him in the selection of his works for publication, writes, in a letter to Dr Blacklock, "He put into my hands a great number of manuscripts in verse, chiefly on religious subjects : I believe Sir Richard Blackmore is not a more Toluminous author. He told me that he had never written a single line with a view to publication: but only to amuse a solitary hour."[1] The poems which by Dr Beattie's advice were chosen for publication consisted of "Helenore, or the Fortunate Shepherdess," and some songs, among which were, "The Hock and the Wee Pickle Tow," "To the Begging we will go," and "Woo'd and married and a'." They appeared at Aberdeen in 1768,[2] in one volume 8vo, and a considerable number of subscribers having been procured, the profits of the publication amounted to about twenty pounds; "a sum," says Beattie, "far exceeding his most sanguine expectations, for I believe he would thankfully have sold his whole works for five." To promote the sale, Beattie (whose interest in Ross was excited by the latter's acquaintance with the doctor's father) addressed a letter to the editor of the Aberdeen Journal, together with some verses inscribed to Ross, which are remarkable from being their author's only composition in the Scottish dialect; they have been prefixed to all the subsequent editions of Helenore, and possess much merit. The success of the volume does not seem to have been very rapid, for ten years elapsed before the publication of the second edition. While this was going through the press, Dr Beattie wrote to Ross from Gordon castle, with an invitation from the noble owners to pny tiioin a visit Though now eighty years of age, the poet at once accepted the invitation, and took that opportunity of presenting a copy of the second edition of his work, dedicated to the duchess of Gordon. He remained at the castle for some days, says his grandson, and "was honoured with much attention and kindness both by the duke and duchess, and was presented by the latter with an elegant pocket-book, containing a handsome present, when he returned to Lochlee in good health, and with great satisfaction." The next year he experienced the loss of his wife, who died at the advanced age of eighty-two, and to whose memory he erected a tombstone with a poetical epitaph. He himself did not long survive: on the 20th of May, 1784, "worn out with age and infirmity, being in his eighty-sixth year, he breathed his last, with the composure, resignation, and hope becoming a Christian." Of Ross's numerous family, two sons and a daughter died in early youth, and four daughters survived him. Such are the few facts that constitute the biography of Alexander Ross. His character appears to have been marked by much cheerfulness and simplicity; lowly as was his lot, he found tranquillity and content in it, and the picture of his household piety which has come down to us, is singularly affecting. Regrets have been expressed that a man of his merits should have been allowed to toil on in the humble situation of a parish schoolmaster; but it should be remembered that he was nearly seventy years old before he gave the public proof of his talents, and it may be very doubtful if at that advanced age he would have found in a higher sphere the same peace and happiness which he had so long enjoyed in his Highland glen. It is also gratifying to think that the profits of his publications, trifling as they would now be viewed, were still sufficient to afford him many additional luxuries; and that the fame which his poems received from the world reached his retired home, and secured to him honour from his neighbours, and marks of attention from the few strangers of
- ↑ Forbes' Life of Beattie, i. 119. We may add Dr Beattie's description of Ross at this date: "He is a good humoured, social, happy old man: modest without clownishness, and lively without petulance."
- ↑ "The Fortunate Shepherdess, a pastoral tale in the Scottish dialect, by Alexander Ross, Schoolmaster at Lochlee, to which are added a few songs by the author. Aberdeen, printed by and for Francis Douglas—1768."—pp. 160.
