Highland Mary

This famous statue of Highland Mary stands below the Castle in Dunoon, looking across to Greenock (where her grave is) but also towards the embarkation point where she and Robert Burns might have left for Jamaica in 1786, had she not died suddenly. I did blip the statue during 2011 but a seagull rather distorted the impression it should have given. I thought it was appropriate to try again in the week of the annual Burns' celebration.

In fact I was talking about her at the Greenock Burns Club annual Burns commemoration on Wednesday night for the club has (since 1803) shown a proprietary interest in Highland Mary , takes responsibility for the upkeep of the commemorative stone it placed on her grave more than 150 years ago , and has done considerable work on her history. It was all the stranger, therefore, that this weeks BBC Radio documentary , which purported to tell her story and the search for her true history, and which went to the bother of recording in Greenock with club members, cut every single one of them from the final programme and never told them, leaving them to find out on transmission.

The statue is by DW Stevenson and was unveiled on the 1st of August 1896, one of the many events associated with the centenary of Burns' death. Certainly an abiding public interest in this girl from Dunoon continues to this day , fuelled by Burns' poems about her.

In May I quoted "HIghland Mary " itself. The other celebrated work is " The Highland Lassie O " which has a short preface from Burns that speaks volumes for the Poet's anguish:

"At the close of autumn she crossed the sea to meet me at Greenock, where she had scarce landed, when she was seized with a malignant fever, which hurried my dear girl to the grave in a few days, before I could even hear of her illness!"

Nae gentle dames, tho' ne'er sae fair,
Shall ever be my muse's care;
Their titles a' are empty show;
Gie me my Highland Lassie, O.
Chorus

Within the glen sae bushy, O;
Aboon the plain sae rushy, O,
I set me down wi' right gude will,
To sing my Highland Lassie, O.

O were yon hills and valleys mine,
Yon palace and yon gardens fine!
The world then the love should know
I bear my Highland Lassie, O.
Within the glen, etc.

But fickle fortune frowns on me,
And I maun cross the raging sea;
But while my crimson current flow.
I love my Highland Lassie, O.
With the glen, etc

Altho' thro' foreign climes I range,
I know her heart will never change,
For her bosum burns with honor's glow,
My faithful Highland Lassie, O.
With the glen, etc

For her I'll dare the billow's roar;
For her I'll trace a distant shore;
That Indian wealth may lustre throw
Around my Highland Lassie, O.
With the glen, etc

She has my heart, she has my hand,
By secret truth and honor's band!
Till the mortal stroke shall lay me low,
I'm thine, my Highland Lassie, O.
With the glen, etc

Farewll, the glen sae bushy,
O! Farewll, the plain sae rushy, O!
To other lands I now must go
To sing my Highland Lassie, O!

The Robert Burns Beyond Text project at Glasgow University has some interesting observations about how Highland Mary's image was developed during the 19th century in order to create a definition of Burns himself.