Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/281

Rh ing it to be as dry as several of Fergusson's biographers have represented it, and as unsuitable as they have supposed to the mercurial genius of a poet, would have been absolutely a daily delight of the highest kind, compared to the monotonous duties of perpetual transcription, which formed in reality the extent of the poet's professional labours.

This wretched drudgery, however, was relieved in two ways. Fergusson, during the whole period of his residence in Edinburgh, as a clerk, or copyist, wrote more or less poetry almost every day. At the same time, he spent a part of almost every evening in those convivial regalements, with which the citizens of Edinburgh of all classes were then accustomed to solace themselves after the drudgery of the day.

The mind of the poet was partly directed to English classical models: he wrote pastorals and dialogues, in the manner of Pope, Shenstone, and Somerville; but these are mere exhibitions of language, totally uninspired by the least force or originality of ideas, and would now weary even the most patient antiquary in the perusal. Fortunately, he also adventured upon the course lately left vacant by Ramsay, and there found themes for which his genius was better adapted. The humours and peculiarities of social life in the ancient city of Edinburgh attracted his attention, and became in his hands the materials of various specimens of Scottish poetry, which far surpassed the similar poems of Ramsay, and are but little inferior to those of Burns. In his "Leith Races," "the Rising and Sitting of the Session, "Cauler Oysters," and "the King's birth day," there is a power of humourous description which at once stamps him as a poet of superior genius, even if the nervous sense of his "Braid Claith," "Cauler Water," and other poems upon general subjects, and the homely grace of his " Farmer's Ingle," which describes in the most vivid and genuine colours, a scene worthy of the highest efforts of the muse, had not placed him still more unequivocally in that rank. The language employed by Fergusson is much more purely Scottish than that of Burns, and he uses it with a readiness and ease in the highest degree pleasing. He has not the firm and vigorous tone of Burns, but more softness and polish, such as might have been expected from his gentler, and perhaps more instructed mind. The poet chiefly wrote these effusions for a periodical work, entitled Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine, where they attracted a considerable share of public attention, not only in Edinburgh but throughout the country.

The convivialities of Fergusson have been generally described as bordering on excess, and as characterizing himself in particular, amidst a population generally sober. The real truth is, that the poor poet indulged exactly in the same way, and in general to the same extent, as other young men of that day. The want of public amusements, the less general taste for reading, and the limited accommodations of private houses in those days, led partly to a practice, which, as already mentioned, prevailed among all orders of people in Edinburgh, of frequenting taverns in the evening, for the sake of relaxation and exercise of the intellect The favourite haunt of Robert Fergusson, and many other persons of his own standing, was Lucky Middlemass's tavern in the Cowgate, which he celebrates in his poem on Cauler Oysters. One of the individuals, who almost nightly enjoyed his company there, communicated to the present writer, in 1827, the following particulars respecting the extent and nature of their convivialities.

"The entertainment almost invariably consisted of a few boards of raw oysters, porter, gin, and occasionally a rizzared [dried] haddock, which was neither more nor less than what formed the evening enjoyments of most of the citizens of Edinburgh. The best gin was then sold at about five shillings a