A Scottish Bibliophile in Buffalo.

MR. R. B. ADAM, of Buffalo, N. Y., has an exceedingly interesting and valuable collection of books, MSS., portraits, illustrations and autographs. Among the books are not a few rare editions, as well as a large assortment of sumptuous editions de luxe. The collection is especially rich in the works of Burns, Ruskin and Dr. Johnson, and in literary relics more or less intimately related to them. In a copy of James McKie's "Burns Calendar" there is interleaved a letter from Burns to Clarinda, under date Dec. 8th, 1787, in which he says:

"I can say with truth, madam, that I never met with a person in my life whom I more anxiously wished to meet again than yourself. . . I determined to cultivate your friendship with the enthusiasm of religion."

Besides a copy of the first Kilmarnock edition of the poet's works, Mr. Adam has a copy of the edition published by the Ettrick Shepherd, Allan Cunningham's edition, the edition of which Christopher North wrote the preface, Dr. James Currie's edition and a variety of modern editions, including Gebbie's, which Mr. Adam rightly calls the best American edition. A copy of James Johnson's "Scots' Musical Museum" has a place of honor among the Burnsiana, and there are also a number of the poet's letters in addition to that referred to

above, and some autograph poems. Of Ruskin's publications Mr. Adam has practically all that has ever been issued, including a copy of "Friendship's Offering," which was published in 1835, when Ruskin was only sixteen; while the Johnsonian collection includes an immense variety of portraits and autographs of the friends and contemporaries of the great lexicographer, besides all the principal editions of his works, and a variety of books of cognate interest, prominent among which is Dr. G. Birbeck Hill's "Footsteps of Dr. Johnson in Scotland," a large quarto printed entirely on Japanese vellum, with 18 full-page illustrations. Among the works relating to Scotland in Mr. Adam's library there are copies of Billing's "Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland," John Ramsay's "Scotland and Scotsmen of the Eighteenth Century," and James Logan's

Clans of the Scottish Highlands. Mr. Adam's great grandfather was a farmer in Peeblesshire, and one of the books in the collection bears an inscription showing that it belonged to him.

THE

Incident in the Life of Burns.

HE Scottish Bard, as is well known, in traveling from Ayrshire to Edinburgh, broke his journey for the night at Covington Mains, where he was the much honored guest of Mr. Archibald Prentice, the tenant of that farm, who writes :

"On the following morning he breakfasted with a large party at the next farm-house, tenanted by James Stoddart, brother to the Stoddarts, the famous pianoforte makers of London and New York. I have heard his son, a James Stoddart also, say, when nearly eighty, that he remembered passing the Mains that morning with other companions on his way to school. The pony was waiting at the door for the owner to start on his journey. The stalwart 'Bauldy' came out and ordered him and the other boys to stop and haud the stirrup for the man that was to mount, adding, 'You'll boast of it till your dying day.' The boys said, 'We'll be late, and we're feared for the maister.' 'Stop and haud the stirrup -I'll settle wi' the maister.' They took courage, as well they might, for Prentice was six feet three, and the dominie but an ordinary mortal. That boy Stoddart, almost an octogenarian at the time he spoke to me, said, 'I think I'm prouder of that forenoon frae the schule than a' the days I was at it.'"

He Didn't Know Burns.

HAVING lost my copy of Burns some time ago, says a traveller, I went into the book-shop of this town-Vryheid, Transvaal-to buy another. The proprietor (Von Schalweedenberg) was also the librarian of a circulating library. Could you oblige me with a copy of Burns?" "I beg your pardon?"

"I wish to buy a copy of Burns." "I don't know what you said, sir." "Do you know Robert Burns?" "I havn't the pleasure of that gentleman's acquaintance." "I want the works of Burns." I emphasized the name here, and thought I could detect by the man's face a ray of light struggling into his brains. "O, ho! I have an excellent treatise by our great medical doctor, Herr Gottenburg, on the very subject -it's entitled "How to Treat and Cure Burns." I then said, by way of explanation--" Robert Burns was a man who lived in the West of Scotland about a hundred years ago, who wrote poems. Those poems have been published, translated into many languages, and retailed all over the world. Those poems have exercised a mighty influence in exposing hypocrisy, giving thought a higher elevation, giving subtle expression to that divine spark within the human. breast we vulgarly call love. Do you know him now?" "Never heard of him before." "Do you know Goethe?" "Oh, I know him well." "Well, Burns is the Scottish Goethe, and the first thing you ought to do is to take the first steamer to England, go to a

town in the West of Scotland called Kilmarnock, read up all the numbers of the Kilmarnock Standard for the last five years, and on every page you will find something about this poet Burns; and until you do that, sir, we will not consider your education finished.''

Burns at the Old Forest Inn.

Dr.

THE old Forest Inn, Selkirk, where Burns stayed for a night during his tour of the Borders with his friend Robert Ainslie, who afterwards became a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, has been pulled down, but a tablet set into the wall in West Port marks its former site. While sitting in the inn Burns wrote a letter to Creech, the Edinburgh bookseller, including his clever verses, "Willie's Awa'." Clarkson, of Selkirk, used to say that he and two friends were sitting in the inn when the illustrious travelers arrived, "like twa drookit craws," for it was raining heavily. Very soon afterwards Burns sent in Veitch, the landlord, to ask them to have a glass of wine with him. The doctor asked Veitch what like the men were, and he replied that “One of them spoke rather like a gentleman, but the other was a drover-like chap," so they refused to admit them. It was not till some days after this that the worthy doctor discovered that he had given Burns "the cut direct," and to his dying day he never forgave himself for it,