Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/42

178 soldiers who were escorting him to Edinburgh castle, again proceeded to France, to spend another period of poverty and exile. Long ere this time, he had gained the esteem of his party both at home and abroad, by his poetical effusions, which were chiefly of the class of political pasquils, and also by his pleasing and facetious manners. Having received an excellent education, and seen much of the world, he exhibits in his writings no trace of the rudeness which prevailed in his native land. He shows nothing of even that kind of homeliness which then existed in Lowland Scotland. His language is pure English ; and his ideas, though abundantly licentious in some instances, bear a general resemblance to those of the Drydens, the Roscommons, and the Priors, of the southern part of the island. Ker of Kersland, who saw him at Rotterdam in 1716, speaks of him "as a considerable man among the Highlanders, a man of excellent sense, and every way a complete gentleman." He seems to have also been held in great esteem by both James II. and his unfortunate son, whom he had served in succession. By the intercessions of his sister with the reigning sovereign, lie was permitted to return home in 1726, and in 1731, had his attainder reversed. The estates had in the mean time been restored to the sister in life-rent, and to his own heirs male in fee, but passing over himself. He, nevertheless, entered upon possession; and hence, in 1745, was able, a third time, to lend his territorial and hereditary influence to the aid of a Stuart. He met prince Charles on his way through Perthshire; and, on being presented, said, "Sir, I devoted my youth to the service of your grandfather, arid my manhood to that of your father ; and now I am come to devote my old age to your royal highness." Charles, well acquainted with his history, folded the old man in his arms, and wept The ancient chief was unable, on this occasion, to take a personal concern in the enterprise, and, as his clan was led by other gentlemen, he escaped the vengeance of the government. He died in peace, at his house of Carie, in Rannoch, April 18, 1749, in the eighty-first year of his age.

A volume of poems, by Strowan, was subsequently published surreptitiously, by means of a menial servant, who had possessed himself of his papers. It contains many pieces, characterized by the licentious levity which then prevailed in the discourse of gentlemen, and only designed by their author as another kind of conversation with his friends. While he is chargeable, then, in common with his contemporaries, with having given expression to impure ideas, he stands clear of the fault of having disseminated them by means of the press.

ROBERTSON,, the historian of Scotland and Charles V., was born in the manse of the parish of Borthwick, Mid Lothian, in the year 1721. His father, also named William, was at first minister of that parish, and finally of the Old Gray Friars' church, Edinburgh; his mother was Eleanor Pitcairne, daughter of David Pitcairne, Esq. of Dreghorn. By his father, he was descended from the Robertsons of Gladney, in the county of Fife, a branch of the ancient house of Strowan. Dr Robertson received "the first rudiments of his education at the school of Dalkeith, under the tuition of Mr Leslie, then a celebrated teacher. In 1733, he removed with his father's family to Edinburgh, and, towards the end of that year, commenced his course of academical study. From this period till 1759, when he published his Scottish History, there occurred nothing beyond the natural progress of events in the life of a young man devoted to the Scottish church as a profession. During this long space of time, he was silently pursuing his studies, and labouring in retirement and obscurity on that work, which was afterwards to bring both fame and fortune to his humble door. Yet, though he thus permitted so large a portion of his life to pass without making any effort to distinguish himself, it was not be-