AND THE VALE OF THE ESK. '37
Charles I., and his despondency over the state of the times, the evidence is
sufficient ; but that Charles's death in any way occasioned Dkmmond's no
one is bound to believe. There was an interval of ten months between the
two events ; and Drummond had at any rate .reached the limit of life that
might have been anticipated. He had passed, by seven years, the age attained
by his father; and he had outlived all his brothers and sisters, except his
brother James, the next to him in age, who is heard of as surviving him for a
year or two.'
. Drummond's grave is still to be seen. It is in the churchyard of Lasswade,
the parish in which Hawthornden is situated.
LASSWADE VILLAGE.
' The Church and Churchyard of Lasswade are on a height overlooking the
village, and about two miles and a half from Hawthornden. The present
church was built about a hundred years ago ; but, in a portion of the well-kept
churchyard, railed in separately from the rest, as more select and important,
there is the fragmentaj outline of the smaller old church, with some of the
sepulchral monuments that belonged to it. Drummond's own aisle, abutting
from one part of the ruined wall, is still perfect, a small arched space of stonework,
with a roofing of strong stone slabs; and a grating of iron for door-way.
Within that small arched space Drummond's ashes certainly lie, though there
is no inscription to mark the precise spot as distinct from the graves of some
of his latest descendants who are also buried there, and to one of whom there
is a commemorative tablet. The small arched aisle itself is his monument,
and it is a'sufficient one. There could hardly be a more peaceful rustic
burying-ground than that in which it stands, the church and the manse close
to it on the height, with only steep descending lanes from them to Lasswade
village and to the road leading from Lasswade to Edinburgh.'
The Village of Lasswade lies in a leafy hollow, through which runs the Esk.
In its churchyard, besides the poet Drummond and other notable Scotchmen of
his century; lies Henry Dbdas, first Viscount Melville, ' the colleague and
friend of Pitt, and from 1775 to 1805 the virtual king of Scotland.' His seat,
Melville Castle, lies farther down the Esk, between Lasswade and Dalkeith.
It was in the summer of 1798 that Scott and his wife, when they had been
a few months mamed, hired a pretty little cottage at Lasswade. ' It is a small
house,' says Lockhart, 'but with one room of good dimensions, which ME.
Scott's taste set off at very humble cost-a paddock or two, and a garden
(commanding a most' beautiful view), in which Scott delighted to train his
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