Robert Burns

Robert Burns was born in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1759 into a farming family.

By the time he was 18 he was working on the family farm which was, at that time, at Lochlea.

Following the death of his father in 1784 Burns, then 25 years old, moved to Mossgiel Farm near Mauchline.

Lapraik was one of a number of local poets who influenced Burns during his early years.

The story goes that after hearing one of Lapraik's songs, entitled "When I upon thy bosom lean" he was prompted to write an Epistle to J Lapraik.

John Lapraik replied and the Rev. George Gilfillan, in his 1886 account of the Life of Robert Burns, describes the circumstances of the delivery of Lapraik's reply:

"Lapraik sent a poetical reply to Burns' first letter by the hand of his son, who found the poet in the field sowing. When he gave him the letter, Burns said, "I am not sure if I know the hand;" but when he opened it, he became so engrossed that he let go the sheet holding the grain, and it was half emptied ere he perceived his loss."

In response Burns wrote a Second Epistle - which is regarded as one of his best works - and, later, a Third Epistle to Lapraik.

They are known to have met at Mauchline in 1785 and, later in the year, Burns spent the night at Lapraik's home in Muirsmill. Burns was nearly 30 years younger than Lapraik, then 58 years old, and would have been well acquainted with Lapraik's financial problems which had culminated in him spending time in gaol for debt only three or so years earlier.

Burns struggled as a farmer but, in 1786, had his first poems published by a printer in Kilmarnock called John Wilson.

The success of this first "Kilmarnock edition" of 612 copies of his poems (which were all sold within a month) changed the course of his life.

They remained friends for the rest of Burn's life and it has been suggested that Lapraik was Burns' model in his famous poem, "A Man's a Man for a' That".

Burns moved to Dumfrieshire in 1788 and tried to farm at Ellisland without significant success following which he worked for the Excise at Dumfries.

In 1796 he died, aged only 37, having by then secured his place in history as Scotland's greatest poet.

All of the Epistles and other writings linking the two men have been brought together on a single page.