Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/150

496 merit of the authorship, and the pleasure of making the disclosure under such circumstances, may be easily imagined." The Sabbath was subjected to a severe ordeal of criticism in the Edinburgh Review; but the critic afterwards made ample atonement to the wounded feelings of the poet and his friends, in reviewing his subsequent work, the British Georgics an example which one cannot but wish that Lord Byron had imitated, by expressing some contrition for the wanton and cruel attack made in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers on the gentle and amiable poet of the Sabbath.

About the year 1806, Mr Grahame published a well written pamphlet on the subject of the introduction of jury trial in civil causes in Scotland, entitled "Thoughts on Trial by Jury." This was a favourite project of his party in politics, about the beginning of the present century; and during the whig administration of 1806-7, a bill was brought into parliament by the ministry for the purpose of extending that mode of trial to Scotland. That bill fell, on the change of administration ; but some years afterwards, a bill having the same object was carried through parliament by the succeeding administration ; and in 1816, jury trial in civil causes was introduced under certain modifications, and has since been made a permanent part of the civil judicial procedure in this country.

But for the bad health to which he was occasionally subject, Mr Grahame might have enjoyed much happiness, surrounded as he was by his family, to whom he was devotedly attached, and mixing during the winter months on familiar terms with the intellectual and polished society which Edinburgh at all times affords, and which, at the time alluded to, was peculiarly brilliant; while, to vary the scene, he usually spent the summer either at Kirkhill, on the banks of the Esk, or at some other rural retirement. It was at Kirkhill, surrounded with some of the loveliest scenery in Scotland, that he composed "The Birds of Scotland." But in spite of the happiness which such a state of literary ease was calculated to afford, Mr Grahame still looked with longing to the condition of a country clergyman a vocation which his imagination had invested with many charms. The authority already referred to mentions a circumstance strongly indicative of the constant current of his thoughts: "The writer will never forget the eager longing with which he surveyed the humble church of Borthwick, on a fine summer evening, when the sun's last rays had gilded the landscape, and rendered every object in nature more sweet and impressive. He cast a look of delighted complacency around the peaceful scene, and said, with an accent of regret, "I wish such a place as that had fallen to my lot." And when it was remarked, that continued retirement might become wearisome, "Oh! no," he replied, "it would be delightful to live a life of usefulness among a simple people, unmolested with petty cares and ceremonies." At length, yielding to his long cherished wish, he entered holy orders as a clergyman of the church of England. After having spent the summer months of 1808, at a pleasant villa in the neighbourhood of Annan, where he composed "The British Georgics," he proceeded to England in the spring following; and after encountering some difficulty, was ordained by Dr Bathhurst, bishop of Norwich, on Trinity Sunday, being the 28th of May, 1809. That good prelate was so much delighted with Mr Grahame, that he was anxious to persuade him to remain in his diocese, but Mr Grahame was prevented from acceding to this request by the prevalence of fever and ague in the district. He resided for some weeks after his ordination at the city of Chester; and there he obtained the curacy of Shefton in Gloucestershire, which he held from July until the month of March in the following year, when he was called to Scotland by family affairs. The accomplishment of his long cherished and ardent desire to