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Robert Burns as an Exciseman
His various, ill-fated ventures as a farmer
had left Burns totally disillusioned with working on the land so,
just before his 29th birthday, he decided to put his education
to better use by seeking a steady, well-paid job as an exciseman,
(or gauger). An exciseman was employed by the government in what
today would be HM Customs and Excise to ensure that people paid
their taxes, particularly where related to alcohol. It was not
a "trade" that was admired by the common people and it
would be fare to say that excisemen at this time were, to say the
least, unpopular and that attitudes towards them were, shall we
say, ambivalent.
During the previous
few years his new found fame as the "ploughman poet" had
won him many new influential friends and acquaintances. Like
many of us to this day, Burns was well aware that it was not so
much about "what you know" as "who you know",
when it came to job seeking. His main problem, however, was that
while he was a genius as a poet and a very highly educated young
man he had no work experience outside of farming. (Apart from seven
months working in Irvine as a Flax Dresser.)
He decided to seek some of his new friends' patronage
by letting them know that he was seeking a career change. The following
letter was sent to the Earl of Glencairn, a man whom Burns genuinely
admired and after whom he later named his son.
Earl of Glencairn |
" To THE EARL OF GLENCAIRN.
Edinburgh, (January 1788.)
My
Lord,-I know your lordship will disapprove of my ideas
in a request I am going to make to you; but I have weighed,
long and seriously weighed, my situation, my hopes, and
turn of mind, and am fully fixed to my scheme, if I can
possibly effectuate it. I wish to get into the Excise:
I am told that your lordship's interest will easily procure
me the grant from the commissioners; and your lordship's
patronage and goodness, which have already rescued me from
obscurity, wretchedness, and exile, embolden me to ask
that interest. |
| You have likewise put it
in my power to save the little tie of home that sheltered
an aged mother, two brothers, and three sisters from destruction.
There, my lord, you have bound me over to the highest gratitude.
My brother's farm is but a wretched lease,
but I think he will probably weather out the remaining seven
years of it; and after the assistance which I have given,
and will give him, to keep the family together, I think,
by my guess, I shall have rather better than two hundred
pounds, and instead of seeking, what is almost impossible
at present to find, a farm that I can certainly live by,
with so small a stock, I shall lodge this sum in a banking-house,
a sacred deposit, excepting only the calls of uncommon distress
or necessitous old age.
These, my lord, are my views: I have resolved
from the maturest deliberation; and now I am fixed, I shall
leave no stone unturned to carry my resolve into execution.
Your lordship's patronage is the strength of my hopes; nor
have I yet applied to anybody else. Indeed my heart sinks
within me at the idea of applying to any other of the great
who have honoured me with their countenance. I am ill-qualified
to dog the heels of greatness with the impertinence of solicitation,
and tremble nearly as much at the thought of the cold promise
as the cold denial; but to your lordship I have not only
the honour, the comfort, but the pleasure of being your lordship's
much obliged and deeply indebted humble servant,
R. B." |
It has to be said that while Burns was much admired
he was not averse to playing the nepotism card. Indeed the Webster
Dictionary's definition of the word "Nepotism" could
have been written around this situation, i.e., "bestowal of
patronage in consideration of relationship, rather than of merit
or of legal claim".
Burns's heart may have
sank at the idea of "applying to any other of the great" but
it did not prevent him from contacting another influential friend
a week or two later. This was Mr. Robert Graham of Fintry. He
had met Graham when they were both guests of the Duke and Duchess
of Atholl (while visiting Blair Atholl during his tour of Scotland
at the beginning of September 1787). Graham was the Commissioner
of Excise for Scotland and we can speculate that it was during
their meeting that Burns first thought of a career in the Excise.
"To MR. ROBERT GRAHAM, OF FINTRAY.
SIR,- When I had the honour of being
introduced to you at Athole House, I did not think so soon
of asking a favour of you. When Lear, in Shakespeare, asked
Old Kent why he wished to be in his service, he answers, "Because
you have that in your face which I would fain call master." For
some such reason, Sir, do I now solicit your patronage. You
know, I dare say, of an application I lately made to your Board
to be admitted an officer of the Excise. I have, according
to form, been examined by a supervisor, and today I gave in
his certificate, with a request for an order for instructions.
In this affair, if I succeed, I am afraid I shall but too much
need a patronising friend. Propriety of conduct as a man, and
fidelity and attention as an officer, I dare engage for; but
with anything like business, except manual labour, I am totally
unacquainted. [my emphasis]
I had intended to have closed my late appearance
on the stage of life in the character of a country farmer;
but, after discharging some filial and fraternal claims,
I find I could only fight for existence in that miserable
manner, which I have lived to see throw a venerable parent
into the jaws of a jail, whence death, the poor man's last
and often best friend, rescued him.
I know, Sir, that to need your goodness,
is to have a claim on it; may I, therefore, beg your patronage
to forward me in this affair, till I be appointed to a division,
where, by the help of rigid economy, I will try to support
that independence so dear to my soul, but which has been
too often so distant from my situation.
R. B." |
Burns's requests for some influence to be exerted
must have worked because he was put on the roll and when the
call came in the late summer of 1788 he started work as an Exciseman.
At first he must have been doing OK because in September 1789,
he was appointed Excise Officer for Dumfries. Later, in February
1792 he was promoted to the Dumfries Port Division, an appointment
that carried a salary of £50 per annum. This was a high
salary, almost twice the average at that time and coupled
with his income from his poetry it placed him well into the "comfortable" bracket
for the first time in his life.
Initially Burns appears to have thrown
himself at the exciseman's role with enthusiasm. There are a few anecdotal
and apocryphal tales of the adventures in which he became involved in his daily
work. One story, which appears to be both true and documented concerns the
seizing of the smuggling ship "The Rosamond" in March 1792. The ship
had ran aground and despite resistance from the crew and the local population
she was eventually captured. Some stories say that Burns waded into the water,
sword in hand, and captured the ship single handed. This is patently nonsense
but what is certainly true is that Burns was present and amongst those who
took possession of the ship.
The ship and what was left of her cargo were later auctioned
at Dumfries. One story has it that Burns purchased 4 carronades (small cannon
manufactured by the Carron Iron Works in Stirlingshire, near Falkirk) and sent
them to France to aid the revolution. The story goes that they never made it
there because they were impounded by customs at Dover. There is, however, no
evidence to lend credence to this story. It has also been said that this incident
set Burns at odds with his government supervisors who frowned upon it as involving
inappropriate behaviour for an officer of the Excise.
What is probably true is that Burns was already at odds with
his superiors and certainly, there was to be no more promotion. There is some
evidence to suggest that he was not 100% comfortable in his profession.
This is illustrated in this poem, The
Deil's Awa wi' th' Exciseman (The Devil has Taken the Exciseman).
The deil cam fiddlin' thro' the town,
And danc'd awa wi' th' Exciseman,
And ilka wife cries, "Auld Mahoun,
I wish you luck o' the prize, man."
Chorus-The deil's awa, the deil's awa,
The deil's awa wi' the Exciseman,
He's danc'd awa, he's danc'd awa,
He's danc'd awa wi' the Exciseman.
We'll mak our maut, and we'll brew our drink,
We'll laugh, sing, and rejoice, man,
And mony braw thanks to the meikle black deil,
That danc'd awa wi' th' Exciseman.
The deil's awa, &c.
There's threesome reels, there's foursome reels,
There's hornpipes and strathspeys, man,
But the ae best dance ere came to the land
Was-the deil's awa wi' the Exciseman.
The deil's awa, &c.
Further evidence for Burns's lack of esteem
for his position is provided in this letter that he sent to Mr. Hill, the
Edinburgh Bookseller a few months after his original appointment. (Note also
that like many of us, he saw the use of company stationery for personal purposes
as being quite acceptable.)
"To MR. HILL, BOOKSELLER, EDINBURGH.
ELLISLAND, 2nd April 1789.
I will make no excuse, my dear Bibliopolus
(God forgive me for murdering
language!) that I have sat down to write you on this vile paper.
It is economy, Sir; it is that cardinal virtue, prudence; so I beg you will
sit down, and either compose or borrow a panegyric. If you are going to borrow,
apply to ... to compose, or rather to compound, something very clever on my
remarkable frugality; that I write to one of my most esteemed friends on this
wretched paper, which was originally intended for the venal fist of some drunken
exciseman, to take dirty notes in a miserable vault of an ale-cellar.
R. B." |
Burns lived out what was left of his short life
in the employment of the Excise in Dumfries. From late 1795 until his death
on 21st July 1996 he was in extremely poor health as his last few poignant
letters confirm. Towards the end he had rather strangely been advised by
his doctor and friend (Dr. Maxwell) that bathing in the sea on the Solway Firth
would alleviate his problems.
All this did was hasten him to his grave but
he appeared to be feeling the pinch again, his salary having been reduced
to £35 on account of his sickness. On 7th July, he appealed to his old
friend, the lawyer Alexander Cunningham, for help from his "Brow, Sea-bathing
Quarters."
"TO MR. CUNNINGHAM.
BROW, Sea-bathing quarters, 7th July 1796. My Dear Cunningham,-I received yours here
this moment, and am indeed highly flattered with the approbation of the
literary circle you mention; a literary circle inferior to none in the
two kingdoms. Alas! my friend, I fear the voice of the bard will soon
be heard among you no more!
For these eight or ten months I have been
ailing, sometimes bedfast and sometimes not; but these last three months
I have been tortured with an excruciating rheumatism, which has reduced
me to nearly the last stage. You actually would not know me if you
saw me. Pale, emaciated, and so feeble, as occasionally to need help
from my chair-my spirits fled! fled!-but I can no more on the subject-only
the medical folks tell me that my last and only chance is bathing and country
quarters, and riding.
The deuce of the matter is this-when an exciseman
is off duty, his salary is reduced to £35 instead of £50. What
way, in the name of thrift, shall I maintain myself, and keep a horse in
country quarters, with a wife and five children at home, on 35 pounds?
I mention this, because I had intended to beg your utmost interest, and
that of all the friends you can muster, to move our Commissioners of Excise
to grant me the full salary; I dare say you know them all personally. If
they do not grant it me, I must lay my account with an exit truly en
poete; if I die not of disease, I must perish with hunger. I have sent you one of the songs; the other my memory does not serve me
with, and I have no copy here, but I shall be at home soon, when I will
send it you. Apropos to being at home, Mrs. Burns threatens in a week or
two to add one more to my paternal charge, which, if of the right gender,
I intend shall be introduced to the world by the respectable designation
of Alexander Cunningham Burns. My last was James Glencairn,
so you can have no objection to the company of nobility. Farewell.
R. B."
(This request was not granted.) |
Burns's health continued to deteriorate and his
last letter was to his to his father in Law, James Armour, requesting that
he send his wife to help with the birth of their latest child which was due
at any time.
To HIS FATHER-IN-LAW, JAMES ARMOUR, MASON, MAUCHLINE.
"DUMFRIES, 18th July 1799.
MY DEAR SIR,-Do, for heaven's sake, send Mrs. Armour here immediately.
My wife is hourly expecting to be put to bed. Good God! what a situation
for her to be in, poor girl, without a friend! I returned from sea-bathing
quarters to-day, and my medical friends would almost persuade me that
I am better, but I think and feel that my strength is so gone that
the disorder will prove fatal to me.-Your son-in-law,
R. B." |
Robert Burns died three
days later. His wife gave birth to their last child, Maxwell Burns, at home
while the funeral ceremony was being held on 26 July 1796.
Bryan Weir, December 2004.
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