ABSTRACT
Ben Jonson left London in the summer of 1618 at the end of June or early in July. He took the eastern route to Scotland, travelling the Great North Road which meant passing through the villages of Islington, Highgate, Finchley and Barnet. On returning to Scotland in 1608 Drummond settled down to live the life of a Renaissance gentleman and in particular to study and to write. To Jonson in 1618 he was one of Scotland's leading literary lights and a man whose studies in poetry if not his attainment in it would forge an obvious bond with England's poet. When Jonson left Scotland he left with at least one memento of this great collection – Drummond presented him with a 1586 edition of George Buchanan's Rerum Scoticarum Historia signed by both poets at the moment of exchange.
