Manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland

The Burns Cottage Deposit: ACC 9381
The Library has received on deposit a considerable part of the collection of manuscripts belonging to the Trustees of the Burns Cottage Museum at Alloway.

The most significant parts of this tremendous - and unrivalled - collection of the poet's manuscripts are on display at the Cottage Museum. However, for purposes of accessibility for scholars and the security of those manuscripts not on display at Alloway, the Trustees have deposited the remainder in the National Library of Scotland. A detailed inventory of the collection is available for consultation on the Library's website at Manuscripts Catalogues and Guides: Guide to the Manuscript Collection (Acc 9381). There are a number of letters of the poet to many of his well-known correspondents.

Among the more significant items are the following poems and letters:

• A volume of eight poems (including The birks of Aberfeldey - Composed on the spot) written during the Highland tour of autumn 1787 (Acc 9381/309). (See Travels & Music page for tour map.)

• Two Jacobite songs (Acc.9381/312).

• A Poet's Welcome to his love-begotten Daughter (Acc 9381/316). (See Early Manhood page for the first page of this letter.)

• The Dumfries Volunteers (Acc 9381/325). In January 1795 a movement was got under way to defend the nation from possible French attack, and Burns was instrumental in the formation of the Dumfries Volunteers. This poem was published in various newspapers in May of that year.

• Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn (Acc 9381/327).

• Lament of Mary Queen of Scots on the Approach of Spring (Acc 9381/381). Completed in June 1790 and sent by Burns to Mrs Dunlop of Dunlop who shared his sympathies for the Queen. A fine example of what some regard as Burns's posturing sympathy for the House of Stewart.

• Letter of Burns to Maria Riddell (Acc 9381/425), January 1794, in which he attempts to heal the rupture in his friendship with her family (detailed on the Glenriddell Manuscripts page). He laments: 'Your reception of me was such, that a wretch, meeting the eye of his Judge, about to pronounce sentence of death on him, could only have envied my feelings & situation'.

• Letter of Burns to Mrs Dunlop of Dunlop (Acc 9381/445), December 1794-January 1795, in which he enthuses about the executions of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette: '... & I cannot approve of the honest Doctor's [John Moore] whining over the deserved fate of a certain pair of personages. What is there in delivering over a perjured Blockhead and an unprincipled prostitute to the hands of the hangman ...'.

• Twelve letters between Burns (writing as 'Sylvander') to Mrs Nancy McLehose (writing as 'Clarinda') (Acc 9381/448-59), 1787-1791. (See Watson Autograph Collection - MS 586 - for the final letter in this exchange of correspondence, and also our Edinburgh page.)

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