Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/337

Rh rous colour of mind which was most apt to do it justice in narration. Unfortunately, before setting about this work, he had met with an accident by a fall from his horse, in consequence of which his intellect was permanently affected. As a pensioner of king George III., he was also prevented from giving that full expression to his sentiments which was so necessary in the historian of such an event. This work, therefore, when it appeared in 1802, was found to be a miserable sketchy outline of the transaction, rather than a complete narrative—here and there, indeed, as copious as was to be wished, and also showing occasional glimpses of the poetical genius of the author, but in general "stale, flat, and unprofitable." The imperfections of the work have been partly accounted for, without contradiction, by the circumstance of its having been submitted to the inspection of the reigning family, with the understanding that they were at liberty to erase such passages as they did not wish to be made public.

Mr Home died on the 5th of September, 1808, when he was just on the point of completing his eighty-sixth year. As a man, he was gentle and amiable, a very warm friend, and incapable of an ungenerous feeling. As a poet, he deserves the credit of having written with more fervid feeling, and less of stiffness and artificiality, than the other poets of his time; his genius in this respect approaching to that of his friend Collins. The present age, however, has, by its growing indifference to even his sole successful play, pronounced that his reputation on account of that exertion, was in a great measure the result of temporary and local circumstances, and that, being ill based, it cannot last

HOPE,, latterly earl of Hopetoun, a celebrated military commander, was son to John, second earl of Hopetoun, by his second marriage with Jane, daughter of Robert Oliphant of Rossie, in the county of Perth. He was born at Hopetoun in the county of Linlithgow, on the 17th of August, 1766. After finishing his education at home, he travelled on the continent, where he had the advantage of the superintendence of Dr Gillies, author of the History of Greece, afterwards historiographer to the king. Mr Hope entered the army as a, volunteer in the fifteenth year of his age, and on the 28th of May, 1784, received a cornetcy in the 10th regiment of light dragoons. We shall briefly note his gradual rise as an officer until he reached that rank, in which he could appropriate opportunities of distinguishing himself. On the 24th of December, 1785, he was appointed to a lieutenancy in the 100th foot; on the 31st October, 1789, to a company in the 17th dragoons; on the 25th of April, 1792, to a majority in the 2nd foot; and on the 26th of April, 1793, to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the 25th foot. It was the period when the claims of rank began to meet with less observance in the British army, and severer duties called for the assistance of active and persevering men ; and these had before them a sure road to honour. So early as 1794, lieutenant-colonel Hope was appointed to the arduous situation of adjutant-general to Sir Ralph Abercromby when serving in the Leeward islands; during the three ensuing years he was actively employed in the campaigns in the West Indies, where he held the rank of brigadier-general; during this service he is characterized in the despatches of the commander-in-chief, as one who "on all occasions most willingly came forward and exerted himself in times of danger, to which he was not called, from his situation as adjutant-general."

In the parliament of 1796, Mr Hope was returned as member for Linlithgowshire: as a legislator he has been very little known, and he soon relinquished a duty not probably according with his taste and talents. As a deputy adjutant-general he attended the expedition to Holland, in August, 1799, having, in the interval betwixt his services abroad, performed the duty of a colonelcy in the north Lowland fencibles. In the sharp fighting at the landing at the Helder