Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/369

 ii s. iv. NOV. 4, 19H.3 NOTES AND QUERIES.

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In an alcove on the front wall of the Town Hall is a leaden (?) statue of Shake- speare, presented by Garrick in 1768. The poet is represented leaning his left elbow upon a pedestal, and in his left hand grasping an open scroll, to which he points with his right hand. It bears the following words from Act V. sc. i. of ' A Midsummer Night's Dream ' :

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heav'n to earth, from earth to

heav'n ;

And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the Poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.

Immediately below the figure are Hamlet's lines :

Take him for all in all, ' We shall not look upon his like again.

Below this is inscribed :

The Corporation and Inhabitants of Stratford

Assisted by The munificent Contributions

of the Noblemen

and Gentlemen in the Neighbourhood

Rebuilt this Edifice in the Year 1768.

The Statue of Shakespear

and his Picture within were given by David Garrick, Esq.

Keswick. Fronting Friar's Crag " one of the three most beautiful scenes in Europe," as Ruskin called it a monolith has been placed to his memory. It was unveiled by Ruskin' s cousin Mrs. Arthur Severn on ' 6 October, 1900. It stands about 50 paces from the face of the Crag, and consists of a block of Skiddaw granite, rough and un- hewn as it came from the quarry. On the front a circular portrait medallion of Ruskin is sunk in the slab ; and on the back is carved the design used as his symbol. The memorial is thus inscribed : (Front :) John Buskin

MDCCCXIX + MDCCCC

The first thing

which I remember

as an event in life

was being taken by

my nurse to the brow

of Friar's Crag on

D er went water.

(Back :) The Spirit of God

is around you in the air that you breathe His glory in the light that you see and in the fruitful- ness of the earth and the joy of its creatures. He has written for you day by day His revelation and He has granted you day by day your daily bread.

(On plinth:)

In keeping of the National Trust for places of historic interest and natural beauty.

Killearn, Stirlingshire. At the birth- place of George Buchanan (1506-82) the neighbouring gentry erected an obelisk of white millstone grit to his memory in June,. 1788. It is 19 feet square at the base, and rises to a height of 103 feet. No inscription was placed upon it at the time. Beneath the foundation stone, however, a hermetically sealed bottle was deposited, containing a silver medal with the following inscription :

In Memoriam

Georgii Buchanani

Poetae et Historic! celeberrimi :

Accolis Hujus Loci ultro Conferentibus,.

Hsec Columna Posita est, 1788 Jacobus Craig Architect, Edinburgen.

At the base of the memorial the following eulogium, composed by Prof. William Ramsay of Glasgow University, was in- scribed in 1850 :

Memoriae JEternae Georgii Buchanani

Vivi

Inter Fortes Fortis

Inter Doctos Docti

Inter Sapientes Sapientissimi

Qui Tenax Propositi

Impiorum Sacerdotium minas ridens

Tyrannorum saevorum minas spernena

Purum Numinis Cultum

Atque

Jura Humani Generis A Pessima Superstitione atque ab infima ser-

yitute. Imperterritus Vindicavit

Hoc Monumentum

Domum Paternam et Natalia Bura Prospectans

Sumptibus et Pietate Populorum

Olim Extructum

JEtas Postera

Reficiendum Curavit

Anno Christi D.N.

MDCCCL.

Paisley. Robert Tannahill, the weaver- poet, was born at Paisley 2 June, 1774, and at the centenary of his birth a series of annual concerts for the singing of his songs was organized in his native town. By this a fund of 800Z. was raised, which formed the nucleus of a public subscription for a monu- ment to his memory. On 20 October, 1883, a bronze statue, erected on a pedestal of red Aberdeen granite, was unveiled by Mr. W. Peattie, Chairman of the Anniversary Committee. It is the work of Mr. D. W. Stevenson, A.R.S.A., and is placed on the border of the Abbey Churchyard, in front of the Town Hall. A granite obelisk marks Tannahill' s grave in the West Relief Church Burial-Ground ; and a tablet has also been placed on the house in which he was born.