PRINGLE, prin'g'l, Thomas, Scottish poet: b. Blaiklaw, Roxburghshire, 5 Jan. 1789• d. London, 5 Dec. 1834, He was educated at Edinburgh University and in 1811 became a copyist in the registry office, Edinburgh. He began writing clever satire and attracted the notice of Sir Walter Scott, who in 1817 gave him his notes for an article on the gypsies, which Pringle contributed to the Edinburgh Magazine, started by himself and Cleghorn, and known after a rupture with the publisher as Blackwood's. In 1820, with 24 others, he emigrated to South Africa, settling finally at Cape Town, where for three years he was li brarian of the government library. Pringle worked hard to secure•financial support for the colony by pamphleteering and started The South African Journal and The South African Commercial Advertiser. These were suppressed by Lord Charles Somerset, the governor of the colony, because of their liberal tendencies and Pringle was reduced to poverty. In 1826
he returned to London and in 1827 became secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society. After seeing the triumph of his humanitarian en deavors in the abolition of slavery by England, in 1834, he died on the eve of returning to South Africa. His earlier poems were col lected by him as (Ephemerides' (1828) • and the best of these, dealing with South Africa, were reprinted in 'African Sketches,' which included also the (Narrative' of a residence in South Africa. These productions were char acterized by vivid description and tender feeling. He is best known by his poem, 'Afar in the Desert I Love to Ride,' reprinted in the vol ume of 'African Sketches' (1834). Pringle's 'Poetical Works' with a life were edited by Leitch Ritchie in 1839.