Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/272

536 learned and talented of every country "for the collection and diffusion of useful knowledge." We know how ably this plan was afterwards taken up, and realized by a mind well fitted for such a task. From these theories for the elevation of human character, Sir John again turned to the improvement of sheep and oxen, of which he had never lost sight since his great sheep shearing festival of 1792; and in 1821 he proposed the plan of sheep and cattle shows to the Highland Society. This time the proposal was favourably received, and forthwith put into practice, so that the first annual show of this society was held in Edinburgh at the close of 1822, while the prizes, appointed according to his suggestion, for the best specimens of sheep, cattle, breeding stocks, seeds, and agricultural implements, excited a spirit of ardent industrious competition over the whole kingdom. So great a machinery having thus received such an impetus as secured the easy continuance of its motion, Sir John returned to the other manifold subjects of his solicitude, and with such diligence, that after the year 1821, thirty pamphlets and tracts issued from his pen, besides many others whose authorship has not been traced. These, as might be expected, were chiefly connected with finance and agriculture. The proof-sheet of the last of these tracts, bearing the date of 1835, contains additions and corrections written in his own hand, but so tremulous and indistinct as to be almost illegible. The brain that had never rested, the hand that never was folded in idleness, the heart that had never been weary of well-doing, were all alike to be stilled: and these were the tokens of the final effort; the last throb, after which all was to be the wondrous change of moveless silence and repose.

The last illness of Sir John occurred on the 15th of December, 1835, when he was in the eighty-second year of his age. Its approach was sudden, as only the day previous he had taken a long drive, and conversed cheerfully with his friends. It was the rapid collapse of a healthy old age, in which our patriarchs are frequently removed from the world without sickness or suffering, rather than a regularly formed disease; and in this way. Sir John lingered for a few days, and expired on the 21st.

Sir John Sinclair was twice married. By his first wife, as has been already mentioned, he had two daughters. By his second marriage, in 1788, to Diana, daughter of Alexander Lord Macdonald, he had thirteen children, of whom seven were sons, and six daughters. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Sir George Sinclair, the present member for the shire of Caithness.

STEVENSON, .—This eminent engineer, whose great professional talents are so signally attested by that wondrous structure, the Bell Rock lighthouse, was born at Glasgow, on the 8th of June, 1772. He was the only son of Allan Stevenson, merchant in Glasgow, partner in an establishment connected with St. Christopher, West Indies, in which island he died, while on a visit to his brother, who managed the business there. By this event Robert was left an orphan while still in infancy; and to add to the difficulties that beset his early life, his uncle in St. Christopher died soon after his father, leaving the mercantile affairs of their establishment involved in such embarrassment as must always ensue on the want of superintendence. In this way, the mother of Robert Stevenson, whose name was Jane Lillie, was obliged, in the management of her household, to depend mainly upon her own unaided energies. She, however, discharged her task with that ability which so often compensates for the want of paternal superintendence; and Robert, who was at first designed for the ministry, received the earlier part of his education with a view to that