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Footnotes
An address delivered to The Toronto Burns’ Society, November, 1926.
I had promised to address the Toronto Burns’ Society on the subject some years ago, but delayed until my return from an anticipated visit to Scotland in 1925, during which I visited places associated with Burns’ life.
On my return I noticed in the Manchester Guardian the review of a volume by Sir Crichton Browne, who had investigated the sources of information, and, following a process of reasoning similar to my own, concluded as I had, that Burns died of rheumatism and heart disease, and not from alcoholism.
In a letter from the Rev. Wm. Muir Auld, D.D. of Cleveland, he recalls our conversations on the subject about 1920-1921, when he urged me to publish my investigations: “Otherwise, you may have the mortification of having to quote another.” Rev. Dr. Auld is related to the family of the Rev. Wm. Auld of Mauchline, who figures in “The Kirk’s Alarm” and others of Burns’ satirical poems, and is himself a well-known student of Burnsiana.