Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/98

FERGUSSON for a wager to play the part of a ballad singer ; and, in suitable disguise, furnished with a large bundle of ballads, he disposed of the whole, while he attracted the crowd by his spirited rendering of popular songs. Hence, both at college and in subsequent years, his company was sought after ; and in an age when the convivial habits of society were under little restraint, he was exposed to temptations in all respects prejudicial to him. His father died while he was still at college ; but a bursary which he held enabled him to complete his four years of study. The loss of his father was nevertheless an irreparable one at the most critical stage of life. His studies appear to have been subsequently pursued in a desultory fashion. He abandoned all thought of the clerical profession, for which he had been preparing, and returned to his widowed mother without any definite plan or prospect for life. While still at college he had made more than one attempt at dramatic composition, and wrote two acts of a tragedy, of which the hero of Scottish romance, Sir William Wallace, was the central figure. But in the desultory efforts of his erratic muse there is no indication of dramatic power. The sprightly gaiety which made him so covetable a companion inspired his best poems, which are more noticeable for their graphic humour than for tenderness or depth of feeling. After a brief sojourn with a maternal uncle at Aberdeen, Fergusson returned to Edinburgh, and ere long obtained employment as copying clerk in a lawyer s office. In this humble occupation he passed the remainder of his brief life, relieving the .irksome drudgery by poetical composition, and by evenings passed in the convivial gatherings which then formed a peculiar feature of the social life of Edinburgh. He was a member of one of its most noted clubs, celebrated by him in his poem of Aidd Reekie. " The Knights of the Cape," as they dubbed themselves, were wont to assemble at a tavern in Craig s Close, in the vicinity of the Cross; each member had a name and character assigned to him, which he was required to maintain at all gatherings of the order. David Herd, the editor of what Scott styled the first classic edition of Scottish song, was sovereign of the Cape when Fergusson was dubbed a knight of the order, with the title of Sir Precentor in allusion to his fine voice. Alexander Kunciman, the historical painter, his pupil Jacob More, and Sir Henry Raeburn were all mem bers. The old minute books of the club abound with pencilled sketches by them, one of the most interesting of which, ascribed to Runciinan s pencil, is a sketch of Fergus- son in his character of Sir Precentor. In the case of Fergusson, as in that of Burns, critical censors have been too apt to ascribe to them excesses of a wholly exceptional nature ; whereas they otily conformed to the habits of society at a time when clergymen, judges, and men of all ranks habitually frequented the tavern, and sought intellectual as well as social pleasures in convivial clubs. In such assemblies Fergusson appears to have been the life of the company. In a letter addressed to Burns, Mr Peter Stuart, then editor of the Morning Post, refers to Fergusson as his " inestimable friend," and bears testimony to the fascinating social attractions of his society. " There was," he says, " such a richness of conversation, such a plenitude of fancy. . . . His manner was so felicitous, that he enraptured every person around him, and infused into the hearts of the young and old the spirit and animation which operated on his own mind." In person he is described as of a slender, handsome figure, his forehead high, his countenance open and pleasing, though somewhat effeminate, and characterized by extreme pallor, but kindled into life by the animation of his large black eyes, whenever he became interested in the conversation. His light brown hair was worn unpowdered, with long waving curls on each side of the head, and tied into a queue behind with a black silk riband. From time to time Fergusson contributed to Ruddiman s Weekly Magazine grave and humorous pieces, both in English and in the Scottish dialect; but in 1773, when he was in his twenty-fourth year, his poems were collected and published in a volume. The event is not without its signifi cance in English literature. Robert Burns was then in his fifteenth year. The volume ere long came under his notice, and the generous poet made no stinted acknowledgment of all that he owed to his predecessor. But ere such appre ciative recognition could be rendered, its unhappy author had died in a maniac s cell. A fall, by which his head was severely injured, greatly aggravated symptoms of mental aberration, from which he had seemed to be recovering ; and after about two months confinement in the old Darien House, then the only public asylum in Edinburgh, the poet died on the 16th October 1774, within one day of completing his twenty-fourth year. The influence of Fergusson s writings on the Ayrshire poet is undoubted. He is thus apostrophized by Burns : " Oh, thou my elder brother in misfortune, By far my elder brother in the muses, With tears I pity thy unhappy fate !" His Leith Races unquestionably supplied the model for the Holy Fair. Not only is the stanza the same, but the Mirth who plays the part of conductor to Fergusson, and the Fun who renders a like service to Burns, are manifestly conceived on the same model, and even in part in the same terms. The mutual complaint of Plainstanes and Causey probably suggested The Brigs of Ayr ; On seeing a Butterfly in the Street has reflections iu it which strikingly correspond with To a Mouse, one of the most exquisite of all Burns s minor poems ; nor will a comparison of The Farmer s Ingle of the elder poet with The Cottar s Saturday NigJit admit of doubt as to the influence of the city-bred poet s muse on that exquisite picturing of homely peasant life. But the Ayrshire poet was himself the first to render a generous tribute to the merits of Fergusson. On his visit to Edin burgh in 1 787 he sought out, not without difficulty, the name less grave mound of the poet, and forthwith petitioned the authorities of the Canongate burying ground for permission to erect the memorial stone which still enables the visitor to identify the poet s grave. The inscription on the stone is as follows : "Here lies Robert Fergusson, Poet. Born September 5th 1751 Died 16th October 1774. No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay, No storied urn, nor animated bust ; This simple stone directs pale Scotia s way To pour her sorrows o er her poet s dust." On the reverse of the stone is this record of its origin : " By special grant of the managers to Robert Burns, who erected this stone, this burial-place is to remain for ever sacred to the memory of Robert Fergusson." The simple stone has since been rescued from decay, and inserted in a monumental structure of a more ornate character. The date assigned as that of his birth differs, as will be seen, from the one given above, which rests on the authority of his younger sister, Margaret, the wife of Mr Alexander Duval, purser in the royal navy. According to her state ment, the birthday of the poet s elder sister Barbara had been assigned by mistake to him. The first edition of Fergusson s poems was published by Ruddiman, at Edinburgh, in 1773, and a supplement, containing additional poems, in 1779. A second edition appeared in 1785, and another in 1807, with a biographical sketch by Alexander Peterkin. A life of Fergusson is included in Dr David Irving s Lives of the Scottish Poets ; and the chief points in various biographical sketches are embodied in Dr Robert Chambers s article in his Lives of Illustrious and Distitujuishcd Scotsmen. (D. W.) FERGUSSON, SIR WILLIAM (1808-1877), Baronet, fin eminent surgeon, the son of James Fergusson of Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, was born at Prestonpans, East