AUSTIN, JOHN (1790-1859).—­Jurist, served in the army in Sicily and Malta, but, selling his commission, studied law, and was called to the Bar 1818.  He did not long continue to practise, but devoted himself to the study of law as a science, and became Professor of Jurisprudence in London University 1826-32.  Thereafter he served on various Royal Commissions.  By his works he exercised a profound influence on the views of jurisprudence held in England.  These include The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832), and his Lectures on Jurisprudence.

AYTON, SIR ROBERT (1570-1638).—­Poet, s. of A. of Kinaldie in Fife.  After grad. at St. Andrews, he studied law at Paris, became ambassador to the Emperor, and held other court offices.  He appears to have been well-known to his literary contemporaries in England.  He wrote poems in Latin, Greek, and English, and was one of the first Scotsmen to write in the last.  His chief poem is Diophantus and Charidora; Inconstancy Upbraided is perhaps the best of his short poems.  He is credited with a little poem, Old Long Syne, which probably suggested Burns’s famous Auld Lang Syne.

AYTOUN, WILLIAM EDMONSTONE (1813-1865).—­Poet and humorist, s. of Roger A., a Writer to the Signet, was b. in Edinburgh and ed. there, and was brought up to the law, which, however, as he said, he “followed but could never overtake.”  He became a contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine in 1836, and continued his connection with it until his death.  In it appeared most of his humorous prose pieces, such as The Glenmutchkin Railway, How I Became a Yeoman, and How I Stood for the Dreepdaily Burghs, all full of vigorous fun.  In the same pages began to appear his chief poetical work, the Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, and a novel, partly autobiographical, Norman Sinclair.  Other works were The Bon Gaultier Ballads, jointly with Theodore Martin, and Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, under the nom-de-plume of T. Percy Jones, intended to satirise a group of poets and critics, including Gilfillan, Dobell, Bailey, and Alexander Smith.  In 1845 A. obtained the Chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in Edinburgh University, which he filled with great success, raising the attendance from 30 to 150, and in 1852 he was appointed sheriff of Orkney and Shetland.  He was married to a dau. of Professor Wilson (Christopher North).

BACON, FRANCIS, LORD VERULAM, AND VISCOUNT ST. ALBAN’S (1561-1626).—­Philosopher and statesman, was the youngest s. of Sir Nicholas B., Lord Keeper, by his second wife, a dau. of Sir Anthony Cooke, whose sister married William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the great minister of Queen Elizabeth.  He was b. at York House in the Strand on Jan. 22, 1561, and in his 13th year was sent with his elder brother Anthony to Trinity Coll., Cambridge.  Here he first met the Queen, who was impressed by