.BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 75
Dr. Smith happened to come late, and the company had sat down to dinner.
The moment, however, he came into the room, the company all rose up; he
made an apology for being late, and entreated them to sit down. “No,” said the
gentlemen, ‘(we will stand till you are seated, for we are all yozcr schoZars.”
His mother died in extreme old age in 1784. His own health and strength
gradually declined (for he began very early to-feel the infirmities of age),
till the period of his death, which happened in July 1790. A few days previous
to this he gave orders to destroy all his manuscripts, excepting some
detached Essays, which were afterwards published, having been entrusted to the
care of his executors, Dr. Joseph Black and ‘Dr. James Hutton, with whom
he had long lived in habits of the most intimate friendship. Although Dr.
Smith‘s income for the latter years of his life was considerable, he did not
leave much fortune, owing to the hospitality and generosity of his nature. No
man ever did more generous things. It is understood that his library, which
was a valuable one, is still .preserved entire. It had devolved to his nephew,
the late Lord Reston, and afterwards became the property of his widow.
The third figure represents GEORGE BROWPIT, Esq., of Lindsqlands and
Elliestown, one of the Commissioners of his Majesty’s Board of Excise for Scotland,
a gentleman of amiable temper and suavity of manner. He had been an
officer in the army, and was cousin-german to the late Lord Coalstone, one of the
Lords of Session. His brother James was an architect of some eminence. He built
Brown’s Square (which was named after him), near to the Candlemaker Row,
the west side of which has been taken down, for an opening to George the Fourth’s
Bridge ; and having feued from the city of Edinburgh the ground upon which
George Square is built, he erected most of the houses in it. He built also
that large mansion formerly occupied by General Scott of Balconie, in Drummond
Place, now the Excise-Office!
The Commissioner was very attentive to the business of the revenue, and was
for a considerable number of years senior member of the Board of Excise in
Scotland. He lived in George Square, and latterly in St. James’s Square, and
died on the 5th March 1806, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He married
Miss Dorothea Dundas of Dundas, by whom he had two sons and three daughters,
Viscountess Hampden, Lady Wedderburn of Ballendean, and the Hon.
Lady Alexander Hope.
No. XXXIV.
ADAM SMITH, LL.D. AND P.R.S.
OF LONDON AND EDINBURGH.
THE Doctor is here represented with his celebrated work, “The Wealth of
This house wa removed in 1844-1845, in consequence of 8 railway tunnel being carried
Nations,” on the table before him.
immediateIy underneath ‘it.
