Reference to William Robertson "Songs And Sayings of Gowrie"

Songs And Sayings of Gowrie pp139-141
"It is but two or three years ago since there passed away, at the ripe age of ninety-seven, a native singer who long served as a link with the distant days of Culloden. Born at Castle Huntly in 1804, William Robertson spent much of his earlier years in the service of Glengarry. Here it was that, in 1820, he met Owen Macdonnell, one of the heroes of 1745, who had been present at the battles of Preston-pans, Falkirk and Culloden. With others, also, who had fought at Culloden, Robertson had the good fortune to converse. Possessed of a vigorous mind, he took kindly to the study of poetry, metaphysics and theology. Comparatively late in life he developed a considerable poetic faculty, the fruit of which is to be seen in two small volumes, The Mountain Muse and Echoes of The Mountain Muse, Dundee 1893. Many of the poems recall, the author tells us, sights and sounds with which he was familiar "when I roved, a young Highlander, o'er the dark heath." Among the more interesting are those that relate to Jacobite times - "A Culloden Jacobite", "Lines on a Culloden Field" (suggested by the remarks of heroes who had fought at the battle), "Culloden Field the Night Before The Battle". The last named piece may be taken as a specimen of Robertson's style."