Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/12

Miln interested himself in small arms, astronomy, archæology, and photography, designed rifles, and made telescopic lenses. In order to compare Scottish with Breton antiquities, he went in 1873 to Carnac, intending to stay only a few days, but remained, with short intermissions, for seven years. In 1874–6 he excavated the hillocks of the Bossenno, bringing to light a Gallo-Roman villa of eleven rooms, the upper story of which had evidently been destroyed by fire, probably in the third century. He also found traces of a villa on the flank of the adjoining Mont St.-Michel. Of these discoveries he published an account, ‘Excavations at Carnac, Brittany,’ in French and English versions, published respectively at Paris and Edinburgh, 1877. He next explored three circular sepultures at Kermario, finding pre-Roman buildings and defences. In November 1880 he left for Paris and Edinburgh, to arrange for the publication of a second volume, but was attacked at Edinburgh by typhoid fever and died there 28 Jan. 1881. The volume was issued, also in English and French, by his brother, Mr. Robert Miln. The Miln Museum at Carnac contains his collections of antiquities. He was a F.S.A. Scotland, vice-president of the Morbihan Philomathic and French Archæological Societies, and a member of other learned bodies, British and foreign. His manuscripts were handed by his brother Robert to the Abbé Luco of Vannes.

[Information from Mr. George Hay, Arbroath; Luco's J. Miln et les trois sépultures circulaires, Tours, 1881; Proceedings of Soc. of Antiquaries of Scotland, xvi. 7; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. ii. 232.]  MILN, WALTER (d. 1558), Scottish protestant martyr. [See .]  MILNE, COLIN (1743?–1815), divine and botanist, was born at Aberdeen about 1743. He was educated at the Marischal College under his uncle, Dr. Campbell, and afterwards received the degree of LL.D. from the university. He removed to Edinburgh, and became tutor to Lord Algernon Percy, second son of Hugh Smithson, afterwards Percy, duke of Northumberland. He took Anglican orders, and soon made his mark as a preacher. He was appointed evening preacher to the City of London Lying-in Hospital, lecturer to both the Old and the New Church at Deptford, and subsequently rector of North Chapel, near Petworth, Sussex. He continued, however, to reside at Deptford (Cottage Gardener, viii. 185;, Anecdotes, iii. 760), where in 1783 he founded the Kent Dispensary, now the Miller Hospital, Greenwich. He was a prominent promoter of the Royal Humane Society, and several times preached the anniversary sermon for the society (, Literary Illustrations, i. 165). As a botanist he was chosen to preach the Fairchild sermon, and sermons which he delivered before the Grand Lodge of Freemasons and at the Maidstone assizes were also printed (cf., Literary Anecdotes, iii. 760). He died at Deptford on 2 Oct. 1815.

He published: 1. ‘A Botanical Dictionary, or Elements of Systematic and Philosophical Botany,’ 1770, 8vo, dedicated to the Duke of Northumberland, 2nd ed. 1778, 3rd ed. 1805. 2. ‘Institutes of Botany, a Translation of the Genera Plantarum of Linnæus,’ pt. i. 1771, 4to, pt. ii. 1772, not completed. 3. ‘Sermons,’ 1780, 8vo. 4. In conjunction with Alexander Gordon (M.D. of Aberdeen, ‘reader in botany in London,’ son of James Gordon, the nurseryman of Mile End, who corresponded with Linnæus), ‘Indigenous Botany … the result of several Botanical Excursions chiefly in Kent, Middlesex, and the adjacent Counties in 1790, 1791, and 1793,’ vol. i. (all issued), 1793, 8vo.

[Hist. of English Gardening, by G. W. Johnson, 1829, p. 232; Records of the Miller Hospital, Greenwich, by John Poland, F.R.C.S. (in the press); Biog. Index of … Botanists, by J.Britten and G. S. Boulger, 1893.]  MILNE, DAVID (1763–1845), admiral, son of David Milne, merchant of Edinburgh, and of Susan, daughter of Mr. Vernor of Musselburgh, was born in Edinburgh on 25 May 1763. He entered the navy in May 1779, on board the Canada,with Captain Hugh Dalrymple, and continuing in the same ship with Sir George Collier [q. v.] and Captain William Cornwallis [q. v.], was present at the second relief of Gibraltar, at the capture of the Spanish frigate Leocadia, at the operations at St. Kitts in January 1782, in the actions off Dominica on 9 and 12 April 1782, and in the disastrous hurricane of 16-17 Sept. 1782. On arriving in England he was appointed to the Elizabeth of 74 guns; but she was paid off at the peace; and Milne, having no prospect of further employment, entered the merchant service, apparently in the East India trade, and continued in it until the outbreak of the war in 1793, when he joined the Boyne, going out to the West Indies with the flag of Sir John Jervis. On 13 Jan. 1794 Jervis promoted him to be lieutenant of the Blanche, in which, under the command of Captain Robert Faulknor [q. v.], he repeatedly distinguished himself, and more especially in the celebrated capture of the Pique (5 Jan. 1795). When, after a very severe action, the Pique