Following our packed events season in Autumn 2024, the past few months on Project Fergusson have still been busy, but we have slightly switched our focus! Whereas we were focusing on commemorating Fergusson’s legacies in the latter half of 2024, we have now pivoted to working almost exclusively on the project’s main output: the new edition of all Fergusson’s extant poems, contracted with Edinburgh University Press and due to be published in 2026.
In the summer of 2024, I produced the edition’s copytexts, mainly using copies of the Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement, which can be found in the National Library of Scotland. After checking these copytexts what felt like a thousand times to make sure every tiny detail of the original texts was faithfully reproduced, I’ve been working on the collation of the edition over the past few months. This is where any changes between early published versions of the poems are noted. Whether capitalisation and grammar, word changes, or the layout of the poem, if they are altered in any way, this is noted down. An example is listed below, taken from the poem ‘Pastoral I: Morning’.
- violets (WM); daisies (1773).
In this, the Weekly Magazine version of line 7 of the text reads ‘violets’, whereas the 1773 iteration of the same line reads ‘daisies’. Everything else about the line of poetry remains the same in both versions. The texts that we are collating are the first published collection of Fergusson’s poetry, titled Poems (1773), and a second Poems Part II published in 1779. Whilst the 1773 volume is the only lifetime edition of Fergusson’s work, both editions were published by Walter Ruddiman who also owned the Weekly Magazine, in which most of Fergusson’s poems were originally printed. The 1779 edition therefore includes faithful renderings of Fergusson’s poetry from late September 1772 throughout 1773.
To aid with editorial work on the edition, Rhona and I also revisited the wonderful Blackie House Museum, hosted by Dr William Zachs. The large collection of Fergusson material has proved very useful to the edition’s textual apparatus and for the ongoing descriptive bibliography. I have also visited other archives including Glasgow’s Mitchell Library and the Signet Library, Edinburgh, in order to also access their Fergusson collections and to ensure I see as many different versions, print runs and editions of Fergusson’s poetry as possible.
Thanks to the University of Glasgow’s Textual Editing Lab, we also were thrilled to do a talk for staff, students, and members of the public as part of this year’s programme. In it, we discussed editing Fergusson, and our copytext and collation practices. This led to a really animated chat afterwards as a group of around 20 of us all discussed Fergusson’s handwriting, textual annotations, and much more!
Other activities so far in 2025 include a trip for me to Oxford in early January to attend the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (BSECS) Conference. I also presented a paper there all about Fergusson and the body – recounting how Fergusson writes comic verses of spewing and drinking, and weaves pointed comments about fashion adorning the macaroni’s body throughout his poetry. I also gave a talk for the lovely East Kilbryde Burns Club on the Poetry of Robert Fergusson, discussing his use of English and Scots, and we enjoyed a spirited discussion afterwards! I’ll also be delivering a paper at the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society Conference held at the University of Stirling later in June, which I’m very much looking forward to.
Working alongside Patrick Jamieson and the independent publisher, Taproot Press, we are also thrilled to be working on a volume of contemporary poetry which takes influence from, reflects and refracts Fergusson’s work. ‘O’er all my labours sey your skill’: Contemporary Responses to Robert Fergusson contains original work in Gaelic, Scots, and English, and will be published this summer. Featuring original works from the pen of upcoming and established poets, Rhona, Patrick and I are thrilled that this amazing ‘side project’ has taken shape so smoothly and that we’ll be sharing Fergusson with another audience. I’ll post another update on this collection when it is published!!
That’s all for now – but these first few months of 2025 have been incredibly productive for moving the project forwards. We’re excited (and quite sad!!) for the final few months of the project to be underway and for us to get as much of the edition complete as possible by the end of September.
Amy Wilcockson
1 June 2025