INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
This new Edition of the Works of David Gray, containing, it is believed, all the maturely finished poems of the author, is a double memorial. It commemorates “the thin-spun life” of a man of true genius and rare promise, and the highly cultured judgment and tender sympathies of a critic who has passed away in the vigorous fulness of his years.
A specimen page of “The Luggie,” forwarded with an appreciative letter from a friend, reached the author on the day before his death. He received it as “good news”—the fragmentary realization of his ambitious dreams—and, in the hope that his name might not be wholly forgotten, said he could now enter “without tears” into his rest.
Within a week before his removal from amongst us, Mr. Glassford Bell was engaged in correcting the proofs of the present edition. He had selected from a mass of MSS. and other material what new pieces he thought worthy of insertion in this enlarged edition—he had rearranged the whole and finally revised the greater part of the volume, which it was his intention to preface with a Memoir and Criticism. He looked forward to accomplishing this labour of love in a period of retirement from more active work which he had proposed to pass in Italy.
It has been thought inadvisable to commit to other hands the unexpectedly interrupted task. For a statement of the few and simple vicissitudes of the Poet’s career, as well as a brief but discriminating estimate of his rank in our literature, the reader is referred to the speech—at the close of the volume—delivered byMr. Bell, nine years ago, on the inauguration of the Monument in the “Auld Aisle” Burying-ground. Of the movement which resulted in this tribute to departed genius, the late Sheriff was one of the most active promoters. Himself a poet, and a generous patron of all genuine art, the West of Scotland has known no “larger heart” or “kindlier hand.” There is something suggestive in the fact that his last effort was to throw another wreath on the early tomb of David Gray.
March, 1874.