Robert Burns Henry Tucker wrote the music for a song called "Our Own Robbie Burns" in 1856. Burns Night, in effect a second national day, is celebrated on Burns's birthday, 25 January, with Burns suppers around the world, and is more widely observed in Scotland than the official national day, St. Andrew's Day. The first Burns supper in The Mother Club in Greenock was held on what was thought to be his birthday on 29 January 1802; in 1803 it was discovered from the Ayr parish records that the correct date was 25 January 1759. The format of Burns suppers has changed
Scotland under the Commonwealth in taxes. In 1656 the civil list alone cost £25,000. The sum of £10,000 a month from the county assessment was demanded by the Cromwellian regime, which Scotland failed to fully supply and it was reduced to 6,000 a year in 1657. The total was never less than £90,000 a year. In addition the country contributed about £35,000 in excise a year. Despite this, there was an annual deficit of £130,000, which was covered by English revenues. Scotland had suffered considerable economic disruption during the period of the civil wars, caused by loss of manpower to a dozen armies, free