Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/77

Rh and to be saved from it by turning poetaster, must be allowed to be rather out of the usual course of events."

Finding that his pen was of more service to him than his plough, Mr Geddes now seriously thought of quitting his retirement, and trying his fortune in London. He was, however, so strongly attached to his flock, that it might have been long before he put his design into execution, had not a circumstance occurred to give it new vigour. Lord Findlater had about this time married a daughter of count Murray of Melgum, who, being educated abroad, was unacquainted with English. Mr Geddes was employed by his lordship to teach her that language. In the house of his lordship he was introduced to the Rev. Mr Buchanan, who had been tutor to his lordship, and was now minister of the parish of Cullen, with whom he formed a most intimate acquaintance, and did not scruple to attend occasionally upon his ministry in the church of Cullen. This latter circumstance rekindled the long smothered ire of bishop Hay, who sent him an angry remonstrance, which he followed up by suspending him from all his ecclesiastical functions. This at once dissolved the tie between Mr Geddes and his congregation, from whom, in the end of the year 1779, he took an affectionate leave; and selling off what property he possessed at Enzie by public roup, prepared, without regret, to leave once more his native country. His people testified their affection for him, by buying up, with extraordinary avidity every thing that belonged to him, even to the articles of broken cups and saucers. Nor were his protestant friends wanting to him on this occasion. Through their joint influence, the university of Aberdeen stepped forward with praiseworthy liberality, and conferred on him the degree of doctor of laws.

Leaving Enzie, Dr Geddes devoted a few weeks to visits of friendship, and in company with lord Traquair, repaired to London in the beginning of the year 1780. Through the influence of lord Traquair he was almost immediately nominated to be officiating priest in the chapel of the imperial ambassador. The literary fame he had already acquired by his imitations of Horace, and the letters with which he was honoured by his friends in the north, introduced him at once to the most celebrated literary characters of the day, which gave great elasticity to his naturally buoyant spirits. Several libraries, too, both public and private, being thrown open to him, he resumed with redoubled ardour his early project of translating the Bible for the use of his Roman Catholic countrymen. Through the duchess of Gordon he was also introduced to lord Petre, who was like himself a catholic, and was anxious to have a translation of the Bible such as Dr Geddes proposed to make. To enable him to go on without any interruption, his lordship generously allowed him a salary of two hundred pounds a year till the work should be finished, besides being at the expense of whatever private library he might find necessary for his purpose. This was encouragement not only beyond what he could reasonably have hoped for, but equal to all that he could have wished; and the same year he published a sketch of his plan tinder the title of an "Idea of a new version of the Holy Bible, for the use of the English catholics." This Idea in general, for we have not room to be particular, was "a new and faithful translation of the Bible, from corrected texts of the original, unaccompanied with any gloss, commentary, or annotations, but such as are necessary to ascertain the literal meaning of the text, and free of every sort of interpretation calculated to establish or defend any particular system of religious credence." At the close of this year he ceased to officiate in the imperial ambassador's chapel, the establishment being suppressed by an order from the emperor Joseph II. He continued to preach, however, occasionally at the chapel in Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, till the