in accord with the spirit of the National Poet. In carrying out the alterations and repairs the committee of the Glasgow Burns Association were advised and greatly assisted by Mr Ninian M'Whannell, F.R.I.B.A., Glasgow, who freely gave his services, and the work was satisfactorily executed by Messrs Thomas Findlay & Sons, Mauchline. Already there have been numerous gifts to the Museum, including statues, portraits, books, manuscripts, and other relics of the Poet, and many more have been promised.

Though the weather on Saturday was wet and disagreeable, the opening ceremony was very largely attended. Representatives were present from upwards of forty Burns Clubs in Glasgow and District and from many Clubs in Ayrshire and other parts, and of course the villagers turned out in large numbers. The formal proceedings were held in the Parish Church Hall, the use of which had been kindly granted for the occasion. There were upwards of five hundred ladies and gentlemen present. Mr Hugh M'Coll, President of the Glasgow Burns Clubs Association, occupied the chair, and along with him on the platform

were Mr and Mrs C. R. Cowie, Glasgow: the Right Hon. Eugene Wason, M.P., Mrs Wason, and Miss Wason; Mr. T. W. M'Intyre, Sorn Castle; Mr Hugh Killin, Renfrew

(grandnephew of Jean Armour); the Rev. Joseph Mitchell, B.D., and Mrs Mitchell, Mauchline; the Rev. Wilson Baird and Mrs Baird, Mauchline; the Rev. D. Foulis, L.A., and Mrs Foulis, Mauchline; Dr Reid, Mauchline; Mr

and Mrs J. Taylor Gibb, Mauchline; the Rev. J. C. Higgins, B.D., Tarbolton; Provost Mathew Smith, Kilmarnock; Dr James F. Gemmill, Glasgow; Mr Ninian M'Whannell, Glasgow ; Mr Thomas Amos, M.A., Kilmarnock, Secretary of the Burns Federation; Mr George A. Innes, F.E.I.S., Kilmarnock, Treasurer of the Burns Federation; Lieutenant Adam Mackay, Kilmarnock; Mr Campbell, Secretary of the Glasgow Mauchline Society; Mr Thomas Killin, Treasurer of the Glasgow Mauchline Society; Captain Douglas, Glasgow; Mr Alex. Pollock,

Mr

Mauchline; Mr and Mrs M'Adam Sharp, Glasgow ; Mackie, builder, Mauchline; Mr William M'Whirter, Glasgow; Mr John Findlay, Mauchline; Mr T. Hayes, Glasgow; Mr and Mrs M'Auslan, Lanark, &c.

Mr Jeffrey Hunter intimated apologies for absence from Miss Daisy Burns Hutchison, Cheltenham, greatgranddaughter of the Poet; Annie S. Swan (Mrs Burnett Smith); Sir James and Lady Sivewright; Sir William Beale, M.P., and Lady Beale; Captain Campbell, D.S.O., M.P.; Colonel W. Hamilton Campbell, D.S.O., of Netherplace, Mauchline; Lord Provost Dunlop, Glasgow; Mr Duncan M'Naught, J.P., President of Burns Federation; Mr Philip Sulley, assessor, Elgin; Dr William Wallace, Glasgow; Mr and Mrs Thorneycroft, Hillhouse, Troon; &c., &c.

The Chairman said :

In these days of stress he thought it would be fitting that they should begin the proceedings by singing together one verse of the National Anthem. This having been done, he went on to say that he appreciated very highly the distinction of being asked to preside over that interesting meeting, and he recognised that that honour was paid him in virtue of the office he held as President of the Glasgow and District Association of Burns Clubs and Kindred Societies, the Members of which Association were now the proud owners of the historical building in Mauchline known as the Burns Housethe house in which Robert Burns and his wife, Jean Armour, first began housekeeping. He (the Chairman) could safely give them the assurance that this Association would jealously safeguard the almost sacred trust that had come into their care, and that in their management of it they would bring the keenest interest to bear on the purpose to which it was to be devoted. He thought he could congratulate them on the very large and representative character of that meeting. They had with them representatives from some of the county families resident in and around the district. They had also the clergymen of Mauchline very worthily represented, and they had also some of the principal officials from the Burns Federation in Kilmarnock, the Alma Mater, or the benign mother, of all connected with the Burns cult. Lastly, but not least, they had a fair representation from the many Burns Clubs scattered over the length and breadth of the land. On behalf of the Glasgow Burns Association he extended to everyone & very hearty welcome, and thanked them for their presence and for their assistance in the important work that lay before them. One word of explanation was due to them. They had hoped to be favoured with the presence of Mr Duncan M'Naught, the revered President of the Burns Federation, who had undertaken to give what might be called the inaugural address, but at the last moment he had been called away by telegram to Aberdeen, and the committee in their dilemma had approached the Rev. Joseph Mitchell of Mauchline, who, like a thorough Burnsian, had at once stepped into the breach and generously undertaken to discharge Mr M'Naught's duties. He had therefore much pleasure in asking Mr Mitchell to address them.

Rev. Mr Mitchell said :

He had been asked to say only a few words so as to fill up the gap that had been left by the unexpected and unfortunate absence of Mr M'Naught, the editor of the Burns Chronicle, who, he understood, was to have given them some account of the house in which they were interested and of its history. He was afraid that he was a very inefficient substitute. He had never pretended to

specialise in Burns antiquities, and he had really no information to give them with regard to the house beyond what he was quite certain most of them knew quite well already. Of course, one could not live for a quarter of a century in Mauchline and not acquire some little knowledge of its famous places, and it so happened that he had been always more or less interested in this particular house, for this reason among others, that, so long as he had known it, it had been occupied until she died by an old lady whom he had the privilege to consider a friend of his, and who acted as caretaker of the Parish Church. One of her chief delights was to assure her visitors (and there were many of them) that the bed in which she slept the fixed-in bed in the kitchen-was the very bed that had been occupied by Jean Armour, and in which, presumably, her twins were born. Now it was somewhat of a shock to them to be told the other day by a writer in the newspapers that that was all wrong, that Jean Armour's bed was a mahogany bed which had been bought for her by Burns, and that the kitchen bed on which so many had gazed with eager interest had been put into the house at a later time. He was afraid that that was the way all their idols went when once the spirit of criticism got to work. Whatever proof the newspaper writer might bring forward in support of his position --and he had no doubt it was perfectly satisfactory-he was afraid that a great many people would regret the passing away of the glamour from that old kitchen bed in which as a genuine Burns relic they had implicit faith. Perhaps it was just as well that investigations of that kind were not pursued too vigorously. One never knew what fine old tradition might next be swept away. these things had a value. Sometimes they might have even a deeper foundation of truth-truth of sentiment, truth of heart, truth of poetic feeling-than any cold-blooded or dry-as-dust critic could ever realise. He hoped it would be understood that he was speaking in general terms. He had no desire to refer to the gentleman who wrote that article he had not the pleasure of his acquaintance and against his conclusions he had nothing to say. But he thought they might take this as comfort to their souls, that there was no reason to doubt that that house was the house which Burns took for Jean Armour when she was turned out of her own home, and left, as he described it, "forlorn, destitute, and friendless," and that it was thus intimately associated with one of the tragic experiences of that wayward and transcendent genius, who, by the emotional tides of his nature, was both carried up to higher heights of rapturous exhilaration and swept down to deeper depths of dark depression than ordinary mortals could ever dream of. It might seem to some that the episode was sad and pitiful enough, but far be it from them to sit in judgment. Let them remember his

And