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Draft of letter from Robert Burns to Lady Elizabeth Cunningham, 23 December 1879

Key details

Archive number
NTS/02/25/BRN/01/37
Alt. number
3.6064
Date
23 December 1879 to 23 December 1789
On display
No
Creator
Burns, Robert (Author)
Recipient
Cunningham, Lady Elizabeth

Explore correspondence between the creator and recipient

Description

Draft of a letter from Robert Burns to Lady Elizabeth Cunningham, dated Ellisland, 23 December 1879.

This is a first draft of letter. The final letter is in Edinburgh University Library collection. Unsigned.

These are the first two pages of the first draft of a three page letter which Burns wrote to Lady Elizabeth Cunningham, sister of his patron, the Earl of Glencairn. While the first page remains largely unchanged, the second shows considerable editing and addition in the final version.

In the first page, Burns acknowledges receipt of a letter and some verses from the Lady which he says has lifted his December gloom. He defends her challenge of neglect of the Glencairn family with some lines from Psalm 137, and describes how he honors their patronage whenever he has the toast at a gala occasion.

He indicates that he is enclosing poems with the letter and starts to describe his change of life through obtaining an Excise commission due to the need for a regular income on account of the ruinous state of his farming affairs. This latter problem he plays down in the final version.

The first seven lines of this second page are condensed to four in the final version and Burns is at pains to justify the economic reason for his change and assures her that he still has 'poetic pursuits'. He changes this section considerably, with it becoming 'to be a Poet, is my highest ambition, my dearest wish, and my unwearied study'.

In the final section on this page he shows an interest in branching out into writing Drama and asks Lady Cunningham for a view on whether an Edinburgh audience would be more interested in Scottish rather than unfamiliar subjects.

Archive information

Place of creation


Hierarchy

  1. Letters from and to Robert Burns ( )
  2. Draft of letter from Robert Burns to Lady Elizabeth Cunningham, 23 December 1879

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