Gilbert Burns was born about the year 1760. He was eighteen months
younger than his brother Robert, Scotland's most gifted bard. With him
he was early inured to toil, and rendered familiar with the hardships of
the peasant's lot; like him, too, he was much subject to occasional
depression of spirits, and from whatever cause, he had contracted a
similar bend or stoop in the shoulders; his frame, like that of Robert,
was cast in a manly and symmetrical mould. The profile of his
countenance resembled that of his brother, and their phrenological
developments are said to have been not dissimilar; the principal
disparity lay in the form and expression of the eye, which in Gilbert
was fixed, sagacious, and steady--in Robert, almost "in a fine
frenzy rolling."
Gibert Burns was the archetype of his father, a very remarkable man; his
piety was equally warm and sincere; and, in all the private relations of
life, as an elder of the church, a husband, a father, a master, and a
friend, he was preeminent. His writings want that variety, originality,
and ease, which shine so conspicuously even in the prose works of the
poet; but they have many redeeming points about them. His taste was as
pure as his judgment was masculine. He has been heard to say, that the
two most pleasurable moments of his life were--first, when he read
Mackenzie's story of La Roche, and secondly, when Robert took him apart,
at the breakfast or dinner hour, during harvest, and read to him, while
seated on a barley sheaf, his MS. copy of the far-famed Cotter's
"Saturday Night."
When Robert Burns was invited by Dr. Blacklock to visit Edinburgh,
Gilbert was struggling in the unthrifty farm of Mosgiel, and toiling
late and early to keep a house over the heads of his aged mother and
unprotected sisters. The poet's success was the first thing that stemmed
the ebbing tide of his fortunes. On settling with Mr. Creech, in
February, 1788, he received, as the profits of his second publication,
about 500l.; and, with that generosity which formed a part of his
nature, he immediately presented Gilbert with nearly half of his whole
wealth. Thus succoured, Gilbert married a Miss Breconridge, and removed
to a better farm at Dinning, in Dumfriesshire. While there, he was
recommended to Lady Blantyre, whose estates in East Lothian he
subsequently managed for nearly a quarter of a century. He died at
Grant's Braes, in the neighbourhood of Haddington, on one of the
Blantyre farms, on the 8th of April. He had no fixed complaint; but, for
several months preceding his dissolution, a gradual decay of nature had
been apparent. It is probable that his death was accelerated by severe
domestic afflictions; as, on the 4th of January, he lost a daughter, who
had long been the pride of his family hearth; and, on the 26th of
February following, his youngest son, a youth of great promise, died at
Edinburgh, of typhus fever, on the eve of his being licensed for the
ministry. Mrs. Burns, who brought him a family of six sons and five
daughters, of whom five sons and one daughter are living, survivors.
It ought to be mentioned that the two hundred pounds which Robert Burns
lent to his brother, in the year 1788, was not repaid till 1820. Gilbert
was far from affluent; in early life he had to struggle even for
existence; and, therefore, to know that his aged mother and one or two
sisters, were properly supported, was, in the poet's eyes, a full
acquittance of all claims. The children of Robert viewed the subject in
the same light. In 1819, Gilbert Burns was invited by Messrs. Cadell and
Davies, to revise a new edition of his brother's works; to supply
whatever he found wanting, and correct whatever he thought amiss. He
accepted the invitation; and, by appending much valuable matter to the
late Dr. Currie's biography, he at once vindicated his brother's memory
from many aspersions which had been cast upon it, and established his
own credit as an author. On receiving payment for his labour, the first
thing he did was, to balance accounts, to the uttermost farthing, with
the widow and family of his deceased brother. The letter which
accompanied the remittance of the money was, in the highest degree,
creditable to his feelings.
_Monthly Magazine_.
* * * * *