Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/248

384 The ability displayed by this work acquired for Mr Tytler a very high reputation in the world of letters. It was eagerly read throughout Britain, and tvas scarcely less popular in France, into the language of which country it was pretty ably translated. The interest which the Inquiryexcited was also very great. There were a novelty and chivalry in the attempt eminently calculated to attract attention, and to excite sympathy, and it obtained a large share of both. It was reviewed in many of the different periodicals of the day by some of the most eminent literary men then living; amongst these were Johnson, Smollett, and Douglas, bishop of Salisbury. To the favourable testimony to the merits of the work borne by these competent judges, was added that of lord chancellor Hardwicke, who said it was the most conclusive arrangement of circumstantiate proofs he had ever seen.

Mr Tytler's next literary production was, "The Poetical Remains of James the First, king of Scotland," in one volume, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1783. In this publication Mr Tytler, on very strong grounds, ascribes to that monarch the celebrated poems of "The King's Quair," and "Christ's Kirk on the Green." His reasoning here, as in the defence of Mary, is remarkable for cogency and conciseness, and if it is not always convincing, it is, at least, always plausible. To the Poetical Remains there is added a Dissertation on the Life and Writings of James, remarkable at once for profound antiquarian research, and the lucid arrangement of its facts.

Mr Tytler was an ardent lover of music, especially of the music of his native country. He was himself a good performer, and his theoretical knowledge of the science was fully equal to his practical proficiency^ This devotion to music, together with a fine sensibility, which subjected him in a peculiar manner to the influence of the pathetic strains of the national melodies of Scotland, led him to write a highly interesting, though in some respects fanciful, essay on Scottish music, which is appended to Arnot's History of Edinburgh.

The ability which these various publications displayed rapidly increased Mr Tytler's reputation, and procured him the respect and esteem of men of tasle and learning, especially of those of his native country, who felt and acknowledged the good service he was doing towards completing their national history by his industry, diligence, and patient research in the peculiar walk of literature he had chosen: a feeling which was yet further increased by his subsequent publications. The next of these, of the character alluded to, was a Dissertation on the marriage of Queen Mary to the earl of Bothwell, published in the first volume of the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries in 1701. In this Dissertation, which is distinguished by all the merits displayed by Mr Tytler's other productions, he defends, with much ingenuity, that unhappy step which united Mary to Bothwell; but it is to be feared, that, with all iis ingenuity and judicious remark, it can never be otherwise considered than as an attempt, generous and chivalrous indeed, but unavailing, to defend a thing in itself indefensible.

In the year following, viz., 1792, Mr Tytler published, through the same channel with that by which the Dissertation had been given to the world, "Observations on the Vision, a poem," first published in Ramsay's Evergreen. The object of these observations was the generous one, of vindicating Ramsay's title to the merit of being the author of the poem in question, of which some doubts had been entertained.

The "Observations," &c., were soon after followed by a production of singular interest. This was "An Account of the Fashionable Amusements and Entertainments of Edinburgh in the last (seventeenth) century, with the plan of a grand Concert of Music performed there on St Cecilia's day, 1695."