Biography

HERD, DAVID (1732-1810). —Scottish anthologist, s. of a farmer in Kincardineshire, was clerk to an accountant in Edin., and devoted his leisure to collecting old Scottish poems and songs, which he first pub. in 1769 as Ancient Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. Other and enlarged ed. appeared in 1776 and 1791. Sir W. Scott made use of his MS. collections in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.