Tannahill

Tannahill, ROBERT, poet, was born at Paisley, the son of a hand-loom weaver, on 3d June 1774. From constant study of the poetry of Burns, Fergusson, and Ramsay the ambition was developed in him of emulating these favourite authors; and having been put to the loom after leaving school, he composed many of his best songs to the music of the shuttle. In 1800 he went with a brother to Lancashire, and remained there till 1802, when he returned to Paisley on hearing of his father's failing health. By the year 1805 his poems had become well known in the town, and a number of friends advised him to have them published. In 1807 he issued a volume of 175 pages entitled Poems and Songs, of which an edition of 900 copies was sold in a few weeks, to the profit of the author, who was able to deposit twenty pounds in the Union Bank. The poet was now famous, and heard his songs sung everywhere, special favourites being Gloomy Winter's noo awa, Jessie the Flower o' Dunblane, The Braes o' Gleniffer, Loudon's Bonnie Woods and Braes, and The Wood o' Craigielea. In 1810 the Ettrick Shepherd came to Paisley, and spent a night with Tannahill, who the following day conveyed Hogg half-way to Glasgow. It was a melancholy adieu Tannahill gave him. He grasped his hand, tears gathering in his eyes the while, and said: 'Farewell, we shall never meet again; farewell, I shall never see you more'—prophetic words soon to be verified. He had arranged a corrected edition of his works for the press, and offered them to Mr Constable, who returned the manuscript, as he had more new works on hand than he could undertake. This rebuff the poet was unable to bear, and he sank into despondency; two days before his death he threw into the fire all his new songs, nearly a hundred in number. On 17th May 1810 his body was found in a canal near Paisley; and there seems no reason to doubt that his death was that of the suicide. A granite obelisk marks his grave in the burying-ground of the West Relief (Canal Street) Church; and in 1883 a statue was erected in Paisley as a memorial of the poet. As a song-writer Tannahill continues to be remembered; and several of his pieces have established themselves as part of the musical repertory of the Scottish people. He has a genuine lyrical gift, much tenderness of sentiment, and a true eye and feeling for the simple effects of nature with which he was familiar. Of Burns's force and passion he has little; but in grace and sweetness Burns himself has scarcely surpassed his happier passages. See Life in Semple's edition of his poems (1876), and Brown's Paisley Poets (vol. i. 1889).