Postcard of Burns Mausoleum, Dumfries (1)

"Burns' Mausoleum, Dumfries".  A colour tinted postcard from a photograph of the mausoleum, including a colour printed image of the town's crest and a banner of Malcolm tartan.   In the years following his death, Robert Burns' admirers came to believe that his simple grave was an insufficient memorial to the poet. In 1813 his friend and superior in the Excise, John Syme, formed a committee and launched an appeal to build a mausoleum in his memory. One of the subscribers was the Prince Regent, later George IV. After a public advertisement, over 50 designs were received and the plans of T F Hunt, a London architect were approved. The statuary group within the mausoleum was designed and worked by Peter Turnerelli. It depicts Burns' own conception of "Coila", representing the Ayrshire district of Kyle where he was born, throwing her inspiring mantle over the poet as he works at the plough.   This postcard illustrates the mausoleum, but also includes a version of the crest of the Royal Burgh of Dumfries, showing St. Michael and, with much less relevance, the top right hand corner is overprinted with a banner of the Malcolm tartan. Both town crests and tartan were popular graphic devices on souvenir ware of this period.