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Significant Scots
David
Herd |
HERD, DAVID, an ingenious and useful
inquirer into our national antiquities, was born in the parish of St
Cyrus, Kincardineshire, about the year 1732. Of his education, and early
life in general, nothing has been ascertained. He probably served an
apprenticeship under a country writer, and then, like many young men in
his circumstances, sought a situation of better promise in the capital.
Throughout a long life, he appears to have lived unambitiously, and a
bachelor, in Edinburgh, never rising above the character of a Writer’s
clerk. He was for many years clerk to Mr David Russel, accountant. A
decided taste for antiquities, and literary antiquities in particular,
led Mr Herd to spend a great part of his savings on books; and although
the volumes which he preferred were then much cheaper than now, his
library eventually brought the sum of 254 pounds, 19s. 10d. The same
taste brought him into association with the principal authors and
artists of his own time: Runciman, the painter, was one of his intimate
friends, and with Ruddiman, Gilbert Stuart, Fergusson, and Robert Burns,
he was well acquainted. His information regarding Scottish history and
biography was extensive. Many of his remarks appeared in the periodical
works of his time, and the notes appended to several popular works were
enriched by notes of his collecting. Sir Walter Scott, for instance, was
much indebted, in his Border Minstrelsy, to a manuscript of Mr Herd’s,
which is frequently quoted by the editor, both for ballads and for
information respecting them. Mr Herd was himself editor of what Scott
calls "the first classical collection" of Scottish songs,
which first appeared in one volume in 1769, and secondly in two volumes,
in 1772. At his demise, which took place, June 25, 1810, he was
understood to have left considerable property, which fell to a gentleman
in England, supposed to have been his natural son, and who is said to
have died a major in the army. |
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