lover of the bottle for its own sake. His
extreme sociality often led him into excess: none can tell how often he
drained the intoxicating cup in order to purchase a momentary
forgetfulness of his disappointments and his cares.
Dumfries had ceased to be
the Whig town which it was during the troubles of 1745. Provost Staig was
an inveterate Tory: the councillors and other leading men were, with few
exceptions, of the same political creed. When a cry arose in favour of
Parliamentary reform, the municipal body voted addresses to the King
against it, and brimful of devoted loyalty; and when news of the French
Revolution reached the town, it excited a general feeling of alarm. The
Provost and his colleagues looked upon the British Constitution as
perfection itself, and their reverence for it was only equalled by their
horror at the doings of the French democracy. In the following extracts
from the Dumfries Journal, we find the loyal, anti-democratic, and
orthodox condition of the town faithfully mirrored. "On Tuesday, June 4th,
1793 [King George the Third's birth-day], an unusual display of loyalty
eminently manifested itself through all ranks of people in this place. In
addition to what we observed last week, it is but justice to notice the
ardent loyalty of the rising generation, who, having procured two effigies
of Tom Paine, paraded with them through the different streets of this
Burgh; and at six o'clock in the evening consigned them to the bonfires,
amid the patriotic applause of the surrounding crowd." After a general
description of the enthusiastic mode in which the anniversary of his
Majesty's birth-day was celebrated that year, special notice is taken by
the sympathizing journalist of the proceedings in which the gentlemen of
the Loyal Native Club [Burns's impromptu satire on the club is well
known:-
Ye true, loyal natives,
attend to my song;
In uproar and riot rejoice the night long:
From envy and hatred your corps is exempt,
But where is your shield from the darts of contempt.]
manifested "their
attachment to the best of sovereigns on this joyous day." This
association, formed on the 18th of January, 1793, "for Preserving Peace,
Liberty, and Property, and for Supporting the Laws and Constitution of the
Country," included among its members many influential inhabitants - their
president being Commissary Goldie, and their secretary, Mr. Francis Shortt,
town clerk. " A few ladies," we are told, "on the morning of the
auspicious day brought bandeaux of blue satin ribbon embroidered by
themselves with the words 'God Save the King!" which were presented in
their name by the president to the members, and worn all day by the latter
round their hats. "The club met at three o'clock afternoon, in the King's
Arms Tavern, and after partaking of an elegant dinner, no less than
fourteen loyal and well-adapted toasts were drank; and a fifteenth bumper
toast of `God bless every branch of the Royal Family" was given by way of
finale to this species of toasts. The club also drank bumpers to the loyal
town of Dumfries, and to the magistrates; and in like manner to each of
the ladies who had contributed so obligingly and attentively to the
decoration of the members. At six o'clock the club adjourned in a body to
the Town hall, where they joined in the loyal and distinguished rejoicings
which took place there in the evening. At eight o'clock they went to the
assembly, and wore their bandeaux across their breasts."
Burns did not, like most of
his fellow-townsmen, deplore the French Revolution; on the contrary, he
heartily sympathized with it, and was not the man to conceal his
sentiments on any question at the dictate of prudence. "He was," says
Lockhart, "the standing marvel of the place; his toasts, his jokes, his
epigrams, his songs, were the daily food of conversation and scandal; and
he, open and careless, and thinking he did no great harm in saying and
singing what many of his superiors had not the least objection to hear and
applaud, soon began to be considered among the local admirers of the good
old King and his minister, as the most dangerous of all the apostles of
sedition, and to be shunned accordingly." [Life of Burns, pp. 211-12.] A
curious and characteristic illustration of the way in which the poet gave
vent to his political views, may here be recorded. A public library was
opened in the Burgh, towards the close of 1792; and Burns, who had
assisted in establishing it, was admitted a member on the 5th of March,
1793; the minute of the proceedings stating that the Committee had, "by a
great majority, resolved to offer him a share of the library free of the
usual admission money (10s. 6d.), out of respect and esteem for his merits
as a literary man." Reciprocating this kindness, Burns, on the 30th of the
same month, presented four books to the library" Humphrey Clinker," "Julia
de Roubigne," " Knox's History of the Reformation," and "De Lolme on the
British Constitution."
The last-named volume
contained a frontispiece portrait of the author, the back of which
displayed these words, written in the poet's bold, upright hand:-" Mr.
Burns presents this book to the library, and begs they will take it as a
creed of British liberty till they find a better.-R. B." Very simple,
innocent words in themselves; but awfully daring at that time, and
excessively imprudent when proceeding from a Government officer. Burns, on
reflection, quailed before the danger he had thus rashly incurred; and,
hurrying next morning to the house of Provost Thomson, with whom the books
had been left, lie expressed an anxious desire to see De Lolme, as lie was
afraid he had written something upon it "which might bring him into
trouble." On the volume being produced, he, before leaving the room,
pasted the fly-leaf to the back of the engraving, in order to seal up his
seditious secret; but any one holding the double leaf up to the light may
easily find it out, the volume being still in the library, and its value
immeasurably enhanced by this inscription. [In the same library (now the
property of the Dumfries and Maxwelltown Mechanics' institute) there is
another book, the thirteenth volume of Sir John Sinclair's Statistical
Account of Scotland, which reveals another glimpse of the poet in
Dumfries. Under the head "Balmaghie," a notice is given of several
martyred Covenanters belonging to that parish, and the rude yet expressive
lines engraved on their tombstones are quoted at length. The pathos of the
simple prose statement, and the rugged force of the versification, seem to
have aroused the fervid soul of Burns; for there appears, in his bold
hand-writing, the following verse pencilled on the margin by way of
foot-note:
"The Solemn League and
Covenant
Now brings a smile, now brings a tear;
But sacred Freedom, too, was theirs:
If thou'rt a slave indulge thy sneer."
We had occasion, in
December, 1859, to consult this volume; and, on discovering the lines,
recognized the poet's caligraphy at once, and had no difficulty in
concluding that they constituted the first rough draft of his well-known
epigram in praise of the League and the Covenant, quoted in a preceding
chapter. The matured lines are usually represented as an impromptu rebuke
by Burns to some, scoffer at the Covenant; but this precious holograph
demonstrates the real circumstances under which they were originated.]
Burns identified himself by
more than rash words with the democrats across the Channel. A vessel
engaged in the contraband traffic from the Isle of Man having entered the
Solway, was watched by a party of Excise officers, including the poet. She
became fixed in the shallows; but her crew were so numerous and well armed
that the party durst not attempt her capture unaided; and Mr. Lewars, the
poet's friend and brother exciseman, was sent to Dumfries for a guard of
dragoons. Burns, with a few men under his orders, was meanwhile left on
the look-out in a wet salt marsh; and as the time passed thus wearily
away, Lewars was blamed by the impatient watchers for his seeming
tardiness, one of them going so far as to wish that the devil had him in
his keeping. Burns saw a humorous ingredient in the irreverent desire, and
in a few minutes expanded it into the well-known ditty, " The Deil's awa
wi' the Exciseman," with which he diverted his colleagues till Lewars
arrived with the soldiers. Our poet could, when occasion required, play
the part of Captain Sword as well as Captain Pen. Putting himself at the
head of the force, he waded sword in hand to the vessel's side, and was
the first to board her and call upon her smuggling crew to surrender in
the King's name. Though outnumbering the assailing party, they quietly
submitted. The vessel was condemned, and, with all her arms and stores,
sold at Dumfries.
Had the matter ended here, the poet's services might have secured his
promotion; but unfortunately he sinned them all away, by purchasing four
of the captured carronades, and sending them, with a eulogistic epistle,
as a present to the French Convention. The carronades and letter were
intercepted at Dover; and forthwith the Commissioners of Excise ordered an
inquiry to be made into the conduct of their officer. Burns, in a letter
to his patron, Mr. Graham of Fintry, stated that he was "surprised,
confounded, and distracted" on hearing of the threatened investigation. He
warmly repudiated the interpretation put upon his behaviour, declared his
devout attachment " to the British Constitution on Revolution principles;"
and closed with the touching appeal: " I adjure you to save me from that
misery which threatens to overwhelm me; and which, with my latest breath,
I will say I have not deserved."
It was long believed that
the poet's official prospects were utterly blighted by the inquiry; and
that, as a consequence, he became more dissipated and reckless. Some of
his biographers have gone further, and attributed his early death to the
same cause; but what says Burns's superior in the Dumfries Excise
district-Mr. Findlater? In a letter on the subject, that gentleman
says--"I may venture to assert that when Burns was accused of a leaning to
democracy, and an inquiry into his conduct took place, he was subjected in
consequence thereof to no more than perhaps a verbal or private caution to
be more circumspect in future. Neither do I believe his promotion was
thereby affected, as has been stated. That, had lie lived, would, I have
every reason to think, have gone on in the usual routine. His good and
steady friend, Mr. Graham, would have attended to this. What cause,
therefore, was there for depression of spirits on this account? or how
should he have been hurried thereby to a premature grave? I never saw his
spirit fail till lie was borne down by the pressure of disease and bodily
weakness; and even then it would occasionally revive, and, like an
expiring lamp, emit bright flashes to the last."
Besides, Burns, the very
year before he died, actually officiated as a supervisor; and there is
every reason to conclude that he would soon have been permanently promoted
to that rank, had not death intervened. Whilst we think that the charge
against the Excise Board, of neglecting or ill-using Burns, is undeserved,
we are decidedly of opinion that the treatment he received from the
superiors of the Board and the Government of the day was infamous. It was
a disgrace to them, and must ever be a source of the deepest regret to all
admirers of the poet, that they allowed a few random specks of
disaffection to rise tip between them and the lustre of his genius; and
that, too, when it was pervaded and intensified by the purest patriotism.
When the war between Britain and France broke out, in 1793, Burns joined a
volunteer company that was formed in Dumfries; and, according to the
testimony of his commanding officer, Colonel De Peyster, he faithfully
discharged his soldierly duties, and was the pride of the corps, whom he
made immortal by his verse, especially by the vigorous address beginning:-
"Does haughty Gaul invasion
threat?
Then let the loons beware, sir;
There's wooden walls upon our seas,
And volunteers on shore, sir.
The Nith shall run to Corsincon,
And Criffel sink in Solway,
Ere we permit a foreign foe
On British ground to rally!"
Burns was the laureate of
the company, "and in that capacity," says Lockhart, "did more good service
to the Government of the country, at a crisis of the darkest alarm and
danger, than perhaps any one person of his rank and station, with the
exception of Dibdin, had the power or the inclination to render."
"His `Poor and Honest Soger,'"
says Allan Cunningham, "laid hold at once on the public feeling; and it
was everywhere sung with an enthusiasm which only began to abate when
Campbell's `Exile of Erin' and `Wounded Huzzar' were published. Dumfries,
which sent so many of her sons to the wars, rung with it from port to
port; and the poet, wherever he went, heard it echoing from house and
hall. I wish this exquisite and useful song, with 'Scots, wha hae wi'
Wallace bled,' the `Song of Death,' and `Does haughty Gaul invasion
threat?' - all lyrics which enforce a love of country, and a martial
enthusiasm into men's breasts-had obtained some reward for the poet. His
perishable conversation was remembered by the rich to his prejudice: his
imperishable lyrics were rewarded only by the admiration and tears of his
fellow-peasants."
In the spring of 1793,
Burns addressed the following letter "To the Hon. the Provost, Bailies,
and Town Council of Dumfries." "Gentlemen,-The literary taste and liberal
spirit of your good town has so ably filled the various departments of
your schools, as to make it a very great object for a parent to have his
children educated in them. Still, to me, a stranger, to give my young ones
that education I wish, at the High School, fees which a stranger pays will
bear hard upon me. Some years ago, your good town did me the honour of
making me an honorary burgess. Will you allow me to request that this mark
of distinction may extend so far as to put me on the footing of a real
freeman of the town in the schools? If you are so very kind as to grant my
request, it will certainly be a constant incentive to me to strain every
nerve where I can officially serve; and will, if possible, increase that
grateful respect with which I have the honour to be, gentlemen, &c., -
ROBERT BURNS." ["As to Burns," says Mr. Carruthers of Inverness, writing
to us on the 27th of January, 1866, "I have one scrap for you. You will
most likely print the short letter which the poet addressed to the
Provost, Bailies, and Town Council of Dumfries, respecting the education
of his children. The original draft of the letter, in Burns's
hand-writing, is in the British Museum; and when there lately, I copied a
part of it which was omitted in publication. After the second paragraph of
the printed letter, ending with the words, 'put me on the footing of a
real freeman of the town' of Dumfries, there occurs this passage:- 'That I
may not appear altogether unworthy of the favour, allow me to state to you
some little services I have lately clone a branch of your revenue-the two
pennies exigible on foreign ale vended within your limits. In this rather
neglected article of your income, I am ready to show that within these
last few weeks my exertions have secured for you of those duties nearly
the sum of ten pounds; and in this, too, I am the only one of the Excise
(except Mr. Mitchell, whom you pay for his trouble) who took the least
concern in the business.' It will be worth your while seeing," continues
Mr. Carruthers, " if the letter is preserved among the Town Council
papers, whether Burns himself omitted the above passage (which is
certainly not in good taste), or whether it was thrown out by Currie." We
have been unable to discover the original, and suspect that the
interesting question raised by our esteemed correspondent must continue to
remain unanswered.] The request was at once complied with, to the great
gratification of the poet, who was devotedly attached to his children, and
desirous above all things to give them a liberal education. " In the bosom
of his family," says Mr. Gray, one of the teachers in the Academy, "he
spent many a delightful hour in directing the studies of his eldest son, a
boy of uncommon talents. I have frequently found him explaining to this
youth, then not more than nine years of age, the English poets from
Shakspeare to Gray; or storing his mind with examples of heroic virtue, as
they live in the pages of our most celebrated English historians. I would
ask any person of common candour, if employments like these are consistent
with habitual drunkenness."
But though not
systematically intemperate, his habits were too lax and irregular for the
community in which he lived, convivial though it was; and many who
disliked him on other grounds magnified his excesses, and made these a
pretext for "sending him to Coventry." On one well-known occasion our
errant poet received the cut direct from some of the patrician citizens.
During an autumnal evening, in 1794, High Street was gay with fashionable
groups of ladies and gentlemen, all passing down to attend a County ball
in the Assembly Rooms. One man, well fitted to be the cynosure of the
party, passed up on the shady side of the thoroughfare, and soon found
himself to be doubly in the shade. It was Burns. Nearly all knew him, but
none seemed willing to recognize him; till Mr. David M'Culloch of Ardwell,
noticing the circumstance, dismounted from the horse on which he rode,
politely accosted the poet, and proposed that he should cross the street.
"Nay, nay, my young friend," said the bard pathetically; "that's all over
now:" and, after a slight pause, he quoted two verses of Lady Grizel
Bailie's touching ballad:-
" His bonnet stood niece fu'
fair on his brow,
His auld ane looked better than mony ane's new
But now he lets't wear ony way it will hing,
And casts himsel' dowie upon the corn-bing.
"O! were we young, as we
aince hae been,
We sud hae been galloping doun on yon green;
And linking it over the lily-white lea;
And werena my heart light I wad dee."
This incident has been
adduced as a proof that Burns at this period (admittedly the darkest in
his career) had become an object of "universal rejection." Never was there
a greater mistake; and it would be even wrong to suppose that the
dejection that he felt, and expressed in Lady Bailie's verse, was more
than momentary, or otherwise than semi-dramatic. One who is overcome by
real heart distress, does not seek to give it vent by measured poetical
quotations. Half an hour after the rencontre, Burns and Mr. M'Culloch had
some cheerful chit-chat over a glass of punch in the bard's own house -the
latter having thoroughly recovered his spirits; and so charming was his
discourse, and so sweetly did Bonnie Jean sing some of his recent
effusions, that the Laird of Ardwell left the couple with reluctance, to
join his fashionable friends in Assembly Street.
Mr. Gray, referring to the
poet about this time, states that though malicious stories were circulated
freely against him, his early friends gave them no credit, and clung to
him through good and bad report. "To the last day of his life," he says,
"his judgment, his memory, his imagination, were fresh and vigorous as
when he composed the `Cottar's Saturday Night.' The truth is, that Burns
was seldom intoxicated. The drunkard soon becomes besotted, and is shunned
even by the convivial. Had he been so, he would not long have continued
the idol of every party." Burns's circumstances whilst in Dumfries were
humble, but not poverty-stricken. His official income was £50, extra
allowances usually bringing it up to £10; and his share in fines averaged
an additional £10. "Add to all this," says Chambers, "the solid
perquisites which he derived from seizures of contraband spirits, tea, and
other articles, which it was then the custom to divide among the officers,
and we shall see that Burns could scarcely be considered as enjoying less
than £90 a year. [Life and Works of Burns, vol. iv., p. 124.]
According to the testimony
of the bard's eldest son, given to Mr. Chambers, and amply corroborated by
others, the house in Mill Street was of a good order, such as were
occupied at that time by the better class of burgesses; and his father and
mother led a life that was comparatively genteel. " They always had a
maid-servant, and sat in their parlour. That apartment, together with two
bedrooms, was well furnished and carpeted; and when good company
assembled, which was often the case, the hospitable board which they
surrounded was of a patrician mahogany. There was much rough comfort in
the house, not to have been found in those of ordinary citizens; for,
besides the spoils of smugglers, as above mentioned, the poet received
many presents of game and country produce from the rural gentlefolk,
besides occasional barrels of oysters from Hill, Cunningham, and other
friends in town; so that he possibly was as much envied by some of his
neighbours, as he has since been pitied by the general body of his
countrymen." [Life and Works of Burns, vol. iv., p. 125.] |
