summer placed her Eolian harp in the window. . . . In those pieces on which she bestowed more than ordinary pains, she was very secret; and if they were, by any accident, discovered in their unfinished state, she seldom completed them and often destroyed them. She cared little for any of her works after they were completed: some, indeed, she preserved with care for future correction, but a great proportion she destroyed: very many that are preserved, were rescued from the flames by her mother. Of a complete poem, in five cantos, called "Rodri," and composed when she was thirteen years of age, a single canto, and part of another, are all that are saved from a destruction which she supposed had obliterated every vestige of it.-MORSE, SAMUEL F. B., 1829, Amir Khan and Other Poems, Biographical Sketch. Prodigious as the genius of this young creature was, still marvellous after all the abatements that may be made for precociousness and morbid development, there is something yet more captivating in her moral loveliness. Her modesty was not the infusion of another mind, not the result of cultivation, not the effect of good taste; nor was it a veil, cautiously assumed and gracefully worn; but an innate quality, that made her shrink from incense, even though the censer were sanctified by love. Her mind was like the exquisite mirror, that cannot be stained by human breath. SEDGWICK, CATHERINE M., 1839, Sparks's Library of American Biography, vol. VII, p. 292. In person she was exceedingly beautiful. Her forehead was high, open, and fair as infancy-her eyes large, dark, and of that soft beaming expression which shows the soul in the glance-her features were fine and symmetrical, and her complexion brilliant, especially when the least excitement moved her feelings. But the prevailing expression of her face was melancholy. Her beauty, as well as her mental endowments, made her the object of much regard; but she shrunk from observationany particular attention always seemed to give her pain; so exquisite was her modesty. In truth, her soul was too delicate for this "cold world of storms and clouds." Her imagination never revelled in the "garishness of joy;"-a pensive, meditative mood was the natural tone of her "As the work of a girl of sixteen, most assuredly we do not think it ["Amir Khan"] "prodigious." In regard to it we may repeat what we said of "Lenore," -that we have seen finer poems in every respect, written by children of more immature age. It is a creditable composition; nothing beyond this. And, in so saying, we shall startle none but the brainless, and the adopters of ready-made ideas. We are convinced that we express the unuttered sentiment of every educated individual who has read the poem. having given the plain facts of the case, do we feel called upon to proffer any apology for our flat refusal to play ditto either to Miss Sedgwick, to Mr. Irving, or to Mr. Southey.-POE, EDGAR ALLAN, 1841, Graham's Magazine, Works, ed. Stedman and Woodberry, vol. VIII, p. 300. Nor, As a poet, Lucretia Davidson possessed a depth of thought, a delicacy of expression, a tenderness of sentiment, and an appreciation of melody rarely to be met. She had a fine fancy, a quick imagination, and quiet and unobtrusive humor, and underlying all a foundation of thorough and unwavering thoughtfulness. Her writings are marked by grace, ease and refinement, and evince not only a catholic but a classical taste. Her heart as well as her mind is apparent in her compositions; and soul, as well as intellect, permeates and gives character to her productions. COFFIN, ROBERT BARRY (BARRY GRAY), 1870, Poems by Lucretia Maria Davidson. Introduction, p. viii. The great admiration of the best critics of the time for Lucretia Maria Davidson is explained by the difference between her freshness and pensive sentiment and the affectation of the school who preceded her.... Whose works now seem so very commonplace.-FORD, EMILY ELLSWORTH, 1893, Early Prose and Verse, pp. 132, 133. Those precocious girls, the Davidson sisters, who died when scarcely out of childhood, leaving volumes of fluent and monotonous verse, long haunted, as pathetic wraiths, the little American Parnassus. -BATES, KATHARINE LEE, 1897, American Literature, p. 104. Lady Anne Barnard 1750-1825 Poetess, was born in Fifeshire, and was the daughter of the Earl of Balcarres; her maiden name being Lindsay. She became one of the minor Scottish poets of the time, whose names are only remembered by a single great poem or song, her assurance of immortality being the beautiful ballad of "Auld Robin Gray," written in early youth. -SANDERS, LLOYD C., 1887, Celebrities of the Century, p. 95. PERSONAL To entire rectitude of principle, amiability of manners, and kindliness of heart, Anne Barnard added the more substantial, and, in females, the more uncommon quality of eminent devotedness to intellectual labour. Literature had been her favourite pursuit from childhood, and even in advanced life, when her residence was the constant resort of her numerous relatives, she contrived to find leisure for occasional literary réunions, while her forenoons were universally occupied in mental improvement. She maintained a correspondence with several of her brilliant. contemporaries, and in her more advanced years, composed an interesting narrative of family Memoirs. She was skilled in the use of the pencil, and sketched scenery with effect. In conversation she was acknowledged to excel; and her stories and anecdotes were a source of delight to her friends. She was devotedly pious, and singularly benevolent. She was liberal in sentiment, charitable to the indigent, and sparing of the feelings of others. Every circle was charmed by her presence; by her condescension she inspired the diffident; and she banished dullness by the brilliancy of her humour. Her countenance, it should be added, wore a pleasant and animated expression, and her figure was modelled with the utmost elegance of symmetry and grace.-ROGERS, CHARLES, 1855-57-70, The Scottish Minstrel, The Songs of Scotland Subsequent to Burns, P. 17. AULD ROBIN GRAY In the course of our walk he [Scott] entertained us much by an account of the origin of the beautiful song of "Auld Robin Gray." "It was written," he said, "by Lady Anne Lindsay, now Lady Anne Barnard. She happened to be at a house where she met Miss Suff Johnstone, a well known person, who played the air, and accompanied it by words of no great delicacy, whatever their antiquity might be; and Lady Anne, lamenting that no better words should belong to such a melody, immediately set to work and composed this very pathetic story. Truth, I am sorry to say, obliges me to add that it was a fiction. Robin Gray was her father's gardener, and the idea of the young lover going to sea, which would have been quite out of character here amongst the shepherds, was natural enough where she was then residing, on the coast of Fife. It was long unknown," he added, "who the author was; and indeed there was a clergyman on the coast whose conscience was so large that he took the burden of this matter upon himself, and pleaded guilty to the authorship. About two years ago I wrote to Lady Anne to know the truthand she wrote back to say she was certainly the author, but wondered how I could have guessed it, as there was no person alive to whom she had told it. When I mentioned having heard it long ago from a common friend who was dead, she then recollected me, and wrote one of the kindest letters I ever received, saying she had till now not the smallest idea that I was the little lame boy she had known so many years before."-HALL, CAPTAIN BASIL, 1825, Journal, Jan. 8. O lady Anne Barnard, thou that didst write the ballad of "Auld Robin Gray, which must have suffused more eyes with tears of the first water than any other ballad that ever was written, we hail, and pay thee homage, knowing thee now for the first time by thy real name! But why wast thou desirous of being only a woman of quality, when thou oughtest to have been (nature intended thee) nothing but the finest gentlewoman of thy time? And what bad example was it, that, joining with the sophistications of thy rank, did make thee so anxious to keep thy secret from the world, and ashamed to be spoken of as an authoress? Shall habit and education be so strong with those who ought to form, instead of being formed by them? Shall they render such understandings as thine insensible to the humiliation of the fancied dignity of concealment, and the poor pride of being ashamed to give pleasure? The most pathetic ballad that ever was written.-HUNT, LEIGH, . Fine as was the old air, the more modern tune which has supplemented it, composed in 1770 by the Rev. William Leeves, Rector of Wrington, in Somersetshire, is still more accordant with the spirit of the verses. Words and music are now so perfectly combined in their sensibility, that "Auld Robin Gray" ranks in popular estimation as the very first of Scotch songs.-ROBERTSON, ERIC S., 1883, English Poetesses, p. 156. A song altogether of Fife origin and authorship marks the commencement of the period of modern ballads. It will be acknowledged that "Auld Robin Gray" has few superiors, either amongst its predecessors or successors, though to call it the "King of Scottish Ballads," as Chambers does, is to raise it to a dangerous eminence, which it would not be prudent even for the most patriotic native of the "Kingdom" to claim for it.-MACKAY, ENEAS, 1891, The Songs and Ballads of Fife, Blackwood's Magazine, vol. 150, p.344. George Chalmers 1742-1825 Scottish antiquary, was born at Fochabers, and was educated there and at King's College, Aberdeen. Having afterwards studied law at Edinburgh, in 1763 he went to North America, where he practised as a lawyer at Baltimore till the breaking out of the war of independence. He then settled in London (1775), and was appointed clerk to the Board of Trade in 1786. Of his thirty-three works the chief is "Caledonia; an Account, Historical and Topographical, of North Britain" (vols. I-III, 1807-24). In 1888-95 it was reprinted at Paisley in 7 vols., comprising the matter prepared for the unpublished 4th vol., and furnished with a much-needed index. Among his other works are: "A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other Powers" (2 vols. 1790); Lives of Defoe, Paine, Ruddiman, and Mary Queen of Scotts; and editions of Allan Ramsay and Lyndsay.-PATRICK AND GROOME, eds., 1898, Chambers's Biographical Dictionary, p. 196. GENERAL This gentleman is the Atlas of Scotch antiquaries and historians; bearing on his own shoulders whatever seems to have been collected, and with pain separately endured, by his predecessors; whom, neither difficulties tire nor dangers daunt: and who, in a green and vigorous old age, is yet laying the foundation of works for the enlargement of a legitimate fame, and the edification of a grateful posterity.DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL, 1824, The Library Companion, p. 272. The Caledonia is to the Anglo-Saxon History what Stonehenge is to a carved front in an old cathedral. It is one of the children of Anak. In deep research the heaping together of matter, the Britannia of Camden fades away before it. A life, and a long and busy one, was almost exclusively devoted to this stupendous work the author lived to complete it, and no more. it, and no more. The concluding volume is still in manuscript; and no bookseller has appeared willing to hazard the expense of giving to the world a thousand pages quarto. This is one of those cases in which literature is not its own reward; and had Chalmers lived in any land under the sun but this, his Caledonia would have been published by the government, and the learned author pensioned.-CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN, 1833, Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the Last Fifty Years. You will sometimes see the work of Chalmers referred to. It is an immense, heavy, tedious book, to explain the legal history of the different colonies of America. It should be consulted on all such points. It goes down to the revolution of 1688. But it is impossible to read it. The leaves, however, should be turned over, for curious particulars often occur, and the nature of the first settlement and original laws of each colony should be known. The last chapter, indeed, ought to be read. The right to tax the colonies became a great point of dispute. Chalmers means to show that the sovereignity of the British parliament existed over America, because the settlers, though emigrants, were still English subjects and members of the empire. -SMYTH, WILLIAM, 1840, Lectures on Modern History, Lecture xxxi. The life of Chalmers is comprised in a record of the works which he compiled with indefatigable industry, and issued without a break during the last fifty years of his long life. His fame rests on one of them, the "Caledonia," which he called his standing work. The rest have been superseded by better editions, or become antiquated through his want of originality or mistaken views. Even the "Caledonia," has not stood the test of time. It is below the standard of Camden's "Britannia" or the works of Dugdale, the English antiquarian treatises which can most fairly be compared with it. Still, to have composed what is, though never completed, the fullest account of the antiquities of a nation which has specially cultivated that department of history is a merit not to be despised, and subsequent writers have borrowed from Chalmers without acknowledging their obligations. MACKAY, ENEAS, 1887, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. IX, p. 445. William Knox 1789-1825 Scottish Poet, was born at Firth, parish of Lilliesleaf, Roxburghshire, 17 Aug. 1789. After receiving elementary education at Lilliesleaf and Musselburgh, he farmed without success near Langholm, Dumfriesshire, from 1812 to 1817. He "became too soon his own master," says Scott, "and plunged into dissipation and ruin." His farming career over, he returned to his native place. In 1820 his family settled in Edinburgh, and Knox became a journalist. Sir Walter Scott, Professor Wilson, and others befriended him, and Scott frequently gave him substantial pecuniary relief. His convivial habits undermined his health, and he died at Edinburgh of paralysis, 12 Nov. 1825. Besides a prose, "Visit to Dublin," and a Christmas tale, "Mariamne, or the Widower's Daughter," Knox published "The Lonely Hearth, and other Poems," 1818; "The Songs of Israel," 1824; and "The Harp of Zion," 1825. His lyrics are graceful and thoughtful. Scott thought Knox in "The Lonely Hearth" superior to Michael Bruce, and "Mortality," in "Songs of Israel," was a favourite with President Lincoln. A complete edition of Knox's poems appeared in 1847.-BAYNE, THOMAS, 1892, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXXI, p. 337. PERSONAL Talking of the vixisse, it may not be impertinent to notice that Knox, a young poet of considerable talent, died here a week or two since. His father was a respectable yeoman, and he himself, succeeding to good farms under the Duke of Buccleuch, became too soon his own master, and plunged into dissipation and ruin. I had him, Knox, at Abbotsford, about ten years ago, but found him unfit for that sort of society. I tried to help him, but there were temptations he could never resist. He scrambled on writing for the booksellers and magazines, and living like the Otways, and Savages, and Chattertons, of former days, though I do not know that he was in extreme want. His connexion with me terminated in begging a subscription or a guinea, now and then. SCOTT, SIR WALTER, 1825, Diary, Dec. 8: Life by Lockhart, ch. lxv. Knox was short in stature, but handsomely formed; his complexion was fair, and his hair of a light colour. Subject to a variation of spirits in private, he was generally cheerful in society. He sang or repeated his own songs with much enthusiasm, and was keenly alive to his literary reputation. Possessing a fund of humour, he excelled in relating curious anecdotes. ROGERS, CHARLES, 1855-5770, The Scottish Minstrel, The Songs of Scotland Subsequent to Burns, p. 224. GENERAL His talent then showed itself in a fine strain of pensive poetry, called, I think, "The Lonely Hearth," far superior to that of Michael Bruce, whose consumption, by the way, has been the life of his verses. His last works were spiritual hymns, and which he wrote very well. In his own line of society he was said to exhibit infinite humour; but all his works are grave and pensive a style, perhaps, like Master Stephen's melancholy, affected for the nonce.-SCOTT, SIR WALTER, 1825, Diary, Dec. 8; Life by Lockhart, ch. lxv. Knox's poetry is largely pervaded with pathetic and religious sentiment. In the preface to his "Songs of Israel" he says "It is my sincere wish that, while I may have provided a slight gratification for the admirer of poetry, I may also have done something to raise the devotional feelings of the pious Christian." As a prose writer his works are of little account, but the same cannot be said of his poetry, which possesses a richness and originality that insure for it a more lasting popularity. His "Lonely Hearth," "Songs of Israel," and "Harp of Zion," displayed a talent which years afterward attracted the attention of Abraham Lincoln to what is now, through his commendation, a poem of classic excellence. In 1864, during the month of March, the artist Carpenter and the sculptor Swayne were both in Washington. The sculptor was working on a bust of Mr. Lincoln in a temporary studio in the Treasury Building. The President asked Mr. Carpenter to accompany him thither, and there, referring again to this poem by Knox, he was delighted to find that Mr. Swayne possessed a copy of the verses in print, which he had cut, several years before, from a Philadelphia paper. They had been originally given to Mr. Lincoln by a young man named Jason Duncan, and the President had recently written them from memory for the wife of Secretary Stanton, saying that he had often tried to discover the author, but in vain. Subsequently the republication of the stanzas in the New York "Evening Post" secured the identification of the poem with the name of William Knox.-DUFFIELD, SAMUEL WILLOUGHBY, 1886, English Hymns, p. 11. William Gifford 1756-1826 Born, at Ashburton, April 1756. Educated at Ashburton Free School. Afterwards at work on a farm. At sea, 1767-70. To school again at Ashburton, 1770. Apprenticed to shoe-maker, 1 Jan. 1772. To school again, 1776. Matric. at Exeter Coll., Oxford, as Bible Clerk, 16 Feb. 1779; B. A., 10 Oct. 1782. Travelling tutor to son of Lord Grosvenor, 1781. Unsuccessfully prosecuted for libel in "The Baviad, 1797. Edited "Anti-Jacobin," Nov. 1797 to July 1798. Editor of "Quarterly Review," Feb. 1809 to Sept. 1824. Held posts of Commissioner of Lottery and Paymaster of Gentlemen-Pensioners. Died, in London, 31 Dec. 1826; buried in Westminster Abbey. Works: "Easton Chronicle" (anon.), 1789: "The Baviad" (anon.), 1791; "The Mæviad" (anon.), 1795 (two preceding pubd. together, 1797); "Epistle to Peter Pindar" (anon.), 1800; "An Examination of the strictures the translation of Juvenal," 1803. He translated: "Juvenal" (with autobiography), 1802; "Persius," 1821; and edited: Massinger's "Works," 1805; Ben Jonson's "Works," 1816; Ford's "Dramatic Works," 1827; Shirley's "Dramatic Works," 1833. SHARP, R. FARQUHARSON, 1897, A Dictionary of English Authors, p. 112. on |