to King Robert III. the beautiful
Annabella Drummond, who was destined to become the ancestress of the
royal Stuarts of Scotland and England. In his own day the family,
whose head was the Earl of Perth, was powerful in Scottish affairs,
and the history of the clan Drummond would be largely a history of the
events which led to the Protectorate. Throughout the storm and stress
that preceded the civil war Drummond was a loyalist, though at one
time he appeared to be identified with the Covenanters. His literary
influence, which was considerable, was always thrown on the side of
the King, while the term "Drummondism" was a popular synonym for the
conservative policy. Throughout the struggle, however, Drummond seems
to have been forced into activity by circumstances rather than by
choice. He had the instincts of a recluse and a scholar. He delighted
in the society of literary men, and he was much engrossed in
philosophical speculations.

In spite of the difficulties of distance, he managed to keep abreast
of the thought of literary London, the London of Drayton and Webster,
of Beaumont, Fletcher, Massinger, and Ford. His chief satisfaction was
to know that his own work was not unacceptable to this brilliant
group, and one of the great pleasures of his life was a visit from Ben
Jonson, who, making a walking tour to Scotland, found at Hawthornden
that congenial hospitality in which his soul delighted. Of this famous
visit, as of other important events, Drummond kept a record, in which
he set down his guest's behavior, opinions, and confidential sayings.
Warmly as he admired Jonson's genius, he found his personality
oppressive, and intrusted his criticisms to his diary. When this was
published, more than a century later, the gentle Scot was accused of
bad taste, breach of confidence, and disloyalty to friendship. But his
defense lies in the fact that the book was meant for no eyes but his
own, and that the intimacy and candor of its revelations were intended
to preserve his recollections of a memorable experience.

If his environment was not entirely favorable to literary excellences,
it is yet very likely that Drummond developed the full measure of his
gift. He expressed the spirit of the more imaginative generation which
succeeded a hard and fettered predecessor, and it is for this that
literature owes him its peculiar debt.

His career began in his twenty-ninth year with the publication of an
elegy on the death of Henry,