Outram, George

(1805-1856)

   One of Scotland's Lawyer (comic) Poets, he was born at the Clyde ironworks, near Glasgow, of which his father was manager, and was educated at the high school of Leith. He studied at the university of Edinburgh and in 1827 was admitted a member of the Scottish bar. Not being successful as an advocate, in 1837 he became editor of the Glasgow Herald and soon acquired a share as proprietor. He continued his journalistic work till his death, on the Holy Loch, Dunoon, Argyl and Bute, and was buried in Warriston cemetery, Edinburgh. Lyrics, Legal and Miscellaneous (1874) consisted of verses-most of them in the Scots dialect-written to be sung at festive gatherings in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Some of his poems: "A Linnet Warbled," "Bonnie Mary," "My Nannie," "On Hearing a Lady Praise a Certain Rev. Doctor's Eyes," "Strictures on the Economy of Nature," "The Annuity," "The Banks o' the Dee," "The Lawyer's Suit," "We Be Three Poor Barristers," "When This Old Wig Was New."

   Sources: A Third Treasury of the Familiar. Ralph L. Woods, ed. Macmillan, 1970. 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.html). Everyman's Book of Victorian Verse. J.R. Watson, ed. J.M. Dent, 1982. Submarine Base, Holy Loch, Scotland (http://holyloch.com). SubRon 14, Holy Loch, Scotland, 1961 to 1992 (http://www.thistlegroup.net/holyloch/). The Devil's Book of Verse: Masters of the Poison Pen from Ancient Times to the Present Day. Richard Conniff, ed. Dodd, Mead, 1983. The Faber Book of Comic Verse. Michael Roberts and Janet Adam Smith, eds. Faber and Faber, 1978. The Home Book of Modern Verse. Burton Egbert Stevenson, ed. Henry Holt, 1953. Victorian Verse. George MacBeth, ed. Penguin Books, 1986.