was interred in Lasswade church, in the neigh- | Verse, being heretofore so precious to Prince bourhood of Hawthornden. Besides his history he wrote several political tracts, all strongly in favour of royalty. It is as a poet, however, that Drummond is now known and remembered. His poems, though occasionally tinged with the conceits of the Italian school, possess a harmony and sweetness unsurpassed by the productions of any of his English or Scottish contemporaries. His sonnets are particularly distinguished for tenderness and delicacy. William Hazlitt remarks, Drummond's sonnets, I think, come as near as almost any others to the perfection of this kind of writing, which should embody a sentiment, and every shade of a sentiment, as it varies with time, and place, and humour, with the extravagance or lightness of a momentary impression.' It is generally conceded that Drummond is second only to Shakspere as a sonnet writer; and Henry Hallam, Thomas Campbell, and Robert Southey have concurred, with some variations in degree of praise, in assigning him a high place among British poets who appeared before Milton. Drummond seems throughout his life, if we except the early collections, to have entertained little concern for the preservation of his poems. Many of them were only printed, during his lifetime, upon loose sheets; and it was not till 1656 that Sir John Scot caused them to be collected and published in one volume. An edition of this collection was republished in London in 1659, with the following highly encomiastic title: "The most Elegant and Elaborate Poems of that great Court Wit, Mr. William Drummond; whose labours both in Prose and Henry and to King Charles, shall live and flourish in all ages, whiles there are men to read them, or art and judgment to approve them." Some of his poems remained in MS. till incorporated in the folio edition of his works issued in 1711. The most popular of those detached productions printed in the poet's life. time was entitled "Polemo-Middinia, or the Battle of the Dunghill." This was a satire upon some of the author's contemporaries; and contains much humour in a style of composi tion which had not before been attempted in Scotland. It long retained its popularity in Edinburgh, where it was almost yearly reprinted; and it was published at Oxford in 1691, with Latin notes and a preface by Bishop Gibson. The latest edition of Drummond's works appeared in London in 1833, with a life by Peter Cunningham, a son of "honest Allan." In 1873 another memoir of the poet appeared, from the pen of Professor David Masson. The first poem which appears among our selections from Drummond was designed as a compliment to King James VI., on his visit to Scotland in 1617. Of the many effusions which that event called forth this only has maintained its popularity, and indeed, as a performance professedly panegyrical, it is no ordinary praise to say that it has done so. "It attracted," as Lord Woodhouselee has remarked, the envy as well as the praise of Ben Jonson, is superior in harmony of numbers to any of the compositions of the contemporary poets of England, and in its subject one of the most elegant panegyrics ever addressed by a poet to a prince." THE RIVER OF FORTH FEASTING. What blust'ring noise now interrupts my sleep? And seem to call me from my watery court? This golden people, glancing in my sight? And noble breasts will freely lend Without expecting interest. 'Tis merchants' love, 'tis trade for gain, To barter love for love again: 'Tis usury, yea, worse than this, For self-idolatry it is. Then let her choice be what it will, Let constancy be thy revenge; If thou retribute good for ill, Both grief and shame shall check her change; Thus may'st thou laugh when thou shalt see Remorse reclaim her home to thee; And where thou begg'st of her before, She now sits begging at thy door. The morning rose, that untouch'd stands, Such fate ere long will thee betide, When thou hast handled been awhile! And I will sigh, while some will smile, INCONSTANCY REPROVED.1 I do confess thou'rt smooth and fair, That lips could speak had power to move thee; But I can let thee now alone As worthy to be loved by none. I do confess thou'rt sweet, yet find Thy favours are but like the wind And since thou canst with more than one, SONG. What means this strangeness now of late, 'Tis either cunning or distrust That may such ways allow; For if you mean to draw me on, If kindness cross your wished content, I'll give you all the love that's spent, The rest shall be my own. EARL OF ANCRUM. BORN 1578-DIED 1654. Kerr younger of Cessford. SIR ROBERT KERR, afterwards Earl of An- | father was assassinated by a kinsman, Rol crum, was born in 1578, and succeeded to the family estate of Ferniehurst in 1590, when his 1 Altered by Burns into the song "I do confess that thou art fair;" and from another of Ayton's, beginning "Should old acquaintance be forgot, And never thought upon," He was on the gentlemen of the bedchamber who atten James VI. on his accession to the thron England. In 1619 he became involved, ei through family connection or friendship, violent quarrel which arose between the wells and Johnstones respecting the wa ship of the western marches, and receiv he took the idea of a song especially dear to all Scotch-challenge from Charles Maxwell to meet men. -ED. in single combat. Although his adversar a perfect giant, and he himself had scarcely skill to sustain the onset of his huge antagonist, a bold and impetuous man, but he at length ran him through the body. Having now closed, they both fell, Maxwell being uppermost; but in a few minutes he breathed his last, leaving Kerr covered with his blood. The friends of the deceased are said to have acquitted Sir Robert of all blame, yet so strict were the laws established by the king for the prevention and punishment of duels, that he was obliged to escape to Holland, where he remained for about a year. through the intercession of friends, he was restored to his place at court. In 1624 he addressed the following letter to his friend Drummond:-"Every wretched creature knows the way to that place where it is most made of, and so do my verses to you, that was so kind to the last, that every thought I think that way hastens to be at you. It is true I get leisure to think few, not that they are cara because rara, but indeed to declare that my employment and ingine concur to make them, like Jacob's days, few and evil." "The best is, I care as little for them as their fame; yet if you do not mislike them, it is warrant enough for me to let them live till they get your There is a letter doom. In this sonnet I have sent you an from William Drummond, the poet, to Sir approbation of your own life, whose character, Robert on the subject of his duel, with which however I have mist, I have let you see how our readers cannot fail to be interested. Philo- I love it, and would fain praise it, and indeed sophically and with much kindness he thus fainer practise it." The poem thus diffidently reprehends his rashness and temerity:It introduced has had a more fortunate career was too much hazarded on a point of honour. than was contemplated by its author. Why should true valour have answered fierce the beautiful sonnet which follows this notice, barbarity; nobleness, arrogancy; religion, im- and is unfortunately the only specimen of his piety; innocence, malice,—the disparagement poetical powers extant. being so vast? And had ye then to venture It is On the accession of Prince Charles in 1625 he was promoted to be Unlike to the hazard of a combat, the exemplar of a lord of the bedchamber, and in 1633 was virtue and the Muses' sanctuary? The lives raised to the peerage by the titles of the Earl of twenty such as his who has fallen in hon- of Ancrum and Lord Kerr of Nesbit. our's balance would not counterpoise your own. Ye are too good for these times, in which, as Charles, the earl continued his steady adherent in a many persons who owed everything to King and that deadly, ere they can be assured of death again took refuge in Holland, where he any safety. Would I could persuade you in spent the remainder of his days. He died in your sweet walks at home to take the prospect 1654, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. In of court shipwrecks." Park's edition of Walpole's Royal and Noble During his exile he employed himself in the Authors there is a portrait of the Earl of collection of pictures which he afterwards pre- Ancrum, assigning him a thoughtful and sented to Prince Charles. At the end of a year, strongly-marked countenance. PRAISE OF A SOLITARY LIFE.1 Sweet solitary life! lovely dumb joy, doth rise. The morning's second mansion, truth's first friend, 1 This beautiful and sweetly | laintive sonnet, and the interesting letter which accompanied it (to Drummond of Hawthornden), must be considered as ornamental to this or to any other publication. -- Thomas Park's Walpole's Ryal and Noble Authors. Never acquainted with the world's vain broils, When the whole day to our own use we spend, And our dear time no fierce ambition spoils. Most happy state, that never tak'st revenge The court's great earthquake, the grieved truth For injuries received, nor dost fear EARL OF STIRLING. BORN 1580 DIED 1640. WILLIAM ALEXANDER, an eminent statesman and poet, was born on the estate of Menstrie, near Stirling, in 1580. His original station | in life was that of a small landed proprietor or laird. While still young he accompanied the Earl of Argyll abroad as his tutor and travelling companion. Previous to this period, when only fifteen years of age, he was smitten with the charms of a country beauty, "the cynosure of neighbouring eyes," and on his return to Scotland his passion had suffered no abatement. His first poems were addressed to his mistress, and though he actually penned a hundred songs and sonnets in her praise the lassie was not to be moved. She gave her hand to another; and as Alexander poetically tells us, "the lady, so unrelenting to him, matched her morning to one in the evening of his age." In his next attachment he was more fortunate, and after a brief courtship married the daughter and heiress of Sir William Erskine. In 1604 his first volume of poems was published in London under the title of "Aurora, containing the first Fancies of the Author's Youth." Shortly after James VI. ascended the throne of England Alexander followed him, and, it appears, soon obtained the place of gentleman of the privy chamber to Prince Henry, to whom he had addressed a poem or paraenesis. In 1607 he published some dramatic poems, entitled Monarchick Tragedies, dedicated to the king, with which was republished his first tragedy, founded on the history of Darius. "Let greatnesse of her glassie scepters vaunt, In 1613 Alexander was appointed gentle man-usher to Prince Charles. In 1614 h received the honour of knighthood from James who used to call him his "philosophic poet, and was made master of requests. The sam year he published a sacred poem entitle "Doomsday, or the Great Day of Judgment, his largest and perhaps most meritorious pr duction, which has been several times repul lished. It is divided into twelve parts, hours, as the author calls them, each ho containing upwards of one hundred stanza Prefixed were some complimentary verses his friend Drummond of Hawthornden, whi thus conclude: Thy phoenix muse still wing'd with wonder flyes Praise of our brookes, staine to old Pindus springs And who thee follow would, scarce with their eye Can reach the sphere where thou most sweetly sin Though string'd with starres, heavens, Orpheus' ha enrolle, More worthy thine to blaze about the Pole." Drummond on another occasion descril Alexander as that most excellent spirit a rarest gem of our north," and Drayton coup them in highly eulogistic verse: "So Scotland sent us hither for our own That man whose name I ever would have know I want extremely. Yet in speaking thus 1 Archibald Constable and his Literary Correspond Not sceptres, no, but reeds, soon bruised, soon broken; | Edinburgh, 1873, three vols.-Ed. And not his numbers; which were brave and high, as Lord Stirling. Three years previous to his death the earl collected his poems, which were published in 1637 in one folio volume, entitled Recreations with the Muses. He also published at Oxford King James VI.'s version of the Psalms, which had been revised by him. Besides the works mentioned, he is believed to have written a supplement to complete the third part of Sir Philip Sydney's "Arcadia.” A new edition of Stirling's works was undertaken in 1720 by A. Johnston, but never completed. The editor in his preface states that he had submitted the whole of them to Mr. Addison for his opinion of them, and that that very competent judge was pleased to say he had read them over with the greatest satisfaction, and found reason to be convinced that the beauties of our ancient English poets were And my dear Drummond, to whom much I owe, For his much love, and proud was I to know His poesy. For which two worthy men I Menstrie still shall love, and Hawthornden." In 1621 King James made a grant to Sir William of Nova Scotia, with a view to his colonizing it. This scheme had also the sanction of Charles I., who appointed him lieutenant of the new colony, and founded the order of the Baronets of Nova Scotia, the money to be derived from whom, for the title and land in the province, was to be expended in the formation of the settlement; but the project miscarried, and Sir William sold the colony to the French "for a matter of five or six thousand pounds English money." In 1626 he was made secretary of state for Scotland; in 1630 he was created Viscount Canada; and in 1633, at the coronation of King Charles at Holyrood, Earl of Stirling. He died in 1640, and the title has been dormant since the death of the fifth earl in 1739. Among the various claimants for the extinct title was Major-general Alexander of the United States Poetical Works of Sir William Alexander, army, who served with distinction during the Earl of Stirling, &c., now first collected and Revolutionary War, and was generally known edited, with Memoir and Notes." too slightly passed over by the modern writers, "who, out of a peculiar singularity, had rather take pains to find fault with, than endeavour to excel them." A complete edition of his works was published in 1870 at Glasgow in three handsome octavo volumes, entitled "The |