This armchair celebrates the work of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, who was born at Alloway in Ayrshire in 1759. When the roof of the old church - or Kirk - at Alloway collapsed, the timbers were used to make items associated with Burns, including this armchair. The brass panels are engraved with Burns’s famous poem Tam O’Shanter, written in 1790. The Kirk is the setting for much of the poem, in which Tam is chased by witches. Presented to George IV, 1822