Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/206

266 In a similar spirit he has left an epigram on the small burgh of Inverury, in the neighbourhood of Caskieben, in which he does not omit the circumstance, that the fuel of the inhabitants (vulgo, the peats) comes from the land in which he was born. A similar epigram to another neighbouring burgh, the royal burgh of Kintore, now holding the rank of a very small village, informs us that at the grammar school of that place he commenced the classical studies, which afterwards acquired for him so much eminence:

After leaving this humble seat of learning, he is said to have studied at Marischal college in Aberdeen; a circumstance extremely probable, but which seems to have no other direct foundation than the conjecture of Benson, from the vicinity of his paternal estate to that institution, and his having been afterwards elected rector of the university, an honour generally bestowed on illustrious alumni.

Johnston, intending to study medicine, a science which it would have been in vain at that period to have attempted in Scotland, proceeded to Rome, and afterwards to Padua, where he seems to have acquired some celebrity for the beauty of his earlier Latin poems, and took the degree of doctor in medicine. He afterwards travelled through Germany, Holland, and Denmark, and finally fixed his abode in France. If he remained for a considerable period at Padua, he must have early finished, his curriculum' of study at Aberdeen, as he is said by Sir Thomas Urquhart, to have been laureated a poet in Paris at the age of twenty-three.

He remained for twenty years in France, a period during which he was twice married, to ladies whose names are unknown, but who bore him thirteen children, to transmit his name to posterity. On his return to Britain about the year 1632, probably at the recommendation of Laud, who was his friend, and had commenced the career of court influence, Johnston was appointed physician to Charles I., a circumstance which must have preceded or immediately followed his arrival, as he styles himself in the first edition of his Parerga and Epigrammata, published at Aberdeen in 1632, "Medicus Regius." The Parerga consists, as its name may designate, of a variety of small pieces of poetry, which cannot be conveniently classed under a more distinct name. A few are satirical, but the lyrical (if they may be said to come correctly under that designation) form the most interesting portion. Johnston seldom indulges in the metaphoric brilliancy which characterized the native writers in the language which he chose to use; but he has a considerable portion of their elegance, while much of the poetry is founded on association and domestic feeling, of which he has some exquisitely beautiful traits, which would have been extremely pleasing had he used his vernacular tongue. He is said to have wished to imitate Virgil; but those who have elevated Buchanan to the title of "the Scottish Virgil," have designated Johnston the "Scottish Ovid;" a characteristic which may apply to the versification of his Psalms, but is far from giving a correct idea of the spirit of his original pieces. It may not be displeasing to the reader who is unacquainted with the works of this neglected author, to give an extract from one of the Parerga, addressed to his early friend and school companion Wedder-