THOMAS of Erceldoune, sometimes called Learmont, and sometimes the Rhymer, has long been recognized in the venerable character of a prophet and poet; but the history of his life and writings is involved in that degree of obscurity which may well be supposed to attend so remote an era of our literary annals. His very name is not ascertained beyond all doubt or controversy. According to Macpherson, the accurate editor of Winton, he received his surname of Learmont from Hector Boyce: but it seems unnecessary to suppose that the inventive faculties of this historian were so unprofitably exercised; and if credit is due to an excellent genealogist, his family name is sufficiently established by its occurrence in authentic documents. In one charter, says Nisbet, he is called Thomas Rymor, but in others of an earlier date, Thomas Lear-mount of Ercildoun. Certain however it is that no writer who preceded Boyce has yet been found to describe him by the surname of Learmont: by Robert of Brunne, Barbour, Winton, Bower, and Mair, he is named Erceldoune, while Henry the blind poet designates him Thomas the Rhymer. In a charter granted to the Trinity House of Soltra, the poet’s son describes himself as Thomas of Ercildoun, the son and heir of Thomas Rymour of Ercildoun; but whether this addition is to be considered as an ordinary surname, or as an epithet commonly applied in allusion to the father’s poetical character, cannot be positively determined. It must at least be recollected that Rymer is a surname in both parts of the island, and that it has been traced to the poet’s own age, and to the particular district in which he resided. Thomas the Rhymer is the name by which he continues to be best known among the common people of Scotland. Erceldoune, from which he derived his other appellation, is a village situate in the county of Berwick, at a small distance from Melrose; and the western extremity of this village still exhibits the ruins of a tower which was once honoured by his residence. His estate was afterwards acquired by the earl of March, who at the opposite end of the village possessed another place of strength, called the Earl’s Tower; and hence the ancient name of Erceldoune is supposed to have been gradually corrupted into Earlstoun.

The period of his birth it seems impossible to ascertain; but it is evident that he must have reached the height of his reputation about the year 1286, the date of his famous prophecy respecting the death of Alexander the Third; and in the year 1299, his son and heir conveyed the estate of Erceldoune to the convent of Soltra. It is therefore obvious that his father must have died during the interval. Patrick Gordon refers his death to the year 1307, but this cannot be considered as any competent authority. An individual who enjoyed the reputation of a prophet may naturally be supposed to have attained a venerable age. Whether he himself aspired to the character of a prophet, it must now be fruitless to enquire; but it is at least certain, [7:21:245]that such a character was long attached to his name. Barbour, who wrote about the year 1370, makes a distinct allusion to “Thomas prophecy of Hersildoune.” Bower, the continuator of the Scotichronico, who flourished about the year 1430, has furnished us with a circumstantial detail respecting Thomas’s prediction of the king’s premature death. Winton and Henry have likewise represented him as endowed with the spirit of divination; and they are equally dubious as to the origin of the power which they acknowledge him to have possessed. Mair and Boyce have inserted in their respective histories, the tale so circumstantially related by Bower; but, with his usual good sense, the former subjoins, “To this Thomas our countrymen have ascribed many predictions, and the common people of Britain yield no slight degree of credit to stories of this nature; which I for the most part am accustomed to treat with ridicule.” Lesley commemorates Michael Scott and Thomas Learmont as personages of an extraordinary character; and he also hints at the famous prediction of the king’s death. But the period of the union of the crowns seems to have been the crisis of his reputation as a prophet; for, as we learn from Robert Birrel, “at this time all the haill cornons of Scotland that had red or understanding, wer daylie speik-ing and exponeing of Thomas Rhymer his prophesie, and of uther prophesies quhilk wer prophesied in auld tymes.” Of the collection which includes the prophecies ascribed to Thomas, the earliest edition that has hitherto been traced was printed by Robert Waldegrave in the year 1603. It was reprinted by Andrew Hart in 1615: the subsequent editions are very numerous; and the collection still continues to be printed for the worshipful company of flying stationers.

The claims of Thomas of Erceldoune to the character of a prophet, do not seem to require any further investigation; but his claims to the character of a poet may perhaps be considered as more legitimate. That he was admired for his poetical talents, is supposed to be established by the testimony of a writer who approached very near his own age: Robert of Brunne, who flourished about the year 1303, is believed to commemorate the same Thomas of Erceldoune as the author of an incomparable romance on the story of Sir Tristrem. A romance of this description, and doubtless of a very early date, was discovered in the Auchinleck MS. belonging to the Advocates Library; and of this very curious relique of British literature, an elaborate and valuable edition, including all the necessary illustrations, was published by Sir Walter Scott in the year 1804. The distinguished editor entertained no doubt of its being the genuine production of Thomas of Erceldoune; but the supposition, we must confess, appears liable to many doubts and difficulties. This metrical romance, to whatever author it may be attributed, is deservedly regarded as a precious relique of early British, we do not venture to say Scotish, poetry. It is highly curious as a specimen of language, and not less curious as a specimen of composition. The verses are short, and the stanzas somewhat artificial in their structure; and amid the quaint simplicity of the author’s style, we often distinguish a forcible brevity of expression. But his narrative, which has always a certain air of originality, is sometimes so abrupt as to seem obscure, and even enigmatical.^[1. Sir Tristrem; a Metrical Romance of the thirteenth century; by Thomas of Erceldoune, called the Rhymer. Edited from the Auchinleck MS. by Walter Scott, Esq. the third edition. Edinb. 1811, 8vo. Tristan: Recueil de ce qui reste des Poëmes relatifs à ses Aventures: composés en François, en Anglo-Normand, et en Grec, dans les XII. et XIII. siècles. Publié par Francisque Michel. Londres, 1835, 2 tom. 16to. Warton’s History of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 184. Price’s edit. Guest’s History of English Rhythms, vol. ii. p. 173. Lond. 1838, 2 vols. 8vo. Madden’s Notes on Syr Gawayne l p. 304. Lond. 1839, 4to. Foreign Review, vol. iv. p. 141. ] (x.)