Author: Laing, Alexander
Biography:
LAING, Alexander (1778-1838: ODNB)
No public records have been located for Laing who was the illegitimate son of an Aberdeen advocate named Michie, he was born at Coull, Aberdeenshire. His The Caledonian Itinerary was issued in 1819. In 1819-21 he edited an annual, The Eccentric Magazine and, in 1822, The Lounger’s Commonplace Book. His collections of ballads—Scarce Antient Ballads (1822), The Thistle of Scotland (1823), and An Cluaran Albannach (1834)—bring together traditional poems that might otherwise not have survived. He also published The Donean Tourist (1828), with accounts of castles and other landmarks on the river Don. Although well-educated and very talented, in later life he was to become an itinerant bookseller and stationer—earning the nickname “Stashie Laing.” He died at an inn between Tarland and Strathdon and buried at Coldstone, Aberdeenshire. (ODNB 26 Sept 2019; WorldCat) SR