CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Ayrshire Homes and Haunts of Burns. By Henry C. Shelley. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.)—This is one of tho pleasantest and least controversial of the recent contributions to the literature of Burns which have been evoked by the centenary of the poet's death. Mr. Shelley has visited the farms and villages in Ayrshire associated with the life and memories of Burns- Alloway, Mount Oliphant, Tarbolton, Lochloa, Mauchline, Moss- giel, the Fail and the Banks of Ayr—and as he took his camera with him, he has been able to produce an elegant little volume, consisting of about forty pages of letterpress and over a hundred of photographs, the latter being, in most cases, illustra- tions of certain of Burns's descriptive poems. Mr. Shelley ventures on no new theories of Burns ; indeed, be does not appear to be quite an courant with the latest investigations into his hero's life. He persistently writes the name of the poet's father as " William Burns," although " William Burnes" was the spelling uniformly used by the old man himself. Trifles like this, however, do not impair the value of what is a very interest- ing, useful, and attractive little book.
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