burgh, Lochgelly, Edinburgh "Jolly Beggars," and other Burns Clubs. Mr. Lawson, in opening the proceedings, said the act they were about to perform had a double significance: they wished to honour the memory of the woman who lay there, and they wished to honour the bard who immortalised her by singing the praises of her youthful beauty and maidenly worth. "Chloris" herself would have been little known or cared for but for the songs that had been written in her praise by the immortal Burns. The Rev. Mr. Murray, who was called upon to perform the unveiling ceremony, said the prosaic section of the public, he feared, would hardly thank them for thrusting a tombstone on their notice amid the gay green leaves and flowers of smiling May. Yet when they thought of "Chloris" and Craigieburn Wood they recalled that for one at least "a' the pride of spring's return could yield him nocht but sorrow." If apology be needed, there was the solemn fact that the Assemblies of the Kirk were sitting, and that the clergy were about. Some, flippant, would hasten to confess that they had no interest in "lasses wi' the lint-white locks." It was some other hue which they affected the golden probably, by preference, if it could come their way. Others would minimise their little function as mere Burnsian idolatry, and wonder where it was to end; as if the gallants of their youthful club were set on monumenting all the bonnie Jeans and countless fair ones of the Bard. Their concern was only with the local case. It so happened that no headstone marked the spot where the grave closed over the tragic career of one whose orbit intersected, and in some respects resembled, that of Burns himself. Their supplying of the want marked at least a deviation from the beaten track of Burns Club doings. Only perverse minds could fail to understand the situation between Burns and "Chloris." It was in the Poet's light that they saw light— light after his kind; and as he puts the matter himself, she was the "lovely goddess of his inspiration," one to whom he addressed "fictitious reveries of passion." The evidence of Thomson was to the same effect, and in speaking of the "bright eyes and witching smiles" that "enraptured the Scottish Bard," he was only indulging the stilted eighteenth century vein. Chloris herself, however, proud of the distin guished figure she was cutting, was under no illusion. The name was little appropriate to a Scottish girl, and the real Burns peeps out when the fact dawned later on his mind. The chivalry of his nature, too, as he laments the early crosses of her career :- "Since, thy gay morn of life o'ercast, And ne'er misfortune's eastern blast Followed by the typical Burnsian philosophy of life that the inner riches of the soul remained: "Still nobler wealth hast thou in store, The comforts of the mind." The stone was appropriately simple. It was not of the kind which provoked the pen of Louis Stevenson when wandering in the Greyfriars, as being "appallingly adorned." It was of the granite which was emblematic of the sterling mind of Burns a mind which, when touched with feeling and imagination, was soon polished into song. They remembered how he tended lovingly himself the grave of Fergusson, his hapless brother bard. They remembered how his brilliant dark eyes glistened with the tear drop at the tale of woe, interpreted by Walter Scott; and they remembered how countless thousands at his shrine had learned to turn a sympathetic ear to every note of human sorrow and misfortune. It was in that spirit they set up the stone, and in that spirit they left it in the lone kirkyard. (Applause.) On being unveiled, the Cross, with its Celtic adornments and chaste beauty, which stands about the middle of the cemetery to the south of the walled-in graves there, and under the shade of a friendly birch, was very much admired. Mr. Peter Smellie, treasurer of the Memorial Fund, thanked the members of kindred clubs and other subscribers for their help in this matter. For the scheme they had distinguished patronage that of Earl Selborne, Hon. President of the club; Lord Rosebery, and Sir Mitchell Thomson, then Lord Provost of Edinburgh. These names headed the list, and the subscriptions ranged from twopence to £5. They preferred that the subscriptions should be numerous rather than large, and the result was that very many people had contributed to place this stone where it was. A cordial vote of thanks having been accorded to Mr. Murray, and the Memorial inspected by the company, the proceedings at the graveside terminated. Subsequently the guests were entertained by the Club to cake and wine in the Melville Hotel, when a number of toasts appropriate to the occasion were pledged; and it was intimated that, as soon as certain difficulties had been removed, it was intended to proceed with the restoration of "Clarinda's" tomb in Canongate Churchyard. D. LAWSON JOHNSTONE. VOLUME ANNOTATED BY BURNS. N "Notes and Queries " (January 26th, 1901-No. 161, presumably once in the possession of Burns, and bearing on certain of its pages some critical notes in the holograph of the Poet. Shortly after the appearance of the article we communicated with the writer, Mr. Henry T. Wake, Bookseller and Dealer in Antiquities, Fritchley, Derby, who very kindly forwarded us the following information :— I bought the book in question at a bookstall in Sneinton Market, Nottingham, and afterwards discovered that it had once belonged to Burns, both from the handwriting but particularly by the style of expressing himself in the MS. notes. The catalogue by which it was sold (and of which I enclose a copy) gives all the particulars about the book itself, as does also "N. and Q." When the catalogue was first issued I received from an eminent firm of booksellers in Glasgow an order for it on approval, and it came back by return of post with the remark that it was "not Burns's writing." An eminent firm in London afterwards ordered it with exactly the same result. They had based their judgments entirely on the handwriting, which, however, did not resemble his ordinary writing; but I found from a facsimile of his writing in Highland Mary's Bible, and to which it had a strong resemblance, that it was indeed the Poet's handwriting. Soon after Dr. Maris of Philadelphia ordered it, and was so anxious to know whether he had secured it that he requested me to wire back at once on receipt of order, which I did. Dr. Maris is since dead. I do not think he bought it for himself, but for an institution or a friend, as he had previously bought of me the original Deed of Settlement of the State of Pennsylvania by William Penn in 1682 for £320, for the State. This deed was superseded by a second deed which the State possessed, and they wished to possess the first one, as it was not altogether superseded by the second. I do not know where the book now is, but it is no doubt somewhere in safe keeping. I believe a copy of the work will be found in the British Museum, London; the Oxford Bodleian Library, and the Signet Library, Edinburgh, as neither of these institutions ordered the book, which I think they would have done had they not already got it. This will enable thee to give an account of the interesting Burns relic in the annual Burns Chronicle. Thy fd., H. T. WAKE. P.S.-Dr. Maris did not at all dispute the authenticity of the MS. being Burns's.-H. T. W. From the accompanying catalogues we learned that Mr. Wake offered the book for sale in December, 1896, its description being as follows: "The Patriots or an Evening Prospect on the Atlantic: a Poem, 4to orig binds. Autogh at beginning Laing, Edin 1819, 5th, 743." London for T. Cadell & Drummond, Edinburgh. MDCCLXXVII. Thiscopy is believed to have been Robt Burns's. There are several notes in MS. which are believed to be in the handwriting of the Poet, some of which are as follow. "By John Inglis, Schoolmaster, Canongate, Edinburgh. An essay to procure from Goverment (sic) a place or pension.” "We should imagine the Author an American, he was a Scotchman. I do not know if he was ashamed of his country, his country might well be ashamed of him." "The poor author expected he would at least be made a Commissioner of Excise for writing this excellent Poem. He died on the 18th of Feby. 1786 (without obtaining either place or pension), at eight in the Evening of a Consumption. Almost the whole impression was found by him unsold and was disposed of to a snuff shop. This copy may well be looked on as a curiosity. There is not I believe another extant." In good condition. £5. (1777). There is also a MS. verse commencing "Thou lousy pedant, let thy awkward muse With censures praise wt flatteries abuse," &c. Mr. Wake was then in doubt as to the authenticity of the handwriting, but, as he states, after he had seen a facsimile of the Poet's handwriting in Highland Mary's Bible, he became convinced that it was genuine. In Catalogue (No. 279) of date October, 1897, he thus describes it : : "Burns the Poet. (1777). The Patriots: or an Evening Prospect on the Atlantic. In which some Noted Political Characters are delineated; with strictures on Ladies who have distinguished themselves in the Fashionable Modes of Gallantry. 4to, orig1binding: London 1777." Note in Burns's handwriting on title: "By John Inglis, Schoolmaster, Canongate, Edinburgh: An Essay to procure from Goverment (sic) a place or pension." At the foot of the first page of the Preface, which appears to have been written to allay the rebellious spirit of the Americans and to induce them to return to the ob dience of their King (George 3d), is the following Note of R. B.'s :-"We should imagine the Author an American, he was a Scotchman. I do not know if he was ashamed of his country, his country might well be ashamed of him." Further on in his Preface the Author, praising "a glorious band of men – who will long adorn the British annals—viz., Lord Ń——th, Lord George G――ne, the acute and ingenious Mr. Alexander W▬▬ne, Solicitor, Hon—— H— D--s, Lord Advocate for Scotland," &c. R. B. has written on the margin opposite-" Infernal Villains. No, they are ye ministers of him who is called ye best of Princes, and he is no doubt as much so as he is the Wisest." At the end of the Preface opposite to |