year 1799. Such is all that we can ascertain of his early history, except the
additional fact, that he was brought up to the trade of a mason or stone-cutter,
in which humble and laborious occupation he continued unnoticed until he
started at once into fame. This was occasioned by his celebrated group of
"Tarn o' Shanter," where the figures of that well-known legend, as large as
life, were chiselled out of the material upon which he had been accustomed to
work the Scotch gray-stone. No sooner was this singular production unveiled to the public gaze, then every one recognized the likeness of personages
who had long been familiar to their thoughts, and who were now thus strangely
embodied, as if they had been recalled from the grave. Tarn himself, happier
than a king the Souter in the midst of one of his queerest stories and the
"couthie" landlady, supplying the materials of still further enjoyment, until
it should reach its utmost, and enable "heroic Tarn" to encounter and surmount the terrible witches' sabbath that was awaiting him at Alloway Kirk
all these, in feature, expression, figure, attitude, and costume, were so admirably
embodied, that each seemed ready to rise up and walk; and so truthfully
withal, that in each impersonation the delighted beholder saw an old acquaintance. While such was the fitness of the humblest classes for the task of
criticism, and while such was the manner in which it was expressed, the same
approving feelings were uttered by those who were conversant with the highest
rules of art, and conversant with the productions of ancient Greece and modern
Italy. Here was evidently a kindred genius with Burns himself one who
had expressed in stone what the poet had uttered in words ; and the admiration which had been exclusively reserved for the "Ayrshire ploughman," was
now fully shared by the Ayrshire stone cutter, who had shown himself such an able and congenial commentator.
Thorn having thus attained, by a single stride, to high celebrity, and been recognized as the Canova of humble everyday life, was not allowed to remain idle; orders for statues and groups poured in upon him, which brought him not only fame but fortune; and his productions in gray-stone, the first material in which he had wrought, and to which he still adhered, were eagerly sought, as choice ornaments for princely halls and stately classical gardens. After Mr. Thorn had been for some time thus employed in London, he found it necessary to visit America, in consequence of the agent who had been commissioned to exhibit his "Tarn o' Shanter " group and that of "Old Mortality," by the proprietors of these statues, having made no returns, either in money or report of proceedings. In this pursuit he was partially successful ; and having been gratified with his reception by the Americans, he resolved to become a citizen of the United States. In his new adopted country, his fame soon became as extensive as in the old, so that his chisel was in frequent demand for copies of those admirable statues upon which his fame had been established. To this, also, he joined the profession of builder and architect; and as his frugality kept pace with his industry, in the course of twelve or fourteen years of his residence in America, he acquired a comfortable competence. He died of consumption, at his lodgings in New York, on the 17th of April, 1850, at the age of fifty-one.
THOMSON, George.—Independently of the merited reputation he acquired for his successful labours in Scottish music and song, he will go down to posterity as the "friend and correspondent of Burns." In the very brief sketch which he has given of his own life till 1838, written for "The Land of Burns,"
