Boswelliana: The Commonplace Book of James Boswell, with a Memoir and AnnotationsBoswell, James
History
Boswelliana: The Commonplace Book of James Boswell, with a Memoir and Annotations
Boswell, James
Boswell, James, 1740-1795
[184] Charles Erskine, of Tinwald, third son of Sir Charles Erskine,
Bart., of Alva, was admitted advocate in 1711. He was elected M.P.
for the county of Dumfries in 1722, and nominated Solicitor-General
in 1725. Raised to the bench in 1744 by the judicial title of Lord
Tinwald, he was in 1748 promoted as Lord Justice Clerk. He died at
Edinburgh, on the 5th April, 1763. Lord Tinwald combined a dignified
deportment with much suavity of manner.
[185] Sir Walter Pringle, of Newhall, was called to the Bar in 1687.
After enjoying a high reputation as a pleader, he was raised to the
bench, as Lord Newhall, in June, 1718. He died 14th December, 1736,
and the judges in their robes attended his funeral. The Faculty of
Advocates commended him in their records, and the poet Hamilton, of
Bangor, composed his epitaph.
[186] Sir Alexander Ogilvy of Forglen, Bart., second son of George
Ogilvy, second Lord Banff, was Commissioner for the Burgh of Banff from
1702 to 1707. Admitted advocate, he was in 1706 appointed a Lord of
Session, when he assumed the title of Lord Forglen. He died 30th March,
1727.
[187] The first wife of William, fourth earl of Dumfries, was the Lady
Anne Gordon, only daughter of William, second Earl of Aberdeen. She
died in 1755.
[188] John Lord Hope succeeded his father in 1742 as second Earl of
Hopetown. A nobleman of considerable parts, he was appointed one of
the lords of police in Scotland, and in 1754 was nominated Lord High
Commissioner to the Church of Scotland. He died 12th February, 1781,
aged seventy-seven.
[189] Robert Cullen, advocate, was eldest son of William Cullen,
M.D., the celebrated physician. He was called to the Scottish bar in
1764, and was early noted for his forensic talents. Contrary to the
estimate formed of him by Boswell, he was held in general esteem for
his courteous manners, while his powers of mimicry were of a first
order. He was appointed a Lord of Session in 1796, by the title of Lord
Cullen. He died at Edinburgh on the 28th November, 1810.
[190] Boswell’s allusion to Frederick the Great is evidently founded
on a remark of Dr. Johnson’s. Conversing with Dr. Robertson, the
historian, in 1778, Johnson remarked, “The true strong and sound mind
is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small. Now I am
told the King of Prussia will say to a servant, ‘Bring me a bottle of
such a wine, which came in such a year; it lies in such a corner of
the cellar.’ I would have a man great in great things, and elegant in
little things.”
[191] The Rev. John Pettigrew, A.M., was minister of Govan,
Lanarkshire, from 1688 to 1712; he died in March, 1715, in his
seventy-eighth year. He was remarkably facetious; a number of his witty
sayings have been preserved. (Dr. Scott’s “_Fasti_,” vol. ii., p. 69.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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