GALL,
a surname obviously derived from the Latin appellation Galli, applied in
ancient times to the Gael or Irish settlers from whom the extensive
district of Galloway took its name. The abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland
is said to have been founded in memory of St. Gall, a Scotsman, who
taught there the Christian religion to the inhabitants, and who is still
the patron saint of that country. [Nisbet’s Heraldry, vol. i. p.
327.]
GALL, RICHARD,
a poet of considerable merit, the son of a notary at Dunbar, was born at
Linkhouse, near that town, in December 1776. At an early age he was sent
to a school at Haddington, where he was instructed in the ordinary
branches of reading, writing, and arithmetic. When he was eleven years
of age he was put as an apprentice to his mother’s brother, to learn the
trade of a hours-carpenter and builder. The drudgery of such an
occupation not suiting the bent of his mind, he soon quitted it, and
walked on foot to Edinburgh, to which city his father’s family had some
time before removed. Having chosen for himself the trade of a printer,
he was, in 1789, entered as an apprentice to Mr. David Ramsay,
proprietor of the ‘Edinburgh Evening Courant,’ in whose service he
remained during the remainder of his short life.
He now made
considerable progress in several branches of learning, under a private
teacher, whom his mother had taken into her house to superintend the
education of her family. On the expiration of his apprenticeship, he was
appointed travelling clerk to Mr. Ramsay. He had early turned his
attention to Scottish poetry, and the ‘Gentle Shepherd’ called forth the
latent poetic inspiration in his own breast. He was an ardent admirer of
the poems of Burns, and during the latter part of the life of our
national bard, he enjoyed his friendship and correspondence. With Hector
Macneill, he was also on terms of intimacy. Thomas Campbell lodged in
the same house with Gall at the time he was preparing for the press ‘The
Pleasures of Hope;’ and being about the same age, the similarity of
their pursuits and sentiments naturally led to the most cordial
friendship between them. His principal associate was, however, Mr.
Alexander Murray, afterwards professor of oriental languages in the
university of Edinburgh.
Mr. Gall wrote
chiefly i8n the Scottish dialect, to which he was very partial. Only a
few of his detached songs were published in his lifetime, but these soon
acquired a considerable degree of popularity. Amongst his best efforts
in this way are ‘The Braes of Drumlee,’ ‘Captain O’Kain,’ and ‘My only
Joe and Dearie, O.’ Mr. Stark, in his ‘Biographia Scotica,’ attributes
to Gall the song, ‘Farewell to Ayrshire,’ usually printed among the
works of Burns as the production of the latter. He says that when Gall
wrote it he sent it to Johnson’s ‘Scots Musical Museum’ with Burns’ name
prefixed, to give it a better chance of attracting notice. As he was
employed in the same office with Gall, he had a good opportunity of
knowing. Being a member of a volunteer corps, Gall wrote several
patriotic pieces, to stimulate the ardour of his comrades; and one of
these being printed, copies of it were distributed to every individual
in the regiment. He had formed the plan of several larger poems, when he
was prematurely cut off by abscess in his breast, just as his poetical
powers were beginning to expand themselves. He died May 10, 1801, in the
25th year of his age. A selection of his poems was published
in one small volume by Oliver and Boyd in 1819, with a life of the
author by the Rev. Alexander Stewart.
