' Ayscue 299 Ayton Afterwards, having received large rein- admiral of the white in the division of tli© foi'cements, whicli raised his fleet to fleet some that remained Avith Monck : and it wa» iifty sail all told, he Avent round to Plymouth, as admiral of the Avhite that he took part and oft" that port, on 16 Aug., met the Dutch in the four days' engagement off the Nortli under De lluyter, whose force, on a compa- Foreland {State Papers, Domestic, Charles II, rison of the many differing and opi)osing esti- vol. clvii. No. o7, Clarke to AVillinm.son, mates, may be considered to have been equal 30 May, 1666). On the third day of this to that with Ayscue. After a close and con- gi'eat battle, Avhilst endeavouring to join fused action, Avhich lasted from two or three Prince Rupeil's division, Avhich had just o'clock in the afternoon till nightfall, the fleets come on the scene, the Royal Prince struck separated without any decided advantage on on the Galloper—a dangerous shoal on the either side. During the next day they lay in Essex coast—Avas surrounded by the Dutch sight of each other, neitlier of them wishing and captured. They wei'e unable, however, to begin or to appear to shun a renewal of the to get the ship oft", and eventually set bee on Hght ; but towards evening the Dutch pursued fire ; but they carried Sir George Ayscue a tlieir way to the westward, and the English, prisoner to Holland, and are said, by all our too sliattered to follow them, Avent into Ply- contemporary writers, to have shoAvn a most moutli. Both claimed and have continued igiioble exultation OAer their illustrious cap- to claim the A-ictory, Avhich, so far as the tive. That they paraded him through their immediate contest was concerned, belonged toAvns, exhibiting him to the populace, seems to neither, though undoubtedly the adAan- to be Avell established, even if we are unwil- tage rested Avith D(i Ruyter, since he had ling to believe that they first painted him protected his conA'oy and ])ursued his voyage. and fastened a tail on him {Calendar, 10 July And this Avould seem to haAe been the opinion 1666). He Avas kept a prisoner till after the of the parliament ; for Avith implied, if not peace, in October 1 667. He aiTived in London expressed censure, they superseded Ayscue in m November, and on the 12th AAas presented his command, assigning him, hoAvever, a pen- to the king, by AA'hom he Avas graciously re- sion of 300/. a year. Eitlier by inheritance, ceived. It may be doubted whether he cA^er ))y commerce, or by j)rize-money. Sir George serAcd again, though he is said on doubtful Avould seem by this time to haA^e amassed a authority to have hoisted his flag in 1668 on I'omfortable fortune. Whitelocke relates how, board the Triumph, and again in 1671 on on IS Aug. I606, tlie ambassador of SAveden board the St. Andrew. In the third Dutch AA-as elaborately entertained at Sir George war, beginning in 1672, he held no com- Ayscue's house in Surrey (Ham-IIaA\- in the mand ; and it AA'ould therefore appear probable ' parish of Chei-tsey). The house,' he Avrites, that he died about that time ; but no record ' stands enAironed Avith ponds, moats, and of his death has been preserved. His portrait AA'ater, like a ship at sea : a fancy the fitter by Lely is in the Painted Hall at GreenAvich. for the master's humour, avIio is himself so Sir George Ayscue always wrote his name ^reat a seaman. There, he said, he had cast thus ; biit contemporary Avriters, Avith the iinchor and intended to spend the rest of his carelessness of their age, misspelt it, among life in a private retirement.' Within tAA-o many other Avays, Ayscough and Askew. years, however, he Avas persuaded by Crom- [Campbell's Lives of the Admirals ; Charnock's well to go to SAA^eden and take the com- Biog. Nav. i. 89 ; Calendars of State Papers, mand of the Swedish fleet ; and though no 1649-52, 1660-66 ; Pepys's Diary ; Whiteloeke's opportunity for active service occurred, he Memorials ; Brandt's Vie de I)e Euyter. A stayed in SAveden, presumably as adviser on number of contemporary pamphlets, mostly naval affairs, until the Restoration, when he bearing such titles as ' A Bloudy Fight,' or ' An- rt'tumed to England, and Avas appointed one other Bloudy Fight at Sea ' (Brit. Mus. Catalogue, of the commissioners of the naAy. On the s. n. ' Ayscue, George '), are mere crude, hastj', and outbreak of the second Dutch Avar, in 1604, exaggerated reports, AA'ithout any authority.] lie was appointed rear-admiral of the blue, J. K. L. and served in that rank in the action of •"! June 1665, AAath liis flag in the Henry. AYTON, RICHARD (1786-1823), dra- | On the Duke of York's quitting the fleet he matist and miscellaneous Avriter, Avas born in , Avas made vice-admiral of the red, under ' London in 1786. His father, a son of Wil- Lord SandAvich. in Lombard Street, re- The folloAving spring he I liam Ayton, banker ' Avas admiral of the blue, in the Royal Prince ; moA'ed some time aftei"AA-ards to Macclesfield, }>ut on 30 May, Avhen Prince Rupert had Cheshire, and at the gi'ammar school of that taken part of the fleet aAvay to the west- town young Ayton obtained a good ele- Avard, and with him Sir Thomas Allin, the mentary knoAvledge of Latin and Greek. In j admiral of the white, Ayscue was appointed accordance Avith the Avish of his father, who ; — ; Ayton 300 Ayton tlied in 1799, that he should be educated for In Berwickshire the Aytouns continued the bar, he was sent to study laAV at Man- as landowners until James III (1460-1488), chester, and at the end of a year became the when a brother of the family of Home mar- pupil of a barrister in London ; but conceiving ried the heiress, and carried the lands into from the beginning a distaste for the profes- that house. The uncle of the heiress, her sion, he never set liimself seriously to prepare father's younger brother, Andrew Aytoun, for it. As soon as he came of age, he retired was captain of Stirling Castle and sheriff of to the coast of Sussex, resolved to limit his Elgin and Forres during the reign of James expenses to his comparatively small income, IV (1488-1513). For 'faithful services ' the and to considt only his own inclinations in king gave him several charters, confirming the occupation of his time. There he amused him in the lands of Nether Dunniure, Kil- himself with desultory reading and active gour, and Glenduckie in western Fifeshire. outdoor exercise, boating being his special By a new charter from the crown somewhat delight. In 1811 he returned to London, later these lands were constituted into u and accepted a situation in a public office barony called Aytoun, the proprietor being but this he relinquished in 1813, to accom- designated ' of that ilk.' pany William Daniell, A.R.A., in a voyage This Captain Aytoun of Stirling had three round Great Britain. An account of the sons and seven daughters. John, eldest son, voyage, with views drawn and engi'aved by succeeded his father in the estate of Aytoun Daniell, appeared in 8 vols, folio, 1814-25 [see Robert, second son, obtained the estate of ; Daniell, William] ; but the letterpress of Inchdairnie and Andrew, third son, suc- only the first two volumes is by Ayton. Dis- ceeded in 1567 Robert Aytoun, his first agreeing with Daniell in regard to his plans for cousin, in the estate of Kinaldie, which had the future volumes, Ayton declined to proceed come into the family about 1539. Andrew further with the book, and betook himself to Aytoun, who was a student of the univer- play-writing. Two of his farces, acted at sity of St. Andrews in 1539, man-ied Mary Covent Garden, were total failures ; but he Lundie, and she bore him three sons and two adapted from the French several pieces for daughters. John, the eldest, succeeded to the English Opera House with moderate suc- the estate of Kinaldie in 1590; Andrew, cess. During a voyage between Scarborough second son, proceeded to Ireland ; and the and London, Ayton was nearly shipwrecked, third son was Robert, who devoted himself and received an injury to his ankle which to literature. confined him to bed for more than a year. Sir Robert Aytoun was born at the castle In the spring of 1821 he was sufficiently re- of Kinaldie, in the parish of Cameron, near covered to go to the coast of Sussex, but his St, Andrews, in 1570. He proceeded to the health continued uncertain and precarious. university of St. Andrews (St. Leonard's Col- In July 1823 his illness assumed so serious lege) in 1584, and took his degree of M.A. in a form, that he removed for medical advice 1588. He obtained his patrimony in 1590, to London, where he died shortly afterwards. and thereupon went on the usual roiuid of During the last eighteen months of his life continental travel. He also studied civil law Ayton occupied himself in the composition at the university of Paris. According to of a number of essays, chiefly on pastimes and Thomas Dempster {Historia Eccles. Gentis similar subjects, written in a genial and Scotonim), ' he long cherished useful learn- playful spirit, and displaying considerable ing in France, and left there distinguished sprightliness and humour.