ALEXANDER ANDERSON 1845-1909

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FROM A CARRIAGE WINDOW

Just a peep from a carriage window,

As we stood for a moment still,

Just one look - and no more - till the engine

Gave a whistle sharp and shrill.

But I saw in that moment the heather,

That lay like a purple sheet

On the hills that watch o’er the hamlet

That sleeps like a child at their feet.

O, sweet are those hills when the winter

Flings round them his mantle of snow,

And sweet when the sunshine of summer

Sets their fair green bosoms aglow.

But sweeter and grander in autumn,

When the winds are soft with desire,

When the buds of the heather take blossom,

And run to their summits like fire.

I saw each and all through the heather

That purple lay spread like a sheet

On the hills that watch over the hamlet,

That sleeps like a child at their feet.

Of humble beginnings Alexander Anderson worked first in a quarry and then as a platelayer on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway. Later he was appointed secretary to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution and then Chief Librarian at Edinburgh University.

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