Arousing the neighbours,
they made an immediate search, and at length they discovered the poet's
lifeless body at a deep spot of the neighbouring brook. Tannahill
terminated his own life on the 17th May 1810, at the age of thirty-six.
The victim of disappointments which his sensitive temperament could not
endure, Tannahill was naturally of an easy and cheerful disposition. "He
was happy himself," states his surviving brother, "and he wished to see
every one happy around him." As a child, his brother informs us, his
exemplary behaviour was so conspicuous, that mothers were satisfied of
their children's safety, if they learned that they were in company with
"_Bob_ Tannahill." Inoffensive in his own dispositions, he entertained
every respect for the feelings of others. He enjoyed the intercourse of
particular friends, but avoided general society; in company, he seldom
talked, and only with a neighbour; he shunned the acquaintance of
persons of rank, because he disliked patronage, and dreaded the
superciliousness of pride. His conversation was simple; he possessed,
but seldom used, considerable powers of satire; but he applied his
keenest shafts of declamation against the votaries of cruelty. In
performing acts of kindness he took delight, but he was scrupulous of
accepting favours; he was strong in the love of independence, and he had
saved twenty pounds at the period of his death.
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