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Summary

Description

Andrew Currie (designer and carver), 1859; Thomas Clapperton, bas reliefs, 1905; bronze statues, 1913. Ashlar monument surmounted by statue of Mungo Park. Base course; square-plan coped pedestal with rectangular panels with cast-iron bas reliefs to SE and NW elevations (of Mungo Park?s travels) 2 other elevations with carved inscriptions (see Notes), bronze statues to each corner (of pedestal), representing Peace, War, Slavery and Home in the Niger; battered course (with carved lion-head to each corner) to panelled converging section. Pedestrian statue of Park facing N.

Statement of Special Interest

Mungo Park (1721-1805) was born at Foulshiels in Yarrow, about 4 miles from Selkirk. Trained as a surgeon in Edinburgh, he went to West Africa to explore in 1795. In 1799 he married Ailie Anderson, daughter of Thomas Anderson (see listing of council building, High Street) and practised in Peebles. In 1805 he and a group of men went back to Africa, to Gambia to travel down the Niger. They died during conflict with the local people in Boussa. The monument commemorates the men who were with him and also Mungo?s son, Thomas Park, who died in Aquambo, West Africa in 1827, "while endeavouring to obtain trace of his distinguished father". The Clapperton bas reliefs were added on the centenary year and further subscriptions were taken to commission Clapperton to produce the figures, in 1912.

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