Archives & Special CollectionsRobert Burns’ three formidable foes

This was originally published in January 2013, as part of our Item of the Month series.

This letter from the University’s archives and special collections is an original letter which Robert Burns, Scotland’s favourite bard, wrote on 8th March 1788 from his home in Mauchline, Ayrshire. The recipient of the letter is generally thought to be William Nicol, an Edinburgh schoolmaster with whom Burns exchanged many letters.

Transcript of letter (PDF)

The letter is wonderfully graphic and gives a real insight into Burns’ life and character. A couple of days before he wrote this letter, he had dined at a friend’s house and spent most of the following night ill as a result. He complains about it to Nicol:

That savage hospitality which knocks a man down with strong liquors, is the devil and all. - I have a sore warfare in this world! The Devil, the World and the Flesh, are three formidable foes. The first, I generally try to fly from; the second, Alas! generally flies from me; but the third is my plague, worse than the ten plagues of Egypt.

He goes on to say that he has put in an offer for a farm in Nithsdale and is about to set out for Edinburgh. And he finishes with a reference to his poetry:

…Poesy must be laid aside for some time: my mind has been vitiated with idleness, and it will take a good deal of effort to habituate it to the routine of business.

It is a bit of a mystery as to how the letter came to be at Strathclyde. It was discovered in 1964 in the University Library during the Library’s move from the Royal College building to its new home in the McCance building. Our best guess is that it was part of the Dilettanti Society Collection, one of the Library’s special collections. This collection of works relating to fine arts and art history from the 18th and 19th centuries, came from the library of the Glasgow Dilettanti Society. The society had been formed in 1825 for the improvement of the fine arts and had operated for a time from the buildings of Anderson's College (the forerunner of the University). It deposited its library in Anderson’s University in 1845.

Our letter may only be a single letter from a large output – Burns was a prolific correspondent – but it is nonetheless striking in its portrayal of Burns the man. We are proud to have a small piece of the jigsaw about his life here at Strathclyde.

Victoria Peters, University Archivist