There are few figures which appeal more picturesquely to the imagination
than that of the ploughman-poet--swarthy, stalwart, black-eyed,--striding
along the furrow in the grey of a dreary dawn. Yet Burns was far from
being a mere uncultured peasant, nor did he come of peasant stock. His
forefathers were small yeoman farmers, who had risked themselves in the
cause of the Young Pretender: they had a certain amount of family pride
and family tradition. Robert Burns had been educated in small schools,
by various tutors, and by his father, a man of considerable attainments.
He had acquired some French and Latin, studied mensuration, and
acquainted himself with a good deal of poetry and many theological and
philosophical books.
_Painting by E. W. Haslehust._