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Letter from Robert Burns to William Dunbar, 7 April 1788

Key details

Archive number
NTS/02/25/BRN/01/80
Alt. number
3.6308
Date
7 April 1788
On display
No
Creator
Burns, Robert (Author)
Recipient
Dunbar, William

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Description

Letter from Robert Burns to William Dunbar, dated Mauchline, 7 April 1788.

Three page letter where Burns appraises his Edinburgh friend William Dunbar of his recent farm commitment at Ellisland, some 40 miles from Mauchline, admitting to a lack of business acumen and asking him for news of the Edinburgh scene which he has recently left behind. (letter no 236)

In the first page Burns for once does not excuse his delay in replying to a letter, in this case only 3 weeks old. He then explains he is busy setting up the farm at Ellisland and needs to improve his "knowledge of business" and is putting aside his earlier dissipated life for a more serious existence.

Page two is largely devoted to a plea by Burns to encourage Dunbar to continue his correspondence with him as he has few Edinburgh friends who do so now he has left and he is anxious for news of the gossip from the Capital. He finishes this page by saying he has written scarcely two lines of poetry since he left Edinburgh.

On page three Burns asks after Dunbar's health, which had been poorly when they last met, and the then continues his plea for Dunbar to write to him no matter how well he may be feeling.

Burns's previous letter to William Dunbar, a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, had been enclosed with the return of a book and had been written a few days before he ended his winter's stay Edinburgh and left for Mauchline in February 1788.

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  1. Letters from and to Robert Burns ( )
  2. Letter from Robert Burns to William Dunbar, 7 April 1788