Surfaceman

Following on my post of two days ago about "Lads o' pairts" here's a perfect example.   Alexander Anderson was born in 1845 in Kirkconnell where many of my family came from.   He was the sixth and youngest son of a quarrier.    Alexander went to work on the railways as a plate layer - or "surface man" - a name he took for his pen name when he wrote poetry.   He was a prolific poet, and knew French, German and Spanish.

From the humblest of starts he rose to be Chief Librarian in the University of Edinburgh.