Grampian Club > Boswelliana

278 BOSWELLIANA.
plain girr (hoop), which ran smoothly and quietly ; when he was
there, it was a girr with jiuglers.' "
" When Charles Townshend * read some of Lord Kames' f
' Elements of Criticism,' he said, 'This is the work of a dull man
grown whimsical/ — a most characteristical account of Lord
Kames as a writer." Mk. Geoege Wallace. X
* The Eight Hon. Charles Townshend, styled by Lord Macaulay
" the most brilliant and versatile of mankind," was second son of the
third Viscount Townshend. Entering the House of Commons in his
twenty-second year, he became in Chatham's last administration
Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons.
He died suddenly 4th September, 1767, in his forty-fifth year. A
considerable humorist, he marred his rejmtation by a tendency to
sarcasm.
t Hem"y Home, Lord Kames, author of " The Elements of Criticism "
and other works, was son of George Home of Kames, Berwickshire.
He passed advocate in 1723, and was elevated to the bench in 1752.
He died 27th December, 1782, aged eighty-seven.
X Second son of the Eev. Eobert Wallace, D.D., George Wallace
was born at Moffat in 1730. Admitted advocate in 1754, he attained
considerable eminence in his profession. He published " A System
of the Principles of the Law of Scotland," vol. i., Edinb., 1760, folio;
"Thoughts on the Origin of Feudal Powers, and the Descent of
Ancient Peerages in Scotland," Edinb., 1783, 4to. ; "The Nature
and Descent of Ancient Peerages, addressed to the Earl of Mansfield,"
Edinb., 1785, 8vo. ; "Prospects from Hills in Fife," 3rd edit.,
Edinb., 1802, Svo. The last work is composed in verse, the author
remarking in the preface that the " Prospects " were mostly composed
many years ago to afford their " author an occasional relief from the
austerity and vexations of a profession very remote from poetry."
Mr. Wallace died on the 15th March, 1805, in his seventy-fifth year.
His father, Dr. Eobert Wallace, successively minister at Moffat and
in the city of Edinburgh, was founder of the Philosophical Society,
which afterwards merged into the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh. An
expert mathematician, he assisted Dr. Alexander Webster in making
calculations connected with the establishment of the Ministers
Widows' Fund. He died in 1771.