William Aytoun



William Edmondstoune Aytoun FRSE (21 June 1813 – 4 August 1865) was a Scottish lawyer and poet.

Born in Edinburgh, he was the only son of Joan Keith (d. 1861) and Roger Aytoun (d. 1843), a writer to the signet, and was related to Sir Robert Aytoun. To his mother, a woman of culture, he owed his early fondness for literature (including ballad poetry), his political sympathies, and his admiration for the House of Stuart. At the age of eleven years he was sent to the Edinburgh Academy, and from there to the University of Edinburgh.

During 1833 he spent a few months in London studying law, but in September of that year he went to study German at Aschaffenburg, where he remained until April 1834. He then resumed his legal studies in his father's chambers, was admitted a writer to the signet during 1835, and five years later was certified a Scottish lawyer. 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 expressed his eager interest in the state of Poland, had been published during 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. During 1836 he made his earliest contributions to Blackwood's Magazine, translations from Uhland, and from 1839 until his death he remained on the staff of Blackwood's. In it appeared most of his humorous prose stories, such as The Glenmutchkin Railway, How I Became a Yeoman, and How I Stood for the Dreepdaily Burghs. In the same magazine his main poetical work was published, the Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, and a novel, partly autobiographical, Norman Sinclair. About 1841 he became acquainted with Theodore Martin, and in association with him wrote a series of humorous articles on the fashions and follies of the time, in which were interspersed the verses which afterwards became popular as the Ben Gaultier Ballads (1855). Another work was Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, under the nom-de-plume of T. Percy Jones, intended to satirise a group of poets and critics, including Gilfillan, Dobell, Bailey, and Alexander Smith.

His reputation as a poet is based mainly on Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers (1848). During 1845 he was appointed professor of rhetoric and belles lettres at the University of Edinburgh. His lectures attracted large numbers of students, raising the attendance from 30 to 150. His services in support of the Tory party, especially during the Anti-Corn-Law struggle, received official recognition with his appointment (1852) as sheriff of Orkney and Zetland.

He was married to a daughter of Professor Wilson (Christopher North).