Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/103

Rh In 1772, he wrote "Remarks on the Barometer for measuring Altitudes;" showing the uncertainty and limited use of the instrument, as then commonly used for that purpose, and the means by which it might be rendered more perfect and greater precision attained. These remarks were sent to lord privy seal in January, 1773. In a map of the Three Lothiaus engraved by Kitchen of London, and published in 1773, by Andrew and Mostyn Armstrong, "the scales of Longitude and Latitude are laid down agreeably to the observations of the Rev. Mr Bryce at Kirknewton manse." In April, 1774, in consequence of certain apparently insurmountable difficulties, he was consulted by the magistrates of Stirling on the subject of supplying the town with water : these difficulties he removed, by taking accurately all the different levels; making the calculations for the size of the leaden pipes and the reservoir, and fixing the situation for its being placed. For this service he had the freedom of the town conferred on him. In 1776, he made all the requisite calculations for an epitome of the solar system on a large scale, afterwards erected by the earl of Buchan at his seat at Kirkhill. In case of disputes about the extent of fields exchanged by neighbouring proprietors, or the line of their marches, he was generally chosen sole arbiter, and from his knowledge in land surveying, and the confidence reposed in him, had it often in his power to render them essential service. Mr Bryce used to send various meteorological observations and other detached notices to Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine.

From the time of his ordination in 1745, till his death on the 1st January, 1786, he discharged with great fidelity, all the duties of his pastoral office; and excelled particularly in that species of didactic discourse known in Scotland, under the name of lecture. His lectures, however, were never fully written, but spoken from notes; and he left no sermons for publication.

In early life he composed several songs, adapted to some of the most favourite Scottish airs, and his stanzas, in "The Birks of Invermay," have been long before the world. For about three years before his death, his greatest amusement was in writing poetry, chiefly of a serious and devotional cast; which, though not composed for the public eye, is read with satisfaction by his friends, and valued by them as an additional proof of his genius, and a transcript of that enlightened piety, uprightness of mind, and unshaken trust in his Creator, which characterized him through the whole of life.

BRYDONE, PATRICK, F. R. S., the well known author of A Tour in Sicily and Malta, one of the most entertaining works in the language, was the son of a clergyman in the neighbourhood of Dumbarton, and born in 1741. Having received an excellent university education, which qualified him for the duties of a travelling preceptor, he was engaged in that capacity, first by Mr Beckford, of Somerly in Suffolk, and afterwards Mr Fullarton, who was known in after life as commander of a large body of troops in India, and finally as one of the three commissioners for the government of Trinidad. His excursion with the former gentleman took place in 1767-8; the latter in 1770. In the second tour, he visited Sicily and Malta, which were then almost unknown to the English. Having written an account of this journey in a series of letters to Mr Beckford, he was induced by a consideration of the uninformed state of the British public upon this subject, to publish his work in 1773, under the title of "A Tour through Sicily and Malta." This work is not only, a most original and amusing narrative, but it contains a great deal of scientific knowledge, especially regarding the temperature of the air, which was the object of Mr Brydone's particular study. For the purpose of carrying on his scientific observations, he travelled with an apparatus as perfect as could then be procured, or as it was possible to carry in the luggage of a traveller. Having returned to