Blind Lanarkshire man who 'writes' poetry in his head makes Borders pilgrimage to leave personal tribute

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A partially-sighted poet from Lanarkshire who “writes” in his head recently embarked on a pilgrimage to the Scottish Borders.

Charles McHugh, 86, travelled to visit the statue of Scottish poet James Hogg, who lived from 1770 to 1835 and was known as the Ettrick Shepherd, where he recited his own tribute to the self-educated writer.As Charles has had a degenerative condition for the last 15 years and cannot see, the dad-of-four memorises his own poetry as opposed to writing it down.Recently he told family members he had composed a poem during the 1990s about the Ettrick Shepherd, and asked if they could transcribe it for him.

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That started my interest in Hogg and I looked into his history. “He was an orphan who was taken in by a farmer as a young boy.