Kilmarnock

It was at Kilmarnock, from the press of John Wilson — his premises are marked by a plague — that Burns's Poems were first published on 31^st July 1786. Stitched in a blue-grey cover, the volume cost three shillings. A perfect copy today fetches over £2,000.

Burns described the circumstances preceding his decision to publish, in his Autobiographical Letter: 'I weighed my productions as impartially as in my power; I thought they had merit; and 'twas a delicious idea that I would be called a clever fellow, even though it should never reach my ears a poor Negro-driver, or perhaps a victim to that inhospitable clime gone to the world of Spirits. I can truly say that pauvre Inconnu as I then was, I had pretty nearly as high an idea of myself and my works as I have at the moment. It is ever my opinion that the great, unhappy mistakes and blunders, both in a rational and religious point of view, of which we see thousands daily guilty, are owing to their ignorance, or mistaken notions of themselves. To know myself had been all along my constant study. I weighed myself alone; I balanced myself with others; I watched every means of information how much ground I occupied both as a Man and as a Poet: I studied assiduously Nature's DESIGN where she seem'd to have intended the various LIGHTS and SHADES in my character. I was pretty sure my poems would meet with some applause; but at the worst, the roar of the Atlantic would deafen the voice of Censure, and the novelty of west-Indian scenes make me forget Neglect.

'I threw off 600 copies, of which I had got subscriptions for about 350. My vanity was highly gratified by the reception I met with from the Publick; besides pocketing, all expences deducted near £20'.