24 
MEMOIR OF 
“ Ralph the pedlar’' 
“ bore a curious pack, 
With trinkets fill’d, and had a ready knack 
At coining rhyme. 
He persevered for some time in this itinerant 
life, while the novelty and beauties of the country, 
or its antiquities, called forth his admiration and 
interest. One of his passions was to visit all the 
churchyards which came in his way, and he col- 
lected above three hundred epitaphs, some of which 
were very carious, hut, with his other desultory 
writings, have been lost. We learn from several of 
his poems written about this time, during tho hours 
not occupied in his fatiguing journeys, that he 
began to feel the life of a pedlar was not all sun- 
shine and comfort, and many petty annoyances 
besides cold and hunger assailed him. In a letter 
to Mr. Alexander Clark, he designates himself a 
— “ lonely pedlar, 
Beneath a load of silk and sorrows bent 
and in another letter, compares his former more 
comfortable bed with his ensconcement in a barn : 
“ The dark damp walls — the roof, scarce cover'd o’er — 
Tho wind wild whistling through the cold bam door.” 
Weary and disgusted with such scenes, he re- 
turned to Paisley ; and having lost confidence in his 
journeys as a travelling-merchant, entertained the 
fond hope of securing both fame and fortune from 
the publication of his poems, which had now accu- 
mulated to a considerable stock. Anxious that 
