The Annual Meeting of our Club was held on the evening of 21st September, when Mr W. Ferguson presided over a large attendance of the members. The reports submitted by the Secretary and Treasurer were of a gratifying nature, and disclosed the Club to be in a good financial position. The Choir carried through quite a number of successful enterprises during the summer months on behalf of charities and war funds. The principal of these was an open-air Concert, held in the Palace policies, in aid of the Glasgow Infirmaries, when the sum of £48 was raised. The services of the Choir were also given in connection with the Hamilton Red Cross Fete in the month of August; the Fetes in Wishaw Manse Grounds and at Mossend, in August and September, also for Red Cross Funds. The proceeds of the Concerts given by the Choir during the year were allocated as follows:-Limbless Sailors and Soldiers, £25; Royal Infirmary, £18; Western Infirmary, £18; Victoria Infirmary, £12; Dunoon Seaside Homes, £1. The Choir propose giving another Scotch Concert on a date in January, and Mr A. Sorbie, who has so unreservedly given his time and talent in the past as conductor, has again agreed to place himself at their service. The Club meetings are held on the first Monday of each month, at 7.30 p.m., at 1 Union Street, Hamilton, when a warm welcome will be accorded to any member of a Federated Club. W. WILSON, Secretary. LIVERPOOL BURNS CLUB. A notable Scot and Burns enthusiast has recently passed away in Liverpool through the death of the late Mr Alexander Smith. Born at Hamilton in 1835, he came as a boy to Liverpool with his parents. His whole business career was spent in the North American shipping trade, and from 1891 till his death he was Freight Manager for the well-known Leyland Line. A member of the Church of Scotland, and identified with Scottish activities, he in 1866, with others who have all predeceased him, founded the Liverpool Burns Club (No. 18). Mr Smith acted as Honorary Secretary to the Club for twenty-three years, being presented with an illuminated address and other tokens of appreciation on his retirement from office. He was afterwards Chairman of Committee till his death. The Club, whose operations have been suspended during the war, owed its existence mainly to his enthusiasm. PRIMROSE BURNS CLUB (GLASGOW). CHILDREN'S COMPETITION IN SCOTTISH SONG OR LITERATURE. Above Club during last year held a Competition amongst the senior scholars attending the night classes of Petershill Public School, Petershill Road, Springburn. Four prizes, consisting of full-bound copies of the Works of Robert Burns, were presented by members of the Club. Essays were written by the scholars on any poem or song by the Poet, and the result was very gratifying. The prizes were awarded to two boys and two girls. It may be said here that all the essays received were of a good standard, and it was very satisfactory indeed to all the appointed judges to find such enthusiasm displayed, and the papers handed in of such real merit. W. LITHGOW. ROSEBERY BURNS CLUB. SYLLABUS FOR SESSION 1918-1919. Oct. 8. Musical Evening-President's Address-President J. D. Sloan. Nov. 12. Lecture: "Burns in Lanarkshire' Mr W. Henderson. Dec. 10. "R. L. Stevenson -Mr James Lucas, M.A. Jan. 25. School Children's Competition in Bluevale School. Mar. 4. Ladies' Night-Musical Evening. April 28. Annual Business Meeting. The Club meets on Tuesdays as above at 7.45, in Bath Hotel, Bath Street. The Executive request that Members of the Club will endeavour to attend all meetings promptly at 7.45 p.m. YE CRONIES BURNS CLUB (GOVAN). ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1917-1918. The Annual Meeting of the above Club was held on Saturday, 15th June, when a large number of members attended. The following is the Secretary's (Mr R. Coutts) report for the past year :— At the beginning of this past session we were very unfortunate in losing our Secretary, Mr Wm. Parker, owing to a new important engagement he accepted, and which debarred him from acting as Secretary to Ye Cronies"; the members at the same time were very sorry to lose such a valuable member. Mr R. Coutts was duly appointed to fill the vacancy. With reference to our Roll of Honour there are at present on the scroll, 8 members, 20 members' sons, and 12 members' brothers. Fortunately for us we have had up to the present for this past year no fatal casualties, which indeed we are very grateful for. At last Christmas, through the kindness and generosity of our Bard, Mr T. M. Walker, M.A., who presented 350 copies of his poems, the sale of which enabled us to dispatch thirty parcels to our brave lads at the Front, and I had quite a number of replies thanking the Cronies" kindly for their gifts. The membership still stands at its maximum-six new members having joined during the year. Notwithstanding these precarious times we are living in, the financial position of the Club is still strong. The average attendance of members for this past year is twenty. We have had a very successful year notwithstanding all the drawbacks we have had to contend with owing to the terrible war, and our very best thanks must go out to our worthy President, Mr Rellie, also to the Office-bearers, who have worked very energetically for the welfare of Ye Cronies." We must also thank our two members, Messrs Chalmers and Swan, for their kind gifts of Fleurishes," which helped to swell the Club funds, grants, &c. This past year has been no exception to the rule. The first was Mr M'Naught's presentation on the occasion of his jubilee; the next being a grant to Dr Mackenzie's Homes at Mauchline; and the Annual Subscription to the Burns Chronicle-which was fully taken advantage of this year, 28 of our members subscribing for copies. The Chronicle is very interesting, the Editor doing full justice to it. 66 VISITATIONS, &c.-As some of the Burns Clubs are held up owing to the depletion of membership, visitations were not so much in evidence this past year. On the 8th February we received a deputation from the Shettleston Burns Club, which proved a very sociable function. The Delegates were quite jubilant at seeing how the Cronies business was conducted. A deputation of 66 Cronies was at the Glasgow Burns Association, also at Uddingston, when they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Past President Mr J. Chalmers, being our representative, has been very diligent during the past year, and has reported on several occasions the progress and work carried on by that body. The Annual Supper was held on 26th January, in Argyle Café, and proved a great success, as in the past. Mr Lucas, M.A., proposed “The Immortal Memory in a vivid and impressive speech. Songs and recitations were given during the evening. NOTES AND QUERIES. ' "IT IS NA, JEAN, THY BONNIE FACE". THE ENGLISH VERSION-A DISCOVERY. These Burns's note to this song in Johnson's Museum is: were originally English verses ; I gave them their Scots dress." These original verses have eluded the search of every enquirer from the date of their publication down to the beginning of the present year, when a copy of them was unearthed by Mr Davidson Cook, Barnsley, who published them in the February issue of The Bookman. The verses are contained in a small volume of poems, by “John Armstrong, Student in the University of Edinburgh," published by Peter Hill (Burns's correspondent): Edinburgh; 1789. Armstrong was an admirer of Burns, and the volume contains two pieces in Burns's honour, which he acknowledged in the following words, which will be found in a letter to Peter Hill, of date 2nd February, 1790: "Mr Armstrong, the young poet who does me the honour to mention me so kindly in his works, please give him my best thanks for the copy of his book. I shall write him my first leisure hour. I like his poetry much, but I think his style in prose quite astonishing." Anderson was just turned eighteen when the volume was published. He afterwards went to London, where he formed a lucrative connection with the newspaper press. His health, however, gave way, and he returned to Leith, his native place, where he died in 1797, at the early age of twenty-six years. Whether or not Burns redeemed his promise to write to him, there is nothing on the record to show. We give Anderson's version for insertion in the Museum 66 of the song, as Burns took it in hand as a Scots song: "No, Delia, 'tis not thy face Nor form that I admire, Although thy beauty and thy grace Something in every part of thee To praise, to love, I find ; But dear as is thy form to me, No selfish passion moves my breast, Than, if I cannot make thee blest, At least to see thee so, If heav'n but happiness shall give] And as with thee I'd wish to live, For thee I'd bear to die.” Our readers can compare this with Burns's version as an example of his methods in preparing material for Johnson. The little volume is very interesting. Besides Mr Cook's copy, another has been added to the collection of Mr A. J. Craig, Fixby, Corstorphine. [EDITOR.] NOTE ON THE RHYME OF "COTTAR'S SATURDAY NIGHT." The influence of Shenstone on Burns is the subject of a chapter of Furth in Field by Hugh Halliburton. In it he says: If we turn to The Cottar's Saturday Night' and read it alongside of The Schoolmistress,' we shall find that in respect of measure, theme, and style of both treatment and language, it was modelled scarcely less after the manner of Shenstone than according to the pattern of Fergusson's Farmer's Ingle.' Unlike the latter, but like The Schoolmistress,' it maintains the perfect form of the Spenserian stanza." 66 Be it granted that passages which Hugh Halliburton points out in "The Schoolmistress display a similarity to passages in "The Cottar's Saturday Night," it still requires an assurance not borne out by comparison of the texts to say that Burns was influenced more by Shenstone's poem than by Fergusson's "Farmer's Ingle." In general, the similarity between Fergusson's Farmer's Ingle and Burns's "Cottar's Saturday Night is far more striking than when comparison is made with Shenstone's Schoolmistress." Even allowing for Burns sharing with Dodsley the mistake that "The Schoolmistress" was a moral poem, and not, as originally intended by Shenstone, of an exquisitely humorous turn, we have still the assertion that Burns got his Spenserian stanza from Shenstone. 66 In the Cambridge History of Shenstone, vol. XI., chap. 10, Mr T. F. Henderson says: Burns got the Spenserian stanza of 'The Cottar's Saturday Night' from Beat e, not from Spenser." While those two eminent Burns authorities can be left to dispute the claims of Shenstone or Beattie (and could we not also suggest those of Thomson, who used the pure Spenserian stanza for his "Castle of Indolence," a poem that Burns would be familiar with), we find that Mrs Dunlop, on the 10th April, 1788, when she meditates returning a copy of Spenser's "Faery Queen" to Burns, |