of the lives in the five volumes of the second edition in the manner indicated, and wrote all the hundred and forty-seven additional memoirs by which the present edition is so greatly enlarged, with exception of those of John Crawford, William Richard Hamilton, William Jerdan, Horatio M'Culloch, R.S.A., J. Beaumont Neilson, John Phillip, R.A., Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, James Smith of Jordanhill, Andrew Wilson, Thomas Graham, D.C.L., F.R.S., and probably a few others, which were contributed by relatives or intimate friends of the deceased persons commemorated, or written by gentlemen specially conversant with the departments of knowledge in which the subjects of the memoirs were eminent. Mr. Thomson had just finished his editorial labours by completing the memoirs for the Supplement at the end of the third volume, with exception of a couple of lives added since, when the hand of death arrested his career before the final proofs had passed through the press. An interesting memoir of this indefatigable literary labourer, contributed by his widow, has been appropriately placed in the Supplement.

There being no more interesting and instructive history than the lives of the men by whom history is made, there has been added to the work a full Chronological Index of the memoirs of which it is composed, by means of which the reader is enabled to peruse them in the sequence of their dates, and thus convert this Dictionary into an admirable biographical history of Scotland, of its kind the most complete that has hitherto been published. In addition there is appended an Alphabetical Index, in which is registered the principal authorities and sources whence the materials of the biographies were derived.

In bringing the publication of this important Work to a conclusion, the Publishers feel gratified in being able to point to the entire fulfilment of the promises made in the prospectus. For unquestionably "Among the biographies will be found a large number of an exceedingly instructive character, calculated to form incentive examples to young and ardent minds, and numerous instances of men who have risen from humble circumstances and attained to high positions, and of those who have succeeded in the pursuit of knowledge in spite of the greatest hardships and difficulties." And all must confess that it forms "a comprehensive record of the achievements of those, in every walk of life, whose memories are cherished by their countrymen, and whose deeds form the history of their country; of those who, by their energy, wisdom, or bravery, their patience, industry, learning, or writings, have been influential in preserving its freedom or maintaining the rights of its people; who have been the leaders in the progress of national civilization; and whose exertions have raised their country to that proud eminence which it now occupies among the nations of Europe."

GLASGOW, April, 1870.

A

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY

OF

EMINENT SCOTSMEN.

A.

ABERCROMBY, THE HONOURABLE ALEX- are distinguished by an ease and gentlemanlike turn ANDER (Lord Abercromby), a distinguished lawyer of expression, by a delicate and polished irony, by a of the latter part of the 18th century, and an elegant strain of manly, honourable, and virtuous sentiment." occasional writer, was the youngest son of George Mackenzie states that they are also characterized by Abercromby of Tullibody, in Clackmannanshire, an unaffected tenderness, which he had displayed and brother of the celebrated Sir Ralph Abercromby. even in his speeches as a barrister. After exempliHe was born on the 15th of October, 1745. While fying almost every virtue, and acting for some years his elder brothers were destined for the army, Alex- in a public situation with the undivided applause of ander chose the profession of the law, which was the world, Lord Abercromby was cut off by a pulmore consistent with his gentle and studious charac-monary complaint at Falmouth, whither he had gone ter. After going through the ordinary course of for his health, on the 17th of November, 1795. classes at the university of Edinburgh, he became, in 1766, a member of the Faculty of Advocates. He ABERCROMBY, JOHN, the author of several was at this early period of his life the favourite of esteemed works on gardening, was the son of a reall who knew him, not only for the uncommon hand-spectable gardener near Edinburgh, where he was someness of his person, but for the extreme sweetness of his disposition. Being given to the gaieties of fashionable life, he had little relish for laborious employment; so that, for some years after his admission into the Faculty of Advocates, his splendid abilities were well-nigh obscured by indolence or frivolity. Roused at length to exertion, he engaged with ardour in all the duties of his profession, and soon became eminent for professional skill, and distinguished as a most eloquent pleader. His reputation and business rapidly increased, and soon raised him to the first rank at the Scottish bar. In May, 1792, he was appointed one of the judges of the Court of Session, when, in compliance with the custom of the Scottish judges, he adopted the title of Lord Abercromby; and, in December following he was called to a seat in the Court of Justiciary. "In his judicial capacity he was distinguished by a profound knowledge of law, a patient attention, a clearness of discernment, and an unbiassed impartiality, which excited general admiration." His literary performances and character are thus summed up by his friend Henry Mackenzie, who, after his death, undertook the task of recording his virtues and merits for the Royal Society:-"The laborious employments of his profession did not so entirely engross him, as to preclude his indulging in the elegant amusements of polite literature. He was one of that society of gentlemen who, in 1779, set on foot the periodical paper, published at Edinburgh during that and the subsequent year, under the title of the Mirror; and who afterwards gave to the world another work of a similar kind, the Lounger, published in 1785 and 1786. To these papers he was a very valuable contributor, being the author of ten papers in the Mirror and nine in the Lounger. His papers

VOL. I.

born about the year 1726. Having been bred by his father to his own profession, he removed to London at the early age of eighteen, and became a workman in the gardens attached to the royal palaces. Here he distinguished himself so much by his taste in laying out grounds, that he was encouraged to write upon the subject. His first work, however, in order to give it greater weight, was published under the name of a then more eminent horticulturist, Mr. Mawe, gardener to the Duke of Leeds, under the title of Mawe's Gardeners' Calendar. It soon rose into notice, and still maintains its place. The editor of a subsequent edition of this work says, "The general principles of gardening seem to be as correctly ascertained and clearly described by this author, as by any that have succeeded him." And further, "The style of Abercromby, though somewhat inelegant, and in some instances prolix, yet appears, upon the whole, to be fully as concise, and at least as correct and intelligible, as that of some of the more modern and less original of his successors." Abercromby afterwards published, under his own name, the Universal Dictionary of Gardening and Botany, in 4to; which was followed, in succession, by the Gardeners' Dictionary, the Gardeners' Daily Assistant, the Gardeners Vade Mecum, the Kitchen Gardener and Hot-bed Forcer, the Hot-house Gardener, and numerous other works, most of which attained to popularity. Abercromby, after a useful and virtuous life, died at London in 1806, aged about eighty years.

ABERCROMBIE, JOHN, M.D., was one of the latest of that medical school of which Scotland is so justly proud. He was born in Aberdeen, on the 11th of October, 1781, and was son of the Rev.

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