BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 341
and Francis for years puzzled his brains in vain to find out the cause of his
extraordinary ill luck in the piscatorial exploits of that eventful day.
He was married, but had no
family. He resided in a house at the Calton Hill, where he died in 1818, his
widow surviving him only a few years. The most of his property was bequeathed
in various sums to the different charities of the city.
Mr. Ronaldson w&s a native of Edinburgh
No. CXXXIX.
REV. ROBERT WALKER,
ONE OF THE MINISTERS OF THE HIGH CHURCH, EDINBURGH.
THIS much esteemed clergyman was for upwards of twenty years a colleague of
the celebrated Dr. Blair, whose memoir has already been given.
MR. WALKERw as born in the Canongate of Edinburgh in 1716, his father
being minister of that parish.' He studied at the University of Edinburgh, and
in 1737 was licensed by the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright. In 1738 he received
a unanimous call to the parish of Straiton, situated within the bounds of the
Presbytery of Ayr, to which he was ordained; and for nearly eight years
continued zealously to discharge the duties of the pastoral office among the
parishioners, by whom he was much beloved and respected. He has been
frequently heard to declare in after life, that he looked back upon the years
passed at Straiton as the most satisfactory period of his life.
From Straiton, in 1746, he was called to the second charge in South Leith.
Being then in the prime of life he appeared in the pulpit to great advantage,
and became very popular. Here he remained till 1754, when he was appointed
to one of the, collegiate charges in the High Church, where he continued during
the remainder of his life.
Mr. Walker maintained a high character, both as a man and as a preacher.
He published two volumes of Sermons,2 which long retained their popularity,
and are yet so much admired by preachers, that, with a few alterations, they
are frequently adopted by some in the pulpit as their own ! With his colleague
Dr. Elair, notwithstanding a difference of opinion on some minor points, he
lived on terms of the closest friendship and intimacy; and although he did not
aspire to the literary fame of that divine, his eloquence as a preacher was not
He was uncle of the late Robert Walker of Canongate.
A new edition, accompanied by a third volume, with an account of his life by h. Blair, wae
published after his death.