Was Robert Burns big-headed?

He's Scotland national poet and well known throughout the world.  However, is there any way of proving whether Robert Burns was big-headed or not?  Perhaps there is - read on!

The photograph below shows perhaps one of the more unusual items on display in the Greenock Burns Club’s Exhibition and Archive room in Greenock’s Custom House.  The alien-like object is (supposedly) a copy of a cast of Robert Burn’s skull!  The story of how the original cast of his skull was made is quite strange.

Copy of cast of Robert Burns' skull

Robert Burns (1759-1796) died at Dumfries in July 1796.  He was buried with full military honours as a member of the Royal Dumfries Volunteers.  His funeral was described as “uncommonly splendid”.  The cortege, accompanied by the military band of the Cinque Ports Cavalry, consisted of the Royal Dumfries Volunteers, in full uniform, the Angusshire Fencibles and a procession of friends and relatives.  He was buried in a simple plot in the north-east portion of the burial ground of St Michael’s Church in Dumfries.  His body remained there until 1815 when a grand mausoleum was built in his honour, by public subscription, in the same graveyard.  His body was exhumed from its original grave.  Before being reinterred in the mausoleum, several people saw his remains.

Robert Burns mausoleum, St Michael's Church, Dumfries

A newspaper report described in great sycophantic detail what happened – “On opening the coffin, a spectacle was unfolded, which, considering the fame of the mighty dead, has rarely been witnessed by a single human being.  There lay the remains of the great poet, to all appearances entire, retaining various traces of recent vitality, or, to speak more correctly, exhibiting the features of one who had newly sunk into the sleep of death.  The forehead struck everyone, as beautifully arched, if not so high as might have been reasonably supposed, while the scalp was rather thickly covered with hair, and the teeth perfectly firm and white.”  His body was then placed in a vault in the mausoleum.

 

However, the poet’s eternal rest would once again be interrupted.  In 1834, Jean Armour, Robert Burns’ widow died, thirty-eight years after the death of her husband.  Her remains were to be interred in the family vault alongside Burns in the mausoleum.  The vault had been opened to receive her body.  This was described as “a work of considerable difficulty and labour”.  Consent had previously been obtained from members of Burns’ family by some who were determined to retrieve his skull and have it examined by a phrenologist.  

The night before Jean Armour’s funeral, ten men proceeded inside the vault.  Andrew Crombie had witnessed the first exhumation and re-interment of the remains in 1815 and knew where the head would be - “a few spadefuls of loose sandy soil being removed, the skull was brought into view and carefully lifted.”  It was reported that the skull was in good condition.  “Some small portions of black hair, with a very few grey hairs intermixed were observed …”.  All debris was washed off the skull, plaster of Paris applied and the cast taken by James Fraser, plasterer.  Some of the others present in the vault had known Burns and some were just observing - John McDairmid (editor of the Dumfries Courier), Adam Rankine (merchant) James Bogie (gardener) and Thomas Carlyle (author).  Also present was GeorgeCombe (1788-1858), a native of Edinburgh, the phrenologist who had been given the honour of examining and measuring Robert Burns’ skull.  In order to get an idea of the size of the skull, the men tried their hats on it, none of which fit, which was seen as “a sufficient proof of its extraordinary size”!  Once the cast had been taken, the skull itself was then placed in a lead box and returned to its place in the Mausoleum.

"The upper or cerebral part of the skull is very massive!"

In 1834 phrenology – the study of the shape of the skull as a sign of personality – was a popular “new science” and George Combe was one of its main exponents.  After studying Burns’s skull, Combe produced a report based on its shape and measurements.  The report confirmed the personality traits that would have been expected by those aficionados of Burns’ work.  

Combe's phrenology report

Over the years since that first cast was made in 1834, many copies of the cast were produced and distributed.  It is a story that is typical of its time.  What if the skull had turned out to be very small?  I'm sure the eulogists would have found a way to explain that.  Certainly from Combe's measurements it would appear that Robert Burns did have quite a big head!

The cast of Robert Burns’ skull is just one of the many interesting exhibits in the Greenock Burns Club’s room in the Custom House in Greenock.  The Exhibition and Archive room is open from 12 till 2 on Saturdays during the summer and when larger cruise liners are visiting.  Please check for opening times on the Burns Club website before visiting.

More Robert Burns links with Greenock and Port Glasgow - his close friend, Richard Brown, his official seal,  the love of his life, Highland Mary.  Click on the links to check them out.