Burns

Manuscripts

Among some of the most prized exhibits of the collections of Ayrshire and Dumfries & Galloway are some surviving manuscripts written in Burns' own hand and by his family, friends and contemporaries. It is fitting that the museums in the area have managed to keep these most important of all the relics related to the poet in the area where he was born, worked, socialised and died; not least because very many of them were inspired by and reflect the character of the regions people, their society and the landscape both urban and rural that he knew so well. Many manuscripts also survive which relate to Burns but which were written not by the poet himself but by his family, associates and admirers, this gallery also contains a selection of these letters.