BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 457
Few men ever enjoyed a course of uninterrupted good health equal to Mr. Sym.
When confined to the house for a few days in the latter part of his life, he used
to say that no medical man had ever felt hispulse, and that he did not remember
having ever in his life taken 6reakfast in bed. Truly B favoured son of Hygeia,
he attributed his exemption from disease chieffy to regular living, and to his
fondness for early morning exercise.
He and
Osborne (formerly noticed) were the right-hand men of the grenadiers; and
from his stature (six feet four inches), the former had to procure a firelock
considerably longer than the common regimental ones. He acted for some time
as fugleman to the first regiment; and it is told that, in his anxiety on one
occasion to perform his part well, he so twisted his body, while his arms were
poised above his head, as to be completely Zoclce&incapable of movement. In
tliis painful predicament he stood a few moments, till aided by the famous
Major Gould, who, on observing the circumstance, ran to his assistance.
Mr. Sym belonged to the old school of Tories, and was intimate with Lord
Melville, Chief Baron Dundas, and the other contemporary leaders of the
party. The well-known Editor of Blackwood’s Magazine, Professor Wilson, was
his nephew; as were also Robert Sym Wilson, Esq., Secretary to the Royal
Bank ; James Wilson, Esq., of Woodville, the eminent Ornithologist ; and the
Rev. John Sym, one of the ministers of the Old Greyfriar’s Church, Edinburgh.
Though in his younger years a gallant of no mean pretension, and in high
favour with the ladies, Mr. Sym continued all his life a bachelor. At one
period he resided in the buildings denominated “ The Society,” Brown Square,
but for the last forty years and upwards he was an inhabitant of George
Square.
Mr. Sym was a member of the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers.
No. CCCXXIV.
REV. HENRY GREY, AM.,
MINISTER OF ST. MARY’S CHURCH, EDINBURGH.
MR. GREY was born at Alnwick, in the county of Northumberland, in the year
1778. In early life
he was left to the care of a kind and pious mother, who watched over her son
with the most tender and anxious assiduity, and lived to receive the reward of
her love and devotedness in her son’s clerical reputation and unceasing affection.
Mr. Grey received the elements of English education at a private school in his
native town. When eight years old he was placed at a seminary in Highhedgely,
conducted by an intelligent curate of the Church of England, where he
His father was a gentleman of the medical profession.
VOL 11. 3N