THREE HUNDRED

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 10, 13 January 1932, Page 14

THREE HUNDRED

FOR BURNS LETTER

Burns and Byron have often been honoured at auction, and at Sotheby's a four-page letter by the Scottish poet,, wiittai on 4th Jul\, 1796 (less than three weeks befoic his death), realised £360, and tho last three stanzas of - J3\Ton's "Ode to Napoleon" fell to the bid of Mr. Gabriel Wells, of JSew York, for -£130, says the London •Daily Telegraph." We know that Scott, as a boy, once j met Burns. Did Byron ever see him* The question is moro pertinent than would appear at first sight, because it is often forgotten that Byron was at the Aberdeen Grammar School between 1794 and 1795, that is, between the age of 6 to 10. His mother had been compelled to Hire in Aberdeen on account of straitened means. Byron's love of mountainous scenery, on his own admission, dates from those early years and, in a noto to "Don Juan," he refers to a never-forgotten journey to Ballatcr. It was stated in the preliminary notice of the sale that the last stanza of Byron's "Ode" was a perfervid eulogy of. Washington. Did ho hear, as a boy of seven, in 1793, that Burns had got into veiy hot water at Dumfries for toasting Washington "as a greater man than Pitt"9 The Burns letter just sold was writ--ten to tho engraver of "Tho Musical Museum," to which Burns had richly contributed, and the poet states: "I. .will ventuic to prophesy that, to future ages, your publication will be the text book and standard of Scottish Song and Music." For a set of drawings made in 18-13-45 by Geneial Sir Henry J. Warre, en route from Canada to tho Red River Settlement, "Mr. Spencer gave £280; and a. letter written by George Washington, in 1791,<0n the necessity for providing' bounties for encouraging the 1 growth of cotton in America, brought £.95. ' The sale included also a very rare Parisian binding, designed in the middle of the sixteenth century for a Prince of the Holy Roman Kmpire, I enamelled iii colours and encircled by i the Older of the Golden Fleece, which fetched as much as £520 (Mr. Gabriel Wells),