metropolis. The exquisite song in which he commemorated this fair theme of
his youthful enthusiasm, and whom he never afterwards forgot, would have
reached a higher celebrity than it has ever attained, had there not been a "Mary in Heaven."
After William Motherwell had completed his apprenticeship, he was appointed, at the early age of twenty-one, sheriff-clerk depute of the county of Renfrew, an office that brought him a considerable income. But it was also fraught with no little danger, on account of the Radical commotions of that manufacturing district, where every weaver, under the enlightenment of Paine and Cobbett, was persuaded that all things were wrong both in church and state, and that there was no remedy except a universal subversion. With this turbulent spirit Motherwell was often brought into perilous contact, from being obliged by his office to execute the unpalatable behests of law; and on one of these occasions, in 1818, he was assailed by a frantic mob, who hustled him to the parapet of the bridge across the Cart, with the intention of throwing him into the river. Up to this period, like most young men of ardent poetical temperament, he had dreamed his dream of liberty, but such rough handling was enough to extinguish it, and he settled down into a Conservative.
While he was thus compelled by duty to issue ungracious writs, prepare copies of the Riot Act, and occasionally wield the truncheon of a constable in the disturbed streets of Paisley, William Motherwell steadily pursued those literary occupations upon which his claims to public notice were founded. He enlarged his reading, until his library was stored with a miscellaneous but rich collection, in which antique works predominated, especially those connected with poetry, romance, and the old Runic mythology. He also wrote pieces in prose and verse, which he readily bestowed upon his friends; and was, so early as 1818, a contributor to a small work published at Greenock called the "Visitor." He edited the "Harp of Renfrewshire," containing biographical notices of the poets of that district, from the 16th to the 19th century, which was published in 1819. This work was but the prelude to one of greatly higher importance, which he published in Glasgow in 1827, under the title of "Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern," in which his researches into Scottish antiquarianism were turned to best account. In 1828 he commenced the "Paisley Magazine," the pages of which he enriched with some of his best poetical productions; and during the same year he succeeded to the editorship of the "Paisley Advertiser," a Conservative newspaper, previously under the management of his friend, William Kennedy, author of "Fitful Fancies." As Motherwell had now acquired considerable reputation, not only as a poet, but political journalist, this last step was followed by one more important two years afterwards. The "Glasgow Courier" having lost the able superintendence of Mr. James M'Queen, its proprietors applied to Motherwell, who closed with their proposals, and became editor of the Courier in February, 1830, an office in which he continued till his death, nearly six years after.
However profitable this change might have appeared in a pecuniary point of view, or even as an opportunity of acquiring higher literary distinction, it is certain that the result was far from being favourable. Motherwell's knowledge of general, and especially of modern history, was defective, owing to his exclusive love of antiquarianism; and his habits of composition, from the scantiness of his early training, were irregular, slow, and laborious. But thus imperfectly equipped, he was obliged, as editor of the "Glasgow Courier," to step forth as
