chief obstacle to complete acceptance, in Burne-Jones’s case, is to be found in the peculiar quality of his sentiment and in its limited range. Not only was the type of romance which he loved remote from modern life—all romance is that, in a greater or less degree—but he presented it habitually in a form which full-blooded humanity finds it difficult to enjoy. This is as much as to say that Burne-Jones, that rare modern product of Celtic romance in matters of feeling and of the Botticellian tradition in art, only appeals in all his strength and fulness to people of a certain type of mind and education; but to them he appeals as no other modern painter has done—to them his name is the symbol of all that is most beautiful and most permanent in poetry and art.
[Personal knowledge; various letters to friends; Malcolm Bell’s Sir Edward Burne-Jones: a Record and a Review, 4th edit. 1898; the New Gallery Catalogue, 1898–9; Some Recollections of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, by Joseph Jacobs, ‘Nineteenth Century,’ January 1899. A full life of the painter, with selections from his numerous and highly characteristic letters, is in course of preparation at the hands of his widow.]
BURNETT, GEORGE (1822–1890), historian and heraldic author, born on 9 March 1822, was third son of John Burnett of Kemnay, an estate in Central Aberdeenshire, by Mary, daughter of Charles Stuart of Dunearn. Educated partly in Germany he acquired a taste for art and became a very competent critic both of music and painting, and was for many years musical critic for the ‘Scotsman’ newspaper.
He was called to the Scots bar in 1845, but did not practise much, devoting himself to the literary side of the profession and distinguishing himself specially in the historical and heraldic (particularly the genealogical) branches. The Spalding Club was in its full vigour at the date of Burnett’s early manhood under the learned supervision of John Hill Burton, George Gibb, Joseph Robertson, Cosmo Innes, and its secretary, John Stuart—scholars with all of whom, as well as with W. Forbes Skene, the Celtic historian, Burnett became intimately acquainted. In Scottish genealogy and peerage law he was one of the foremost lawyers of his time. He wrote ‘Popular Genealogists, or the Art of Pedigree Making’ in 1865, ‘The Red Book of Menteith Reviewed’ in 1881, and towards the close of his life a ‘Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign,’ which was completed by the Rev. John Woodward in 1891; their joint work is a masterly treatise on that subject. But Burnett’s principal historical work by which he will be long remembered is the edition of the ‘Exchequer Rolls’ from 1264 to 1507 (vols, i–xii.), published under the control of the lord clerk register, which he undertook on the death of John Stuart (1813–1877) [q. v.] and continued between 1881 and 1890, in twelve volumes. The prefaces to these volumes contain indispensable materials for the history of Scotland during the period to which they relate. In 1864 Burnett entered the Lyon office as Lyon depute, and two years later, when the office was reorganised on the death of the Earl of Kinnoull, he became Lyon King of Arms, and ably discharged the duties of the office. He restored it from an honorary and titular office into a working one, and in this was ably seconded by Mr. Stodart, the Lyon clerk, an accomplished genealogist.
Burnett, who received the degree of LL.D. in 1884 from the university of Edinburgh, died on 24 Jan. 1890. He married Alice, youngest daughter of John Alexander Stuart (son of Charles Stuart of Dunearn), and left a son and daughter.
[Private information; Burke’s Landed Gentry.]
BURNS, Sir GEORGE, first baronet (1795–1890), shipowner, youngest son of the Rev. John Burns (1744–1839) of Glasgow, younger brother of John Burns (1774–1850) [q. v.] and of Allan Burns (1781-1813) [q. v.], was born in Glasgow on 10 Dec. 1795. At the age of twenty-three, in partnership with a third brother, James, he commenced business in Glasgow as a general merchant, and in 1824, in connection with Hugh Matthie of Liverpool, established a line of small sailing vessels trading between the two ports. Belfast was soon included in their operations; sailing vessels gave place to steamers; in 1830 they joined their business with that of the McIvers, and for many years held a practical monopoly of the trade between Liverpool, the north-east of Ireland, and the west of Scotland, the McIvers managing the Liverpool business, and James Burns that of Glasgow, while George devoted himself more especially to the control of the shipping. In 1838, in conjunction with Samuel Cunard [q. v.], {{DNB lkpl|Napier, Robert (1791-1876)|Robert Napier} (1791–1876)} [q. v.], and others, they founded the celebrated Cunard Company, which secured the admiralty contract for carrying the North American mails, and in 1840 made their start with four steamers of the average burden of 1,150 tons, with a speed of 8½ knots, and making the passage in fourteen
