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
458 B I0 GRAPH I C AL S K E T C II E S.
commenced his studies in Latin and Greek ; but at the end of two years, this
gentleman having been appointed a minor canon in the Cathedral of Durham,
his pupil returned for a year to Alnwick; and afterwards passed a year and a
half at Newcastle, under the tuition of the Rev. William Turner-a gentleman
of literary reputatibn. Little events in youth [often have powerful and
permanent influence over the future character and destinations of life. During
Mr. Grey’s residence at Newcastle he attended a course of lectures on Natural
Philosophy, by the late ingenious Dr. Moyes (of whom a portrait and memoir
have already appeared in vol. I.), who, though blind from infancy, made great
attainments in literature and science. Mr. Grey wrote an account of these
lectures, which was so satisfactory to his instructor, that Dr. Moyes was induced
strongly to recommend the pursuit of a learned profession for his youthful
friend.
Mr. Grey felt and expressed a decided choice of the ministry of the gospel ;
and having a preference for the forms of the Church of Scotland, his mother
removed with him, in the close of the year 1793, to Edinburgh; where, during
the seven or eight succeeding years, he attended the various classes in literature,
philosophy, and theology, in the University, required in a candidate for
the ministry ; besides other classes, literary and medical, not included in the
prescribed academical course. He was licensed as a probationer by the Presbytery
of Edinburgh in November 1800. Very soon after, through the interest
of the Rev. Dr. Davidson of Edinburgh with the late Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton
Nisbet of Dirleton, he was presented to the parish of Stenton, in the Presbytery
of Dunbar, where he was ordained in September 1801. Though repeatedly
invited elsewhere, he remained in this rural charge, much esteemed and loved,
till November 1813, when he was translated to the Chapel of Ease of St.
Cuthbert’s ; and at once took his station in Edinburgh among the most distinguished
and accomplished preachers and ministers of the Church. Innumerable
and invaluable were the subsequent testimonies to the excellence and success
of his faithful and popular ministrations. His tried and enduring fidelity and
eminence at St. Cuthbert’s marked him out for preferment to be one of the
ministers of the city; and, in 1820, after a keen contest in the Town-Council
(Provost rtlanderson espousing the cause of Dr. Eryce of Aberdour), he was
appointed to succeed the late Rev. David Dickson, as minister of the New
Xorth Church, to which he was inducted on the 11th January 1821. He was
introduced to this charge by Dr. David Dickson of St. Cuthbert’s, son of the
gentleman whom he was called to succeed. Not long after, the new church of
St. Mary’s having been erected, Mr. Grey’s continued pre-eminence induced the
Magistrates and Council to present him as the fittest person for this new and
important charge; and he was translated to St. Mary’s on the 13th of January
1825, and introduced to his congregation, on the following Sunday, by Dr.
Robert Gordon, then of the High Church, who had succeeded Mr. Grey in the
Chapel of St. Cuthbert’s ; and again, was appointed his successor as minister
of the New North Church. Here Mr. Grey remained admired, for the sustained
