EDITORIAL.

ALLOWAY.

To the Scot there is no place, outside his home, that has greater attraction than the village of Alloway, in the Kyle District of Ayrshire. It may be superfluous at this time to say why that is so; yet we may recall that hither, nearly 200 years ago, came the second son of a farmer in "the Mearns," to seek a livelihood as gardener, to build a house, to marry a Kirkoswald farmer's daughter, and to beget sons and daughtersthe eldest of them named Robert, after his grandfather, the tenant of Brawlinmuir and Clochnahill. For more than a century and a quarter the house built by William Burnes has been a shrine second only to the holy city of Mecca pilgrims in their millions have gone to it, there to pay homage to the genius who was born within its" argillaceous walls." These pilgrims have visited Alloway not only to view "the Cottage of his birth "; they have gone to see the Auld Brig o' Doon and the ruins of "Alloway's auld haunted kirk," both immortalised in the tale of "Tam o' Shanter "; they have gone to see also "bonie Doon" itself and the classic monument erected on its banks more than a century ago by worshippers of Robert Burns.

"The auld clay biggin " at Alloway, with some acres of ground surrounding it, continued the property of William Burnes until Martinmas of 1781, when he parted with it to the Incorporation of Shoemakers in Ayr. It was held by that society for exactly one hundred years, being sold in 1881 to the Trustees of the Burns Monument. During the nearly fifty years that have elapsed since '81 these Trustees-guided by the late Mr. W. H. Dunlop of Doonside and, since his death, by his son, Lieutenant-Colonel T. C. Dunlop of Sauchrie

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have aimed at making the Cottage a memorial worthy of the great Scots poet: with what signal success visitors to the shrine may see. The Cottage has been restored to its original condition, and a wonderful museum of relics of the poet-including over a century of his manuscripts— has been formed in an adjacent building.

Both structures were rendered as safe against the danger of fire as was believed possible; but fears for the security of the invaluable fabric of the Cottage and of the priceless contents of the Museum having recently been expressed locally, the Trustees early in 1928 decided to ask the advice and assistance of Mr. William K. Dickson, LL.D., Librarian of the National Library of Scotland; Mr. J. Wilson Paterson, M.V.O., Architect to H.M. Office of Works in Scotland; and Mr. William Waddell, Firemaster to the Corporation of Glasgow. The reports submitted by these gentlemen are now available, and may be briefly summarised.

Mr. Waddell thinks that the Burns Monument, Museum, and Cottage are "as fire-proof as they can be made."

Mr. Paterson is of opinion that, "while the buildings are not wholly constructed of fire-resisting material, with the precautions already taken by the Trustees, the risk of fire is slight. In the Cottage the risk of fire is almost negligible, there being little inflammable material and no potential source of fire, as the fireplaces are not now used and there is no system of artificial lighting installed. No smoking is permitted, and the Cottage is under supervision while open to the public, and is supplied with sufficient fire buckets and extincteurs. There is, however, some slight risk from outside sources to the thatch, from sparks from passing steam vehicles. The danger can to some degree be lessened by the application of a fire-resisting liquid to the thatch. This is efficacious for a time only, and should be renewed periodically."

Dr. Dickson reports that "some of the criticisms which have been made with regard to the safe custody of the exhibits in the Museum are familiar to most directors of museums and libraries. To obtain for the contents of a museum absolute safety against fire or theft it would be necessary to lock them up in a fireproof strongroom, to which admission should only be given on conditions similar to those of access to a bank safe. This would be to defeat the purpose of a museum, which is the exhibition of its contents to the public. All that can be expected is that reasonable precautions should be taken. It seems to me that the precautions at present taken at the Museum are satisfactory. The valuable and interesting objects which the Museum contains are well arranged for exhibition. They are in two rooms which are separated from each other and from the Caretaker's House by rolling steel shutters. The only outside windows have steel astragals. The exhibits are kept in locked cases, and I understand that while the Museum is open they are under constant observation. Two objects of special value, the Bible and the Kilmarnock Edition, are locked into safes when the Museum closes. As regards safety, I think the conditions of the Museum compare favourably with those of most similar memorial museums, and that they are quite up to the standard of most of the great libraries of the country."

The reports of these experts, added to the fact that preparations are in hand to give effect to certain suggestions there offered, should assure all who are interested in these institutions at Alloway that the Burns Monument Trustees "have been fully alive to the paramount necessity of safeguarding against the risk of fire, and of adopting the best methods for the preservation of their manuscripts, etc." The recent action was an excellent move on their part, and one that calls for an expression of the best thanks of the Burns world.

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Alloway's auld haunted kirk " and the Auld Brig

o' Doon are in no less satisfactory a position. Both have recently been scheduled by the Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland as "monuments the preservation of which is of national importance," because of their association with Burns's "Tam o' Shanter." The one-with the kirkyard, where William Burnes is buried-is now a charge of Ayr Parish Council; the other is in the care of Ayr County Council, whose concern in it is revealed in the informative article published in this number of the Burns Chronicle.