Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/76

212 During the summer of 1745, Mr Ruddiman, to avoid the dangers of the re- bellion, retired to the country, where he resided for several months, amusing himself by literary pursuits. He afterwards prepared a Pars Tertia to his Grammatics Latinae, &c., but did not adventure on its publication, as he feared the sale would not pay the expense. He subsequently, however, published an abstract of this work, subjoined to what is called his Shorter Grammar, of which he received, in 1756, the royal privilege of being exclusive printer. In 1751, the venerable grammarian's sight began to fail him, and, under this affliction, finding that he could no longer conscientiously retain the appointment of keeper of the Advocates' library, he resigned it early in the year 1752, after a faithful discharge of the duties of librarian in that institution of nearly half a century. The latter years of Mr Ruddiman's life were imbittered by a political controversy, into which he was dragged by the vanity and pertinacity of Mr George Logan, who persecuted him with unrelenting virulence in no less than six different treatises, which he wrote against the political principles avowed in Mr Ruddiman's Annotations on Buchanan, particularly that which asserted the hereditary rights of the Scottish kings. Mr Ruddiman died at Edinburgh on the 19th of January, 1757, in the eighty-third year of his age; and his remains were interred in the Greyfriars' church-yard of that city. A handsome tablet to the memory of Ruddiman, was erected in 1806, in the New Greyfriars' CL-irch, at the expense of his relative, Dr William Ruddiman, late of India. It exhibits the following inscription:

RUNCIMAN,, a painter of considerable note, was the son of a builder in Edinburgh, where he was born in the year 1736. Having shown in his earliest years a decided inclination for drawing, his father furnished him with the proper materials ; and while a mere boy, he roved through the fields, taking sketches of every interesting piece of landscape which fell in his way. At fourteen, he was placed under the care of Messrs John and Robert Norrie, house-painters ; the former of whom used to adorn the mantle-pieces of the houses which he was employed to paint, with landscapes of his own, which were then deemed respectable productions, and of which many a specimen is still preserved in the houses of the old town of Edinburgh. The youth devoted himself entirely to his art. "Other artists," said one who had been his companion, "talked meat and drink; but Runciman talked landscape." About this time, the academy for rearing young artists was commenced at Glasgow by the brothers Foulis, and Runciman became one of its pupils. He soon acquired considerable local fame for his landscapes, but failed entirely to make a living by them. Despairing of success in this branch of art, he commenced history-painting; and in 1766, visited Italy, where he met Fuseli, whose wild and distempered character matched aptly with his own. He spent five years in Rome, assiduously studying and copying the Italian masters; and in 1771, re-