His fortunes fell very low in 1786, and he intended to sail for the West Indies, there to try to better them. But his first volume of poetry proved to be such a great success that he did not go. His poems took the people by storm. Everyone read them. He was invited to Edinburgh, where he became the lion of the hour.
But all this did not bring him in much money. Finally, in 1789 he got a position as excise officer. But as the years went on, and he grew wilder and wilder in his dissipations, friends drew away from him. His only companions were those of the lowest classes.
At last, on July 4, 1796, he knew that he was dying. He wrote on the twelfth to his cousin for a loan of fifty dollars, to save him from passing his last days in jail. He died on the twenty-first of July, 1796.
The Burns Cottage, near Ayr is reverently preserved as a memorial to the poet. Here is the little room where he was born, and here are to be found many mementos associated with his life. This cot, built of clay by Burns’ father, is a shrine for those who love the memory of the “peasant poet.”
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 10, SERIAL No. 10
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
ELLENS ISLE, SCOTLAND
SCOTLAND
Ellens Isle
TWO