BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE THE life story of ROBERT FORD is a very simple one. It is a record of industry from its start to its close. He was born in 1846 at the little village of Wolfhill, in the parish of Cargill, Perthshire, where his father owned a croft. Like most of his class, ROBERT had a very strenuous life to lead from a very early age. His educational holidays were occupied in the usual jobs of herding and "tattie lifting," and when his attendance at school was finally ended, he engaged in the hundred and one orra jobs which fall to be undertaken in an agricultural district. Though FORD often and sweetly gave poetical expression to the pleasures of country life, he had no great admiration for the practical aspects of an existence which presented no brighter prospect than that of clinging to the tail of a plough during a lifetime. At the age of eighteen he went to Dundee, where he became a clerk in the office of Messrs. Baxter Brothers. While in Dundee, he began to scribble for the local press, writing numerous poems, and, in the field of prose, making a happy hit in a series of papers which purported to be from the pen of "Matilda Towhead," a factory lassie with an observing eye and a fine turn for humour. In 1874, Mr. FORD removed to Glasgow to a situation in the despatch department of Messrs. J. & W. Campbell, Ingram Street. He continued in the service of the firm till his death, which occurred, after a few months' illness, on 28th October, 1905. Shortly after he had taken up his residence in Glasgow, Mr. FORD became a regular contributor of essays to the Scottish weekly papers, where his contributions were much appreciated by the conductors of the papers and by the clientele for whom they catered. In 1878, he published a volume of verse entitled Hamespun Lays and Lilts, and three years later a volume of original Scotch readings was issued. The latter carried his name very widely indeed, and the readings are still favourite items at popular entertainments. Glints o' Glentoddy was another volume which increased his fame. His Tayside Songs was warmly received a few years later, and another volume, Thistledown, was perhaps one of the most widely read Scottish volumes of its decade. Mr. FORD was an earnest student of Scottish poetry, and, by request, edited numerous collections. He prepared an edition of Burns for Newnes, London. Most of his work, however, saw the light through Mr. Gardner's Paisley press, and in rapid succession were issued Auld Scotch Ballads, which quickly ran through two editions; Poems by Robert Fergusson; Poems by Alexander Rodger, the weaver poet; The Harp of Perthshire; Vagabond Songs; Ballads of Bairnhood; and collections of "English," "Irish," and "American" humour. The present volume, The Heroines of Burns, was the last work on which he was engaged, and portions of it were prepared by him while confined to what proved to be his death-bed. It may well be said of ROBERT FORD that "he burnt the candle at both ends." His appetite for work was hardly ever satiated. As soon as his duty to his employers released him from the office, he was at his home desk composing or compiling for the press. He was a great favourite on the platform as a lecturer on Scottish humour, his admirably simple style and mastery of dialect getting at once to the hearts of his audience. He had several offers to tour Canada and the United States to meet Scotch audiences, but resisted the temptation, preferring the steady certainty of commercial life to the meteoric flash, with the possibility of the subsequent oblivion, which too often is the portion of the platform lecturer. Mr. FORD was a member of the Glasgow Ballad Club, and was usually one of the Burns orators on the 25th of January. In private life he was a most genial companion and staunch friend. |