Letter from Robert Burns to Robert Ainslie, 1 November 1789
Ellisland 1st November 1789
My dear Friend
I had written you long ere now could I have
guessed where to find you; but for I am sure you have more
good sense than to waste the precious days of vacation
time in the dirt of Business & Edinburgh - Wherever
you are, God bless you, & lead you not into temptation but
deliver you from evil!
I do not know if I have informed you that I am now
appointed to an Excise Division in the middle of which
my house & farm lie. - In this I was extremely lucky. -
Without ever having been an Expectant, as they call their
Journeymen Excisement, I was directly planted down
to all intents & purposes an Officer of Excise, there to
flourish & bring forth fruits - worthy of repentance. -
I know how the word, Exciseman, or still more opprobrious,
Gauger, will sound in your ears. - I too have
seen the day when my auditory nerves would have felt
very delicately on this subject, but a wife & children are
things which have a wonderful power in blunting
My dear Friend
I had written you long ere now could I have
guessed where to find you; but for I am sure you have more
good sense than to waste the precious days of vacation
time in the dirt of Business & Edinburgh - Wherever
you are, God bless you, & lead you not into temptation but
deliver you from evil!
I do not know if I have informed you that I am now
appointed to an Excise Division in the middle of which
my house & farm lie. - In this I was extremely lucky. -
Without ever having been an Expectant, as they call their
Journeymen Excisement, I was directly planted down
to all intents & purposes an Officer of Excise, there to
flourish & bring forth fruits - worthy of repentance. -
I know how the word, Exciseman, or still more opprobrious,
Gauger, will sound in your ears. - I too have
seen the day when my auditory nerves would have felt
very delicately on this subject, but a wife & children are
things which have a wonderful power in blunting
these kind of sensations. - Fifty pounds a year for
life, & a provision for widows & orphans, you will
allow, is no bad settlement for a Poet. - For the ignominy
of the Profession, I have the encouragement which I once heard
a recruiting Sergeant give to a numerous if not a respectable
audience in the Streets of Kilmarnock - "Gentlemen, for
"your farther & better encouragement, I can assure you that
"our regiment is the most blackguard corps under the crown,
"and consequently with us an honest fellow has the surest
"chance for preferment. "
You need not doubt I find several very unpleasant and
disagreeable circumstances in my business; but I am tired with
and disgusted at the language of complaint against the
evils of life. - Human existence in the most favourable
situations does not abound with pleasures, and had its in-
conveniences and ills; capricious, foolish Man mistakes these
inconveniences & ills as if they were the peculiar property
of his particular situation; and hence that eternal fickleness
and that love of change which has ruined & daily does ruin
many a fine fellow as well as many a Blockhead; and is
almost without exception a constant source of disappointment & misery. –
life, & a provision for widows & orphans, you will
allow, is no bad settlement for a Poet. - For the ignominy
of the Profession, I have the encouragement which I once heard
a recruiting Sergeant give to a numerous if not a respectable
audience in the Streets of Kilmarnock - "Gentlemen, for
"your farther & better encouragement, I can assure you that
"our regiment is the most blackguard corps under the crown,
"and consequently with us an honest fellow has the surest
"chance for preferment. "
You need not doubt I find several very unpleasant and
disagreeable circumstances in my business; but I am tired with
and disgusted at the language of complaint against the
evils of life. - Human existence in the most favourable
situations does not abound with pleasures, and had its in-
conveniences and ills; capricious, foolish Man mistakes these
inconveniences & ills as if they were the peculiar property
of his particular situation; and hence that eternal fickleness
and that love of change which has ruined & daily does ruin
many a fine fellow as well as many a Blockhead; and is
almost without exception a constant source of disappointment & misery. –
Key details
- Archive number
- NTS/02/25/BRN/01/30
- Alt. number
- 3.6057
- Date
- 1 November 1789
- On display
- No
- Creator
- Burns, Robert (Author)
- Recipient
- Ainslie, Robert
Archive information
Place of creation
Themes
Hierarchy
-
Letters from and to Robert Burns
(
a sub-fonds is a subdivision in the archival material)
- Letter from Robert Burns to Robert Ainslie, 1 November 1789
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