Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday 22 January

The Scotsman

1 year ago

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00:00Hello, welcome to the Scotsman's video bulletin for this Wednesday.

00:10My name is Dale Miller.

00:11I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Heritage Correspondent, Alison

00:16Campsey.

00:17Alison, we'll get to talk.

00:19Good morning.

00:20Good morning.

00:21We'll talk about all things on the heritage front with you shortly, just to pick up on

00:25today's Scotsman front page.

00:29And we led on effectively a trial of John Swinney, who's giving a speech in Glasgow

00:34today.

00:35He's going to talk about trying to push or work with the UK government on a quite tailored

00:42migration plan for Scotland, including a specialist Scottish graduate visa.

00:49We do know it is an issue for Scotland that a lot of graduates who come here to study

00:54at university leave thereafter.

00:57It has been a battle for a significant period of time for the Scottish government to try

01:01to improve population levels.

01:06We know they're fairly static here in Scotland and attract more working and skilled talent

01:12into the country, which obviously in turn can help drive the economy.

01:17So this is a plan from John Swinney to try and work with Labor, Sir Keir Starmer, other

01:22key ministers to try and get a specialised Scottish visa off the ground.

01:27I think that will be one to watch.

01:29And we've got all the build up in the paper of Scotland's Six Nations campaign.

01:34It hasn't been good news in the build up, losing the captain for two injury for the

01:40entire series.

01:41But fingers crossed that Scotland buck the odds of those injuries and make it a good

01:47campaign over the coming weeks.

01:51There's a lovely heritage package that's in the paper today, but also you can read

01:55that at scotsman.com as well.

01:58And Burns Night is approaching very, very rapidly this Saturday.

02:03And I was fascinated about this tale of effectively digging up the skull of Robbie Burns.

02:10So, I mean, Burns Week comes around every year and you always think, oh, what am I going

02:14to write this year?

02:16But there's always something that's taken you by surprise when it comes to Robert Burns.

02:21And I was actually looking at a book about Burns the other night, and there's just so

02:29much correspondence and letters and documents surrounding him.

02:34You get such a really, really rich flavour for the man's life and the poet's character.

02:42But this story kind of caught my eye, and it was about the night that Robert Burns'

02:50skull was removed from the mausoleum in Dumfries, where he was laid to rest for a second time.

03:01Now, he died in 1796 and was buried in a poor man's grave, as it's been described.

03:08And there was a bit of a feeling in Dumfries that this grave didn't really reflect the

03:14kind of might of the bard.

03:18After Burns died, there was a lot of attention on him.

03:22And there was a number of visitors to Dumfries who wanted to go and pay their respects.

03:27So you had poets like Coleridge and the Wordsworths come up to Dumfries to show their respects

03:34at the gravesite, and they couldn't find the grave.

03:38It was tucked away in St Michael's churchyard, and just a pretty humble memorial stone by

03:45all accounts.

03:46But there was a massive fundraising effort there on end in Dumfries to build this mausoleum.

03:51Now, I've never seen it in person, but from pictures, it is a very, very grand spot.

03:58So Burns was eventually moved there into the mausoleum 19 years after his death.

04:07And this was, you know, the early 19th century, there was growing interest in phrenology,

04:14which is the study of the skull to determine a person's characteristics, intelligence.

04:26And there was a group of guys in Dumfries, one called John McDiarmid, the newspaper editor

04:32of the Dumfries Courier, who someone actually said had links to the Scotsman, I've yet to

04:36determine that.

04:37But this chap, McDiarmid, he had a big interest in phrenology.

04:45And him and this group of men in Dumfries were super keen to extract or exhume Burns's

04:53skull and have it tested by the top phrenologist of the day, a guy called George Coombe, who

05:01was linked to the University of Edinburgh.

05:03Now, there was a very interesting account I read yesterday of the night that they removed

05:11Burns's skull for this mausoleum.

05:13Now, they'd been after it for a while and had asked Gene Armour, his widow, if they

05:19could go into the crypt to get the skull.

05:21Gene Armour was like, you know, no, this is horrific, you know, he's already been taken

05:27from his original grave into here, don't disturb him again.

05:30But when Gene Armour died in 1834, this group of men saw a window of opportunity to enter

05:36the crypt because it would be open to lower Gene's body into the mausoleum.

05:43So this group of men got permission from Gene Armour's brother to go and get Burns's skull.

05:51And there's an interesting account of the night that they went in.

05:55This group of guys had gathered in Dumfries at 7 o'clock at night, apparently, to go into

05:59the mausoleum, but it was too busy in the town.

06:01So they went back later at 10 when all the streets were quiet and they were seen with

06:06a ladder and a muffled lantern to kind of disguise their tracks.

06:11And they went in into the crypt, they had the key, went into the crypt, opened up the

06:16coffin and rather gruesomely, I feel, removed the head of Burns.

06:24Now, my kind of question was, well, how did they get the head off?

06:28But when Burns was originally moved, apparently the head became detached from the torso.

06:33And in 1834, when these guys went in to get the skull, to remove it, to take to Edinburgh

06:39for this phrenologist, apparently it was in an exceptionally well-preserved state.

06:45And there was even hairs still visible on Burns's head, which really put a shiver up

06:52my spine.

06:54And, you know, phrenology has been really discounted widely and was quickly discounted,

07:00I think, really as a bit of a kind of quack science.

07:03But at the time, it did have a lot of traction.

07:06And this guy, George Coombe, up in Edinburgh, you know, wrote a bestselling book on it and

07:11had gathered a lot of attention.

07:13And so your man, McDermid, after getting the skull, was seen walking through Dumfries,

07:19carrying Burns's skull in a linen bag through the town.

07:24I mean, it's just so, I just can't get my head round that.

07:29It was seen carrying the skull up to, into the town centre to see a chap, a plasterer

07:39in Dumfries to get a plaster cast made over it.

07:42And so there was a mould made of the skull in Dumfries and then there was a plaster cast

07:47made to make a replica skull.

07:48And this is what was taken to Edinburgh.

07:52So George Coombe got to work on his science and he came up with, you know, when he published

08:04his findings in a book later in 1834, so he kind of like worked very quickly, his assessment

08:13was the skull indicates a combination of strong animal passions and equally powerful moral

08:19emotions in Burns.

08:21And this was taken by assessment of the size and shape of various different parts of the

08:26skull.

08:27I think phrenologists looked at 27 different areas of the skull and came up with conclusions

08:32for each of these.

08:34So really talking about his sort of like the high passion of Burns.

08:41And we know this, this is the sort of long established narrative of Burns.

08:45You know, we know that he had many lovers.

08:49We know that he liked sex and that he liked women.

08:53We know all this.

08:54And this is like one of the assessments that George Coombe came up with.

08:57George Coombe came up with.

08:59And another of the findings that George Coombe reported was the element of the exquisite

09:08tenderness and refinement which Burns so frequently manifested, even when at the worst stage of

09:14his career.

09:16So I had a very interesting chat with a lovely woman called Judith Hewitt, who's the curator

09:21of museums in Dumfries and Galloway.

09:24And her properties include Robert Burns' house, which is a museum in Dumfries, which is set

09:32in Burns' last home in Dumfries and the Robert Burns Centre, where this replica skull actually

09:39sits.

09:40And, you know, Judith was talking about phrenology being this kind of quack science and how

09:45that really the findings of Coombe kind of really feed into these sort of popular narratives

09:51of Burns, which were taking shape at the start of the 19th century.

09:55Burns is this philanderer, the good time guy, this man of massive emotional intelligence.

10:02And the view sort of being, well, Coombe kind of had to say that because if he didn't, it

10:06would kind of sort of maybe draw light on the robustness of phrenology as a science.

10:16So the skull was immediately put back into the mausoleum and Coombe published his findings,

10:24which again got great traction in the day.

10:28So perhaps they didn't tell us necessarily anything new about Burns.

10:33They perhaps just elaborated, as I say, on the narrative that was already building up

10:37about him.

10:38But the fact that, you know, it was kind of seen fit to break into Burns' coffin and take

10:44the skull, you know, I don't think would really sit very easily with anyone today.

10:50It's incredible.

10:51Alison, pardon the pun about how many new sort of or revamped Burns tales can be dug

10:57up each year as we get to Burns.

11:00And I did have this mental image of him with flowing locks of hair, but I don't think it

11:05was probably that visible.

11:07But it did send the shivers, as you said.

11:12Absolutely.

11:13And just sort of, you know, breaking into a mausoleum in the dead of night, you know,

11:18and sort of rustling about in a coffin.

11:19I mean, obviously you would get arrested for that today.

11:24But it seems like in Dumfries, the sort of great and the good of the town, you know,

11:28did things their own way.

11:31And, you know, as I say, phrenology was very popular at that time.

11:36And so probably they were doing it with the best of intentions, you know, to prove Burns'

11:40genius once and for all.

11:42But I think, you know, we kind of already we know that.

11:45And that kind of still stands today.

11:51We have produced a special Burns supplement ahead of Burns Night this Saturday.

11:57Please go and pick up a copy of The Scotsman.

11:59If you want to flick through that, there's more work by Alison.

12:04There's a couple of fascinating reads in today's paper.

12:07Please, if you want anything, all the latest on heritage, there's also a great story on

12:15the site about the Merlin myth today.

12:18You can find Heritage in the navigation bar on our homepage.

12:21Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky.

12:24And as I said, go out and buy a copy of the paper today and tomorrow for all the very

12:29latest.

12:30Thanks to you, Alison.

12:31Thanks, everyone, for joining us.

12:32Thanks very much.

Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday 22 January

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