A BOOK of printed song sheets from the time of Robert Burns has been donated to the University of Glasgow’s Archives and Special Collections.
Now the search is on to prove that the book had a genuine connection to the Bard, as it may have belonged to his mother Agnes, whom Burns always credited for his poetic gifts as she continually sang and recited Scottish ballads.
Confusingly, the book might also have belonged to Rabbie’s sister or niece, as they, too, were called Agnes.
The Burns link is tantalising because the book comprises 18th- century song sheets containing more than 100 songs with music, many of which are Scottish standards, as well as a large quantity of Irish songs.
The front inside cover of the book has a handwritten title: "Agnes Burn’s her book 1801".
The use of the apostrophe in the name is easily explained, as the poet’s father was William Burnes or Burness – his original name is the east-coast spelling that changed to Burns when the poet became famous and used the Ayrshire variant.
The book has been donated to the University of Glasgow by businessman and former university student George Walker in memory of his late wife Margaret.
The collection was originally discovered 10 years ago in a street bookstall in Haddington in East Lothian.
It is well known that Robert Burns’s mother Agnes Burns lived at Grant’s Braes house near Haddington for many years with her son Gilbert, the poet’s much-loved brother.
She died there at the age of 87, and was buried in the nearby Bolton Churchyard. Her name is on the tombstone of Burn’s father in Alloway.
Unsure about the authenticity of the "Agnes Burn’s" inscription, the bookshop owner who found the book in the stall stored it among other valuable collections, where it lay awaiting a buyer for many years before being acquired by George Walker.
A statement from the University of Glasgow said: “Academics at the university’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies are keen to study and research the book to determine its authenticity, in particular to establish if it was originally owned by Agnes Burns in 1801; and which ‘Agnes’ it could be as Robert Burns’s mother, sister and niece were all called Agnes.
“Towards the back of the book there is handwriting referring to ‘whale fisheries’ followed by a series of financial figures, which might possibly be an excise entry in Robert Burns’s handwriting.”
It is possible the song sheets were part of Robert Burns’s own collection that was handed down to his sister Agnes, which is an intriguing possibility as she was most certainly connected to Ireland. She and her husband William Galt went to live and work there in County Louth in 1817 – could she have sent the Irish songs to her mother to add to the book?
She died childless in Louth in 1834, and is buried in St Nicholas’ Presbyterian Church in Dundalk, where there is a memorial stone to her and Rabbie, dating from 1839 and paid for by admirers of the poet’s work.
Her life in Louth is why there is a "Burns Cottage" in Ireland as well as Scotland. Her home was restored and is part of the Stephenstown Pond Amenity Park.
Professor Kirsteen McCue of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies said: “Certainly all the markers are pointing in the direction that this could be Agnes Burns, Robert Burns’s sister, not his mother.
“Certainly the 1801 date would be more fitting. But we need to do a lot of research and investigative work, which is what we love doing, to try and determine who owned this book and how old it is. It’s very exciting.”
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