Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 5 (of 10) — John Shaqi
Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 5 (of 10)Lockhart, J. G. (John Gibson)
History
Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 5 (of 10)
Lockhart, J. G. (John Gibson)
Authors, Scottish -- 19th century -- Biography; Scott, Walter, 1771-1832
[Footnote 2: [Joseph Train was born in 1779, at
Gilminscroft, Sorn, Ayrshire, where his father was
grieve and land-steward. The boy was apprenticed at an
early age to a weaver in Ayr, but, notwithstanding the
narrowness of his circumstances, and a very imperfect
education, he even then showed a love of learning and a
passion for antiquarian lore. From 1799 to 1802 he
served in the Ayrshire militia. While the regiment was
stationed at Inverness, he became a subscriber to
Currie's edition of Burns, and his colonel, Sir David
Hunter-Blair, seeing the volumes at the bookseller's,
was surprised to learn that they had been ordered by one
of his men. Greatly pleased thereat, Sir David had the
books handsomely bound and sent to Train, free of
charge; and later obtained for him an appointment in the
Excise in the Ayr district. He was a faithful and
efficient officer, but owing to the then prevalent
custom of giving the higher places in the Excise to
Englishmen, all Scott's efforts for the advancement of
his friend were unavailing; he remained supervisor till
he went on the retired list in 1836. In 1829 Train was
admitted a member of the Scottish Society of
Antiquaries. Though the death of Scott made a sad blank
in his life, his interest in his favorite studies
continued to the end. The latter part of his life was
spent in a cottage at Castle Douglas, where he was
visited shortly before his death by James Hannay, who
found him in a little parlor, crowded with antiquities
of interest and value,--the antiquary, "a tall old man,
with an autumnal red in his face, hale looking, and of
simple, quaint manners." (See _Household Words_, July
10, 1853.) Train's last extended works were an
_Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man,
with a view of its peculiar customs and popular
superstitions_ (1845); and a study of a local religious
sect in _The Buchanites from First to Last_ (1846); but
he was an occasional contributor to various periodicals.
He died December 1, 1852.]]
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