HUME, ALEXANDER (c. 1557-1609), Scottish poet, sec ond son of Patrick Hume of Polwarth, Berwickshire, was born probably at Reidbrais, a family house. In Ane Epistle to Moister Gilbert Montcreif (Moncrieff) he relates the course of his disillusionment. He says he spent four years in France before beginning to study law in the courts at Edinburgh (1. 136). After three years' experience there he abandoned law in disgust and sought a post at court (ib. 1. 241) . Still dissatisfied, he took orders, and became in 1597 minister of Logie, near Stirling, where he lived until his death. His best-known work is his Hymns, or Sacred Songs The editions of Hume's verse are: (a) by Robert Waldegrave (1599) ; (b) a reprint of (a) by the Bannatyne Club (1832) ; and (c) by the Scottish Text Society (ed. A. Lawson) (1902). The last includes Hume's prose tracts.