Born January 25, 1759. Died July 21, 1796.
he date of the birth of Burns has been variously given as January 25 and January 29, the former date is probably correct judging from the lines:
“Our monarch’s hindmost year but ane.
Was five and twenty days begun,
’Twas then a blast o’ Janwar win’
Blew hansel in our Robin.”
It is now generally adopted, and the celebration of the Centenary of Burns’s birth was certainly held at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, on January 25, 1859.
Of all the Poems written by Burns no one is so grand, or so generally popular as Bruce’s address to his troops, which Burns is said to have composed as he rode home through a heavy storm. He sent the following draft of it to his friend Mr. George Thomson, in September, 1793, suggesting that the poem might be set to the old Scotch air Hey Tuttie Taittie.