rry." In 1860 he was made
Honorary President of the Associated Societies of the University of
Edinburgh, his competitor being Thackeray. This was the place held
afterward by Lord Lytton, Sir David Brewster, Carlyle, and Gladstone.
Aytoun wrote the 'The Life and Times of Richard the First' (London,
1840), and in 1863 a 'Nuptial Ode on the Marriage of the Prince
of Wales.'

Aytoun was a man of great charm and geniality in society; even to
Americans, though he detested America with the energy of fear--the fear
of all who see its prosperity sapping the foundations of their class
society. He died in 1865; and in 1867 his biography was published by Sir
Theodore Martin, his collaborator. Martin's definition of Aytoun's place
in literature is felicitous:--

* * * * *

"Fashions in poetry may alter, but so long as the themes with which they
deal have an interest for his countrymen, his 'Lays' will find, as they
do now, a wide circle of admirers. His powers as a humorist were perhaps
greater than as a poet. They have certainly been more widely
appreciated. His immediate contemporaries owe him much, for he has
contributed largely to that kindly mirth without which the strain and
struggle of modern life would be intolerable. Much that is excellent in
his humorous writings may very possibly cease to retain a place in
literature from the circumstance that he deals with characters and
peculiarities which are in some measure local, and phases of life and
feeling and literature which are more or less ephemeral. But much will
certainly continue to be read and enjoyed by the sons and grandsons of
those for whom it was originally written; and his name will be coupled
with those of Wilson, Lockhart, Sydney Smith, Peacock, Jerrold, Mahony,
and Hood, as that of a man gifted with humor as genuine and original as
theirs, however opinions may vary as to the order of their
relative merits."

'The Modern Endymion,' from which an extract is given, is a parody on
Disraeli's earlier manner.

THE BURIAL MARCH OF DUNDEE

From the 'Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers'

I

Sound the fife and cry the slogan;
Let the pibroch shake the air
With its wild, triumphant music,
Worthy of the freight we bear.
Let the ancient hills of Scotland
Hear once more the battle-song
Swell within their glens and valleys
As the clansmen march along!
Never from