The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XI. The Period of the French Revolution.
§ 28. John Leyden
John Leyden, like Hogg, the son of a shepherd, was associated with him in supplying Scott with ballad versions for The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border; and he also contributed to it two imitation ballads, Lord Soulis and The Cout of Keeldar, an Ode to Scottish Music, and The Mermaid; and he wrote a few lyrics for The Scots Magazine, which he edited for some months in 1802. Before proceeding, in 1803, as a surgeon to India—where he afterwards held the chair of Hindustani in Bengal and distinguished himself by his linguistic and ethnological researches—he wrote, as a sort of farewell, a long reminiscent poem Scenes of Infancy, somewhat after the manner of Thomson, which, though tastefully written, can hardly be termed poetical. The Mermaid is his only poem which displays true poetic glamour.