Moir, David Macbeth

(1798-1851)

   One of the Scottish doctor poets, he was born at Musselburgh, East Lothian, and practiced there for most of his life. Using the pseudonym "Delta," he was a regular contributor to Constable's Edinburgh Magazine and to Blackwood's Magazine, Fraser and the Edinburgh Literary Gazette. His first professional publication was Outlines of the Ancient History of Medicine (1831). After an outbreak of cholera in the town he published several works on cholera. In 1851, he published Antiquities of the Parish of Inveresk. Following an accident, he died at Dumfries and was buried at Inveresk, East Lothian. A statue was erected in 1854 on the bank of the Esk, within Musselburgh. Some of his poetry publications: The Bombardment of Algiers, and Other Poems, 1818. The Legend of Genevieve, with Other Tales and Poems, 1824. Domestic Verses, 1843 (a volume of elegies prompted by the deaths of three of his children). The Poetical Literature of the Past Half Century, 1851. Some of his poems: "Eventide," "Flodden Field," "Hawthornden" (see Drummond, William of Hawthornden), "Spring Hymn," "The Dying Spaniel," "The Lost Lamb," "The Soldier's Grave."

   Sources: Biography of David Moir. Significant and Famous Scots (http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/moir_david.htm). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.htm l). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.