Burns 'a target of snobs' conspiracy'

Published on Tuesday 25 January 2005 12:29

RABBIE BURNS was the victim of a snobbish conspiracy to have Sir Walter Scott seen as the premier Scottish writer of the day, an academic has claimed.

Literature professor Dr Gerard Carruthers said claims that Burns had borrowed much of the material for his masterpiece Tam O’Shanter from Scottish folklore had been designed to undermine Burns’ status as an imaginative artist.

Burns’ first biographer, John Gibson Lockhart, was Walter Scott’s son-in-law and set out to make Tam O’Shanter seem less original than it was to fuel the belief that Scott was the true artist.

Dr Carruthers, of the Department of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University, said it is not clear what particular source, if any, Burns had in mind for Tam O’Shanter. He said Burns was too often seen as a mere medium for local legend and folklore to be written down.

Meanwhile the world’s most expensive haggis was being cooked up in London today - at a cost of 2500. Ten diners will pay 250 per portion with all proceeds going to the tsunami appeal.