Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/112

140 His grace married on the 31st January, 1748, the daughter and heiress of Peter Auriol, merchant, London, by whom he had seven children. Abigail, who died young and is commemorated by Mason in a well known epitaph; Robert Auriol 9th earl of Kinnoul, Thomas Peter, lieutenant-colonel of the West York militia, John, commander, R.N. the reverend Edward, and the reverend George William, who was prebendary in York cathedral, and held many other livings, and who was unfortunately drowned in 1807, while on a voyage from Devonshire to the Clyde. Mr George William Drummond was the author of a volume of poems entitled, Verses Social and Domestic, Edinburgh, 1802; editor of his father's sermons, and author of that prelate's life prefixed to them.  , of Hawthornden, a celebrated poet and historian, was born on the 13th of December, 1585. His father, Sir John Drummond of Hawthornden, was gentleman usher to king James VI., a place which he had only enjoyed a few months before he died. His mother, Susanna Fowler, was daughter to Sir William Fowler, secretary to the queen, a lady much esteemed for her exemplary and virtuous life.

The family of our poet was among the most ancient and noble in Scotland. The first of the name who settled in this country, came from Hungary as admiral of the fleet which conveyed over Margaret, queen to Malcolm Canmore, at the time when sirnames were first known in Scotland. Walter de Drummond, a descendent of the original founder, was secretary, or as it was termed clerk-register, to the great Bruce, and was employed in various political negotiations with England, by that prince. Annabella Drummond, queen of king Robert II. and mother of James I. was a daughter of the house of Stobhall, from which were descended the earls of Perth. The Drummonds of Carnock at this early time became a branch of the house of Stobhall, and from this branch William Drummond of Hawthornden was immediately descended.

The poet was well aware, and indeed seems to have been not a little proud of his illustrious descent. In the dedication of his history to John earl of Perth, whom he styles his "very good lord and chief," he takes occasion to expatiate at some length on the fame and honour of their common ancestors, and sums up his eulogium with the following words:—"But the greatest honour of all is (and no subject can have any greater), that the high and mighty prince Charles, king of Great Britain, and the most part of the crowned heads in Europe, are descended of your honourable and ancient family." His consanguinity, remote as that was to James I., who was himself a kindred genius and a poet, was the circumstance, however, which Drummond dwelt most proudly upon; and to the feelings which this gave rise to, we are to attribute his history. He indeed intimates himself, that such was the case, in a manner at once noble and delicate: "If we believe some schoolmen," says he, "that the souls of the departed have some dark knowledge of the actions done upon earth, which concern their good or evil; what solace then will this bring to James I., that after two hundred years, he hath one of his mother's name and race, that hath renewed his fame and actions in the world?"

Of the early period of our author's life few particulars are known. The rudiments of his education he received at the high school of Edinburgh, where we are told, he displayed early signs of that worth and genius, for which at a maturer age he became conspicuous. From thence, in due time, he entered the university of the same city, where, after the usual course of study, he took his degree of master of arts. He was then well versed in the metaphysical learning of the period; but this was not his favourite study, nor was he ever after in his life addicted to it. His first passion, on leaving college, lay in the study of the classical authors of antiquity, and to this early attachment, we have