George Menzies was born in the parish of Arbuthnot, Kincardineshire, on
the 21st January 1797. His father was an agricultural labourer. On
completing his education at a country school, he became, in his
fourteenth year, apprentice to a gardener. He prosecuted his vocation in
different districts; acted some time as clerk to the contractors of the
Forth and Clyde Canal; laboured as a weaver in several towns in the
counties of Forfar and Kincardine; and conducted unendowed schools in
various localities. In 1833, he emigrated to Canada, where he taught in
different seminaries, and afterwards formed a connexion with a
succession of public journals. He ultimately became proprietor and
editor of the _Woodstock Herald_ newspaper. After a short illness, he
died at Woodstock, Canada West, on the 4th March 1847, in his
fifty-first year.
Menzies was possessed of good talents and indomitable energy. He wrote
respectable verses, though not marked by any decided originality. In
1822, he published, at Forfar, a small volume of poems, entitled,
"Poetical Trifles," of which a second and enlarged edition appeared five
years afterwards. The whole of his poems, with an account of his life,
in a duodecimo volume, were published at Montrose in 1854.