ON Edinburgh’s Royal Mile outside the historic Canongate Kirk, there stands a life-size statue of a young man dressed in 18th-century garb. The brilliant work of the Fife-based sculptor David Annand, the bronze statue shows the man striding down the Canongate with his coattails flying and a book in his hand clutched to his chest.

Since its unveiling in 2004, its lifelike nature has seen the statue become very popular with tourists, who stand beside it to get their photographs taken or pose for selfies. It has no plinth so people can get close to the statue.

The statue is of the poet Robert Fergusson, the 250th anniversary of whose death in an insane asylum in Edinburgh will be commemorated on Thursday.

Perhaps most famous for inspiring Robert Burns, Fergusson is worthy of appreciation as an influential poet in his own right, one of Scotland’s finest, which is why I am going to write about him today and over the next two weeks.

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There have already been several events marking the anniversary of Fergusson’s death on October 17, 1774. The Real Mary King’s Close in Edinburgh staged a couple of “Meet The Poet” performances, while a symposium on his textual legacies was held last month by the University of Glasgow which is in the midst of a two-year research project about Fergusson which will culminate in the publication of a new edition of his collected works.

Future events include a lecture on him in the National Galleries of Scotland, while on the night of the anniversary itself on Thursday there will be an event hosted by the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh University’s St Cecilia’s Hall featuring authors Billy Kay, Andrew O’Hagan and James Robertson, the latter writer having edited and introduced the Polygon edition of Fergusson’s works.

Kirsteen McCue, professor of Scottish literature and song culture at Glasgow University’s School of Critical Studies, who was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, will be one of the speakers.

Also in attendance will be the person leading that Glasgow University project who is in no doubt about the significance of Fergusson’s work, Rhona Brown, professor of Scottish textual cultures at the university, who said: “Robert Fergusson is one of Scotland’s most important poets, but he is often misunderstood. He is known for his enormous influence on Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, and for his tragic early death in an asylum at just 24 years of age. But there’s so much more to Fergusson than this.

“Writing in both Scots and English, one of Fergusson’s key themes is the ordinary life of Edinburgh, and he depicts the city, warts and all, in his masterpiece, Auld Reikie. His poetry is astute and satirical, funny and razor-sharp.

“So, although the end of his life may have been tragic, his legacy is anything but. At the 250th anniversary of his death in 2024, we have an opportunity to rethink Robert Fergusson and to understand his legacies in new ways.

“We urge you to read the poems and see for yourself.”

I will detail that tragic end the week after next, and as always, I leave the literary criticism to better-qualified people such as Professor Alan Riach, so today and next week I will be concentrating on the facts of Fergusson’s brief life.

The details of his birth and death are meticulously noted in the National Records of Scotland which shows that Robert Fergusson was born – at Cap and Feather Close in Edinburgh’s Old Town – on Wednesday, September 5, 1750: “the son of William Fergusson, clerk to Baillie Robert Baillie, merchant in North Kirk parish, and Elizabeth Forbes.”

The entry in the Old Parish Register for Edinburgh shows he was baptised the same day – “Robert is said by the a[fore]mentioned parent to have been born this morning”.

The rush to have him baptised was not unusual in those days of staggeringly high infant mortality and is suggestive perhaps of the ill health that would plague Fergusson during his life, especially in his younger years – it wasn’t until the age of six that he went to school.

His parents hailed from Aberdeenshire and had come to Edinburgh for William Fergusson to find work to support his growing family – Robert was the fourth of five children of the couple. William was also a cultured man who knew and wrote poetry, and even on his meagre salary was able to have Robert educated at the Royal High School from 1758 to 1761.

Thanks to the award of a bursary, Fergusson was able to attend the Grammar School of Dundee on a boarding basis. He was also able to visit his relatives in Aberdeenshire and came to appreciate and remember the life of a rural family, a theme that would recur in his poetry.

His father having gained a promoted post at the British Linen Bank which was then moving from an industrial investor to a fully fledged bank, the family fortunes were improving and again with the help of another bursary, Fergusson was able to matriculate at St Andrews University. It was thought that Robert would study for the Kirk ministry but his own inclination was to mathematics or “natural philosophy” if anything.

He also clearly did not have the personal qualities that a minister would need, being far too humorous and fond of japes, jests and jokes that got him into trouble with the University authorities. On one occasion he went too far with a joke and was promptly expelled, only to be allowed back in the following day on a promise of good behaviour.

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It was at the university that he began to write and his first effort was going to be a play about Sir William Wallace, his natural inclination to drama and his fine speaking voice leading him in that direction. But he abandoned Wallace and took to writing poetry.

William Fergusson died in 1767 and when his bursary ran out, Robert walked home to Edinburgh to stay with his mother. The long walk weakened him and he was bedridden for days.

In bed, he started to write serious poetry. Find out what happened next week.