POLLOK, Robert (1798-1827), was the author of The Course of Time, a poem that has passed through many editions, and is still a favourite in serious households in Scotland. The son of a small farmer, he was born in 1798 at Moorhouse, in the parish of Eaglesham in Renfrewshire, was originally destined for the plough, but trained himself for the university, took his degree at Glasgow, and studied for the ministry of the United Secession Church. Along with the very general ambition to wag his head in a pulpit he had a specific literary ambition; he published Tales of the Covenanters while he was a divinity student, and planned and completed a poem on the spiritual life and destiny of man. This was the Course of Time. The unfortunate poet died within six months of its publication, at the age of twenty-nine. Excessive study had quickened a tendency to consumption. The poem was published in March 1827, and at once became popular. It is written in blank verse, in ten books, in the poetic diction of the 18th century, but with abundance of enthusiasm, impassioned elevation of feeling, and copious force of words and images. The poet’s view of life was strongly Calvinistic.

POLLOKSHAWS, a burgh of barony in Renfrewshire, Scotland, situated near the White Cart, on the Glasgow and Kilmarnock Railway, 2∣ miles south by west of Glasgow, of which it is now reckoned a suburb, connected by tramway. The streets are irregular, but contain many good houses and shops. The principal buildings are the town-hall, the mechanics’ institute, and the public library and reading-room. The staple industries are cotton-spinning, hand and power-loom weaving of silk and cotton fabrics, dyeing, bleaching, and calico-printing. There are also paper works, potteries, and large engineering works. The town was created a burgh of barony by royal charter in 1813, and is governed by a provost, a bailie, and six councillors. Population in 1871, 8921: in 1881, 9363.