Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/151

Rh enter the clerical profession, does not seem to have afforded him that full measure of happiness which he anticipated. This was partly to be attributed to broken health; and perhaps, also, to a natural restlessness of disposition, but more particularly to the change having been too long deferred. Indications of this fact may be traced in the following beautiful lines in the British Georgics, which show how deeply he loved and how fondly he regretted leaving his native land :

On his return to Scotland, he was an unsuccessful candidate for St George's episcopal chapel, Edinburgh. This disappointment was severely felt by his friends, who, fondly attached to him, and admiring him much as a preacher, were exceedingly anxious to have him settled amongst them ; but he bore the frustration of his hopes without a murmur. In August, 1810, he was appointed interim curate to the chapelry of St Margaret, Durham, where his eloquence as a preacher quickly collected a crowded congregation ; and after having officiated there for a few months, he obtained the curacy of Sedgefield, in the same diocese. Having been affected with oppressive asthma and violent headaches, he was induced to try the effect of a change to his native air ; and after spending a few days in Edinburgh with his only surviving sister, Mrs Archibald Grahame, he, along with his wife, who had joined him in Edinburgh, proceeded to Glasgow, where he expired two days after his arrival. He died at Whitehill, the residence of his eldest brother, Mr Robert Grahame of Whitehill, on the 14th of September, 1811, in the forty-seventh year of his age; leaving two sons and a daughter.

The most characteristic feature in the mind of James Grahame, was a keen and refined sensibility, which, while it in some measure incapacitated him for encountering the hardships and enduring the asperities of life, and gave the appearance of vacillation to his conduct, at the same time rendered him sensi-