Originally published in 1925, this guide uses the routes of the Caledonian and Glasgow & South Western Railway companies as a basis for reaching the sparsely populated districts outwith Dumfries and Ayr. The style is entirely practical, and remarkably informative. Every opportunity is taken to refer to associations with Robert Burns, whose poetry immortalises many of the villages and towns featured. By the time of publication, the British railways had been brought into four groups, after the ravages of the Great War. However, what was to prove a more substantial threat to their dominance of the travel and tourist market had already arrived - chars-a-banc and motor 'buses provided the "favourite excursions".