—

PAG FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PAG acknowledgment of Bervicea, in which he to pay but slight attention to those who, held chief command ; and three times for amid much care and pain, may have assidu- those in which he held a subordinate situa- ously led us to that elevation in which we tion. Twice by name he obtained the thanks caught the Hght of the greater spirits. We of Parliament ; and he bore three medals, undoubtedly owe most to those who first one for Maida, one tor Vittoria, and one for have quickened our impulses, and taught the siege of St Sebastian. He was nomi- us to seek after excellence. And yet we are nated a Knight Commander of the Bath at too prone to worship confirmed greatness the enlargement of the Order in 1815 ; was to bow before the Lyells and the Murchisons, advanced to the grade of Grand Cross, Feb- and forget the Pages and the Geikies, who ruary 25, 1824, and was invested at Carlton taught us somewhat of the measure of these House 9th June following. In July 1818 vast minds. Mr Page belongs to both the he obtained the Colonelcy of the Rifle Bri- higher and the lower class of geologists, if gade. In August 1819 he received the we may so spe.ak—he is one of the men who brevet of Lieutenant-General, and the 9th deal at once with facts and with principles, October following was removed from the and who, on that account, stand as inter- Rifle Brigade to the Colonelcy of the 35th preters between the select few and the iii- Foot. In politics Sir John Oswald was a quiring many. And we are glad that his zealous Conservative, but highly esteemed claims for recognition have met with grate- by all parties. He died at Dunniker, June ful acknowledgment generally. He has right seat 8, 1840. He was twice married ; first, in clearly shown his to a among the January 1812, to Charlotte, eldest daughter first of geologists ; but because he has of the Rev. Lord Charles Murray-Aynsley, chosen rather to simplify and interpret than uncle to the Duke of AthoU, and that lady to systematise on a grand scale, there was having died, February 22, 1827, he married, some danger that the highest place might be secondly, in October 1829, her cousin, Emily denied him. For, through his clear, simple, Jane, daughter of Lord Henry Murray, who and masterly expositions, he has been a survived him. benefactor to not a few who were toiling wearily amid doubts and conflicting evi-

dence ; and he has, without doubt, done more to place the science on a firmer footing —to reconcile it as far as possible with our PAGE, David, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., Edin- received notions of creation, and to popu- burgh, was bom at Lochgelly, Fifeshire, larise and spread a genuine love for the about the beginning of the present century. study of it than any man hving. And there He was educated at the school of Auchter- has always in his writings been evidence of derran, and afterwards at the Universities so much labour and carefulness—such a of St Andrews and Edinburgh, with a view manifest determination to test every fact by to entering the clerical profession, but Mr research, that he more than any other may Page preferred to devote himself almost ex- rightly have as.^igned to him the title of clusively to literary pursuits. He studied "Guide to young students of Geology." pretentious individuals the natural sciences ; and geology and physi- And, unlike some cal geography had for him peculiar attrac- who fancy that a general smattering of tions. On his return from a geological ex- scientific knowledge will enable them to cursion in 1853, he became proprietor of the write popularly he knows and feels that the Fifeshire Journal, which he conducted for clearer and simpler he desires to write, the deeper he must think, and the more thorough must be his investigations. He geology. Having disposed of the property is, therefore, himself an arduous and con- ofthe^i/esAM'c,7o«j'nannl857, MrPagehas stant student. He is one of the ardent and ever since taken a warm intere.st in all hard-working disciples of science, whose ex- social questions, and h.as devoted himself to ample, when it is fully beheld, must be in- various scientific pursuits, which have given fectious. In this new volume Mr Page him a high character amongst learned men. deals with the principles of the science, and Besides giving great attention to the selec- proceeds to elucidate and simphfy them tion and accuracy of his geological observa- much in the same way as in the last volume tions, he has from time to time published he dealt with the facts of the science, or the their results in such forms as render them accumulated result of geological research. immediately useful—a practice which by He then sought to arrange and label, so to degrees wUl doubtless be generally followed. speak, the various materials which form the " His last work, so far as we know, is The subject of the science ; now he attempts to Philosophy of Geology—a Brief Review of enunciate the necessary principles under the Aim, Scope, and Character of Geolo- which these must be dealt with and inter- gical Enquiry. '' It is sad to think th.at our preted. In a very lucid and yet compen- benefactors are so often overlooked and un- dious fashion he sets forth the aims of the requitted while they hve, and that when geologist, defines succinctly as he goes the they die attempts are made to atone for limits to which he must submit ; and while neglect by building monuments to their pointing out the best principles for the memory. We are so very apt to enthrone practical geologist to follow, he indicates the great master teachers in our regard, and the results to which the science may ulti- PAG FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PAR mately lead. Wb can confidenly recnra- the oscillations of the snow-line are deter- mead the book to those who have begun the mined as exactly as the jags in the orbit of Btudy of geology. His other principal the planet Uranus. He addresses us in the hymn, " Come treatises on scientific subjects are as follows : words of Mrs Barbauld's " — and I will show you what is glorious." He " Introductory Text-Book of Geology ; "Advanced Text-Book of Geology, De- uplifts the veil from the face of nature, and scriptiveand Industrial;" " The Geological displays it shining with the oil of gladness. Examinator ;" "Hand-Book of Geological The whole earth becomjes a solemn templa '' praises the Terms and Geology ; " The Past and Pre- in which the voice of science Lord from the heavens and in the heights^ fire, and hail, and snow, and vafiour joining " vanced Text-Book of Physical Geography; the sublime hallelujah. And we feel that " facts whichourlifeis circumstantiated The Earth's Crust : a Handy Outline of the by Geology." One of his last works is his "Intro- are indeed held together by that golden ductory Text-Book of Physical Geography." chain of cause and effect, the first links of No man but an accompUshed scholar and which are lost in the brightness of the throne geologist could have given us a text-book of physical geography PARK, The Rev. John, D.D., minister of the Parish Church of St Andrews, first name ; and if there more than to another we had a right to look charge, was born in the year 1804, and died for a supply of what was wanted, it was suddenly at St Andrews on the 8th of April surely to the talented author of the " Past 1865. The cause of death was paralysis. and Present Life of the Globe." Of Mr The sad intelligence soon spread and cast Page's admirable endowments for the task a gloom over the city, for Dr Park was to which he has applied himself it is un- deeply and affectionately beloved not only by necessary here to speak. Multum et terris his own congregation but by the entire com- jactatus et alto, he must long have had all the munity, who mourned his sudden departure principles and most of the facts of the science with deep and sincere sorrow. Dr Park at his finger ends. One enters on the per- was a native of Greenock, and was educated usal of the text-book, therefore, with the at Glasgow University. He was ordained confidence which the man inspires who in 1831, and would be about sLxty-one years undertakes to show you his own house, and of age when he died. The period of his explain to you all its facilities, conveniences, ministry is exactly divided into three decades. and accommodation. Nor is Physical Geo- He was for ten years minister of a large and graphy any more than " Divine Philosophy," influential congregationinLiverpool, whence that harsh and crabbed thing, which, to the he was translated to the pastorate charge of ill-informed, the name of the science might the church and parish of Glencairn, in the seem to suggest. Text-book as Mr Page's vol- Presbytery of Penpont, in Dumfrieshire, laboured ume is, the cumulating library has not many where, for nearly as long a term, he works which an intelligent and thoughtful with much acceptance among an attached reader would peruse with more satisfaction people. When, on the death in March 18.54 and reUsh. His style is, for one thing, ad- of the late Principal Haldane, who was ako mirably adapted to the elucidation of scien- first minister of St Andrews, the first minis- tific truth. His arrangement is always terial charge of the parish became vacant, excellent, and he marshals his facts in a the Crown, in whom is vested the appoint- ' way which, by making them mutually ment, allowed the parishioners to choose a terpret each other, is as much calculated to minister for themselves. Among many assist the memory as to gratify the taste eminent ministers who were recommended and satisfy the judgment. We venture, to fill this very important charge was Dr therefore, to anticipate for the author of the Park. A deputation having been sent by " Introductory Text-Book of Physical the congregation to hear him preach, re- Geography " an honourable and welcome turned with so favourable an opinion of him place among the Berghauses, and Hum- that, upon their recommendation, the pari- boldts, and fjomervUles, who have given to shionei-s at once petitioned the Crown to the science all, and more than all, the give him the appointment. He was pre- fascination of romance. This science de- sented with the church and parish, upon monstrates that there is no caprice in the duties of which he entered in September nature. It shows how necessary the regular 1854. He was not long minister in this and harmonious action of the aqueous and parish when the St Andrews University atmospheric machinery of the globe Ls to conferred upon him the degree of D.D. The it, will our existence and comfort ; and it points more immediate occasion of as many out how admirably this regularity is secured. yet remember, was a sermon which he It expounds the laws that determine the preached before the University on the text, distribution of animals and plants. We " There is nothing new under the sun," a ascend the tropical mountains with Mr discourse which was so eloquent that the Page, and find that in the torrid zone itself students could barely resist from applauding there is a climate for the lichen as well as it, and the Professors testified their apprecia- for the palm. The physical geographer tion of his abilities upon this and other proves that the so-called irregularities of occasions by conferring upon him the honour temperature, the waves of the isotherm, and of wliich he was eminently worthy, and No. XLV. 353 — ";

PAR FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PAR which always sat so lightly and gracefully General Public. upon him. As a preacher he was both Artillery and Rifle Volunteers. eloquent and impressive. His discourees The solemn cortege extended throogh were characterised by independence and several streets. On reaching the grave, power of thought, by vigor of style, and those in front halted, and opened out and allowed above all by chasteand beautiful expression ; the bier to pass on. The coffin was and he was hstened to by an attached flock, then lowered into the grave—earth to earth, who now sadly mourn his loss. In private dust to dust, ashes to ashes. The Rifle he was ever kind and courteous, and his Volunteers then gave the parting salute, and amiable disposition won for him not only thus terminated the performance of the last his congregation, but we might say, the rite to the mortal remains of one much be- whole of the citizens, as his friends and atl- loved, deeply lamented, and who will be mirers. In many public positions he will long remembered with feelings of profound be greatly missed. He was one of the respect and veneration by an attached com- Trustees of the Madras College, and assuch munity. We have already intimated that ever took a faithful and careful interest in Dr Park was no ordinary preacher. About all that concerns the welfare of that large six months after his death a volume of his institution. He was honorary chaplain of sermons was pubUshed by William Black- the Rifle Volunteers, whoui he greatly en- wood and Sons, containing twenty dis- couraged by bis counsel and example. In courses. Thesediscoiirsescompletely demon- testimony of the high respect in which he strate that the form of literary production was held, all the pul)lic bodies in the town called a sermon, though often dull and in- attended the funeral on Thursday. The sipid in the hands of a drivelling preacher, procession was the largest of the kind ever becomes, in the hands of a nian of intellect, witnessed in St Andrews. The funeral took of learning, and taste, one of the highest place under circumstances peculiarly solemn and most effective forms of literature. The and imposing. The departed was deeply work is a most scholar-like, richly-suggestive, beloved, and this was evinced by the and impressive volume. It contains no new commotion and excitement created at doctrines ; nothing but sound orthmlox, his interment. Multitudes crowded the settled aod unquestioned divinity. Of the thoroughfares and streets around Hope twenty discourses alluded to six are lectures, Street before the hour appointed at which all taken from the book of Psalms. The the funeral procession was to move. The remaining fourteen are sermons on a variety crowds of people were not noisy, but sad of subjects. Of these perhaps the three best looking, and eager to catch a glimpse of the are the first, " On the Uniformity of the " bier as it passed along to the churchyard, Divine Laws —an admirable discourse " " bearing with it the mortal remains of one who the sixth, On Sorrow for the Departed ; " was fnend, counsellor, and pastor ; one and theseventh, On Spiritual Awakening. whom they knew to l)e great in their midst, The main topics discussed in the whole of and whose loss they felt to be great indeed, these discourses are always presented in and more than ordinary. Never in the re- language singularly pure and classical, and membrance of the oldest inhabitant has illustrated by multitudinous and happy re- there been such a large procession of the ferences to the various departments of kind seen in St Andrews, and on no occa- nature, science, literature, and art. There sion has there been witnessed such a genuine is no straining at effect—no declamation ; and general expression of deep sorrow and all is calm, manly, dignified. The author's grief at the funeral of any individual holding illustrations are numerous, and all from a similar ixwition, as that which was dis- matters of fact, e.^pressed in language played by the citizens of St Andrews on singularly copious and flowing. Altogether, Thursday. The arrangements for the it is a volume of extraordinary merit, and funeral procession were made by Provost does credit to the memory of Dr Park. It Milton, and reflected on him the highest is so richly and strikingly illustrated by credit—as everything passed off decently facts and aU.isions—historical, literary, and in order, as befitted the solemn occa- philosophic, and even statistical— that it is sion. Divine service was conducted in St impossible for the readers' attention to flag

Mary's Church, before the funeral, by the for a moment ; so enlivened by sentiments Rev. Matthew Rodger, of St Leonard's, of the noblest kind, expressed in language where the different bodies connected with which never descends to common place, the city assembled. The Rev. Dr Cook that no one can read vrithout having the and the Rev. Alexander HUl conducted the heart warmed, as well as having the intel- service in the house. The order of the pro- lect instructed. But without further ob- cession was as follows : servation, we shall give some extracts from Firing party of Rifle Volunteers. these discourses, as examples of the author's Teachers and Scholars of Madras College. elegant style and composition. The Provost, Magistrates, & Town Council. THE NATIONAL RECOONITION OP University. CHRISTIANITY. The Bodt. " The obligation of obedience to the Son Private Friends. of God certainly lies doubly upon all in Kirk-Session. authority, because from theii- station their Presbytery of St Andrews. influence is the greater. We never could PAB FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PAR understand that reasoning by which many souls of those who had been slain, and heard seem desirous of teaching us, that whil them crying with a loud voice ; when our every one, as an individual ousflit to ; be Lord told the penitent thief, ' To-day shalt Christian, yet that, in the cajiacity of king: thou ' be with me paradise ; when in the and queens, legislators, judges or magis parable of the rich man and Lazarus, we trates, they otight to be of no religion" at read of both being immediately carried to all. It all that is meant by this were merely their several destinations in the spiritual to assert the necessity of imparti.ality world and ; when the .ajsostle expressed hia religious toleration on the part of the magis- desire to depart and be with Christ—' Ab- trate, we might find no fault with the sent from the body and present with the intention, but the way in ; ' which it is often Lord —in these and many other intimar- stated would still be hable to objection ; for tions, a plain proof was undoubtedly in- it would literally amount to this, that tended that the day, the hour, the moment Christianity ought to be excluded from all of the body's death is the beginning of our public laws and measures. But this is he.aven's rest to the soul of a Christian. not the place to enter on the argument. We Loment, indeed, for him ! Better merely say, that if no Christian can divest far than the most joyous hour he ever knew bimself of the obligations of Christianity in on earth ! Ah ! when the last sigh pa-sses private life, as little can he get free from from the worn-out frame, and the corpse is Christian obligation in his public acts, and lying lifeless before us, and the first burst of that a doctrine which would lead him to bereavement may be like a ery of anguish, dispense with it, in any character, certaitUy as if some great calamity had befallen our seems at least to be seriously at variance beloved, how great is the contrast between with the injunction of my text. No doubt the spiritual and the natural world. For difBculties must often occur. In thLs, as in even at that very moment of grief on earth every other matter of dutj', it were strange there is joy in heaven. While friends below if we never had diflSculties to contend with. are weeping round the unconscioas clay, But no diflBeulties can ever make it right friends above are welcommg the spirit home, that a magistrate'sChristianity is to be sub- and the disencumbered soul, leaving all merged and swallowed up in his official darkness and^ sin behind, beholds, as it character; whether as king or judge, Christ's authority is as binding upon him in all his God's __^ ^^ acts as on the meanest of his fellow-creatures. look, perhaps, the soul knows To promote what he conscientiously believes se is the difference between sin is for God's glory and the people's good is and holiness, the sorrow of the one and the the solemn duty of every one in authority, happiness of the other. At one glance, and happy were the laud where all rule was assuredly, the spirit knows that all the dark- consecrated to such ends, and exerted to :ss of death is past for ever—that the river secure tliem. For over all the powei-s of crossed—that the cloud has been passed this world one invisible but universal Kiuf through— that for ever and ever, to all eter- reigns in irresistible power. He raiseth up nity, there is to be no more grief and and putteth down; and as He, at His no more dying " ; and how joyful beyond pleasure, gives the breath " of life to our conception must be the hearing tures or takes it away, so doth He then of such words as these—" Come nation too, or utterly destroy it, and sweep beloved of my Father, inherit the it from the face of the earth."--

PAT FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PIT loved here shall there be undiscoverahle by sates for their want of simplicity and nature. us as those formerly loved and longed for. Hi.^ first serious effort was a cartoon of Surely there is something cold-hearted in "The Spirit of Religion," produced in 1845. this too lofty imagination. Happily, as it To the competition of 1847 he sent two oil appears to us, there are sufBcieut Scriptural pictiu-es of striking dissimilarity in character, testimonies against it. We are told, for in- "Christ Bearing the Cross," and "The stance, in the words of Jesus, that His Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania," the people shall sit down with Abraham and latter of which received the second-class Isaac and Jacob, thus distinctly specifying prize of £300, having been previously pur- certain individuals who shall be known then chased for the Gallery of the Royal Scottish ' as the glorified fathers of the children of Academy. In 1849 he painted ' The Quarrel Israel—and yet shall these patriarchs not of Oberon and Titania," now in the Scottish know each other ? Paul says, in his epistle National Gallery, which, exhibited with to the Colossians, that he preached, warning other productions of modem English and teaching, that he might present every artists, at the Paris Exhibition of 1853, man perfect in Christ. Where was he to received " honourable mention " from the present them but before God in glory ? and jurors. His pictures of " Dante" and "The yet was he not to know them, or they to Dear Lady " prepared the pubhc for the know him, there? To the Thessalonians more serious tone of succeeding works, and themselves he says, elsewhere— 'For what more especially for his large and elaborate " is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing ? allegorical picture The Pursuit of Plea- Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord sure,'' which confirmed the high reputation Jesus Christ at His coming?' And yet of the artist. "Home" represented the can it be conceived that in the presence of return of a Crimean soldier, exhibited at Christ at His coming they should not know the Royal Academy in 1S5G, enjoyed a wide each other ? We read, too, th.at the apostles popularity, was esteemed as one of the artist's on'the Mount of Transfiguration saw whom most perfect works, and copied for the they understood to be Moses and Elias Royal Exhibition by command of Her communing with Christ—was that scene to Majesty. "In Memoriam," a work of be forgotten when they entered heaven ? or, high aim, and minute truthfulness of execu- •were Mos&s and Elias to be known in glory tion, was one of the leading pictures in the only by sinners on earth, and not by saints Royal Academy's Exhibition of 1858. The above? Our Lord, too, represents the rich earher works of this painter are characterised man in torments as seeing Lazarus in by overflowing fancy and elaliorate detail Abraham's bosom. Does this intimate for- those which he has produced of later years getfulness of those with whom we have been have obviously a higher and more serious connected in this world ? And, not to mul- purpose, and though not less minute in tiply instances unnecessarily, let us just look execution, are much more true to nature. at the argument of the passage before us. The prices which this aitist has receivedfor ' Sorrow not,' says the apostle, ' for the dead bis recent works, show the high estimation in Christ, as those who have no hope.' No in which he is held. His " Pursuit of hope of what ? Most certainly of ever see- Plea.'sure," sold to Mr A. Hill, a printseller ing them again. Sorrow not, for God shall of Edinl)urgh, was again sold by him for bring them— them, the same persons —with two thousand guineas, while " In Memo- " Him.' And bring them to whom ? Why, riam fetched twelve hundred pounds. Mr appointed to the ottice of Queen's to those who were mourning their loss ; and Paton was what comfort oould there be in these words Limner in Scotland, lately vacant by the to them if they were never to know these lamented death of Sir John Watson Gordon.

friends again as such ? Nay, nay ; we need PITCAIRN, Archibald, an eminent never doubt that we shall know in HeavBn physician and ingenious poet, was born at the Christian friends whom we loved on Edinburgh, December 25, 1652. His father, earth. We shall yet, we humbly trust, wallc Alexander Piteaime, who was engaged in with them before the throne of the most trade, and became one of the magistrates of high God. We shall yet recount to each that city, was a descendant of the ancient other the triumphs of that grace in which family of Pitcairne of Piteaime, in Fifeshire, we were mutually partakers, and heighten and his mother, whose name was Sydserf, each other's gr-ititude to the Redeemer by belonged to a good family in the county of our mutual recollections of His wisdom and Haddington, descended from Sydserf of His mercy."— (P. 230.) Rutblaw. He commenced his classical PATOiSr, Joseph Noel, R.S.A., an education at the school of Dalkeith, and historical painter, was born at Dunfermline, from thence removed in 1668 to the Univer- he olitained in in Fifeshire, in 1823 ; the son of Mr J. F. sity of Edinburgh, where Paton, senior, an able artist and pattern 1671 his degree of M.A. He studied first designer, still living. He never studied at divinity, and then the civil law, the latter any public school of art, although iu 1843 of which he Tiursned with so much ardour admitted a student of the Roy;il Academy as to injure his health. He was, in conse- of London. He firat liecame known to the quence, advised by his physicians to pro- public as the author of " Outline Illustra ceed to the south of France ; but by the tions to Shakespeare and Shelley ; " produc- time he reached Paris he found himself much tions whose fanciful grace scarcely compen- recovered, and resolved to attend the law PIT FIFESHIRE BIOGEAPHY. PIT classes at the University there. Muetin<' as well as his powers of satire, however, with some of his soon raised countrymen, wlTo around him a host of were medical students, enemies, and he was he was induced to attacked abandon m various pubhcations of the the study of tlie law, and for several period, particularly in a sarcastic months attended the hospitals with little them. volume, entitled " ApoUo Mathematicus," On his return to Edinburgh he became the production of Doctor, afterwards acquainted with ]>r David Gregory, Sir the l^' ™™. Eyzat. Sir Robert Sibbald having celebrated Professor of Mathematics and published a treatise in ridicule of directing his attention to the the new e.xact science*! method of applying geometry he soon attained to such to physic, Dr proficiency as tn I'ltcairne published make some improvements an answer in 1696 in the method of under the " jnfamte title of Dissertatio de Legibua series, then lately invented. Be- Histonas hevmg, Naturalis." The opposition to with many learned men of his time, him was shown even within the College tJiat there was some necessary connection of Physiciansitself. Having, on 18th November between mathematics and medicine, and 1690, tendered a protest against hoping to reduce the healing the ad- art to geo- mission of certain Fellows, metncal precision, he one of whom finally fi.ted on physio was Dr Eyzat, as a profession. on account of its having There being, however in been conducted in an irregular manner the Edmburgh at this period, no other medical matter was referred to a school than the siek-chamber committee, who, on and the drug- the 22d, delivered shop, he returned in a report that Dr Pit- to Paris about 1675 cairne's where he iirotestation was "a calumnious prosecuted his medical studies scandalous, false, and arrogant paper." ™tliusiasm. In August Ihe 7rln T"""'^'' -^^"l meetmg approving of this report, did 1680 he received from the Faculty " thereupon suspend him " from voting Eheims the degree of M.D., in the which in CoUege, or sitting in any meeting " August 1699 was Ukewise thereof ; conferred on him nay, it was by the even proposed to prohibit him Umvei-sity of Aberdeen. After from the practice of physic. After a making himself master of the violent science of and protracted contention, during medicme from the earliest periods, which he re- various attempts at reconcUiatiou turned to Edinburgh, with were the firm resolu- made, the President, tion to reform Dr Dundas, on Janu- and improve it in practice. ary In November 4, 1704, proposed an act of oblivion, 1681 the Eoyat College of which was unanimously agreed to, and Physicians of Edmburgh was incorporated Dr Pitcairne resumed his seat in the and his name, as one of the College. first members! In October 1701 the College graced the origmal patent of Surgeons from the crown. admitted him a FeUow, Me settled as a physician an honour which in his native city, had never been bestowed and ere long rose upon any other to the highest eminence m physician. hLs profession. He appears to have held, also, Soon after estabhshing him- the nominal appointment of Medical Pro- self m Edinburgh, he married Margaret, fessor m the University of Edinburgh. Dur- daughter of Colonel James Hay of Pitfour '*^' mentioned who died, after bearing i.°° ,*i"',.y'"*'' he repubhshed him a son and a his Medical daughter, when Treatises, with some new ones, he wrote an elegiac poem to at Kotterdam, her memory. The in one volume 4to, under the children, also, were soon title removed of Dissertationes Medicie," dedicating by death. In 1688 he pubUshed the work to Lorenzo Belhiii, professor Jus bolutio Problematis de Inventoribus " at Piza, who had inscribed his " " m vindication of Harvey's claim Opuscula to to the dis- him. more correct covery of the A edition of the same circulation of the blood In appeared consequence a few months before his death of his high reputation, he was mvited, «'i<='l at Edinburgh, October m 1692, by the Curators of the M,£''-,™^™f University 1713, and wasinteiTed in the Greyfriars' of Leyden, to fill the chair of Churchyard. By his Physic there at that second wife he had a time vacant. His son and four well-known Jacobite daughters, one of whom, Janet, principles e.xcluding '-October him from all "/li ™. 1731, married to the Eari public employments at home! '^, -"-^ ^^'^^ ^o'''^ was published he accepted the invitation, i';;, o in and delivered his 1718, under the " inaugural oration title of Elementa Medi- on the 26th of AprU of cm:e that Physico-Mathematica," bein'^ his ._„. year.„„. . „, uig J ^Durmg hisu,o residenceresiuence at LeydenJjeyden, lectures where at Leyden. An addition of his amon^ his pupils was the celebrated ^"°''-""~ whole works appeared at Venice in Boerhaave, he•" -'^Ushedpi several 1733 disserta- and at Leyden in tions, chiefly 1737. He was universaUy ,.,.- -~—j with-•-- th—- >o./ of showing tne considered as the first physician of his utility of mathematics in time. the study of He is said to have had one medicine. In little of the best pri- more' than a year after vate hbranes he returned of that day, which, after his to Scotland to fulfil a matri- decease, was purchased by the Czar monial engagement with Elizabeth of the Kus.sia. His Latin poems, coUected daughter of Sir Archibald Stevenson, after one his death, were, with others, of the Kings Physicians published by at Edinburgh. Kuddiman, in 1 his lady he married 1727, in a smaU volume, en- in 1693, and as her titled, Selecta Poemata Archibaldi Pit- friends were unwilUng that she should leave cairmi et ailorum : ner native place, " and, according to Lord he resigned his chair at Woodhouselee, Leyden and on^_ they comprise ahnost all more settled in practice that Edinburgh. are of any value in that publication. m His great success, however, He was also the author of a comedy called 357 "

PIT FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PIT

"The Assembly," printed at London in year 1692 ; but until 1830 it remained m

1722, which Mr George Chalmers says ia MS. , when it was presented to the members " personal and political, sarcastic and pro- of the Maitland Club, under the editorial fane, and never could have been acted on care of George R. Kinloch, Esq. That any stage." It may be noticed before con- gentleman made use of two MSS., one in cluding this biographical sketch, that Dr the possession of Dr Keith of Edinburgh, Pitcaime, at the solicitation of his literary the other in the library of Mr Dundas of and political friends, was in the habit of Arniston, which had formerly belonged to l^rinting for private circulation the numerous the well-known Scottish collector, Robert jeux (Vesprlt which he composed from time Milne of Edinburgh. to time with extraordinary faciUty. These PITCAIRN, David, M.D., an eminent were generally on single leaves or sheets of physician, the eldest son of Major John writing paper, and many of them were dis- Pitcaim of the Marines, killed in the attack tinguished for their brilliancy and elegant upon Bimker's Hill in 1775, and Elizabeth,

Latinity ; but, from this ephemeral way of daughter of Robert Dah^mple, Esq. of distributing them, few of them, it is sup- Annfield, Dumfrieshire, was bom. May 1, posed, have been preserved. The late Archi- 1749, in the house of his grandfather, the bald Constable, Esq., the well-known book- Rev. David Pitcaim, minister of Dysart. Beller, and the friend of Sir Walter Scott, After being at the High School of Edin- who was named after Dr Pitcaime, had burgh for four years, he attended the classes formed a very large and valuable collection of the University of Glasgow till he was of these i)ieces, with numerous manuscript twenty, spending much of his leisure time effusions in proje and verse. These Mr with the family of the Rev. James Baillie. Constable had intended to publish, with the In 1709 Mr Pitcaim entered at the Univer- restof his miscellaneous poetry, accompanied sity of Edinburgh, and studied medicine by a Life of Pitcairne, for which he had there for three years. In 1772 he went to amassed extensive materials. A large folio London, and attended the lectures of Dr volume of printed and MS. pieces, being William Hunter and Dr George Fordyce. part of these collections, appeared in a Lon- About the same time, that he might obtain don catalogue a tew years ago, and was an English degree in Physic, he entered at priced at £10 10s ; but it cannot now be Bennet College, Cambridge, where he gradu- traced into whose possession it has been ated. In 1780 he was elected physician to transferred. A small atheistical pamphlet, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and, attributed to Dr Pitcaime, entitled " Epis- in 1792, physician to Christ's Hospital The tola Archimedis ad regem Gelonem Alb» former office, on account of the great in- GraiCie, reperta anno fer« Christianae," crease of his private practice, he resigned in 1688, was made the subject of the inaugural 1793. By the death of Dr Wan-en in June oration of the Rev. Thomas Halyburton, 1797, Dr Pitcaim was placed at the head of Professor of Divinity in the University of his profession in London. It was his friend- St Andrews in 1710, which was published at ship for Dr Matthew Baillie that first Edinburgh in 1714, under the title of brought that eminent physician into notice. " Natural Religion insufficient, and Re- Although there was a great disparity of vealed necessary to Man's Happiness." Dr years, there existed between them a long Pitcairne has been generally represented as a and uninterrupted friendship, and the con- professed unbeliever, and it must be ad- fidence rejiosed by Dr Pitcaim in the pro- mitted that his profane jests but too much fessional abilities of his friend was sincere, exposed him to the character of a scoffer at Dr Baillie being his only medical adviser religion. But, as remarked by the writer to the last moment of his existence. Dr of his life in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Pitcaim died in AprU 1809. He was a man whatever doubts might be entertained as to of elegant literary accomplishments, joined the soundness of his creed, they are com- to much professional knowledge. In person pletely removed by his verses written on he was tall and erect. He was fond of

Christmas Day ; and Dr Drummond has country sports and athletic games, particu- stated, that, during his last illness, he con- larly golf. It was a saying of his that " the tinued in the greatest tranquility of mind, last thing a physician learns in the course of and evinced just apprehensions of God and his experience is to know when to do no- religion. A pleasing specimen of this emi- thing. " A flattering tribute to his memory, nent physician's poetical powers, being a written by Dr Wells, was inserted in the poem "On the King and Queen of Fairy," Gentleman's Muffa-aine soon after his de- — '* in two versions, Latin and EngUsh, will be cease. It concludes thus : Although of found in Donaldson's Collection, under the great practicrd knowledge, and having made assumed name of Walter Denestone. An many original observations on disease, he

account of the Life and Writings of Dr never pubUshed .anything ; but he fell a Pitcairne, by Charles Webster, M.D., was victim to a disease which had before escaped published at Edinburgh in 1781. Dr Pit- the notice of medical men—inflamation of cairne was likewise author of " Babell, or the larynx - and so had the peculiar and the Assembly, a Poem, m.dc.xcii." Like melancholj; privilege of enlightening his the comedy of " The Assembly, " this satiri- profession in the very act of dying. cal poem was written in ridicule of the pro- PITCAIRN, A. Barrister, HobartTown, ceedings of the General Assembly, in the was born in 5^1802 near the village of Ceres, PIT FIFESHIRE BTOGEAPHY. PIT Fifeshire, and was the son of the late pro- Stewart of Galston, in Ayrshire, third in prietor of Kinninmonth in that parish. For descent from Alexander Stewart of Dreg- the following account of this gentleman, horn, second son of Alexander Stewart of died who suddenly in 18G1, we are indebted Darnley. On obtaining favour at Court, to the — HobartTown Mercuri/: " Overevery he seems to have changed the spelling of his circle there was not in this colony a man name to Stuart, as being of kin to His esteemed more for high intellectual attain- Majesty. Calderwood says of him :— ments, for probity and disinterestedness of " Colonell Stuart was (as is constantlie re- purpose, for Koman-like virtues than was ported) first a cloutter of old shoes. He Mr Pitcairn. The stem simpUeity of his went to the Low Countries, where he served life, adorned only by domestic virtues, stood in the warres, first as a souldiour, then as a, out in unostentatious but grand relief to the Captane, at last as a Colonell. He retum- ' trappings which 'dizen the proud.' There eth home, and was immediately employed nothing was pinchbeck in bis fcharacti by the King to apprehend anie subject, in He was a thorough gentlemen—sincere anie corner of the kingdom, that the Court in his belief, strong in his affections, and had anie quarrel at. He wanted not like- steadfast in his principles. Happily blended wise his rewaird, for he was gifted with the with these qualities, was a disposition and Pryorie of Pittrnweme, and married the temperament of the most genial kind, and Ladie Pitfirrane, not without suspicions of the highest discrimination and literary taste the murder of her former husband." In Nor must we omit to bear record to tht October 1582, he and MrJames Halyburton, benevolence of his nature, which shed its Provost of Dundee, were the King's Com- influence unseen, though not unfelt, over missioners to the General Assembly. In the highways and byways of life, where January 1583, after the Raid of Ruthven, bv man was 'made to mourn.' How often Colonel Stuart's interest, the King obtained have we known him expend time, trouble. permission, from the confederated lords, to visit the Earl of March at St Andrews, and on his entrance into the castle there, the he gave life itself ; to others—it was all he Colonel ordered the gates to be shut, and could give them—a decent grave. Mr Pit- his followers excluded. The profligate Earl cairn arrived in the colony upwards of of Arrau soon regained his place in the royal thirty years since, and was first established favour. In April Colonel Stuart was sent as a settler in the district of Richmond. as Ambassador to England. At a Parlia- Owing to the persuasions of Su- Alfred ment held at Edinburgh, 4th December of Stephen, then at the bar in this colony, he the same year (1583), those who had been abandoned that Ufe, and betook himself to concerned in the Raid of Ruthven were de- his profession as a Solicitor, which he fol- clared guilty of high treason. At this lowed to the time of his death. In the pur- Parliament it was also, says Calderwood, suit of this he was distinguished no less for " that the old placks, babees, threepenny his ability and industry, than for high per- pieces, and twelvepenny pieces, sould be sonal honour and are ; we sure it is not too brought in betwixt and July next to he much to say, that his name stood amongst brokin ; and that a new coine be strickin, the highest on the professional rolls of fame fourepennie groats, eightpennie groats, in all the colonies. We may add that he sixteenpennie groats, and that they be arrived in the colony from Edinburgh, where three pennie fyne. Yitt were they not so he had become eUgible for admission as a fyne. This was done to gett silver to Writer to the Signet, having performed all Colonell Stuart to pay the waiged men of the necessary preliminaries, and was ad- warre. The burrowes disassented from mitted as a barrister, solicitor, proctor, &c., breaking of the old coin." It was Colonel of the Supreme Court of this Colony in 1825, Stewart, or Stuart, as he called himself, being the fourteenth on the roU, and con- who apprehended the Earl of Gowrie at sequently one of the oldest members. As Dundee, 13th April 1584. The Earl was a legal practitioner, Pitcairn Mr confined beheaded at Stu:ling on the 4th of the fol- his practice to the higher branches of con- lowmg month, and on the Earls of Mar and veyancing; and his probity, skill, and kind- Angus and the Master of Glammis seizing ness of disposition rendered him very highly the Castle of that town, Colonel Stewart esteemed and implicitly confided in by his hastened thither with 500 men. Hearing friends .and clients." He died on the 28th of the approach of James with 20,000 men, day of January 1861, in the 59th year of his they fled toEngland, whence they returned age. in Oct. 1585 with a large force, and having PITTENWEEM, Bakon, a title (ex- laid siege to Stirling Castle, succeeded in tmct) m the peerage of Scotland, conferred obtaining possession of it and of the King's 1606 on m Frederick Stewart, son of Col. person. On this occasion, Colonel Stuart, William Stewart, Captain of the Kind's who had been directed to defend the street Guards, who, on the 31st July 1583, ob- the west port of the town, had a tained a charter of the lands and priory of narrow escape. Being fiercely assaulted, he Pittenweem, and was thenceforth styled fled to the Castle, but was followed and Commendator thereof. This CoL William overtaken by James Haldane, brother of Stewart, one of the unworthy favourites of the Laird of Gleneagles, who, as he was James VI., was the second son of Thomas laying hands on him, was shot by the PLA FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY.

Colonel's servant, Joshua Henderson. This Mr Playfair henceforth exercised all the led to the removal of the King's favourites, paternal duties. The living of Benvie being and Colonel Stuart was deprived of the com- vacant. Lord Gray, of Gray, who had the mand of the King's Guard. In June 1589, he was sent to Denmark, with a full com- mission to be present, with the Earl Mari- this he retained and supported at the manse sclial, James' Ambassador, at the ratihea- a part of his father's family, which he had tion of the King's marriage with the Princess adopted as his own. The latter part of his Anne, the youngest daughter of the Dan- mother's life, too, was at once cheered arid ish King ; and having soon after returned blessed by finding an asylum under the roof to Scotland, he was again despatched, on of such a son. She enjoyed this happiness 28th March 1590, by the nobility, with fine in common with two of her daughters for ships, to bring home the King and Queen. many years, and died at the age of eighty. On 20th January 1592, he was warded in Soon after his settlement in an obscure the Castle of Edinburgh for taking part country parish as a member of the Estab- with the Queen in her intrigues against the lished Church, an event occurred in the life Chancellor, but was soon released. On the of Mr Playfair that contributed not a little 15th August following, having accused Lord to confer novelty, variety, and even afflu- Spynie of secret conference with the turbulent ence during the latter part of his life. Mr Earl of Bothwell, who at this time was the Ferguson, of Raith, a gentleman of con- torment of James' Ufe, Sypynie challenged siderable landed property and influence, him to single combat, on which he was appointed Mr Playfair to educate his two a«ain imprisoned for a short time in the sons. General Ferguson and his brother. C&stle of Edinburgh, Spynie lieing warded This produced a resignation of his classical in that of Stirling. In 1G06 the lands and preferment, and a removal to Raith, in baronies belonging to the priory of Pitten- Fifeshire. He afterwards went over with weem were, by Act of Parliament, erected his pupils to Edinburgh, and while there, into a temporal lordship in f.ivour of Col. his merits were so well appreciated that Stewart's son, Frederick, to him and his when Professor Ferguson resigned the Chair

heirs and assigns ; and he had farther of Moral Philosophy to Dugald Stewiirt, charters of the same in 1609 and 1618. Lord Mr Playfair was selected by the Magistrates Pittenweem died without issue, and the to preside over the mathematical class of title has never been claimed by any heir Edinburgh University. Soon after this, on general or assignee. Previous to his death the establishment of the Royal Society by he disponed the lordship to Thomas, Earl charter from the King, he was also nomi. of Kellie, who, with consent of his son nated to be secretary. He contributed many Alexander, Lord Fenton, surrendered the valuable papers to the transactions of this superiority of the same into the hands of northern institution, and in 1796 published ; the King. his " Elements of Geometry " this was fol- PLAYFAIR, John, F.R.S., Professor lowed by a' new edition of " Euclid." At a of Mathematics in the University of Edin- later period he was busily employed in the burgh, was doubly connected with Fife- generous task of defending the character, firstly, as tutor in the family of Ferguson of and displajdng the merits, of a man whose Raith, and secondly as an alumnus of the discoveries and experiments afterwardsthrew University of St Andrews. He waa the a lustre over the first of our northern uni- eldest son of the Rev. James Playfair, a versities. When Professor Leslie was about clergyman of the Established Church of to be appointed to a chair, a clergyman, full ' " I was bor of zeal, but devoid of discretion, accused Benvie. him before the patrons of having once was an e\cellent scholar, appears to have uttered certain doctrines in a lecture ap- qualified him for the University, and he was proximating to matcrialisin. Several of his accordingly sent to St Andrews, where he brethren joined in the persecution, but the obtained a bursary at the early age of four- subject of this memoir, who had been bred teen. His genius immediately pointed to, and obtained preferment in, the Chiirch towards the exact sciences, and Dr Wilkie, of Scotland, victoriously refuted the charge. then Professor of M athematics, and a man It was the triumph of genius over supersti- remarkable for unaffected candour, became tion. In 1812 appeared his " Outlines of first his friend and then his companion. Natural Philosophy, " and soon after this he Proceeding in his studies at St Andrews, enjoyed the pleasure of beholding a nephew, he attended the divinity class, and at length whom he had adopteil, obtaining the prize obtained a licence to preach. This em- for, and carrying into execution, the plan powered him to perform an act of filial for building the new College at Edinburgh. piety, for he was thus enabled occasionally When the supplement to the Encyclopedia to assist his f.ather, who, although not old, Britannicawas first meditated atEflinburgh, yet was frequently disabled by disease, from the most eminent men in that city were fulfilling the duties of his station. In 1772 selected to compose the different articles of he lost his father, who left behind him a which the new volumes consisted. Accord- numerous family, of whom the three young- ingly, on the appearance of the first, it was ei*t sons and two daughters were under preceded by a masterly dissertation from the fifteen years of age. Towards the latter, pen of Dugald Stewart, F.R.L.S., on tha 360 PLA FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PLA

progress of metaphysical, ethical, and politi- they were invested, that predominated in cal philosophy, since the renewal of letters his own bosom. While he left nothing un- iu Europe. To another portion of this work explained or unreduced to its proper place was a|)|>en(le(l a general view uf the progress in the system, he took care that they should of mathematical and physical science, by never be perplexed by petty difficulties, or John Playfair, Professor of Natural Philo- fewildered in useless details; and formed sophy, &c. The only praise aspired to by tlieni betimes to that clear, mascuUne, and this very learned man in the work alluded direct method of investigation, by which, to is that arising from " clearness and pre- with the least labour, the greatest advances cision." In the course of his dissertation, he might be accomplished. Professor Play-

not only gives a history of the srieuces, but fair, however, was not merely a teacher ; and also biographical sketches of the men by has fortunately left behind him a variety of whom they were either culti\ated or re- works, fi-om which other gener.ations may pressed, the wliole of tliis composition ex- be enaliled to judge of some of those qnalti- uibits an equal tlegree of ability and inves- cations which st) powerfully recommended tigation, and of candour and liberality in and endeared him to his contemporaries. respect to the various inductions and con- With reference to these works, we do not

clusions ; and it abounds with hints and think we ai-e influenced by any national or instructions for the youthful student, and, other iiartiality when we say, that he was by supjilying one general, unbroken line of certainly one of the best writers of his age, .scientific knowledge, cannot fail to be emi- and even that we do not now recollect any nently useful to aU. In iSlO, when ap- of his contemporaries who was so great a proaching his Ctith year, the subject of our master of composition. There is a certain memoir repaired, on a scientitic mission, to mellowness and richness about his style Italy, and spent a considerable time in which adorns, without disguising the weight visiting and examining the Alps. Soon and nervousness which is its other character-

after his return to Edinburgh the Professor's istics ; a sedate gracefulnes.s and manly sim- health began to decline, notwithstanding plicity in the more level passages, and a mild which he, at this_ very period, made some majesty and considerate enthusia.sm where scientific discoveries concerning the rays of he rises above them, of which we scarcely the sun. Of Mr Playfair's scientific attain- know where to find any other example. ments, of his proficiency in those studies to There is great equabihty, too, and sustained which hs was peculiarl)^ devoted, we are but force in every part of his writings. He

slenderly qualified to judge ; but we believe never e-xhausts himself in flashes and epi- we hazard nothing in saying that he was one grams, nor languishes in tameness or in- of the most learned mathematicians of his sipidity. At first sight you would say that age, and among the first, if not the very plainness and good sense were the ])redomi-

first, who introduced tlie beautiful discoveries nating qualities ; but, by and by, this sim- of the later continental geometers to the plicity is enriched with the delicate and knowledge of his countrymen, and gave vivid colours of a fine imagination, the free their just value and true place in the scheme and forcible touches of a most powerful in- of European knowledge to those important tellect, and the lights and shades of an improvements by which the whole aspect of unerring and harmonizing taste. In com- the abstract sciences has been renovated paring it with the .styles of his most cele- since the days of our illustrious Newton. brated contemporaries, we would say that He possessed, in the highest degree, all the it was more purely and peculiarly a written characteristics both of a fine and powerful style, and therefore rejected those ornaments undei-standing, at once penetrating and that more properly belong to oratory. It vigilant, but more distinguished, perhaps, had no impetuosity, hurry, or vehemence ; for the caution and sureness of its march, no bursts or sudden turns or abruptions, like than for the brilliancy or rapidity of its that of Burke ; and though eminently smooth movements, and guided and adorned through and melodious, it was not modulated to a all its progress by the most genuine enthu- uniform system of solemn declamation like siasm for all that is grand, and the justest that of Johnson, nor spread out in the richer taste for all that is beautiful, in the truth or and voluminous elocution of Stewart ; nor the intellectual energy with which he was still less broken into the patch-w-ork of habitually conversant. To what account scholastic pedantry and conversational these rare qualities might have been turned, smartness which has found its admirers in and what more brilliant or lasting fruits they Gibbon. It is a style, in short, of great might have. produced, if his whole hfe had freedom, force, and beauty ; but the de- been dedicated to the solitary cultivation of liberate style of a man of thought and of science, it is not for us to conjectiu'e ; but it learning ; and neither that of a wit throwing cannot be doubted that they added incalcul- out his extempores with an afi'ectation o£ ably to his elegance and utility as a teacher, careless grace, nor of a rhetorician, thinking both by euabUng him to direct his pupils to more of his manner than his matter, and the most simple and luminous methods of letermined to be admirefl for his expres.sion enquiry, and to imbue tbeir minds from the wliatever may be the fate of bis sentiments. very commencement of the study, with that Professor Playfair's habits' of composition, fine relish for the truths it disclosed, and IS we have understood, were not, p-n-haps, that high sense of the majesty with whieli i'xactly what might have lieen expected from NO. XLVI. PL A FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PLA their results. He wrote rather slowly, and and sentiments had thiit unity and congrnity his first sketches were masterly pictures. that they fell almost spontaneously into His chief effort and pfreatest pleasure was harmony and order, and the last added in-

in their revisal and correction ; and there corporated and assimilated with the first, ag were no limits to the improvement which if they had spruug simultaneously from the resulted from this appUcation. It was not same happy conception. The same admir- the style merely, or indeed chieHy, that able taste which is conspicuous in his writ- gained by it. The whole reasoning, and ings, spread a similar charm over his whole sentiment, and illustration, were enlarged life and conversation, and gave to the most and new modelled in the course of it, and a learned philosopher of his day the manners naked outline became gradually informed and deportment of the most perfect gentle- with life, colour, and expression. It was not man. Nor was this in him the result merely at all like the common finishing and polish- of good sense and good temper, assisted by ing to which careful authors generally sub- an early familiarity with good company, and ject the first draughts of their compositions, consequent knowledge of his own place and nor even like the fastidious and tentative that of all around him. His good breeding alterations with which some more anxious was of a higher descent, and his powers of writers essay their choicer passages. It was, pleasing rested in something better than in fact, the great fiUing in of the picture, the mere companionable qualities. With the working up of the figured weft on the naked greatest kindness and generosity of nature and meagre woof that had been stretched to he united the most manly firmness and the receive it ; and the singular thing in this highest principles of honour, and the most case was not only that he left this most cheerful and social dispositions, with the material part of his work to be performed gentlest and steadiest affections. There after th» whole outline had been finished, never, indeed, was a man of learning and but that he could proceed with it to an in- talent who appeared in society so perfectly definite extent, and enrich and improve as free from all sorts of pretention or notion of long as he thought fit, without any risk his own importance, or so little solicitous to either of destroying the proportions of that distinguish himself, or so sincerely wilUng outline or injuring the harmony and unity to give jjlace to every one else. Though of the design. He was perfectly aware, too, the most social of human beings, and the of the possession of this extraordinary power, most disposed to encourage and sympathize and it was partly, we presume, in conse- with the gaiety and joviality of others, his quence of it that he was not only at aU times own spirits were, in general, rather cheerful ready to go on with any work in which he than gay, or at least, never rose to any tur- was engaged without waiting for favourable bulence or tumult of merriment; and while moments or hours of greater alacrity, but he would listen with the kindest indulgence that he never felt any of these doubts and to the more extravagant salKes of youth, and misgivings as to his being able to get credit- prompt them by the heartiest approval, his ably through with his undertaking, to which own satisfaction may generally be traced in we beUeve most authors are occasionally a slow and temperate smile gradually liable. As he never wrote upon any subject mantUng over his benevolent and intelli- of which he was not perfectly master, he gent features, and lighting up the counte- was secure against all blimders in the sub- nance of the sage with the expression of the stance of what he had to say, and felt quite mildest and most genuine philanthropy. It assured that, if he was only allowed time was wonderful, indeed, considering the enough, he should finally come to say it in measure of his own intellect, and the rigid the very best way of which he was capable. and undeviating propriety of his own con- He had no anxiety, therefore, either in duct, how tolerant he was of the defects and undertaking or proceeding with his tasks, errors of other men. If we do not greatly and intermitted and resumed them at his deceive ourselves, there is nothing here of convenience, with the comfortable certainty exaggeration or partial feeling, and nothing that all the time he bestowed on them was with which an indifferent and honest turned to good account, and that what was chronicler would not concur. Nor is it left imperfect at one sitting, might be altogether idle to have dwelt so long on the finished with equal ease and advantage at personal character of this distinguished in- another. Being thus perfectly sure both of dividual, for we are persuaded that this per- his ends and his means, he experienced in sonal character has always done as much for the course of his compositions none of that thecause of scienceand philosophy among us little fever of the spirits with which that as the great talents and attainments with operation is so apt to be accompanied. He which it was combined, and has contributed, had no capricious visitings of fancy which in a very eminent degree, to give to the it was necessary to fix on the spot, or to better society of Edinburgh that tone of in- lose for ever, no casual inspirator to invoke telligence and Uberality by which it is so and to wait for. All that was in his mind honourably distinguished. It is not a litUe was subject to his control, and amenable to advantageous to philosophy that it is in his call, though it miglit not obey at the fashion, and it is still more advantageous to

moment ; and while his taste was so sure the society which is led to confer upon it that he was in no danger of overworking any this apparently trivial distinction. It is a thing that he had designed, all his thoughts great thing for the country at large, — —

PLA FIl'ESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PLA

for its ba|>pine8s, its prosjierity, and its where they were in readiness to receive the renown, that the apparent influencing Right Hon. the Lord Provost, Magistrates, part of its population should be made and Council of the City. The nieinliers of familiar, even in its untasked and social the Royal Society, the Astronumical Insti- hours, with sound and liberal information, tution, Royal Jleilical Society, and otliers, and be taught to know and respect those were accommodated in the different apart- who have distinguislied themselves for great ments of the house of this friend of genius intellectual attainments. Nor is it, after and learning. At half-past two this affect- all, a sliglit or despicable reward for a man ing procession advanced from the Profes- of genius to be received with honour in the sor's house up Duke Street, through St highest and most elegant society around Andrew Square, and along Princes Street, him, and to receive in his living person that and the Regent's Bridge, to the Calton Bury- homage ami applause which is too often re- ing Ground. The whole procession went served for his memory. Now those desirable four and four, and it is supposed the train ends can never be effectually accomj/hshed of mourners consisted of not less than five unless the manners of our leading jjhiloso- phers are agreeable, and their personal habits ground, the gentlemen who precede and dispositions engaging and amiable. corjjse opened two and two, and uncovered From the time of Blair and Robertson down as it passed to the place of interment. All to Stewart and Brewster, the people of Edin- the windows in the streets through which burgh have been fortunate in possessing a the funeral passed were fUled with ladies, succession of distinguished men, who have seemingly anxious to view so large an as- kept up this salutary connection between semblage of learning and talent. A monu-

the learned and the fashionable world ; but ment wa-s, a few years afterwards, erected there never, perhaps, was any one who con- to his memory, bearing the following in- tributed so powerfully to confirm and extend scription : it, and that in times when it was peculiarly JOANNI PLAYFATR, difficult, as the individual of whom we are Amicorum Pietas,

now speaking ; and they who have had the Desideriis Icta Fidelibus, most opportunity to observe how superior Quo Ipse Loco Templum Uraniae Suae the society of Edinburgh is to that of most Olim Dioaverat. other places of the same size, and how much Hoe Monumentum of that superiority is owing to the cordial Posuit combination of the two aristocracies of rank M.D. CO. ex. X.V.I. and of letters, of both of which it happens Nat. VI. Idns. Mart: m.d.c.o.xlviii, to be the chief provincial seat, will be best Obiit. XIV. Kal. SectU: M.D.C.C.0.X1S. able to judge of the importance of the ser- which we thus translate : vice John Playfair rendered to its inhabi- To tants, and through them, and by their ex- John Playfaib, ample, to all the rest of the country. At The Devotion of His Friends, length, whUe enjoying a high degree of Moved by their Sincere Affections, fame, and a very extensive reputation. Pro- In the Place Where He Hunself a Temple fessor Playfair was suatched away from his to His Own Urania pupils, his friends, and the learned and Formerly had Dedicated, scientific circle of society around him, being This Monument seized with a disease that proved fatal This Has Erected was a suppi-ession, the same malady with MDCCCXXVI. which he had been before afflicted. He Bom, 8th March, MDCCXLvm. died like a Christian philosopher. Finding Died, 19th July mdcccxix. his end approach, our amiable Professor PLAYFAIR, Lieutenant-Colonel Sm assembled his sisters and nephews around Hugh Lyon, LL.D., Provost of St And- his bedside, and after a succinct statement rews, was bom at the Manse of Meigle and of his affairs, he took his leave of them with Newtyle on the 17th November 1786, and great affection, notwithstanding the agonies died at St Andrews on the 23d Januaiy endured by him. About two next morning 1861, in his 75th year. He received hia the pain wholly ceased, and he soon after early education at his native place, after- expired, in presence of his afflicted relatives, wards at Dundee Grammar School, and on the 20th July 1819, at the mature age of finally at the United College of St Andrews, seventy. The funeral of this much regretted of which his father had been appointed scholar took place on Monday, 26th July, Principal. The erudition and literary in Edinburgh, and the ceremony presented acquirements of Princijral Playfair were a solemn and mournful spectacle. The well known. He was historigrapher to the students of the Natural Philosophy class went Prince of Wales, member of the Royal to Professor Phiyfair's house in Albany Row, Society, and author of "A System of from the College Yard, at half-past one. Chronology," and many other learned works. The Professors of the University met at Dr In 1804 Hugh enlisted in the volunteers, Gregory's at the same time, and walked and was placed on the Colonel's Staff, and in procession, preceded by their officers, the same year received an artillery appoint- bearing their insignia reversed, covered ment to Bengal. After preparatory study with crape, to the Professor's house, at Edinburgh and Woolwich, and after PLA FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PLA passing preliminary examinations by Dr Horse Artillery ; and in 1817 he sailed fo' Hutton and Mr Landman, he sailed from Scotland on furlough, granted on sick certi- Portsmouth in 1805, and arrived in Calcutta ficate. On the voyage they touched at St the same year. He was selected in 180G to Helena, and Captain Playfair spent a day command a detachment of European Artil- with Madame Bertrand, and saw Napoleon lery proceeding to the upper provinces, Buonaparte. In 1820, having come to St having a surgeon attached, and arrived at Andrews, he was presented with the freedom Cawnpore without the loss of a man or any of the City, on which occasion he gave a ball casualty whatever. This successful first to his friends in the Old Town Hall. Cap- command speedily induced a second ; and in tain Playfair married in 1820, and again 1807 he was appointed by Sir John Hors- sailed for India. On his anival at Calcutta ford to the command of the artillery at he was offered the command of a troop of Bareilly—four guns and a full complement Horse Artillery by the Marquis of Hastings. of men, cattle, and ammunition. At This appointment, however, he did not Bareilly the young officer found much accept, but applied for the vacant office of laxitude of discipUne and many abuses to Superintendent of the Great Military Road, correct, in which duties he succeeded ad- Telegraph Towers, and Post-Office Depart- mirably, getting his detachment into a ment between Calcutta "and Benares, a dis- capital state of order and efficiency. On tance of 440 miles. This high appointment 9th September of the same year (1807), he was obtainetl by him in 1820, and he dis- was ordered to march at 10 P.M. with his charged its duties faithfully and diligently detachment, a battafion of infantry, and a up to 1827. During this period his great troop of cavalry, to quell a disturbance in natural abilities, indomitable perseverance, Oude against the robber Tumon Sing, fifty and amazing adaptation of means to ends, miles distant. The expedition was success- were fully displayed, and effected wonderful ful, and Playfair was well rewarded for his results. In 1827 the Quarter-Master-Gene- previous exertions in drilling his men, by ral appointed a committee to inspect and finding that his guns kept up with the report on this road ; and the committee cavalry all the way. After a variety of having travelled over and carefully inspected services, he marched in January 1809 to the whole line from Benares and Chunar to join the army at Saharunpore, under Gene- the capital, gave in a report exceedingly ral St Leger and General Gillespie, and had favourable, and justly so, to the " zeal Bome skirmishing with the Sikhs. Being evinced by Captain Playfair in every cir- selected to go to Herdvvar Fair to purchase cumstance connected with his charge," aa horses for a re-mount in the Hor.se Artillery well as to the successful improvements of Playfair declined to take any share in thi that officer on the dull routine of govern- purchase unless he had tlie selection anc ment service in the interior. In June 1827 choice of the number to be allotted to the he w:.s promotetl to the rank of Major, and Horse Artillery, as his horses had double th was ordered to assume the command of the work to do that any others had. This fourth battalion of artillery at Dumdum. formed a precedent which was followed He was elected the same year to be a mem- ever after. In November 1809 he was ap- ber of the Asiatic and Orphan Societies of pointed, as the fittest officer in the regi- Calcutta. Whilstin command of Dumdum, ment, to fill the office of Adjutant and Major Playfair endeared himself to the Quarter-Master to the enlarged corps of station by the wise and salutary measures Horse Artillery, on the recomioendation of for conducting regimental business. He in- General Sir John Horsford, the Command- stituted games, such as cricket aud his

"ant. The next five years were occupied in native golf, for the men ; set ^oing a drilling and organizing his new corps, in garrison theatre and extensive and useful

building barracks, stables, and houses, and library ; established messes in the regiment, in ordmary regimental duty. In 1814 he and generally did very much for the innocent arrived from a visit to Calcutta at the Ho amusement, religious instruction, aud moral Artillery camp, in front of the foi tress of improvement of those under his command. Kolunga, where Gieneral Cidlespie had been That he was beloved by the whole station, killed two days before in attempting to civilians, officers, and privates, was to be escalade the fort. Battering guns were thei expected as a result of his unwearied efforts eent for, and Major Brooks and Playfai to promote the enjoyment and comfort of got the eighteen pounders up the hill into all. In 1831 Major Playfair resigned his the batteries, and opened their tire at on( appointmentin the 4th battalion of Artillery, hundred and eighty yard.s from the fortress, on which occasion he received addresses Playfair was struck by a sjient ball en thf from the men of the regiment, and a public breast, and his cheek was grazed by a dinner from the officers, and compUraentary splinter from a shell which had exploded in orders were likewise issued by the comman- the battery. But Kolunga was stormed, dant. The Major resigned the service of the after two days' breaching, by 1500 men, Hon. the East India Compaity on the 10th who, in about an hour after, were driven of February 1834, and retired to the city back with the loss of 500 killed and wounded. where he had spent many happy days in hia After some more days of heavy fighting, yonth, and in which centred all his the enemy evacuated the fort. In 1815 sympathies and affections. To pass the Playfair was promoted to be Captain in the eveuipg of his life at St Andrews had ever 8G4 ;

PLA FIFESHTRE BIOGRAPHY. PLA

been the ardent desire of his heart ; and in- of South Street with a veritable fishwife on deed, he purchased his future residence each arm, sharing their somewhat noisy there before he could return to inhabit it, in confidences with an admirable atlectation of order to rivet one link of the chain which interest. And hero let us pay the tribute of was to bind him to the old city during the one sentence to that able Lieutenant of the remaining years of his earthly pilgrimage. Major's—Allan Robertson, the champion In this brief sketch it is impossible golfer, who died in September 1859. These thoroughly to realise for the general reader two men, dissimilar in station, but akin in the utter degradation and miserable decay their genial natures, have done more for St of St Andrews thirty years ago. It was not Andrews than school, or college, or storied then, nor for many years after, the gay yet tradition. The improved look of St And- cUgnified Scarborough of Scotland as we rews, consequent on the active interposition now recognise it. The magnificent links of Major Playfair, brought moneyed people lay, with all their vast capabilities, un- into the place. The Madras School throve

trodden ; there was no aristocratic golfing apace. The red-cloaked students became

club ; the city itself was heaped with ruins more familiar to the streets. The easy

the streets were irregular and dirty ; many of them, such as the Bell Streets, Playfair city. Terrace, Gladstone Terrace, &c., &c., were by antiquaries. The most timid lady could

unbuilt ; the cathedral and castle remains safely shudder over the Bottle-dungeon of pigs it were crumbling into unheeded decay ; Beaton's Castle. The change, let us say and kine grazed in front of the ill-attended in brief and once for all, was wonderful in-

colleges ; so that, in fact, when Major Play- deed, and has no parallel as the result of fair schemed a reformation in St Andrews, what one strong will can do in the annals of he was simply proposing to himself the an every day life. Whilst Major Playfair erection of a handsome town on the site of a was thus devoting himself singly for the ruined city, and that with no public funds, good of St Andrews, two of his sons fell in little co-operation, and small chance of India—one at the storming of Sobraon in Becuring the application of private resources 1840, the other at the storming of Mooltan for his proposed end. First of all, the in 1848. The Major was appreciated by Major, as he was catholically known, took his townsmen. In 1844 he was entertained

to golfing, infused a fresh spirit into the at a pubhc dinner ; in 1847 his portrait, by practice of that beautiful pastime, and Sir J. Watson Gordon, was placed in the

founded a modest club under the name of Old Town Hall ; in 1850 he was presented the Union Parlour Club. This association by the town with a piece of plate for in- was based on an elfete body of royal and creasing enormously the revenues of the ancient golfers which had existed since 17.54. mussel bait department ; in 1856 the Uni- In 1842, the Major accepted the office of versity of St Andrews conferred on him

Provost as a means of doing more good to their highest honour, the degree of LL.D. ; " St Andrews. From that year forward, and the same year, the honour of knight, carried on the most extraordinary campaigns hood was bestowed on him by Her Majesty against abuse, filth, nigardhness, and ignor- the Queen. Seldom, in these days of tinsel ance, till some ten years afterwards gay reputations, has that last honour more it only visiiors of rank and fashion accepted { worthily been bestowed ; and was a matter of course) the tine old city as the fitting mark of recognition on the part of first watering-place in North Britain. Hi Royalty to bestow it on the eccentric and this was accomplished is matter for detail energetic soldier who had begged, and bullied, beyond the scope of a brief biographical and wheedled away the filth and ruinous notice such as the present. The Major was neglect which bid fair to entomb St And- never known to try anything which he did rews as completely as did the lava torrents not accomplish. In his individuality he Herculaneum or Pomreii of old. He was was proficient in all kinds of manly sports a man, this Sir Hugh Playfair, only to be —a good mechanic, with a special leaning thoroughly appreciated by his familiars, and, towards photography, which he was the now that he is gone, happy is he who can first (being initiated by his friend Claudet) even say, " Vidi tantum." Sir Hugh was to introduce into St Andrews, now cele twice married, and left a widow, four brated as a chief home of the art. The daughters, and three sons, the eldest of Major was also endued with a plentiful whom. Captain Frederick Playfair, Madras fund of the dryest of dry humour, which Artillery, was married to Miss Farnie in smoothed many a difficulty away in his 1855. Whether we look on the deceased intercourse with the inhabitants of St And- knight as the centre of a peculiar social rews. In music he was a proficient on circle, or as a city reformer, or as an ex- generally, we look on several instruments ; and, in general. Major emplar to Provosts Playfairmay be described as anaccompUshed one not likely to recur in the burgh annals gentleman with very shrewd, practical of Scotland. uses for the same. He was at home every- PLAYFAIR, Lton, C.B., a Scottish where and with everybody—could "chaff" chemist, was born at Bengal in 1819. He my Lord at the club into a subscription for received his early education at St Andrews his decided some pet improvement, and ten mmutes U niversity, Fifeshire ; and from afterwards walk down the broad pavement taste for chemical pm-suits, was sent to ,365 FIFESHIRE BlOGRAPH-i FOR

Glasgow to study under Mr Graham. After he grew up his evil habits increased, and returning from India, whither he had gone when checked by his father in his mad on account of ill-health, he placed himself career, he almost put the good old man to as an assistant to his old master, who had death by maltreatment. At last, provoked then become Professor of Chemistry in beyond all endurance, the father resolved to University College, London. In 183r rid himself of him by sending him out of was induced to proceed to Giessen, whose the country, and managed to get him en- laboratory was under the management of gaged to serve in the army under the com-

Liebig ; and like many other eminent Brit- mand of Brigadier Newton. While in ish chemists, he studied organic chemistry Flanders, he saw in passing along with one under that celebrated Professor, engaged in of his brother soldiers, a hen at a little dis- original investigations, and became Doctor tance covering her chickens under her wings, ' of Philosophy in Giessen University. 1 and out of pure wanton and mahcious mis- holding the Professorship of Chemistry at chief he fired his musket and shot the hen. the Royal Institution, Manchester, Dr The poor woman to whom it belonged, Playfair removed to London, where he was startled by the shot, went out and saw her much emjiloyed in royal commissions and government inquiries, and took an acti part in the Exhibition of 1851. He was also chickens, for both were lost to her, and appointed Insjiector-General of Schools and they formed a great part of her means of

Museums of Science to the Government. subsistence ; but the imfeehng youth would In 1858 he was elected to the Chemical not give her a farthing—threatening if she Chair in the University of Edinburgh, annoyed him he would send her after her vacant by the death of another of Liebig'a hen ; upon which the injured old woman pupils, Dr Gregory. predicted, " that as many people would one PORTEOUS, John, taUor in Edinburgh, day gaze in wonder on Ms lifeless body as the victim of the Porteous Mob, one of the that hen had feathers on hers." Young most extraordinary events recorded in his- Porteous afterwards left the army and re- tory, the origin of which having occurred in turned to London, where he wrought for

Fife may perhaps justify a brief sketch here some time as a journeyman tailor ; but his of Porteous' history. John Porteous, one evil habits brought him to poverty, and he of the captains of the Edinburgh City was found in rags by a friend of his father's, Guard, was son of Stephen Porteous, a who wrote to the old man to remit £10 to tailor in Canongate. The father held a clothe him and defray his travelling charges fair character, and was esteemed a good, to Edinburgh, which, moved by the com- honest man in the whole conduct of his life, passion of a father, he did, and when John his greatest misfortune was his having such appeared, the kind-hearted old man received a son as John. The father early dis- him with tears of joy, and embraced him covered in his son a perverseness of nature, with all the warmth of paternal affection. and a jironeness to commit mischievous and Vainly hoping that his son was a reformed more than childish tricks. The mother, out man, he gave up his business to him, and of a blind affection for her child, took them agreed that he should only have a room in all for growing proofs of spirit and manli- the house and his maintenance and clothes. ness, and as marks of an extraordinary and Young Porteous, thus possessed of the house sprightly genius. Thus the family were and trade of the father, and of all his other divided upon the education of the son, and goods and effects, began by degrees to from being often thwarted in his measures neglect and maltreat the old man, first, by about him, the father lost his authority, and refusing him a fire in his room in the middle for the peace of his family winked at faults of wi which the good man saw it his duty to cor- benefit of the fire in the kitchen, rect. The loss of parental authority begot to this he disallowed him a sufficiency of want of filial regard to the father, so that vii:tuals, so that he was in danger of being the boy shooting up with these vicious starved to death with cold and hunger. In habits and disregard of his parent, advanced this unhappy condition he applied for ad- from reproaches and curses to blows, when- mission into the Trinity hospital. John ever the unfortunate old man ventured to Porteous having been for some time in the remonstrate against the foUy and madness army, and being known to be possessed of of his son's conduct. The mother saw, when no small courage and daring, was selected it was too late, what her misguided affection by John Campbell, Lord-Provost of Edin- had produced, and how to her fond love in burgh, in the memorable year 1715, to be childhood the man made the base return of drill sergeant of the city guard, as it became threatening language and the utmost disre- necessary to have the guard well discipUned gard ; for he proved too hard for both father and made as effective as possible in that and mother at last. The father having a eventful period for the support of the go- good business, wanted John to learn his vernment and the protection of Edinburgh. trade of a tailor, both because it was easiest In this office he discharged his duty remark- and cheapest for the old man, and a sure ably well, and was often sent for by the source of good living for the son whether he Lord Provost to report what progress his began business for himself or waited to men made in military discipline. 'This gave succeed the father after his death ; but as him an opportunity of meeting sometimes SOU POR FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. POK

with a gentlewoman who had the charge of solved that he himself should hazard the the Lord Provost's house aod family, with experiment. This circumstance seems to whom he fell deeply in love, and after pay- have operated powerfully on the mind of ing his addresses for some time, and pro- the criminal, who now accused himself aa posing to her, he was accepted, and they the more immediate cause of his companion's were married. From a grateful sense of her fate. The Tolbooth stood near to St Giles' services, as well as from a conviction of Church, and it was customary at that time Porteous' ability tor the office, the Lord for criminals to be conducted on the last Provost proposed that John Porteous should Sunday they had to hve to church to hear be elected one of the captains of the city- their last sermon preached, and in accord- guard, and it was agreed to. This was a ance with this practice Wilson and Robert- situation of trust and respectabihty, and son were upon Sunday the 11th of April would have enabled the young couple to carried from prison to the Tolbooth church. live in comfort and ease if the husband had They were not well seated there, when conducted himself properly. The geutle- Wilson boldly attempted to break out, by wom.-in was a person of virtue and merit, wreuching himself out of the hands of the but was unlucky in her choice of a hus- four anned soldiers. Finding himself dis- band—Porteous was no better a husband appointed in this, his next care was to em- than he had been a son. They were not ploy the soldiers till Robertson should long married when he began to ill-use her. escape ; this he effected by securing two of He dragged her out of bed by the hair of them in his arms, and after calling out, " the head, and beat her to the effusion of " iZwre, Geordie, run for your life I blood. The whole neighbourhood were snatched hold of a third with his teeth. alarmed sometimes at midnight by her Thereupon Robertson, after tripping up the shrieks and cries ; so much so, indeed, that heels of the fourth soldier, jumped out of a lady living above them was obliged be- the pew, and ran over the tops of the seats tween terms to take a lodging elsewhere for with incredible agility, the audience opening her own quiet. Mrs Porteous was obUged a way for him sufficient to receive them to separate from her husband, and this was both ; and in hurrying out at the south gate her requittal for having been the occasion of of the church, he stumbled over the collection his advancement. His command of the money. Thence he reeled and staggered through the Parliament Close, and got down the back stairs, which have now disappeared, his ungovernable passions. Seldom a day often tripping by the way, but had not time passed but some of his men experienced his to fall, some of the town-guard being close severity. The mob on all pubUc occasions after him. He crossed the Cowgate, ran up excited his naturally bad temper, and on all the Horse Wynd, and proceeded along the days of rejoicing when there was a multitude Potterrow, the crowd all the way covering from the country as well as from the town, his retreat, who by this time were becoming the people were sure to experience oifensive so numerous, that it was dangerous for the and tyranical treatment from him. The guard to look after him. In the Horse hatred and terror of him increased every Wynd there was a horse saddled, which he year, and his character as an immoral man would have mounted, but was prevented by was known to everybody, so that he was the owner. Passing the Crosscauseway, he imiversally hated and feared by the lower got into the Kings Park, and took the orders both in town and country. This was Duddingstone road, but seeing two soldiers the position in which Captain Porteous walking that way, he jumped the dyke and stood with the people when he was called made for Clear Bum. On coming there, upon to take charge of the execution of the hearing a noise about the house, he stopt law in reference to Andrew Wilson, which hort, and repassing the dyke, he retook the it has been thought proper to detail before route for Duddingstone, under the rocks. proceeding to narrate the extraordinary When he crossed the dyke at Duddingstone, events that followed, and which indeed he fainted away ; but after receiving some partly serves to explain the cause of these refreshment, the first he had tasted for three events. Andrew Wilson, George Robert- days, he passed out of town, and soon after son, and William Hall, were condemned getting a horse, he rode off, and was not by the High Court of Justiciary to afterwards heard of, notwithstanding a die on Wednesday the 14th of April diUgent search made. Upon Robertson's 1736. Hall was reprieved, but Wilson getting out of the church door, Wilson was and Robertson were left to suffer the immediately carried out without hearing extreme penalty of the law. A plan was sermon, and put in close confinement to concocted to enable them to escape out of prevent his escape, which the audience the Tolbooth by sawing the iron bars of the seemed much incUned to favour. Notwith- window ; but Wilson, who is described as a standing his surprising escape, Robertson " round squat man," stuck fast, and before came back about a fortnight afterwards, and he could be disentangled the guard were called at a certain house in the neighbour- alarmed. It is said that Robertson wished hood of Edinburgh. Being talked to by the to attempt first to escape, and there is Uttle landlord touching the risk he ran by his im- doubt he would have succeeded, but he w.as prudence, and that if caught he would suffer prevented by Wilson, who obstinately re- unpitied as a madman, he answered, that as POR riFESHIEE BIOGRAPHY. he thought himself indispensably bound to pay the last duties to his beloved friend Andrew Wilson, he had been hitherto de- tained in th6 country on that account, but ently exasperated agamst he was determined to steer another course and the report of it was soon spread over soon. He was resolved, however, not to be town and country. Porteous conducted hanged, pointing to some weapons he had Wilson to the gallows, where he died very about him. It was strongly surmised that penitent, but expressing more sorrow on plots were laid for favouring Wilson's account of the common frailties of life, than escape. It was well known that no blood the crime for which he suffered. His body hacl been shed at the robbery ; that all the was given to his friends, who carried it over money and effects had been recovered except to Pathhead in Fife, where it was interred ; a mere trifle; that Wilson had suffered George Robertson having, as we have seen, severely in the seizure of his goods on several rashly attended the funeral before going occasions by the revenue officers ; and that, abroad. During the melancholy procession however erroneous the idea, he thought him- of the criminal and his guard, accompanied self justified in making reprisals. Besides, by the magistrates, ministers, and others Wilson's conduct had excited a very great from the Old Tolbooth, which stood in the sympathy in his favour ; and the crime for Lawnmarket, to the scaffold, which was which he was condemned was considered placed in the Grassmarket, there was not very venial at the time by the populace, who the slightest appearance of a riot, nor after hated the malt tax, and saw no more harm Wilson had been suspended, until Ufe was in smuggling or in robbing a collector of extinct, did the least manifestation of dis- excise, than in any matter of trifling im- turbance occur on the part of a vast crowd portance. The magistrates of Edinburgh, of people collected from town and country in order to defeat all attempts at a rescue, to witness the execution. The magistrates lodged the executioner the day previous in of Edinburgh had retired from the scaffold the Tolbooth, to prevent his being carried to a house close by ; concluding, with reason, off ; the sentinels were doubled outside the that as all was over with poor Wilson, no prison; the officers of the trained bands disturbance could then happen, and the were ordered to attend the execution, like- executioner was actually on the top of the wise the city constables with their batons ; ladder cutting Wilson down, when a few and the whole city-guard, having ammuni- idle men and boys began to throw pebbles, tion distributed to them, were marched to stones, or garbage at him (a common prac- the place of execution with screwed bayonets, tice at that time), thinking he was treating and to make all sure, at desire of the Lord the affau? rather ludicrously ;—whereupon Provost, a battahon of the Welch FusiUers, Captain Porteous, who was in very bad commanded by commissioned officers, humour, became highly incensed and in- marched up the streets of the city, and took stantly resented, by commanding the city- up a position on each side of the Lawnmar- guard, without the slightest authority from ket ; whilst another body of that corps was the magistrates, and without reading the placed under arms at the Canongate guard. riot act or proclamation according to law, A httle before two o'clock, Porteous came to fire their muskets, loaded with ball, and to receive Wilson the prisoner from the cap- by firing his own fuzee among the crowd, tain of the city prison. He was in a terrible by which four persons were killed upon the rage, first against Wilson, who had affronted spot and eleven wounded, many of them his soldiers, and next against the mob, who dangerously, who afterwards died. The were charmed with Wilson's generous action magistrates, ministers, and constables, who in the church, and had favoured Robertson" had retired to the first storey of a house escape. They are always on the side of fronting the street, were themselves in humanity and mercy, unless they are en- danger of being killed, a ball, as was dis- gaged themselves. Porteous was also in- covered afterwards, having grazed the side furiated because the Welch Fusibers had of a window where they stood. The Lord been brought to the Canongate, as if he and Provost and Magistrates immediately con- his guard had not lieen sufficient to keep vened, and ordered Captain Porteous to down any riot within the city. The mana- be apprehended and brought before them cles were two little for WUsons's wrists, who for examination ; and after taking a precog- committed Porteous to was a strong powerful man ; and when the nition, his Lordship hangman could not make them meet, Por- close imprisonment for trial for the crime of teous flew furiously to them, and squeezed murder; and next day fifteen sentinels of the poor man, who cried piteously whilst he the guard were also committed to prison, continued squeezing till he got them to meet, it clearly appearing, after a careful examina- to the exquisite torture of the miserable tion of the firelocks of the party, that they prisoner, who told him he could not enter- were the persons who had discharged their tam one serious thought, so necessary to pieces among the crowd. In the month of one in his condition, under such intolerable July 1736, Captain Porteous was put on pain. " No matter," said Porteous, "your trial, at the instance of the Lord Advocate torment will soon be at an end." " 'Well," of Scotland, before the High Court of Justi- said 'Wilson, " you know not how soon you ciary, for the murder of Charles Husband of may be placed in my condition ; God Al- and twelve other persons on the 14th ;

POR FTFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. POR

April preceding, being the day of the exe- called for the keeper, and finding he waa

cution of Andrew Wilson ; and after sun- gone, fell a breaking the door with fore-

dry steps of procedure, having been found hammers ; but making no great progress in by the unanimous voice of the jury, guilty, that way, they got together a parcel of he was, on tlie 20th of July sentenced dried broom, whins, withotlier combustibles to suffer death on Wednesday the 8th and hea]>s of timber and a barrel of pitch, of September in the same year, in the all previously provided for the purpose, and Grassmarket of Edinburgh—that was, about taking the fhuuljeaux or torches from the five months after Wilson's execution. On city othccrs, thiy stt fire to the pile. When the aUth of August, the Duke of Newcastle, the niaL;istratf.s aii]ieared, they repulsed one of the Secretaries of State, wrote a letter ;lieniwitb showers of stones, and threatened, to the Eight Hon. the Lord J ustice-General, f they continued in the streets and offered Justice-Clerk, and other Lords of Justiciary, re-sistance, they would discharge platoons of " of which the following is a copy :- My fire-arms among them ; and it is even re- Lords, apjilication having been made to Her ported they |ilaced sentinels on the magis- Majesty* in the behalf of John Porteous, trates to watch their motions. Upon the late Captain-Lieutenant of the City-Guard prison door taking fire, two gentlemen made of Edinburgh, a prisoner under sentence p to the rioters, and remonstrated with of death in the gaol of that city, I am com- them on the imminent da.nger of setting the manded to signify to your Lordships Her "e neighbourhood on fire, insinuating Majesty's pleasure that the execution of the that this outrage was likely to be deeply sentence pronounced against the said John resented, and might bring them to trouble ; Porteous be respited for six weeks from the to which it was answered that they should time appointed for his execution. I am, my take care no damage should be done to the obedient, Lords, jour Lordships' most . , and that as to the rest, they knew humble servant, (Signed) HoUes, New- their business, and that they (the gentle- castle." On receipt of this letter, the Lords men) might go about their's. Before the of Justiciary granted warrant to the magis- prison door was burnt down, several per- trates (if Edinipurgh for stopping the execu- rushed through the flames, ran up tion of Porteous till the 20th day of October stairs, demanded the keys from the keepers following. The effect of this respite on the and though they could scarcely see one minds of the ^leople of Scotland was to in- another for the smoke, got into Captain duce the belief that the government did not Porteous' apartment, calHng "Where is intend to carry out the sentence of death the murdering villain ? " He is said to have against Porteous at all—that it was merely answered, "Gentlemen, I am here; but a preliminary step to his pardon and libera- ..bat are you goin-' to do with me ? " When tion—and that, so far from condemning they answered, "We are to carry you to him, the government had taken up a pre- the place where you shed so much innocent judice against the town of Edinburgh, on blood, and hang you." He begged for account of the proceedings, and in some mercy, but they instantly seized and pulled

measure against all Scotland. A number him to the door in his bedgown and cap ; of persons, therefore, who were never dis- and as he struggled, they caught him by covered, resolved to take the matter into the legs and dragged him to the foot of the their own hands, and on the 7th of Septem- stair, while others set all the rest of the ber 1736, a body of strangers, supposed to prisoners in the Tolbooth at liberty. As be from the counties of Fife, Stirling, Perth, !oon as Porteous was brought to the street, and Dumfries, many of them landed gentle- le was set on his feet, and some seized him men, entered the West Port of Edinburgh by the breast, while others pushed behind. between nine and ten o'clock at night, and He was thus conducted to the Bow-head, having seized the Portsburgh drummer by where they stopped a moment, at the press- the way, brought along his drum with them, ing solicitation of some of the citizens, on and his son. Some of them advancing up the pretence that he might die peaceably, into the Grassmarket, commanded the but really that time might be gained, as drummer's son to beat to arms. They then they expected the Welch Fusiliers every " called out, Here ! all those who dare to moment from the Canongate, or that the " avenge innocent blood ! This probably garrison of the Castle would come to Por- was a signal for their associates to fall m. teous' relief. By this time some who ap- It was followed by instantly shutting up peared to be the leaders in the enterprise the gates of the city, posting guards at each, ordered him to march, and he was hurried and flying sentinels at all places where a down the Bow and to the gaUows stone, surprise might be expected, while a separa,te where he was to kneel,— to confess his mani- detachment threw themselves upon, and dis- fold sins and wickedness, particularly the

armed the city-guard ; and seizing the drum, destruction of human life he had committed beat about the High Street to notity their in that place, and to offer up his petitions success so far at least. At that instant, a to Almighty God for mercy on his soul. body of them proceeded to the Tolbooth, After which, in a very few minutes, he was led to the fatal tree. A rope being wanting, they broke open a shop • This was Queen Caroline, took out a coil the kingdom during the absei in the Grassmarket, and guinea George the First at Hanover, of ropes, for which they left a No. XLVII. PKA FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. PRI

on the counter,* and threw the one Gifted with a clear and vigorous intellect, end over a dyer's cross trees close by the he soon saw the way to success, and that he place of execution. On seeing the roue, as sedulously pursued. Acute and pene- Porteous made remonstrances and caug-ht trating, he was equally enterprising and in- hold of the tree, but being disengaged they dustrious, while his oldest acquaintance Bet him down, .and as the noose was about esteemed him for accuracy, honesty, and to be put over appe:ared to fairness in all his commercial dealings. gather fresh spirit, struggling and wrench- This, at an early period of bis life, was dis- ing his head and body. Here again some covered by a large banking estabhshment citizens appeared for him, telling that the that entrusted him with the Lssne of their troops being now in full march, they must notes, and the granting of money accommo- all expect to be sacrificed, and that the dations, before any agency had been ap- artillery of the Castle would doubtlesi pointed in Kirkcaldy. We are not to wonder, then, that these talents and habits secured for him such imminent success, and About a quarter of an hour before twelve such a high mercantile re|)utation, not only they put the rope about his neck, and ordered in his own vicinity, but .as far as his trans- him to be pulled up; which being done, actions extended. Nor did he only benefit observing his hands loose, he was let down himself—he gave judicious coimsel to some, again ; after tying his hands he was hauled seasonable aid to others, and an example of

up a second time, but after a short space, activity to all ; and, living as he did the last having wrought one of his hands loose, he was of his day, his memory was long cherished, let down once more, in order to tie it up and his loss long felt, by a numerous class of and cover his face. Stripping him of one of neighbours, and an extensive cii-cle of the shirts he had on, they wrapped it about friends. his head, and got him up a third time with PRINGLE, James, was bom in the par- loud huzzas and a ruff of the drum. After ish of CoUessie on the llt'j December 1803. he had hung a long time, they nailed the At the Parochial School of Kettle havmg rope to the tree ; then formally saluting received an ordinary education, he was, in one another, grounding their arms, and his seventeenth year, apprenticed to a mill- another ruff of the drum, they separated, wright. For many years he prosecuted this retired out of town, .and numbers of them occupation in the district of his nativity. were seen riding off in bodies well mounted From his youth he has cherished an en- litfei thusiastic love of poetry and composed _ tiU verses. In 1853 he pubhshed a duodecimo the two gentlemen who conversed with the volume entitled, "Poems and Songs on rioters at the Tolbooth, nor those who were Various Subjects." sent out by the magistrates to see if they PRINGLE, .John, mariner, Newton- knew any of them, could say they had ever Bushel, Devonshire, was born in Pathhead, seen any one of them before, though the by Kirkcaldy, on the 19th May 17(J0, where flames of the fire at the TiJbooth door he learned the weaving business, at that time rendered it as light as noonday ; so that it a flourishing one. When he came to man- was generally believed no citizen acted any hood he married, and the issue of that m.ar-

principal part in the tragedy ; though, in- riage was the late John Pringle, better deed, it is certain that many of the burgesses known among his companions as Jack and inhabitants of Edinburgh, led by curi- Pringle, who died at Kirkcaldy a few weeks osity, went to the streets to behold the sur- ago (1804). Shortly after the birth of the prising boldness and incredible extravagance younger Pringle, which was in 1793, a regi- of the scene. Upon the whole, it would ment of Highlanders came to Kirkcalily, seem that the rioters were a body of gentle- and the frail Mrs Pringle left her husband, men and others in disguise, some having and eloped with one of the kilted sergeants mason's aprons, others joiner's, flesher's, of the regiment. This event so afflicted shoemaker's, dyer's, and those of other poor Pringle that he at once abandoned his trades, who had concerted their plot with business and entered the Royal Navy. Like judgment, conducted it with secrecy, exe- all boys brought up in seaport towns, Pringle cuted it with resolution and manly daring, soon felt himself at home on board a ship, and completed the whole in the short space where, by his activity, his exemplary con- of two hours with unpar.alleled success. duct, and good seamanship, he ultimately PRATT, John, Esq., of Glentarkie, was became coxswain to England's greatest bom in the year 1768, and died at Kirkcaldy naval hero, the immortal Nelson, with whom on the 13th January 1847. Mr Pratt had he was a great favourite, as well as being his long been identified with the manufacturing constant attendant in all his battles. A interests of the district, and as long had he picture of Lord Nelson was once exhibited, been known and admired for those properties standing on his victorious quarter-deck, re- which constitute the true man of business. ceiving the swords of the vanquished officers of a French and Spanish fleet which he had * The person who did this was a man of the just conquered, Pringle being immediately name of Bruce, belonging to Anslruther, who behind him in fighting trim, that is, half returned some time after to the town, and was bareheaded and barefooted, to well-known lo the late Mrs Black, the mother of naked, and the late Admiral 'William Black. whom Nelson was handing sword after FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY.

--.."" .^uo..ci 1 ,u tut: liiouui 01 June Ltty.i, MiLu lL^> f I, 1 1 uiucii sanf/ ' -i.^ .- - .. » jioul a& itt behe had been having^" . .1 attained the extraordinary a"e o^ biiudlmg up so many into n. f,„-,.nt sticks into a fagsjot. 103 on the lUth of May _\Ve may mention, preceding. as a singular coincidence PYPEU, WiLLLUi, LL.D., those strange late Pro- m eventful times, that old fessor of Humanity in the University of i'ringle once, and once only, came „ St Andrews, was bom in the parish of tact with his faithless wife, and that was Rathen, Aberdeenshire, in upon the occasion 1797, and became of the regiment of her a student in Marischal pararaourembarking College, Aberdeen. for a place beyondsea^, He wasParochialSchoolmasterof when he was Laurence- put on board the very ship in kirk from 1815 to 1817 ; was then trans- which Pringle was a saUor. Jack, however, lated to Maybole, and in 1820 to the Gram- with the magnanimity of a true British mar School of Glasgow. In 1822 he sailor, took no further notice of the guilty succeeded Mr James Gray in the High couple than to make them as comfortable School of Edinburgh, which position he while on board as he possibly could, but worthily occupied until 1844. without letting On the 22d them know from whence of October that year the good he was appointed to the things flowed. To return to hia chair ofHumanity mfant in theabove University in son : Old Pringle, on leaving Kirk- succession to Dr Gillespie, whichhe occuj>ied caldy to become a man-of-war's man, gave for more than sixteen years, having died on his child in charge to his mother, the in- the 7th January 1861. In the fant's grandmother, then strictest living at Path- sense of the words, Dr head, where Pyper was the archi- he grew up to boyhood. He, tect of his own fortune ; he rose by merit too, became a weaver and a rover, and, hke alone. A strong sense of duty his father, went was perhajis to sea ; but not taking with his strongest characteristic ; and to this, as rt so well, the youth enlisted into the 42nd m many other persons of a hke Highlanders, and was stam|i, we present with that must in justice attribute gallant a certain sternness corps at the battle of Waterloo for and even severity with which he is stated which he received the to Waterloo medal. Ten have discharged his years functions as a school- afterwards young Pringle was di; master. The punctuality, alacrity, and assi- charged, and his period of service, togethe. duity which distinguished hunin his former with the two years allowed for Waterloo, capacity he carried with him to his entitled him to a pension higher of Is 2id per post at St Andrews. His prompt and diem, which he enjoyed from the date of his powerful elocution found here a more con- discharge in 1825 up to the day of his death genial field for its exercise. He had a high Young Pringle and his father, thecoxswain, idea of philological study as one of the most owing to the estrangement of the latter effective instruments of mental discipline, from the circumstances detailed above, and this idea he strove to reduce to practice never had much intercourse with each other, in his instructions. The tinge and latterly of severity it may he said none at all! traceable in his earher career is stated to Whether the name of Kirkcaldy had be- have been greatly softened during his aca- come distasteful to him owing to his wife's demic life. While in6dehty insisting on thorough is not known, but it is certain that durmg preparation and a well grounded knowledge the latter years of his long life, he of the Latin tongue, he is stated to have had no correspondence whatever with his cultivated with his students most friendly native place. Old Pringle, while in the ser- relations, and he certainly had at heart vice of the Royal Navy, their which he entered moral as well as intellectual at the age of advancement. twenty- one, took 1 active part He was himself a thorough classical scholar in many of our celebrated val actions, and of the older stamp, and the extent and select- among others, those of the Nile, Trafalgar, ness of his Ubrary showed that he was de- and Alexandria. He had a pension granted voted through Ufe to the studies which he him, and at the mature age of ninety-two professed. It does not detract from his entered into a second marriage. His wife reputation as a teacher to say that he did survives him. Prior to his last illness, not .attain to that although mastery of the wide range he was rather infirm, still his of philological attainment which falls to the mental faculties were unimpaired, and he lot of but a few. As a man of business he used to display those social qualities which was clear, temperate, and sagacious; and rendered him so agreeable a companion and the University Library was for Mime time so greatly distinguished him as a brave sailor indebted for its orderly management in no m early life. On his birthday, for several «nall measure to his gratuitous years past, he services. was in the habit of taking a By his colleagues summer's he was prized as an alile drive round the town of Newton and friendly coadjutor ; but for some years Bushel in company with his wife, and they, an insidious disease had deprived the college an amiable old couple, who were much and of his services, and his friends in a great justly respected by their townspeople, were measure of his soc^et3^ His decline was the observed of all observers, and heartily rapid, and the close sudden and tranquil. congratulated at each appearance Mr He left a lasting proof uf his interest in this Prmgletook part in the demonstrations of College by the bequest of £500 to found a the 10th March 1S03 at Newton Abbot on bui^ary, which came into operation Sessiou the occasion of the marriage of the Prince 371