earlier days as man and poet should have, as certainly it has, an enthusiastic and flourishing Burns Club. On 2nd June, 1826, the following document was drawn up :

WE, subscribers, agree hereby to form, and do now form, ourselves into a Committee for the purpose of establishing a Club or Society for commemorating the birth of Robert Burns, the Ayrshire Poet, and we agree to meet at an early day to get the preliminaries of the Club properly arranged.

(Signed)

JOHN MACKENZIE, M.D.

DAVID SILLAR.

WILLIAM GILLIES, Grain Dealer.
JOHN PEEBLES, Convener of Trades.
JAMES JOHNSTON.

ROBERT WYLLIE, Harbour Master.

JOHN ORR.

JAMES ALLAN.
MAXWELL DICK.

WILLIAM SHIELDS, Junior.
JOHN FLETCHER, Surgeon.
PAT. BLAIR, Writer.

This document is quoted as interesting, with the signatories, because five of the twelve were friends of the poet, foreinost among them being Dr Mackenzie and David Sillar. Thus the founders had not only admiration of the poet as their incentive, but knowledge of, and friendship with, the man. On 25th January, 1827, the first Burns' celebration was held in the King's Arms Hotel-Dr Mackenzie in the chair, with David Sillars as croupier. Which brings up a rather curious coincidence. Dr Mackenzie lived in Seagate House, now occupied by Mr John Mackenzie Stewart, to whom the writer is indebted for the photographs that illustrate this article, and David Sillar lived in the house now occupied by the Montgomerie Estate Office. happened, some 60 years afterwards, that Mr A. C. M‘Jannet, Burgh Chamberlain, was chairman at the annual celebration, with Mr Charles Murchland, now Provost of the Burgh, as Croupier; and at that time these two gentlemen were respectively occupying these houses, repeating the Mackenzie and Sillar combination. The connection is still closer now, one being the residence, the other the office, of Lady Sophia Montgomerie's factor.

The Club is the proud and jealous custodian of the manuscripts of "The Cottar's Saturday Night," "Scotch Drink," "The Earnest Cry and Prayer," "The Address to the Deil,"

"The Twa Dogs," and "The Holy Fair." These are not mere copies, kindly written out for some one by the Poet, but the original MSS. sent to the printer of the Kilmarnock edition, and they bear the printer's marks. Their coming to Irvine can be pretty safely accounted for. A clerk in Mr Gavin Hamilton's office, Robinson by name, who became a writer in Irvine, left a widow, who married the Rev. Alexander Campbell, Burgher Minister in Irvine. The manuscripts had no boubt been given to Gavin Hamilton by Burns, had fallen into Robinson's hands at his death, and were presented by Mr Campbell to the Club.

The late Mr John Spiers, wishing to confer a gift on his native town, appropriately presented a Statue of Burns. It stands prominent on the "Gallows Knowe," on Irvine Moor, above the river, one of the four whose unsung state the poet complained of and remedied.

"Ramsay and famous Ferguson

Gi'ed Forth and Tay a lift aboon;
Yarrow an' Tweed to monie a tune
Ower Scotland rings;

While Irvine, Lugar, Ayr, an' Doon
Naebody sings."

The statue is the work of the eminent sculptor, Mr Pittendreigh M'Gillivray, and was unveiled on the hundredth anniversary of the poet's death by Mr Alfred Austin, Poet-Laureate. It is considered by many of those competent to give an opinion one of the best examples. The front panel of the pedestal bears the simple word, "Burns"; the other panels are filled up with representations of "The Cottar's Saturday Night," "The Vision," and "The Parting of Burns and Highland Mary." The Poet's foot rests on a stone, his plaid hangs gracefully about him, his hair is tied, as we have seen he wore it. The face is strong, rugged, and even stern, for the sculptor has gone in for realism. Objection has been taken that the poet looks too old. But this is of set purpose. The sculptor wished to read into the face the effects of a toil-worn and anxious life, and one has but to look at the statue to admit his eminent success. The "seeming too old" can be

two.

defended. We recall the Pharisees' challenge to Jesus of Nazareth, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ?" This, to the Saviour of Man, when he was thirtyBut he bore on his "marred visage" the lines of suffering, and of toil of heart and brain, beyond his years and beyond ordinary bearing. "Si licet parva componere magnis"—comparing small things with great-we can find a vindication of the older look on the face of the Poet. He stands looking towards the old burgh where for nine months he lived, where he worked and suffered, where he distinctly developed, and where his memory is held in reverence and affection that will be found no deeper anywhere.

HENRY RANKEN, B.D.,

Minister of Irvine.

THE INTERLEAVED SCOTS MUSICAL

THE

MUSEUM MANUSCRIPT.

A NEW LIGHT ON CROMEK.

the HE manuscript Notes in what is now known as Interleaved Museum of Robert Burns is the subject of the present article. No authentic copy of the Notes is known to the public; for although R. H. Cromek, in his Reliques of Robert Burns (published in 1808), and again in his collection of Scotish Songs (1810), pretended to give a correct transcript, his work is very inaccurate and, in many places, misleading, as I will endeavour to show.

The Interleaved Museum belonged to Robert Riddell of Glenriddel, the friend of Burns, and in his house, Friars' Carse, the notes were written between the years 1789-1792, and probably in some part of 1793. To understand the nature of the book and the notes, it is necessary to say that the complete Scots Musical Museum, published by James Johnson between the years 1787 and 1803, is in six octavo volumes, containing altogether the music and verse of 600 songs. Generally one song occupies a page, occasionally there are three songs on two pages, and in a few cases a long ballad covers two or three pages. The Interleaved Museum is a copy of the first four volumes (all that were published in the lifetime of Burns), and the manuscript notes on the blank leaves are a commentary on the songs in the collection, each note facing its particular song on the opposite printed page.

The history of the volumes is one of the romances of bookhunting which will presently be told. The description of the volumes cannot be better given than in the words of Sotheby's Sale Catalogue, as follows:-"Burns (R.). Johnson (J.). The Scots Musical Museum, vols. i. to iv., interleaved throughout,

with upwards of 140 highly interesting manuscript notes in the autograph of Robert Burns, one is signed in full, and some others with the initials R. B.; also a few MS. notes by Burns's friend, R. Riddell, and his autograph on three of the titles, old mottled calf, with the Riddell arms on the sides. Edinb. [1787-1790]. These valuable interesting volumes were left by Mrs Riddell to her niece, Miss Eliza Bayley, whose autograph is in each volume. One leaf of text is wanting, and a few of the blank leaves have been cut out. The book is in excellent preservation."

The volumes were sold by auction on October 30th, 1903, for £610; and have since been resold privately to one whose name is unknown to me at present. To give a quite accurate description of the volumes, it may as well be stated that the last of the four volumes was published in 1792, and not in 1790; that the number of the blank leaves cut out or missing is 16; and that instead of "one leaf," there are two, probably three, printed leaves wanting.

The existence of these volumes was probably known to Currie prior to the year 1800; but Cromek is the only author who saw them, examined them, and who published the notes; and he is the sole authority for what Burns is supposed to have written on the interleaves. Every editor of Burns, including Hogg, Motherwell, Cunningham, Chambers, Scott-Douglas, and Henley has copied verbatim from Cromek. Scott-Douglas, however, suspected Cromek of manipulation; but, curiously enough, he assumed that the redundant notes in Scotish Song were alone in question, and he never suspected the notes in the Reliques which he lifted bodily into his fifth volume of the Works of Burns, 1879.

The story of the Interleaved Museum, which was plunged into obscurity for nearly a century, except for a short interval, may be briefly told. Riddell, to whom the volumes belonged, died in 1794; he left them to his wife, who removed to Edinburgh. She presented them to her niece, Miss Eliza Bayley of Manchester, and while in her possession, Cromek examined them. Bayley bequeathed them to a relative in Manchester who died about 1865;