Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/222

282 lined to follow the same profession. Having lost his father, however, in his eighth year, this scheme was given up, and he was placed with some relations of his mother in Leith, who, it appears, treated the poor orphan boy with great cruelty—almost to the hazard of his life. He also was oftener than once, while in this situation, in danger of drowning in Leith harbour.

At the age of thirteen, he was placed by his mother with a barber in Dalkeith, whom he served for six years; he then set up in Edinburgh, having first paid about forty pounds to the society of surgeon-barbers for the freedom of the corporation, and soon after married a young woman, by whom he had eleven children, all of whom long predeceased himself. The trade of a barber was then more lucrative, and consequently more dignified than latterly. Kay had good employment in dressing the wigs, and trimming the heads, of a certain number of gentlemen every morning, all of whom paid him a certain annual sum (generally about four guineas,) for his trouble. Among his customers was a fine specimen of the old Jacobite country gentleman, Mr Nisbet of Dirleton, who took a fancy for him, and frequently invited him to the country, to the great injury of his business. Kay had, even in his boyhood, when residing in Leith, manifested a turn for sketching familiar objects, such as horses, dogs, ships, &c., using chalk or coal, and tracing his delineations on such pieces of dead wall as presented a large enough ground. Now and then, in later life, he made some attempts in miniatures and pencil sketches. It may easily be conceived that, finding himself possessed of this talent, and encouraged by a man of rank in developing it, he felt some difficulty in restraining himself to the humble career which destiny seemed to have marked out for him. At Mr Nisbet's country-seat, he for the first time found proper opportunities and proper materials for his favourite study; while any compunctious visitings he might feel as to the danger to which he thus exposed the permanent livelihood of himself and family, were laid to rest by the kindness of his patron, who, in the meantime, sent money to support his domestic establishment in Edinburgh, and promised speedily to obtain for him some permanent provision, which should render him independent of business. Unfortunately, in 1782, Mr Nisbet died, without having executed his kind intention; and Mr Kay was left in somewhat awkward circumstances, having, as it were, fallen to the ground between certainty and hope. The heir, however, so far repaired the omission of his predecessor, as to settle an annuity of twenty pounds upon Kay for life.

He now began effectually to follow out his bent for limning and etching, and, after a few trials, abandoned his trade as a barber. In 1784, he published his first caricature, which represented a half-crazed Jacobite gentleman, named laird Robertson, who was wont to amuse the citizens of Edinburgh by cutting caricatured resemblances of public characters, which he fixed on the head of his stick, and whose figure was perfectly known to all the inhabitants. The portrait, accordingly, excited some attention, and the author was induced to attempt others. The style assumed by Mr Kay was the stippled or dotted style, and nothing could equal the felicity of the likeness. From that time forward, till he was about eighty years of age, this untutored son of genius pursued his vocation, taking off, one after another, the whole of the public and eccentric persons who appeared in the Scottish capital, and occasionally caricaturing any jocular incident that happened to attract attention. To speak of his portraits as caricatures is doing them signal injustice. They were the most exact and faithful likenesses that could have been represented by any mode of art. He drew the man as he walked the street every day: his gait, his costume, every peculiarity of his appearance, done to a point, and no defect perceptible except the stiffness of the figures. Indeed, he may be said to have rather resembled one of the prosopo-