manuscript."

Here again Cromek has simply utilised both manuscripts, making the one note follow the other, and the portion on page 214 of the Reliques, beginning "I have seen a song," is from his supplementary manuscript the one now in the Library of Edinburgh University.

After this wholesale restoration, there remain of the Notes labelled "Spurious" by Mr Dick three very short ones-" Polwart on the Green," "The Shepherd's Complaint, ""We ran and they ran —and a longer one entitled "The bonie lass made the bed to me," which are not to be found in either of the Burns Manuscripts known to be used by Cromek. These are naturally open to suspicion, and till further evidence transpires may be regarded as doubtful; but in view of the readjustment of opinion rendered necessary by this latest discovery, I would, even while remembering R. H. Cromek's editoral idiosyncrasies, hesitate to brand them as spurious." Cromek may have had access to still another unsuspected Burns Manuscript, and even the additional Notes of the Select Scotish Songs, while still more open to doubt, may prove in the end to be the work of Robert Burns.

Incidentally, the increase of confidence in the CromekBurns text goes a long way towards establishing the authenticity of that important note on "Highland Mary," of which I believe some of us have had suspicions since Mr Dick's disclosure of Cromek's shortcomings as an editor, and his revelation of the fact that the interleaf, which should, according to the Reliques, contain nearly all that Burns wrote about Highland Mary, is, with others, missing from the book. By whatever hand it was abstracted, it is to be hoped that the "Highland Mary" leaf and its fellows will some day be discovered, and eventually restored to the volume annotated by Burns for his friend Robert Riddell of Glenriddell.

DAVIDSON COOK, F.S.A. (Scot.).

BURNS AS EMPLOYER.

IT

T is very often forgotten by admirers of our National Bard that he belonged to that class which, in those latter days, is sometimes regarded in anything but a favourable light-the class composed of employers of labour. While he is everywhere hailed as the poet of democracy, as the champion of the working-man, the fact that he was an employer, and not an employee, during a large part of his working life, is too often neglected. Indeed, we can hardly speak of Burns as having ever been an employee in the usual sense of the word, for in his early life he worked with his father, with whom he never regarded himself as a servant ; while as an exciseman he was the servant, not of a "capitalist," but of the Nation. Burns, both on his father's and his mother's side, was sprung from farmers who were themselves employers, and in his autobiographical poem he makes it his boast: "My father was a farmer upon the Carrick Border." When the future Poet was only seven years old his father took the farm of Mount Oliphant, and though it is generally asserted that there were no hired helpers employed, Murdoch, Burns's teacher, referring to this period, says: "William Burnes had the art of gaining the esteem and goodwill of those who were labourers under him."

In 1777 the Burnes family removed to Lochlea, and of the Poet's experiences as a farmer here we have an interesting glimpse in a letter written to his cousin, James Burnes, just about six years after they had entered the farm :-" Farming is at a pretty low ebb with us.... We are much at a loss for want of proper methods in our improvements. Necessity compels us to leave our old schemes, and few of us have opportunities of being well informed in new ones."

Later in the year in which this letter was written (1783) Robert and Gilbert Burns became farmers of Mossgiel, which was sublet to them by Gavin Hamilton, and now became employers on their own account. While Gilbert took chief charge of the farm, Robert was by no means indifferent to the success of the venture. We know from his own words that he tried hard to become a successful farmer. "I read farming books," he says, "I calculated crops, I attended markets." The methods of farming differed considerably in those days from the methods employed to-day. For one thing, there were few laboursaving devices in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Considerable portions of the country (as at Ellisland) were still unenclosed, and were cultivated on the “run-rig system. Such conditions meant that larger numbers of farm servants had to be employed. Thus we find that at Mossgiel, a farm of only 118 acres, there were three male servants (one of whom indeed-Wee Davock-was only a boy), in addition to the members of the family-eight in number.

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In the " Inventory the Bard tells us that two of the servants were a gaudsman ane, a thresher t'other." Neither gaudsman nor thresher now appear in lists of farm servants. The former's duty was to drive, or rather goad," the " owsen or horses in the plough, which was a great lumbering affair in those days. Grey Graham, in his book Social Life in Scotland in the Eighteenth Century, remarks that the gaudsman was required to exercise his skill in whistling in order to stimulate his charges-a practice Burns refers to in one of his poems. At Lochlea a married ploughman named Hutchison was employed by William Burnes. His health broke down, and he died of a low fever. His family of two boys and two girls were thrown on the world. Two of them-Janet and David-the wee Davock of the poems-remained with the family at Mossgiel, getting practically all their education at the hands of the Poet. Janet remained with Mrs Burns for many years.

In 1786 Robert made over his interest in the farm to his brother Gilbert, in trust for his "dear bought Bess," and not until two years later did he again enter the ranks of the employers of labour, when he took the farm of Ellisland. Here his duties were more varied than at Mossgiel, for when he went south the steading had not been built, and in addition to the duties of farmer he had to add those of "Superintendent of Works," as Allan Cunningham informs us. After the steading was completed and Mrs Burns duly installed, the Bard settled down to a farmer's life, but even as early as January, 1789, he knew that he had little reason to be satisfied with his venture. At Ellisland his household included a domestic servant, as well as two women and two men engaged as outworkers. His idea was to make the place a dairy farm, where "Bonnie Jean," who had received instruction from her mother-inlaw, might preside over the mysteries of butter-making. He was no mere gentleman farmer. While looking after others he was always ready to lend a hand at the farmwork. He did much of the sowing himself, and was altogether a model of laborious industry. In the words of one who investigated this period of his life closely, "The first year of his sojourn in the new house at Ellisland passed happily away.... We see him during this period as a faithful husband, as a good master, as the honoured head of a decent household."

Among those who served the Poet here were three of his cousins-two sons (William and John) and a daughter (Fanny, afterwards Mrs Armour) of "poor uncle Robert," who, with the Bard's father, had left his home in Kincardineshire to seek his fortune in the South. John Burns lived to 1844, and to the end spoke of his cousin as having been a good master, though somewhat restless and absentminded." Another of the Ellisland servants-William Clark-has left on record his impressions of Burns as an employer. He states that his master was quite as good a manager as the generality of farmers. He was a kind and indulgent master, spoke familiarly to his servants,

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both in the house and out of it, though he did not take his food with them as was the custom in most farm-houses. If there was extra work to be done the men usually got a dram, but, adds Clark, "I have been with masters who were more flush in that way with their servants." When the young man left, Burns not only gave him a certificate of character, but also a "fairing."

Another sidelight on the Poet's character as an employer is seen in his transactions with two orra workers. The one was a drainer, and in a letter to the factor with regard to his work and pay, Burns says: "I have stated the wage at 20d the rood, as in fact, even at that, they have not the wages they ought to have had, and I cannot for the life of me see a poor devil a loser at my hand."

In another account relating to dike building, a document still preserved shows that he gave the worker ten shillings more than was due. Allan Cunningham, whose testimony, however, is not above suspicion, says of the farming operations at Ellisland: "Burns's skill in husbandry was but moderate. . . . He employed more servants than the number of acres demanded, and spread for them a richer board than common."

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Burns, as can be easily understood, did not grudge his servants their share of the merry-makings of those days. His well-known poem, 'Hallowe'en," shows how much he himself enjoyed these periodical celebrations, while his description of the roup of his crops in 1791 indicates that he was no laggard where the provision of refreshments was concerned. A letter from his friend Robert Ainslie to "Clarinda" gives an interesting account of a "kirn" (harvest home) at Ellisland. When the evening passed, with the fun going fast and furious, Ainslie appears to have enjoyed himself thoroughly, though he did not think the menage and company worthy of the Poet."

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All things considered then, Burns seems to have been an employer of the best kind, taking a sympathetic and intelligent interest in his employees and doing his best for