John Grieve, whose name is especially worthy of commemoration as the
generous friend of men of genius, was born at Dunfermline on the 12th
September 1781. He was the eldest son of the Rev. Walter Grieve,
minister of the Cameronian or Reformed Presbyterian church in that
place; his mother, Jane Ballantyne, was the daughter of Mr George
Ballantyne, tenant at Craig, in the vale of Yarrow. While he was very
young, his father retired from the ministerial office, and fixed his
residence at the villa of Cacrabank, in Ettrick. After an ordinary
education at school, young Grieve became clerk to Mr Virtue, shipowner
and wood-merchant in Alloa: and, early in 1801, obtained a situation in
a bank at Greenock. He soon returned to Alloa, as the partner of his
friend Mr Francis Bald, who had succeeded Mr Virtue in his business as a
wood-merchant. On the death of Mr Bald, in 1804, he proceeded to
Edinburgh to enter into copartnership with Mr Chalmers Izzet,
hat-manufacturer on the North Bridge. The firm subsequently assumed, as
a third partner, Mr Henry Scott, a native of Ettrick.
Eminently successful in business, Mr Grieve found considerable leisure
for the cultivation of strong literary tastes. Though without pretension
as a man of letters, he became reputed as a contributor to some of the
more respectable periodicals.[16] In his youth he had been a votary of
the Muse, and some of his early lyrics he was prevailed on to publish
anonymously in Hogg's "Forest Minstrel." The songs marked C., in the
contents of that work, are from his pen. In the encouragement of men of
genius he evinced a deep interest, affording them entertainment at his
table, and privately contributing to the support of those whose
circumstances were less fortunate. Towards the Ettrick Shepherd his
beneficence was munificent. Along with his partner, Mr Scott, a man of
kindred tastes and of ample generosity, he enabled Hogg to surmount the
numerous difficulties which impeded his entrance into the world of
letters. In different portions of his works, the Shepherd has gracefully
recorded his gratitude to his benefactors. In his "Autobiography," after
expressing the steadfast friendship he had experienced from Mr Grieve,
he adds, "During the first six months that I resided in Edinburgh, I
lived with him and his partner Mr Scott, who, on a longer acquaintance,
became as firmly attached to me as Mr Grieve; and I believe as much so
as to any other man alive.... In short, they would not suffer me to be
obliged to any one but themselves for the value of a farthing; and
without this sure support, I could never have fought my way in
Edinburgh. I was fairly starved into it, and if it had not been for
Messrs Grieve and Scott, would, in a very short time, have been starved
out of it again." To Mr Grieve, Hogg afterwards dedicated his poem
"Mador of the Moor;" and in the character of one of the competing bards
in the "Queen's Wake," he has thus depicted him:--
"The bard that night who foremost came
Was not enroll'd, nor known his name;
A youth he was of manly mould,
Gentle as lamb, as lion bold;
But his fair face, and forehead high,
Glow'd with intrusive modesty.
'Twas said by bank of southland stream
Glided his youth in soothing dream;
The harp he loved, and wont to stray
Far to the wilds and woods away,
And sing to brooks that gurgled by
Of maiden's form and maiden's eye;
That when this dream of youth was past,
Deep in the shade his harp he cast;
In busy life his cares beguiled,
His heart was true, and fortune smiled."
Affected with a disorder in the spine, Mr Grieve became incapacitated
for business in his thirty-seventh year. In this condition he found an
appropriate solace in literature; he made himself familiar with the
modern languages, that he might form an acquaintance with the more
esteemed continental authors. Retaining his usual cheerfulness, he still
experienced satisfaction in intercourse with his friends; and to the
close of his life, his pleasant cottage at Newington was the daily
resort of the _savans_ of the capital. Mr Grieve died unmarried on the
4th April 1836, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. His remains were
interred in the sequestered cemetery of St Mary's, in Yarrow. The few
songs which he has written are composed in a vigorous style, and entitle
him to rank among those whom he delighted to honour.[17]
[16] In the "Key to the Chaldee MS.," he is described as the author of
"The White Cottage, a Tale;" this was not written by him, but was the
production of one More, a native of Berwickshire, whose literary
aspirations he had promoted.
[17] For a number of particulars in this memoir, we are indebted to our
venerated friend Mr Alexander Bald, of Alloa.