brother's
bed empty, and discovered that he had gone out. Arousing the neighbours,
they made an immediate search, and at length they discovered the poet's
lifeless body at a deep spot of the neighbouring brook. Tannahill
terminated his own life on the 17th May 1810, at the age of thirty-six.

The victim of disappointments which his sensitive temperament could not
endure, Tannahill was naturally of an easy and cheerful disposition. "He
was happy himself," states his surviving brother, "and he wished to see
every one happy around him." As a child, his brother informs us, his
exemplary behaviour was so conspicuous, that mothers were satisfied of
their children's safety, if they learned that they were in company with
"_Bob_ Tannahill." Inoffensive in his own dispositions, he entertained
every respect for the feelings of others. He enjoyed the intercourse of
particular friends, but avoided general society; in company, he seldom
talked, and only with a neighbour; he shunned the acquaintance of
persons of rank, because he disliked patronage, and dreaded the
superciliousness of pride. His conversation was simple; he possessed,
but seldom used, considerable powers of satire; but he applied his
keenest shafts of declamation against the votaries of cruelty. In
performing acts of kindness he took delight, but he was scrupulous of
accepting favours; he was strong in the love of independence, and he had
saved twenty pounds at the period of his death. His general appearance
did not indicate intellectual superiority; his countenance was calm and
meditative, his eyes were gray, and his hair a light-brown. In person,
he was under the middle size. Not ambitious of general learning, he
confined his reading chiefly to poetry. His poems are much inferior to
his songs; of the latter will be found admirers while the Scottish
language is sung or understood. Abounding in genuine sweetness and
graceful simplicity, they are pervaded by the gentlest pathos. Rich in
description of beautiful landscapes, they softly tell the tale of man's
affection and woman's love.[76]

[75] See Semple's "Continuation of Crawford's History of Renfrewshire,"
p. 116.

[76] Tannahill was believed never to have entertained particular
affection towards any of the fair sex. We have ascertained that, at
different periods, he paid court to two females of his own rank. The
first of these was Jean King, sister of his friend John King, one of the
minor poets of Paisley; s