View of monument to Joanna Baillie. Digital image of B 40560 CN

Description View of monument to Joanna Baillie. Digital image of B 40560 CN

Date 4/9/1990

Catalogue Number SC 800985

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of B 40560 CN

Scope and Content Memorial to Joanne Baillie, St Bride's Parish Church, Main Street, Bothwell, South Lanarkshire Built in terracotta, this handsome monument is a fitting memorial to one of the most famous individuals born in the parish of Bothwell. Square on plan and designed in Italianate style, the monument is topped by a cupola with four winged cherubs. Each figure holds an emblem of the arts, such as the mask of drama or the lyre of music. Beneath, the monument has four arches supported by Corinthian pillars, each decorated with a spiral design along its shaft. The Corinthian capitals are composed of lilies, thistles and roses, describing Joanne Baillie's purity, her Scottish birth and her long life in England. Mosaics, constructed by the Murano Glass Company of Venice, decorate each face of the memorial, showing scenes relating to her Bothwell childhood, as well as a portrait of the playwright herself. Each portrait is framed by a wreath and two panels contain extracts of her poetry and plays, while the others contain lines composed by Scott in her honour and a fine epitaph. Around the base of the monument are a series of panels containing a variety of symbols and figures. These show a soaring bird (a metaphor for her soul ascending to heaven), a variety of flowers and pomegranates (a traditional Christian emblem for immortality). In 1784, Joanne Baillie left Scotland to join her brother Matthew in London, where he was already gaining a reputation as a skilled surgeon (he later became First Physician to George III), and spent the rest of her life in or near the city. Having inherited a small legacy at the age of 21, which allowed her to remain independent, she cultivated her already considerable literary talents, becoming an important author, poet and playwright. Her work was varied ranging from traditional Scots ballads and songs to works of fiction and drama, underpinned by their themes of love and hate. Despite being performed in London, Edinburgh, Liverpool and London, few of her plays achieved any great success and many were published anonymously. At the time, some of these were attributed to the pen of Sir Walter Scott, already known for publishing his work anonymously. Through her writing and theatrical work she developed friendships with luminaries of the literary world such as Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron and William Wordsworth. She is buried in St John's Church in Hampstead. Standing in the midst of the main approach to St Bride's, this monument commemorates Joanne Baillie, a noted poetess and playwright, who died in 1851 at the age of 91. On the western panel, facing the street, beneath a portrait of a young Joanne is the inscription: 'Joanne BAILLIE/Born at Bothwell Manse/September 11, 1762/Died at Hampstead, London/February 23, 1851'. Beneath is the introduction to the third Canto of Sir Walter Scott's epic work 'Marmion': 'The harp which silent hung/By silver Avon's holy shore,/Till twice an hundred years roll'd o'er;/When she, the bold enchantress, came/With fearless hand and heart on flame!/From the pale willow snatch'd the treasure,/And swept it with a kindred measure,/Till Avon's swans.. .. ./Awakening at the inspired strain,/Deem'd their own Shakespeare liv'd again'. Joanne Baillie was a close friend of Scott, who portrayed her as being Shakespeare's reincarnation. Another panel is inscribed with a lengthy eulogy, describing Joanne's early life in Bothwell where her father was minister (later becoming Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow) as well as extolling her many virtues and achievements. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Medium Colour negative

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/800985

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap