During the years 1781–1782, at the age of 23, Robert Burns (1759–1796) lived in Irvine, North Ayrshire for a period of around 9 months,Dougall, page 232.Douglas, page 24. whilst learning the craft of flax-dressing from Alexander Peacock, who may have been his mother's half-brother, working at the heckling shop in the Glasgow Vennel.Hogg, page 56. Dr John Cumming of Milgarholm, a provost of Irvine, claimed that he had invited Burns to come to Irvine to learn flax dressing.Hunter, Page 264 During this time he made a number of acquaintances, befriended several locals and took regular walks into the Eglinton Woods via the old Irvine to Kilwinning toll road and the Drukken or Drucken (Drunken) Steps.Scots Dictionary Steps over the Red Burn and back via the site of Saint Brides or Bryde's Well at Stanecastle.Boyle, page 48. Burns had several other connections with the Eglinton Estate and other branches of the Montgomerie family. He probably left in March 1782.Hogg, page 57.
The Montgomeries, Earls of Eglinton
Archibald Montgomerie, the eleventh Earl of Eglinton (1726–96) succeeded to the title in 1769. He was known as General Montgomerie, having raised the 77th Regiment of Foot in the Highlands in 1757, of which he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in command.Burns Encyclopedia
Archibald, the 11th Earl, stood as guarantor for the printing of the 1786 'Kilmarnock Edition' of Robert Burns' poems, together with John GoldiePurdie, page 146 and John Hamilton,McQueen, page 38. later Dr. Hamilton, a medical student and son of Provost Charles Hamilton of Irvine. The Hamiltons lived at the entry to the Glasgow Vennel close to Burns ' lodgings and may have been a link in his coming to Irvine in the first instance.Hill, page 67.
The Earl of Eglinton also sent ten guineas to Burns on his arrival in Edinburgh as a subscription for a 'brace', that is two copies, quoted however as 42 by most authors (36 by oneHogg, page 143. and in the subscribers listBurns, page XX.Chambers, V. II, page 16.Boyle, page 50.Life of Robert Burns) of the Edinburgh Edition of the Poems. At 5s for subscribers and 6s for others, 10 guineas for two would have been extremely generous.Burns Encyclopedia and the actual intention is quoted as To bespeak (order in advance) the new edition and hand him a suitable gift of money.Chambers, V. II, page 16 Mrs. Dunlop of Dunlop, a regular correspondent of Burns, had spoken to her friend Doctor John Moore about Burns as a Miracle of Genius and it was this 'Kind Man' who had encouraged the Earl to become a patron of Burns.
Writing in response to the Earl's purchase on 11 January 1787, Burns said:
Your Munificence, my Lord, certainly deserved my very grateful acknowledgements, but your Patronage is a bounty peculiarly suited to my feelings.
The Earls retained their interest in Burns as shown by the subscribers list in James Currie's The Complete Works of Burns, the first major work on the life and works of Burns, published in 1800. The 12th Earl subscribed for 12 copies; more copies than most subscribers who were not actually in the book trade.
The Montgomeries in general and Colonel Hugh Montgomerie (Sodger Hugh) in particular, are included in Burns' 'The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer' of 1776, dedicated "To the Right Honourable and Honourable Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons."Burns's Poems.
These lines refer to the Earl:-
Earnest Cry and Prayer
"Thee, sodger Hugh, my watchman stented, If bardees e'er are represented, I ken, if that your sword was wanted, Ye'd lend your hand; But when there's ought to say anent it, Ye'r at a stand."
This stanza was suppressed in Burns' first editions, even though it was well known that Sodger Hugh found it 'easier to do a thing than to talk about it'.Aikman, page 3.
Burns also wrote the following lines:-
On A Dog of Lord Eglintons
"I never barked when out of season, I never bit without a reason; I ne'er insulted weaker brother, Nor wronged by force or fraud another. We brutes are placed a rank below; Happy for man could he say so."
The 12th Earl of Eglinton, 'Sodger Hugh' was a third cousin of the 11th Earl, originally lived at Coilsfield House near Tarbolton, where Burns's 'Highland Mary', probably Mary Campbell, had been a byre woman and possibly the mistress of the Earl's brother, Captain James Montgomerie of Coilsfield. She had previously worked for Gavin Hamilton in Mauchline.Hogg, page 95.Highland Mary and Captain Montgomerie Mary Campbell inspired some of Burns' finest and most famous poems.
Burns wrote the following lines about his separation from Mary Campbell at Coilsfield (Montgomery Castle):Dougall, pages 120–121 –
"Ye banks and braes and streams around The castle of Montgomerie, Green be your woods, and fair your flowers, Your waters never drumlie! There simmer first unfauld her robes, And there the longest tarry! For there I took the last fareweel O' my Sweet Highland Mary."
The 12th Earl's sister, Lillias, married John Hamilton of Sundrum, who was appointed 'Oversman', or referee, in Robert Burns' father's dispute with his landlord David McLure.Lillias Hamilton née Montgomerie.
Montgomerie's Peggy, Peggy Thompson, was another of Burns' dalliances. Peggy was a 'superior servant', possibly the housekeeper of Coilsfield House and Burns made her acquaintance through passing billets doux (love letters) to her at church. He vowed to her:Dougall, page 119.-
Montgomerie's Peggy
"Were I a Baron proud and high, And horse and servants waiting ready, Then a' 'twad gie o'joy to me – The shairin't wi' Montgomerie's Peggy."
It was clear to him that she loved another, and Burns wrote that it took him a few months to get over her.Chambers, V. 1, page 70.
Irvine and the Drukken Steps
Robert Burns wrote to Richard Brown, or Ritchie Broun, (1753–1833), on 30 December 1787, saying My will o' wisp fate, you know: do you remember a Sunday we spent together in Eglinton Woods? You told me, on my repeating some verses to you that you wondered I could resist the temptation of sending verses of such merit to a magazine.Kilwinning 2000, page 36. Therefore, it was Richard Brown who gave Burns the idea, in the woodlands of the Eglinton estate, that he should publish his work.Hogg, page 58. In confirmation, Burns wrote the following to Brown, Twas actually this that gave me an idea of my own pieces which encouraged me to endeavour at the character of a Poet. Burns did not, as we shall see, follow his friend's advice immediately, for five years elapsed before he ventured into print.Burns Letters 1787 William Wallace is also said to have been familiar with these same woods.
Why the change of heart? Robert and his brother Gilbert took the farm of Mossgiel (Mauchline) after their father's death in 1784, and, struggling to make a living, Robert despaired of his future in farming and made some initial plans to emigrate to Jamaica. It was now that Richard Brown's encouragement to go into print bore fruit, and this at last led to the first published Kilmarnock Edition of his works appearing in 1786 to raise money for his proposed emigration.The Letters of Burns
John Goldie the 'Philosopher' is said to have met Robert Burns at Mossgiel Farm and after listening to his poems was sufficiently impressed to encourage him to have them printed and introduced him to several men of influence in Kilmarnock who ensured that the printing at John Wilson's press went ahead.
Richard Brown, a sea captain, had fought for the liberty of the Americans against the British, and the American struggle for freedom, obvious in the poet's early poems, can be attributed to Brown. The collection received so much praise, especially in Edinburgh, that Robert gave up the idea of emigration and went to Edinburgh instead to publish a second edition of his works. Richard Brown was one of the few people to receive a signed presentation copy of the Kilmarnock Edition of Burns' poems, found hidden in a piece of Richard Brown's household furniture after the captain's death.
Burns however later recalled in an autobiographical letter regarding his time spent in Irvine:
"Rhyme ... I had given up; but meeting Fergusson's Scotch Poems, I strung anew my wildly-sounding, rustic lyre with emulating vigour."
He is here referring to the poet Robert Fergusson (1750–1774).Hecht, Page 101
Robin Cummell's account in fiction
Robin relates that one Sunday on his way to the kirk he met Richard Brown and Robert Burns at the Redburn Gate. They walked into the Eglinton beech woods and discussed how Burns' many friends, such as Davie Sillar and they, themselves, were greatly impressed by his poems. Burns stated that Auld Robin Gray was the king of ballads and reflected as to how many are not famous until they are dead. Richard Brown commented that princes royal and dukes might seek the throne and get it, thus encouraging Burns to publish his works.Service, Pages 148 & 149
The route of the old Toll Road
The Drukken Steps in the old Eglinton Woods near Stanecastle at NS 329 404, was a favourite haunt of Burns and Richard Brown whilst the two were in Irvine in 1781–82 and a commemorative cairn off Bank Street at MacKinnon Terrace, next to the expressway, is erroneously said to stand a few hundred yards from the site of the Drukken stepping stones across the Red Burn, also said to be the site of Saint Bryde's or Bride's well. Until recently, therefore, the Drukken Steps were thought to have been buried beneath the road surface.Love, page 60.
Richard Brown was Burns' closest friend in Irvine. Burns said of him : This gentleman's mind was fraught with courage, independence, magnanimity, and every noble manly virtue. I loved him, I admired him to a degree of enthusiasm; and I strove to imitate him. In some measure I succeeded: I had the pride before, but he taught it to flow in proper channels. His knowledge of the world was vastly superior to mine, and I was all attention to learn.
Others view of Richard Brown was less charitable, such as:That moral leper who spoke of illicit love with all the levity of a sailor.Harvey, page 120. Gilbert Burns says of Robert's days in Irvine that he here contracted some acquaintances of a freer manner of thinking and living than he had been used to, whose society prepared him for overleaping the bounds of rigid virtue, which had hitherto restrained him. Robert himself stated that Brown's views on illicit love did me a mischief.Wilson, page 13 When Brown heard of Burns's comments he exclaimed Illicit love! Levity of a sailor! When I first knew Burns he had nothing to learn in that respect.Annandale, Page 28
The name 'Drukken' steps name derives from a person's gait as they stepped from stone to stone whilst crossing the burn. The Drukken Steps therefore were on the course of the old Toll Road in 1774, which ran from the west end of Irvine through the Eglinton policies to Kilwinning via Milnburn or Millburn;McLure, page 53. crossing the Red burn near Knadgerhill (previously Knadgar and pronounced 'Nygerhill' as in the country.Irvine Herald.) and running passed 'The Higgin's cottage, the 'Hygenhouse' of 1774, now demolished.
In 1799, the Earl closed the road beyond the Drukken steps to 'protect' his new policies, providing a new road instead which ran via Knadgerhill.Strawhorn, Page 95
Steps Road in Irvine commemorates the Drukken steps.Strawhorn, Page 223
Higgin's House and the toll road
Views of the Higgin's House site in 2009