The Seasons, and the Castle of Indolence ... With a biographical and critical introduction by A. Cunningham, etc

Front matter

THE SEASONS, AND THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. THE SEASONS, AND THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE: BY JAMES THOMSON. WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL INTRODUCTION, BY ALLAN CUNNINGHAM ; AND FORTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS, DRAWN AND ENGRAVED BY SAMUEL WILLIAMS. LONDON: TILT AND BOGUE, FLEET STREET. M D C C C X L I. WIUGHT AND CO. PRINTERS, FLEET STREET. WITH A CRITICAL NOTICE OF THE SEASONS, AND CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. Four of the chief rural poets of Scotland were natives of scenes which biographers imagine had some influence on the character of their compositions : the author of "The Gentle Shepherd " was born on one of the pastoral tributaries of the Clyde : — Burns, whose fine series of songs reflect, as brightly as the streams reflect the sun, the feelings and sympathies of our peasantry, came from the banks of the romantic Doon: — the Muse that saw for us the pure and beautiful vision of " Kilmeny," lived on the poetic Ettrick : — and the great author of " The Seasons" — a poem which gives a tongue to inanimate nature, while it elevates and chastens the human heart — was born on the classic Tweed.

The birthplace of James Thomson was Ednam Manse, by Edenwater, close to the town of Kelso, and nigh Tweed side, in the county of Roxburgh. His father, connected with the district, it is said, was licensed to preach, June 17, 1691, and ordained, it is not known through what influence, minister of Ednam, July 12, 1692. The Session Book of the parish supplies us with the following decisive entries: — "1693, October 6, Mr. Thomas Thomson, minister of Ednam, and Beatrix Trotter, in the parish of b X Kelso, gave up their names for proclamation, in order to marriage." In due time, in the same record, follow the baptisms of their first son, Andrew ; their second son, Alexander ; their eldest daughter, Isabel ; and, lastly, their third son, James, who was born on the 11th, and baptized on the 15th of September, 1700.

He was the fourth-born of nine children, of whom five were daughters. Of the poet's father, we are told that he was rather unaffectedly pious and diligent in his duties than worthy of remembrance for his learning and eloquence ; while of his mother, who was co-heiress of Widehope, a small portion of land near Greenlaw, in Berwickshire, Lord Buchan, who spoke from report, says, " she was a woman of uncommon sensibility, and endowed with sublime affec tions :" and Patrick Murdoch, who spoke from knowledge, calls her " a person of uncommon natural endowments, possessed of every social and domestic virtue, with an imagination, for vivacity and warmth, scarce inferior to her son's, which raised her devotional exercises to a pitch bordering on enthusiasm." It is pleasant to see the character of the parent appear in the child — Thomson had much of his mother in him.