365 



SCOTT, GEORGE GILBERT, A.R.A. 



SCOTT, SIR MICHAEL. 



from the Cities of the Plain.' Of a melancholy turn of mind, and of 

 somewhat gloomy theological views, his pictures naturally wore a 

 sombre air, and attracted few admirers beyond the circle of his friends. 

 His ' Lot and his Daughters ' was returned from the British Institution 

 as too large ; his series of outline etchings, ' Monograms of Man,' met 

 with a slow and uuremunerative sale ; and it was not till 1831 that he 

 Bold his first picture. But he loved labour, and he went on painting 

 subjects with which few could sympathise, in a manner that did little 

 to remove the unattractiveness of the theme. Slowly however he 

 made his way, finding ardent if not numerous admirers; and his 

 progress began to be watched with interest by his fellow-citizens. In 

 1832 he visited Italy, staying awhile at the Louvre on his way. In 

 Italy of course his chief stay was at Rome, but the amenities of 

 Raffaelle seem rather to have repelled him, bis chief attention, charac- 

 teristically enough, being fixed on Carravaggio. Here however he 

 made the acquaintance of the leading resident artists; he worked 

 hard, and painted much ; and his power in painting was evidently en- 

 larged. His style however was not materially changed. He continued 

 to paint in the ' grand style ' pictures of heroic size ; and even when 

 he stooped to the simpler realities of life, or to such matters as ' Love 

 whetting his Darts,' 'Ariel listening to the Mermaid,' ' Beauty wounded 

 by Love,' the ' Triumph of Love,' and the like, it was very much in 

 the spirit of an ancient Covenanter. The themes he entered upon with 

 more congenial feeling were such as his ' Genius of Discord ' (a large 

 work, painted at Rome, but repainted on his return) ; ' Descent from 

 the Cross ; ' ' Jane Shore found Dead in the Street ; ' ' Orestes pursued 

 by Furies ; ' ' Achilles mourning over the Dead Body of Patroclus ; ' 

 'Paracelsus, the Alchemist, in his Lecture-Room;' 'Hope passing 

 over the Horizon of Despair;' 'The Dead rising at the Crucifixion;' 

 ' Peter the Hermit addressing the Crusaders,' and several others, which 

 alike attest his remarkable diligence and his soaring ambition ; but 

 which, in their want of power to interest the spectator, and their 

 artistic shortcomings, ioo clearly show that lofty ambition, strong 

 imagination, and unwearied industry, are insufficient to form a great 

 painter, without living genius, a well-directed purpose, and carefully 

 disciplined technical skill. Mr. Scott had built himself a large studio 

 in Edinburgh, and was full of dreams of future glory, despite the 

 warnings of failing health, when the cartoon competition in connection 

 with the new houses of parliament aroused his feelings to a high pitch 

 of excitement. He prepared and sent in a large cartoon of ' The Defeat 

 of the Spanish Arinada,' but it was unnoticed by the judges who 

 awarded the prizes, and the blow fell upon the painter with a severity 

 similar in its intensity to that which the like fate inflicted upon 

 Haydon whom in his ambitious thoughts, and passion for 'grand art' 

 and huge canvasses, Scott greatly resembled. But Scott painted on ; 

 devoting now all his energies to his largest and perhaps on the whole 

 best work, ' Vasco da Gama encountered by the Spirit of the Storm in 

 passing the Cape,' now in the hall of the Trinity House, Leith. This 

 work occupied him during the last ten years of his life, and he lived 

 only to complete it, dying on the 5th of March 1849 in his forty- third 

 year. Some of hia great works have been purchased for public 

 institutions in Edinburgh. Scott was a vigorous writer both in prose 

 and verse. His ' Essays on the Characteristics of the Great Masters' 

 excited a good deal of attention when first published in ' Blackwood's 

 Magazine,' 1840; and some of his poetry is contained in the 'Memoir 

 of David Scott, R.S.A., containing his Journal in Italy, Notes on Art, 

 and other Papers,' 8vo, 1850. This 'Memoir' is a warm-hearted 

 tribute to his worth and merits by his brother, Mr. William B. Scott, 

 himself an artist of considerable ability. 



* SCOTT, GEORGE GILBERT, A.R.A., one of the most distin- 

 guished English practitioners of gothic architecture, was born about 

 1811, at Gawcott, near Buckingham, of which place his grandfather, 

 the author of a much esteemed ' Commentary on the Old and New 

 Testament,' was the incumbent. Apprenticed to an architect, Mr. 

 Scott early directed his attention chiefly to gothic architecture, the 

 study of which was then attracting very general attention. Having 

 entered into partnership with Mr. Moffatt, the superiority of their 

 designs soon began to secure to the firm a large measure of patronage. 

 The first of their works which gained general notice was however the 

 very elegant cross erected at Oxford, and known as 'the Martyrs' 

 Memorial/ and which in its admirable proportions and excellent finish 

 was an undoubted advance on any modern structure of the kind. It 

 was followed by the large and handsome parish church at Camberwell, 

 finished about 1844, by the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead, and 

 other important works. The partnership was dissolved in 1845; and 

 after the fire of 1846 Mr. Scott was employed after a severe competi- 

 tion to erect the magnificent church of St. Nicholas at Hamburg, one 

 of the finest gothic churches recently erected in Germany, and a work 

 that did no little to raise the character of English architects on the 

 Continent. In 1847 the erection of the cathedral church of St. John, 

 Newfoundland, was commenced from his designs; and in 1848 the 

 College at Brighton, Sussex. Among his English churches may be 

 mentioned St. John's, Holbeck, Leeds; West Derby, Liverpool; 

 Croydon; Holy Trinity, Rugby; St. Andrews, Ashley Place; and 

 others at Harrogate ; at Trefnant, near St. Asaph ; and at Haley Hill, 

 Halifax. He has also been entrusted with the restoration or rebuild- 

 ing of the fine church of St. George, Doncaster, and with the superin- 

 tendence of the works at Ely Cathedral. Another very important 



work when completed will be the new chapel, library, rector's residence, 

 and other additional buildings at Exeter College, Oxford, now in 

 course of erection. But all these works will be thrown in the shade 

 by the noble H6tel de Ville, Hamburg, for which in a competition of 

 many of the leading architects of Europe he carried off the first prize ; 

 and which will be in extent and costliness one of the moat important, 

 and judging from the designs, one of the most imposing modern works 

 in gothic architecture. 



Mr. Scott was in 184,9 appointed architect to the Dean and Chapter 

 of Westminster, in which capacity he designed the new Abbey Gate- 

 House, and buildings on the north of the Abbey ; has made various 

 judicious restorations and improvements in the Abbey itself; and 

 designed a 'restoration of the Chapter House, executed from very 

 careful examination and measurement,' which was exhibited at the 

 Royal Academy in 1850. Mr. Scott was one of the founders of the 

 Architectural Museum. In 1855 he was elected an Associate of the 

 Royal Academy. He is the author of the following pamphlets : ' A 

 Plea for the Faithful Restoration of our Ancient Cathedrals,' 12mo, 

 1850; 'Additional Churches, a Letter' [to Dr. C. Wordsworth], 8vo, 

 1854 ; and ' Some Remarks on Gothic Architecture : Secular and 

 Domestic, Present and Future,' 8vo, 1857. 



SCOTT, JOHN. [ELDON, EABL OF.] 



SCOTT, WILLIAM. [STOWELL, BAHON.] 



SCOTT, SIR MICHAEL, was born in Scotland, in the early part 

 of the 13th century. If he really was, as has been assumed, Scott of 

 Balweary, he succeeded in right of his mother, who was the daughter 

 and heiress of Sir Rbhard Balweary of that ilk (as it is phrased), to 

 that estate, which is in the parish of Kirkaldy, in Fifeshire. The 

 literary reputation both of Sir Michael Scott and of his contemporary 

 Thomas Learmout (the Rhymer) may be taken aa affording a pre- 

 sumption, which other circumstances go to corroborate, that Scotland 

 in the 13th century was by no means in the benighted state commonly 

 supposed. In fact there is reason to believe that during the peaceful 

 and prosperous reign of Alexander III., which terminated in 1286, the 

 dawn of civilisation in the northern part of our island made a nearer 

 approach to the more advanced light of art and letters in England 

 than was generally maintained in the subsequent progress of the two 

 countries. Scott however probably studied at some foreign university, 

 either Oxford or Paria. He is said to have gone to France in early 

 life, and to have spent some years in that country ; after which he 

 proceeded to the court of the emperor Frederic II., who, possessed of 

 remarkable literary acquirements himself, was then the great patron 

 of learned men. If he did not however remain in Germany after the 

 death of Frederic, which took place in 1250, he must have been 

 still only in early manhood when he left that country most probably 

 at least under thirty, since, as we shall find, he was employed in 

 public duties scarcely suited to a person in very advanced age forty 

 years after this date. If he passed some years, as is asserted, at the 

 court of Frederic, he could not well have been much more than twenty 

 when he first presented himself to or was sent for by the Emperor. 

 Dempster indeed states that he was but a young man when he was 

 writing books at the request of Frederic, "cujus rogatu hie etiam 

 juvenis multa opera ecribere est agressus." Yet Dempster was not 

 aware that he was Scott of Balweary ; he tells us indeed that his name 

 Scotus was not that of his family, but of his nation. Is it possible 

 that the Michael Scott of Balweary, whom we find living in Scotland, 

 and actively engaged in the public service, in 1290, may be mistakenly 

 assumed to have been the learned person of that name who resided at 

 the court of Frederic II. ? It is said further, that upon leaving 

 Germany, Scott came to England, where he was received into great 

 favour by Edward I. But Edward did not become king of England 

 till 1272, twenty-two years after the death of the learned Scotsman's 

 German patron. 



From England he is said to have returned to his native countiy, 

 though when is not precisely noted. For the rest, all that is known 

 is that a Michael Scott of Balweary, who is spoken of by Hector Boece 

 as the famous scholar of that name, was one of the two ambassadors 

 (Sir Michael de Wemyss, another Fife baron, was the other) sent to 

 Norway by the estates of Scotland, in 1290, to bring home the infant 

 heiress of the throne (Margaret, called the Maiden of Norway, daughter 

 of the Norwegian king Eric.) 



The common account is, that Sir Michael Scott died in Scotland in 

 the following year, 1291. Dempster says, "Vixit usque in ultimam 

 senectustem, et attigit annum MCCXCI., quo obiisse certum." But 

 Sir Robert Sibbald, in his ' History of Fife and Kinross,' after telling 

 us that, " in testimony of this honourable commission and embassy " 

 in which the two " equites Fifaui illustres, et summsc prudentia; apud 

 suos illis temporibus habiti," as Buchanan describes them, were 

 employed, " there is still preserved in the house of Wemyss a silver 

 basin of an antique fashion, which David [Michael ?] de Wemyss got 

 from the king of Norway at that time " adds : " And there is an 

 indenture betwixt Sir Michael Wemyss de eodem miles, and Sir 

 Michael Scott of Balweary, miles, in presentia Joannis Balioli regis 

 apud Monasterium de Lundoris, anno 1294." (Edit, of 1802, p. 326.) 

 We suspect there is no evidence for the death of Sir Michael Scott in 

 1291, at all to be compared with this evidence of the existence of a 

 person of the same name and designation three years later. But in 

 another place (p. 316) Sibbald asserts that the same Scott who was 



