Misplaced Pages

Charles Spence (bard)

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
This biography may need cleanup. Please review the Manual of Style for biographies and help improve the article.
This article is about the Scottish poet. For the English psychologist, see Charles Spence.
Spence the Burgh Bard

Charles Spence (1779-1869) was a Scottish poet, stonemason and footman.

The Bard of Gowrie; the Poet of the Carse.

Spence was born in the parish of Kinfauns, spent most of his life in Rait and died in Manchester.

Linne Magray, drawn and engraved by Alexander Carse, published Edinburgh, March 1831.

Linn-ma-Gray I long to see
Thy heathy heights and broomy lea;
Whaur linnets lilt and leverets play
Around the roar of Linn-Ma-Gray.

Linn-ma-Gray when to the street
Crowds follow crowds, in crowds to meet,
I wend my solitary way,
An' climb the cliffs of Linn-ma-Gray.

Linn-ma-Gray, each mounting spring,
From age to age doth tribute bring,
And rushing onwards to the Tay,
Augment the stream of Linn-ma-Gray.

Linn-ma-Gray round Baron hill,
I've aften gane wi' richt gude will,
An' sat and seen the dashing spray
Lash the dark rocks of Linn-ma-Gray.

Linn-ma-Gray, when in yon ha'
The merry wassailers gather a'
In vain their waeel trained bands essay
The minstrelsy of Linn-ma-Gray.

Another favourite Spence poem was entitled: 'My love's window'.

  • View of topiary at Fingask, as known by Spence View of topiary at Fingask, as known by Spence
  • Lady Threipland of Fingask Castle, for whose family Spence was both footman and mason Lady Threipland of Fingask Castle, for whose family Spence was both footman and mason

References

  • Robert Chambers, The Threiplands of Fingask, 1880.
  • Rev. James M'Turk Strachan, BD, FRSA (Scot), From the Braes of the Carse, Charles Spence's Poems and Songs, 1898.
(Strachan was 48 years minister at Kilspindie & died in 1936).
  • Lawrence Melville, The Fair Land of Gowrie, William Culross & Son, Coupar Angus, 1939 (reprinted 1975).
  • P. R. Drummond, FSA, Perthshire in bygone days: one hundred biographical essays, W. B. Whittingham & Son, London, 1879. (Charles Spence, is described on pages 293-309)
Categories: