'Notes on Scottish song' by Robert Burns
The notes written in Robert Riddell's interleaved copy of The Scots Musical Museum by Burns and by Riddell himself J. C. Dick discovered them in the possession of a London owner in 1902, and published them in 1906 under the above title separating Burns's notes from those of Riddell and those he deemed 'spurious'. All had been published by Cromek in 1808 as genuine. In 1922, however, David Cuthbertson came upon a manuscript in Burns's handwriting in the library of Edinburgh University. He published the contents in the Kilmarnock Standard. This contained most of the 'spurious' notes, more or less as given by Cromek, whose fault in this instance seems to have been that he failed to indicate that he had made use of more than one source. The interleaved Museum was given by Mrs Riddell to her niece, Miss Eliza Bayley of Manchester, who allowed Cromek to see it. In 1871 John Salkeld, a London bookseller, acquired it as part of a job lot, and catalogued it at £110. It was bought by a book collector, H. F. Nicols, who left it to his housekeeper, Miss Oakshott, with whom Dick found it. It was sold at Sotheby's in 1903 to an American buyer. Together with Dick's The Songs of Robert Burns and Davidson Cook's Annotations thereon, it was reissued in a single volume by Folklore Associates, Hatboro, Pennsylvania (1962).
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Unique collectors' pieces based on Burns' life and works. (The ideal gift for your Burns Supper guests!) 