ARTHUR JOHNSTON.

BORN 1587-DIED 1641.

ARTHUR JOHNSTON, M.D., next after Bu- | afterwards elected rector of that university. chanan the best Latin poet of Scotland, was born in the year 1587 at Caskieben, the seat of his ancestors, near Inverury, in Aberdeenshire. He is supposed to have been a student at Marischal College, Aberdeen, as he was

With the purpose of studying medicine he resided for some time at Padua, Italy, where, in 1610, the degree of M. D. was conferred upon him. He subsequently travelled in Germany, Denmark, and Holland, and then set

tled in France, where he acquired considerable | been usual in Scotland to maintain the older eminence as a Latin poet. He is said by Sir poet against all the world. I am, nevertheless, Thomas Urquhart to have been laureated a inclined to think that Johnston's Psalms, all poet in Paris at the early age of twenty-three. of which are in elegiac metre, do not fall far He remained for twenty years in France, a short of those of Buchanan, either in elegance period during which he was twice married to of style or in correctness of Latinity." Three ladies whose names are unknown, but who editions of Johnston's Psalms were printed at bore him thirteen children to transmit his Benson's expense, with an elegant life of the name to posterity. On his return to Scotland | translator prefixed. One of these, in quarto, in 1632 he was appointed physician to the with a fine portrait of Johnston by Vertue, king, it is supposed through the recommenda- after Jamesone, and copiously illustrated with tion of Archbishop Laud. The same year he notes, was published in 1741. Johnston, published at Aberdeen his Parerga and Epi- sometimes called the Scottish Ovid, died in grammata; and in 1633 he printed at London 1641 at Oxford, whither he had gone to visit a specimen of his new Latin version of the a married daughter who resided there. Dr. Psalms of David, which he dedicated to Laud. William Johnston, professor of mathematics A complete translation of the whole, under in Marischal College, Aberdeen, a brother of the title of Psalmorum Davidis Paraphrasum | the poet, was a man of considerable celebrity. Poetica, was published at Aberdeen and London in 1637, with translations of the Te Deum, Creed, Decalogue, &c., subjoined. Besides these he translated the Song of Solomon into Latin elegiac verse, published in 1633. He also wrote Musa Aulica, or commendatory verses on some of the most distinguished literary men of his time; and edited Delitia Poetarum Scotorum, in which he introduced many of his own pieces. Dr. Johnson was pleased to say of this work that "it would do honour to any country."

Wodrow says "He was ane learned and experienced physician. He wrote on the mathematics. His skill in the Latin was truly Ciceronian."

Robert Chambers, in writing of our author, says, "This poet, whose chief characteristic was the elegance with which he expressed his own simple feelings as a poet, in the language appropriate to the customs and feelings of a past nation, has left in his Epigrammata an address to his native spot; and although Caskieben is a piece of very ordinary Scottish scenery, Critics have been divided as to the compara- it is surprising how much he has made of it by tive merits of Buchanan's and Johnston's trans- the mere force of his own early associations. lations of the Psalms. About the middle of With the minuteness of an enthusiast, he does the eighteenth century it was the subject of a not omit the circumstance that the hill of controversy in which Lauder, and an English Benachie, a conical elevation about eight miles gentleman named Benson, stood forward as distant, casts its shadow over Caskieben at the zealous advocates of Johnston; while Mr. the periods of the equinox." We give a transLove and Ruddiman ably and successfully de-lation of this epigram, which unites a specimen fended Buchanan. Hallam remarks, "Though of Johnston's happiest original effort with cirthe national honour may seem equally secure cumstances personally connected with his hisby the superiority of either, it has, I believe, tory.

CASKIEBEN.

Here, traveller, a vale behold
As fair as Tempe, famed of old,
Beneath the northern sky!
Here Urie, with her silver waves,
Her banks, in verdure smiling, laves,
And winding wimples by.

Here, towering high, Benachie spreads
Around on all his evening shades,
When twilight gray comes on:
With sparkling gems the river glows;
As precious stones the mountain shows
As in the East are known.

FRANCIS SEMPILL.

BORN 1605 DIED 1680. (?)

and broad glee of the latter being equalled by the admirable naïveté and grace of the former. Speaking of one of these songs the critic whom we have quoted remarks: The freedom with which some of the characters are drawn has | gone far to exclude the song (The Blythesome Bridal') from company which calls itself polished. I quarrel not with matters of tastebut taste is a whimsical thing. Ladies of all ranks will gaze by the dozen and hour on the unattired grace and proportion of the old statues, and feel them o'er like the wondering miller in Ramsay's exquisite tale, lest glamour had beguiled their een; but the colour will come to their cheeks, and the fans to their faces, at some over-warm words in our old min

cessor of Sir James, had the merit of first using a form of stanza in the well-known "Elegy on Habbie Simpson, the Piper of Kilbarchan," which Allan Ramsay and Robert Burns adopted and rendered popular. The "Sempill Ballates," a series of historical political and satirical Scottish poems attributed to him, have been recently republished in Edinburgh. Francis, the son of Robert, and the last of the rhyming lairds, was born at Beltrees early in the seventeenth century, probably about the year 1605. He was a warm adherent of the Stuarts, and wrote several panegyrics on James II. while Duke of York and Albany, and on the birth of his children. He was also the author of a piece of considerable merit, entitled "The Banish-strels; whatever is classical is pure." ment of Poverty;" but it is as the reputed author "Maggie Lauder" was a favourite song in of several admirable songs that he is chiefly the American camp during revolutionary days, indebted for the honourable place accorded to and was often sung to the commander-in-chief him among the song-writers of Scotland. Of by stout old Putnam. An old chronicler says: his personal history nothing is known, not even the date of his death, which is believed to have occurred about the year 1680.

Allan Cunningham says: "Tradition of late has provided authors for some of our favourite songs: and since authentic history declines to | chronicle those who furnish matter for present and future mirth, I can see no harm in accept ing the aid of traditionary remembrance. On such authority, aided by the less doubtful testimony of family papers, Francis Semple of Beltrees has obtained the reputation of writing three popular songs, The Blythesome Bridal,' 'Maggie Lauder,' and 'She rose and loot me in.' I have heard the tradition, but I have not seen, the family manuscripts; and though I am not obliged to believe what I cannot with certainty contradict, yet I have no right to discredit what honest men have seriously asserted; the story has been for years before the world, and if any be sceptical they are also silent. Semple is of itself a worthy name. I am glad tradition has taken its part; besides, we owe much poetic pleasure to the ancestors of Francis, who wrote, like their descendant, with great ease and freedom: and why should not the mantle descend?" There are few more famous Scottish songs than "Fy, let us a' to the Bridal" and "Maggie Lauder," the humour

This afternoon the provincial congress of New York gave an elegant entertainment to General Washington and his suite, the general and staff officers, and the commanding officer of the different regiments in or near the city. Many patriotic toasts were offered and drank with the greatest pleasure and decency. After the toasts little Phil of the Guard was brought in to sing H's new campaign song, and was joined by all the under officers, who seemed much animated by the accompanying of Clute's drum-sticks and Aaron's fife. Our good General Putnam got sick and went to his quarters before dinner was over, and we missed him a marvel, as there is not a chap in the camp who can lead him in the Maggie Lauder song."

The hero of this beautiful song was Robert Simpsonne, alias "Rob the Ranter," who was also celebrated by Robert Sempill as

Habbie Simpson, the Piper of Kilbarchan." A grandson of the poet Francis deserves to be incidentally mentioned as a remarkable instance of longevity. He died in 1789 at the age of 103. He was the first in the nomination of justices of the peace for Scotland in 1708, being the year after the union, and was at the date of his decease undoubtedly the oldest judicial functionary of that or any other rank in the British Empire.