5. Dumfries

The house in which the Burnses with their three sons first lived in
Dumfries was a three-roomed cottage in the Wee Vennel, now Banks
Street. Though his income was small, it must be remembered that the
cost of food was low. "Beef was 3d. to 5d. a lb.; mutton, 3d. to
4-1/2d.; chickens, 7d. to 8d. a pair; butter (the lb. of 24 oz.), 7d.
to 9d.; salmon, 6d. to 9-1/2d. a lb.; cod, 1d. and even 1/2d. a lb."
Though hardly in easy circumstances then, Burns's situation was such
that it was possible to avoid his greatest horror, debt.

Meantime, his interest in politics had greatly quickened. He had been
from youth a sentimental Jacobite; but this had little effect upon his
attitude toward the parties of the day. In Edinburgh he had worn the
colors of the party of Fox, presumably out of compliment to his Whig
friends, Glencairn and Erskine. During the Ellisland period, however,
he had written strongly against the Regency Bill supported by Fox; and
in the general election of 1790 he opposed the Duke of Queensberry and
the local Whig candidate. But in his early months in Dumfries we find
him showing sympathy with the doctrines of the French Revolution, a
sympathy which was natural enough in a man of his inborn democratic
tendencies. A curious outcome of these was an incident not yet fully
cleared up. In February, 1792, Burns, along with some fellow officers,
assisted by a body of dragoons, seized an armed smuggling brig which
had run aground in the Solway, and on her being sold, he bought for
three pounds four of the small guns she carried. These he is said to
have presented "to the French Convention," but they were seized by
the British Government at Dover. As a matter of fact, the Convention
was not constituted till September, and the Legislative Assembly which