n o te s
1 The Complete Letters of Robert Burns, ed. James Mackay, Alloway 1987, p.
14 Lizanne Henderson and Edward J. Cowan, Scottish Fairy Belief: A History,
His book also includes an item, The Rafters of Kirk Alloway, about
434; letter 419. The letter number refers to those attributed in The
objects being made out of the surviving fabric, or trees, at heritage
Letters of Robert Burns, ed. J. De Lancey Ferguson; 2nd edn, ed. G. Ross
15 Letters, pp. 465–6; letter 506.
sites, pp. 102–9. A Tam o’ Shanter tourist trail was well established by
Roy, 2 vols, Oxford 1985, which has also been consulted.
16 Life and Works, ed. Chambers and Wallace, vol. III, pp. 255–7.
1833: Life and Works, eds. Chambers and Wallace, vol. III, p. 215 note.
2 Francis Grose, The Antiquities of Scotland, 3 vols, London 1790–91:1797,
17 Letters, pp. 559–60; letter 427A.
22 See, for example, Hogg, Allan Cunningham, pp. 349–57; John D. Ross,
18 Poems, vol. 3, 1348–1350. Sadly, Jean was not the most reliable witness
Who’s Who in Burns, Stirling 1927, loc. cit. Douglas Graham is said
3 Letters, pp. 176–7; letter 352. Dr Slop is a character in Laurence Sterne’s
on the subject of her husband’s compositions. See, for example, her
to have made up a story about witches in Alloway Kirk to pacify his
account of the gestation of To Mary in Heaven (Poems, vol. 1, pp.
wife when he thought he had lost the money he had made at the
4 The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, ed. James Kinsley, 3 vols, Oxford
492–3) in J. G. Lockhart, The Life of Robert Burns, Enlarged
market: Life and Works, ed. Chambers and Wallace, vol. III, p. 223,
Edition Revised and Corrected by William Scott Douglas, London
note.
5 Edward J. Cowan, “Burns and Superstition” in Love & Liberty. Robert
1892, pp. 190–92. The suggestion that Burns had written an early
23 Mary Ellen Brown, Burns and Tradition, Urbana and Chicago 1984, p. 62.
Burns: A Bicentenary Celebration, ed. Kenneth Simpson, East Linton
version of Tam while a boy at Kirkoswald, while uncorroborated, is
24 Grose, Antiquities of Scotland vol. 1, p. 146; vol. 2, pp. 24, 31–3.
1997, pp. 234–5.
not completely unbelievable: Life and Works, ed. Chambers and
25 Letters, p. 249; letter 125.
6 The Antiquities of Ayrshire Excerpts from The Antiquities of Scotland by
Wallace, vol. III, p. 210, note.
26 Franklyn Bliss Snyder, The Life of Robert Burns, New York 1932:1968,
Frances Grose, introduction by John Strawhorn, Ayrshire
19 David Hogg, The Life of Allan Cunningham with Selections from his Works
p. 460; Thomas Crawford, Burns: A Study of the Poems and Songs,
Archaeological and Natural History Society 1991, p. 1.
and Correspondence, Dumfries, Edinburgh and London 1875, p. 32.
Edinburgh 1960:1965, p. 221. See also David Daiches, Robert Burns,
7 Letters, p. 559; letter 408.
See also Lockhart, Life of Robert Burns, for Cunningham’s recollection:
Edinburgh 1950:1981, p. 260.
8 The Life and Works of Robert Burns, ed. Robert Chambers and William
“I once heard [Burns] read ‘Tam o’ Shanter’ – I think I hear him
27 See, for example, Kinsley, Poems, vol. 3. pp. 1358, 1360; Brown, Burns and
now. His fine manly voice followed all the undulations of the sense,
Tradition, pp.63–4. On Murray see Norman Cohn, Europe’s Inner
9 Letters, p. 578; letter 445: p. 194; letter 443.
and expressed as well as his genius had done, the pathos and humour,
Demons, St Albans 1975, pp. 107–25; Caroline Oates and Juliette
1o Letters, pp. 557–8; letter 401.
the horrible and awful, of that wonderful performance.
Wood, A Coven of Scholars: Margaret Murray and her Working Methods,
11 Poems, vol. 1, pp. 168–72.
As a man feels so will he write; and in proportion as he sympathises
Folklore Society, London 1998; Juliette Wood, “The reality of witch
12 George Sinclair, Satan’s Invisible World Discovered, Edinburgh 1871,
with his author, so will he read him with grace and effect”: p. 197.
cults reasserted: fertility and satanism” in Palgrave Advances
pp.163, 219. Edward J. Cowan, “Calvinism and the Survival of Folk or
Lockhart’s editor, William Douglas, was very scathing about
in Witchcraft Historiography, ed. Jonathan Barry and Owen Davies,
Deil Tak the Minister” in The People’s Past: Scottish Folk Scottish History,
Cunningham and some of his more preposterous claims.
Basingstoke 2007, pp. 69–89.
ed. Edward J. Cowan, Edinburgh 1980:1991, p. 42.
20 The Works of Robert Burns, ed. Allan Cunningham, 8 vols. London 1834,
28 Henderson and Cowan, Scottish Fairy Belief, pp. 177–9.
13 Edward J. Cowan, “Witch Persecution and Folk Belief in Lowland
29 Edward J. Cowan and Lizanne Henderson, “The last of the witches? The
Scotland: The Devil’s Decade” in Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern
21 John Gordon Barbour, Unique Traditions Chiefly of the West and South
survival of Scottish witch belief”, in The Scottish Witch-hunt in Context,
Scotland, ed. Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin and Joyce Miller,
of Scotland, London and Glasgow 1886, pp. 131–5. The eccentric
ed. Julian Goodare, Manchester 2002, pp. 198–217.
Basingstoke 2008, pp. 71–94.
Barbour is no more trustworthy an informant than Cunningham.
vol. 1, p. xxi. novel Tristram Shandy. 1968, vol. 1, pp. 494–6.
Wallace, 4 vols., Edinburgh 1896, vol. III, p. 217 note.
East Linton 2001:2007, p. 62.
vol. 1, p. 248; Lockhart, Life of Robert Burns, pp. 209–10.
11