Two Kilmarnock Editions in "Burns Cottage"

Last Wednesday, I had the almost unique pleasure to be standing in "Burns Cottage" with two of the exceedingly rare Kilmarnock editions in my hands, and all this in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. No, this is not a joke for April 1st, there is a replica of the famous birthplace Cottage, exact in almost every respect, in Atlanta and it is home to The Burns Club of Atlanta, who commisioned an architect in Scotland to take dimensions off the Alloway cottage and had their own constructed and completed way back in 1911. I was there for the first stop on my US tour, and went in the afternoon to meet a couple of old friends, Frank Shaw and Victor Grieg with the express purpose to cast my eye over their own copies of the famous book. There are surely few clubs that can boast of two individual members who own this rare treasure. The next day I travelled with Frank and his wife Susan to Columbia, South Carolina, with these two Kilmarnocks, plus our Presidential chain of office, in the rear footwell next to me, surely the most precious Burns cargo of all time.