Hector, a distinguished Scottish poet, born on the 22d of October 1746, at Rosebank, on the Esk, and almost amongst the classic woods of Hawthornden, was descended from an old respectable family in the south of Argylshire. Pecuniary circumstances forced his family from this choice retreat, to occupy a farm on the banks of Loch Lomond, where part of the boyhood of Hector was spent.

His early education, with the exception of a short time spent at school in the neighbourhood, was solely conducted by his father at home, who, along with the common branches, carefully imbued his mind with piety and good morals; and, with parental fondness and pride, also encouraged his boyish passion for the muses. Preparatory to going to Bristol to the house of a wealthy mercantile relative, young Hector was, at the age of twelve, sent to Glasgow for two years, to acquire those branches immediately applicable to a commercial life. On his arrival at Bristol, he was occupied for a short time in the counting-house of his relative, and in completing his commercial education previously to his departure for the West Indies. After spending six years in Antigua and Granada, he returned to his native land with the acquisition of the French language, but with no more wealth than when he departed.

Both his mother and sister had died in his absence, and his father did not survive his return above a year and a half. The small inheritance to which he thus succeeded he sunk in an annuity, which, however, he unfortunately lost by bankruptcy.

In this emergency, through the interest of a friend in London, he was appointed to the office of assistant-secretary in the flag-ship of Admiral Geary. Having made two cruises, he resigned this situation, and soon afterwards undertook the same office in the flag-ship of Sir Richard Bickerton, appointed to the East India station. During this service he was present in the last naval engagement with the able French commander Suffrein.

Before leaving India he visited Surat, and the sculptured excavations of Elephanta. An account of these singular remains he afterwards published in the Archeologia in 1787. Neither enriched with the gold of India, nor secured in a competence by a permanent appointment, he returned to Scotland after an absence of five years.

He retired for two years to a humble residence in the neighbourhood of Stirling, where he produced the beautiful descriptive poem of The Links of Forth.

The exhausted state of his pecuniary resources, however, compelled him to revisit the West Indies, where he was appointed to an office in the custom-house at Kingston, Jamaica; but the debilitating effects of fever, and other circumstances connected with his duties, induced him to return to his native country. At the request of his friend Dr Currie, he drew up an impartial statement On the treatment of the Negroes, which was published at Liverpool in 1788.

Upon his passage home he composed the second canto of the sweetly wild poem of The Harp, founded on a tradition of the Hebrides, and communicated to him by Graham of Gartmore, with whom, on his return to Stirlingshire, he lived for nearly two years.

Being afflicted with a nervous disorder, which, by im- proper treatment, continued about six years, he fixed his residence for a time in a cottage near the field of Bannockburn. Here, while suffering greatly from his malady, he again composed Scotland's Skaith, the happiest effort of his genius.

In the hope of recovery from his long-protracted complaints, although by many deemed irremediable, he again sailed for Jamaica. This voyage happily contributed alike to restore his health and to afford him a future competence. By the death of one of the companions of his boyhood, the Grahams of Three-Mile-River, he now received a legacy, and the surviving brother settled on him an annuity for life. Under his friendly roof, previously to his return, he wrote The Scottish Muse, descriptive of the various vicissitudes of his own poetical life.

With the well-deserved emoluments of his poetical labours, and another bequest of an intimate medical friend in Jamaica, he returned to Scotland, and spent the evening of his days in the capital of his native land, in the enjoyment of publicly awarded honour, lettered ease, and comparative influence. Here he published The Pastoral or Lyric Muse of Scotland (1808), also two satirical poems, entitled Town Fashions (1810), and Bygone Times and Late Come Changes (1811). His last literary efforts were The Scottish Adventurers (1812), and an unpublished autobiography in three volumes, which has been the chief guide in this brief account. Such were the calm labours of the years spent in Edinburgh, till the 15th March 1818, when he died at an advanced age, leaving a name endeared to his countrymen, and embalmed in the song of his fatherland.

From his attachment to truth, he was free, undisguised, and even severe; quick in temper, yet serene and social; proudly honourable, yet warm and benevolent. True to nature and feeling, as a poet he excels in the simple and pathetic; and though his humour and satire be less successful, his manner is serious and his aim uniformly well directed.

A selected edition of his poetical works was published at Edinburgh (1812), in two vols. 12mo.