Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/209

LIN be impossible in our limits to give the faintest outline, but which was marked by the application of considerable thinking power to the facts of universal history—and devout in its spirit, was hopeful in its conclusions. The following year, 1847, appeared Lord Lindsay's elaborate and eloquent "Sketches of the History of Christian Art," original in its theory, and copious in its information, collected from a wide and thorough study of art and its remains. In his "Brief Analysis of the. Doctrine and Argument in the case of Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter," published in 1850, Lord Lindsay took a temperate view of that famous decision; and those whose dissatisfaction with it was too great to allow them to remain in the Church of England, he recommended to seek a refuge, not in the Church of Rome, but in the Episcopal Church of Scotland. In the course of the preceding year, 1849, Lord Lindsay had printed for private circulation the most generally attractive and popular of all his books, the "Lives of the Lindsays, or a memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarras," which is a valuable contribution to the history, especially the social history of Scotland, for many centuries, as well as to the literature of family biography. It is pervaded, not by the pride of birth, but by the spirit of the motto, "Noblesse oblige." The work was found so interesting that in 1858 Lord Lindsay was induced to publish it for the benefit of the reading world in general. In 1861 his lordship published "Scepticism and the Church of England," applying to the new state of theological opinion the theory contained in his "Progression by Antagonism."—F. E.  LINDSAY,, the most popular of the ancient Scottish poets, was descended from a younger branch of the family of Lord Lindsay of the Byres originally resident at Garmylton in East Lothian. It is probable that he was born at the Mount, the family seat near Cupar-Fife, about the year 1490. He was sent to the university of St. Andrews in 1505, and left it in 1509, at the age of nineteen. On completing his education he visited Italy, and in 1512—the year following his return—was appointed gentleman-usher to the infant prince, afterwards James V. In 1513 he was present in the chapel at Linlithgow, when the pretended apparition of the apostle John was employed to deter James IV. from his proposed invasion of England, and furnished both Pitscottie and Buchanan with a description of the scene. After the death of James IV. at Flodden, Lindsay continued his attendance on his successor till 1524, when he was removed from his office, along, with the rest of the royal household, by the selfish intrigues of the queen-mother. His pension, however, continued to be regularly paid, in consequence of the interference of the youthful monarch himself. On the overthrow of the Douglas faction in 1528, Lindsay lost no time in availing himself of this favourable change in the administration of public affairs to improve his own fortunes; and about the close of the year published his "Dream"—the most poetical of all his compositions—in which he reminds the king in very graphic and touching terms of the fidelity and affection with which he had discharged the duties of his office, and expresses a hope that he will receive "ane goodly recompence." In the "Complaint," written in the following year, he remonstrates with great freedom against the neglect with which he had been treated; and not in vain, for in 1530 he was appointed lion king-at-arms—an office of great dignity and importance. Shortly after his promotion Lindsay wrote his "Complaint of the King's Papingo," a satirical poem, in which the vices of the clergy are denounced in vehement language. In point of elegance, learning, variety of description, and easy, playful humour, the "little tragedy" of the papingo is worthy to hold its place with any poem of the period, either English or Scottish. In April, 1531, Lindsay was despatched to Brussels along with David Panton, secretary to the king, and Sir James Campbell of Lundie, for the purpose of negotiating the renewal of the commercial treaty concluded by James I. between Scotland and the Netherlands. The Scottish ambassadors were received with great state by the queen of Hungary, governor of the Netherlands, and her brother the Emperor Charles, and were completely successful in their mission. On his return to Scotland Sir David married a lady of the name of Janet Douglas; but there is reason to suspect that his marriage was unhappy, and he had no issue. About the close of the year 1535 he wrote his celebrated "Satire of the Three Estates," in which the follies and vices of the king and his courtiers, and the abuses of the church, are attacked with equal boldness and freedom. This singular drama—the representation of which must have occupied nearly the entire day—was performed in the open air at Cupar, Linlithgow, Perth, and Edinburgh, in presence of the king, queen, and court, and an immense concourse of spectators; and its unsparing exposure of the flagrant abuses of the government and the clergy seems to have produced a deep impression both on the sovereign and the people. In 1536 Sir David was despatched along with Sir John Campbell to the court of France, to demand in marriage for the Scottish king a daughter of the house of Vendôme; but James ultimately espoused Magdalen, daughter of Francis I., on whose untimely death Lindsay composed a pathetic "Deploration." On the subsequent marriage of the king to Mary of Guise, Sir David's ingenuity was put into requisition to provide masks, shows, and pageants to welcome the princess on her arrival at St. Andrews. During these festivities, which lasted forty days, the lion-king composed his satirical poem entitled the "Justing between James Watson and John Barbour"—a heavy, dull, and laboured production in ridicule of jousts and tournaments; which was followed by another satire entitled "Supplication directit to the king's grace in contemptioun of side tails"—the long trains then worn by ladies. Lindsay was one of the little company of faithful friends who attended the deathbed of James V., and he closed the eyes of that accomplished but unfortunate monarch, 14th December, 1542. Sir David represented the burgh of Cupar in the parliament which met at Edinburgh on the 13th of March, 1543, and supported the claims of Arran in the struggle for the regency which took place between that nobleman and Cardinal Beaton. In the following year he was sent on an embassy to Charles V., and on his return was elected as representative for Cupar in the parliaments of 1544-45-46. His last embassy was to the court of Denmark, in order to negotiate a free trade with that country. He appears to have taken no further part in public affairs, but spent the latter years of his life in retirement. In 1550 he wrote the "History of Squire Meldrum," the liveliest of his works, and peculiarly valuable on, account of the light which it casts upon the private life and manners of the times. In 1553 he completed his last, and in some respects greatest work—the "Monarchie"—which from its extent and elaborate character must have occupied his attention for several years. It is nervous, learned, and pious; and although keenly satirical, is not so coarse and scurrilous as most of his earlier productions, and displays a higher moral tone. Sir David died probably about the close of 1557. He was a man of grave deportment and correct morals, as well as of true poetical genius, extensive learning, and keen wit. His writings are characterized by good sense, sagacious observation, and sarcastic wit, rather than by brilliant imagination or deep poetic feeling. They exercised, however, a powerful influence on the age in which he lived, and contributed not a little to hasten the overthrow of the papal system in Scotland. Their popularity among his contemporaries and their immediate successors was unbounded; and until the close of the last century they were to be found in almost every cottage north of the Tweed. The year after his death his works were condemned to be burnt by the last Roman catholic synod held in Scotland before the Reformation.—J. T.  LINDSAY,, of Pitscottie, a Scottish chronicler, was descended from. Patrick, fourth Lord Lindsay, and was born probably about the beginning of the sixteenth century, in the parish of Ceres, Fifeshire, in which the small estate of Pitscottie is situated. His chronicles begin in 1436, with the reign of James III., and terminate in 1565, shortly after the marriage of Queen Mary to Darnley. He derived the materials, he says, from Patrick Lord Lindsay of the Byres, Sir William Scott of Balwearie, Sir Andrew Wood of Largo, the famous Scottish admiral. Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, and other distinguished gentlemen of the period. "Honest Pitscottie," as Sir Walter Scott was in the habit of terming him, was garrulous, simple, credulous, and prolix; but "his naiveté and humour, his minute touches of individuality, his picturesque and graphic style, and the high spirit of chivalry and warmth of heart that glow through his every page, render him by far the most entertaining of the old Scottish chroniclers." There is little or nothing known of his personal history—J. T.  * LINDSAY,, a Scottish botanist, prosecuted his early studies at the high school of Edinburgh, where he was dux. He afterwards studied medicine in the university of Edinburgh, and cultivated natural science, more especially botany, in which he distinguished himself, when a student. He 