Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/338

286 happiness were yet in store for Captain Hall, and at their close, "sufficient for the day were the evils thereof."

Hitherto we have noticed the carefulness with which he had been accustomed, wherever he went, to keep a daily journal. The advantage of this plan is obvious in all his writings. Every object he describes as if he had just left it, and every event as if its last echo had not yet died away. Thus, his "Schloss Ileinfeld," which is such a lively fascinating work, was but an episode in one of three trips to the Continent, and out of these visits he purposed to make a whole series of similar writings from the copious memorials he had taken of his every-day movements. This, however, he did not accomplish, and his last production, entitled "Patchwork," in three volumes, was published in 1841. It is a light sketchy collection of tales, recollections of his travel in foreign countries, and essays, and evinces that his intellect was still as vigorous and his heart as buoyant as ever. But here the memoir of Captain Hall must be abruptly closed. Mental aberration, perhaps the result of so much activity and toil, supervened, after which his existence was but a blank; and being necessarily placed in confinement, he died in the Royal Hospital, Haslar, Portsmouth, on the llth of September, 1844, at the age of fifty-six.

In the preceding notice, instead of enumerating the whole of Basil Hall's numerous writings, we have confined ourselves to those that were connected with his personal history. Allusion has already been made to his scientific researches, which he commenced as a young midshipman, and continued to the end of his career. Besides the interspersion of these researches among his popular works, he produced several detached papers, of which the following list has been given:―

"An Account of the Geology of the Table Mountain."

"Details of Experiments made with an Invariable Pendulum in South America and other places, for determining the Figure of the Earth."

" Observations made on a Comet at Valparaiso."

Besides these three papers, which were published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, Captain Hall produced

"A Sketch of the Professional and Scientific Objects which might be aimed at in a Voyage of Research."

"A Letter on the Trade-Winds, in the Appendix to Daniell's Meteorology."

Several scientific papers in Brewster's Journal, Jamiesou's Journal, and the Encyclopedia Britannica.

It is only necessary to add to this account, that Captain Hall was a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and a member of the Astronomical Society of London.

HENDERSON,, Professor of Practical Astronomy, Edinburgh―This distinguished astronomer was born at Dundee, on the 28th of December, 1798. His father, who was a respectable tradesman, after giving him the best education which his native town could furnish, apprenticed Thomas, at the age of fifteen, to Mr. Small, a writer or attorney, in whose office his elder brother was then a partner. Here he served a term of six years with great diligence; and on the expiration of this period he removed to Edinburgh, to perfect himself in the study of law, as his future profession. Having obtained a situation in the office of a writer to the signet, his abilities and diligence attracted the notice of Sir James Gibson Craig, by whose recommendation he was appointed secretary or advocate's clerk to the talented and eccentric John Clerk, after-