Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/227

Rh plenty of employment of the desired description: but his brother, notwithstanding the superior wages to be made there, remained at Preston all the time he resided in England, being constrained to do so by the kindness of his old landlady, in whom he found a second mother. The two brothers, though thus separated, did not forget each other. Being much attached, they frequently met half-way between Preston and Bolton, and spent a few hours together: they also frequently wrote home to their parents an account of their welfare. Their stay in England lasted two years, and was only cut short by receiving intelligence of the fatal illness of their father. They hurried home without delay, and arrived in time to receive his dying blessing. After that event, they did not choose to return to England. The younger brother married, while Robert took up his abode with his mother, and till his death continued to be a comfort to her. His filial affections were at all times strong, and through life he honourably discharged the duties of an affectionate son.

It may be proper here to advert to a very erroneous impression which prevails respecting his worldly circumstances. In most of the notices taken of him, he is represented as leading a life of privation, and as fulfilling all that is supposed to be connected with the poet's lot in regard to penury. But so far from this being the case, his means were always above his wants. The house in which his mother resided was her own, and she was not only herself comfortably situated, but was enabled, by indulging in little charities, to add somewhat to the comforts of others. Such, also, was the state of trade at the time, that Robert could command good wages without extreme labour, and though more than one respectable situation, as foreman or overseer, was ottered him, he chose to continue at the loom, because, by doing so, his time was more at his own disposal, and his personal independence greater. He had no wish to accumulate money; but long before his death, he lodged twenty pounds in the bank, with the express intention that it should go to defray the expense of his funeral, and this sum was found untouched when his melancholy decease took place, a circumstance which of itself proves the unfounded nature of the reports regarding his poverty and destitution.

Soon after his return from England, he had the good fortune to become acquainted with the late Mr R. A. Smith, a gentleman of distinguished talent as a composer, who set to music and arranged some of his finest songs. He also formed an intimacy with several other individuals possessed of good judgment in musical matters, such as, Mr James Barr of Kilbarchan (composer of the tune of 'Craigielee,') Mr Andrew Blaikie, engraver, Paisley, and Mr James Clark, master of the Argyle Band. These gentlemen, and several others, were of service to him in improving his taste for composition, and in encouraging him in his love of song. His own manners were so retiring, and his reliance on himself so small, that, without the assurances of friendship, he probably would never have been induced to give to the world many of those pieces which have made his name known.

The first edition of his "Poems and Songs" appeared in the year 1897. It was very favourably received by the public, the previous popularity of several of his songs tending to make it sought after. But the author speedily came to regret that he had so prematurely given it to the world. Errors and faults he now detected in it, which had before escaped him, and he began assiduously to correct and re-write all his pieces, with a view to a second edition. He continued also to add to the number of his songs, and in these reached a high degree of excellence. Some of them, indeed, may be pronounced to be the very perfection of song-writing, so far as that consists in the simple and natural expression of feelings common to all. The extensive popularity which they at-