Darlington, 1879

Ledgerwood, Isabella, (b. 1866), of Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, toll-bar keeper’s daughter who worked in the mills of Clark and Co. and Messrs. Coats until ill health forced her to quit work. Some of her conventional verses are included in Brown. Ref: Brown, II, 516-17; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Ledwidge, Francis Edward (1887–1917), of Janeville, Slane, co. Meath, Ireland, farm worker, pub. Songs from the Field (1915) and posthumous Songs of Peace (1917) and Francis Ledwidge: Complete Poems (1974). Edition of Selected Poems (1993) with a foreword by Seamus Heaney. Ref: ODNB; JCSN, 86 (Dec 2004), 8-9 and 87 (March 2005), 9. [I]

? Lee, Helen, of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, pub. Bits o’ Things (Manchester, 1893), copy in Manchester Public Library. Ref: Reilly (1994), 274. [F]

Lee, John (b. 1797), of Montrose, Angus, soldier’s son, shoemaker, bookseller, clerk printer, pub. Wild flowers in solitude, 2nd edn (Montrose, 1875). Ref: Edwards, 3, 59-63; Reilly (2000), 271. [S]

? Lee, Joseph, soldier, Lance-Corporal in 1st/4th Battalion of the Black Watch, pub. Ballads of Battle (London: John Murray, 1916); ‘I Canna See the Sergeant’ later anthologised by John Buchan in his anthology of Scots vernacular poetry The Northern Muse (1924). Ref inf Darren Kirkbride; Google books. [S] [OP]

Lee, Thomas (fl. 1795), Nottingham framework-knitter, poet and prose writer, whose works include Poetical Essays, on Curious and Interesting Subjects (Nottingham: C. Sutton, 1795). Ref: Google Books; inf. Dawn Whatman.

Leech, Sarah, of Donegal, peasant girl, pub. Poems on Various Subjects (Dublin 1828); frontispiece includes portrait at her spinning wheel. Ref. Hewitt. [F] [I]

Lees, Joseph (‘Joseph o’ Randalls’, 1748-1824), of Glodwick, Oldham, Lancs., handloom weaver and schoolteacher, probable co-author or author of the ‘Jone O’ Grinfilt’ Lancashire dialect poems. Ref: Vicinus (1969), 31-5; Hollingworth (1977), 153; Hepburn, II, 386-7; Hollingworth (2013), 291-4.

? Lefevre, Jonathan, of Bristol, Chartist poet. Ref: Kovalev, 74-5; Scheckner, 226-7, 338. [C]

Leggat, Joseph (b. 1846), of Blackburn, Linlithgowshire, sailor, soldier, coalminer, weaver, taught in early childhood by Robert Tennant (qv), later attended night school. Ref: Edwards, 4, 185-90. [S]

? Leigh, Helen of Middlewich, Manchester, author of Miscellany Poems (Manchester, 1788), wife of a country curate and mother of seven children, pub. by subscription. Ref: Lonsdale (1989), 420-2; Dobell 857; BL 11630.d.14(7). [F]

? Leighton, Robert (1822-69), of Dundee, largely self-taught orphan, travelling businessman, manager, spent most of the last twenty years of his life in Liverpool, uncle of William Leighton (qv); his poems were praised by Longfellow and Emerson; pub. Poems by Robin (1855); Rhymes and Poems (1861); Poems (Liverpool, Edward Howell, 1866) includes a section of Scottish poems in dialect; Records and Other Poems (1880). Ref: Edwards, 1, 300-5; Murdoch, 180-4; CBEL III, 294; Miles, V, 73; Sutton, 571 (letter from RL in the papers of the Society for the diffusion of Useful Knowledge). [S]

? Leighton, William (1841-69), of Dundee, nephew of Robert Leighton (qv), worked in a Liverpool merchant’s office. Pub. ‘Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-Two’, ‘The Seasons’, ‘Baby Died Today’, and ‘Rose’. Ref: ODNB; Edwards, 1, 294-9. [S]

Leiper, Andrew (d. c. 1862), of Paisley, weaver, member of the Republican Club, died in the town poorhouse, poems in Brown. Ref: Brown, I, 364-66. [S]

Leno, John Bedford (1824-94, sometimes ‘Timothy Whackstraw’), of Uxbridge, Middlesex, Chartist, shoemaker, printer and poet/reciter; edited the journal St. Crispin and pub. The Art of Boot- and Shoe-making. A practical handbook (London, 1885); also pub. Herne’s Oak, and other miscellaneous poems (1853), The Poetic Magazine (periodical publication, 1860-1), King Labour’s Song Book (1861), An essay for the nine hours movement (tract, 1861), Female Labour (tract, 1863), Drury Lane Lyrics, and other poems (1868), Kimburton, A Story of Village Life, and Other Poems (1875-6); The Anti-Tithe Journal (periodical publication, 1881); The Last Idler, and Other Poems (London, 1889); The Aftermath. A Collection of Poems, with Autobiography of the Author (London, 1892). Ref: LC 6, 73-100; Ashraf (1975), 244-54; Maidment (1987), 19; Vincent, 194; Hobsbawm and Scott, 107; Reilly (1994), 279; Reilly (2000), 273-4; Ashton & Roberts, ch. 7, 76-96; Schwab, 41-6 (discussion of ‘Long, long ago’), 200, 214 (pseudonyms list). [LC 6] [C]

? Leonard, John, of Gateshead, joiner, son of a gardener, “possibly with private means”, and “well-known radical”, author of the comic song “Winlaton Hopping” and much political verse. Ref: Allan, 128-32; Colls, p. 29, 37; ‘The Bards of Newcastle’: http://mysite.verizon.net/cbladey/sang/bards.html.

Leslie, Eliza A., of Paisley, blacksmith’s wife, pub. Stray leaves (Edinburgh: R. Grant and Son, 1866); the British Library copy is inscribed to the Rev. William Dry, M.A. One poem describes a grandmother’s memories of the faithlessness of friends and acquaintances. The mother of William Leslie (qv), and the daughter of Mrs Macmillan of Elderslie (qv), both also poets. Ref: Brown, II, 498-501; Reilly (2000), 274; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Leslie, Peter (b. 1836), ‘John Pindar’, of Glenvale, Fife, of humble origins, coalminer, soldier, pub. Random Rhymes, ed. by A. M. Houston (Cupar, 1893). Ref: Reilly (1994), 279. [S]

? Leslie, William (b. 1862), of Paisley, Glasgow blacksmith’s son, warehouseman, engineer, life insurance agent. Brown records that his mother and grandmother were also poets, and prints a poems of each (‘Dialogue: father and son’ by the grandmother, 499-450, and ‘Margaret’ by the mother’, 501). He does not name them but says the grandmother (Mrs Macmillan, qv) hailed from Elderslie and was married to a David MacMillan who worked as a farm servant; the mother is Eliza A. Leslie (qv). Ref: Brown, II, 498-506. [S]

Levack, George W. (b. 1846), of Glasgow, tailor, blacksmith, pub. vol. of poems in 1882. Ref: Edwards, 6, 53-6. [S]

Lewis, David, of Knaresborough, gardener, farmer, ‘the first Yorkshire peasant poet to write dialect verse’ (Moorman); pub. in one of the chapbooks Specimens of the Yorkshire Dialect two dialect poems, The Sweeper and the Thieves’ and ‘An elegy on the Death of a Frog’, later collected in his volume The Landscape and Other Poems (York, 1815); a dialogue poem, ‘The Pocket Books’ pub, in later chapbooks. Lewis is very briefly described under the DNB entry for another David Lewis (1683?-1760), but has no entry of his own, and is not easily found. Ref: DNB; Grainge, II, 309; Moorman, xxviii, 20-22.

Lewis, Joseph (fl. 1750-74), ivory turner, pub. Lancelot Poverty Struck (1758), Mother Midnight's Comical Pocket-Book (1753? pseudonym “Humphrey Humdrum” but attributed to Lewis), and The Miscellaneous and Whimsical Lucubrations of Lancelot Poverty-Struck (1758). Ref: ODNB.

Lewis, Stewart [not Stuart as per Sutton and DNB] (1756-?1818), of Ecclefechan, son of an inn keeper and farmer who died bankrupt when Lewis was a child; tinker and poet; may have also been a tailor; pub. The African Slave; with other poems and songs (Edinburgh, 1816); Fair Helen of Kirconnel Lee. A poem (4th ed., Dumfries, 1817); poems include ‘Ae morn of May’. Ref: DNB; Miller, 167-69; Wilson, II, 526; Sutton, 578 (letter). [S]

Lickbarrow, Isabella (1784-1847), Poetical Effusions (Kendal: M. and R. Branthwaite; London: J. Richardson, 1814); A Lament upon the Death of Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte. And Alfred, a Vision (Liverpool, 1818). Ref: Curran, Goodridge (1999), item 66, Johnson, item 535, Jackson (1993), 201-2. [F]

Lindsay, William (b. 1840), of Kirriemuir, herd laddie, handloom weaver, bleacher, packman, pub. many poems in newspapers and magazines. Ref: Edwards, 1, 328-9. [S]

? Linen, James (1815-73), of Kelso, book-binder, emigrated to New York, went to California in the goldrush of 1849, later a lecturer, one of ‘an interesting group of Scottish-American poets’ (Edwards). Ref: Edwards, 7, 137-45. [S]

? Linton, William James (‘Abel Reid’, 1812-97, sometimes ‘Master Woodbine’ or ‘Mr Honeysuckle’), wood engraver, Chartist, author of very many works including The English Republic (1851); Claribel and Other Poems (London; Simpkin, Marshall & Co, 1865); Love-lore [poems] (Hamden, Connecticut, 1887); Poems and translations (London, 1889); Broadway ballads, collected for the centenniel commemoration of the Republic 1876, by Abel Reid (Hamden, Connecticut, 1893); Love-lore, and other, early and late, poems (Hamden, Connecticut, 1895); Memories (London, 1895), edited Poetry of America: Selections from one hundred American poets from 1776 to 1876, with an introductory review of colonial poetry, and some specimens from negro melody (1878). Ref: ODNB; Miles, IV, 377; F. B. Smith, Radical Artisan, William James Linton 1812-97 (Manchester, 1973); Robert F. Gleckner, ‘W.J. Linton, a Latter-day Blake’, Bulletin of Research in the Humanities, 85, no. 2 (Summer 1982), 208-27; Vicinus (1974), 98-100; Burnett et al (1984), no. 445; Maidment (1987), 40-1, 62, 73-84, 96 [image]; Kovalev, 180-201; Scheckner, 228-56, 338-40; Schwab, 201-2, 214; Reilly (1994), 283; Reilly (2000), 277; Bradshaw, 417; Johnson 46, nos. 118-21; Sutton, 582-3 (misc. letters). [C]

Lister, David (b. 1865), of Ceres, Fife, son of a labourer and a handloom weaver, apprenticed to a chemist, managed a chemist’s shop, presented his work in recitals, wrote for periodicals, taught elocution, pub, Temperance poems for recital: dramatic and humorous (Edinburgh, 1888). Ref: Edwards, 14, 70-76; Reilly (1994), 283. [S]

Lister, Thomas (1810-1888), Barnsley cart driver, later a prominent naturalist, pub. The Rustic Wreath: Poems, Moral, Descriptive, & Miscellaneous (Leeds, 1834), presented copy in Clare’s library, gift of the author, sold 3,000 copies; also Temperance Rhymes (1837) and Rhymes of Progress (1862). Ref: LC 5, 55-74; ODNB; Holroyd, 124-5; Andrews, 146-53; [Forshaw, 107-8 includes another Thomas Lister not in this database, a maltster, teacher and preacher poet of Baildon, Yorkshire who spent time in America]; Vicinus (1974), 171; Crossan, 37; Powell, item 283; Johnson, item 541; inf. Bob Heyes. [LC 5]

Little, David, of Blackburn (fl. 1861), no biographical data, but the poems clearly indicate impoverishment. Ref: Hull, 134-7.

Little, James (b. 1821), soldier, shoemaker, emigrated to US in 1852 then returned, pub. Sparks from Nature’s Fire (1856), The Last March and Other Poems (1857). Ref: Glasgow Poets, 349-50. [S]

Little, Janet, later Richmond (1759-1813), servant, known as the ‘Scotch Milkmaid’, born in Nether Bogside, near Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, married a labourer at Loudon Castle named John Richmond, a widower 20 years her senior, with five children. Little demonstrated a keen interest in Robert Burns, sending him a letter and rhyming epistle. The parodic appropriation of Standard English through Scottish mimicry is foregrounded within the bilingual text of Little’s Poetical Works. Pub: The Poetical Works of Janet Little, the Scotch Milkmaid (Air[e], 1792). Ref: LC 3, 233-52; ODNB; Miller, 157-58; Jackson, 203-4; Johnson, 542; Lonsdale (1989), 453-5; Milne (1999), 174 210; Rizzo, 243; Kord, 266; Backscheider & Ingrassia, 878-9. [LC 3] [F] [S] [—Iain Rowley]

Livingstone, William (1776-1849), of Paisley, weaver, actor, acquaintance of Tannahill; published in periodicals. Ref: Brown, I, 112-13. [S]

Llwyd, Richard (1752-1835), ‘The Bard of Snowdon’, ‘began life as a domestic servant but applied himself with great diligence to education and self-improvement’ (Johnson); pub. Beaumaris Bay (Chester, [1800]); Gayton Wake, or Mary Dod (Chester, 1804); Poems. Tales, Odes, Sonnets, Translations from the British (Chester, 1804); The Poetical works of Richard Llwyd, the Bard of Snowdon (London, [1837]); Beaumaris Bay and other Poems, ed Elizabeth Edwards (Nottingham: Trent Editions, 2015). Ref: Radcliffe; Johnson, items 546-9; C. R. Johnson, catalogue no. 46, nos. 307-8; Sutton, 584. [W] [—Katie Osborn]

Lochore, Robert (1762-1852), Glasgow shoemaker, Willie’s Vision, or the de’il personified by...the collier [and other pieces] (1796), The foppish taylor; or Fancy disgrac’d (1796), Margret and the Minister. a true tale (1796), A morning walk (1796), Patie and Ralph, an elegiac pastoral on the death of Robert Burns (1797), Tales in Rhyme and Minor Pieces, in the Scottish Dialect (1815). Ref: Wilson, I, 382-6; Johnson, items 550-1, 891. [S]

? Lock, Joseph, of Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, (?)blind poet, known as ‘Sightless Joe’; pub. Thoughts in Rhyme (Bourton-on-the-Water, 1870). Ref: Reilly (2000), 279.

? Lockman, John (1698-1771), miscellaneous writer, called ‘l'illustre Lockman’ in France, baptized at St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, pub. ‘occasional complimentary poems’ and poems in newspapers and magazines; also numerous popular translations: A Description of the Temple of Venus at Cnidus (trans from French, 1726); La Henriade (trans Voltaire, 1728); Lettres philosophiques (Letters Concerning the English Nation) (trans Voltaire, 1733); Siecle de Louis XIV (An Essay on the Age of Lewis XIV) (trans Voltaire, 1739), and Oration (trans Charles Poree, 1734). Contributed to the General Dictionary, Historical and Critical (1734-41). He contributed to a ‘General Dictionary’; the original agreement about the book, Lockman’s receipt, and several letters concerning this are owned by the British Library. Ref: ODNB; Sutton, 592.

Logan, Alexander (‘The Laureate of the Household’, b. 1833), of Edinburgh, orphaned tin-plate worker, songwriter and dialect poet, brother of Thomas Logan (qv), pub. Auld Reekie Musings: being poems and lyrics (Edinburgh, 1864). Ref: Edwards, 1, 196-9; Reilly (2000), 280-1; Murdoch, 270-4. [S]

Logan, J. C. (b. 1839), of Airlie, Forfarshire, farm overseer’s son, railway stationmaster, coal trader in straitened circumstances, pub. in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 15, 170-3. [S]

Logan, Thomas (b. 1835), of Edinburgh, humble circumstances, orphaned, brother of Alexander Logan (qv), lived in New York, returned to be brush factory manager in Dalkeith, Midlothian, pub. The Green Glens of Lothian, and other poems and songs (Edinburgh, 1871). Ref: Reilly (2000), 281; Edwards, 2, 30-3. [S]

Loker, Timothy, of Cambridge, of humble circumstances, largely self-taught, under-butler at St. John’s College, pub. Poems and ballads (Cambridge, 1861, 2nd enlarged edn. 1865). Ref: Reilly (2000), 281.

Longstaff, William (b. 1849), of Soulby, Westmorland, labourer, worked on farm and railway, finally a signalman, pub. Her Majesty’s royal jubilee, 1887: ode and song, the tribute of a working man (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1887). Ref: Reilly (1994), 287.

? Lonsdale, Mark, Cumberland poet, dialect poems included in Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect Chiefly by Robert Anderson (Wigton, 1808). Ref: information of Michael Baron, 2000, Johnson, item 18.

Lott, Henry F., a working carpenter, author of One Hundred Sonnets (1850). Ref: Maidment (1987), 214-16; Goodridge (1999), item 67.

Love, David (1750-1827), pedlar poet; also worked as a miner; published single sheets and chapbooks; settled in Nottingham and most of his books were published from there, pub. A New and Correct Set of Godly Poems (1782), David Love’s Journey to London and his Return to Nottingham (1800), The Life, Adventures, and Experiences of David Love (Nottingham, 1823-4). Ref: LC 3, 39-42; William Hone, The Table Book (London: William Tegg, 1878), 503-4; Burnett et al (1984), no. 451; Sutton, 594. [LC 3]

Loveless, George (1797-1873), agricultural labourer, of Dorset, Chartist, one of the ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’ and a poet ‘whose lyrics form part of the Trade Union Tradition’. Ref Schwab, 204. [C]

Lovett, William (1800-77), artisan, member of the London Workingmen’s Association, Chartist and radical, author of an autobiography, some international Addresses, and a poem ‘worth reading’, Woman, as well as Chartism: a New Organization of the People (1840, co-written with John Collins) and The Life and Struggles of William Lovett, in his Pursuit of Bread, Knowledge, and Freedom (1877). Ref: ODNB; Ashraf (1978), I, 24; Schwab, 204. [C]

Lowe, John (1750-98), gardener’s son, apprentice weaver, tutor, see Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, ed. by R. H. Cromek (1810). Ref: ODNB; Harper, 244; [Johnson, item 555 also possibly relates]; Sutton, 595. [S]

Lowery, Robert (1809-63), seaman, tailor, Chartist poet and activist, a major political figure, but also a published poet: ‘The Collier Boy’, pub. in Charter, 23 June 1839. Ref: ODNB; Burnett et al (1984), no. 455; Scheckner, 257, 340. [C]

Lucas, John (fl. 1776-81, shoemaker poet, author of Miscellanies in verse and prose (Salisbury, 1776, BL 1162.d.20), The Fall of Pharaoh and Philo’s Apology (1781). Ref: LC 2, 331-52; Ashraf (1978), I, 31-2; Klaus (1985), 7-8, 16-17; ESTC; Christmas, 210-12, 220-3. [LC 2]

? Ludwig, Sophie (1764-1815), German forester’s wife, who published single poems. However Joan Thirsk in her review of Kord (Literature and History, 3rd ser., 13/2, 107-9, asserts that she ‘was clearly not of the peasant class’. Ref Kord. [F]

Lumsden, James (‘Samuel Mucklebackit’, 1839-1903), of Abbey Mill, Haddington, East Lothian, variously apprentice grocer, millworker, itinerant, farmer, working in the potato trade, journalist, pub. six volumes in the 1880s and 1890s, including Sheep-head and Trotters: being savoury selections, poetic and prosaic, from the bulky literary remains of Samuel Mucklebackit and Thomas Pintail, late Parnassian hill and arable farmers in Lothian (Edinburgh, 1892); The battles Of Dunbar & Prestonpans, And Other selected poems (New and old). By James Lumsden (“Samuel Mucklebackit”), Late of Nether Hailes, East Lothian, Author of "Country Chronicles,” “Sheep-Head and Trotters,” &c. (Haddington: William Sinclair, 63 Market Street, 1896). Ref: Edwards, 11, 339-45; Reilly (1994), 291. [S]

Lunn, John, of Pontefract, Yorkshire, barber, ‘wrote many pieces, chiefly of a comic and satirical kind’. Pub. Original Tales in Verse, and Oddities in Prose and Verse; The Duniad [sic, a ‘collection of pieces on the election contest in the borough of Pontefract, 1768’]; Liberty; The Mirror (1771); one of his ‘most amusing’ poems, The Newcastle Rider, or Ducks and Green Peas [c. 1835], briefly extracted in Grainge, ‘also appeared as a farce in one act; which was performed at the theatre in Pontefract, with great applause’. [Note that almost none of these works can be found on COPAC; they appear to be locally distributed chapbooks.] Ref Grainge, I, 279-81.

Lyall, John Wallace (b. 1836), of Paisley, weaver’s son, sailor, iron planer, pub. poems in newspapers, Sun-Gleams Through the Mist of Toil: Poems, Songs, Dialogues, Recitations, and Sacred Verses (Brechin and Edinburgh, 1885); pub. temperance text Jack Bentley’s First and Last Glass (1888). Ref: Brown, II, 325-31; Reilly (1994), 292; Edwards, 5, 386-90. [S]

Lyle, William (b. 1822), of Edinburgh, left school at 12, apprentice potter in Glasgow, emigrated to Rochester, New York, manager of the Rochester Sewer Pipe Company, achieved success and published vols in America. Ref: Ross, 68-76; Edwards, 6, 28-35. [S]

Lyndon, William (b. c. 1862), dockworker’s son, itinerant, of Dungarven, Waterford, lived in Cardiff, London, Liverpool, Scotland, doing seasonal and other labour, pub. ballads and poems. Ref: Edwards, 15, 31-3. [S] [I]

Mabon, Agnes Stuart (b. 1841), of Lochtower Farm, Yethom, Roxburghshire, daughter of a farm overseer who died when she was two, when her mother moved to Yetholm and later Jedburgh; attended school until age 13 then sent to work in a mill, remained there until marriage, then reared a family. Mabon was often in weak health. She published in local newspapers and the People’s Friend, and then her own collection, Homely rhymes, etc. from the banks of the Jed (Paisley, Edinburgh and Jedburgh, 1887). Poems include ‘Our Baby,’ ‘My Own True Love,’ ‘The Drunkard’s Wife,’ ‘The Song of the Linnet,’ ‘The Vale of Bowmont,’ and ‘In Cauld, Bleak December’. Ref: Edwards, 9, 207-13; Boos (1995), 68; Reilly (1994), 295; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

M’Anally, Henry, of Castledawson, Londonderry, Irish patriot, shipbuilder in Dumbarton and Partick, later worked for the railway company in Chicago, pub. Effusions After Toil: A Collection of Poems and Lyrics (Glasgow, 1884). Ref: Reilly (1994), 295. [I]

Macansh, Alexander (b. 1803), of Dunfermline, a self-educated flax-dresser described as ‘deformed’, i.e physically disabled; wrote for Scottish literary periodicals, pub. Social Curse; Or, Intemperance, a Rhyme; and Other Pieces (1850), A Working-man’s Bye-hours: Consisting of Essays, Lectures, Poems, etc. (Dunfermline, 1866), also co-author of a prose work: Two Essays on the Benefits of Savings’ Banks to the Working-classes by Messrs. Macansh and Cousin, etc. (1852) Ref: Reilly (2000), 287-8; National Library of Scotland online catalogues. [S]

M’Arthur, Peter (1805-81), of Barrhead, Renfrewshire, calico printer, pattern designer promoted to department head in Glasgow, pub. Amusements in minstrelsy (Glasgow, 1880). Ref: Edwards, 1, 329-31 and 8 (1886), xxv; Reilly (1994), 296; Murdoch, 156-64. [S]

Macaulay, John (b. 1854), of Port-Glasgow, from a poverty-stricken family, blacksmith, pub. in Glasgow Weekly Mail, and pub. Poems and songs (Greenock, 1895). Ref: Edwards, 9, 340-5; Reilly (1994), 296. [S]

? M’Auslane, William Thomson (1832-93), of Glasgow, attended a village school and evening classes, clerk and book-keeper, journalist, pub. Summer musings; and, Memories dear (Glasgow, 1889). Ref: Reilly (1994), 296; Edwards, 2, 135-9. [S]

? Macbain, Elizabeth, of Dumbarton, notes in her book that she received a limited education, and that her ‘sphere of life’ gave many barriers to ‘the spirit of poetry’; pub. Evening Thoughts (1864). Ref: inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

M’Crackett, or M’Craket, Peter (1827-82), of Greenlaw, Berwickshire, Lammermoor shepherd or ‘herd laddie’, draper, teacher, pub. poems in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 2 (1881), 340-5 and 9 (1886), xvii; Crockett, 187-9. [S]