APPENDIX III
A LOWLAND PEASANT POET
I had not long ago a couple of poems put into my hands by one
who, knowing the author, told me something of his life and circumstances.
Being much struck by the poems I set to work to
make inquiries in the hope of getting something further. But he
seems to have written very little. His nephew copied out and
sent The Auld Blasted Tree and added "I made inquiry of my
aunt if she had any more; she says those you have seen along with
this one I now enclose were all he wrote, at least the best of them."
The relatives allowed me to see the account of his funeral with an
appreciation of the man as it appeared in the local newspaper. It
ran as follows, and was published in The Peebleshire Advertiser,
July 7, 1906.
"THE LATE MR. FARQUHARSON, LONELYBIELD.
Our obituary of Saturday last contained the name of one whose
memory will be for long in this district. We refer to the late
Alexander Forrester Farquharson. His "mid name" takes us
back to the first baptismal scene of by-gone long occupants of
Linton Manse, viz., the Rev. Alexander Forrester, whose father,
too, was minister before. Born in Carlops sixty-nine years ago,
there are but few now amongst us who were children then. When
six years old, his father, of the same vocation as himself, removed
to the picturesque hamlet at the foot of the "Howe," and here his
lifetime was spent. Married to one of a family of long pastoral
connection with our district, who still survives to cherish the happy
memories of their long sojourn together, in this, their quiet and
peaceful home, they reared their family. By his departure, there
has gone from amongst us one of the finest types of Scotchmen
that our country districts develop, both, it may be said, in lineaments
of feature and character. But, added to the possession
generally of the best features of our race, there was in him truly a
