Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/147

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ROBERT BURNS.
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and present to the reader, not only an uncommonly clear view of the life and character of Burns, but also a specimen of the animated and nervous, though somewhat turgid, style of Heron, whose literary history is scarcely less remarkable than that of the Ayrshire bard. The reader will find the text occasionally corrected and illustrated by notes, as also a short poetical relique of Burns, which first appeared in the original edition of this work.

Robert Burns was a native of Ayrshire, one of the western counties of Scotland.[1] He was the son of humble parents; and his father passed through life in the condition of a hired labourer, or of a small farmer.[2] Even in this situation, however, it was not hard for him to send his children to the parish school, to receive the ordinary instructions in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the principles of religion. By this course of education, young Robert profited to a degree that might have encouraged his friends to destine him to one of the liberal professions, had not his father's poverty made it necessary to remove him from school, as soon as he had grown up, to earn for himself the means of support, as a hired plough-boy, or shepherd.[3]

The establishment of parish schools, but for which, perhaps, the infant energies of this young genius might never have received that first impulse, by which alone they were to be excited into action, is one of the most beneficial that have ever been instituted in this country; and one which, I believe, is no where so firmly fixed, or extended so completely throughout a whole kingdom, as in Scotland. Here, every parish has a schoolmaster, almost as invariably as it has a clergyman. For a sum, rarely exceeding twenty pounds, in salary and fees, this person instructs the children of the parish in reading, writing, arithmetic, bookkeeping, Latin, and Greek. The schoolmasters are generally students in philosophy or theology ; and hence, the establishment of the parish schools, besides its direct utilities, possesses also the accidental advantage of furnishing an excellent school of future candidates for the office of parochial clergymen. So small are the fees for teaching, that no parents, however poor, can want the means to give their children, at least, such education at school as young Burns received. From the spring labours of a plough-boy, from the summer employment of a

  1. He was born in a clay-built cottage, about two miles to the south of the town of Ayr, within the abrogated parish of Alloway, and in the immediate vicinity of the ruined church of that parish, which he has immortalized in his Tam o' Shanter.
  2. His father, William Burness―for so he always spelt his name―was the son of a farmer in Kincardineshire, and had removed from that county to Ayrshire, at nineteen years of age, in consequence of domestic embarrassments. Some collateral relations of Burns fill a respectable station in society at Montrose. William Burness was one of those intelligent, thoughtful, and virtuous characters who have contributed to raise the reputation of the Scottish peasantry to its present lofty height. From him the poet derived an immense store of knowledge, an habitual feeling of piety, and, what will astonish most of all, great acquaintance with the world and the ways of mankind. After supporting himself for some years as gardener to Mr Ferguson of Doonholm, the father took a small farm (Mount Oliphant) from that gentleman, to which he removed when the poet was between six and seven years of age. He subsequently removed to the farm of Lochlea, in the parish of Tarbolton, where he died, in 1784, in very embarrassed circumstances.

    The mother of Burns was Agnes Brown, the daughter of a race of Ayrshire peasants. She survived her son about thirty years, and died at an advanced age.
  3. The circumstances of Burns' education are well known : he learned English, writing, arithmetic, a little mathematics, some Latin, and a smattering of French. He had contrived in his early* years to obtain a perusal of many English classical works, and some translations of the ancient poets. The first book which he read was the Man of Feeling, by Mackenzie ; of which work he used to say he had worn out two copies, by carrying it in his pocket. See a life of Burns in Scots Magazine, 1797. His favourite books, at a very early period, were a Life of Hannibal, and the well-known paraphrase of Blind Harry's Life of Wallace, by Hamilton of Gilbertfield the latter had certainly helped to give a strongly national bent to his mind.

    The statement in the text as to his having become a hired plough-boy, does not receive confirmation from any other source, and is probably incorrect.