Thomas Wilson Bayne

“ These lectures on poetry, notwithstanding their technical and archaic character, were a decided success. The scheme was a splendid and comprehensive one, but too vast for one man to complete. It is not surprising, therefore, that a whimsical genius like Campbell should have suddenly broken away from the subject, after having done little more than make a vigorous beginning. Still, detached portions of what he says on Hebrew and Greek verse (in the lectures as rewritten for the ‘New Monthly Magazine’) have special value, and will always attract students of the art of poetry. ”

“ MacGregor is a born orator. You have to listen with rapt attention to every word he says. He is equally great, too, as Guthrie was, in pulpit and on platform.' Although a staunch churchman he was considerate and tolerant when his cherished principles were not assailed, and was not without hope that divided presbyterians might ultimately recognise one inclusive Church of Scotland. MacGregor proved the most popular Scottish preacher of his day. ”

“ For six months she was guardian to a nobleman's family, writing in Essex in 1806 'Letters on the Formation of the Religious and the Moral Principle to the Daughter of a Nobleman.' Returning to Edinburgh she contrasted the two modes of life, and warmly indicated her own preference in 'My ain Fireside,' a true Scottish song, resting on a certain independence of attitude, and suffused with sturdy sentiment and tenderness of feeling.
From this time Mrs. Hamilton (as she at length preferred to be called) was important and influential. ”

“ Wearying of Irish life after 1877, Buchanan presently settled in London, which thenceforth remained his headquarters. His literary activity was now at its height. His most powerful novel, 'God and the Man,' a vivid study of a family feud, appeared in 1881, and hardly a year passed till near his death without the issue of a new book of fiction from his pen. He did not abandon poetry, but published less. For the opening of the Glasgow International Exhibition in May 1888 he composed a patriotic ode, which was set to music by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. ”

“ Boyd at St. Andrews was probably better known beyond Scotland than any other presbyterian divine of his day. He had numerous friends among the leaders of the English clergy and eminent men of letters, and, popular as his writings were at home, they were even more widely read in America. Soon after settling in St. Andrews he began to urge the question of an improved ritual in the services of the national church, and in 18G6, on the initiative of his presbytery, a committee was appointed by the general assembly to prepare a collection of hymns. ”

“ Burns summarily disposes of him as 'a sleight-of-hand blackguard.' Jean Glover had the reputation of being the best singer and actor in the company, and in gaudy attire she used to play on a tambourine in the street to attract customers to her husband 'juggling in a room down a close.' In her player's finery she struck one ingenuous observer as 'the brawest woman that had ever been seen to step in leather shoon.' Her bright, melodious lyric 'Ower the muir among the Heather' is a genuine addition to Scottish pastoral poetry. She may have composed others, but they are not preserved ”

“ In 1898 Story was appointed principal of Glasgow University in succession to Dr. John Caird [q. v. Suppl. I] . In 1901 the ninth jubilee of the university was celebrated under his presidency. To his exertions was largely due the provision of new university buildings, mainly for medical and scientific purposes. At the same time he was a convinced champion of 'the humanities,' and his tenure of office was not free from friction with students. ”

“ As a professor he won the admiration and the affection of his students, and while, as described in the epilogue to 'In Memoriam,' 'wearing all that weight of learning lightly like a flower,' he invested his subject with a singular charm. ”

“ An acquaintanceship, begun in 1833, resulted in Kennedy's appointment as secretary to the Earl of Durham, when he went to Canada in 1838 as governor-general. After the earl's retirement at the end of the year Kennedy travelled in America, and sent to London a municipal report on Canadian institutions, which was printed for parliamentary use. He studied the question of local government in the principal cities of the United States, and settled for some months in Texas, where he formed lasting friendships with leading men and amassed materials for a history of that country. ”

“ His father impressed him by his manly self-dependence and his sterling integrity, while his mother by her songs and legends gave him a taste for literature and a bias towards her beloved west highlands. ”

“ He was the second son of James Hamilton of Bangour, advocate, whose grandfather, James, second son of John Hamilton of Little Earnock, Lanarkshire, founded the Bangour family. On the death of his elder brother, without heir, in 1750, Hamilton succeeded to the estate. His naturally delicate constitution, as well as his tastes, had all along prevented him from going much into fashionable society, and from his early years he had given himself to poetry, receiving ready commendation from his friends. ”

“ In 1757 Wilkie published ‘The Epigoniad,’ in nine books, based on the fourth book of the ‘Iliad,’ and written in heroic couplets in the manner of Pope's ‘Homer.’ To a second edition in 1759 he appended an ingenious apologetic ‘Dream in the manner of Spenser.’ On the appearance of this edition Hume warmly eulogised ‘The Epigoniad’ in a letter to the ‘Critical Review,’ complaining that the journal had unduly depreciated the poem when first published. Wilkie has no genuine right to be called ‘the Scottish Homer,’ but as a mere achievement in verse his ‘epic’ is creditable ”

“ In 1771 Fergusson became a regular contributor to Ruddiman's ‘Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement.’ He began with ‘Pastorals,’ according to the orthodox method of the eighteenth century. Presently, however, by the contribution of several Scottish poems, he was hailed as the direct successor to Allan Ramsay. From all parts of the country his fame began to be sounded, and before the end of 1772 he was the intimate friend of many of the most important and the most gifted men of Scotland. ”

“ He was born in 1700 in Aberdeen, and was educated there. He may be the James Ogilvie who graduated at King's College, Aberdeen, in 1790. Emigrating to America, he for some time conducted a classical academy in Richmond, Virginia, leaving the impression of being 'a man of singular endowments,' gifted with the power of rousing the mind from its torpor and lending it wings' (Southern Literary Messenger, vol. xiv.) Of a philosophical temperament, Ogilvie developed from a school rhetorician into a public lecturer, rebutting the theories of Godwin, of which in youth he had been enamoured. ”

“ Wrinkle, wile, falsehood, he avers, abounded in his conduct as long as he ‘did beir the freiris style,’ but he felt he must be otherwise placed to give full expression to his genuine manhood. He would remain devoted to the church, but he would likewise seek to be honest, and true to his higher nature. ”

“ Hogg deserved the approbation he received from his distinguished compeers. Scott probably understood him best, and invariably advised him well, receiving him heartily after a period of alienation owing to the ‘Poetic Mirror,’ and acting as peacemaker when Hogg became exasperated with Blackwood and the magazine. Wilson had a real and deep affection for the Ettrick Shepherd, as the idealism of the ‘Noctes’ shows, and it is to be regretted that he did not write Hogg's biography, as at one time he intended. ”

“ The problem, in all likelihood, will never be solved. The one thing clear about Dunbar after Flodden is that he was dead in 1530, for in that year Sir David Lyndsay, in his ‘Testament and Complaynt of the Papyngo,’ pays him a high tribute as a poet of the past. There is something to be said for Laing's inference, from Lyndsay's reference to Gawin Douglas as the greatest of poets recently deceased, that Dunbar's death must be placed earlier than 1522, the year in which Douglas is known to have died. ”

“ On the war breaking out with France in 1793, Dougall was transferred to the yacht Clarence, trading to the Mediterranean from the north of Scotland, and furnished with a letter of marque authorising reprisals on the high seas. When this vessel was lying at Greenock news was received, on 14 June 1794, of Lord Howe's great victory a fortnight earlier over the French, and, on a salute being fired in honour of the event, an accidental discharge from a mismanaged gun wounded Dougall terribly in the right side and permanently destroyed his eyesight. ”

“ His plans were taken up and matured by Brougham, Hume, and others, and he was fond of recurring to the accomplished fact of the London University as ‘the only important event in his life's little history.’ His interest in education and his eminence as an author were recognised by the students of Glasgow University, who elected him lord rector three times in succession (1826–9) , the third time over no less formidable a rival than Sir Walter Scott. Mrs. Campbell's death, in 1828, was an incalculable loss to an unmethodical man like Campbell, who was never quite himself afterwards. ”

“ He improved the estate exceedingly; laid out the village of New Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, in 1783, and did much in subsequent years to advance the interests of the villagers as well as of the tenantry. Forbes became known for his public spirit in Edinburgh. The High School, the Merchant Company, the Morningside Lunatic Asylum, and the Blind Asylum all owe much of their present excellence to his sagacity. Forbes shares with his partner, Hunter Blair, the credit due for the formation of the South Bridge. He also succeeded in giving the Scottish episcopalians a real and sure standing in Edinburgh. ”