Armstrong John

Armstrong, John, a Scotch doctor and poet of the Georgian era, was born in 1709. He was a friend of Thomson, and taking him for a model, wrote verses on The Art of Preserving Health, and being appointed a military surgeon, was sent out to the war in Germany. In a poem addressed to his patron, John Wilkes, he offended Churchill, who resented the affront. He is referred to in Thomson's Castle of Indolence (c. i. st. 60), and he contributed the closing lines to that canto. He died in 1779.