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46 maintenance, relief, bringing up, and education of so many poor fatherless boys, freemen's sons of the town of Edinburgh, as the means which I give, and the yearly value of the lands purchased by the provost, bailiffs, ministers, and council of the said town shall amount, or come to." The education of the boys is superintended by able masters, and they are not only taught to read, write, and cast accounts, (to which the statutes of the hospital originally confined the trustees,) but Latin, Greek, Mathematics, &c. If the boys choose a learned profession, they are sent to the university for four years, with an annual allowance of thirty pounds. The greater number are bound apprentices to tradesmen in the city, and are allowed the annual sum of ten pounds for five years; at the end of their apprenticeship they receive five pounds to purchase a suit of clothes, upon producing a certificate of good conduct from their master.

The foundation of the present magnificent structure (designed by the celebrated architect Inigo Jones,) was laid on the 1st of July, 1628, but from the disturbed state of the country continued unfinished till April, 1659. From the rise in the value of their property, the yearly revenue at the disposal of the trustees has very greatly increased, especially during the last half century. A body of statutes by which the institution is governed was drawn up by Dr Balcanqual, dean of Rochester, the well known author of a "Declaration concerning the late tumults in Scotland," 1639, published in name of king Charles I.

HERON,, a miscellaneous writer, was born in the town of New Galloway, on the 6th November, 1764. His father, John Heron, was a weaver, generally respected for his persevering industry and exemplary piety. By his grandmother, Margaret Murray, aunt of the late Dr Alexander Murray, he claimed no very distant relationship to that profound philologist. He was early instructed in his letters under the careful eye of a fond parent, and was not sent to the school of the parish until he had reached his ninth year. He soon be came remarkable for the love he showed for learning, and the unwearied anxiety with which he pursued his inquiries after every point connected with his studies. This being early perceived by his parents, they resolved to give him the benefit of a liberal education as far as their means would allow. He had scarcely remained two years at school when, at the age of eleven, he contrived to maintain and educate himself by mingling with his studies the labour of teaching and writing. From his own savings out of a very limited income, and a small assistance from his parents, he was enabled to remove to the university of Edinburgh at the end of the year 1780.

His hopes of preferment at that time being centered in the church, he first applied himself to the course of study which that profession requires. While attending the college he was still obliged to devote a considerable portion of his time to private teaching, as well as writing occasional essays for newspapers and magazines, in order to provide for his subsistence. To quote his own words, "he taught and assisted young persons at all periods in the course of education, from the alphabet to the highest branches of science and literature." Being well grounded in a knowledge of the French language, he found constant employment from booksellers in translating foreign works. His first literary production, published with his name, appeared in 1789, "A Critique on the Genius and Writings of Thomson," prefixed to a small edition of the Seasons. It was highly spoken of, and reflected much credit on the judgment and taste of the author. His next work was a version of Fourcroy's Chemistry, from the French, followed by Savary's Travels in Greece, Dumourier's Letters, Gesner's Idyls in part, an abstract of Zimmerman on Solitude, and several abridgments of Oriental Tales.

In 1790-1, he says he "read lectures on the law of nature, the law of nations, the Jewish, Grecian, Roman, feudal, and canon law and then on the