Richard Gall was born in December 1776, at Linkhouse, near Dunbar. His
father was a notary; but, being in poor circumstances, he apprenticed
his son, in his eleventh year, to a relative, who followed the conjoined
business of a builder and house-carpenter. The drudgery of heavy manual
labour proved very uncongenial; and the apprentice suddenly took his
departure, walking a long distance to Edinburgh, whither his parents had
removed their residence. He now selected the profession of a printer,
and entered on an indenture to Mr David Ramsay of the _Edinburgh Evening
Courant_. At the close of his apprenticeship, he became Mr Ramsay's
travelling clerk.
In the ordinary branches of education, young Gall had been instructed in
a school at Haddington; he took lessons in the more advanced departments
from a private tutor during his apprenticeship. He wrote verses from his
youth, and several of his songs became popular, and were set to music.
His poetical talents attracted the attention of Robert Burns and Hector
Macneill, both of whom cherished his friendship,--the former becoming
his correspondent. He also shared the intimacy of Thomas Campbell, and
of Dr Alexander Murray, the distinguished philologist.
His promising career was brief; an abscess broke out in his breast,
which medical skill could not subdue. After a lingering illness, he died
on the 10th of May 1801, in his twenty-fifth year. He had joined a
Highland volunteer regiment; and his remains were accompanied by his
companions-in-arms to the Calton burial-ground, and there interred with
military honours.
Possessed of a lively and vigorous fancy, a generous warmth of
temperament, and feelings of extreme sensibility, Richard Gall gave
promise of adorning the poetical literature of his country. Patriotism
and the beauties of external nature were the favourite subjects of his
muse, which, as if premonished of his early fate, loved to sing in
plaintive strains. Gall occasionally lacks power, but is always
pleasing; in his songs (two of which have frequently been assigned to
Burns) he is uniformly graceful. He loved poetry with the ardour of an
enthusiast; during his last illness he inscribed verses with a pencil,
when no longer able to wield the pen. He was thoroughly devoid of
personal vanity, and sought to advance the poetical reputation of his
country rather than his own. In his lifetime, his pieces were printed
separately; a selection of his poems and songs, with a memoir by
Alexander Balfour, was published in 1819.