BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 249
gentleman of our acquaintance relates that he one day happened -to pounce upon
him at his seat of Tarlogie. Lord Ankerville had then reached his seventy-fifth
year. Being alone, he had just sat down to dinner ; and not having expected a
strauger, he apologised for his uncropped beard. Our friend was, of course,
welcomed to the board, and experienced the genuine hospitality of a Highland
mansion. After having done ample justice to the table, and when his lordship
had secured a full allowance of claret under his belt, he went to his toilette, and,
to the astonishment of his guest, appeared at supper cleanly and closely shaved,
to whom he remarked, that his hand was now more steady than it would have
been in the morning.
Lord Ankerville died at his seat of Tarlogie on the 16th August 1805, in the
seventy-eighth year of his age. His residence in Edinburgh was in St. Andrew
Square.
No. CI.
FRANCIS HOME, M.D.,
PROFESSOR OF MATERIA MEDICA IN THE UNIVERSITY OB EDINBURGH!
AND ONE OF THE KING’S PFIYSICIANS FOR SCOTLAND.
DR. HOME was born on the 17th November 1719. He was the third son of
Mr. Home of Eccles, an advocate, and author of fieveral works, professional and
historical. He placed his son under the charge of Mr. Cruickshanks of Dunse,
then esteemed one of the best classical scholars and teachers, and who had the
faculty of inspiring his scholars with a taste for classical learning. Mr. Home
having chosen medicine as a profession, served an apprenticeship with Mr.
Rattray, then the most eminent surgeon in Edinburgh. He afterwards studied
under the medical Professors of the University of Edinburgh of the period ;
and applied with so much zeal and assiduity as frequently to obtain the approbation
of his teachers. He contracted friendships with many of his fellow students,
which lasted through life ; and he was among the few who founded the Royal
Medical Society, which has continued to the present day, and has contributed
greatly to the celebrity of the Edinburgh school of medicine. After finishing
his studies Mr. Home obtained a commission of surgeon in a regiment of
dragoons, and joined it on the same day with his friend the late Sir William
Erekine. He served in Flanders with that regiment during the whole of the
“ seven-years’ war.” Amidst the din of arms, and the desultory life of soldiers,
Mr. Home did not spend his time in idleness. He discharged his duty so faithfully
that he often received the approbation of his superior officers, and especially
of Sir John Pringle, the head of the medical department of that army ; and he
laid up a store of medical facts, many of which he afterwards published. At the
end of several campaigns, instead of partaking of the relaxation and dissipation
. of winter quarters, Mr. Home, as often as he could obtain leave of absence, went
2 K
