Early Years in Scotland
Born at Saltcoats, Ayrshire, he was the second son of Captain Alexander Allan and his wife Jean Crawford (1782–1856). In 1819, Alexander Allan had founded the Allan Shipping Line, which became synonymous with running goods and passengers between Scotland and Montreal. Hugh Allan received a parish education at Saltcoats before starting work in 1823 at the family's counting house of Allan, Kerr & Co., of Greenock. Three years later he was sent by his father to Montreal to work as a clerk for the grain merchant, William Kerr. In 1830, he took a year off to travel through his native Scotland (he later named his home, Ravenscrag, after his favorite childhood haunt in Ayrshire) and continued via London, New York and Upper Canada.
Read more about this topic: Hugh Allan
Famous quotes containing the words early, years and/or scotland:
“There is a relationship between cartooning and people like Miró and Picasso which may not be understood by the cartoonist, but it definitely is related even in the early Disney.”
—Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923)
“I leave the governor’s office next week, and with it public life ... [which] has been on the whole a pleasant one. But for ten years and over my salaries have not equalled my expenses, and there has been a feeling of responsibility, a lack of independence, and a necessary neglect of my family and personal interests and comfort, which make the prospect of a change comfortable to think of.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Four and twenty at her back
And they were a’ clad out in green;
Tho the King of Scotland had been there
The warst o’ them might hae been his Queen.
On we lap and awa we rade
Till we cam to yon bonny ha’
Whare the roof was o’ the beaten gold
And the floor was o’ the cristal a’.”
—Unknown. The Wee Wee Man (l. 21–28)