The Scottish Adventure ...

On this day...English poet John Keats visited the home of another famous composer of verse, Robert Burns in 1818. During a summer walking tour in the North Country, whilst traversing 20 or 30 miles a day, Keats came to the family home of the Scottish Bard in Alloway.

The 'Ploughman Poet', who had died 24 years previously, has since been lauded as a founder of the Romantic movement, and influenced not only Keats himself, but also his contemporaries, such as Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth. It was here that Keats composed his sonnet, 'Written in the Cottage Where Burns Was Born' - a poem most notable for its premonitory first line, 'this mortal body of a thousand days'. Keats died 43 days short of this number.

Robert hasn't Burnt his bridges yet....

On a similar note, a rare letter by Robert Burns' widow has been unveiled today. The epistle is written by Jean Armour in 1804, in response to enquiries about herself and the welfare of her children. In response, she communicates the death of the two children, one of whom died just two years after Burns himself, and thanked the writer for their concern. The letter was bought in a New York junk shop for $75, by an American scholar, who had just finished a lecture on Burns at  the Library of Congress. Now, on the precipice of the hand over to the National Library of Scotland, the owner said; 'I hope its availability will increase public awareness of Jean Armour Burns, a remarkable and frequently underappreciated woman whose understanding and support assisted Robert Burns to pursue his art'.

On this day...

Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns, was born in 1759. 'Scotland's favourite son' started life with a fragmented education, built around rigorous labour on his father's farm, schooled mostly in Christianity by his father. Perhaps unusually, it was his hard physical work that led to the development of his writing craft; early songs and poetry were composed for various female farmhands, whom he encountered during his travels. Indeed his amorous adventures were legendary, Burns said to have fathered fifteen children, six out of wedlock. Burns had been on the verge of emigrating to Jamaicia, yet in a sudden turn, caused by the death of his then love Mary Campbell, Burns instead moved to Edinburugh and then Dumfries; steadily writing all the while. His works were greatly influenced by both Classical and Biblical themes, as well as, naturally, strong Scottish tradition. Said to be a pioneer of the Romantic movement, Burns' best known works include, 'Auld Lang Syne', 'A Red, Red Rose', and 'To a Mouse'. The night of his birth is celebrated throughout Scotland with 'Burn's Night'; a supper swathed in tradition, including haggis and readings of his poetry. Burns died in 1796, at the age of 37.