Buchan, PETER

Buchan, PETER, an industrious collector of Scottish ballads, was born at Peterhead in 1790. At twenty-four he published an original volume of verse, next taught himself copper-engraving, and after learning the art of printing at Stirling in ten days, set up a press at Peterhead (1816). He afterwards removed to London, but returned after two years to Peterhead, where by his business he made money enough to buy a property in Stirlingshire. He died in London, September 19, 1854. Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland was published at Edinburgh in 1828. It contained about forty new ballads, and many fresh versions of ballads printed elsewhere. A second collection was edited for the Percy Society in 1845 by J. H. Dixon. Buchan wrote many books, among them Annals of Peterhead (1819), and The Eglinton Tournament and Gentlemen Unmasked (Glasgow, 1839).