In autumn 1715 Thomson entered the College of Edinburgh. On 9 February 1716 his father died, probably of an apoplectic stroke, though local legend said he was struck by a ball of fire while carrying out an exorcism.
WTF? A satanic fireball? That's fucking awesome.
Aside from this, Sambrook also shares other interesting tidbits about Thomson:
Thomson was a keen and practised drinker.
His indolence was well known. It was said that, at Eastbury, he ate the ripe side of peaches hanging on the tree, without taking his hands from his pockets. Also that, at home in Richmond, he was found in bed one day at 2 p.m. by Charles Burney, the musicologist, who asked him why he was in bed at that hour and received the reply: ‘I had no motive to rise’
Little is known about Elizabeth Young. It seems that she was red-haired, and that, like Thomson, she spoke with a broad Scots brogue. Further testimony is contradictory: she is described on the one hand as a quick-tempered, harsh-tongued tomboy, on the other as a gentle-mannered, elegant-minded woman. There is general agreement, though, that her mother (the widow of a naval captain) was a coarse, vulgar woman, and that she opposed the match because Thomson's financial prospects were uncertain. Reportedly, she said to her daughter, ‘What! would you marry Thomson? He will make ballads and you will sing them’
It seems that the wake was as drunken as Thomson could have wished (see his Seasons, ‘Autumn’, 565–9) , for it is said that an unidentified clergyman ‘boasted, that at a supper after Thomson's funeral, he left Quin drunk under the table, whilst he was able to walk home’
Again. Fucking awesome. That's all there is to say.
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