The Life Of Robert Burns

The Young Man

Mathematics
Robert at sixteen entered an intensive course of schooling. This time he was to learn mathematics at the school of Hugh Rodger of Kirkoswald, not far from Turnberry. At this time Robert lodged on the farm of his Uncle Samuel Broun.

Peggy Thompson
His studies were soon disrupted when he met Peggy Thompson, as he recalls:
"I went on with a high hand in my geometry till the sun entered Virgo, a month which is always a carnival in my bosom. A charming Fillette who lived next door to the school overset my trigonometry and set me off in a tangent from the sphere of my studies".

Lochlea - The Final Venture of William Burness
After his course in mathematics Robert returned to Mount Oliphant, there he worked until their lease was terminated some months later. It was now that his father was to embark on his final venture.

It began with greater promise than the previous one. He became the tenant of 130 acres about ten miles away from Mount Oliphant, in the parish of Tarbolton. The farm was called Lochlea (Lochlie is the old spelling). Four years passed, Robert recalls these years as the happiest the family had ever enjoyed.

A rebellion causes problems with his father
It was here that the first recorded row with his father took place. At the age of twenty Robert was showed a desire to learn to dance:
"to give my manners a brush, I went to a country dancing school. My father had an accountable antipathy against these meetings; and my going was, what to this hour I repent, in absolute defiance of his demands" From this point there was always apathy between Robert and his father because of this defiance:
"My father, as I said before, was a sport of strong passions; from that instance of rebellion he took a kind of dislike to me."

Alison Begbie
The year after this confrontation in 1780 Robert wrote the earliest of his surviving letters. From early letters to his friend David Niven, Burns gradually mastered the art to become his best own biographer. At the same time he was composing verses, this is shown when he falls in love with Alison Begbie who worked on a neighbourhood farm. It has now been acknowledged that his song for Mary Morrison was inspired by Alison.

According to letters Alison was the first girl Robert proposed to, she declined to which he replied in a letter:
"It would be weak and unmanly to say that without you I never can be happy; but sure I am, that sharing life with you would have given it relish that, wanting you, I can never taste."

The Tarbolton Bachelors' Club
Among those who knew Burns personally, more than one rated his conversation above his poetry. Maria Riddell wrote:
"Many others perhaps may have ascended to prouder heights in the region of Parnassus, but none certainly ever outshone Burns in the charms - the sorcery, I would almost call it, of fascinating conversation, the spontaneous eloquence of social argument, or the unstudied poignancy of brilliant repartee."
He found a new means of developing this art in November 1780, when The Tarbolton Bachelors' Club was formed. The club was to meet once a month, to debate any subject except religion. To qualify for membership Burns stated:
"Every man proper for a member of this Society must have a frank, honest, open heart; above anything dirty or mean; and must be a professed lover of one or more of the female sex."
Among the other members was young David Sillar, another local poet, this proved a most wonderful stimulus to Robert Burns. We are indebted to Sillar for his description of the poet at this time:
"He wore the only tied hair in the parish, and in the church his plaid which was of a particular colour, I think fillemot, he wrapped in a particular manner around his shoulders.
The Tarbolton Bachelors' Club and his new membership of St David's Lodge Freemasons extended the horizons of Burns's world.

Irvine and a new hope for the Burness Family
Robert was sent to Irvine by his father to master one of the processes in the conversion of flax to linen. This was one of the growth industries of the 18th Century. William Burness, Robert's father was moving with the times when he leased about three acres of his land to his sons Robert and Gilbert to grow flax.

Again Burns was thrown back into a dreary job, it was a tedious and arduous task that was intended to bring good fortune to his father at last. This new form of indoor labour contributed to the first attack of his heart disease. Robert took to composing religious verses that tell of the pain and despondency he suffered.

Sure Thou, Almighty, canst not act
From cruelty or wrath!
O free my weary eyes from tears
Or close them fast in death!

But if I must afflicted be
To suit some wise design,
Then, man my soul with firm resolves
To bear and not repine!
A prayer, Under the Pressure of Violent Anguish

Before Robert returned to Lochlea in the spring one good thing did come out of Irvine. Robert had befriended Robert Brown, who was well educated and well traveled, and like Robert knew about misfortune.