91³Ô¹ÏÍø

{On the front of the plinth:}
"The poetic genius of my country found me at the
plough - and threw her inspiring mantle over me she
bade me sing the loves, the joys, the rural scenes and
rural pleasures of my native soil in my native tongue:
I tuned my wild, artless notes as she inspired."

{On the paper at his feet at the left:}
"O sweet to stray, and pensive ponder a heartfelt sang."

{On the sculpture, at the back:}
Sir John Steell, Sculptor, 1881, Edinr.

{On a stone in the ground of the statue:}
The gift of John Gordon Crawford 1884.