Wedding ring of Robert Burns’s wife and his socks among most viewed items online
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Socks owned by Robert Burns and his wife’s wedding ring have been found to be among the most viewed items in an online portal featuring relics from his life. The National Trust for Scotland launched the portal, which gives access to more than 2,500 items in its Burns collection, in spring last year.
The most viewed item over the past nine months has been a wooden box containing the wedding ring of Jean Armour, the poet’s wife, flanked on each side by two other rings which hold pieces of their hair. A pair of blue woollen knitted socks with the initials “RB” at the top, believed to have been worn by Burns, was the second most popular artefact. The size eight socks date to around 1770-1796.
The third most viewed relic was a fragment of the manuscript for Auld Lang Syne, while the fourth was a letter to theatre-owner George Sutherland. A lock of Mary Campbell’s hair, with whom Burns had made plans to emigrate to Jamaica, made up the top five most popular items to view.
National Trust for Scotland (NTS), which cares for the largest collection of Burns artefacts as well as the cottage he was born in, revealed the news ahead of Burns Night on Saturday. Caroline Smith, NTS operations manager at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway, South Ayrshire, said: “This list features some of my personal favourites from our collection.
