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At Brownhill Inn



At Brownhill we always get dainty good cheer
And plenty of bacon each day in the year;
We've a' thing that's nice, and mostly in season
But why always Bacon? - come, tell me a reason.

Listen

Eddi Reader

About this work

This is a poem by Robert Burns. It was written in 1795 and is read here by Eddi Reader.

More about this poem

Burns enjoyed a friendship with William Stewart (1749-1812), and the two bonded over their appreciation for bawdy verse.

In 1782 Stewart’s sister Catherine married John Bacon – hence the punning of bacon in this epigram – at Brownhill about five miles north of Ellisland.

The epigram was preserved by an English traveller by the name of Ladyman who had dinner with Burns at the inn.

Ralph McLean

Themes for this poem

humour

Selected for 29 January

By no means confined to the birthday itself, commemorations continue up to and even beyond the end of the month, many of those memorial meals being cooked and consumed in hotels. At Brownhill Inn is one of a trio of poems inspired by taverns, the others being At Roslinn Inn and At Whigham's Inn, Sanquhar. However, 'hammy' some of the speeches and recitations may turn out to be, bacon is unlikely to feature on the menu!

Donny O'Rourke

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