MEMOIR 



OF 



WILLIAM SMELLIE. 



WILLIAM SMELLIE, the youngest son of 

 Alexander Smellie, a master builder of suffi- 

 cient eminence to have attained the title of 

 Architect, is said to have been born in the 

 Pleasance, one of the suburbs of the city of 

 Edinburgh, in 1740 ; but there is no register^of 

 his birth extant, either from the parish records 

 of the time being incorrectly kept, or, as is 

 more probable, from his father not having atten- 

 ded to the registration on account of his peculiar 

 religious tenets, he being a member of that sect 

 of Presbyterians which is termed Cameronians, 

 a class of persons with whom readers of the 

 present day have been made familiarly acquain- 

 ted by the writings of Sir Walter Scott. There 



