of the notice of Thom in the National Dictionary of Biography, that "William Brown, Trabboch Mill, about six miles east of Ayr, sat as the model for Tam o' Shanter."

JAMES M'BAIN.

SOUTAR JOHNNY'S SNUFF MULL.

The interesting relic depicted, the snuff mull of John Davidson, immortalised by Burns as the "ancient, trusty, drouthy crony of Tam o' Shanter, is in the possession of Mr Jas. France, 5 Balmoral

There is no doubt regarding the

authenticity of the little box. Its genealogical tree as given by its owner is as follows:- Mr France married the daughter of Matthew Biggar Walker; the said Matthew Walker was the son of Agnes Davidson or Walker. She was the daughter of John Davidson, shoemaker, Kirkoswald, known to fame as Soutar Johnny." When the Soutar died his daughter inherited the snuff mull. It in turn passed to her son, Matthew Walker, who on his deathbed, over twenty years ago, handed it to his son-in-law, the present possessor, at the same time telling him, "Tak' guid care o't, Jamie. It's the Soutar's box." The box is of dark wood. There is a horn panel on the lid, which bears a small silver plate with the name in much-worn lettering, "John Davidson." The workmanship is first-class, the fitting of the hinge being very fine.

-Evening Times, Glasgow, 8th Nov., 1916.

Than Mr J. C. Ewing no one is better informed on matters that relate to Burns's Bibliography. Hence when we read that he knows of one copy only of the " Proposals for Printing" the first Edinburgh edition, 1787, of the Poems there seems little likelihood of another being recorded. The statement appeared in Messrs Sotheby's catalogue entry of the almost certainly unique copy of the Proposals " for the Kilmarnock edition of the Poems, which, as the property of the late Mr J. J. Greenshields, realised £275 some days ago. The one example of the 1787 Prospectus there alluded to was lent by Lord Rosebery to the Burns Memorial Exhibition of 1896. It is inserted in the Edinburgh Poems, to secure support for which it was issued, and bears the names of nineteen subscribers thereto. On a fly-leaf is a note in the autograph of John Dillon, donor of the Thomson portrait of Burns to the National Portrait Gallery. The octavo, with its very rare additional item, occurred in the sale of the second part of the library of the Rev. William Edward Buckley in April, 1894, when it was bought by Messrs Pearson for £12 15s. There seems to be little doubt, however, that the 1787" Proposals exists in at least two copies. On March 28th, 1887, when one of five Gibson Craig sales took place at Messrs Dowell's in Edinburgh, four lots belonged to "another property." One of these, No. 93, was a volume of Burns's MSS., &c., the contents of which had been brought together by Robert H. Cromek. Included was a copy of the 1787 Prospectus. The upset price for the volume, fifty guineas, does not seem to have been reached, the same holding good apparently of the other three lots. It is possible of course that Lord Rosebery's Prospectus is identical with that in the Cromek volume. If, as seems more probable, the two are distinct, the second can doubtless be traced.

The spoil belonging to the late James T. Gibson Craig (17991886)—he was a friend of Scott, and of most of the prominent Scottish artists and antiquaries of his time-offered in Edinburgh on the date named, March 28th, 1887, included the remarkably fine letter from "Clarinda " to Burns which last Friday in Wellington Street produced the phenomenal sum of £66. Twenty-nine years ago it was valued at nine guineas. I hear, by the way, that since the sojourn in America of the Glenriddel MSS. several collectors in the United States have shown a particularly keen desire to obtain important Burns manuscripts and books. This desire takes the eminently practicable form of commissions to buy, and at prices already falling little below those that ardent Scottish collectors are prepared to pay.

Glasgow Herald, July 27th, 1916.

THE SKIRVING BURNS.

An important addition has been made to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery by the acquisition of the celebrated portrait of Robert Burns by Archibald Skirving. This portrait was one of the most cherished possessions of the late Sir Theodore Martin. Shortly after his death the trustees approached his executors, with the result that its purchase was arranged. The group of portraits of Burns in the Scottish Portrait Gallery, already important, is now, by this addition, singularly complete. It includes all the important, indeed all the authentic, portraits of Burns extant, for the portraits by Nasmyth belonging to the London Portrait Gallery and Lord Rosebery are versions of that bequeathed to the National Gallery of Scotland by the Poet's son, and recently transferred, along with the Nasmyth full-length, from that gallery to the Portrait Gallery. The other likenesses in this unique group are the Taylor portrait, the Miers silhouette, and the Reid miniature, making, with those already named, six in all.

ACCOUNT OF THE DRAWING.

An article appearing in The Glasgow Herald of October 30th, 1909, gave an interesting account of the Skirving drawing. It was then stated that if the Skirving were to find a permanent home in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery the institution would be in the possession of all the portraits worthy of consideration that were known to have been executed either during the Poet's lifetime or soon after his death. Skirving, who was born near Haddington in 1749, began his professional career as a painter of miniatures, but after studying for a considerable time at Rome, he devoted himself almost exclusively to portraiture in crayons, practising with success in London, and afterwards in Edinburgh. In regard to the question as to whether Skirving had ever met Burns, the writer of the article quotes Sir Theodore Martin to the effect: "It is clear to anyone familiar with art that no such portrait as Skirving's could have been made by a man who had not studied Burns's face from the life.” Skirving's drawing of Burns is executed on tinted paper (size 20 by 16 inches) with red crayon. The head is nearly life, size, with a portion of the neck and the shoulders no more than indicated. The features of the Poet display a massiveness which is wanting from the Nasmyth head, and which some of those who saw him have described as peculiarly characteristic. In particular, Sir Walter Scott, writing to Lockhart of his meeting with Burns at Professor Adam Ferguson's house in 1787, declared that the Poet's features are represented in Mr Nasmyth's picture, but to me it conveys the idea that they are diminished, as if seen in perspective. I think his countenance was more massive than

The date when the drawing was

it looks in any of the portraits." made does not appear to be recorded; that it was before the end of the year 1798 is proved by the publication of an engraving of the portrait in October of that year. Skirving is said to have been so much pleased with this portrait and with another of John Rennie, the engineer, that he would not part with them either for love or money, though often solicited by admirers of Burns for the one and by Rennie himself for the other. On his death both portraits were purchased by John Rennie. They passed to his eldest son, and after the death of the latter's widow the portrait of Burns was sold by auction at her residence in London. It was acquired by Sir Theodore Martin at the very moderate price of £40.

The following note on the portrait was published at the date of the sale, October 25th, 1881 :-The Poet's face is turned threequarters to the left, the eyes looking away in the same direction. His left cheek is in deep shadow, and the face, which is smooth, with very short whiskers, corresponds with the well-known portrait. The plain white neckcloth and a portion of his coat collar on the shadow side are faintly indicated; the rest below is the toned paper left blank. The eyes are deficient in fire, as no white has been used and no deeper colour than the red chalk employed. The workmanship is peculiar, since although entirely in chalk no lines are observable, and all the shading, even to a faint tint on the background, has a minute granular appearance.

BURNS'S PATRIOTISM.

212 St. Vincent Street,

Glasgow, 28th January, 1916.

SIR,*—As might have been expected in a time of war, the " Januar❞ win's of rhetoric have this year blown mainly round the problem of Burns's" patriotism -so called. So far as I can make out, the orators have all come to the old resounding conclusion that, after making every allowance for Burns's Jacobitism and Jacobinism, the Poet was still a thorough patriot, who, if he had been alive to-day, would have denounced the Kaiser and all his works. I quite concur in this slap-dash conclusion, but I think it is about time some one should protest against the method of arriving at it. I therefore lift up my voice, like a sparrow on the housetop, for no other purpose meantime. (1) There is no doubt of Burns's Jacobitism. seems to have had its source in sentimentalism and anti-Puritanism at a time when the new line had shown that viciousness and obstinacy were not monopolies of the dethroned dynasty. But, even if *Editor, Glasgow Herald.

It

Burns's Jacobitism had been as robust as Cluny M'Pherson's, the charge of lack of patriotism here is widely irrelevant. To prefer

one dynasty to another within your own country may lay you open to a charge of " treason," but has no relevancy to lack of patriotism. Patriotism consists essentially in love of country, and it was the Jacobites' very affection for their fatherland which made them believe, however mistakenly, that the Stuarts alone could induce the welfare they desired. So much for the first count in the indictment. (2) As regards the second, Burns's Jacobinism is as undoubted as his Jacobitism. But when he is alleged to have sent carronades to the French Revolutionists we were at peace with France, and there was nothing in the least unpatriotic, but something rather generous, in the act. Patriotism has its degrees, like any other emotion, and I think Burns is to be commended rather than blamed because, unlike Burke, he could continue to see some vices in British politics and some virtues in French ones. And why should an exciseman (who happened also to be one of the greatest poets of all time) continue to be pilloried in an Old Bailey manner when statesmen of the time sit without reproach in the national Valhalla ? Chatham openly backed the Americans in their revolution, and yet he has all along been viewed not only as a patriot, but almost as a Jingo of the times. Fox went further than Burns in connection with the French Revolution, but is not in the least suspect by posterity, and actually, despite his recalcitrance, gained office before he died. And the statesmen who sixteen years ago most openly sympathised with the Boers later rose to the very highest offices in our own democratic days. So that the question of patriotism here in any valid sense of the term is also irrelevant, and Andrew Lang's statement that "in 1795 he (Burns) became, one may be glad to note, a patriot again, and wrote songs against the French," is quite gratuitous patronage. (3) My point therefore is that Burns had never ceased to be a patriot, either in a sound abstract sense of the term or viewed in relation to the times, and that the continued discussion of his presumed defect is a vast irrelevancy, especially in view of the treatment meted out to contemporary politicians, some of whom were worse men in every way than Burns. Many of those who seem inclined to think that Burns's Jacobinism stood for lack of patriotism palliate it by saying that it was an "aberration" due probably. to his being "burnt to a cinder," as Syme put it. But this cock winna fecht." For, in the terms of the case, Burns must have been more nearly burned out when he wrote the "Dumfries Volunteers" (which is held to have re-established his patriotism) than when he earlier committed his indiscretions." Neurosis surely cannot at once account for a lapse, and worse neurosis for the very opposite of the lapse. It must discredit both acts, or neither. I prefer to believe that Burns acted as seriously and sanely when he