Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Poems of Alexander Montgomerie

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APPENDIX A.
been fairly well established, although the evidence hitherto adduced
is, it must be admitted, rather less precise than one might wish.
At the time Dr Irving wrote his first account of Montgomerie,
published in ‘Lives of the Scotish Poets’ in 1802, any evidence
there had been to connect the poet with Hessilheid had appar¬
ently dropped entirely out of sight, and the notion is accordingly
dismissed by Irving as mere conjecture. As far back as 1710,
however, Sir Robert Sibbald, in his ‘Account of the Writers
who treat of the Description of Scotland ’ (p. 22), had drawn
attention to a passage in Timothy Font’s ‘Topographical Account of
the District of Cuninghame’ (at that time in manuscript), written
about the year 1604, in which reference is made to Hessil¬
heid Castle as being famous as the birthplace “ of that renomet
poet, Alexander Montgomery.” Pont, whose accuracy has been well
vouched for in other particulars, was perfectly familiar with the
district, and writing at a time when Montgomerie was probably still
alive, he is not likely here to have made a mistake. Some time
after the publication of ‘ Lives of the Scotish Poets,’ Font’s account
of Hessilheid was rediscovered by Chalmers, the well-known literary
antiquarian ; and on the strength of this contemporary evidence Dr
Irving, to whom the information had been passed on by David
Laing, ventures the remark in his second account of the poet, prefixed
to the collected edition of Montgomerie’s poems, published in 1821,
that it is “ more than probable that the poet was a younger brother
of Montgomerie of Hazelhead.”1
A further step towards establishing Montgomerie’s connection with
the family at Hessilheid was taken a few years later. In 1827 a
contributor to the notes in Thomas Lyle’s ‘Ancient Ballads and
Songs’ (p. 102) drew attention to the fact that Sir William Mure
of Rowallan, in a poem addressed to Charles L, then Prince of
Wales, had claimed descent from the family of the poet Mont¬
gomerie. The lines are well known now, but it may be permissible
to quote them here.
Matchless Montgomerie in his native tongue,
In former times to thy great Sire2 hath sung,
And often ravish’d his harmonious ear
With strains fit only for a prince to hear.
1 It is not quite clear which laird of Hessilheid Irving is here referring to.
Pont mentions that the owner of the estate at the time he was writing was Robert
Montgomerie. This was the sixth laird, and, as it now turns out, a nephew of
the poet. It may be worth mentioning that the Robert Montgomerie to whom
Pont refers succeeded to the estate in 1602, which shows that it was after that
date that the ‘Topographical Account of the District of Cuninghame’ was
written. In the Maitland Club edition the date of Font’s Manuscript is given
as “about 1600.”
2 James VI. of Scotland.