Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/197

Rh the Roman Arms in Scotland during the sixth campaign of Agricola," afterwards printed, with plates and additions, by Dr Jamieson, in the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, To Grose's Antiquities of Scotland he gave a description of Dryburgh, with views, taken in 1787 and 1789. But his most frequent assistance was given to " The Bee," generally under fictitious signatures. The last work which he meditated was the collection of these anonymous communications. Accordingly, in 1812, "the Anonymous and Fugitive Essays of the earl of Buchan, collected from various periodical works," appeared at Edinburgh in 12mo. It contains the following short preface: "The earl of Buchan, considering his advanced age, has thought proper to publish this volume, and meditate the publication of others, containing his anonymous writings, that no pei-son may hereafter ascribe to him any others than are by him, in this manner, avowed, described, or enumerated." The volume is wholly tilled with his contributions to "The Bee;" among which, in the department of Scottish history, are "Sketches of the Lives of Sir J. Stewart Denham, George Heriot, John earl of Marr (his ancestor), and Remarks on the Character and Writings of William Drummond of Hawthornden." The second volume did not appear.

His death did not, however, take place till seventeen years after this period; but he was for several years before it in a state of dotage. Few men have devoted themselves so long and so exclusively to literature ; his correspondence, both with foreigners and his own countrymen, was very extensive, and comprehended a period of almost three generations. But his services were principally valuable, not as an author, but as a patron : his fortune did not warrant a very expensive exhibition of good offices ; but in all. cases where his own knowledge, which was by no means limited, or letters of recommendation, could avail, they were frankly and generously offered. One of the works proposed by him was, "a Commercium Epistolarum and Literary History of Scotland, during the period of last century," including the correspondence of "antiquaries, typographers, and bibliographists," in which he had the assistance of the late Dr Robert Anderson. It is exceedingly to be regretted that such a work, and referring to so remarkable a period, should not have been presented to the public. It might probably have had a considerable portion of the garrulity of age; but, from his lordship's very extensive acquaintance with the period, it cannot be doubted that it would have contained many facts, which are now irretrievably lost.

ERSKINE,, a celebrated divine, and founder of the secession church in Scotland, was son to the Rev. Henry Erskine, who was settled minister at Cornhill, in Northumberland, about the year 1649; whence he was ejected by the Bartholomew act in the year 1662, and, after suffering many hardships for his attachment to the cause of presbytery, was, shortly after the revolution, 1688, settled pastor of the parish of Chirnside, Berwickshire, where he finished his course, in the month of August, 1696, in the seventy-second year of his age. The Rev. Henry Erskine was of the ancient family of Shielfield, in the Merse, descended from the noble family of Marr, and Ebenezer was one of his younger sons by his second wife, Margaret Halcro, a native of Orkney, the founder of whose family was Halcro, prince of Denmark, and whose great-grandmother was the lady Barbara Stuart, daughter to Robert earl of Orkney, son to James V. of Scotland; so that his parentage was, in every respect, what the world calls highly respectable. The place of his birth has been variously stated. One account says it was the village of Dryburgh, where the house occupied by his father is still pointed out, and has been carefully preserved, as a relic of the family; another savs it was the Bass, where his father was at the time a pri-