Background
Born at 21 Abercromby Place in Edinburgh, he was the only son of Joan Keith (d 1861) and Roger Aytoun (d 1843), a writer to the signet, and was related to Sir Robert Aytoun. To his mother, a woman of culture, he owed his early fondness for literature (including ballad poetry), his political sympathies, and his admiration for the House of Stuart. He then resumed his legal studies in his father"s chambers, was admitted a writer to the signet in 1835, and five years later was certified a Scottish lawyer
Education
University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh Academy.
Career
At the age of eleven years he was sent to the Edinburgh Academy, and from there to the University of Edinburgh. During 1833 he spent a few months in London studying law, but in September of that year he went to study German at Aschaffenburg, where he remained until April 1834. By his own confession, though he followed the law, he never could overtake lieutenant
His first publication, a volume entitled Poland, Homer, and other Poems, in which he expressed his eager interest in the state of Poland, had been published in 1832.
While in Germany he made a translation in blank verse of the first part of Faust. But, forestalled by other translations, it was never published.
In 1836 he made his earliest contributions to Blackwood"s Magazine, translations from Uhland, and from 1839 until his death he remained on the staff of Blackwood"son In it appeared most of his humorous prose stories, such as The Glenmutchkin Railway, How I Became a Yeoman, and How I Stood for the Dreepdaily Burghs.
In the same magazine his main poetical work was published, the Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, and a novel, partly autobiographical, Norman Sinclair.
His reputation as a poet is based mainly on Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers (1848). In 1845 he was appointed professor of rhetoric and belles lettres at the University of Edinburgh. His lectures attracted large numbers of students, raising the attendance from 30 to 150.
His services in support of the Tory party, especially during the Anti-Corn-Law struggle, received official recognition with his appointment (1852) as Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland, a role he served for 13 years.
Another work was Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, or The Student of Badajoz (1854) under the nom-de-plume of Technology Percy Jones, a mock-tragedy in which he parodied the poems of the Spasmodic poets. lieutenant was intended to satirise a group of poets and critics, including Gilfillan, Dobell, Bailey, and Alexander Smith and it played a decisive role in ending the vogue for such works.
He had no children by either wife. He is buried close to Professor Wilson in the south section of Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.