William Hamilton, of Gilbertfield, wrote several pieces of verse which were printed in Watson's Collection. He also entered into a poetical correspondence with Ramsay, and through this, his verses were printed along with Ramsay's works. Hamilton's verses are not of high poetical merit, though some of them present keen humorous characteristics. In 1722 his modernised edition of Blind Harry's Wallace appeared, which was long popular among the country people. He died in 1751 at an advanced age.

Robert Crawford was a contributor to Ramsay's Tea-table Miscellany, and was the author of two fine lyrics-"The Bush aboon Traquair," "Tweedside," and other songs. He was drowned when coming from France in 1733, in his thirty-eighth year. James Thomson was born at Ednam in Roxburghshire, in 1700, where his father was minister. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh; but the death of his father, in 1720, seems to have cut short his University career. He manifested a taste for poetry at an early age, and wrote in English. The earliest printed specimen of his poetry appeared in 1720, in the Edinburgh Miscellany issued by the Athenian Society. In 1725 Thomson proceeded to London to push his fortune, where he had a pretty hard struggle. His description of Winter was published in 1726, for which he received three guineas; and a second and a third edition appeared the same year. In 1728 his work, entitled The Four Seasons, was published by subscription. His tragedy of Sophonisba appeared in 1730, and had a brief success on the stage. The Castle of Indolence, on which he had worked long, was published in May, 1748. In the end of the following August he died.

Although a highly-gifted poet, he advanced slowly, by often repeated efforts, toward the realisation of his ideal of poetic style and finish of composition. This is seen in the different editions of his Seasons, on each succeeding one he made many improvements in thought and diction; while the superiority in style and taste of The Castle of Indolence, compared with his earlier efforts, is very manifest. In short, he was staidly working to his strength, when cut off in the prime of life. His genius was luxuriant, glowing, and enthusiastic, but required disciplining. His feelings were warm and wide, his sympathies universal, embracing all mankind. His love of nature was intense; and his heart and soul throbbed with humanity. The following few stanzas from The Castle of Indolence may be taken as a brief specimen of his powers and style :

"Behold! ye pilgrims of this earth, behold!
See all but man with unearned pleasure gay:
See her bright robes the butterfly unfold,
Broke from her wintry tomb in prime of May;
What youthful bride can equal her array?
Who can with her for easy pleasure vie?
From mead to mead with gentle wing to stray,
From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly,
Is all she has to do beneath the radiant sky.

Behold the merry minstrels of the morn,

The swarming songsters of the careless grove,
Ten thousand throats! that from the flowering thorn,
Hymn their good God, and carol sweet of love,
Such grateful kindly raptures then emove;
They neither plough, nor sow; ne, fit for flail,
E'er to the barn the nodding sheaves they drove ;
Yet theirs each harvest dancing in the gale,
Whatever crowns the hill, or smiles along the vale.
Outcast of nature, man! the wretched thrall
Of bitter dropping sweat, of sweltry pain,
Of cares that eat away the heart with gall,
And of the vices, an inhuman train,
That all proceed from savage thirst of gain :
For when hard-hearted Interest first began
To poison earth, Astræa left the plain;
Guile, violence, and murder, seized on man,
And, for soft milky streams, with blood the rivers ran!
Come, ye who still the cumbrous load of life,
Push hard up hill; but at the furthest steep

You trust to gain, and put an end to strife,

Down thunders back the stone with mighty sweep,
And hurls your labours to the valleys deep,

For ever vain; come, and, withouten fee,

I in oblivion will your sorrows steep,

Your cares, your toils, will steep you in a sea

Of full delight: O come, ye weary wights, to me.

Thomson wrote a number of short poems and songs, some of which were popular; but his fame mainly rests on the two poems-The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence. The appearance of these two poems marked an era in the history of English poetry. The chief characteristics of these poems consist in the genuine and charming realisation of the beauty of external nature; and it was in this that his genius and originality appeared. Although he was not the founder of a school, yet he wielded a marked influence over the poets of his time, and also on some eminent English poets of a later period.

David Mallet, whose original name was Malloch, was a native of Perthshire, and born about the end of the seventeenth century. He studied for some time under Professor Ker at King's College, Aberdeen; and subsequently, having obtained a situation as tutor in the family of the Duke of Montrose, in 1723 he went to London with the Duke's family. In 1724 his ballad, entitled William and Mary, appeared, which was long popular, and continued to be printed in school books till past the middle of the present century. Afterwards he engaged in a variety of literary ventures, none of which had much real merit. In 1728 his poem, The Excursion, was published, in which the imitation of Thomson's Seasons is simply shameless. He wrote several tragedies, and a Life of Bacon. He seems to have been a venal writer, and not a very honest man. He died at London in 1765.

John Armstrong, the son of a minister, was born in 1709 at Castleton in Roxburghshire. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, and graduated in 1732. Shortly after he went to London, and became a friend of Thomson and a writer of verses. In 1744 his didactic poem in blank verse, entitled The Art of Preserving Health, was published, which is his chief work. It is divided into four books, and the tone of the verse rises or sinks according to the character of the subject. The first book treats on air; the second on diet; the third on exercise; and the fourth on the passions. There are a few touching passages in the poem, but on the whole it is rather stiff. He wrote a considerable number of pieces of verse on various subjects. He died in 1779, and left £3000.

3

Robert Blair was a native of Edinburgh, the son of a Scottish minister, and, having studied for the Church, in 1731 he was appointed minister of the parish of Athelstaneford, in East Lothian. He was a cultured man, a botanist and florist, and of pleasing manners. He had a large family, and one of his sons, an eminent lawyer, rose to be Lord President of the Court of Session. He was the author of a poem entitled The Grave, which is written in blank verse, and appeared in 1743. Although of limited scope, it is a powerful poem. The following lines are from his description of the death of the strong man :—

"Strength, too, thou surly and less gentle boast
Of those that laugh loud at the village ring!

A fit of common sickness pulls thee down

3 Born in 1699; died in 1746.

With greater ease than e'er thou didst the stripling
That rashly dared thee to the unequal fight.
What groan was that I heard? deep groan, indeed,
With anguish heavy laden let me trace it:
From yonder bed it comes, where the strong man,
By stronger arm belaboured, gasps for breath
Like a hard-hunted beast. How his great heart
Beats thick, his roomy chest by far too scant

To give the lungs full play! What now avail

The strong-built sinewy limbs and well-spread shoulders ?
See, how he tugs for life, and lays about him,

Mad with his pain! Eager he catches hold

Of what comes next to hand, and grasps it hard,

Just like a drowning creature. Hideous sight!

4

William Hamilton, of Bangour, was descended from an old Ayrshire family, and attained some distinction as a poet. He was a contributor to Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany, and usually lived in Edinburgh. In 1745 he joined the standard of Prince Charles, but in 1749 he received a pardon; and in 1750, on the death of his brother, he succeeded to the estate of Bangour. A collection of his poems was published at Glasgow in 1760. His language and style is English, and rather ornate. He composed a serious poem on "Contemplation," and a national one on the "Thistle," in blank verse. He had a lively fancy, but lacked intellectual power, and his verse wants strength. The best of his efforts is his ballad called "The Braes of Yarrow."

Alexander Ross was born in 1699 at Kincardine O'Neil in Aberdeenshire, and was educated at Marischal College. After graduating in 1718 he acted as schoolmaster in the parish schools of Moyne and Lawrencekirk, and in 1732 he was appointed schoolmaster of Lochlee in Forfarshire. At Lochlee he spent the rest of his life. He was the author of Helenore, or, The Fortunate Shepherdess, published in 1768, and composed in Scotch. Dr. Beattie took a warm interest in Ross, and addressed a letter and a poetical epistle in praise of the poem to the Aberdeen Journal, and the work soon became popular. Helenore is a pastoral narrative poem, extending to upwards of 4000 lines, and it has much merit; it is as bold and true to nature as Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, though his poetic gift was inferior in some points to that of his predecessor. His poem is vigorous, interesting, and the chief characters well drawn. He was also the author of a number of songs, of which the most popular are The Rock and the Wee Pickle

Born in 1704; died in 1754.

Tow," ," "Woo'd an' Married an' a'," and "To the Begging we will Go." These have energy and much humour. Ross left a number of unpubblished writings in verse and prose. He died at Lochlee in 1784, at the advanced age of eighty-five.

John Skinner was born in 1721 at Birse, Aberdeenshire, where his father was parish schoolmaster. He became an Episcopal minister, and officiated at Linshart, Longside, in Aberdeenshire. He was a humble, very amiable, and cultured gentleman. After the suppression of the Rising of 1745, for his Church's political and his own poetical offences, he was arrested and imprisoned in 1753 for six months in Aberdeen. His son, John Skinner, was elected bishop of Aberdeen in 1782. After a long, a conscientious and industrious life, he died in his son's house at Aberdeen in 1807, at the age of eighty

six years.

Skinner was gifted with a vigorous mind. He had imaginative power, keen feelings, and a fine sense of the humorous; while a number of his poetical pieces and songs show characteristic merits. The most noted of his songs are "Tullochgorum," "John O' Badenyon," and "The Ewie wi' the Crooked Horn." He was also the author of Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, published in 1788, in two volumes, and a number of other religious and theological works.

Dr. Thomas Blacklock, the son of a bricklayer, was born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, in 1721. When an infant of six months he was entirely deprived of sight by small-pox. But his father amused

the solitary boy by reading to him, and he became familiar with the writings of some of the English poets, and particularly with the works of Thomson and Allan Ramsay. When he was nineteen years of age his father was accidentally killed. Shortly after Dr. Stevenson took him to Edinburgh, where he was enrolled as a student of divinity. A volume of his poems appeared in 1746, which was re-issued in 1754 and 1756. He was licensed to preach in 1759, and was appointed minister of Kirkcudbright. But the parishioners were opposed to church patronage, and to the exercise of it in favour of a blind man, and he relinquished the appointment on receiving a small annuity. He afterwards resided in Edinburgh, and took boarders into his house. Notwithstanding the want of his eyesight, he had acquired a considerable degree of learning, and was an exceedingly amiable man. He was a warm friend of Burns, who often refers to him. In August, 1789, he addressed a poetical epistle to Burns, of which a few lines may be quoted :