Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/45

 Peeblesshire,’ published in 1843. His great paper on the highland controversy appeared in the ‘Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,’ 1861, xvii. 85, and was followed by an important one on the ‘Southern Grampians’ (xix. 180), in which he contends (in opposition to the views of Murchison) for ‘the great antiquity’ of the ‘gneiss and mica-slate’ of that region. In the same journal for 1869 and 1872 appear papers on the ‘Parallel Roads of Glenroy,’ in which Nicol advocates the marine origin of these terraces. On this question also the last word has not yet been said. Nicol also contributed numerous articles to periodicals, and to the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ (8th and 9th edits.) Among his separately published works are, ‘A Guide to the Geology of Scotland’ (1844), ‘Manual of Mineralogy’ (1849), ‘Elements of Mineralogy’ (1858, 2nd edit. 1873), ‘The Geology and Scenery of the North of Scotland’ (1866), in an appendix of which he replies to some sweeping strictures which had been passed upon his work by Murchison. He was one of the editors of the ‘Select Writings of Charles Maclaren’ (1869), and published an excellent geological map of Scotland in 1858.

[Obituary notice in Proc. Geological Society, 1880, p. 33; information from Mrs. Nicol. For a summary of Nicol's work in Scotland, see Professor J. W. Judd's Address to Section C, British Association Report, 1885, p. 995.]  NICOL or NICOLL, JOHN (fl. 1590–1667), diarist, was, according to statements in his ‘Diary,’ born and brought up in Glasgow, the year of his birth being probably 1590. He became writer to the signet and notary public in Edinburgh, where he seems to have enjoyed the confidence of the covenanting party. Not improbably he was the John Nicoll who was nominated as clerk to the general assembly at Glasgow in November 1638, when Sir Archibald Johnstone [q. v.] of Warriston was elected. Wodrow, who in his ‘Sufferings of the Kirk’ makes large use of the manuscript of Nicoll, described it in the list of his papers as ‘The Journals of John Nicol, writer to the signet, containing some account of our Scots Kings, with some Extracts as to China and the West Indies, and a Chronicle from Fergus the ffirst to 1562. And an Abbreviāt of Matters in Scotland from that time to 1637; from which it contains full and large accounts of all the Occurrences in Scotland, with the Proclamations and Public Papers every year. Vol. i. from 1637 to 1649, original; vol. ii. from 1650 to 1657.’ Vol. i. has been lost. Vol. ii. was purchased for the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and was printed by the Bannatyne Club in 1836, under the title ‘A Diary of Public Transactions and other Occurrences, chiefly in Scotland, from June 1650 to June 1667.’ The ‘Diary’ seems to have been composed partly from notes of what happened within his immediate experience, and partly from accounts in the newspapers and public intelligencers of the time. His political bias varies with the changes of the government, the proceedings and conduct of those in power being always placed in the best light. He probably died not long after 1667.

[David Laing's Preface to Bannatyne edition of the Diary.]  NICOL, WILLIAM (1744?–1797), friend of Burns, was son of a Dumfriesshire working man. After receiving elementary education in his parish school, he earned some money by teaching, and thus was able to pursue a university career at Edinburgh, where he studied both theology and medicine. Allusions in Burns's ‘Elegy on Willie Nicol's Mare’ seem to indicate that he was a licentiate of the church (, Burns, ii. 291). Throughout his college course he was constantly employed in tuition, and he was soon appointed a classical master in Edinburgh High School. The rector was Dr. Adams, and Walter Scott was a pupil. The rector disliked and condemned Nicol as ‘worthless, drunken, and inhumanly cruel to the boys under his charge’ (, Life of Scott, i. 33, ed. 1837). Once, when Nicol was considered to have insulted Adams, Scott chivalrously rendered him ridiculous in the class-room by pinning to his coat-tail a paper inscribed with ‘Æneid,’ iv. 10—part of the day's lesson—having boldly substituted vanus for novus to suit his man— Quis vanus hic nostris successit sedibus hospes? (ib. p. 100).

Burns early made Nicol's acquaintance—their first meeting is not recorded—and his various letters to him, and his allusions to him as his ‘worthy friend,’ prove that the poet found in him more than the drunken tyrant described by Scott, or the pedantic boor ridiculed by Lockhart (Life of Burns, chap. v.). Nicol was one, says Dr. Stevens in his ‘History of the High School of Edinburgh,’ ‘who would go any length to serve and promote the views and wishes of a friend,’ and who was instantly stirred to hot wrath ‘whenever low jealousy, trick, or selfish cunning appeared.’ Burns was Nicol's guest from 7 to 25 Aug. 1787 in the house over Buccleuch Pend, from which he visited the literary ‘howffs’ of the city. Nicol accom-