Poet and man of letters, born in the parish of Keir, Dumfriesshire; bred to the mason craft, but devoted his leisure hours to study and the composition of Scottish ballads, which, when published, gained him the notice of Sir Walter Scott; in 1810 he went to London, where he wrote for periodicals, and obtained employment as assistant to Chantrey the sculptor, in which post he found leisure to cultivate his literary proclivities, collating and editing tales and songs, editing Burns with a Life, and writing the Lives of famous artists, and died in London; "a pliant, Naturmensch," Carlyle found him to be, "with no principles or creed that he could see, but excellent old habits of character" (1784-1842).