On his return to Scotland he published a book of poems.
In an introduction to this book the Revd. George Gilfillan wrote, "The
volume he now presents to the world is distinguished by great variety of
subject and modes of treatment. It has a number of sweet Scottish
verses, plaintive or pawky. It has some strains of a higher mood,
reminding us of Keats in their imagination. But the highest effort, if
not also the most decided success, is his series of sonnets, entitled,
'In Rome.' And certainly this is a remarkable series." A remarkable man
he was indeed; simple and earnest in manner, with a fine eye, a full dark
beard and sunburnt face. Tiring, however, of a labourer's life and of
the pick and shovel, he left the railway and became assistant librarian
of Edinburgh University, and three years afterwards Secretary to the
Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh. He afterwards became Chief
Librarian to the Edinburgh University. He died in the summer of 1909. He
stayed with me in Glasgow once for a week-end, and on the Sunday
afternoon we together visited a friend of his who lived near, a literary
man, who then was engaged in writing a series of lives of the Poets for
some publishing house.
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