EQUATORIAL STAR FINDER FOR BEGINNERS. 209 
tainly is a great help to anyone just beginning to learn the stars 
and constellations. I designed and made it in a hurry, and used 
it along with the telescope until I got pretty familiar with the 
different constellations and principal stars ; it may be constructed 
in a short time by any amateur mechanic of ordinary capacity. I 
may add that to get a familiar acquaintance with the stars a tele- 
scope is not really necessary, but a good star map is required, and 
I can recommend to all beginners Proctor’s small atlas, price 5s, 
and when used along with Webb’s “ Celestial Objects for Common 
Telescopes ’’ and a good 3 in. glass, and all mixed up with a real 
desire “to know,’’ it is all that any amateur astronomer may 
desire. 
THE BIRTHPLACE OF ANNA LAURIE. By W. DICKIE. 
This note is a sequel to the very pleasant visit which the 
Society paid to Glencairn last summer. You will remember that 
our host at Maxwelton House, in the very interesting account 
which he gave us of the house and the Laurie family, mentioned 
an idea which has lately prevailed in some quarters, that the 
heroine of the song which has made the house and its“*braes ”’ 
celebrated was born, not in Maxwelton, but at Barjarg Tower, in 
the neighbouring parish of Keir. In conversation with Sir Emilius 
I learned that the only basis for this theory was the record of 
her birth in what have come to be known, somewhat vaguely, as 
“the Barjarg Manuscripts.’’ I expressed the opinion that it 
rested on a misapprehension of the nature of these records, and I 
undertook to make inquiry on the subject. I have since done so, 
and it has been suggested by the Secretary that the result should 
be recorded in the Transactions of the Society. 
The Laurie family records of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, I ascertained from Sir Emilius, have not been preserved 
at Maxwelton ; but I found in the valuable library at Barjarg, to 
which I was kindly given access by Mrs Hunter Arundell and Mr 
Wadd, a transcript of that record, covering the period from 1674 
to 1731. It is this copy of a Maxwelton document—not an 
original record kept at Barjarg—which contains the entry of the 
birth of Anna Laurie. The following is a complete copy of the 
record ;— 
