Dated 1804, Jean Armour writes about the death of two of her children and how she remains in the home she shared with the poet before his death in 1796.

The page was discovered in a New York junk shop last year.

It is thought the letter was intended for Maria Riddell, a woman from a local landed family, who lived in Dumfries.

It was found by American scholar Dr Nancy Groce who by coincidence had recently produced a symposium on Robert Burns at the Library of Congress.

She paid $75 for the letter, one of the few written by Jean Armour.