THE TEVIOT— DK. JOHN LEYDEN. 147 



again for the sole purpose of visiting an old person who 

 possessed this precious remnant of antiquity." Mus- 

 cular energy and animal spirits were indeed as cha- 

 racteristic of Leyden as his strong mental faculties 

 and indomitable resolution. He delighted in teasing 

 poor peevish Eitson — the learned antiquarian — when 

 he visited Scott at Lasswade ; and for the purpose of 

 horrifying the nervous vegetarian, manfully bolted a 

 pound of raw beef-steak one day at dinner, declaring 

 that it was the only proper food of man ! Such a man 

 could make his way in the world anywhere ; and when 

 he was sent out to Madras, chiefly through Scott's friendly 

 influence, nobody seems to have been surprised that in 

 a year or two he became first a professor in the Bengal 

 College at Calcutta, and afterwards one of the principal 

 Judges of the Presidency. He died in 1811 of fever, 

 while engaged in a scientific expedition to Java, just 

 as he was becoming the first Orientalist of his day, and 

 was laying the foundation for future honours. Many 

 warm and worthy friendships died " with Leyden in a 

 distant land," and Sir Walter mourned him in one ol 

 those beautiful Epistles that open the cantos in Mar- 

 mion^ and again in The Lord of the Isles.* 



* In a note to The Antiquari/, the following example of the 

 native spirit sticking to Leyden in India is given : — 



" The account of the ready patriotism displayed by the 

 country on this occasion [the false alarm of invasion in 1804] 

 warmed the hearts of Scottishmen in every corner of the world. 

 It reached the ears of the well-known Dr. Leyden, whose enthu- 

 siastic love of Scotland, and of his own district of Teviotdale, 

 formed a distinguished part of his character. The account, 

 which was read to him on a sick-bed, stated (very truly) that 

 the different corps, on arriving at their alarm-posts, announced 



