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CONTENTS. Page EMOIR . . . . . . . . . . is Appeilclis to Memoir . . . csxxi s Dedications to the early Editions of . Winter, Spring, and Summer . . clxiii Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Summer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Auturnn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 ivinter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 MEMOIR OF THOMSON. BB SIR HARRIS NICOLA. 8. AISES THOJISON was the eldest son of the Reverend Thomas Thomson, of Ednam, in the shire of Roxbargh, at which place the Poet was born on the 11th of September, 1700. His father was well descended and his mother was Bentris, the dn ghtaenrd coheiress of Mr. Trotter, of Fogo, a genteel family in the neighbourhood of Greenlaw in Berwickshire. hlr. Thomson was licensed to preach on the 17th of June, 1691, was ordained minister of Ednam on the 12th of July, 1692, married in 1699, and was removed to Sudden, or Southdean, near Jedbnrgh, about 1701, the year after the Poets birth. 1693, Oct. 6. The said day Mr. Thomas Thomson, niiriister of Ednam, arid Beatrix Trotter, in the parish of Kelso, gave up their names for proclamation in order to nial-riage. Some notices of Mr. Thomas Thomson occur in Kirkwoods plea before the Kirk. 4to. London, 1698. Mrs. Thomsons sister married first Mr. Hume, and secondly tho Rev. Mr. Kicolson, minister of Preston and Buncle. b I At an early period his dawning talents attracted the attention of hlr. Robert Riccaltoun, minister of the neighbouring parish of Hobkirk, a man of somc literary genius, and a judicious friend of his father, who consented that he should superintend his sons education. He was placed at school in Jedburgh, and the care this gentleman bestowed upon him was well rewarded bythe success thatnttknded his exertions. Nor was Mr. Riccaltoun his only friend. Sir IVilliam Bennet, of Chesters, near Jedburgh, who was distingqjshed for his t, honoured him with his kindness, and invited him to spend his summer vacations at his seat. Under the auspices of these generous friends, and of Sir Gilbert. Elliot of Minto, Thomson wrote various pieces but on the first of every January he destroyed most of his labours in the preceding year, and celebrated the annual con- The achool was then kept in the aisle of Jedburgh Church. Dr. Somerville, formerly Minister of Jedburgh, says in a letter dated the 24th of April, 1795, Of Thomsons having attended the school here, there is no doubt, for when I came here twenty years ago several survived who had been his companions, and some of the. m his class-fellows. When I made application for a new school-house to the heritorq in 1778, on account of the ruinous state of the old one, I was told by the person who was then the Provost, that he thought that the aisle of the Church might again be employed for that purpose that greater men than any of the present generation had been educated there, for it was the place of the school when Mr. Thomson and himself attended it. The time of Thomsons attending school here was, I conjecture, from the year 1712 domwards.-MS. in possession of m. Pie hering the Publisher...