opposition of his Scottish subjects. It is entitled
_Irene: or a Remonstrance for Concord, Amity, and Love amongst His
Majesty's Subjects_ (1638), and embodies Drummond's political creed of
submission to authority as the only logical refuge from democracy, which
he hated. In 1639 Drummond had to sign the Covenant in self-protection,
but was uneasy under the burden, as several political squibs by him
testify. In 1643 he published [Greek: Skiamachia]: _or a Defence of a
Petition tendered to the Lords of the Council of Scotland by certain
Noblemen and Gentlemen_, a political pamphlet in support of those
royalists in Scotland who wished to espouse the king's cause against the
English parliament. Its burden is an invective on the intolerance of the
then dominant Presbyterian clergy.

His later works may be described briefly as royalist pamphlets, written
with more or less caution, as the times required. Drummond took the part
of Montrose; and a letter from the Royalist leader in 1646 acknowledged
his services. He also wrote a pamphlet, "A Vindication of the
Hamiltons," supporting the claims of the duke of Hamilton to lead the
Scottish army which was to release Charles I. It is said that Drummond's
health received a severe shock when news was brought of the king's
execution. He died on the 4th of December 1649. He was buried in his
parish church of Lasswade.

Drummond's most important works are the _Cypresse Grove_ and the poems.
The _Cypresse Grove_ exhibits great wealth of illustration, and an
extraordinary command of musical English. It is an essay on the folly of
the fear of death. "This globe of the earth," says he, "which seemeth
huge to us, in respect of the universe, and compared with that wide
pavilion of heaven, is less than little, of no sensible quantity, and
but as a point." This is one of Drummond's favourite moods; and he uses
constantly in his poems such phrases as "the All," "this great All."
Even in such of his poems as may be called more distinctively Christian,
this philosophic conception is at work.

A noteworthy feature in Drummond's poetry, as in that of his courtier
contemporaries Ayton (q.v.), Lord Stirling and others, is that it
manifests no characteristic Scottish element, but owes its birth and
inspiration rather to the English and Italian masters. Drummond was
essentially a follower of Spenser, but, amid all his sensuousness, and
even in those lines most conspicuously beautiful, there is a dash