Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/206

 twiching the miserabill Estait of this present Warld. Compylit be William Lauder at Perth. Primo Fabruarie 1568.' The 'Lamentation' is in alternately rhyming eight-syllable lines.  'Ane prettie Mirrour or Conference betuix the faithfull Protestant and the Dissemblit false Hypocrit. &hellip; Compylit be William Lauder, Minister of the Wourd of God,' in thirty-seven four-line stanzas alternately rhymed; printed by Lekpreuik. A man bearing a mirror is engraved on the title-page of this and the former work.  'Ane trew and breue Sentencius Discreption of ye nature of Scotland twiching the Interteinment of virtewus men that laketh Ryches. Compyled be William Lauder, Minister of God's Wourd,' three eight-line stanzas, concluding with 'Quod Lauder;' probably printed by Scot.  'Ane gude Exempill be the Butterflie instructing Men to hait all Harlottrie,' four eight-line stanzas concluding with 'Quod William Lauder, Minister;' probably printed by Scot. Unique copies of the last four works are in the library of Mr. Christie-Miller at Britwell. They were reprinted as Lauder's 'Minor Poems' by the Early English Text Society in 1870.

 LAUDER, WILLIAM (d. 1771), literary forger, is said to have been related to the well-known family of Fountainhall. He was educated at Edinburgh University, and graduated M.A. on 11 July 1695 (Cat. of Edinburgh Graduates, Bannatyne Club, p. 151). On taking his degree he engaged in teaching, but while watching a game of golf on Bruntsfield Links, near Edinburgh, he received an accidental blow on the leg, and improper treatment of the wound rendered amputation necessary. He was assistant to Adam Watt, professor of humanity at Edinburgh, for a few months before Watt's death in 1734, and he was an unsuccessful candidate for the chair that Watt's death vacated. His testimonials described him as 'a fit person to teach humanity in any school or college whatever.' Soon afterwards he applied, without result, for the keepership of the university library.

Lauder was a good classical scholar, and was a student of modern Latin verse. In 1732 he published 'A Poem of Hugo Grotius on the Holy Sacrament, translated into English [blank] Verse,' and dedicated it to the provost (John Osburn) and the corporation of Edinburgh. In 1738 he announced his intention of issuing by subscription a collection of sacred poems, and stated that Robert Stewart, professor of natural history at Edinburgh, John Ker, professor of humanity there, and Thomas Ruddiman had promised him their aid. The work was printed at the press of Thomas and Walter Ruddiman, and appeared in 1739, in two volumes, with the title 'Poetarum Scotorum Musæ Sacræ.' It was dedicated to Charles Erskine of Tinwald, Dumfriesshire. Lauder contributed an elaborate and well-written Latin preface and a Latin life of Arthur Johnston. There follow much of Johnston's Latin poetry, including his renderings of the Psalms and Song of Solomon; paraphrases of other parts of the Bible by Patrick Adamson, William Hog, Robert Boyd of Trochrig, David Hume of Godscroft, George Eglisham, and William Barclay; and some original Latin verse by Thomas Ruddiman, Professor John Ker, and other of the editor's friends and contemporaries. Lauder forwarded a copy, with an adulatory Latin inscription, to [q.v.] (Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vi. 297). Throughout Lauder vehemently insisted on Johnston's superiority to Buchanan as a latinist, and he sought to turn this literary preference to pecuniary profit. On 19 May 1740, he presented to the general assembly a petition, in which, after describing himself as 'teacher of humanity in Edinburgh,' he urged the desirability of introducing Johnston's paraphrase of the Psalms into all the grammar schools of Scotland. Professors Stewart and Ker and Thomas Ruddiman supported the petition; after due consideration it was granted on 13 Nov. 1740, and Johnston's work was recommended as 'a good intermediate sacred lesson-book in the schools between Castalio's "Latin Dialogues" and Buchanan's paraphrase.' The decision caused discontent among the admirers of Buchanan, and 'A Letter to a Gentleman in Edinburgh,' signed 'Philo-Buchananus,' and issued a day or two before the general assembly reported, tried to convict Johnston's Latin verse of habitual inaccuracy, and Lauder of ineptitude as a critic. The author was John Love, rector at one time of Edinburgh High School, and afterwards of Dalkeith school (Calumny Display'd, pt. iii. p. 1 n.). Lauder defended his poet with great energy and bitterness in 'Calumny Display'd, or Pseudo-Philo-Buchananus couch'd of a Cataract, being a modest and impartial Reply to an impudent and malicious Libel,' Edinburgh, 1741, 4to. His adversary retorted in 'A Second Letter,' and Lauder returned to the attack with unbecoming warmth in his 'Calumny Display'd,' parts ii. and iii., Edinburgh, 1741. He tried to enlist Pope's sympathy by sending him a