He had charge of a large district of ten
parishes, and had to ride some two hundred miles a week in all
weathers. With the work he still did on the farm one can see that he
was more than fully employed, and need not wonder that there was
little time for poetry. Yet these years at Ellisland were on the whole
happy years for himself and his family; he found time for pleasant
intercourse with some of his neighbors, for a good deal of
letter-writing, for some interest in politics, and for the
establishing, with Colonel Riddel, of a small neighborhood library. As
an excise officer he seems to have been conscientious and efficient,
though at times, in the case of poor offenders, he tempered justice
with mercy. Ultimately, despairing of making the farm pay and hoping
for promotion in the government service, he gave up his lease, sold
his stock, and in the autumn of 1791 moved to Dumfries, where he was
given a district which did not involve keeping a horse, and which paid
him about seventy pounds a year. Thus ended the last of Burns's
disastrous attempts to make a living from the soil.
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.
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