Page:Life of Robert Burns.pdf/2

 LIFE OF ROBERT BURNS. Robert Burns was born on the 25th January, 1759, in a cottage about two miles south from Ayr, not far from the Kirk of Alloway and the “ Auld Brig of Doon." His father, William Burnes or Burness, was the son of a farmer in Kincardine- shire. When about 19 years of age he removed to the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where he worked sometime as a gardener, and afterwards went to Ayrshire, where he was employed as gar- dener and overscer to a gentleman of small estate ; but resided on a few acres of land which he hold on lease from the proprieter, and where he intended to establish himself as a nurseryman. He married Agnes Brown in December, 1757, and the poet was their first born. William Burness was a man of great integrity, and of strictly religions prin- ciples, and is beautifully painted by the poet. " as the saint, the father, and the husband," in the Cottar's Saturday Night. Agnes Brown, the wife of this good man, was a woman of great pFurlonce and sagacity, and is said to have had a considerable resemblance in features to her cele- brated son. She possessed a great store of bal- lads and traditional tales, which no doubt nour- ished the imagination of the young poet. With all the economy and hard labour of this worthy pair, things did not turn out well at this place, and William Burness removed to the farm of Mount Oliphant, in the parish of Ayr, er Whit- sunday 1776, when his son Robert was about seven or eight years old. Here, from the soil being of the worst description, and other causes, he was