46 on Drummond of Hawthornden.. May 16+ 
king’s own hand-writing*. As Drummond had:al- 
ways been a laborious student, and had applied him-_ 
self equally to history and politics, as to clafsical 
learning, his services were frequently rendered by 
occasional publications, in which, it must be confef- 
sed, he was not so happy as in the flights of his muse, 
which, as Pinkerton justly observes, amply establifh 
his fame. Phillip’s (adds he) who compiled his Thea. 
trum Poetarum under Milton’s own eye, and may be 
supposed to exprefs that great writer’s opinion, upon 
many occasions, observes with regret, ‘‘ the strange 
neglect into which Drummond’s poems had even 
then fallen. But this was no wonder, when Mil- 
ton’s smaller poems met with the same fate. Now 
it may be safely said, that if any poems pofsefs a very 
high degree of that exquisite Doric delicacy, which 
we so much admire in Comus, and Lycidas, those of 
Drummond’s do. Milton seems to have imitated 
him, and certainly he had read and admired his 
works ! Drummond was the first who introduced in- 
to Englith that fine Italian vein; and if we had had 
no Drummond, perhaps we fhould never have seen 
the delicacies of Comus, Lycidas, I] Penseroso, L’ Al-’ 
legro. Milton has happened to have justice done him 
by posterity, while Drummond has been negtected.”* 
From the familiar letters of Drummond, printed in 
his works, and from those unpublifhed, it appears, 
that his most intimate and frequent correspondents, 
and friends, besides those already mentioned, were 
* This affecting paper was deposited jn-the library of the society of 
aa rjans at Edinburgh. . 
Lord Buchan his the picture Oli Stone painted, of the king at Caris- 
brook cast tle. 
