52 on Drummond of Hawthornden. May 16, 
Douglas of Strathbrock, a family which, with many 
other fair and opulent pofsefsions, had held Haw- 
thornden for more than two centuries. 
The caves of Hawthornden, cut by human art from 
the rock, are certainly of the most remote antiquity, 
resembling those in the vicinity of Thebes, and had 
probably served for the dwellings or fastenefses of the’ 
aboriginal natives of the country. This conjecture 
is supported by tradition, and, with the other singu- 
larities of the place, gives a sublimity to the scene. 
Captain Grose, in his antiquities of Scotland, has gi- 
ven a very well chosen view of the sequestered dale or 
den, and of the house overhanging the romantic rivu- 
let of Efk. 
The reverend Dr Abernethy Drummond, who 
matried the heirefs, as above mentioned, caused to be 
engraved, on a stone tablet placed over Ben Johnson’s 
seat, an inscription to the memory of his own ances- 
tor, Sir Laurence Abernethy of Hawthornden, and to 
his wife’s relation, the poet ; where, ifthe public or the 
future proprietors of the place fhould erect the busts 
of Drummond and Ben Johnson, they ought to be pla- 
ced close to gach other on the same therm. + oe 
Dr Abernethy’s inscription concludes with the fol- 
lowing lines : 
O ! sacred solitude, divine retreat, 
Choice ofthe prudent, envy of the great, | 
By these pure streams, or in thy waving fhade, 
I court fair Wisdom, that celestial maid ; 
There, from the ways of men laid safe afhore, 
AIsmile to hear the distant tempest roar; 
There, blest with health, with businefs unperplex’d, 
This lifel relifhy and secure the next, 
amaien 
