Burns, James Drummond

(1823-1864)

   Born in Edinburgh and educated at the charitable Heriot's Hospital, he was a brilliant student. His early religious impressions derive from the New Greyfriars church (famed in the book Greyfriars' Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson, first published in 1912). He was ordained in 1841 and took the Free Church at Dunblane, Perthshire. Ill health took him to a church in Madeira from 1847 until 1853, after which he settled in Hampstead, London. His ministry was successful and influential. He was one of the examining board of the English Presbyterian Theological College. His published books of poems: The Vision of Prophecy, and Other Poems, 1854. The Heavenly Jerusalem, or Glimpses within the Gates, 1856. The Evening Hymns, 1857. Though not a great poet, Burns' "Hushed Was the Evening Hymn" has remained a firm children's favorite. It tells the story of young Samuel in the temple with Eli in I Samuel 3. Some of his poems: "Boaz and the Reapers," "Discovery of the North-West Passage," "My First Birthday in a Foreign Land," "The Bay of Barcelona," "The Dial and Fountain," "The Grave of Doddridge at Lisbon," "The Picture of a Martyrdom."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Cyber Hymnal (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm).