years, Makgill Crichton died at his own most flattering terms, their high sense of home somewhat suddenly, as he himself his talents and erudition, and amid the desired, and with an bumble yet firm faith acclamations of all present, bestowed on in Christ. His remains lie buried in the him a diamond ring with a purse of gold. family burial ground in Monimail. Shortly It was on this occasion he was first saluted after his death, a memoir of Mr Crichton, with the proud title of "The Admirable prepared by the Rev. J. W. Taylor, of the Crichton." During the interval between givFree Church, Flisk and Creich, was pub-ing the challenge and the day for accepting it, lished by Constable. Some years later, a we are told that, so far from preparing himstatue in memory of Mr Crichton was self by study, he had devoted his time almost erected in Cupar. It stands overlooking entirely to amusements. The day after the the Railway Bridge, which his energetic disputation he attended a public tilting exertions forced reluctant Directors to erect match in the Louvre, and, in presence of the in the place of a level crossing. He was princes of France and a great many ladies, succeeded by the elder son by his first wife, bore away the ring fifteen times, and "broke Charles Julian Maitland Makgill Crichton as many lances on the Saracen." Crichton of Rankeilour, who was born on the 15th afterwards appeared at Rome, and disputed May 1828. He married, on the 24th Dec. in presence of the Pope, when he again 1851, Anna Campbell Jarvis, daughter of astonished and delighted the audience by the late James R. Jarvis, Lieutenant, R. N., the universality of his attainments. Colonial Secretary, and member of the next went to Venice, where, becoming acSupreme Council for the island of Tobago; quainted with Aldus Manutius, the younger, and dying 22d January 1858, left issue-he inscribed to him one of the four little David Maitland Makgill Crichton, Esq. of Rankeilour, a minor, born 24th March

1854.

He

Latin poems, which are all that remain to prove the poetical powers of this " prodigy of nature," as he was styled by Imperialis. CRICHTON, JAMES, styled "The Having been presented to the Doge and Admirable," from his extraordinary en- Senate, he made an oration before them of dowments both mental and physical, was surpassing eloquence. Here also he disputed the son of Robert Crichton of Eliock, Lord on the most difficult subjects before the Advocate of Scotland in the reigns of Queen most eminent literati of that city. He arMary and James VI., and was born in the rived in Padua in the month of March 1581. Castle of Cluny, Perthshire, in 1557, or, ac- The professors of that university assembled cording to some accounts, in 1560. He to do him honour; and on being introduced received the rudiments of his education at to them, he made an extemporary poem in Perth school, and completed his studies at praise of the city, the university, and the the University of St Andrews, where he persons present, after which he sustained a took his degree of M.A. at the age of four-disputation with them for six hours, and at teen. Before he was twenty, he had mastered the whole circle of the sciences, and could speak and write ten different languages besides his own. He also excelled in riding, dancing, fencing, painting, singing, and playing on all sorts of instruments. On leaving College he went abroad to improve himself by travel. On his arrival at Paris, in compliance with a custom of the age, he affixed placards on the gates of the University, challenging the professors and learned men of the city to dispute with him in all the branches of literature, art, and science, and offering to give answers in any of the following languages, viz., Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, English, Dutch, Flemish, and Sclavonic, and either in prose or verse, at the option of his antagonist. On the day appointed three thousand auditors assembled. Fifty masters proposed to him the most intricate questions, and with singular accuracy he replied to them all in the language they required. Four celebrated doctors of the Church then ventured to dispute with him; but he refuted every argument they advanced. A sentiment of terror mingled itself with the admiration of the assembly. They conceived him to be Antichrist! This famous exhibition lasted from nine o'clock in the morning till six at night. At the conclusion, the President expressed, in the

the conclusion delivered an unpremeditated speech in praise of ignorance, to the astonishment of all who heard him. He subsequently offered to point out before the same university the innumerable errors in the philosophy of Aristotle, and to expose the ignorance of his commentators, as well as to refute the opinions of certain celebrated mathematicians, and that in the common logical method, or by numbers or mathematical figures, and by a hundred different kinds of verses; and we are assured that he performed that stupendous task to the admiration of every one. After defeating in disputation a famous philosopher named Archangelus Mercenarius, he proceeded to Mantua, where he challenged in fight a gladiator, or prize-fighter, who had foiled the most expert fencers in Europe, and had already slain three persons that had entered the lists with him in that city. On this occasion the Duke and his whole court were spectators of the combat. Crichton encountered his antagonist with so much dexterity and vigour that he ran him through the body in three different places, of which wounds he immediately expired. The victor generously bestowed the prize, 1500 pistoles, on the widows of the men who had been killed by the gladiator. The Duke of Mantua, struck with his talents and acquirements, appointed him tutor to his son,

He

Vincentio di Gonzaga, a prince of turbulent laboured, because it was so full of young disposition and licentious manners. For men who had the advantage over the poet the entertainment of his patron he composed of having received a professional education. a comedy, described as a sort of ingenious But, with characteristic kindness, he prosatire on the follies and weaknesses of man-cured for the then obscure and sadly helpless kind, in which he himself personated fifteen youth, who two years afterwards was to be characters. But his career was drawing to famous, employment as an engrosser in the a close One night during the festivity of Register House. Mr Cunninghame passed the Carnival in July 1582, or 1583, while as advocate in the year 1807. He had prehe rambled about the streets playing upon viously made the acquaintance of Brougham, the guitar, he was attacked by six persons then practising at the Scotch bar, and their in masks. With consummate skill he dis-intimacy was kept up to the last. persed his assailants, and disarmed their speedily obtained extensive practice as a leader, who, pulling off his mask, begged junior counsel, a success to which his prehis life, exclaiming, "I am the prince, your vious thorough training in business, his pupil Crichton immediately fell upon popular manners, and the despatch with his knees, and presenting his sword to the which he prepared the written pleadings of prince, expressed his sorrow for having lifted those days, greatly contributed. As a it against him, saying that he had been counsel he had a clear apprehension, great prompted by self-defence. The dastardly natural sagacity, and uncommon powers of Gonzaga, inflamed with passion at his dis-application to work. Indifferent to elabocomfiture, or mad with wine, immediately ration in form, style, or expression, he was plunged the weapon into his heart. Thus yet in whatever he wrote always singularly prematurely was cut off "The Admirable distinct and forcible. Having purchased Crichton." Some accounts declare that he the estate of Duloch, he became an agriculwas killed in the thirty-second year of his tural improver, having ever taken a great age; but Imperialis asserts that he was interest in country affairs, of which he posonly in his twenty-second year at the time sessed an intimate knowledge. In the west of his death, and this fact is confirmed by of Fife there was at that period the congenial Lord Buchan. His tragical end excited a society of a knot of Whigs, who kept alive great and general lamentation. According and promoted Liberal opinions when the to Sir Thomas Urquhart, the whole court political horizon was dark around. No one of Mantua went for nine months into mourn- was inore useful and influential than Mr ing for him; innumerable were the epitaphs Cunninghame in the public business of the and elegies that were stuck upon his hearse; district. In that quarter his popularity has and portraits of him, in which he was repre- always been great, and his services highly sented on horseback with a sword in one appreciated. When Liberal movements hand, and a book in the other, were multi-began in Edinburgh he zealously assisted in lied in every quarter. Such are the romantic details which are given of the life of this literary phenomenon. Dr Kippis, in the Biographia Britannica, was the first to call in question the truth of the marvellous stories related of him. But Mr Patrick Fraser Tytler, in his Life of Crichton, published in 1823, has adduced the most satisfactory evidence to establish the authenticity of the testimonies and authorities on which the statements regarding Crichton rest.

CUNNINGHAME, LORD, a landowner in the west of Fife, and an eminent judge of the Court of Session, who, during sixteen years so ably filled the judgment seat, was educated at Glasgow College, where the author of the "Pleasures of Hope," then a student there, assisted him in his studies. He early imbibed Liberal opinions. In a letter supplying information for the biography of Campbell, and printed in Dr Beattie's life of the poet, Lord Cunninghame says of himself, referring to the year 1797:

By this time I had been placed in the office of a writer to the signet, receiving the practical education thought by my friends to be an essential preparation for the bar, and I believe Campbell had hardly any acquaintance in Edinburgh but myself." He was unable to find for his illustrious friend occupation in the humble department of a copyist in the office where he himself

their progress, and though not one of the peculiarly gifted geniuses whose captivating eloquence did so much to forward the cause, he was one of those whose part in the movement, though less conspicuous, was of infinite value in counsel and arrangement. On the formation of Lord Grey's Government, he accepted the office of Senior AdvocateDepute, to exchange it in a few months for the Sheriffship of Moray, the earliest judicial appointment in Scotland which the Ministry had to bestow. Though his steady Liberal principles had thus recommended him to the favour of the triumphant Whigs, yet he never became personally obnoxious to political opponents, such was the suavity of his manner and the acknowledged kindness of his disposition, with a certain bonhomie peculiarly attractive. Among the incidental public services in which he was engaged, it may be mentioned that he was a member of two important commissions-that for inquiring into municipal corporations, and that known as the law commission, and he took an active part in both. In 1835 he became Solicitor-General, and acting under Mr Murray as Lord Advocate, the Melbourne Government could not have had more valuable law officers to inform them of the advanced state of public opinion in Scotland, and of their true policy in meeting it. The nomination of the members of the Religious

CUN

FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY.

Instruction Commission, upon which Volun- Jeffrey, early in 1850, Lord Cunninghame tary principles were represented, to the was removed to the Inner House, where his disinay of the Establishment, was perhaps labours, however responsible, were less a fruit of the change. In 1837 Mr Cun-constant and harassing than those of a Lord ninghame was raised to the bench. He Ordinary. He had, however, before this gained a great reputation as an Outer House event, met with a very severe accident, Judge by the general soundness of his which, after much suffering, rendered him judgments, his unwearied application to his lame for life. Though he partly recovered duties, and quick despatch of the causes from the shock it gave to his constitution, the brought before him. Without being a pro-loss of his wonted exercise and out-door found lawyer, his knowledge was at com- enjoyment undermined his health, while the mand, and no one could excel him in infirmity of increasing deafness, impairing disentangling the complexities of the ordi- his powers of usefulness on the bench, nary run of cases which came into court, obliged him to retire in 1853. CURRIE, ANDREW, of Glassmount, and taking sound practical views, which served to place his judgments on a firm merchant in Kirkcaldy, died in October footing. His courtesy and indulgence to 1859, much respected. He was born in those who pleaded before him, and his easy 1802, and died in his fifty-eighth year. and familiar manner-on which, however, During the whole of his active life Mr he never permitted any one unduly to pre- Currie's fortunes were cast in his native sume-made him a favourite with all classes district, and his death, though not unlooked of practitioners. There is no profession, for, carried regret into a wide circle of perhaps, in which peculiar and totally dis- friends. Mr Currie, we believe, was the tinet gifts or inherent faculties have more architect of his own fortune, his first beroom for their development than the law.ginning in business life having been made One man is a great orator, and gains forensic under no great advantages, but the reverse; victory after victory during the time when nevertheless, by energy and perseverance, his brethren are proclaiming and proclaim- he was enabled some time before his death ing with truth--to an incredulous unprofes- to reach a very independent position. He sional public that he is no lawyer. Another purchased the estate of Glassmount, which His desire was to be no seems a dreamer absorbed in some transcen- he immediately set about improving upon a dental speculations totally apart from this very liberal scale. world, but we are told that he has kept a laggard among the skilled agriculturists firm grasp in his mind of some leading around him. With this view the lands were principle-it may be in conveyancing, or in thoroughly drained and improved, and a contracts of indemnity-which has given steading designed, embracing every imstability and the right direction to the whole provement suggested by experience. It had practice and tenor of that department of the been decreed, however, that he was never to law. We have alluded to general practical see this last finished; for, shortly after the sagacity rather than abstract law as the erecting of it was commenced, he was seized As an employer, Mr prevailing character in Cunninghame's with the complaint which clung so fatally to judicial labours, and we may attribute it to him to the end. the prevalence of this character, combined Currie was beloved and respected by those The funeral was with the strongly political tone of his mind, under him, his wish being to see all comthat he made an admirable Judge in all fortable and happy. constitutional questions-a class of questions numerously and respectably attended. with which it is remarkable that very profound "lawyers," according to the technical use of the term, often make great havoc. Among other opportunities of showing his powers in this department, it was his fortune while a Lord Ordinary to have the responsibility of deciding in the first instance some of the most important of the Church questions which led to the Disruption. Although naturally the party to whose claims his decisions were inimical might have both felt and spoken bitterly in the heat of litigation, we believe that were they now, after more than twenty years, to go back to the admirable notes by which his judgments were explained, they would admit the constitutional soundness of the opinions expressed in them, and feel the maintenance of such principles a guarantee for the security of their own altered position. It was remarked at the time that the matter of Sir James Graham's celebrated letter to the Church of Scotland was to be found in Lord Cunning. hame's interlocutors. On the death of Lord

NO. XVIII.

D.

DALYELL of Lingo, THE FAMILY OF.The family of Dalyell is one of the oldest in Scotland, having been people of note for some centuries. The origin of the name is thus described in Nisbet's Heraldry :-" In one of the wars of Kenneth II., one of the greatest of the early Scottish kings, who came to the throne A.D. 835, one of his chief favourites, and a kinsman of his own, was taken prisoner by the enemy, and hanged in sight of both camps. Kenneth being exceedingly grieved that the body of his friend should be so disgracefully treated, offered a large reward for its recovery. When none would undertake the dangerous enterprise, a valorous gentleman said to the king Dal Yell,' which in the old Scottish language signifies 'I dare.' This attempt having been performed to the king's satis137 faction, he was given for his arms the

in Ireland, which had been settled in 1707 on the male heirs of Sir Thomas Dalyell of Bins, failing the proprietor's own descendants. He married Margaret, daughter of Andrew Lumsdaine, Bishop of Edinburgh, and aunt of the celebrated Andrew Lumsdaine, for so many years private secretary to Prince Charles Edward, by whom he had issue a son, John Dalyell of Lingo and Tick nevin, who married Lindsay, eldest daughter of Peter Hay, Esq. of Leys, by his wife Lindsay, daughter of David Scott, Esq. of Scotstarvit, M.P., by whom he had issue, and was succeeded by his second son, John Dalyell, Esq. of Lingo and Ticknevin, who was a captain in the Fifeshire Militia, and accompanied that regiment to Ireland in 1798. He died in 1822, and was succeeded by his eldest son, John Dalyell, Esq. of Lingo and Ticknevin, who married Jane Anstruther, eldest daughter of General Robert Anstruther of Balcaskie, and on retiring on half-pay from the 5th Dragoon Guards, Mr Dalyell became lieutenant-colonel of the Fifeshire Militia. He died in October 1843, and was succeeded by his son, Robert Anstruther Dalyell, now of Ticknevin and Carberry, Ireland, who was born on the 5th May 1831, and became, at the death of his grand-aunt, Miss Helen Robertson Melville, representative of the families of Melville of Murdocairnie, and of Robertson of Newbiggen.

remarkable bearing Sa, a naked man hanging, Ppr, and Dalyell for his surname, with the signification thereof, I dare,' for his motto." Thomas D. Dalyell swore fealty as one of the great barons of Scotland to Edward I., King of England. He afterwards enrolled himself in the band of worthy patriots who joined Robert Bruce. His son, Robert D. Dalyell, was knighted by King Robert II. He was one of the Earl of Orkney's sureties to Haquin, King of Norway, and went to that country in 1380, and died immediately on his return home. Passing over several members of the family, we come to Thomas Dalyell of Bins, who entered the army early, and during the reign of Charles I. commanded the town and garrison of Carrickfergus. He was appointed majorgeneral by Charles II.; had a command at the battle of Worcester, where he was taken prisoner and committed to the Tower, whence he escaped to the north of Scotland, and in 1654, with a party of Royalists, took possession of the castle of Skelko, and made great exertions for the restoration of Charles; but this proving hopeless, with strong recommendations from his King, he entered the service of the Czar of Russia, where he saw a great deal of warfare against the Turks and Tartars, and was made general; and on his return to his own country after the Restoration, was presented by the Czar with a testimonial of his services under the Great Seal of Russia. DALYELL, THOMAS, was the third son of Charles II. was not forgetful of his former John Dalyell of Lingo and Ticknevin, who exertions on his behalf, and made him died in 1822. Thomas entered the Bengal lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief army in 1821; was present at the first Burin Scotland, and in this position he was mese war; throughout the war in Affghanimuch employed against the insurgents at stan, where he was wounded; and commanded the Pentland Hills, in conjunction with his his regiment during the latter period of the friends, Viscount Graham of Claverhouse, battle of Sobraon in the Punjaub campaign. and General Drummond, afterwards Vis- He obtained the command of his regiment count Strathallan, who had accompanied in 1854, and led a sortie against the mutihim to Russia. He was made a Privy Coun-neers in India from the fort of Saugor in cillor in 1666, died in 1685, and was buried at 1857. "On the 18th September a detachEdinburgh with military honours. He was ment, composed of infantry, cavalry, succeeded by his second son, John Dalyell of and saltmen, amounting to about 700 men, Muiravonside, who attained the rank of with three guns, manned by thirty-six of lieutenant-colonel in the time of William our artillerymen, all under the command of III., served under the Duke of Marl Colonel Dalyell, of the 421 Light Infantry, borough, and was killed at the battle of left Saugor to attack Nerriowli, a strong Malplacquet. He was succeeded by his walled town, about fourteen miles to the son, Captain Thomas Dalyell, of Craig- north-west, and occupied by a vast number foodie and Lingo, who entered the army as of Bundelahs and mutineers. The town is ensign in General Tyrell's regiment, and well fortified, lying in a valley between two became afterwards captain of the City hills, which act as natural fortresses, and a Guards of Edinburgh, which position he held strong high stone wall, extending from one for many years. He commanded at the to the other, completes its defence all round. Nethergate when Prince Charles Edward The force arrived about nine A.M., and after summoned the town to surrender in 1745, carefully reconnoitering the place, the but being, like many other gentlemen of his colonel arranged the plan of operations with day, well affected towards the Prince, he consummate skill, and at once proceeded to was not very stringent in his orders, and the the attack. The cavalry were placed on the result was that the Prince's army made left, the artillery, with a company of infanan almost unopposed entrance. He was try, in the centre, and the rest of the brought before the public at the trial of the infantry on the right. After a short but Provost of Edinburgh for neglected duty. animating address to his men, concluding He acquired the lands of Craigfoodie, with 'Pet ke bich men maro! he led the Lingo, and Gordonshall, in Fife, and in infantry himself against the right hill, while 1751 he succeeded to the estate of Ticknevin | the guns, under the charge of Captain