Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/52

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Drummond
45
Drummond

work he had undertaken. He devoted all his energies to public affairs, and he died in the public service. Mrs. Drummond says in 1838: ‘I often say that I might as well have no husband, for day after day often passes without more than a few words passing between us.’ And ‘from last Monday until this morning, a week all but a day, he never even saw his baby, although in the same house with her. … He is very thin and very much older in appearance than when you last saw him.’ Drummond was then suffering from his labours in connection with the railway commission. In 1839 his health became worse, and for a short time he sought rest and change of scene. But in February 1840 he returned little better to Ireland, and resumed his duties. After working nine hours at his office on Saturday, 11 April, he was taken ill on Sunday, and died on Wednesday, 15 April. He was not allowed to see his children, and left a bible for each as ‘the best legacy’ he could give. He left a message, telling his mother that he remembered her instructions on his deathbed. He requested to be buried in Ireland, the land of his adoption, and in whose service he had lost his life. He was buried at Mount Jerome cemetery, Harold's Cross, Dublin, on 21 April 1840. Though the funeral was intended to be private, it partook of a public character. It was attended by almost every person of importance in the state or city. The whole populace joined in the procession. In 1843 a statue, executed by the Irish artist Hogan, was erected by public subscription to Drummond's memory, and placed in the City Hall, Dublin. Drummond left three daughters: Mary Elizabeth, who in 1863 married Mr. Joseph Kay, Q.C., author of ‘The Social Condition and Education of the People of Europe,’ and ‘Free Trade in Land’ [see Kay, Joseph]; Emily, and Fanny, who died in 1871. Mrs. Drummond still (1888) survives.

[R. Barry O'Brien's Life and Letters of Drummond, 1889; McLennan's Memoir of Thomas Drummond, 1867; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography; Hansard's Annual Register; public press from 1835 to 1840; Madden's Ireland and its Rulers.]

R. B. O'B.

DRUMMOND, WILLIAM (1585–1649) of Hawthornden, poet, was eldest son of John Drummond, first laird of Hawthornden, in the parish of Lasswade, seven miles from Edinburgh. The father, born in 1553, became gentleman-usher to James VI in 1590; was knighted in 1603 when he came to England with James; died in 1610, and was buried at Holyrood. The family was a branch of the Drummonds of Stobhall, whose chief representative became Earl of Perth on 4 March 1604–5. Through Annabella Drummond [q. v.], daughter of Sir John of Stobhall, who married Robert III of Scotland in 1357 and was the mother of James I, the poet claimed relationship with the royal family. His mother, Susannah, was sister of William Fowler, a well-known burgess of Edinburgh, who was private secretary to Queen Anne of Denmark, and accompanied her to England in 1603. William was born at Hawthornden 13 Dec. 1585. He had three younger brothers, James, Alexander, and John, and three sisters, Ann, Jane, and Rebecca. After spending his boyhood at the Edinburgh High School, he proceeded to Edinburgh University; benefited by the tuition of John Ray, the humanity professor, and graduated M.A. in 1605. In 1606 he paid a first visit to London while on his way to the continent to study law. His father was residing with the court at Greenwich as gentleman-usher to the king (Reg. Privy Council of Scotland, ed. Masson, vii. 490). William bought and read the recent books of such writers as Sidney, Lyly, and Shakespeare, and in June, July, and August 1606 described in letters to a Scottish friend the court festivities which celebrated the visit of Queen Anne's father, King Christian of Denmark. In 1607 and 1608 Drummond attended law lectures at Bourges and Paris; studied Du Bartas and Rabelais; read Tasso and Sannazzaro in French translations, and sent home accounts of the pictures in the Paris galleries.

In 1609 he was again in Scotland, and his sister Ann married John Scot, afterwards of Scotstarvet, Fifeshire, his lifelong friend. A year later he revisited London, and on his return home his father's death (1610) made him laird of Hawthornden. Abandoning all notion of practising law, he retired to his estate and read assiduously in almost all languages. His library numbered 552 volumes, including fifty of the latest productions of contemporary English poets. It was only after much reading that Drummond attempted poetic composition, and, following the example of Sir William Alexander [q. v.], he wrote in English rather than in Scotch. A poetic lament on the death of Prince Henry, ‘Tears on the Death of Meliades,’ was his earliest publication (1613), and came from the press of Andro Hart of Edinburgh. At the same time he edited a collection of elegies by Chapman, Rowley, Wither, and others, under the title of ‘Mausoleum, or the Choisest Flowres of the Epitaphs,’ Edinburgh (Andro Hart), 1613.

In 1614 Drummond visited Menstrie, and introduced himself to William Alexander [q. v.], who received him kindly, and was thenceforward one of his regular correspon-