Robert Burns in Greenwich and Victoria Embankment Gardens: London #33

The Scottish clipper Cutty Sark is in Greenwich and dates from 1869. It is named after Robert Burns's poem 'Tam o' Shanter' (1791), which concerns the drunken Tam going home and chancing upon a group of witches and warlocks dancing. He is captivated by the beautiful Nannie, a younger witch wearing a short skirt (or cutty-sark) that is revealing because she has outgrown it. He calls out to her, using 'Cutty-sark' as a name, they run towards him but he escapes on his horse, although not before Nannie pulls off its tail.

The figurehead is of course the beautiful witch holding the horse's tail, and although she's bare-breasted, her skirt doesn't seem to tally with Burns's description:

'Her cutty sark, o' Paisley harn,
That while a lassie she had worn,
In longtitude tho' sorely scanty
It was her best, and she was vauntie'.

The most interesting way to cross back over the Thames is by taking the Greenwich Foot Tunnel.

 

On the north side of the river, way to the west in Victoria Embankment Gardens, is a statue of Robert Burns. This was sculpted by John Steell (1804–1891) in 1884.

 

'ROBERT BURNS
1759–1796

"THE POETIC GENIUS OF MY COUNTRY FOUND ME AT THE
PLOUGH – AND THREW HER INSPIRING MANTLE OVER ME. SHE
BADE ME SING THE LOVES, THE JOYS, THE RURAL SCENES AND
RURAL PLEASURES OF MY NATIVE SOIL, IN MY NATIVE TONGUE:
I TUNED MY WILD, ARTLESS NOTES AS SHE INSPIRED."'

Spot the difference. I took this photo of Steell's statue in Central Park, New York City, several years ago. It was installed there in 1880 – four years before the one in Victoria Embankment Gardens. The City of New York Parks & Recreation website also informs me that the scroll is 'part of "To Mary in Heaven"'.

 

Below is a link to my photos of the statue in Dunedin, New Zealand:

 

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Robert Burns in Dunedin, New Zealand