DRUMMOND, NVILLI.XM ( 155-1t3-19). A Scottish poet. descended from a tery ancient and noble family, and born at the family seat, Ilawthornden. near Edinlinrgli. Ile was edu cated at the high school of Edinburgh. and at the university of that city. where he took his degree of in 160.1. During 16117-OS lie was on the Continent. attending law lectures in Bourges and Paris. Ile returned in and in the following year went to Ilawthornden, which• aeconling to the learned Ituddinian, "was a sweet and solitary seat, and very fit and proper for the nin-es," and there spent his life in his favorite literary pursuits. Drummond enjoyed the friendship of !natty literary men, and the n cord of a famous visit of Ilen .fonson to llaw thornden, in the winter of 1111S-19, liar been pre served in Driminiond's Volee of (fen Conversation with IVilliam Drummond. 11 is written not in the Scotch, but in the standard English dialect, comprises an elegy on the death of Prince Henry. son of James 1.,
entitled Tears on the Death of Mc/lades (1613); Poems (1616), in which are sonic Of his choicest pieces; and Forth Feasting (1617), in honor of James l.'s visit to Scotland. Though 1/runiniond's verse is commonly laden with learn ing and the conceits of the time, he had a rare coin mand over dillieult metres, and many of his sonnets and madrigals are very beautiful. .t Cypress Grove (16:23). an essay on death. is a remarkable piece of prose, comparable to the Urn Burial of Sir Thomas Browne. He also wrote politic-al tracts, and a history of Scotland from 1424 to 1542. His Poems, edited, with memoir, by Ward, were published in two volumes (London, 1894). For his Life, consult Masson (London, 1873).