961 



BRUCE, EDWARD. 



BRUCE, JAMES. 



963 



born to be the priestess." It was from this seclusion that she sent 

 forth in 1844 the first collected edition of her 'Poems,' in 2 vols., 

 upon which her fame chiefly rests, and of which new editions were 

 published in 1850 and 1853. Between the first and second editions 

 that event took place which restored her once more to the world. Her 

 health had been gradually improving, when, in giving her hand in 

 marriage to one who was already the warmest of her admirers and the 

 dearest of her friends, she ceased to be Miss Barrett, and became Mrs. 

 Browning. A residence with her husband first at Pisa, and then at 

 Florence, completed the favourable change ; and now, sharing with 

 her husband the honours of a rare literary celebrity, she is once more 

 Been, during occasional visits to England, in general society. ' Casa 

 Ouidi Windows 'a poem of earnest political allusion to the present 

 state of Italy, in which the authoress is supposed to see the signs and 

 appearances of the Italian revolutionary movements of 1848-49 from 

 the windows of the Casa Guidi in Florence, where she then resided 

 was published in 1851. There is more of direct political feeling and 

 partisanship in this than in her husband's poems ; but on the whole, 

 her previous compositions are still liked best, though others, under- 

 stood to be ready, are now waited for. In Mr. Browning's ' Men and 

 Women,' which is dedicated to Mrs. Browning, there are poems of 

 beautiful, though occult allusion to her influence on his life and 

 poetry. 



BRUCE, EDWARD, second son of Edward Bruce of Blairhall, in 

 the county of Elgin, was born about the year 1549 ; and having passed 

 advocate at the Scottish bar, was early appointed one of the judges of 

 the Commissary Court of Edinburgh a court instituted soon after 

 the Reformation in the place of the abolished court of the Official of 

 Lothian. On the 27th of July 1583, he was made Commendator of 

 Kin: 1 -- . under a reservation of the life-reut of Walter the. Abbot of 

 Kinlai ; and about the same time he wag appointed one of the deputies 

 of the 1 *ord Justice General of Scotland. 



In 1587 the general assembly of the Scottish Church having sent 

 commissioners to parliament to demand the removal of the prelates 

 from that house, as having no authority from the church, and the 

 most of them no function or charge whatever in it, Bruce rose, and 

 directing himself to the king who was present, made a long discourse 

 in defence of the right they had to sit and give voice for the church 

 in these meetings. Mr. Robert Pont, a Presbyterian minister, and one 

 of the commissioners for the church on this occasion, was stopped in 

 hia reply by the king, who willed them to be quiet, and present their 

 petition orderly to the lords of the articles, through whom they should 

 be answered. When the petition came before the lords of articles, it 

 was rejected without observation. 



In 1594 Bruce was despatched on an embasy to England an employ- 

 ment which at that time not unfrequently devolved upon the judges 

 of the court of session or other superior courts of justice to complain 

 of the secret assurance given by the Queen of England to the Earl of 

 Bothwell, and of the harbour afforded him in her dominions ; and 

 though Elizabeth refused to deliver up Bothwell as desired, yet, in 

 consequence of the remonstrances of the ambassadors, she commanded 

 him to depart the realm. In 1597 Bruce was named one of the 

 overseers of a subsidy then granted by parliament to the king for 

 furnishing ambassadors, and other important purposes; and on the 

 2nd December in the same year he was made a lord of session. In 

 1598 he was again sent ambassador to England. He failed in securing 

 the main object of his mission, which was to obtain the queen's recog- 

 nition of James as her successor to the throne ; but by bis skill and 

 address he gained over many of the English to his master's service. 

 He was once more sent to England in 1601, in company with the Earl 

 of Mar, to intercede for the Earl of Essex; but arriving too late for 

 their purpose, the ambassadors readily converted their message into 

 one of congratulation to Elizabeth on her escape from the conspiracy. 

 On this occasion Bruce managed to settle a correspondence between 

 the kingdoms, which contributed not a little to James's peaceable 

 accession to the English throne. In reward for these services Bruce 

 wag knighted, and created a peer by the style of Baron Bruce of Kinloss ; 

 and having accompanied James to England, he was, on 3rd March 1603, 

 called to the king's council board, and then made master of the rolls, 

 when he resigned his seat on the Scottish bench. He was succeeded 

 in the rolls, in 1608, by Sir Edward Phillips, and died on the 14th 

 January 1611, in the sixty-second year of his age. By his wife, who 

 was daughter of Sir Alexander Clerk of Balbirnie, some time Lord 

 Provost of Edinburgh, he had two sons and a daughter. Through the 

 former he waa ancestor of the noble houses of Aylesbury and Elgin ; 

 and, with the daughter, King James gave 10,0002. as a marriage portion 

 to William second Earl of Devonshire. 



BRUCE, JAMES, was born at Kinnaird, in Stirlingshire, the 14th 

 of December 1730. He was the eldest son of David Bruce, Esq., of 

 Kiunaird, and of Marion Graham, of Airth. When eight years of age 

 he was sent to London to school, and after three years he was removed 

 to Harrow, where he remained till 1746. At Harrow he became 

 acquainted with Daines Barringtou, and their friendship lasted for life. 

 On his return to Scotland he was entered, by his father, at the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh, to study the law, in which he made but little 

 progress, and he shortly after removed into the country on account of 

 his health. In the country he followed the sports of the field, and 

 became a bold rider and a good marksman. In 1753 he set off for 



moo. DIV. VOL. I. 



London with a view to obtain leave to settle iu India as a free-trader. 

 In London he made the acquaintance of Mrs. Allan, the widow of a 

 wine merchant, whose daughter he soon after married, and became a 

 partner in the business. A few months after his marriage his wife 

 died ; Bruce however continued for some years in the partnership, 

 and in 1757 he made a journey through Portugal, Spain, France, and 

 the Netherlands, partly on business and partly for his own informa- 

 tion. His father died in 1758, and Bruce returned to England to 

 succeed to the family estate, with a moderate income, which however 

 was considerably increased in consequence of the establishment of the 

 Carron ironworks in its neighbourhood. 



In 1761 Bruce dissolved his partnership in the wine trade. He had 

 for some time past applied himself to the study of Arabic, and had 

 likewise turned his attention to the Ethiopic in Ludolf's works. He 

 also improved himself iu drawing, under able teachers. By means 

 of his friend Mr. Wood, the under Secretary of State, he became 

 known to Mr. Pitt, who consulted him about an expedition intended 

 against Ferrol, which however did not take place. At the beginning 

 of 1762 Lord Halifax, at the suggestion of Mr. Wood, appointed Bruce 

 consul-general at Algiers, with the understanding that he waa to 

 visit the interior of Barbary, and make sketches of the antiquities 

 which, according to Shaw, existed there. In a conversation which 

 Bruce had with Lord Halifax, something also was said about the mys- 

 terious sources of the Nile, and of the glory that would accrue to any 

 bold traveller who should explore them. 



Bruce set out for his consulate by way of Italy, in which country he 

 spent several months improving himself in the study of drawing and 

 of antiquities. While at Naples he went to Pcestum and made sketches 

 of the temples, which he caused to be engraved and intended to pub- 

 lish, but we find him afterwards complaining to his friend Mr. Strange 

 that some one had obtained access to the engravings at Paris, had 

 copied them, and published them in London by subscription. In 

 March 1763, he finally left Italy for Algiers, where he remained about 

 two years, and during his stay he learned the rudiments of surgery 

 from the consulate surgeon. In May 1765 Bruce was superseded as 

 consul, and on the arrival of his successor, he left Algiers for Tunis. 

 Having obtained leave of the bey to travel through his dominions 

 with an escort, he visited the country along the banks of the Bagradas, 

 and the ruins of Thugga, Keff, and Hydrah, and theuce went to 

 Tipasa, in the province of Constantina, the capital of which, the 

 ancient Cirta, he also visited, though he did not discover its remains, 

 as is stated in his life, for Shaw and Sanson had visited them, before 

 him. He next went to Sitife, Medrashem, where, he says, is the 

 sepulchre of Syphax, and thence to the Jebel Auress and the ruing 

 of Tezzoute, supposed to be the ancient Lambiesa, from whence he 

 re-entered the Tunis territory by way of Kazareen and Sbeitlah. He 

 then visited the south-eastern part of that state, the island of Jerbe, 

 and proceeded to Tripoli across the desert. His description of these 

 places in the introduction to his travels is hasty and meagre, and at the 

 same time he speaks rather slightingly of his able predecessor Shaw. 

 Bruce made drawings of the architectural remains, part of which 

 were purchased for the royal collection. Those who feel an interest 

 about this matter may compare Bruce's and Shaw's accounts with that 

 given by Sir Grenville Temple (' Excursions in the Mediterranean '), 

 who visited the interior of Tunis. There is a letter from Bruce to 

 Mr. Wood (' Appendix to Bruce's Life," No. xxiii), which being written 

 at this early stage of his journeys of discovery is characteristic of tho 

 writer's style when descanting upon his own achievements. He says, 

 "I have drawn eight triumphal arches, seven Corinthian temples, 

 whose plans, parts, and decorations I have by very laborious searches 

 and excavations made myself entirely master of; one large temple of 

 the composite order in its best age, two large aqueducts, the ruins of 

 the three principal cities of Africa Jol, Cirta, and Carthago; " and 

 then he adds, " I may safely say I have not left in the parts I have 

 visited one stone undesigned whence any benefit could result to the 

 arts. I have corrected and cleared up many passages of the Antonine 

 Itinerary, Peutinger's tables, and Ptolemy, as well as of Sanson, Nollin, 

 and Dibbler's French maps, all by actual observations," &c. He then 

 enters into a detail of his dangers and fatigues. Travelling in the 

 interior of Barbary is certainly not without danger, but Bruce appa- 

 rently magnified the extent of his own discoveries. These journeys in 

 Barbary were performed between September 1765 and February 1766. 

 From Tripoli he sailed to Bengazi, whence he was driven away by 

 famine and war, and having embarked in a crazy Greek vessel for 

 Candia, was shipwrecked and swam on shore at Tolometa, whence 

 he returned to Bengazi in October 1766. He there remained two 

 months iu great distress, and at last escaped from that miserable 

 country in a French vessel for Candia, where he was seized by an 

 intermittent fever, which returned occasionally during his subsequent 

 travels. From Candia he went to Syria, visited Baalbec and Palmyra, 

 and resided for some time at Aleppo with Dr. Patrick Russel, physician 

 to the factory, from whom he received further instruction iu the 

 medical art. After spending about a year in Syria he proceeded to 

 Alexandria in June 1768. At Cairo he waa introduced to Ali Bey, 

 the Mameluke chief, whose Coptic minister, Maalem Risk, had con- 

 ceived a high opinion of Bruce, whom he fancied to be a great 

 astrologer. Bruce had now fixed his plan of going to Abyssinia. He 

 met at Cairo Father Cristopher, a Greek whom he had known at 



Iq 



