ROBERT BURNS' WATCH.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 157, 8 March 1872, Page 3

ROBERT BURNS' WATCH.

Can some of readers' give any information as to a watch which is, I believe;a, relic of "Burns the poet ?' "In September, 1869, I was travelling in New Brunswick; and' the village of Tobique, on the St. John River, fell in with an ecceritHc genius, who com- | bined the pursuits of shoemaking and gold-seeking. He had" recently found specimens of the precious metal on the river Tubique,' which I had just des-. cended, and.out of..curiosity I went* to his,house to see his, findings. ! I eaw there specime'ns of g »ld in quartz and in dust ; and was about to leave s when he told me that he nada curiosity ; in the shape of a watch of Burns ; iand, opening a. drawer,, he pulled out from among strips of leather and the debris of his craft a heavy silver', watch, wanting one hand, which had the initials " if.B." on the outside. His a -count ■was that it was a presentation watch which had beei* brought over by a Scotch fatr.il v, who, with many others, had been sent oiit by sonie of their landlords to form a colony. in the! beginning of the century, and, after being kept as an heirloom for many years, had been traded away in a time of want by some of the son's. Its history was matter of some notoriety in the county, •where there are many of: Scotch extraction, and finally it was swapped to mv informant for another watch' and two pa*rs of boot--: I left the place the same evening, having first, after some difficulty, persuaded the shoemaker to part with the watch. Such were all - the details which I was able to obtain as to its historv. The watch itself is an old-fashioned and heavy silver watch, the case separable from the works, having the initials " li. B " aud the date 1894 ! [L794 ?] on the back, arid within the n:ime of the maker, Rt. Cunningham, London, and the number 2121. From a paper label i*- appears that the watch had at some time- been repaired by James Murdock, watch arid clock maker, Newton, Ayr. Perhaps from these data some of your readers may be able to give further information which may suffice fully to identity what is, I believe, 1 a veritable- relic of the poet John R. Gteifeith, in 'Notes and. Queries.'