Hew Ainslie (5 April 1792 ? 11 March 1878) was a Scottish poet.

He was born in the parish of Dailly , in Ayrshire to George Ainslie and an unnamed mother. ^[1] After a fair education, he became a clerk in Glasgow , a landscape gardener in his native district, and a clerk in the Register House , Edinburgh . For a short time he was amanuensis to Dugald Stewart . In 1822, being then ten years married to his cousin, Ainslie emigrated to America, where he continued to live with varied fortune for the rest of his days, paying a short visit to Scotland in 1864. Upon travelling to the New World, he was attracted to Robert Owen 's social system in New Harmony, Indiana , but after a short trial he connected himself with a firm of brewers; his name is associated with the establishment of various breweries, mills, and factories in the Western States. He died in Louisville , 11 March 1878. Ainslie's best known book originated, by its title, what is now an accepted descriptive name for the part of Scotland associated with Burns. It is A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns (1820), and consists of a narrative interspersed with sprightly lyrics. A collection of the poet's Scottish songs and ballads (of which the most popular is 'The Rover of Loch Ryan ' ) appeared in New York in 1855. Ainslie is one of the group of minor Scottish singers represented in Whistle Binkie (Glasgow, 1853).

References [ edit ]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  " Ainslie, Hew ". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885?1900.

External links [ edit ]

• Works by Hew Ainslie at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)