Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/237

Rh The author's "Caledonia" astonished the world with the vast extent of its erudition and research. It professes to be an account, historical and topographical, of North Britain, from the most ancient to the present times ; and the original intention of the author was, that it should be completed in four volumes, quarto, each containing nearly a thousand pages. Former historians had not presumed to inquire any further back into Scottish history than the reign of Canmore, describing all before that time as obscurity and fable, as Strabo, in his maps, represents the inhabitants of every place which he did not know as Ichthyophagi. But George Chalmers was not contented to start from this point. He plunged fearlessly into the middle ages, and was able, by dint of incredible research, to give a pretty clear account of the inhabitants of the northern part of the island since the Roman conquest. The pains which he must have taken, in compiling information for this work, are almost beyond belief—although he tells us in his preface that it had only been the amusement of his evenings. The remaining three volumes were destined to contain a topographical and historical account of ouch county, and the second of these completed his task so far as the Lowlands were concerned, when death stepped in, and arrested the busy pen of the antiquary, May 31, 1825.

As a writer, George Chalmers does not rank high in point of elegance of style; but the solid value of his matter is far more than sufficient to counterbalance both that defect, and a certain number of prejudices by which his labours are otherwise a little deformed. Besides the works which we have mentioned, he was the author of some of inferior note, including various political pamphlets on the Tory bide of the question.

CHAPMAN,, an eminent teacher and respectable writer on education, was born in the parish of Alvale, Banffshire, in August, 1723. He studied at Aberdeen, and taught successively in Dalkeith, Dumfries, and Banff. He finally removed to Edinburgh, where he carried on business as a printer. He died February 22d, 1806. Dr Chapman's Treatise on Education appeared in 1782 ; a work of great practical utility.

CHARLES I., king of Great Britain, was the second son of James VI. of Scotland, and First of Great Britain, by Anne, daughter of Frederick II., king of Denmark and Norway. Charles was born at Dunfermline palace, which was the dotarial or jointure house of his mother the queen, on the 19th of November, 1600, being the very day on which the earl of Gowry and his brother were publicly dismembered at the cross of Edinburgh, for their concern in the celebrated conspiracy. King James remarked with surprise that the principal incidents of his own personal and domestic history had taken place on this particular day of the month: he had been born, he said, on the 19th of June; he first saw his wife on the 19th of May ; and his two former children, as well as this one, had been born on the 19th day of different months. Charles was only two years and a half old when his father was called up to England to fill the throne of Elizabeth. The young prince was left behind, in charge of the earl of Dunfermline, but joined his father in July, 1603, along with his mother and the rest of the royal family. Being a very weakly child, and not likely to live long, the honour of keeping him, which in other circumstances would have been eagerly sought, was bandied about by the courtiers, and with some difficulty was at length accepted by Sir Robert Carey and his wife. This was the gentleman who hurried, with such mean alacrity, to inform king James of the demise of his cousin Elizabeth, from whom, in life, he had received as many favours as he could now hope for from her successor. Carey tells us in his own Memoirs, that the legs of the child were unable to support him, and that the king had some thoughts of mending the matter by a pair of iron boots, from which, how-