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LONDON: Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODB,

New-Street-Square.

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LONGMAN, BROWN, AND CO. ; J. D. RICHARDSON ; HATCHARD AND SON; J. G. F.

AND J. RIVINGTON ; WHITTAKER AND CO; J. BOOTH, DUNCAN, AND MALCOLM ;
SHERWOOD AND CO. ; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. ; W. H. ALLEN AND CO. ;
BIGG AND SON; T. BUMPUS ; J, DOWDING ; SMITH, ELDER, AND CO. ; J. SETCHELL;
CAPES AND SON; J. BAIN ;

E. HODGSON ; HOULSTON AND STONEMAN; H.
WASU BOURN; U. G. BOHN ; JAMES

R. MACKIE; H. BICKERS ;
G. 'ROUTLEDGE ; C. DOLMAN ; STEVENS AND NORTON ; M. COOMES: PARKER,
OXFORD; AND DEIGHTONS, CAMBRIDGE,

BOHN ;

1844.

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LATE

PRINCIPAL OF TIIE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, AND HISTORIOGRAPHER

TO HIS MAJESTY FOR SCOTLAND.

1

[Read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh.]

ADVERTISEMENT.

The principal authorities for the biographical details in the following pages were communicated to me by Dr. Robertson's eldest son, Mr. William Robertson, advocate. To him I am indebted, not only for the original letters with which he has enabled me to gratify the curiosity of my readers, but for every other aid which he could be prompted to contribute, either by regard for his father's memory, or by friendship for myself.

My information with respect to the earlier part of Dr. Robertson's life was derived almost entirely from one of his oldest and most valued friends, the Rev. Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk.

It is proper for me to add, that this Memoir

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the habits and occurrences of his life were such as SECTION FIRST. From Dr. Robertson's Birth till the Publication of imagination is left to fill up a long interval spent

to supply few materials for biography; and the his History of Scotland.

in the silent pursuit of letters, and enlivened by Williaji ROBERTSON, D.D. late Principal of the secret anticipation of future eminence. His the University of Edinburgh, and Historiographer genius was not of that forward and irregular to his Majesty for Scotland, was the son of the growth which forces itself prematurely on public Reverend William Robertson, minister of the notice; and it was only a few intimate and disOld Gray-Friars' Church, and of Eleanor Pit- cerning friends, who, in the native vigour of his cairn, daughter of David Pitcairn, Esq. of Dreg- powers, and in the patient culture by which he horn. By his father he was descended from the laboured to improve them, perceived the earnests Robertsons of Gladney in the county of Fife; of a fame that was to last for ever. a branch of the respectable family of the same The large proportion of Dr. Robertson's life name, which bas, for many generations, possessed which he thus devoted to obscurity will appear the estate of Struan in Perthshire.

the more remarkable, when contrasted with his He was born in 1721, at Borthwick (in the early and enthusiastic love of study. Some of county of Mid Lothian), where his father was bis oldest common-place books, still in his son's then minister; and received the first rudiments | possession, (dated in the years 1735, 1736, and of his education at the school of Dalkeith, 1737,) bear marks of a persevering assiduity, which, from the high reputation of Mr. Leslie unexampled perhaps at so tender an age; and as a teacher, was at that time resorted to from the motto prefixed to all of them (Vita sine literis all parts of Scotland. In 1733, he again joined mors est) attests how soon those views and senhis father's family on their removal to Edin- timents were formed, which, to his latest hour, burgi ; and, towards the end of the same year, continued to guide and to dignify his ambition. he entered on his course of academical study. In times such as the present, when literary dis

From this period till the year 1759, when, by tinction leads to other rewards, the labours of the publication of his Scottish History, he fixed the studious are often prompted by motives very a new era in the literary annals of his

the hope of fame, or the inspiration

B

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