Letter from Robert Burns to John Richmond, 17 February 1786

Key details

Archive number: NTS/02/25/BRN/01/06
Alt. number: 3.6032
Date: 17 February 1786
On display: Yes
Creator: Burns, Robert (Author)
Recipient: Richmond, John

Explore correspondence between the creator and recipient

Description

Letter from Robert Burns to John Richmond, dated Mossgiel, 17 February 1786.

John Richmond was a close friend of Robert Burns from his Mauchline days who became a lawyer in Edinburgh and with whom Burns conducted an active correspondence.

In this letter, Burns tells Richmond of his latest work, listing six titles and announcing that Robert Aitken of Ayr was now his chief patron. He mentions that nothing has changed recently in 'Machlin', that he has important news of his own which he chooses not to divulge, and that the other member of their group, James Smith, was now his only friend remaining.

This letter also shows the original spelling of Robert’s surname. The family used both ‘Burness’ and ‘Burnes’, but by the end of 1786 Robert had changed the spelling of his surname to ‘Burns'.

Seall barrachd

Archive information

Place of creation

Mossgeil

Themes

Hierarchy

Letters from and to Robert Burns ( )