of the family of the late Poet; which communication being duly acknowledged by Mr J. Bell, the secretary, who also sent a Chronicle newspaper containing an account of the meeting, gave rise to a poetic address."

The Club above-named appears to have collapsed, and in place thereof a new Burns Club was started in 1820, as "strictly private concern." An account of the proceedings of the new Club for January 25th, 1831, is given in Sykes's Local Record. The dinner was at the "Three Indian Kings," the chair being taken by Mr Thomas Small.

It is, however, to our own town we turn to notice any such association of similar import. Alack! and alas! the records are not forthcoming-it was before the days of a local newspaper. The local admirers of Burns had their Club, of that we are assured, and had their Burns's Night at the Theatre on Thursday evening, March 4th, 1824. The little bill printed for the occasion by Garbutt is fortunately preserved, and is as follows: "By desire, and under the patronage of the gentlemen of The Burns Club, Theatre, Sunderland, Shakespeare's play of As You Like it.'

The favourite song of The Thorn,' by Mr Young; also Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," by Mr Young."

One thing, however, to the prescience and praise of Sunderland, and to be remembered: the late Mr St. John Crookes, secretary of the Centenary, has left it on record that Sunderland was the first place that held a public celebration of the anniversary of the birth of the Poet Robert Burns, 3rd February, 1821. So early as 1803 a Burns Club was held here.

It is a pity the book of the Club is lost, because it appears to be a probability that the Club that patronised the theatre in 1824 was the self-same Club that was founded in 1803. Probably if the files of the Chronicle in Newcastle were searched references might be traced, especially for the meeting of 1821. Sykes is unfortunately silent on the matter. On the committee were the well-known names of Sir Hedworth Williamson, Bart., Cooper Abbs,

S P. Austin. Robt. Briggs, J. H. Cox, Thos. Elliot, J. G. Grant, A. Featherstonhaugh, Geo. Hardcastle, Jas. Hartley, W. H. Hills, Geo. Hudson, Frederick Iliff, John Kidson, Jas. Laing, E. H. Maling, Wm. Ord. John Potts, G. S. Ranson, E. C. Robson, Robt. Saville, Henry Scott, Geo. Scurfield, Jos. Simpson, T. C. Squance, &c., &c. The programme was that of a Burns Athenæum : 'The Cottar's Saturday Night," by J. G. Grant; “Tam o' Shanter," by J. M. Chalmers; songs illustrative of Burns's patriotic and homely art.

At the Lyceum Theatre the same evening there was also a "Night wi' Burns," embracing a series of tableaux vivants. &c. The arrangements were prepared by Mr Sydney Davis, and it is said such a night will not soon be forgotten, nor will the works of the Ayrshire ploughman be less known or appreciated."

A large dinner party assembled in Mr Berwick's "Crown and Sceptre," and a supper at the "Edinburgh Castle," where great enthusiasm was displayed in honour of the Poet.

The Centenary of Burns, part of a national movement, was locally organised to be observed on Tuesday, the 25th January, 1859, in the Hall of the Athenæum, Fawcett Street, by way of a grand soiree. The chairman was the Rev. Richard Skipsey, B.A., and the secretary Mr St. John Crookes. No effort was spared to make the celebration second to none, and for this purpose the most influential and erudite were chosen to compose the committee.

In the press account of the soiree mention is particularly made of six plain and two arm mahogany chairs which belonged to the widow of Robert Burns, and which were lent by Mr George Hardcastle for the use of the platform. 'Major Burns, when visiting his friend, the Rev. R. Skipsey, about two years since, went and saw them and recognised them at once as those he well remembered to have seen in his mother's house." A family bust and portraits were also lent to decorate the platform.

The Chairman at the meeting "gave an outline of the Poet's life, and pointed out the various excellencies of his character and his productions. He sketched his early and middle life; and in eloquent and touching language, described his latter years and the manner of his death. He also defended the character of Burns from the charges of irreligion and profanity, and quoted Gilfillan and other biographers in support of his arguments."

Celebrations also took place at both North and South

Shields.

The chief party that should have assembled at the Old Hall had to postpone their meeting to Friday, owing to the death of the mother of the late landlord, Mrs Jean Robertson. Mis Robertson was a townswoman of Robert Burns, and was six years older than the Poet. She was 106 years of age."

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The folks of Newcastle vied with their neighbours in making the most of the occasion, and in no place was the memory of Burns more celebrated or revered, rich and poor, high and low-even the teetotalers had their celebration, and drank to the memory of the Poet in their own way.

Since then Societies and Clubs have been founded . everywhere, and the most cultured and erudite in the land find themselves very much in the fashion, and pay homage where homage is due, to him who touched the strings of humanity and nature in so unexampled a way that the vibration still stirs the homely instinct and floods the heart with the tenderness of old memories.

"It might not be !

That heart of harmony

Had been so rudely rent;

Its silver chords, which any hand could wound,

By no hand could be tuned,

Save by the maker of the instrument,

Its every string who knew,

And from profaning touch his heavenly gift withdrew."

G. W. BAIN.

SOME BURNS FICTIONS.

A$

S the Nasmyth portrait is responsible for the popular conception of Burns's physical appearance, his mental constitution is similarly based on the pen-and-ink sketches of his early biographers. There is this wide difference, however, between the two which must be specially noted, that whereas Nasmyth's work was the result of personal sittings, the pen-and-ink sketches referred to were drawn, almost without exception, from the recollections and descriptions of others. Both conceptions are very impatient of being disturbed, especially the latter, for reasons which are obvious. Whenever a Burns student, by original research or sifting of the evidence, ventures to dissent from the received opinions, he is immediately assailed-not always by the detractors of Burns, but oftentimes by professed admirers who weakly deprecate the stirring of controversial waters. I confess I never could understand admirers of this sort, and the more I study the biographies of Burns the less sympathy I have with them. Their attitude is explainable only on the grounds that they accept all that has been said to his discredit as true, no matter who has said it nor whence they drew their information. It never occurs to them, apparently, to put the reliability of the informers and their information to proof in the light of the mass of contradictory and qualifying facts which have been placed upon the record since the earlier biographies were written. Heron wrote in 1797, Currie in 1800, Josiah Walker in 1811, Peterkin in 1815, Gilbert Burns in 1820, Lockhart in 1828, and Robert Chambers in 1851. One has only to scan the fragmentary but invaluable spade-work of Scott Douglas, and Dr Wallace's new edition of Chambers to become aware of the vast amount of new evidence which has been collected in the half-century that has intervened

between the early and later biographies. Is a man, therefore, either a fanatic or special pleader who undertakes the task of thoroughly sifting the evidence in the light of these later facts, and subjecting it to every legitimate test, in order that the truth be made clear? It is this type of Burnsian, and he alone, who is now able to write anything about Burns that is worth reading. The conventional path has been beaten so hard that we need not wonder that a man of Henley's qualities and abilities refused to follow it. That he diverged to the left when he forsook it, was inevitable in a man obsessed with the belief that the worship of Burns is either a heathenish idolatry or an organised hypocrisy, and the worshippers a concourse of besotted pagans whose periodic pæans of praise are but the eructations of capacious stomachs distended with an overdose of haggis and whisky. And so he falls to hammering the "idol's feet of clay." Henley does not add to the list of fictions, though he suggests one or two more by the "ambiguous giving out" method of manufacturing data. The tropical growth of these fictions when left in undisturbed possession of the field, and the sinister influence they exert in the formation of opinion, cannot be better illustrated than by the following communication, received in July of this year, from a valued correspondent in Australia-a licentiate of the Church-in which he says:

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The Queensland War Cry referred to Burns in a recent sketch Scotland's Prodigal Son," and I have never found any exception taken to the title. When I came out in the Runic (September, 1906), & wealthy Victorian, & Scot by birth, was rather annoyed because I would not grant that the Poet had seventy illegitimate children. I wish you would come this way, or send out a Scottish Commission. We can't expect the Australian to master our Doric, but he might be taught the truth about our Poet. I came across the following reference to Burns last £unday, and thought I would forward it to you as a sample of Harmsworth's Popular Science. I do not know whether or not that work has much circulation in Australia, but, in any case, there is too much of this sort of science spoken and written about Burns.