pretence, it is yet a sincere effort to understand Burns through Henley spectacles. Himself a poet and an able writer upon Art, Henley had neither the patience nor the aptitude of the student, and in his Burns he took much at first hand and without real examination. Stevenson, again-and whatever his master hand touched he turned into wonderful melody-in his writings upon Burns and Burnsiana, imaged them as he thought they were, or ought to be; for that exquisite romancer made all he wrote about live, as lived the creations of his own vivid brain. Carlyle, outstandingly and of all writers, perhaps best understood Burns, and he had, moreover, the most penetrating and enduring insight into the inherent greatness and immortality of the man.

Dr M'Naught has not written a new Life, yet for clearness of narrative and faithful delineation of the most salient events of the Poet's career, hiding nothing and exaggerating nothing, it is as notable in its directness and cogency as in its convincing fairness and impartiality; while in its quiet conviction of knowledge, and of not a little unquestionable authority, it has a potency peculiarly its own. It must ever be difficult, if not beyond the humanly possible, to write of a man who was minting untold gold for posterity yet himself living amidst much of the dross and hardship of life, ever with his head in Olympus and his feet almost continuously treading the laborious matter-of-fact struggle for existence, vainly trying to extort a bare pittance from unproductive soil. With a heart above it all, soaring into realms unpeopled and unseen by his fellows, it beat warmly toward the sons and daughters of men, as to all living, yearning, striving things. To try to explain or excuse Burns is alike fatuous and futile, for how can the lesser explain the greater, or how measure, as Lord Rosebery has happily phrased it, the miracle called Burns?"

"A fire of fierce and laughing light,

That clove the shuddering heart of night,
Leapt earthward, and the thunder's might,
That pants and yearns,

Made fitful music round its flight:

And earth saw Burns."

So sang another great lyric poet, one who read the heart with a fire and heat touching that of Burns but without his faith.

The Truth About Burns tells also of the times in which Burns lived, and those who have touched minds with it; though those who themselves saw or heard of it at first hand know that Burns, in this also, as in all else, was better than his time. In shredding fact from fancy and fiction, Dr M'Naught follows closely the life of Burns from Alloway to Dumfries, touching mainly on the

fundamental facts of his life and the sequence of his poetry, dwelling much upon those things where spleen or ignorance or controversy has most rested; recording the essential and leaving the immaterial aside. The book impresses by its transparent sincerity and convinces by its candour; besides, it is the work of a devoted student, of one who through nearly all his life, and certainly for thirty years of it, as Editor of the Burns Chronicle, has given careful and unwearied attention to the records of the Poet as they have successively been made manifest. Few possess Dr M'Naught's knowledge and authority, and these qualities have given to the book a quiet dignity that is not its least manifest charm. Summarised, the book stands to-day as the last word upon the Poet, and those who may follow would seem to have but little of new material left to them after Dr M'Naught's careful gleaning

[I note that the volume has been most favourably reviewed in the following journals :-The Spectator, the British Weekly, The Literary Supplement of the London Times, the Westminster Gazette, the Newspaper World, the Warrington Examiner, the Elgin Courant, the Glasgow Evening Times, the Glasgow Evening Citizen, the Glasgow Evening News, the Glasgow Bailie, the Scotsman, the Glasgow Herald, the Kilmarnock Standard, the Kilmarnock Herald, Perthshire Advertiser, &c., &c.]

"ROBERT BURNS AS A FREEMASON." By William Harvey, J.P. (T. M. Sparkes, Dundee.)

We have received a forward copy of this elegant little volume, which deals with the masonic side of Burns in brief yet compre. hensive terms which leave nothing to be said which the enquiring reader desires to know. Mr Harvey, who, by the way, is the author of a Complete Manual of Freemasonry, tells us in his preface that he has endeavoured to collect the scattered references to Freemasonry that are found in the record of the Poet's life, and to weave them into a connected narrative. In this he has been most successful; he keeps closely to his subject, avoiding the temptation of irrelevant padding; and he has been at the most laudable pains to secure accuracy in matters of fact. The text is illustrated with a number of excellent photogravures which give added interest to the narrative, and a handy index completes the work, which Mr Harvey dedicates to the Brethren of the Mystic Tie" at home and abroad. The Burnsian student and general reader will also find much to interest them in this study of one phase of Burns's character, and we cordially recommend it as the best short treatise on the subject which has come under our notice.

"THE SCOTTISH LION AS A NATIONAL POSSESSION."

W. Thomson, M.A., B.A., F.E.I.S., Buckie.
Gibson & Sons (Glasgow) Ltd.)

By Charles

(Robt.

This book is published, Mr Thomson informs us, with the approval of the Scottish Patriotic Association, Glasgow, the inspiring motive being a condemnatory and convincing reply to the Police Circular of March 17th, 1907, prohibiting the private use and exhibition of the Scottish Lion rampant without special permission of the mandarins who keep a myopic official eye on the gewgaw trivialities which they imagine to be part of the "divinity which doth hedge a king." Mr Thomson, in some 50 pages of informative historical references, clearly shows how shallow and untrue is the contention that the people are debarred from using the Lion Flag where and when they choose, unless by the high permission of the nearest policeman. Among his authorities he cites Burns, who refers very seldom to the national emblems, but always in a way, Mr Thomson contends, that puts beyond doubt that he deemed the Red Lion a national and not a royal possession. As a contribution to heraldry alone, Mr Thomson's book is well worth possessing.

"UNDER THE RED LAMP-Songs of YARROW, &c." By G. W. T. M'Gown, M.A., F.E.I.S. (Selkirk James Lewis.)

We have had previous knowledge of Mr M'Gown's abilities in his handy and concise Primer of Burns, for which we had a highly commending word to say at the date of its publication. The present is a volume of verse, mostly in the vernacular, and redolent of the glamour of Yarrow, which has inspired so many Border singers and prose writers. All the pieces do great honour to the head and heart which conceived them, while his fifteen sonnets at the end of the volume prove him no mean versifier in the English tongue. Its late arrival precluded any notice of its merits in our last issue.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

A FRAGMENT BY ROBERT BURNS.

We (Dumfries Courier) have before us a copy of the poetical works of Mr William Collins, published in London, in 1765. On one of the fly-leaves of the book there is written in pencil, but perfectly legible,

To Jean Lorimer, a small but sincere mark of friendship, from
ROBT. BURNS.

in the peculiar upright and rounded hand of the poet. Under this is written in ink, in a very good hand,

JANE LORIMER, 1794.

Jean Lorimer was the "Chloris " of Burns, and many of his songs were addressed to her-the first, according to Mr Chambers, in September, 1794. She was a remarkably beautiful young woman, then residing with her father at Kemishall, near Dumfries. romantic but truly melancholy story is well known.

Her

On the first fly-leaf of the book mentioned there are a few lines in the Poet's handwriting, and, like the inscription already mentioned, in pencil. We have deciphered them, with the exception of one line, after some difficulty, and append them, not for their intrinsic merit, but because anything that Burns wrote is regarded with interest, and because they tend to show the same feeling though not the same power which produced the glorious song of Scots wha hae." As far as we know they have never been published.

1860.

His royal visage seamed with many a scar,
That Caledonian reared his martial form;

Who led the tyrant-quelling war,

When Bannockburn's ensanguined flood,

Swelled with mingling hostile blood,

Saw Edward's myriads struck with deep dismay,

And Scotia's troop of brothers win their way,

tyrant's band;

"

Oh heavenly joy to free our native land,
While high their mighty chief poured on the doubling storm.

[The above is a clipping from the Kilmarnock Post of April 14th, The Fragment seems to be part of the projected drama of Bruce's exploits, but it is so elliptical or imperfectly copied that one is inclined to question its authenticity. Can any of our readers give any information regarding this volume of poems perused by the editor of the Dumfries Courier about the date mentioned ?-Ed.].

FUSION OF THE LONDON BURNS CLUBS.

The Annual Meetings of our Club and the London Burns Club (Scots) were held in separate rooms at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet Street, E.C., on Thursday, May 26th.

The following Resolution was passed by each Club separately, by large majorities, and subsequently at a combined meeting presided over by Mr Will:-That the report and recommendations of the Committee with regard to fusion be adopted, and that the London Robert Burns Club (No. 1) and the London Burns Club (Scots) be united under the name and title of "The Burns Club of London (No. 1)," incorporating The London Robert Burns Club (No. 1) and The London Burns Club (Scots), and it was afterwards agreed that the rules framed by the Special Committees of the two Clubs be adopted in toto, and that the following office bearers be appointed for the ensuing twelve months :-President, Sir William Noble ; Vice-President, P. N. M'Farlane; Hon. Secretary, John A. Brown, 38 Vaughan Gardens, Cranbrook Road, Ilford; Hon. Assistant Secretary, S. J. Fraser; Hon. Treasurer, J. Spencer Leslie; Committee (24), to be appointed, 12 from the London Robert Burns Club and 12 from the London Burns Club, and our Members were elected as follows:-Messrs John Anderson, A. T. Bromfield, J. M. Bulloch, W. B. Buyers, T. S. Cockburn, John Douglas, A. P. Florence, H. M'Michael, Geo. Pocock, T. E. Price, W. Williamson, and T. J. Wilson. The above named gentlemen immediately assumed office, and the business of the Burns Club of London was commenced.

P. N. M'FARLANE.

THE BOHN AUTOGRAPHS.

The late Mr Henry G. Bohn, a famous publisher in Victorian days, collected a number of interesting manuscripts and autograph letters, which are to be sold in November in Messrs Knight, Frank & Rutley's Rooms. There are four Burns documents of importance, including the letter to James Smith, of Mauchline, as to the Poet's intended voyage to the West Indies, also the lines written in Glenriddel Hermitage beginning, Thou whom chance may hither lead," and a holograph of 48 lines entitled, "Nature's Law," a humorous appreciation of being blessed with twins. The fourth manuscript of 16 lines is Nithsdale's Welcome to Terreagles."