Introduction
Books & Manuscripts
Personal Artefacts
Art & Burnsiana

The manuscript of Auld Lang Syne is just one of the highlights of the Burns Cottage Museum collection. Built in 1900, and extended over the years, Burns Cottage Museum now houses the world's most important collection of Burns manuscripts and artefacts. Several hundred original manuscripts of Burns' poems, songs and letters are complimented by a fascinating collection of personal items belonging to the poet and his family. A collection of artworks inspired by Burns' work and the countryside of Alloway demonstrates the enduring appeal of the poet and the magical landscape in which he grew up. "Burnsiana", souvenirs and curiosities show the continued popularity of Burns and his strength as a "brand" for Scotland across the world. The museum collection is supported by a comprehensive library, containing thousands of books by or about Robert Burns. Below is a small selection of what is on offer

Guinea Note inscribed by Burns

Following a series of financial setbacks and failures in his farming and business ventures, Robert Burns found himself at the brink of ruin. Friends helped him to secure a position as a clerk in Jamaica and he decided to set out, with Jean Armour, to seek his fortune in the West Indies. The choice to leave was not easy, however, as can be seen from the "Lines Written on a Bank Note" that begin "Wae worth thy pow'r, thou cursed leaf! Fell source of a' my woe and grief!" In order to raise the nine-guinea fare, he was persuaded to raise a subscription to publish some of his poems, a decision that was to change the course of Burns' life and of Scottish and world literature.

The Kilmarnock Edition

"We do not recollect to have ever met with a more signal instance of true and uncultivated genius" wrote the New London Magazine reviewer in 1786, about Robert Burns first published work. The critical and popular praise for Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect echoed throughout the country and Burns found himself feted as a celebrity. The museum holds one of the few surviving first editions of the book, known as the Kilmarnock Edition, having been printed in Kilmarnock by John Wilson.

Prospectus

In 1786, Robert Burns found himself almost penniless and had accepted a position as a book-keeper on an estate in Jamaica. To raise the nine-guinea fare to Jamaica, he was persuaded to publish some of his poems. This prospectus was issued by Burns to get subscriptions to publish what was to become known as the Kilmarnock Edition.

Common-place Book

The second of two "common-place" books kept by Burns, in which he would write observations, reflections, fragments of poetry and ideas that he would later work into his poems. This book was begun by Burns during his stay in Edinburgh in 1787 and continued until 1790. It is sometimes known as the Edinburgh Journal.

Highland Journal

Burns undertook a number of tours of Scotland, collecting old songs, visiting relatives and admirers and drawing inspiration for his own poetry. He kept this journal during a tour of the Highlands in 1787 with William Nicol.

Window from the Cross-Keys Inn

Burns inscribed a stanza of poetry, beginning "Sound be his sleep and blithe his morn, That never did a lassie wrang;" on the window of the Cross Keys Inn in Falkirk, en route to his tour of the Highlands. Unlike Wordsworth, who stated that poetry should be "emotion recollected in tranquillity", Burns wrote as he travelled, sometimes composing songs on horseback, walking in the countryside, or scratching a verse onto a pane of glass or above a fireplace. A number of inscribed window-panes survive, from inns in Dumfries and Stirlingshire, but several more were destroyed by Burns' brother Gilbert, following the poet's death, for fear that souvenir hunters might profit from them.

Burns' Writing Companion

This travelling writing companion, with quills, a knife and an ink bottle, was well-used by Burns. It is hard to imagine today, looking at the hundreds of elegantly written manuscripts and letters produced by Burns, that most of his writing would have been done, after a hard day's work or travel, using rudimentary quill pens, by the dim light of a candle or a primitive oil lamp.

The Scots Musical Museum

Burns was the main contributor to James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, an unsurpassed collection of Scottish traditional music and song. Burns contributed 60 of his own songs to four of the Museum's six volumes and collected and re-arranged many more. Thanks largely to Burns, many old Scots tunes were saved from disappearing forever and Scottish music became fashionable across Europe. Composers such as Beethoven and Haydn composed their own arrangements to many of Burns own songs. This was Burns' personal copy of the Museum and bears many of his notes and amendments.

Tam o'Shanter

Burns' best-loved tale is the story of a farmer from Maidens who, ignoring his wife's good advice, gets into trouble as a result of his fondness for drink and an eye for the lasses. The poem is a favourite feature of Burns Suppers across the world and many Scottish pubs will give a free dram or two to anyone who can give a good recitation, start to finish. The story, which was inspired by the local tales Burns heard as a boy, is set in Ayr and Alloway, reaching its terrifying and comic climax at the old Brig o'Doon. Burns based its characters on his own cronies and characters he knew from the local taverns. In her memoir of Burns, his wife, Jean Armour, recalls watching him laughing as he walked along the banks of the River Nith, gesturing wildly and composing the poem out loud. Perhaps more than any other of his poems, Tam o'Shanter captures the spirit of poetry that was first awakened in the young Robert Burns, sitting around the fire in Burns Cottage and listening to the ghost stories of old Betty Davidson.

Pistols and Dipping Rod

Even during the height of his fame, Burns never found that poetry could support him. He spent a large part of the money he did earn from his poems to build a monument to another Scots poet, Robert Fergusson. Throughout his life, Burns had to work hard to support himself and his family. He carried these pistols and dipping rod when he worked as an Exciseman in Dumfries. The rod would be used to gauge barrels to make sure that merchants were not cheating their customers. During his time as an exciseman, Burns developed a reputation for relentlessly prosecuting the wealthier culprits and displaying leniency to the poorer ones.

Burns Silhouette

Most of the popular images of Robert Burns were produced following his death and based on the portrait by Alexander Nasmyth that is now in the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. Perhaps the most accurate representations of the poet are the silhouettes for which he sat. This was produced by Samuel Houghton and donated to the museum by Burns' descendants.

Wine Glass

Of all the fashionable acquaintances that Burns made in Edinburgh, one of the most enduring was his friendship with Agnes McLehose. Burns and Agnes corresponded in verse, giving themselves the romantic pen-names "Sylvander" and "Clarinda", and exchanged gifts, such as this wine glass. The relationship inspired one of Burns' most famous love-songs, Ae Fond Kiss. They continued to correspond after Burns had left Edinburgh and re-attested his marriage to Jean Armour.

Family Bible

Burns bought the bible in 1788 for £2 from an Edinburgh bookseller. In it he inscribed the names of his wife, Jean Armour, and seven of their children: Robert, Jean, two un-named twins, Francis Wallace, William Nicol and Elizabeth Riddell. Burns' children themselves added the names of two later children, James Glencairn and Maxwell. It was purchased in 1904 for the museum from the famous bookseller, Bernard Quaritch.

Burns Statue

Statues to Robert Burns are to be found across the world, in London, Toronto, Sydney, Auckland and New York, to name but a few. This is a plaster maquette produced by George Lawson for the statue that was erected in Ayr in 1891. Such was the popularity of Lawson's statue that full-sized copies were made for Melbourne, Vancouver, Montreal and Winnipeg and smaller copies for Belfast and the Sorbonne in Paris. The Sorbonne statue was carefully hidden during the German occupation of Paris in the 1940s, to prevent it falling into the hands of the Nazis.

Robert Burns and Highland Mary

In 1786, Burns met and fell in love with a young woman of Highland descent, Mary Campbell. Pursued by creditors and by the family of Jean Armour, who was expecting his twins, Burns had decided to emigrate to Jamaica, bitterly recording his situation on the back of a guinea note (see above). He invited Mary to go to Jamaica with him and, at a secret meeting at Stairaird Crag (depicted here by Midwood), the couple pledged themselves to each other in a Gaelic ritual, exchanging vows and bibles across a burn. Burns sent Mary to wait for him at Greenock, while he tried to raise money for their passage, through publishing his poems. Poor Highland Mary was to wait in vain. Burns was quite overcome by the critical acclaim and celebrity that his book won him. Furthermore, Jean gave birth to twins, with whom Robert was delighted. With the distractions of fame and his new children, Robert repeatedly postponed his departure. In October 1786, still waiting for Robert, Mary died of a fever (some speculate as a result of carrying Robert's child although this is hotly contested by many Burns experts). It was several years before Burns could bring himself to write of the grief he felt at the sad death of Highland Mary Campbell.

Robert Burns and Captain Grose

In 1789, Burns met the antiquarian, Captain Francis Grose, a "cheerful-looking grig of an old fat fellow" who was collecting material for a book on the antiquities of Scotland. With a similarly cavalier attitude to personal fortune and a love of company, Burns took to Grose at once and pressed him to include his much loved Kirk Alloway in the book. Grose agreed, on the condition that he provide a witch tale to go with it. The resulting story was Tam o'Shanter, Burns' masterpiece.Painting by T R S Lauder.

The Holy Fair

Burns' poetry has continued to provide a wealth of subjects for artists' since his death. This painting, by Alexander Carse, illustrates Burns' poem, The Holy Fair, In the foreground sit a line of pious hypocrites, often the target of Burns funniest and most savage poetry.

The Brig o'Doon

The orientalist and landscape artist David Roberts painted this romantic view of Alloway in 1862. The countryside that inspired Burns has continued to fascinate artists. In 2002, 10 acres of Alloway were made into a multi-media installation by environmental artists, the NVA organisation.