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 died in 1799, that he should be educated for the bar, he was sent to study law at Manchester, and at the end of a year became the pupil of a barrister in London; but conceiving from the beginning a distaste for the profession, he never set himself seriously to prepare for it. As soon as he came of age, he retired to the coast of Sussex, resolved to limit his expenses to his comparatively small income, and to consult only his own inclinations in the occupation of his time. There he amused himself with desultory reading and active outdoor exercise, boating being his special delight. In 1811 he returned to London, and accepted a situation in a public office; but this he relinquished in 1813, to accompany William Daniell, A.R.A., in a voyage round Great Britain. An account of the voyage, with views drawn and engraved by Daniell, appeared in 8 vols. folio, 1814–25 [see ]; but the letterpress of only the first two volumes is by Ayton. Disagreeing with Daniell in regard to his plans for the future volumes, Ayton declined to proceed further with the book, and betook himself to play-writing. Two of his farces, acted at Covent Garden, were total failures; but he adapted from the French several pieces for the English Opera House with moderate success. During a voyage between Scarborough and London, Ayton was nearly shipwrecked, and received an injury to his ankle which confined him to bed for more than a year. In the spring of 1821 he was sufficiently recovered to go to the coast of Sussex, but his health continued uncertain and precarious. In July 1823 his illness assumed so serious a form, that he removed for medical advice to London, where he died shortly afterwards. During the last eighteen months of his life Ayton occupied himself in the composition of a number of essays, chiefly on pastimes and similar subjects, written in a genial and playful spirit, and displaying considerable sprightliness and humour. These, with a short memoir prefixed, were published in 1825.



AYTON, or AYTOUN, ROBERT (1570–1638), poet, was a descendant of the Norman house of De Vescy, lords of Sprouston in Northumberland. Gilbert de Vescy, a younger son of the family, settled in Scotland in the reign of King Robert Bruce, having received from him the lands of Aytoun in Berwickshire. Thereupon he changed his name to that of his estate.

In Berwickshire the Aytouns continued as landowners until James III (1460–1488), when a brother of the family of Home married the heiress, and carried the lands into that house. The uncle of the heiress, her father's younger brother, Andrew Aytoun, was captain of Stirling Castle and sheriff of Elgin and Forres during the reign of James IV (1488–1513). For ‘faithful services’ the king gave him several charters, confirming him in the lands of Nether Dunmure, Kilgour, and Glenduckie in western Fifeshire. By a new charter from the crown somewhat later these lands were constituted into a barony called Aytoun, the proprietor being designated ‘of that ilk.’

This Captain Aytoun of Stirling had three sons and seven daughters. John, eldest son, succeeded his father in the estate of Aytoun; Robert, second son, obtained the estate of Inchdairnie; and Andrew, third son, succeeded in 1567 Robert Aytoun, his first cousin, in the estate of Kinaldie, which had come into the family about 1539. Andrew Aytoun, who was a student of the university of St. Andrews in 1539, married Mary Lundie, and she bore him three sons and two daughters. John, the eldest, succeeded to the estate of Kinaldie in 1590; Andrew, second son, proceeded to Ireland; and the third son was Robert, who devoted himself to literature.

Sir Robert Aytoun was born at the castle of Kinaldie, in the parish of Cameron, near St. Andrews, in 1570. He proceeded to the university of St. Andrews (St. Leonard's College) in 1584, and took his degree of M.A. in 1588. He obtained his patrimony in 1590, and thereupon went on the usual round of continental travel. He also studied civil law at the university of Paris. According to Thomas Dempster (Historia Eccles. Gentis Scotorum), ‘he long cherished useful learning in France, and left there distinguished proof and reputation of his worth’ in certain verses in Latin, Greek, and French. An overlooked book by David Echlin [Echlinus], ‘Periurium Officiosum ad Vere Nobilem et Generosum optimeque de me meritum virum Robertum Aytonvm Equitem … 1626,’ more than bears out the laudation of Dempster. He is thus addressed:—

Aytoun returned from the continent in 1603, bringing over with him a Latin poem in hexameters, addressed to James I: ‘De Fœlici, et semper Augusto, Jacobi VI, Scotiæ Insularumque adiacentium Regis, Imperio nunc recens florentissimis Angliæ et Hiberniæ