BLACKSTONE, SIR WILLIAM (1723-1780).--Legal Writer, posthumous _s._ of a silk mercer in London, was _ed._ at Charterhouse School and Oxf., and entered the Middle Temple in 1741. His great work is his _Commentaries on the Laws of England_, in 4 vols. (1765-1769), which still remains the best general history of the subject. It had an extraordinary success, and is said to have brought the author £14,000. B. was not a man of original mind, nor was he a profound lawyer; but he wrote an excellent style, clear and dignified, which brings his great work within the category of general literature. He had also a turn for neat and polished verse, of which he gave proof in _The Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse_. BLAIR, HUGH (1718-1800).--Divine, and man of letters, _b._ and _ed._ at Edin. After being minister at Collessie in Fife, he was translated to Edinburgh, where he filled various pulpits, latterly that of the High Church. In 1759 he commenced a series of lectures on composition, and soon after the Chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres was founded, to which he was appointed. His _Lectures_ were _pub._ on his resignation of the chair in 1783. His chief fame, however, rests upon his _Sermons_, in 4 vols., which had an extraordinary popularity, and obtained for him a pension of £200. Time has not sustained the opinion of his contemporaries: they have been described as feeble in thought though elegant in style, and even as "a bucket of warm water." B. was amiable, kind to young authors, and remarkable for a harmless, but rather ridiculous vanity and simplicity. BLAIR, ROBERT (1699-1746).--Poet, _b._ at Edin., where his _f._ was a clergyman, became minister of Athelstaneford, Haddingtonshire. His sole work was _The Grave_, a poem in blank verse extending to 767 lines of very various merit, in some passages rising to great sublimity, and in others sinking to commonplace. It was illustrated by William Blake (_q.v._) B.'s _s._, Robert, was a very distinguished Scottish judge and Lord President of the Court of Session; and his successor in his ministerial charge was Home, the author of _Douglas_.