932 TRANSACTIONS. 
Mausoleum when on a visit to the coast, and it is therefore impos- 
sible to tell from the 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 bowl, 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, about 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 szzff 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 
