This is a companion volume to the "Scott Country." It describes the homes and home life of Burns; it contains sketches of his contemporaries and his surroundings; and incidentally it traces his development as man and poet from Alloway to Dumfries. The country traversed includes Carrick, Kyle, and Nithsdale, a country with many features of engrossing interest apart from Burns. It was the scene of the early struggles of Wallace and Bruce; it abounds with memories of the Covenanters; its castles and keeps were the homes of Kennedys, Crawfords, Cochranes, and Boyds, whose deeds made history; its literary associations are many and important. The author spent several years in the south-west of Scotland, and he made a series of journeys on foot or on cycle through the whole country. He has thus gathered together a mass of interesting material which, though not new, was not readily accessible to the general reader; and in the "Burns Country" he seeks to present this in popular form in the hope that the volume will guide the steps and enhance the pleasure of the tourist, and that to those to whom a visit to the land of Burns is denied, it will afford a correct and complete view of what, to patriotic Scotsmen, is the most interesting corner of our land. The volume is profusely illustrated from Photographs. A. AND C. BLACK. PUBLISHERS. 4, SOHO SQUARE. LONDON. * * * * * Transcriber's note: Variations in spelling and punctuation are as in the original, except in cases of obvious typographical error. Inconsistencies of hyphenation have been resolved. In the reference "like an inverted Y." on page 113, the Y in the original is inverted.