Ellisland

An image, engraved from a painting by D O Hill, of the farm where Robert Burns and his family lived.   Robert Burns took on the lease of Ellisland Farm from Patrick Miller of Dalswinton from Whitsunday 1788 for a rent of £50 per year. It was a small unimproved holding of 170 acres situated on the bank of the River Nith about 5 miles north of the town of Dumfries. Miller gave Burns £300 with which to build a farm house and enclose the fields.   In January 1790 Burns wrote to his brother Gilbert, "it is a ruinous affair ... let it go to hell". By this time his career in the Excise was becoming established, and he finally quit the farm at the end of 1791, selling off  his farming stock by public roup, or auction.   This is an example of a steel plate engraving which has been removed from an illustrated work, most probably "The Land of Burns" published by Blackie and Son of Glasgow, and hand tinted in watercolours.