ROBERT

See also:

• FERGUSSON, JAMES (18o8-r886)
• ROBERT FERGUSSON (1750-1774)
• FERGUSSON, SIR WILLIAM

FERGUSSON (1750-1774)  , Scottish poet, son of Sir William Fergusson, a clerk in the British Linen Company, was born at Edinburgh on the 5th of September 1750 . Robert was educated at the grammar school of Dundee, and at the university of St Andrews, where he matriculated in 1765 . His father died while he was still at college; but a bursary enabled him to complete his four years of study . He refused to study for the church, and was too nervous to study medicine as his friends wished . He quarrelled with his uncle, John Forbes of Round Lichnot, Aberdeenshire, and went to Edinburgh, where he obtained employment as copying clerk in a lawyer's office . In this humble occupation he passed the remainder of his life . While at college he had written a clever elegy on Dr David Gregory, and in 1771 he began to contribute verses regularly to Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine . He was a member of the Cape Club, celebrated by him in his poem of " Auld Reekie." " The Knights of the Cape " assembled 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 (1732–1810), the collector of the classic edition of Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (1776), was sovereign of the Cape (in which he was known as " Sir Scrape ") when Fergusson was dubbed a knight of the order, with the title of " Sir Precentor," in allusion to his fine voice . Alexander Runciman, the historical painter, his pupil Jacob More, and Sir Henry Raeburn were all members . The old minute books of the club abound with pencilled sketches by them, one of the most interesting of which, ascribed to Runciman's pencil, is a sketch of Fergusson in his character of " Sir Precentor." Fergusson's gaiety and wit made him an entertaining companion, and he indulged too freely in the convivial habits of the time . After a meeting with John Brown of Haddington he became, however, very serious, and would read nothing but his Bible .

A fall by which his

head was severely injured aggravated symptoms of mental aberration which had begun to show themselves; and after about two months' confinement in the old Darien House—then the only public asylum in Edinburgh—the poet died on the 16th of October 1774 . Fergussons' poems were collected in the year before his death . The influence of his writings on Robert Burns is undoubted . 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 . " The Mutual Complaint of Plainstanes and Causey " probably suggested " The Brigs of Ayr "; " On seeing a Butterfly in the Street " has reflections in it which strikingly correspond with " To a Mouse "; nor will a comparison of " The Farmer's Ingle " of the elder poet with " The Cottar's Saturday Night " admit of a doubt as to the influence of the city-bred poet's muse on that exquisite picturing of homely peasant life . Burns was himself the first to render a generous tribute to the merits of Fergusson; on his visit to Edinburgh in 1787 he sought out the poet's grave, and petitioned the authorities of the Canongate burying-ground for permission to erect the memorial stone which is preserved in the existing monument . The date there assigned for his birth differs from the one given above, which rests on the authority of his younger sister Margaret . 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 . There are later editions, by Robert Chambers (185o) and Dr A . B . Grosart (1851) .

A life of Fergusson is included in Dr David

Irving's Lives of the Scottish Poets, and in Robert Chambers's Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Scotsmen .