232 Transactions. 



Mausoleum when on ;i visit to the coast, and it is therefore impos- 

 sible to tell from tlie documents at my command what amount was 

 actually expended. The cost seems to have been well up to £2000, 

 and I fear the verdict of the present day is that a very bad return 

 has been received for the money expended. 



Mr Wilson then alluded to the origin of the Burns Club in 

 Dumfries. The Committee entrusted with the erection of the 

 Mausoleum and their friends, he said, appeared to have celebrated 

 the anniversary of the poet's birthday by dining in the King's 

 Arms Hotel on 25th January, 1817. No dinner appeared to have 

 taken place in 1818, but on 25th January, 1819, the event had 

 been celebrated in the Globe Inn. At that meeting it was agreed 

 to open a subscription for the purchase of a china punch l)owl, to 

 be used on all similar occasions, and the sum of £19 8s 6d was 

 then subscribed in guineas and half-guineas. Accordingly a bowl 

 was purchased, made by Spode of Staffordshire, of excellent work 

 manship, with elegant emblematic devices, capable of holding 3 

 gallons, and the original subscribers' names were placed thereon. 

 A handsome silver punch spoon and three dozen glasses were also 

 acquired, and along with the bowl produced at a meeting of sub- 

 scribers on 18th January, 1820, and very much admired. The 

 cost of the bowl was £15 ; of the spoon, £2 2s ; and of the glasses 

 £4 15s. It was then resolved in order to give effect to the cele- 

 bration of the birthday of the bard to form the subscribers to the 

 bowl into a society, to be named " The Burns Club of Dumfries," 

 and Mr John Commelin was chosen president and Mr Grierson 

 secretary, and minute regulations drawn up for an annual dinner. 

 The newly-formed club dined in the King's Arms on 25th January 

 following, al)Out forty gentlemen being present, under the presi- 

 dency of Mr Commelin, with Mr Syme as croupier. At this 

 meeting Thomas White, mathematician, and James Hogg, the 

 Ettrick Shepherd, were admitted honorary members. At the 

 same meeting it was resolved as soon as the funds of the 

 club would permit to purchase a snuff mull, and to have a portrait 

 of the bard painted for the Club by an eminent artist. It had 

 been arranged that Major W. Millar should preside at the dinner 

 on 25th January, 1821, but in his absence Mr Commelin again 

 presided, and Mr W. Gordon, jun., acted as croupier. This meet- 

 ing took place in the Commercial Hotel, when thirty-seven sat 

 down to dinner, which was excellent, the wines were good, the 

 large china bowl was often filled with good whisky toddy, and the 



