Note A — INTRODUCTION.

As a further explanation of the preference given by Burns for the "West-Country cows," the writer would mention, that in 1858, he had several interviews with the poet's sister, the late Mrs. Begg, of Ayr, in one of which, she stated that her brother, during his occupancy of the farm of Ellisland, near Dumfries, kept a dairy, and made considerable quantities of cheese. Thus his efforts to procure the Ayrshire cow, shows that they had, even at that time, a high reputation for this object.