which only sufficed for present emergencies. Mr. Nicholson left Newcastle for Carlisle in October, 1841, and died there, June 18, 1844, in the seventy-
ninth year of his age. He was twice married. By his first wife, who died at
Morpeth, in 1832, he had one son, Michael Angelo, author of the "Carpenter
and Joiner's Companion," who died in 1842; by his second marriage, Mr.
Nicholson had a son and daughter, who survived him.
NICOLL, Robert.—The life of a poet born and nursed in poverty, is generally continued in poverty to the close: his career is a struggle of want and privation, of which the end too often is nothing but defeat and disaster. Such was the history of Robert Nicoll, a poet of great promise, but whose career was terminated before the promise was fulfilled: he was only shown to us, and then snatched away. He was the second son in a family of nine children, and was born at the farm of Little Tulliebeltane, in the parish of Auchtergaven, in Perthshire, on the 7th of January, 1814. At the time of his birth his father was a farmer in comfortable circumstances ; but having rashly become security to the amount of 500 or 600 for a friend who failed, he was reduced to the condition of a day-labourer on the fields which he had formerly rented. It was one of those numerous cases in which Scottish caution is no match for Scottish clannishness. Not only was the worthy ex-farmer thus a sufferer, but his family also ; for as fast as they grew up to active boyhood they were sent out to work for their living. Such was the fate of poor Robert Nicoll, who, when only seven years old, was employed in herding all summer, that he might be able to afford attendance at school during the months of winter. It was fortunate for him that with means of education so scanty and precarious, he had, in his mother, the best of all teachers. She taught him to cherish the love and practice of truth to struggle boldly with adversity, that he might eat, however sparingly, the bread of independence and, what was better still, she instructed him to rest his hopes and aspirations upon something nobler than mere earthly subsistence. These lessons, moreover, were given not merely in formal words, but also in living practice, for she too was frequently employed in field labour, to contribute her full share in the maintenance of the family, while she endured her hard fate not only with resignation but cheerfulness. "When Scotland ceases to abound in such mothers, it will no longer have a history worth recording.
Having thus laid an educational foundation that could bear a superstructure however broad or weighty, Robert Nicoll found that he was fitted for something better than tending cattle. It had now done its good work, as he afterwords testified:
"A wither'd woodland twig would bring
The tears into ray eye:
Laugh on ! but there are souls of love
In laddies herding kye."
He bound himself apprentice to Mrs. J. H. Robertson, wine merchant and grocer in Perth, and during the little spare time which his new duties allowed him, he commenced the work of self-education in good earnest. For this purpose he purchased "Cobbett's English Grammar," and did not rest till he had made himself master of its principles. He thus writes to his brother: "I am grown very industrious. I read in the morning while sluggards are snoring; all day I attend to my business; and in the forenights I learn my grammar." He thus also specifies the amount of his opportunities: "I am employed in working for
