Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

lviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE
side. The spot where his remains are deposited is indicated
by a plain square monument, about four feet in height, sur-
mounted by an urn, a few feet south of the tombstone
erected by the Poet Burns to the memory of his brother
Poet in misfortune — Robert Ferguson. The monument to
Bishop Keith was erected by a distant relative, from pious
respect for a learned and good man. The simple inscrip-
tion on it is — " Bishop Keith," and the year of his de-
cease — " 1756." An additional inscription records the
death of his relative and her husband. This is — " Stew-
artina Oatherina Carmichael, wife of William Douglas, died
20th April 1793 ;" and under this — " William Douglas,
Merchant, Leith, died 11th July 1814." The Bishop's small
property of Bonnyhaugh descended by inheritance to his
daughter and grand-daughter.
The merits of Bishop Keith's " History of the Affairs of
Church and State in Scotland" have been always recog-
nized, and the original Work is now extremely scarce. Bishop
Russell appropriately observes — " The author, it is true,
has not escaped the charge of partiality in his views, and of
a certain bias in his reasoning ; but he has always been
allowed the merit of a fair and candid statement of events,
whatever might be their effect on his own conclusions ; and
has never been taxed, even by the most uncharitable adver-
saries, with mutilating records, either to screen the reputa-
tion of a friend or impeach the motives of an adversary."
All writers on the political and ecclesiastical history of
Scotland during the period which Bishop Keith discusses,
readily acknowledge his Work as the highest authority, and
it is to be regretted that he never completed his second
volume, a few sheets of which he left, as already mentioned,
at his death. Bishop Keith's Work is one of the great
sources from which Dr George Cook derived his " History
of the Reformation in Scotland," published at Edinburgh
in three volumes in 181 1 ; to it the Rev. John Skinner was
greatly indebted for materials in his " Ecclesiastical History
of Scotland," published at London in two volumes in 1788 ;
and the obligations of Principal Robertson to the industry