John Leyden

John Leyden (1775–1811) was a Scottish poet, physician and orientalist, born at Denholm in Roxburghshire, the son of a shepherd. He studied at Edinburgh, became a friend and helper of Walter Scott, and supplied him with ballad material and original ballads for the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

His own poems include Scenes of Infancy (1803). He went to India as an assistant surgeon in 1803, held posts in Mysore and Calcutta, studied Indian languages, and died of fever at Batavia in Java in 1811.