William Edmondstonne Aytoun, a Scottish poet, born in Fifeshire in 1813, died in Edinburgh, Aug. 4, 1865. He was educated in the schools of Edinburgh, where he gained distinction in English and Latin composition. A prize poem, "Judith" (1831), received the applause of Prof. Wilson, whose daughter he afterward married; and encouraged by him he published his first volume, entitled "Poland and other Poems," which attracted but little attention. Mr. Aytoun was called to the bar in 1840, and became well known as a wit and as an advocate in criminal cases. In 1845 he succeeded Mr. Moir as professor of rhetoric and belles-letters in the university of Edinburgh, and the lectures which he delivered there were celebrated for their pithy treatment of topics and their brilliant style. He abandoned the liberal political views toward which he tended in his youth, and after the death of Prof. Wilson was the most prominent among the contributors to "Blackwood's Magazine." In this periodical first appeared his celebrated national ballads, "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and other Poems " (London and Edinburgh, 1849; 10th ed., 1857). Prof. Aytoun lectured with great success in London in 1853 upon poetry and dramatic literature, and in 1854 published "Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, by T. Percy Jones," designed to ridicule the raptures of some of the young poets of the day.

He also took part in the "Book of Ballads'" edited under the pseudonyme of "Bon Gaul-tier." His last poem was "Bothwell" (2d ed., 1856). He was one of the most effective of British political writers, and in reward for his services to the conservative party he was in 1852 appointed by Lord Derby sheriff and vice admiral of Orkney. Theodore Martin, one of his colaborers, has published a memoir of his life (1868).