In 1895, Mark Twain remarked that the people of Dunedin are Scottish, and indeed the name of the city is Gaelic for Edinburgh, and the Reverend Thomas Burns founded Dunedin. Thomas was Robert Burns's nephew, and Robert's statue stands imposingly in The Octagon, as mentioned in the post immediately below in the quotation from James Baxter on one of the Writers' Walk plaques that are laid around the statue.
The familiar 'To Mary in Heaven' scroll.
At the base is the name of the sculptor, Sir John Steell of Edinburgh. The date is 1886, whereas Steell's statues in Central Park, New York City and the Victoria Embankment Gardens, London, date from 1880 and 1884 respectively.
There is a link below to my photos of the other statues.
ADDENDUM: Kieran Meeke sends me a link to a website devoted to the (in)famous poet William McGonagall, with a fragment of his verse describing a copy of this statue in Dundee: so that make four statues in all. (Link included below.)
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Robert Burns in Greenwich and Victoria Embankment Gardens
William McGonagall on the Burns Statue, Dundee
No comments:
Post a Comment