Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-01-21

ME Jean" "Auld Lang nyne, etc.
On his fathers death, Burns took the
farm of Mossgel, and with his mother, sister,
and brother Gilbert, managed it with care
and frugality. His wages were fixed at a.
bout thirty-fve dollars year, out of which
he bought books. Farmer Attention, the
proverb says, is good farmer; but Burns
was only such by starts. Though excelling,
reaping, moving, &C., he would stop to write
a poem on the sheep that he was about to
shear, or a song on that girl among his reap
ers who had the whitest' naud. There was
in preservation memorandum book contain
ing his earliest verses. Though poet at
sixteen, he seems to have made not even his
brother confdant until his judgment had
ripeued with manhood. In this book were
some of his best compositions, mixed up with
maxims, observations, hints for his own gui-
dance. The first words noted are stanzas on
his fair companion of the harvest field l.; a.
moug the last is the matchess lyric, "Green
Grow the Rushes, O." To him the stubble
field was musing ground, and the walk be-
hind the plow twilight saunter on Parnas-
sus. With his thoughts thus laboring on,
in two years, from the summer of 1884 to
the summer of 1886, Burns composed the
greater part of his poems The failure on
this farm, his engagement with Jean Armour,
the publication in 1856 of his first volume
at Kilmarnock, his setting out for the West
Indies, changed in direction to Edinburg,
the friends made and his literary fame there,
his tour to the North West, finally, his re-
turn to Mossgiel, all the weH-known partic-
ulars of his life brings US to his marriage
with Jean Armour; the happiness and re-
Cancellation of their families, and his new
plans for settlement in life.
With his young wife. a punch bowl OF
Scottish marble, an eight day clock, new
plough, beautiful heifer, two thousand dol
lars in his pocket, resolution to toll, and a
hope of success, Burns set up his staff on the
farm of Elinland, on the banks of the NTH,
about six miles from Dumfries. Here he
produced, in asingle day, "Tam O'Shanter."
He wrote few poems after his marriage, but
he composed many songs, the sweet voice OF
Mrs. Burns and the craving of Johnson's
Museum account for their number but not
for their variety. Here also he wrote "Nary
in Heaven" "Willie brewed peck O.
maui" 1.-THE Deil's ava wi the ExcisemaI. "
Here at the end of the third year prosperity
deserted him again, and having been appoint
ed to the excise, he bid adieu to the plough
and sickle and commenced town life at
Dumfries From this day his downward
course may be dated; politics, fondness for
society, the absence from home required by
his new calling, and the irregularities which
grew upon him, through these causes, ruined
his health and prevented an effort made to
better himself Burns died at Dumfries on
2lst July, 1898. On the fifth of June, a
marble monument was erected. In April,
1884, the body of Mrs. Burns was laid be-
side her husband. Dumfries and its church
yard have become a shrine. The "Brigs of
Ayr" will stand side by side, and the Brig
O'Doou still contains the keystone of its arch
where
O. honest Tam O'Shanter,
As he frae Ayr night did canter,"
lost the tail of his gray mare Meg. Allo-
way kirk is now desolate and rooacss, the four
walls only standing with the small bell swing
ing in the east end. In the churchyard lies
the father of the poet, with this epitaph by
the sOn-
Oh, ye, whose check the tear of pity stains
Draw near with pious reverence and attend:
Here lie the loving husbands dear remains,
The tender father and the gen'rous friend,
The pitying heart that ielt for human woe,
The dauntless hear; that feared no human pride,
The friend of man, to vice alone foe,
For cen his fnilings leaned to virtues side.
The old cottage is now an ale-house, and
contains sundry humble relics and tokens
connected with Burns. The monument to
his memory above alluded to was raised by
national subscription. Five acres of hill
and dale were purchased on the banks of the
Doou-not far from cottage, brig, and kirk,
and this structure erected. \ full-length
statue of the poet, of the Flaxmau, adorns
the building, and the grounds are kept taste
f,,llr oul,ivafoa-the whole was inauuurated