Burns manuscripts in the Blavatnik Honresfield Library: MSS 50700 and 50701
A collection of Burns manuscripts including his First Commonplace Book and a series of letters and poems that was assembled by the Rochdale mill owner William Law (1836-1901). The wider Library included manuscripts not only of Burns, but of Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Brontë. The collection passed through the Law family and disappeared from public view in the 1930s. It remained inaccessible until 2021 when Sotheby’s auction house announced that it would auction off the collection.
A UK-wide consortium, including the National Library of Scotland, came together to raise the money required to purchase the collection. In 2022 the Friends of the National Libraries, who co-ordinated the acquisition, presented the collection to the various consortium members. The First Commonplace Book is owned jointly by the National Library of Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland and is normally stored at the National Library.
The First Commonplace Book, MS.50700
Burns complied the First Commonplace Book between 1783 and 1785. It was written before Burns came to national attention following the publication of his 'Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect' (1786), more commonly called the 'Kilmarnock edition'. It offers a fascinating insight into the poetic development of the man who would go on to become Scotland's National Bard.
Although it is commonly called the 'Commonplace Book', it is not strictly a commonplace book, and Burns did not refer to it as such. In the Glenriddell manuscript MS.87 he called it 'a M.S.S. of my early years, in which I had determined to write myself out' (page 31). See also the Glenriddell Manuscripts volume two.
Commonplace books were usually volumes where people wrote out passages transcribed from books, remarks, and anecdotes. They recorded the owner’s own reading habits and reading experience. Burns's Commonplace Book does contain references to his reading, such as the works of the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) and the English poet William Shenstone (1714-1763). However, it is populated with his own poetry more than the work of other poets. It was Burns's first biographer, James Currie (1756-1805), who first applied the term 'commonplace book' to this work in 1800 and this has remained the most consistent description of the volume.
Burns started the First Commonplace Book at the age of 24 in April 1783 while his family was at Lochlea Farm in Ayrshire. In the two years that followed, Burns's father, William, died (1784), and the farm endured many problems caused by crop failure and bad weather. By the time of the last entry in October 1785 the Burns family had moved to Mossgiel Farm just outside of Mauchline, Ayrshire.
Significantly, some of the most impressive pieces in the Kilmarnock edition, such as ‘The Cottar's Saturday Night', 'The Holy Fair' and 'The Twa Dogs' do not even appear as drafts in the First Commonplace Book. Burns wrote these in late 1785 or 1786 after abandoning this volume. Of the 36 works published in the Kilmarnock edition, versions of only five poems, an epigram, an epitaph, and a fragment of a song are contained in the First Commonplace Book. Therefore the work is an invaluable resource for examining Burns's early creative growth as he experimented with poetic styles and improved his technique before committing his works to print.
Highlights from the volume include:
- References to Burns's wider reading which in turn influences his poetic output. In the case of Adam Smith Burns wrote: 'I entirely agree with that judicious Philosopher Mr Smith in his excellent Theory of Moral Sentiments, that Remorse is the most painful sentiment that can embitter the human bosom' (page 5). Rather than the image of the 'heaven-taught ploughman', the Commonplace Book demonstrates Burns's education and extensive reading.
- The lyrics to 'Green grow the rashes, O'. Burns originally intended this work to have been 'an elaborate dissertation on the various species of men; but as I cannot please myself in the arrangement of my ideas, I must wait till farther experience, & nicer observation throw more light on the subject' (page 16). Here Burns acknowledges the limits of his abilities as they were in 1784, but the song itself would go on to become a popular choice for those performing the Bard's works.
- 'John Barleycorn'. Burns noted that he had previously heard an old song with the same name. He remembered parts of it and added his own words. It is a very early example of one of Burns's great strengths — taking old songs and lyrics, and reshaping and crafting them into something new. 'John Barleycorn' is the personification of the whisky-making process, charting the progress from plant to whisky (pages 22-23).
- 'Epistle to John Lapraik'. Burns described Lapraik (1727-1807) as a 'true, genuine, Scottish Bard' (page 26). It was the most substantial piece in the Commonplace Book to appear in the Kilmarnock edition. In the poem, Burns champions nature over book-learning for poetic expression claiming 'Gie me ae spark o' nature's fire / That's a' the learnin' I desire' (page 28). However, Burns demonstrates a keen knowledge of the poetic tradition of Scotland through references to the poets Allan Ramsay (1684-1758) and Robert Fergusson (1750-1774).
Letters and Poems of Robert Burns, MS.50701
William Law collected a number of individual letters and poems of Burns during the 1890s. A total of 24 manuscripts were assembled in the Blavatnik Honresfield Library. This collection was split between the National Library of Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland, with 12 manuscripts going to each institution.
Highlights from this collection held at the National Library include:
- The only surviving letter that Burns wrote to his father, William Burnes, 27 December 1781. In this letter Burns discusses his ill-health and imagines that he may die early. 'I am quite transported at the thought, that ere long, perhaps very soon, I shall bid an eternal adieu to all the pains, & uneasiness & disquietudes of this weary life' (folios 5-6).
- Letter of Burns to John Ballantine (1743-1812), 13 December 1786. Following the success of the Kilmarnock edition Burns was encouraged to go Edinburgh and publish another edition of his poems. During his stay in the capital, Burns wrote back to his friend in Ayrshire describing his experience. The letter references a number of key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment whom Burns encountered, such as Hugh Blair (1718-1800), the Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh, and Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831), the author of the novel 'The Man of Feeling' (1771), a work that Burns greatly admired.
- Letter of Burns to Frances Dunlop (1730-1815), 22 August 1792. Mrs Dunlop had been an early patron of Burns following the publication of the Kilmarnock edition. Here, Burns writes to her in advance of the appearance of a new edition of his poems and includes a recently composed work 'The bonie Lesly Bailie' (folios 16-19).
- Fragment of 'Auld Lang Syne', written on the back of 'The Lass of Cessnock Banks'. After writing out 'The Lass' on three pages, Burns used the last page to write out some of the lyrics for 'Auld Lang Syne'. The iconic first verse is missing, but the rest of the song, starting from the second verse is present (folios 25-26).