Dirk Hatteraick
Found on the west facade of the Scott Monument.
Dirk Hatteraick (from the novel 'Guy Mannering', 1815) is shown
as ‘an old sea-dog’, gruff-looking yet jaunty, with
a prodigious moustache, loose long cravat and wearing a knitted
bonnet. He has a curved sword and high boots.
A noted smuggler, "half Manks, half Dutchman, half devil",
Dirk Hatteraick is "the terror of all the excise and custom
house cruisers". A seafarer with "a countenance bronzed
by a thousand conflicts with the north-east wind… his frame
prodigiously muscular, strong, and thickset", he has none of
the "careless frolicsome jollity" of a sailor on shore,
but wears a constant "surly and even savage scowl".
He is an associate of Meg Merrilies, who eventually reveals his
involvement in the murder of an exciseman and the kidnapping of
the lost heir of Ellangowan, Harry Bertram. Imprisoned years later,
Hatteraick takes terrible vengeance on his former accomplice, the
devious lawyer Gilbert Glossin, strangling him when the latter foolishly
bribes the jailer into letting him into his cell on a visit.
About the Sculptor
William Birnie Rhind (1853 to 1933)
W.B. Rhind was born and died in Edinburgh. He was the son of John
Rhind (sculptor of several of the other statues on the Monument,
see Ivanhoe) and studied under him before enrolling at the Edinburgh
School of Design under Hodder. He spent five years at the RSA (Royal
Scottish Academy) Life School.
He carved portraits, decorative and memorial groups as well as
busts and figures.
He was elected ARSA (Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy) in
1893, and RSA in 1905.
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