Rare first edition Robert Burns book of poems goes on display for first time since before lockdown

Burns enthusiast John Murison rescued the book after spotting it in a dilapidated state at a shop in Shrewsbury, where the proprietor was tearing out pages to clean razors.

He stepped in to buy the copy of ‘Poems Chiefly In The Scottish Dialect’.

The book, missing its first 50 pages, will be displayed at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries in Fife, next to the Abbey Church which Burns (pictured) visited in 1787.

Only 612 copies of Burns's debut collection, commonly known as the Kilmarnock Edition, were printed in 1786 and it is thought that only 84 survive worldwide.

Sara Kelly, local studies officer with OnFife, the cultural charity which runs the library, said it is a mystery how the book found its way to Shropshire.

She said: “The only noted owner is an Alexander Dick in 1790, so there's more research to be done if we are to chart the book's journey to Shrewsbury.

“It's wonderful that John Murison had the presence of mind to step in and save the book, given that so few of them still exist.

“It doesn't go on show very often because of its condition and rarity.”

The exact date when Mr Murison rescued the book is not known but it is thought to have been in the 1880s or 1890s.

It will be on show in the reading room from January 3 to February 5, coinciding with Burns Night on January 25.