Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/186

 St. Andrews. In 1863 he became assistant to Dr. Robertson at Glasgow Cathedral, and in 1864 he was presented by the senatus of St. Andrews, then patrons of the living, to the parish of Dunino adjoining that of St. Andrews. He was there able to maintain his hold on academic life. He was examiner in classics in the United College, St. Andrews, in 1862-6, for some years assisted Dr. John Cook, professor of church history, and was clerk to the Senatus Academicus. In 1871 he was appointed by the crown to the chair of Hebrew and Oriental languages in St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, and proved himself a painstaking, broad-minded, and lucid teacher. His abilities were widely recognised. He received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh University in 1878, and he was a member of the Old Testament revision committee. 1874-84. He was the first chairman of the St. Andrews school board, and held the position for sixteen years. Examiner of secondary schools in Scotland from 1876 to 1888, he originated and carried out with great success the scheme (afterwards superseded by the system of leaving certificates) of university local examinations at St. Andrews.

Birrell died at St. John's, St. Andrews, on 31 December 1901, and was buried in the cathedral burying-ground of the city. On 3 June 1874 he married Elizabeth, daughter of James Wallace of The Brake, Dunino, and had by her three sons and two daughters.

 BISHOP, . ISABELLA LUCY (born ) (1831–1904), traveller and authoress, born on 15 Oct. 1831 at Boroughbridge Hall, Yorkshire, the home of her maternal grandmother, was eldest child of the Rev. Edward Bird (d. 1858). The Bird family was long settled at Barton-on-the-Heath, Warwickshire, and William Wilberforce [q. v.] and John Bird Sumner [q. v.], archbishop of Canterbury, were kinsmen. Miss Bird's mother, Dora, second daughter of the Rev. Marmaduke Lawson of Borough-bridge, was her father's second wife. Both parents were strongly religious, and Isabella inherited pronounced evangelical views. Her childhood was passed in her father's successive benefices, Tattenhall in Cheshire from 1834 to 1842, St. Thomas's, Birmingham, from 1842 to 1848, and from 1848 onwards at Wyton, Huntingdonshire. At Tattenhall, Isabella, who suffered through life from a spinal complaint, lived much in the open air, learnt riding, becoming in after years an expert and fearless horsewoman, and was trained to observe objects of country life. At Birmingham she began to help in Sunday school work, and started her literary career by writing in 1847 an essay in favour of fiscal protection which was printed for private circulation at Huntingdon. At Wyton she learnt rowing on the Ouse. In 1850 she underwent an operation for spinal trouble; and in the summer of 1854, when she was twenty-two, being recommended a sea voyage for her health, she visited a cousin in Prince Edward Island. Seven months were spent on this trip, which extended to Canada and the United States. It was the first of her travels, and she recorded her experience in 'The English-woman in America,' published in January 1856 by John Murray the third (1808-1892) [q. v.], who became at once her publisher and her personal friend for life.

In 1857-8 she revisited America for the sake of health. At the suggestion of her father she studied the current religious revival in the United States, and described it in serial articles in 'The Patriot,' which were collected in 1859 as 'The Aspects of Religion in the United States of America.'

Meanwhile Miss Bird paid, with her family, constant visits to Scotland, and on her father's death in 1858 she, her mother, and only sister, Henrietta, made their home in Edinburgh. For her sister she cherished the closest affection, and after her mother died they continued to live together, when Isabella was resting from travel, and letters to her sister from distant parts formed material for many of her books. Her sister had a cottage, too, at Tobermory, in the Island of Mull. Miss Bird grew to be especially interested in the social and spiritual welfare of the people in the West Highlands; she co-operated with Lady Gordon Cathcart in crofter emigration to Canada (1862-6), and in 1866 personally visited the settlers in Canada. She also wrote much for magazines, including papers on hymns in the 'Sunday Magazine' (1865-7), and in the 'Leisure Hour' she described in 1867 a tour to the Outer Hebrides in 1860. In 1869 she attacked the slums and poverty of Edinburgh in 'Notes on Old Edinburgh.'

Miss Bird's health was still bad; much of her writing was done while she lay on her back, and she failed to benefit by a trip to New York and the Mediterranean in 1871. In July 1872 she started for 