Farmer’s son at his poetic peak was feted during his walking tours, academics reveal
Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns, frequently celebrated as a simple “heaven-taught ploughman”, was an 18th-century socialite on a political mission, according to academic research about his walking tours of Scotland and the notes he made as he travelled and met fans in the Borders region, the Highlands and Lowland Scotland in 1787.
On the eve of annual Burns Night celebrations, scholars from the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow and National Library of Scotland have published details of the Ayrshire farmer’s son’s routes, the places he stayed and the people he met.
Together with his reflections on Scottish society and culture, they reveal that, at the age of 28, Burns was engaged with the leading political issues of the day and was feted by some of the most powerful and wealthy people in Scotland.
“The tour journals are fascinating because they offer us an insight into the life of a poet who was operating at the peak of his powers and reaping the benefits of his new-found fame,” said Professor Nigel Leask, regius chair of English language and literature at the University of Glasgow.
“These texts also show Burns ruminating on some of the pressing social and political issues of the day; far from the figure of the ‘heaven-taught ploughman’, at this point he was keeping company with some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the land.”
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On the eve of annual Burns Night celebrations, scholars from the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow and National Library of Scotland have published details of the Ayrshire farmer’s son’s routes, the places he stayed and the people he met.
Together with his reflections on Scottish society and culture, they reveal that, at the age of 28, Burns was engaged with the leading political issues of the day and was feted by some of the most powerful and wealthy people in Scotland.
“The tour journals are fascinating because they offer us an insight into the life of a poet who was operating at the peak of his powers and reaping the benefits of his new-found fame,” said Professor Nigel Leask, regius chair of English language and literature at the University of Glasgow.
“These texts also show Burns ruminating on some of the pressing social and political issues of the day; far from the figure of the ‘heaven-taught ploughman’, at this point he was keeping company with some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the land.”
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