Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/299

Rh the picturesque landscape that surrounds it, he made this stately ruin and its accompaniments the subject of many a painting from different points of view, and under every variety of light from the full blaze of an autumnal noon day, to the soft half-shadowy outline and tint of a midnight moon. The striking towers and fortalices along the Scottish coast famed as the ancient residences of the champions of our national independence, from Dunstaffnage, Dunluce, and Wolfs-Crag, down to the humble peel upon the rocky sea-shore were also the subjects of his pencil; and when these were exhausted, he devoted himself to the romantic inland scenery, which the genius of Scott had but lately opened, not only to the world, but his own countrymen the Trosachs, Loch Achray, and Achray Water, as well as the more familiar scenes of Benblaffen, Glenfishie, Loch Lomond, Loch Etive, and others, in which land and water, striking outline, change of light and shade, and rich diversity of hue, are so dear to the painter of nature, as well as the general tourist. As Mr. Thomson was not a professional artist, in the proper acceptation of the term, he was not eligible for the honour of membership among the royal Academicians; but his paintings, nevertheless, were gladly received into their Annual Exhibitions; while his merits, instead of being regarded with jealousy, were acknowledged as occupying the front rank among the British masters of landscape-painting, and incontestibly the best which his own country had as yet produced.

These indefatigable labours were continued till 1840, when symptoms of rapid constitutional decay began to manifest themselves, so that he was laid aside altogether from clerical duty; and when autumn arrived, he occupied a sick-bed, without any prospect of recovery. His death was characteristic of that deep admiration and love of the beauty of nature which had distinguished him through life, and secured him a high name in the annals of his countrymen. On the 26th of October, feeling that his last hour was drawing nigh, he caused Iris bed to be wheeled towards the window, that he might look upon the sunset of a bright afternoon; and upon this beloved spectacle he continued to gaze until he swooned from exhaustion. This was his last effort, and he died at seven o'clock on the following morning.

THOMSON,, M.D., F.R.S., Regius Professor of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow. This distinguished chemist was the seventh child and youngest son of John Thomson and Elizabeth Ewan, and was born at Crieff, on the 12th April, 1773. He was first educated at the parish school of Crieff, and was sent, in 1786, in his thirteenth year, for two years, by the advice of his brother, and of his uncle,the Rev. John Ewan, minister of the parish of Whittingham, in East Lothian, a man of some independent means, to the borough school of Stirling, at that time presided over by Dr. Doig, the distinguished author of the "Letters on the Savage State." Here he acquired a thorough classical education, the benefits of which have been so signally manifested in his numerous improvements of chemical nomenclature now generally adopted in the science. In consequence of having written a Latin Horatian poem of considerable merit, his uncle was recommended, by Principal M'Cormack of St. Andrews, to advise that he should try for a bursary at that university, which was open to public competition. He accordingly went, in 1788, to that school of learning, and, having stood an examination, carried the scholarship, which entitled him to board and lodging at the university for three years. In 1791 he came to Edinburgh, and became tutor in the family of Mr, Kerr of Blackshields, one of his pupils being afterwards well known in con-