The Agnes Burns Songbook
In January 2017 the Centre for Robert Burns Studies was given the wonderful gift of a personal bound music book belonging to an ‘Agnes Burns’. The book, dated 1801, very possibly belonged to Burns's sister, or even his niece. It was generously donated to the CRBS by George Walker in memory of his wife Margaret Bonnar Walker (née Russell), having been found in the Kings Bookshop in Callander in the Trossachs.
Following this very kind gift, the Shaw Summer Scholarship at CRBS in 2017 made it possible for Dr Brianna Robertson-Kirkland to undertake some preliminary work on this fascinating book. Her findings, alongside Sally Evans's story of how the book came to be discovered, are now available on the Robert Burns Lives! website edited by Frank Shaw: https://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/frank/burns_lives264.htm and a short video and pictures of the book itself can be found at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2017/january/headline_510155_en.html