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Our thanks to
Jeanne Hunter for the following
information.
Charles Spence was born in
1779 in Rait (Kinfauns Parish). He was a mason by trade, repairing and
building small houses and cottages. However he executed 2 larger
projects.....building of the Free Church of Errol and the restoration of
Kinnaird Castle......He later was employed by the Threiplands of Fingask and
Kinnaird to do the mason work on the estate. He was also a sculptor and
some of his pieces can be seen now on the grounds of Fingask.
He married Anne Bisset and
they had 10 children.
His poetry (at least some of
it) was collected and published in 1898 (after the Poet's death) by James
MacTurk Strachan, parish minister of Kilspindie and Rait........"From the
Braes of the Carse". Only 300 were printed.
To quote from the
introduction of "From the Braes......".... "Some of his poems are
beautiful. Some are intensely humorous. Some display a lightness of touch
and a beauty of fancy that are wonderful. Poetic thoughts lie thick in his
pages."
He was well known in the
Carse of Gowrie as "the Poet" and many of his songs and poems were recited
or sung by the local people. |
