LIFE OF ROBERT BURNS. CHAPTER I. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. For now he haunts his native land He sits beside each ingle nook, His voice is in each rushing brook, Each rustling bough. My father was a farmer, upon the Carrick border, LONGFELLOW. He bade me act a manly part, tho' I had ne'er a farthing; UPON the subject of Burns's ancestry a great deal of wide and minute research has been expended; but, for the majority of readers, it may be sufficient to state that, on both sides of the house, the Poet came of Scottish smallfarming folks a class which, though comparatively poor and unassuming, has in byegone days produced, and still yields, the staple brain and sinew of the country. While it is evident that in many respects the Poet's father was a remarkable man for his time and station, we can discover little or nothing in the family genealogy to account, in any adequate sense, for Robert Burns appearing so bright a star in the world's galaxy of pure natural genius. We have here a striking instance-among many more-of the A unaccountable ways of God, in sending forth from time to time minds fashioned to clearly discern and bravely declare great central truths,-to keenly feel and sweetly express the deepest needs and emotions of human nature and experience. Here, too, we are reminded how often in the humblest ranks of life these great minds appear; of lowly birth, indeed, yet fitted to grandly soar; and notwithstanding the lack of high social and educational advantage, mighty to surmount all arbitrary barriers, to stand nobly amongst the noblest, to amaze profoundest learning and gentlest culture with abounding sweetness, wit, and wisdom. In short, Burns's genius and achievements furnish perhaps the most memorable illustration of the far-reaching truth of his own great couplet The rank is but the guinea's stamp : In the year 1748, Robert and William Burnes, sons of Robert Burnes, tenant of Clochnahill in Kincardineshire, found it necessary owing to the straitened circumstances of the family to leave their home, that they might seek better fortune in the south country. The brothers sadly parted "on the top of a hill, on the confines of their native place, each going off his several way in search of new adventures, and scarcely knowing whither they went." Robert, the elder of the two, went to England. William, the Poet's father, found employment for a time at Edinburgh, whence he removed westward to the vicinity of Ayr. There he wrought some years as a gardener. By-and-bye, in the hope of bettering his position, he took a lease of seven acres of land at Alloway, his intention being to cultivate this small holding as a nursery-garden. Here he erected the now world-famous Burns' Cottage, wherein he set up a home of his own with Agnes Brown, a Carrick farmer's daughter, whom he married in December 1757; and here, on January 25th 1759, the Poet was born. The cottage stands in a beauti ful locality, on the west road to Maybole, and about three miles from Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a toon surpasses For honest men and bonnie lasses. The highway runs close beside "Kirk Alloway," and crosses the Doon at a lovely spot where stands that handsome memorial structure which has a primary claim to be specially spoken of as BURNS'S MONUMENT. From the new bridge (by which the river is now crossed in a straighter course) a fine view can be had of the "Auld Brig," the "Monument," and the "banks and braes of the classic stream. There, if we call to mind the Poet's lines, as in "Tam o' Shanter " and " Ye Banks and Braes," the place seems to live and move as of old at his immortalising touch. وو The "auld clay biggin'," where the Poet first saw the light, was for many years used as a wayside ale-house. Now, however, it is fittingly owned and cared for by the trustees of the monument. The licence is dispensed with and in the neat little hall behind the cottage many interesting and valuable Burns relics are exhibited. From all parts of our own country, and from many far-off lands, the throng of pilgrims to this natal scene yearly increases; until now, in the holiday season, the visitors number thousands weekly—a great and growing evidence that he who was born there spoke and still is speaking straight to the hearts of men and women everywhere. A few days after the Poet's birth, the stability of the "clay biggin'" was so severely tried that mother and infant were removed for safety to a neighbouring dwelling— 'Twas then a blast o' Januar' wind Blew hansel in on Robin -stormy presage of his rugged, passion-swayed career. The frail building having been repaired and strengthened, 1 William Burnes, on leaving the neighbourhood in 1777, sold the cottage and the feu-right of his adjoining seven acres to the Ayr Shoemakers' Corporation. The hall was erected in 1847; and in 1881 the property was acquired by the trustees of the monument at a cost of £4000. mother and child returned to their home, and there the family dwelt until Robert had reached his eighth year. Of these childhood years very little is definitely known. As regards general worth and intelligence, William Burnes and his wife were clearly above the average small farmers and cottars of their time. The Poet's mother is described, by one who knew her intimately, as a woman of great sagacity, and pleasant, easy manner, having at her command a remarkable store of ballads and traditionary tales, by means of which she early kindled and fed the imagination of her wondrously-gifted eldest son. In this same direction, an aged relative of the family, Betty Davidson by name, exercised a lasting influence on the Poet's mind. Burns himself says of her : In my infant and boyish days, I owed much to an old woman, who resided in the family, 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, deadlights, wraiths, apparitions, cantraips, 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 sceptical than I am in such matters, yet it often takes an effort of philosophy to shake off these idle terrors. Also, from the earliest dawn of intelligence, he was accustomed to those humble yet noble scenes of family industry, piety, and peace which he has depicted in the "Cotter's Saturday Night." In 1766, the family removed from their Alloway home, and entered the farm of Mount Oliphant, two miles inland. In his sixth year, Robert attended a small country school at Alloway Mill. In May 1765, William Burnes and a few of his neighbours joined in starting a school nearer at hand, and employed one John Murdoch as master. Fortunately, Murdoch, though young, was already a man of well-cultured mind, and in many respects a born teacher. Compared with modern systems of cramming, his methods seem to have been far more truly educational—well suited, indeed, to draw out and develop the thinking powers of the children under his charge. He was a respected friend and frequent visitor of the Burnes family, and has left a most interesting account of the school-days of his great pupil. He states that Robert and his younger brother Gilbert were by far his aptest pupils. They were generally at the upper end of their classes, even when competing with boys much older than themselves. It is remarkable that this able and worthy man then considered Gilbert the brighter of the two boys. Now, judging from his correspondence, Gilbert Burns was a clever, scholarly man for his station. At school he may have seemed brighter than his elder brother, while in Robert's mind and heart were greater, stronger thoughts and feelings-a deeper though more silently-flowing stream of rich imaginings. At this early stage, Murdoch was mistaken in his estimate of the youthful Poet's gifts, but William Burnes was not so mistaken; he having early perceived in his eldest son promise of extraordinary powers of thought and feeling, which led him to say that "something wonderful would yet be seen and heard of that boy." Murdoch further tells us that, along with the usual branches of elementary education, he tried to teach his pupils church music:-"Here they [Robert and Gilbert] were left far behind by all the rest of the school. Robert's ear, in particular, was remarkably dull, and his voice untunable. It was long before I could get them to distinguish one tune from another. 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 that Robert had a propensity of that kind." And yet this was he whose writings but a few years afterwards proclaimed him one of the greatest and sweetest of the world's song-makers. In 1768, Robert's tenth year, Murdoch left the Alloway neighbourhood for a time; and now, while he ever carefully attended to the home training of his family, William |