Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/188

248 authenticated from the circumstance of a letter being extant from the laird of Skene to Sir George Skene, requesting a copy of his portrait "by Jamesone," and in accordance with a fulfilment of this request, a copy of the portrait we allude to is in the family collection at Skene. Jamesone has here indulged in more fullness and brilliancy of colouring than is his general custom: the young man has a calm aspect; his head is covered with one of the monstrous wigs then just introduced; he is in a painter's attitude, even to the hand, which is beautifully drawn, and far more graceful than those of Jamesone generally are. On the whole, this portrait has more of the characteristics of Sir Peter Lely, than of Vandyke.

Jamesone has been termed the "Vandyke of Scotland," but he may with equal right claim the title of the Vandyke of Britain. Towards the latter end of Elizabeth's reign, Hilliard and Oliver had become somewhat distinguished as painters in miniature, and they commanded some respect, more from the inferiority of others, than from their own excellence; but the first inhabitant of Great Britain, the works of whose brush could stand comparison with foreign painters, was Jamesone.

A Latin elegy was addressed to the memory of Jamesone by David Wedderburn; and his friend and fellow townsman Arthur Johnston, (whose portrait had been painted by Jamesone), has left, in one of his numerous epigrams, a beautiful poetical tribute to his memory. After his death, the art he had done so much to support, languished in Scotland. His daughter, who may have inherited some portion of plastic genius, has left behind fruits of her industry in a huge mass of tapestry, which still dangles from the gallery of the church of St Nicholas in Aberdeen. This lady's second husband was Gregory, the mathematician. A descendant of the same name as the painter has already been alluded to, as an engraver in the earlier part of the 18th century, and John Alexander, another descendant, who returned from his studies in Italy in 1720, acquired celebrity as an inventor of portraits of queen Mary.

JARDINE,, A.M., for many years professor of logic in the university of Glasgow, was born in the year 1742, at Wandal, in the upper ward of Lanarkshire, where his predecessors had resided for nearly two hundred years. The barony of Wandal formerly belonged to the Jardines of Applegirth; a younger son of whom appears to have settled there about the end of the sixteenth century, and to have also been vicar of the parish during the time of episcopacy. The barony having passed from the Applegirth to the Douglas family, Mr Jardine's forefathers continued for several generations as tenants in the lands of Wandal, under that new race of landlords. His mother was a daughter of Weir of Birkwood in the parish of Lesrnnhagow.

After receiving his elementary education at the parish school, he, in October, 1760, repaired to Glasgow college, and entered as a member of a society, where, with very little interruption, he was destined to spend the whole of his life. After going through the preliminary classes, where his abilities and diligence attracted the attention and acquired for him the friendship of several of the professors, he entered the divinity hall under Dr Trail, then professor of theology, and in due time obtained license as a preacher from the presbytery of Linlithgow. He did not, however, follow out that profession, having, from the good wishes of several of the professors of Glasgow college, reason to hope that lie might eventually be admitted to a chair, which was the great object of his ambition.

In 1771, he was employed by baron Mure of Caldwell, to accompany his two sons to France, and to superintend their education at an academy in Paris. The baron, who was at that time one of the most influential men in Scotland,