Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/104

 , M.D. author of the well-known poem, entitled, "The Art of Preserving Health," was born, about 1709, in the parish of Castleton, Roxburghshire, where his father and brother were successively ministers. He might almost be styled a poet by right of birth-place, for the parish of Castleton is simply the region of Liddesdale, so renowned for its heroic lays, the records of deeds performed by the border rievers, among whom the family of the poet bore a distinguished rank. The rude and predatory character of this district had, however, passed away before the commencement of the eighteenth century; and young Armstrong, though his lullabies were no doubt those fine old ballads which have since been published by Sir Walter Scott, seems to have drawn from them but little of his inspiration. It was as yet the fashion to look upon legendary verses as only fit for nurses and children; and nothing was thought worthy of the term poetry, unless it were presented in trim artificial language, after the manner of some distinguished classic writer. It is therefore by no means surprising, that Armstrong, though born and cradled in a land full of beautiful traditionary poetry, looked upon it all, after he had become an educated man, as only Doric trash, and found his Tempe in the bowers of Twickenham instead of the lonely heaths of Liddesdale.

The only allusion to his native scene is to be found in the following passage of "The Art of Preserving Health;" a warm and elegant apostrophe, and no doubt testifying his affectionate recollection of

but still deficient in characteristic painting, and unpardonably so in its total silence as to the romantic history of the country, and its spirit-stirring ballads.

