Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/149

Rh cation at the university of Glasgow, during which he attended a series of lectures delivered by the celebrated professor Millar, whose opinions on politics were by no means calculated to alter those which his pupil had derived from his father, he was removed to Edinburgh, in the year 1784, where he commenced the study of law under the tuition of his cousin, Mr Laurence Hill, writer to the signet. This was a destination wholly foreign to his character and inclination; his own wishes would have led him to the clerical profession, which was more congenial to his tastes than the busy turmoil of legal avocations ; but young Grahame passively acquiesced in the arrangement which his father had made, more from considerations connected with his own means of advancing him in the legal profession, than from regard to the peculiarities of his son's disposition and character.

After having finished his apprenticeship, he was admitted a member of the Society of Writers to the Signet, in the year 1791. His prospects of success in business were very considerable, in consequence of the influence possessed by his father, and his other relations; but the death of his father towards the close of the year 1791, seems to have freed him from the restraint which bound him to his profession, and he resumed his original desire of entering the church. For a time, however, the persuasion of his friends induced him to relinquish his intention of changing his profession; and, at length, in the year 1795, in the hope that the avocations of the bar would prove more congenial to his taste, and allow him, during the vacations, greater leisure to indulge his literary propensities, than the more irksome details of the other branch of the profession, he became a member of the Faculty of Advocates.

James Grahame, while yet at the university, printed and circulated among his friends a collection of poetical pieces. Of this work no trace is now left except in the memory of the members of his own family, and it is only curious as it seems to have contained a rough draught of those sketches which he afterwards published under the title of the "Rural Calendar." It was in the year 1797, that these pieces appeared in their amended form. Being on a visit to a friend in Kelso when the " Kelso Mail" was commenced, he contributed them anonymously to that newspaper; he afterwards published them, greatly enlarged and improved, in the 12mo edition of his works, in 1807. In the year 1801, he published a dramatic poem, entitled, "Mary, Queen of Scotland;" but his talents were by no means dramatic ; and although this production was a great favourite of his own, it is only deserving of attention as containing some beautiful descriptive passages.

In the year 1802, Mr Grahame was married to Miss Grahame, eldest daughter of Richard Grahame, Esq., Annan, a woman of masculine understanding and very elegant accomplishments. She at first endeavoured to discourage her husband's poetical propensities, from the idea that they interfered with his professional duties; but on the discovery that he was the author of the Sabbath, she no longer attempted, or wished, to oppose the original bias of his mind. The Sabbath was published not only anonymously, but the poet even concealed its existence from his dearest relations. The mode which he took to communicate it to his wife presents a very pleasing picture of his diffident and amiable disposition. In relating this anecdote, we shall use the words of one who was very intimate with the poet and his family. "On its publication he brought the book home with him, and left it on the parlour table. Returning soon after he found Mrs Grahame engaged in its perusal; but without venturing to ask her opinion, he continued to walk up and down the room in breathless anxiety, till she burst out in the warmest eulogium on the performance; adding 'Ah James, if you could but produce a poem like this.' The ackriowledg-