A song-writer of merit, John Halliday was born on the 18th July 1821, at
Hawickshielsgate, near Hawick, Roxburghshire. His father was an
agricultural labourer; and, with an ordinary education at school, he
was, at an early age, engaged as an assistant shepherd to a tenant
farmer in his native district. Inheriting from his mother a taste for
the elder Scottish ballad, he devoted his leisure hours to reading such
scraps of songs as he could manage to procure. In his thirteenth year he
essayed to compose verses, and at the age of twenty became a contributor
of poetical stanzas to the provincial journals. Encouraged by a numerous
list of subscribers, he published, in 1847, "The Rustic Bard," a
duodecimo volume of poems and songs. After being several years resident
at Hopekirk, Roxburghshire, he removed in 1854 to Bridge of Allan, where
he is well employed as a florist and landscape gardener.