Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/328

388 the power to choose a place to breathe his last in, it would be an inn. "It looked," he said, "like a pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all an inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion of it." He thought, too, that the distress of friends and relations at the time of death was apt to withdraw the mind from serious thoughts; to keep it from being wholly directed to God. He bequeathed his books to the cathedral of Dumblane, and the residue of his limited fortune to his sister, Mrs Lightwater, and her son, to be distributed as they thought fit to charitable purposes. After the character already given of him by his friend Burnet, it would be superfluous to add anything here.

His body was interred in the burial ground of Horstead Heynes, in the parish which for ten years had been honoured by his residence. A simple inscription marks the spot where his remains are laid. The family of his sister is now extinct, and the estate is in the hands of another. His brother Sir Elisha, it may be here stated, died a few months before him, and was interred in the same place.

LEITH, (General), G.C.B., a hero of the Peninsular war, was the third son of John Leith, Esq. of Leithhall, Aberdeenshire, where he was born, on the 8th of August, 1763. He was educated first under a private tutor, and afterwards at the university of Aberdeen; and even in his boyish years was noted for an intrepidity and generosity of nature which gave promise of no common career. At Lisle he perfected himself in the studies suitable for a military life, and in 1780 entered the army, having been appointed to a second lieutenant's command in the 21st regiment, from which he was soon after raised to the rank of lieutenant and captain in the 81st Highland regiment. At the peace in 1783, he removed to the 5th regiment, then at Gibraltar, and was appointed aide de-camp to Sir Robert Boyd, governor of the fort. Upon the appointment of general O'Hara to serve at Toulon, he was engaged in the defence of that station, against the French republican army, as his aide de-camp. He served major-general David Dundas in a similar capacity, and upon the British forces being withdrawn from Toulon, he returned to England, being appointed major by brevet in 1794.

Major Leith raised a regiment of fencibles in Aberdeenshire, at the head of which he served in Ireland during the rebellion. He was there successively raised to the rank of colonel, brigadier general, and major-general. He was next ordered to active service in the Peninsula. He joined the British army under Sir John Moore, being at first appointed to the command of the 26th and 81st regiments, which he afterwards exchanged for the brigade of the 51st, 59th, and 76th. Napoleon had now taken possession of Madrid, defeated the army of the Estremadura, and retiring to the north of Europe, left marshals Soult and Ney to follow up the British army, which at this late season of the year, and under many disadvantages, had made good their retreat to Corunna. Sir John Hope's division had been ordered to keep in check the French corps, which had bivouacked on the heights opposite Lugo; and on 7th January, 1 809, they attacked major-general Leith's brigade, with four pieces of cannon, on the side of a ravine which separated the two armies; but were gallantly repulsed by