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fortune, Leyden's reception among females of rank
and elegance was favourable in a distinguished degree.
Whether it is that the tact of the fair sex is finer than
ours, or that they more readily pardon peculiarity in
favour of originality, or that an uncommon address
and manner is in itself a recommendation to their
favour, or that they are not so readily offended as
the male sex by a display of superior learning—in
short, whatever was the cause—it is certain that
Leyden was a favourite among those whose favour
all are ambitious to attain. Among the ladies of
distinction who honoured him with their regard, it
is sufficient to notice the Duchess of Gordon and
Lady Charlotte Campbell, who were then leaders
of the fashionable society of Edinburgh.—It is time
to return to trace the brief events of his life.
In 1800 Leyden was ordained a preacher of the
gospel, and entered upon the functions then con-
ferred upon him by preaching in several of the
churches in Edinburgh and the neighbourhood. His
style of pulpit oratory was marked with the same
merits and faults which distinguish his poetry. His
style was more striking than eloquent, and his voice
and gesture more violent than elegant; but his dis-
courses were marked with strong traits of original
genius; and although he pleaded an internal feeling
of disappointment at being unequal to attain his own
ideas of excellence as a preacher, it was impossible to
listen to him without being convinced of his uncom-
mon extent of learning, knowledge of ethics, and
sincere zeal for the interest of religion.
The autumn of the same year was employed in a
tour to the Highlands and Hebrides, in which Ley-
den accompanied two young foreigners who had
studied at Edinburgh the preceding winter. In this
tour he visited all the remarkable places of that in-
teresting part of his native country, and diverging
from the common and more commodious route,
visited what are called the rough bounds of the High-
lands, and investigated the decaying traditions of
Celtic manners and story which are yet preserved in
the wild districts of Moidart and Knoidart. The
journal which he made on this occasion was a curi-
ous monument of his zeal and industry in these re-
searches, and contained much valuable information
on the subject of Highland manners and tradition,
which is now probably lost to the public. It is re-
markable that after long and painful research in
quest of original passages of the poems of Ossian, he
adopted an opinion more favourable to their authen-
ticity than has lately prevailed in the literary world.
But the confessed infidelity of Macpherson must
always excite the strongest suspicion on this subject.
Leyden composed, with his usual facility, several
detached poems upon Highland traditions, all of
which have probably perished, excepting a ballad,
founded upon the romantic legend respecting Mac-
Phail of Colonsay and the mermaid of Correvrecken,
inscribed to Lady Charlotte Campbell, and published
in the third volume of the Border Minstrelsy, which
appeared at the distance of about a twelvemonth
after the first two volumes. The opening of this
ballad exhibits a power of harmonious numbers
which has seldom been excelled in English poetry.
Nor were these legendary effusions the only fruit of
his journey; for in his passage through Aberdeen
Leyden so far gained the friendship of the venerable
Professor Beattie, that he obtained his permission to
make a transcript from the only existing copy of the
interesting poem entitled "Albania." This work,
which is a, panegyric on Scotland in nervous blank
verse, written by an anonymous author some time
in the beginning of the eighteenth century, Leyden
afterwards republished, along with Wilson's '' Clyde,"
under the title of Scottish Descriptive Poems, 12mo,
1802.
In 1801, when Mr. Lewis published his Tales of
Wonder, Leyden was a contributor to that collection,
and furnished the ballad called the "Elf-king;" and
in the following year he employed himself earnestly
in the congenial task of procuring materials for the
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, the first publication
of Walter Scott. In this labour he was equally in-
terested by friendship for the editor, and by his own
patriotic zeal for the honour of the Scottish borders,
and both may be judged of from the following cir-
cumstance. An interesting fragment had been ob-
tained of an ancient historical ballad, but the re-
mainder, to the great disturbance of the editor and
his coadjutor, was not to be recovered. Two days
afterwards, while Mr. Scott was sitting with some
company after dinner, a sound was heard at a dis-
tance like that of the whistling of a tempest through
the torn rigging of the vessel which scuds before it.
The sounds increased as they approached more near,
and Leyden (to the great astonishment of such of the
guests as did not know him) burst into the room,
chanting the desiderated ballad with the most enthu-
siastic gesture, and all the energy of the saw-tones
of his voice already commemorated. It turned out
that he had walked between forty and fifty miles and
back again, for the sole purpose of visiting an old
person who possessed this precious remnant of an-
tiquity. His antiquarian researches and poetic talents
were also liberally exerted for the support of this un-
dertaking. To the former the reader owes in a great
measure the "Dissertation on Fairy Superstition,"
which, although arranged and digested by Mr. Scott,
abounds with instances of such curious reading as
Leyden alone had read, and was originally compiled
by him; and to the latter the spirited ballads en-
titled "Lord Soulis" and the "Cout of Keeldar."
Leyden's next publication was "The Complaynt of
Scotland, a new edition of an ancient and singularly
rare tract bearing that title, written by an uncertain
author about the year 1548." This curious work
was published by Mr. Constable in the year 1801.
As the tract was itself of a diffuse and comprehensive-
nature, touching upon many unconnected topics,
both of public policy and private life, as well as
treating of the learning, the poetry, the music, and
the arts of that early period, it gave Leyden an op-
portunity of pouring forth such a profusion of anti-
quarian knowledge in the preliminary dissertation,
notes, and glossary, as one would have thought could
hardly have been accumulated during so short a life,
dedicated too to so many and varied studies. The
intimate acquaintance which he has displayed with
Scottish antiquities of every kind, from manuscript
histories and rare chronicles, down to the tradition
of the peasant and the rhymes even of the nursery,
evince an extent of research, power of arrangement,
and facility of recollection, which has never been
equalled in this department.
Meanwhile other pursuits were not abandoned in
the study of Scottish antiquities. The Edinburgh
Magazine was united in 1802 with the old Scots
Magazine, and was now put under the management
of Leyden by Mr. Constable the publisher. To this
publication during the period of his management,
which was about five or six months, he contributed
several occasional pieces of prose and poetry, in all
of which he was successful, excepting in those where
humour was required, which, notwithstanding his
unvaried hilarity of temper, Leyden did not possess.
He was also, during this year, engaged with his
Scenes of Infancy, a poem which was afterwards pub-
lished on the eve of his leaving Britain; and in which