April 1834.
He then resumed his legal pursuits in his father's chambers, was admitted a
writer to the signet in 1835, and five years later was called to the
Scottish bar. But, by his own confession, though he "followed the law, he
never could overtake it." His first publication--a volume entitled _Poland,
Homer, and other Poems_, in which he gave expression to his eager interest
in the state of Poland--had appeared in 1832. While in Germany he made a
translation in blank verse of the first part of _Faust_; but, forestalled
by other translations, it was never published. In 1836 he made his earliest
contributions to _Blackwood's Magazine_, in translations from Uhland; and
from 1839 till his death he remained on the staff of _Blackwood_. About
1841 he became acquainted with Mr (afterwards Sir) Theodore Martin, and in
association with him wrote a series of light humorous papers on the tastes
and follies of the day, in which were interspersed the verses which
afterwards became popular as the _Ban Gaultier Ballads_ (1855). The work on
which his reputation as a poet chiefly rests is the _Lays of the Scottish
Cavaliers_ (1848; 29th ed. 1883). In 1845 he was appointed professor of
rhetoric and _belles lettres_ at Edinburgh University. His lectures were
very attractive, and the number of students increased correspondingly. His
services in support of the Tory party, especially during the Anti-Corn-Law
struggle, received official recognition in his appointment (1852) as
sheriff of Orkney and Zetland. In 1854 appeared _Firmilian, a Spasmodic
Tragedy_, in which he attacked and parodied the writings of Philip James
Bailey, Sydney Dobell and Alexander Smith; and two years later he published
his _Bothwell, a Poem_. Among his other literary works are a _Collection of
the Ballads of Scotland_ (1858), a translation of the _Poems and Ballads of
Goethe_, executed in co-operation with his friend Theodore Martin (1858), a
small volume on the _Life and Times of Richard I._ (1840), written for the
_Family Library_, and a novel entitled _Norman Sinclair_ (1861), many of
the details in which are taken from incidents in his own experience. In
1860 Aytoun was elected honorary president of the Associated Societies of
Edinburgh University. In 1859 he lost his first wife, a daughter of John
Wilson (Christopher North), to whom he was married in 1849, and this was a
great blow to him. His mother died in November 1861, and his own health
began to fail. In D