1. Robert Fergusson wrote both Scottish English and the Scots language, and it is his vivid and masterly writing in the latter leid for which he is principally acclaimed.
24 Facts About Robert Fergusson
1. 2.
Robert Fergusson was born in a tenement between Cap and Feather Close and Halkerstons Wynd, both small vennels north of Edinburgh's Royal Mile, demolished in 1763 to make way for what is today the hidden southern arches of the North Bridge.
3.
Robert Fergusson was the third of three surviving children by them.
4.
Robert Fergusson received formal schooling at the city's High School and then the High School of Dundee.
5.
Robert Fergusson was taught rhetoric by Robert Watson, professor of Logic, whose lectures covered English literature.
6.
Robert Fergusson excelled at mathematics under the tuition of William Wilkie.
7.
Robert Fergusson did not graduate but this was not uncommon and bore no shame.
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Robert Burns 8.
Robert Fergusson did keep his word and aided Prof Wilkie over the summer writing the poem "Eclogue" to his memory later in life.
9.
Robert Fergusson's father had died the previous year, his sister Barbara had married, and his older brother Harry had recently left Scotland, enlisting with the Royal Navy after a business failure.
10.
Robert Fergusson, who had rejected the church, medicine and law as career options open to him due to his university training, finally settled in Edinburgh as a copyist, the occupation of his father.
11.
Robert Fergusson's earliest extant poem, written at this time, is a satirical elegy in Scots on the death of David Gregory, one of the university's professors of maths.
12.
Robert Fergusson involved himself in Edinburgh's social and artistic circles mixing with musicians, actors, artists and booksellers who were publishers.
13.
Robert Fergusson supplied three, which were performed and published with the libretto.
14.
In mid-1773 Robert Fergusson attempted his own publication of Auld Reekie, now regarded as his masterpiece, a vivid verse portrait of his home city intended as the first part of a planned long poem.
15.
Robert Fergusson was a member of the Cape Club which regularly assembled at a tavern in Craig's Close.
16.
David Herd, the collector of the classic edition of Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, was "sovereign" of the Cape when Robert Fergusson was dubbed a knight of the order, with the title of "Sir Precentor", in allusion to his fine voice.
17.
In late 1773, in his "Poem to the Memory of John Cunningham" which was written on hearing news of the death of that poet in an asylum in Newcastle, Robert Fergusson expressed fears of a similar fate.
18.
Around the backend of the year 1774, after sustaining a head injury in circumstances that are obscure, Robert Fergusson was submitted against his will into Edinburgh's Darien House "hospital", where, after a matter of weeks, he suddenly died.
19.
Robert Fergusson was buried in an unmarked grave on the west side of the Canongate Kirkyard.
20.
Robert Fergusson is one of the sixteen Scottish poets and writers depicted on the lower section of the Scott Monument on Princes Street.
21.
Robert Fergusson appears on the right side of the west face, opposite Robert Burns.
22.
In 2024, a previously unknown portrait of Robert Fergusson was discovered at Barnbougle Castle.
23.
Robert Fergusson was often an effective satirist and generally nationalist in themes and outlook.
24.
Ruddiman's 1773 edition of Robert Fergusson's work was reprinted in 1779 with a supplement containing additional poems.