Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/287

Rh After this sudden outburst of rhyme, a long interval succeeded: school-boy trials, and the succeeding cares and difficulties of apprenticeship, are generally sufficient to banish the muses for years, if not for life; and Robert Gilfillan, who at the age of thirteen removed with his parents to Leith, was employed during a seven years' service in the unpoetical occupation of hammering tubs and barrels, having been bound apprentice for that period to a cooper. Although he manfully endured this probation, he abandoned the trade of a cooper as soon as his term of indenture had expired; and returning to Dunfermline in 1818, he was employed for nearly three years in the superintendence of a grocery establishment. Here his first love returned upon him in full vigour, and his attempts in song-writing were accompanied with the work of self-improvement, which he prosecuted not only by general reading, but associating with the young men of his neighbourhood who were like-minded with himself. In this way, not only his acquired knowledge, but his conversational power in the use of it, made him distinguished in Dunfermline society, and caused him to be regarded as one whose future career would surpass that of his companions. After this he again settled in Leith, where he was first employed in the warehouse of a firm of oil and colour merchants, and subsequently in that of a wine merchant, as confidential clerk, until 1837, when he was appointed collector of the police rates at Leith, which situation he held till the close of his life.

In this way Mr. Gilfillan held onward in his course, and fulfilled his mission as a useful member of society; but as a poet he had continued during his several changes of store-keeper, clerk, and tax-gatherer, to labour for a wider sphere and a more permanent memorial. The first earnest of this he enjoyed in the popularity of his songs, which, although still unpublished, were circulated over the whole of Scotland, and sung not only at public festivals, but also at social and domestic meetings. How was it possible, under such circumstances, to resist the temptations of the press? It speaks much, however, for his self denial, that he did not yield until he had attained the matured reflective age of thirty-three, and when his songs had stood the test of years. In 1831, he became an author, by publishing a small volume of about 150 pages, under the title of "Original Songs," which he dedicated to Allan Cunningham, himself, next to Burns, the prince of Scottish song-poets. So successful was this appeal to public approbation, that in 1835 he brought out a new edition, increased by fifty additional pieces; and soon after its appearance, a public dinner was given to him in the Royal Exchange, Edinburgh, and a massive silver cup presented to him on the occasion, thus inscribed:—"Presented to Mr. Robert Gilfillan, by the admirers of native genius, in token of their high estimation of his poetical talents and private worth. Edinburgh, 1835." In 1839 he published a third and still larger edition of his original volume, sixty new songs being added to the collection; and by this completed work he will continue to hold an honoured place in the third rank of Scottish song-writers—Burns being of the first and standing alone, and Hogg and Cunningham being taken as the representatives of the second. In addition to those warm, but simple and narrowed home affections, which formed the chief themes of his lyrics, and in the delineation of which he has not often been surpassed, there is a moral purity in the songs of Gilfillan in which he has very seldom been equalled. But how, indeed, could it be otherwise, when we take into account the ordeal to which he submitted them? "It was his practice," says his biographer, "to read to his mother and sister his songs as he wrote them; and he was entirely guided by their judgment