SIR,
Please receive 13 volumes poems for which you favoured me with subscribers. I request your acceptance of one copy as a small mark of my regard for the kindness you have shewn me. Please deliver Mr. Morton's volume, and present him my thanks for his subscription; [1] You may remit the money when you have been able, conveniently, to collect it.
I am,
DEAR SIR,
Yours sincerely,
ROBT. TANNAHILL.
The original is in possession of Jas. R. M. Robertson, Esq., M.D., Renfrew.
James Bishop, warehouseman to William Malloch & Company, cotton spinners, Johnstone, called the Old Mill. He was a plain, modest man, and taught a mathematical class in the evenings. —Ed.
[1] This was “James Morton,” teacher in Johnstone, and precentor in the Chapel. He had a good voice, and was one of the first vocalists of the day. He died about September, 1824. Mr. John Fraser, formerly teacher in Kilmalcolm, succeeded Mr. Morton in the Johnstone School, and is now residing at Newfield House, Johnstone. He was a musical enthusiast from his youth, and in 1843 commenced a musical tour through Great Britain, Ireland, and America. Tannahill's songs were the favourites; and the Fraser family, from their musical talents, spread the sweet songs of the Poet throughout the length and breadth of the English-speaking dominions. Mr. Fraser was born in 1794, and is now in the 81st year of his age, in good health, hale and hearty. Long may the “old man musical” live and indulge in singing his favourite songs of Tannahill.—Ed.
NOTE: We wonder if "Johnstone" has become confused with "Bridge of Weir" here. The letter from William Kibble to Robert Tannahill was printed in Semple's edition as having being written from "Boston", a typo clearly for "Bolton"—GRIAN PRESS.