English newspaper article October 1872.
BURN’S SNUFF BOX.___ At the sale of the effects of the late Mr.Fiske Harrison, of Copford Hall, near Colchester on the 30th.ult., an interesting relic of Burns was sold. It was the Scotch mull or snuff-box presented to Burns for having composed his poem on “The Whistle,” by one of the competitors for that convivial trophy. The mull is a beautiful twisted and polished horn, with silver lid, inlaid with a pebble, together with its appendages - a long-handled little spoon and a little hammer, both of silver, suspended by silver chains; also a hare’s foot, suspended in the same manner. The inscription round the rim is, “Craigdarrock to Robert Burns , the bard of The Whistle, Oct. 16, 1790.” How this Scotch mull came to be in the possession of the eccentric owner of Copford Hall does not appear.