“TAM O’ SHANTER”

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 46, 18 November 1926, Page 12

“TAM O’ SHANTER”

SCULPTURED GROUP OF LEADING CHARACTERS. To all lovers of Burns the preservation of the sculptured group representing the four leading characters _in vTam o’ Shanter” is a matter of importance, apart from the credit .winch is due to the sculptor, Janies J horn, whose work, when exhibited in London, nearly, a centurv ago, evoked a chorus of admiration from the newspaper critics. 'The group, 'lam, Souter Johnnie,' the innkeeper, : nd InS wife, was acquired in 1829 byjhe late Sir Peter Coats, of Auzhendrane, and remained for lone in his grounds. Ou the disposal of the estate, the figures were removed to Perthshire, Lut Sir Stewart Coats felt that their proper place was the district in which thev had been conceived, and placed, them in the custody of the parish minister of Kirkoswald. The figures were set up in the garden, of Souter Johnnie’s liouse at Kirkoswald, which lias since been repaired, and is growing into a local Burns museum. Eventually they will have the protection of a suitable building; and, according to Mr. James Muir, who. lias ventilated the subject in a descriptive article in Ihp Edinburgh “Scotsman,” the’ committee hopes that it will *-oon be r-ble to provide the necessary funds for the purnose. ’Hie publicity which has been given to the nroiect . mav be the means of bringing that time nearer.