The Poetical Works of Janet Little, The Scotch Milkmaid
The Poetical Works of Janet Little, The Scotch Milkmaid is a short, easy-to-understand version of the story behind the 1792 poetry book by Janet Little. Little was a dairy worker in Scotland, which made her nickname “the Scotch Milkmaid.”
What the book is
- Title: The Poetical Works of Janet Little, The Scotch Milkmaid (sometimes called The Scottish Milkmaid by mistake)
- Author: Janet Little
- Language: English
- Genre: Poetry
- Publication: 1792, in Air (the printer is listed as John and Peter Wilson)
- Format: A single octavo volume (a compact book)
- Content: A collection of poems written in English
- Design: The book has plain pages with simple decorations on some title pages; it does not include a glossary
How many were published and who helped
- The publication was a success, earning about £50 in profit from roughly 710 copies printed (this would be worth about £8,000 today, using 2023 values).
- The book was made possible by many subscribers, about 600 people in total, including aristocrats, lawyers, soldiers, and teachers. Some people bought more than one copy.
- The Countess of Loudoun ( Flora Campbell) bought 12 copies.
- Frances Dunlop of Dunlop House was a key patron who helped promote and support the project.
Dedication and connections
- The book is dedicated to Flora, Countess of Loudoun. At the time Flora was a young girl under the care of Lady Dumfries.
- Janet had hoped to dedicate the volume to James Boswell, but Burns advised dedicating it to Flora.
- The famous poet Robert Burns was among the readers who supported Janet. He subscribed to one copy and wrote to Mrs. Dunlop about his subscription.
Janet Little’s life in brief
- Born around 1759 at Nether Bogside, Ecclefechan, in Dumfries and Galloway.
- She worked in the Loudoun Estate dairy and later married John Richmond, a widower much older than her.
- Janet died in 1813 at Causey Head Cottage, at age 54, and was buried at Loudoun Kirk. Her husband John Richmond died in 1819.
- She was a devoted stepmother to his five children.
What happened after publication
- After Janet’s death, more manuscripts were found, including religious poems. Some of these were published later.
- There are notes that she may have written in Gaelic and that she did not always use standard pronunciations in her writing.
- The book’s pagination has oddities (some pages are bracketed or numbered in unusual ways), and the total length is listed as 211 pages rather than 207.
Interesting details
- The printers were John and Peter Wilson, based in Ayr (they had moved there from Kilmarnock). Wilson also printed for Robert Burns, David Sillar, and John Lapraik.
- An errata section appears after the list of subscribers.
- A few pages contain special plate-like decorations, but overall the book is simple in design.
- One copy once owned by a person named W. Craib Angus was shown in a Burns exhibition in 1896.
Legacy
- The Poetical Works marked the only time Janet Little’s poems were published in a book during her lifetime.
- Her poetry reflects her life as a dairy worker and her connections with notable Scottish literary figures of the time.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 22:13 (CET).