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TANNAHILL, 



life, were much respected for their intelligence and 

 worth. At an early age, he was sent to school, 

 where he was taught to read, write, and cast ac- , 

 counts ; and from thence he was transferred to the : 

 loom, the weaving business being at that time the i 

 most flourishing in the country. While at school he 

 began to distinguish himself as a rhyme-maker ; nor 

 did his poetical propensities desert him at the loom. 

 During work, it was his custom to occupy his mind 

 with the composition of verses. To his loom he 

 attached a sort of writing desk, by which he was 

 enabled, in the midst of his labours, to jot down 

 any lines that might occur to him, without rising 

 from his seat. In this way some of his best songs 

 were composed. He had a correct ear for music, 

 and played the flute well ; and whenever a tune 

 greatly pleased him, it was his ambition to give it 

 appropriate words of his own. 



After his apprenticeship had expired, he removed 

 to the village of Lochwinnoch, about nine miles 

 from Paisley, where he continued to work at the 

 loom for some time. It may be worth mentioning, 

 that Alexander Wilson, the poet, and future Ame- 

 rican ornithologist, was at this time also weaving in 

 the same village. He was by some years the se- 

 nior of Tannahill ; and the latter being then un- 

 known to fame, had not the fortitude to seek his 

 acquaintance, although he greatly admired the 

 pieces by which Wilson had already distinguished 

 himself. 



About the year 1800, some of the figured loom 

 work, for which Paisley was famed, was beginning 

 to be manufactured in England, and it was reported 

 that great wages were to be had there for weaving it. 

 Tempted by the report, or more probably by a desire 

 of seeing the country, Tannahill left Paisley for 

 England, accompanied by a younger brother. They 

 travelled mostly on foot, often stepping out of the 

 way to view the curiosities of the country, until 

 they reached Preston, which they had marked as 

 the limit of their journey. They found, however, 

 that nothing but plain work was woven there ; 

 and while Robert went forward to Bolton, to in- 

 quire after figured work, his brother took lodgings 

 at Preston, in the house of an old woman of the 

 Roman Catholic persuasion. At Bolton, Robert 

 found plenty of employment of the desired descrip- 

 tion : 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 they 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 ar- 

 rived in time to receive his dying blessing. After 

 that event they did not choose to return to Eng- 

 land. The younger brother married, while Robert 

 took up his abode with his mother, and till his 

 death, continued to be a comfort to her. 



Soon after his return from England, Tannahill 

 had the good fortune to become acquainted with 

 the late Mr R. A. Smith, a gentleman of distin- 

 guished 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, who were of 



s-erviee to him in improving his taste for composi- 

 tion, 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 in- 

 duced to give to the world many of those pieces 

 which have made his name known. 



The first edition of his " Poems and Songs" ap- 

 peared in the year 1807, and was very favourably 

 received by the public. 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 attained indi- 

 cates how universally were felt and understood the 

 sentiments which they recorded. But his celebrity 

 as a song writer brought little peace to a mind con- 

 stitutionally timid and misgiving. For some time 

 before his lamentable end, he was observed fre- 

 quently to fall into a deep melancholy. His temper 

 became irritable, he was easily agitated, and prone to 

 imagine that bis best friends were disposed to injure 

 him. His eyes were observed to sink, his counte- 

 nance got pale, and his body emaciated. His whole 

 appearance, in short, indicated a breaking up of his 

 mental and bodily powers. The second edition of 

 his poems, which he had prepared for the press, was 

 offered about this time to Mr Constable of Edin- 

 burgh for a very small sum, but was unfortunately 

 declined. This tended still farther to depress him, 

 and he came to the resolution of destroying every- 

 thing which he had written. All his songs, to the 

 amount of one hundred, many of which had never 

 been printed, and of those printed all had been 

 greatly corrected and amended, he put into the fire ; 

 and so anxious was he that no scrap of his should be 

 preserved, he requested his acquaintances to return 

 any manuscript which they had ever got from him. 



Of the immediate circumstances connected with 

 his death, we have received the following account : 

 The day previous to that event, he went to Glas- 

 gow, and displayed there such unequivocal proofs of 

 mental derangement, that one of his friends, upon 

 whom he called, felt it necessary to convoy him 

 back all the way to Paisley, and to apprise his rela- 

 tions of the state of his mind. Alarmed at the in- 

 telligence, his brothers, who were married, and re- 

 sided at different parts of the town, hastened to 

 their mother's house, where they found that he had 

 gone to bed, and as it was now late, and he was 

 apparently asleep, they did not choose to disturb 

 him, hoping that by the morning he would be bet- 

 ter. About an hour after leaving the house, one 

 of the brothers had occasion to pass the door, and 

 was surprised to find the gate that led to it open. 

 On further investigation, it was found that Robert 

 had risen from bed, and stolen out, shortly after 

 their departure. Search was now made in every 

 direction, and by the grey of the morning, the worst 

 fears of the poet's friends were realized, by the dis- 

 covery of his coat lying at the side of a pool in the 

 vicinity of Paisley, which pointed out too truly 

 where his body was to be found. This melancholy 

 event happened on the 17th of May, 1810, when he 

 had only reached his thirty-sixth year. 



