present day. Soon after this Mr Home resigned his charge in consequence of finding that the highest censures of the church were about to fall upon him for having written a tragedy. He preached his farewellsermon to his congregation, on the 5th of June 1757; to prevent further proceedings in the church-courts against him, he gave in the resignation of his charge to the presbytery of Haddington two days after.

Before the conclusion of 1757 Mr Sheridan, then manager of the Dublin theatre, sent over to Mr Home a gold medal, with a suitable inscription, acknowledging his singular merit in having enriched the English stage with the tragedy of Douglas.' With his living, Mr Home appears for a while to have abandoned his native land, for he now repaired to London, where he produced several other tragedies, under the patronage of Garrick, who wrote prologues to some, epilogues to others, and warmly interested himself in the fate of them all. They are all indeed greatly inferior to 'Douglas.' Agis,' the first of his dramatic pieces, was now finely acted, and assisted by spectacle, otherwise, it is probable that it would not have been performed a second night. His third tragedy was founded on the cruel treatment which the two Setons, sons of the governor of Berwick, had experienced from the English. At Mr Garrick's suggestion, the title was altered (and consequently the characters, and several local passages) from the Siege of Berwick,' to the 'Siege of Aquileia,' for he very naturally conceived, that any national allusions might tend to foment the jealousy which then unfortunately subsisted between the Scots and English. It was acted in 1759. Some of the passages are very fine, but upon the whole, it is a tame performance. The Fatal Discovery' was produced in 1769, and reluctantly permitted during nine nights. Though 'Alonzo' had the advantage of Mrs Barry's admirable acting, it shared the same fate; the author mentions in his preface that she received applause greater than ever shook a theatre. Mr Home's last pro

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duction, Alfred,' lived only three nights. In the year 1760 Mr Home published a volume of plays, containing Agis,' Douglas,' and the Siege of Aquileia.' His other three tragedies appeared some time after. The whole were collected and edited in two volumes at Edinburgh, in 1798, under the inspection of Mr Woods. Lord Bute having represented Mr Home to his majesty as a man of talents, his name was placed on the pension list, nearly at the same time with that of Dr Johnson. He lived in a state of retirement from this period to the time of his death.

Nearly half-a-century after Douglas had been written, when the author had returned to, and was settled in his native country, Master Betty, better known by the name of the young Roscius, commenced his theatrical labours at Edinburgh, in the character of young Norval. The author attended the representation, and declared that that was the first time he had ever seen the part of Douglas played according to his ideas of the character when he conceived and wrote it. Mr Home, at the advanced age of seventy-eight, published his long meditated work, entitled, 'The History of the Rebellion in Scotland, in 1745–6,' in which he recorded the exploits and remarks of his youth. Of this work it is sufficient to observe, that the principles are just, and the opinions liberal. He died at Merchiston house, on the 5th of September, 1808, in the 86th year of his age.

The reader will find a most interesting and amusing article on the 'Works of John Home,' from the pen of Sir Walter Scott, in the 71st No. of the Quarterly Review, with the following extract from which we shall conclude this brief sketch: "We have said already that Douglas owes a great part of its attractions to the interest of the plot, which, however, is by no means a probable one. There is something overstrained in the twenty years spent by Lady Randolph in deep and suppressed sorrow; nor is it natural, though useful, certainly, to the poet, that her regrets should turn less on the husband of her youth, than upon the new-born child whom she had scarcely seen. There is something awkward in her sudden confidence to Anna, as is pointed out by David Hume. 6 The spectator,' says the critic, 'is apt to suspect it was done in order to instruct him—a very good end, but which might have been obtained by a careful and artificial conduct of the dialogue.' This is all unquestionably true; but the spectator should, and, indeed, must, make considerable allowances, if he expects to receive pleasure from the drama. He must get his mind, according to Tony Lumpkin's phrase, into a concatenation accordingly,' since he cannot reasonably expect that scenes of deep and complicated interest shall be placed before him, in close succession, without some force being put upon ordinary probability; and the question is not, how far you have sacrificed your judgment in order to accommodate the fiction, but rather what is the degree of delight you have received in return. Perhaps, in this point of view, it is scarcely possible for a spectator to make such sacrifices for greater pleasure than we have enjoyed, in seeing Lady Randolph personified by the inimitable Siddons. Great as that pleasure was on all occasions, it was increased, in a manner which can hardly be conceived, when her son (the late Mr H. Siddons) supported his mother in the character of Douglas, and when the full overflowing of maternal tenderness was authorized, nay, authenticated and realized, by the actual existence of the relationship. There will, and must be, on other occasions, some check of the feeling, however virtuous and tender, when a woman of feeling and delicacy pours her maternal caresses on a performer who, although to be accounted her son for the night, is, in reality, a stranger. But in the scenes we allude to, that chilling obstacle was removed; and while Lady Randolph exhausted her tenderness on the supposed Douglas, the mother was, in truth, indulging the same feelings towards her actual son. It may be erroneous to judge in this way of a drama which can hardly be again illustrated by such powers, exercised under circumstances so exciting to the principal performer, and so nearly approaching to reality. Yet, even in an abstract view, we agree with Mr Mackenzie that the chief scene between Lady Randolph and Old Norval, in which the preservation and existence of Douglas is discovered, has no equal in modern, and scarcely a superior in the ancient drama. It is certainly one of the most effective which the English stage has to boast; and we learn with pleasure, but without surprise, that, though many other parts of the play were altered before its representation, we have this masterpiece exactly as it was thrown off in the original sketch. 'Thus it is,' says the accomplished editor, 'that the fervid creation of genius and fancy strikes out what is so excellent as well as vivid, as not to admit of amendment, and which, indeed, correction would spoil instead of improving. This is the true inspiration

of the poet, which gives to criticism, instead of borrowing from it, its model and its rule, and which it is possible, in some diffident authors, the terrors of criticism may have weakened or extinguished."

James Anderson.

BORN A. D. 1739.-DIED A. D. 1808.

THIS intelligent and industrious author was born about the year 1739, at Hermiston, a village about six miles from Edinburgh, of parents who succeeded their forefathers for several generations in cultivating the same land. Nothing remarkable is known of them: they were a family of respectable farmers, and our author may be said to have inhaled with his first breath that spirit of agricultural knowledge for which he became so distinguished. Having been deprived of both his parents while yet very young, it was the wish of his guardian that he should occupy the paternal farm when old enough to undertake such a charge; and as much learning was not thought necessary for a farmer, young Anderson was discouraged by his friends from prosecuting his studies beyond a common school education; but that decision and firmness which were throughout his life the most conspicuous features of his character, now began to appear, and he displayed a resolution to judge and act for himself. He informs us, that having read Home's Essay on Agriculture,' and finding that he could not understand the reasoning for want of chemical knowledge, he immediately resolved to attend Cullen's lectures on that science. Being very young, and unaided by the countenance of any friend who could give him advice or introduce him to the world, he waited on Dr Cullen, and explained his views and intentions. The doctor, considering it as a boyish whim which might lead him away from his necessary pursuits, at first endeavoured to dissuade him from the undertaking; but finding that our youth had fully reflected on the subject, and adopted his resolution with a fixed determination to persevere in it, he assented to the design; and as the penetration of that celebrated man soon discovered the capacity and steadiness of his young pupil's mind, he not only encouraged his present object, but became his sincere friend, and carefully directed his future studies.

Among the first things he did upon his farm, was to introduce for the first time the small two-horse plough, now in universal use over the greater part of Scotland. After having occupied Hermiston for a few years, he quitted it as a place that did not possess a sufficient field for his enterprising mind, and took a long lease of a large farm in the wilds of Aberdeenshire, consisting of about 1300 acres of land almost in a state of nature. This vast undertaking was entered upon before he was of age, the execution of the lease having been deferred till that period arrived. In the midst of the difficulties he had to contend with in bringing this tract into cultivation-which were very great, arising chiefly from the badness or total want of roads, the remote distance from markets, and the precariousness of the climate-he began his career as an author with his essays on planting, &c. first printed in the year 1771, in the Edinburgh Weekly Magazine,' under the signature of Agricola, and again published separately in 1777. The first

edition of his essays on agriculture, observations on national industry, and several others of his early writings were composed during a residence of more than twenty years at Monkshill, the name of the abovementioned farm. In the year 1780 the honorary degrees of A. M. and LL. D. were conferred upon him by the university of Aberdeen.

In 1783, having previously arranged matters for the conducting of his farm, he removed to the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, principally with a view to the education of his increasing family, and influenced, no doubt, by a desire to live where he could enjoy more of literary society than was to be had in so remote a part of the country. Previous to his departure from Aberdeenshire, he was actively employed in promoting measures for alleviating the distresses of the poorer classes in that county, owing to the failure of the crops in 1782. About the same year he printed and circulated among his friends, a proposal for establishing the Northern British fisheries. This tract was never published, but the attention of the government being excited to the subject by it, he was applied to by the treasury to undertake a survey of the western coast of Scotland, for the purpose of obtaining information on this important subject. This public-spirited inquiry he undertook, and accomplished in 1784, having a revenue cutter to convey him round the coast. We next find him engaged in preparing for the publication of the 'Bee.' This was a project he had long contemplated, namely, a weekly periodical work, designed for the dissemination of useful knowledge, which by its cheapness should be calculated for all ranks of people, while sufficient attention was paid to its various literary departments to render it respectable in the highest circles. His name was now so highly established, that the encouragement given by the public to this performance was wonderful, and nothing but great mismanagement in conducting the commercial part of the work-for which, like most persons of similar habits, he was ill-adapted-could have caused it to fail in being a very profitable concern to him. His own writings form a conspicuous part of this book, under the names of Senex, Timothy Hairbrain, Alcibiades, and the greater part of the matter without signature.

Having removed to the vicinity of London about the year 1797, he once more engaged in the service of the public, and produced in April, 1799, the first number of his 'Recreations,' a miscellaneous monthly publication, having for its principal objects agriculture and natural history. Although the work contains a number of communications from others, yet the greater part of it is written by himself. It met with the greatest encouragement from the public; but complaining of the irregularity of his printers and booksellers as being intolerable, he dropt it at the end of the sixth volume. The thirty-seventh number of his 'Recreations' is his last publication, in March, 1802, after which he consigned himself to quiet retirement, at a time when he foresaw the decline of his own powers approaching; these were hastened to decay by being overworked. He died on the 15th October, 1808.

As a practical farmer, it is acknowledged by all who knew him, that he not only understood how to turn the modes of culture usually followed by others to the greatest advantage, by judiciously selecting them and applying them according to the circumstances of the case, but also that he had powerful resources within his own mind in the invention of new practices, many of which, and of those followed in distant countries,

he introduced with the greatest success. Failings of a nature which too often accompany genius, however, deprived him of most of the benefits of his labours. He was deficient in that plodding perseverance which was necessary to mature the works he had begun; and he often neglected one object to adopt another. But above all, his utter negligence of pecuniary matters brought him into difficulties which embittered the best of his days. In his younger days he was handsome in his person, of middle stature, and robust constitution. Extremely moderate in his living, the country exercise animated his countenance with the glow of health; but the overstrained exertion of his mental powers afterwards impaired his health, ultimately wasted his faculties, and brought on premature old age. Dr Anderson was the author of several articles for the Encyclopedia Britannica.' He contributed numerous essays, under a variety of signatures, in the early part of the Edinburgh Weekly Magazine,' the principal of which were, Agricola, Timoleon, Germanicus, Cimon, Scoto-Britannus, E. Aberdeen, Henry Plain, Impartial, a Scot. He also reviewed the subject of agriculture for the Monthly Review' for several years.

Thomas Holcroft.

BORN A. D. 1744.-DIED A. D. 1809.

THE father of this highly popular dramatist was a shoemaker in Leicester-fields, London. Owing to imprudence or misfortune he was obliged to abandon his humble vocation, and for some time appears to have led the life of a wandering huckster. Of this period of his life, the subject of the present notice has left us two or three interesting anecdotes in his diary and memoirs which strongly mark the vigorous faculties he possessed from nature. At the time referred to, he had scarcely completed his seventh year :- "It was in this retired spot, near to Ascot heath, that my father himself began to teach me to read; the task at first I found difficult, till the idea one day seized me, of catching all the sounds I had been taught from the arrangement of the letters; and my joy at this amazing discovery was so great, that the recollection of it has never been effaced. After that my progress was so rapid, that it astonished my father: he boasted of me to every body; and that I might lose no time, the task he set me was eleven chapters a day in the Old Testament. I might indeed have deceived my father by skipping some of the chapters; but a dawning regard for truth, aided by the love I had of reading, and the wonderful histories I sometimes found in the sacred writings, generally induced me to go through the whole of the task." In these rudiments of learning was comprised the whole of his literary instruction. Many years elapsed before he acquired the art of writing; and during that long interval he was destined to experience hardships, by which, in a character of less energy, the latent spark of genius might have been for ever extinguished. At one period, when his parents had no better resource than to wander about the country as hawkers and pedlars, their son had occasion to exercise the ingenuity of a mendicant. Young as I was, I had considerable readiness in making out a story; and on this day my little inventive faculties shone forth with much bril