Flintlock carbine, which belonged to Robert Burns

This gun is a four bore flintlock carbine, the furnishings are of brass and the stock of walnut.  It would fire a lead ball weighing a quarter of a pound or 113 grams. It was made in 1790 by John Probin, of London and Birmingham, gunmaker to the Prince of Wales, later George IV.  After the poet's death in 1796, his widow Jean Armour Burns gave it to a neighbour in return for a kindness, perhaps a loan.   Burns would have used this gun in the course of his duties as an Excise Officer.  Excise was a tax similar to VAT, but collected at the point of manufacture or import.  He was paid £50 per year, with a bonus of £50 for every smuggler captured.