320 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Ckmtess of Loudoun, etc., amongst whose paternal honours it is not least that
she is the representative of the ancient family of Crawfurd of Loudoun, one
of whom gave birth to the renowned and immortal Wallace.” In the introductory
sketches of the lives of Earbour and Henry, if the author has failed
in adding any previously unknown facts, he has been happy enough to expose
several gross inaccuracies of former biographers ; and while the text is revised
with the utmost care, many doubtful passages are explained and illustrated
in copious notes by the Editor. Two notable events in the life of Wallacethe
‘(burning of the barns, or barracks of Ayr,” and his betrayal by ‘‘ the
false Menteith,” as related by Henry -he effectually vindicates from the
scepticism of the learned author of the “Annals of Scotland.” Were it
not for the length to which they extend, we could willingly quote Dr. Jamieson’s
remarks on these popular incidents, not only because the work itself is
scarce, but as a specimen of the writer’s felicity of argument in matters of
controversy.
In 1851 Dr. Jamieson published his “Historical Account of the Ancient
Culdees of Iona” ‘-a work characterised by the author’s usual depth of research.
Though somewhat heavy, and probably defective in style, the antiquarian reader
is amply repaid for his perusal, by the erudition and ingenuity with which the
author contends for the apostolic mode of church government which prevailed
while Christianity flourished in this country under the propagation of the
nionastics of Icolmkill.
In 1827 Dr. Jamieson was admitted a member of the Bannatyne Club,
which was founded by Sir Walter Scott. This literary Society is strictly limited
in number ; and it is almost as difficult to procure adinission as it is to obtain
a seat in Parliament. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh;
of the American Antiquarian Society ; of the Society of Northern Literature
of Copenhagen ; and an Associate of the First Class of Royal Associates of the
Royal Society of Literature of London.
The ‘(Views of the Royal Palaces of Scotland,” which appeared in 1828,
we believe,. was the last acknowledged publication by the venerable author. In
1830, in consequence of old age and increasing infirmities, Dr. Jamieson
resigned the charge of the congregation over which he had so long presided, and
in whose affections his learning, piety, and benevolence secured for him a lasting
hold. It is gratifying to think that his literary labours, directed as they were
chiefly to subjects of antiquity, and less likely to prove remunerative than the
works of more popular authors, were not entirely overlooked by Government.
The small pension he enjoyed was no more than a just appreciation of his
arduous historical researches and laborious philological investigations.
Dr. Jamieson married, in 1781, Charlotte, daughter of Robert Watson, Esq.
of Easter Rhind, Perthshire. Out of a family of seventeen children only two
In Lockhart’a Life of Scott it is mentioned that the publishers lost considerably by the limited
sale of this work.