The elderly bard, John Lapraik (1727-1807) of Dalfram, Muirkirk, was married to Margaret, sister of another of Burns's poetic friends, John Rankine (to whom Burns' dedicated a verse epistle). Lapraik ...

This is an epistle by Robert Burns. It was written in 1789 and is read here by Denis Lawson. Burns sent this epistle to Dr. Thomas Blacklock (1721- 1791) of Annandale on 21 October 1789. It was ...

The Second Epistle follows a reply from Lapraik to Burns' first Epistle to J. Lapraik, An Old Scotch Bard and is mostly autobiographical in content and details the bad luck which has been the writer's ...