ways.

The Greenock Advertiser reported of this first pilgrimage" On Saturday, 29th January, a select party of the patrons and admirers of our Ayrshire Poet, Burns, met to dinner at Alloway in the room in which he was born, to celebrate his birthday, when the following ode, composed for the occasion by one of the company, was read; but a doubt having arisen whether the 25th or the 29th of January was his birthday, and the register of births for the parish of Ayr having been searched, it thereby appears that the 25th, and not the 29th, as has hitherto been most generally believed, was the birthday of our Poet, and in the year 1759."

There were strong influences, personal and otherwise, which might partly account for the establishment of the Club as early as 1801. Living in Greenock and the neighbourhood were influential people who had been in close personal intimacy with the Poet, and some of whom had something to do with his " discovery" and subsequent fame. Their names are living in Burns literature and need only be mentioned-James Findlay and his wife (Miss Markland, one of the Mauchline Belles), Richard Brown, "Highland Mary's " family, Wright and Wilson of the Excise, and Alexander Dalziel. The influence of Greenock Ayrshire Society has already been noted. Thomas Stewart, publisher of some of the earlier prints of Burns's poems, was a resident and a warm promoter of the Burns Club. The glamour of the "Highland Mary romance was over the whole district, and the grave in the Old West Churchyard had already become a place of pilgrimage.

THE FIRST MINUTE BOOK.

One of the Club's treasured possessions is its first Minute Book. It was an unused Excise book, and was found in the house of Burns after his death. The book, precious because of its association with the Bard, was used as a Minute Book, and contains the Minutes of the

first ten years of Greenock Burns Club. The inscription on the first leaf reads "This book was found in the house of the late Mr. Robert Burns at his demise and presented to the Burns Club of Greenock by Adam Pearson, Esquire, of His Majesty's Excise, Edinburgh, A.D. 1801."

CUSTOMS OF THE CLUB.

An essential feature of almost every anniversary meeting during eighty years was a long ode in adulation of Burns composed and read by a member. It shared the honours of the speech of the evening, was minuted, and care was taken to have it published. Sometimes the poetry did not appeal to the Secretary, and he minuted thus-" Mr. read an ode composed by himself.” One feels the chill. If no original poetry was forthcoming, the fact was minuted. He was a candid secretary who remarked acidly-" It cannot be said that the original odes were really strikingly original, but no doubt our poets will see to this next time they get the chance."

There always will be a difference of opinion as to the method of honouring the distinctive toast of a celebration of the birthday of the Bard. Greenock Burns Club, since 1886, has honoured the toast in solemn silence, just as it was during the first quarter century and during the "solemn lean fifties." This extract from the Minute of 1806 suggests a mystic rite: "The toast was drunk amidst impressive silence with the customary nine waves of the hand." In 1826 custom was broken. With few exceptions right on till 1885, the method is indicated by such notes in the respective minutes as "With the usual enthusiasm and oft-repeated cheering," or "with great cheering, as this was no night for dool."

Long toast lists, terminable only by exhausted energy, were usual. A characteristic toast list included, after the loyal toasts, "The Memory of Burns," "The Nation

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north o' the Tweed," "Shakespeare and the poets of England," "Continental Literature," " Memory of Sir Walter Scott," "The Health of the living and the Memory of the deceased connections of Burns, "Bruce and Wallace," "Every subject is the king's, but every subject's soul is his own," " Ramsay, Dunbar, Lindsay," "The Poets of Ireland," "Fergusson and Tannahill," Memory of Highland Mary,' May the thistle be seen only where the thistle should be,' Memory of James Watt," "Honest men and Bonnie Lassies," etc., etc. No fewer than thirty-one toasts were honoured at the 1859 (Centenary) festival.

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Almost from the first the members of the Club were interested in a scheme to erect a worthy monument to Highland Mary." Progress was slow, and they chafed at the difficulties they met with. Not until 1839, when the Monument Committee was reconstituted, did the longprojected scheme begin to take definite shape. The foundation stone of the monument was laid on 25th January, 1842, with such elaborate public ceremonial as had seldom been known in Greenock. The stone was laid by Mr. Patrick Maxwell Stewart, M.P., in his capacity as Provincial Grand Master Mason, but he was, at the same time, President of Greenock Burns Club, and in that capacity presided at the Anniversary Banquet in the evening.

There was a second funeral of Mary Campbell, a much more imposing one than on that October day when she was laid to rest in the Old West Kirkyard. In November, 1921, the dust of this fondly-remembered Mary was lifted into a handsome polished oak coffin and carried from the Old Kirkyard to the Greenock Cemetery. The Burns Federation was represented on the occasion, and the members of the Mother Club, with the memories of a hundred and twenty years crowding upon them, were