William Nicholson
In 1813, after a series of personal and financial
calamities, he decided to try his hand at writing. His first
collection of verse, Tales in Verse and Miscellaneous Poems:
Descriptive of Rural Life and Manners, was published in 1814 and
was well received. Its success brought him to the attention of
established literary figures such as James Hogg and he spent time
in Edinburgh selling and promoting his work. But this initial
success led him to drink and the rest of his life wasmarked by
periods of alcoholism, religious fervour and occasional bouts of
poetic genius. He died a gabberlunzie or beggar in 1849and was
buried at Kirkandrews near Borgue.
His most famous poem is the Brownie of Blednoch which
appeared in the Dumfries Monthly Magazine in 1825. Written in
Galloway dialect, the poem tells the story of Aitken Drum the
brownie or household sprite:
There cam a strange wight to oor town-en
And feint of a body did him ken;
He tirled na land, but he glided ben,
Wi a dreary, dreary hum.
His face did glare like the glow o' the
west
When the drumlie clud has it o'ercast
Or the struggling moon when she's sair
distrest.
O Sirs! Twas Aitken Drum.
His complete poems, The Poetical Works of William Nicholson,
were published by Malcolm McL Harper in 1878.