19 SEPTEMBER 1931, Page 28

What Boswell did for Johnson the Burns Clubs, spread worldwide,

do for Burns, and the Burns Chronicle, Vol. V., second series (The Burns Federation, 4s. 6d.) is their organ. Odd bits of unpublished letters, critical estimations of the man and the poet, Burnsiana in general, and a full list of all Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies are among its useful contents. But (dare we whisper. it.?) what an infinite deal of nonsense is • talked about the bard. A commentator in this Chronicle remarks that when the poet described the -moon as " blinkin' in the lift sae hie," he was " using words that have, for the Scot, a connotation, the complete depth of which is hardly to be plumbed." The only adequate comment on this is " Hoots ! " (or, in English, " Dear, dear ! ").

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