The settlement of accounts with the bookseller put him in possession of £500 or £600, and the terms of agreement at Dalswinton being finally arranged, he left Edinburgh for his new possession, having also in his pocket an excise commission as a further resource should he come to need it, which he had procured through the friendship of Mr Graham of Fintry, one of the Commissioners.
At Whitsunday 1788, Burns entered upon his new farm, and in the following November brought home Jean Armour, now Mrs Burns, whom he had married some time previously, and for a time matters went on pretty smoothly. In several of his letters he speaks with much affection of his wife, and of her admirable qualities. Many of his best pieces were composed here: and, on the whole, the poet seemed in a fair way of obtaining competence and such reasonable share of happiness as man may look for. But the burning vehemence of his temperament, the keenness of his sensibility, and a constitutional melancholy to which he had through all his life been subject, were often to him the source of uncasiness and disquiet: This exhibiting to us how little to be coveted is the possession of lofty talents and high genius even with all the fame and distinction they confer, when accompanied with such painful drawbacks; and affording a lesson of contentment
