78 



The considerable number of foreigners who annually visit Edinburgh, 

 and to whom his leisure was always dedicated, found at his house 

 almost a home ; and as he spoke the French language with fluency 

 and correctness, his society was invariably sought by them, what- 

 ever might be their department of study, their country, or political 

 opinions. The exiled Royal Family of France, and their numerous 

 fi'iends, had, during their stay in Edinburgh, reason to be gratified 

 by his attentions, and they shewed that they were so. Down to the 

 period of his death he remained in correspondence with some of those 

 whose acquaintance he then made ; and their letters shewed that his 

 zeal for their interests was not restricted to the period of their stay 

 in this country.* 



" Sir John Robison was, like his distinguished father, of a tall and 

 commanding figure. No likeness has, I believe, been preserved of 

 him, except a daguerreotype and some calotypes, done shortly before 

 his death. One of these is an admirable portrait. In general he 

 enjoyed excellent health, and was scarcely ever absent from the 

 meetings of any society which he usually attended. A considerable 

 deafness, which affected him for the last two or three years, was, 

 however, exceedingly irksome to him, and interrupted this regular- 

 ity. Although subject for many years (at least since 1831) to oc- 

 casional palpitation of the heart, he kept disease at a distance by 

 habitual abstemiousness ; and his constitution did not appear to suf- 

 fer any shock until the 6th February 1843, when he abruptly 

 quitted his usual place at the table of the Royal Society Club, owing 

 to some indisposition, which did not, however, immediately assume a 

 threatening form. The activity of his mind did not desert him ; for, 

 on the 27th February, he gave a notice of Messrs Naysmith's beau- 

 tiful invention of the Steam Forge-hammer at the Society of Arts, 

 which was also the principal subject of his last personal communica- 

 tion with myself. His death, which took place after only a few days' 

 illness, and which was occasioned by the rupture of some important 

 bloodvessel, occurred on the 7th March 1843, being then in his 

 65th year." 



* A letter to him, from one of the exiled French nobility, which ar- 

 rived a few days after his decease, was filled with commissions involving 

 no common trouble and responsibility, which he was requested to exe- 

 cute. 



