William Erskine, Lord Kinneder (1768–1822), was a friend and confidant of Sir Walter Scott, and a scholar and songwriter. Early life and education Erskine was the son of the Rev. William Erskine, episcopalian minister of Muthill, Perthshire. He was baptized at Muthill on 29 August 1768. He was educated at the University of Glasgow; while there he boarded in the house of Andrew Macdonald, episcopalian clergyman and author of Vimonda, from whom, according to Lockhart, he derived a strong passion for old English literature. Career He passed advocate at the Scottish bar on 3 July 1790, and became the close friend and literary confidant of Scott. In 1792 Erskine, with Scott and other young advocates, formed a class for the study of German. According to Scott's biographer John Gibson Lockhart, the companionship of Erskine, owing to his special accomplishments as a classical scholar and acquaintance with the "severe models of antiquity", was highly serviceable to Scott as a student of German drama and romance. Lockhart represents him as being mercilessly severe on "the mingled absurdities and vulgarities of German detail". It was Erskine who negotiated for Scott's translation of Lenore in 1796. In 1801, while in London, Erskine happened to show the volume to "Monk" Lewis, who thereupon "anxiously requested that Scott might be enlisted as a contributor to his miscellany entitled Tales of Wonder". Soon after Scott began his great career as an author, he resolved to trust to the detection of minor inaccuracies to two persons only, James Ballantyne and Erskine, the latter being "the referee whenever the poet hesitated about taking the advice of the zealous typographer". The friends joined in keeping up the delusion that Erskine and not Scott was the author of the portions of The Bridal of Triermain, and wrote a preface intended to "throw out the knowing ones". Scott dedicated to Erskine the third canto of Marmion, which was published in February 1808. Erskine was appointed sheriff depute of Orkney on 6 June 1809, and in 1814 Scott accompanied him and other friends on a voyage to Orkney. Lockhart ascribes to Erskine the critical estimate of the Waverley novels included in Scott's own notice in the Quarterly Review of Old Mortality, in answer to the sectarian attacks of Thomas M'Crie the Elder against his representation of the covenanters. By Scott's unwearied exertions on his behalf Erskine was in January 1822 promoted to the