FORREST, ROBERT, an ingenious self-taught sculptor, born at Carluke, Lanarkshire, in 1790, was bred a stone-mason in the quarries of Clydesdale. His first public work was the statue of Sir William Wallace, which, in 1817, was placed in the steeple of the parish church at Lanark. His next work was the colossal figure, fourteen feet high, of the first Viscount Melville, which, in 1821, was placed on the elegant pillar, a copy of Trajan’s column at Rome, in the centre of St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh. The height of the column is 136 feet, the diameter at the base, 12 feet. Mr. Forrest was also the sculptor of the well-known statue of John Knox in the Necropolis of Glasgow.

In 1832, Mr. Forrest opened a public exhibition of statuary on the Calton Hill, Edinburgh, with four equestrian statues, under the patronage of the Royal Association of Contributors to the National Monument of Scotland. In progress of time the gallery was extended to about thirty groups, all executed by the indefatigable sculptor himself, and the statuary soon took its place as one of the most popular exhibitions in the Scottish metropolis. His figures all display remarkable boldness of attitude, great accuracy of proportion, and minute attention to detail. Several of the finest of them are strikingly original in design, as well as show great skill in execution. In 1843, a statue by him, of the then recently deceased Mr. Ferguson of Raith, was erected at Haddington, considered one of the best of his works. Mr. Forrest died at Edinburgh, Dec. 29, 1852, in his 63d year.