‘Composed by the poet, D. Graham,
In Stirlingshire he lives at hame.’
It would be useless to say whether the wide term ‘Stirlingshire’ bore reference to Raploch, or to Campsie, as has been suggested; but the verse may fairly be considered, by the prefix ‘poet’ to the author’s name, to give countenance to the inference that Graham was not quite a tyro in the art of verse-making, and that previous to the publication of his History he was regarded by his intimate friends, at least, as having qualified for the title. However that may be, Dougal seems now to have made Glasgow his home. Possibly he still continued to ply his calling as a pedlar; but he added to this a profession for which his natural capabilities specially adapted him. In Glasgow, he became the poet of passing events. Little of local importance seemed to have escaped him, and the few metrical pieces now extant, and attributed to him by various authorities, can only be regarded as the representatives of an extensive issue of facetious broadsides and chap-book ballads. Among those believed to be referable to this period of his life, are John Hielandman’s Remarks on Glasgow, and Turnimspike. Although these have never been acknowledged by Graham himself, in the formal way that he has acknowledged the authorship of the History of the Rebellion, there is a consensus of opinion that these two poems are undoubtedly his production. In them the acquaintance he made with Highland modes of thought and expression during the progress of the Jacobite campaign, served him in good stead. M‘Vean attributes a humorous piece, entitled Tugal M‘Tagger, to Graham, but this has been questioned on several grounds, perhaps the most forcible suggestion being, that its style and rhythm are liker the work of Alexander Rodger than of Graham. Personally, we feel inclined to support M‘Vean, and that for a variety of reasons, which may be better explained when dealing with the bibliography of our author’s works; while other metrical compositions of a similar character will also fall to be considered under the same head.
Dougal was now a man of some note, and, in addition, he is believed to have gradually worked himself into a position of comparative freedom from pecuniary troubles. In the time of his poverty he vented his ill nature on his Roman Catholic fellow-subjects in verse far from elegant, charging them with having brought about, for reasons best known to himself, the unsatisfactory state of his exchequer:—
‘You Papists are a cursed race,
And this I tell you to your face;
And your images of gold so fine,
Their curses come on me and mine.
Likewise themselves at any rate,
For money now is ill to get.