Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/396

Pringle governor's action, Pringle resigned his posts at Cape Town, visited Glen-Lynden and found it prosperous, and then, with his wife and her sister, proceeded to London, which he reached on 7 July 1826. The government at home declined to grant him any redress, and he found himself involved in heavy expenses.

An article by Pringle on the South African slave trade, in the ‘New Monthly Magazine’ for October 1826, introduced him to the notice of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton and Zachary Macaulay, and led to his appointment in 1827 as secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society. He inspired enthusiasm in other workers. Clarkson suggested that he should write the history of the abolition of slavery; and Wilberforce, in a letter of January 1832, thanked him for his exertions, adding, ‘I shall feel it an act of friendly regard if you will come and shake me by the hand’ (, Memoirs of Pringle, p. 94). In 1831 he was largely instrumental in enabling Coleridge to retain his government annuity, Coleridge afterwards subscribing himself, in a grateful letter, as his ‘sincere friend and thorough esteemer’ (ib. p. 90). On 27 June 1834 a document signed by Pringle proclaimed the abolition of slavery, and announced that the approaching 1 Aug. would be a day of thanksgiving. The following day he became seriously ill, and rest and change seemed imperative. His friends helped him to take out passages to Cape Colony for himself and his wife and her sister, but he was unable to start, and died in London 5 Dec. 1834. He was buried in Bunhill Fields. An appropriate epitaph was written for his tombstone by William Kennedy [q. v.]

Pringle married, 19 July 1817, Margaret Brown, daughter of an East Lothian farmer, who survived him. As she and her sister were left in straitened circumstances, Leitch Ritchie published, in their interest, in 1839, Pringle's poems with a prefatory memoir.

Pringle's earlier poems, under the title ‘Ephemerides,’ were published in 1828. In 1834 those on South African themes were reissued as ‘African Sketches,’ the volume also including Pringle's vivid and impressive ‘Narrative of his Residence in South Africa.’ After his death the ‘Narrative’ was republished, with a biographical notice by Josiah Conder [q. v.] Several of the lyrics in ‘Ephemerides’ are graceful and melodious, but the highest achievement of the author is his ‘African Sketches.’ Of these, ‘The Emigrants’ is a creditable experiment in Spenserian verse, concluding with the tuneful hymn of ‘Farewell.’ There is a collection of passable sonnets, and several of the ballads are meritorious. ‘The Bechuana Boy’ is a picturesque and touching narrative, while ‘Afar in the Desert’ is a brilliant study of movement, which Coleridge considered ‘among the two or three most perfect lyric poems in our language’ (, Memoirs, p. 142). Pringle also assisted Belfrage and Hay in their ‘Memoirs of Dr. Alexander Waugh,’ 1830, 8vo; he supplied materials for George Thompson's ‘Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa,’ 1827, 4to, and for John Philips's ‘History of Cape Colony;’ he was editor of ‘Friendship's Offering’ for several years from its commencement in 1826, two of his colleagues being Thomas Kibble Hervey [q. v.] and Leitch Ritchie [q. v.]

 PRINGLE, WALTER (1625–1667), of Greenknowe, Berwickshire, covenanter, born in 1625, was the third son of Robert Pringle, first of Stitchel, Roxburghshire, by Catherine Hamilton of Silverton Hill. The Pringles of Stitchel were descended from the Hop Pringles of Craiglatch and Newhall, Selkirkshire, a younger branch of the Pringles of Snailholm. Robert Pringle, second son of George Pringle of Craiglatch, was originally of Bartinbush; but, having acquired a large fortune by his profession of writer to the signet in Edinburgh, he in 1628 bought the estate of Stitchel from Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar, first viscount Kenmure. He also in 1637 purchased from James Seton of Touch and Dame Barbara Cranstoun, his mother, for himself during his life, and then for his second surviving son, Walter, the estate of West Gordon, Berwickshire, ‘with the manor place called Greenknowe,’ over and nether Huntly Wood, and the fourth part of Fawne. In 1638 he also purchased from James, third earl of Home, various other lands in Berwickshire for the price of 19,000l. Scots. He sat in the Scottish parliament as commissioner for Roxburghshire in 1639–41. He was one of a committee appointed by the parliament on 28 July 1641 to proceed against incendiaries (, Works, ii. 22); and of another, appointed on 10 Sept., to consider the overtures for manufactories (ib. p. 61). Robert Pringle died in 1649.

The son, Walter Pringle, when about eleven years of age, was, with his brother, placed under the care of James Leckie, an ejected minister at Stirling. The death of Leckie suspended the exercise of the special