William Ross, the Bard of Gairloch, and the Burns of the Gaelic
Highlands, was born at Broadford, in the island of Skye, in 1762. He
received his school education at Forres, whither his parents removed
during his youth, and obtained his training as a poet among the wilds of
Highland scenery, which he visited with his father, who followed the
calling of a pedlar. Acquiring a knowledge of the classics and of
general learning, he was found qualified for the situation of parish
school-master of Gairloch. He died at Gairloch in 1790, at the early age
of twenty-eight. Ross celebrated the praises of whisky (_uisg-bea_) in
several lyrics, which continue popular among the Gael; but the chief
theme of his inspiration was "Mary Ross," a fair Hebridean, whose
coldness and ultimate desertion are understood to have proved fatal to
the too susceptible poet.