B L A 



J'JS 



B L A 



bad nearly reached his sixtieth year bo fore he could be in- 

 duced to publish volume of his sermons. When however 

 it appeared, it wa received with an extraordinary degree of 

 favour, although Mr. Strahan, the publisher to whom Dr. 

 Blair had sent the manuscript, discouraged its publication ; 

 but the opinion of Dr. Johnson having been requested, he 

 wrote to Mr. Strahan, stating that he had perused the 

 sermon which had been forwarded to him with more than 

 approbation.' The sale was so rapid and extensive, that the 

 original sum paid for the copyright (1007.) was voluntarily 

 doubled by the publisher ; and :H)0/. were offered for the 

 . olume. It is stated that Dr. Blair was paid at the rate 

 of 600/. for each of the subsequent volumes. The fifth 

 volume, which was published after Blair's death, consists of 

 discourses written at different times ; but it was carefully 

 prepared for the press a little before his death in the 

 eighty-second year of his age. In 1780 a pension of 200/. 

 a year was conferred on him by the king, which he enjoyed 

 till his death. 



Dr. Kluir did not possess a strong constitution, and to- 

 wards the latter part of his life he was unable to fulfil his 

 duties in the pulpit; but his intellect was unimpaired to the 

 last, and his large congregation had still the benefit of his 

 M-rvices as their friend and advisor. His counsel was 

 sought not only by those around him, but it was frequently 

 solicited from distant places, in which the benevolence of his 

 disposition had been made known by his published dis- 

 courses. 



He married his cousin, Catherine Bannatine, daugh- 

 ter of a minister of Edinburgh, in April, 1748, and had two 

 children, a son who died in infancy, and a daughter whom 

 he lost in her twenty-first year. Mrs. Blair died a few years 

 before her husband. 



Dr. Blair's literary reputation rests upon his ' Sermons ' 

 and his ' Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres,' both of 

 which have enjoyed a long period of popularity. The ser- 

 mons appeared at a time when the elegant and polished 

 style, which is their chief characteristic, was less common 

 than at present ; and to this merit, such as it is, they chiefly 

 owed their success. They are still read by many people 

 with pleasure, on account of their clear and easy style, and 

 the vein of sensible though not very profound observation 

 wliieh runs through them; but they have no claim to 

 be ranked among the best and most solid specimens of 

 sermon-writing which our language contains. The ' Lec- 

 tures ' have not been less popular than the ' Sermons,' and 

 have long been considered as a text-book for the student. 

 They are however exceedingly feeble productions, and 

 show no intimate acquaintance with the best writers antient 

 and modern; nor do they develop and illustrate, as a 

 general rule, any sound practical principles. The following 

 remark by Dr. Whately, archbishop of Dublin, impliedly 

 contains a just judgment of their merits. Alluding to 

 Dr. Campbell's 'Philosophy of Rhetoric,' he obsenc-. ' I 1 

 is a work which does not enjoy so high a degree of popular 

 favour as Dr. Blair's, but is incomparably superior to it, not 

 only in depth of thought, and ingenious original research, 

 but also in practical utility to the student.' 



(Finlayson's Life of Dr. W,n'r. prefixed to his Sermons.) 



BLAIR, JOHN, a relative of Hugh Blair, and well 

 known as the author of a valuable set of chronological 

 tables, went to London for the purpose of improving his 

 fortune, and was at first engaged as teacher in a school. In 

 1754 he published 'The Chronology and History of the 

 World, from the Creation to the year 1753, in fifty-six 

 tables, by the Rev. John Blair, LL.D. 1 This work wa de- 

 dicated to the Lord Chancellor Hardwickc. In the following 

 year he was elected F.R.S., and in 1 761 F.A.S. A second 

 edition of his ' Chronology' appeared in 1768, to which were 

 dded maps of antient and modern geography. In Sep- 

 tember, 1757, he was appointed chaplain to the Prinec.-s 

 Dowager of Wales, and mathematical tutor to the Duke of 

 York, and in 1701 to a prcbcndal stall at Westminster. 

 Six days afterward*, the vicarage of Hinckley, Leicester- 

 shire, having become vacant, he was presented to it by tin- 

 dean and chapter of Westminster ; and he obtained a dis- 

 pensation to hold with it the rectory of Burton Coggles, 

 I .Inshire. In 1763 he attended his pupil, the I hike 

 of York, on a continental tour, during which they visited 

 France. Italy, K I Portugal, and returned home 



after about a year's absence. He reci ive.l -e\er.d other 

 - of church preferment, beside* those above mentioned. 

 His death took place June 24, 1782, A course of his Lec- 



tures on tlie Canons of the Old Testament, and a small 

 volumo entitled ' The History of Geography, ' were published 

 after his death. 



BLAIR, ROBERT, author of a poem entitled 'The 

 Grave,' wag born in the year 1699. Few particulars are 

 known respecting him. His father was one of the ministers 

 of Kdinburgh, and chaplain to the king ; and after securing 

 to his son the advantages of a liberal education at the uni- 

 versity he sent him to the continent for his further improve- 

 ment. On the 5th January, 1731, he wag ordained inr 

 of Athelstaneford, where he spent the remainder of his life. 

 He had by his marriage a daughter and five sons, one of 

 whom became solicitor-general for Scotland. He appears to 

 have been in easy circumstances, was fond of gardening. 

 and had a taste for botany ; and these pursuits, to'.'. 

 with a correspondence which he maintained mi snvntilir 

 subjects, engaged much of the time which was not required 

 for the performance of his ministerial duties. In the pulpit 

 he is said to have been serious and earnest. Watt 

 Doddridge honoured him with their esteem : he submitted 

 his poem to them, and in a letter to the latter states that it 

 was written before his ordination. Watts signified his appro- 

 bation of this production, and offered it to two booksellers, 

 who however both declined undertaking the publication. 

 Bluir seems to have anticipated the reception which it would 

 meet, and attributed it to the serious nature of the subject. 

 He had however endeavoured to conciliate public favour, for 

 he says, in his letter to Doddridge ' In order to make it 

 more generally liked, I was obliged sometimes to go cross 

 to my own inclination, to make it go down with a licentious 

 age which cares for none of these things.' It has been usu- 

 ally asserted that ' The Grave' was not printed until 

 the author's death, hut the editor of Chalmers'* /)'/ -;. r-.ij.htcal 

 Dirtidiian/ has stated that he had seen a copy which was 

 printed in London in 1743. ' The Grave' is written in a 

 striking and vigorous manner, and has always been most 

 popular among persons of an uncultivated taste, pos.-i 

 some strength of mind, and a serious disposition. With 

 the exception of a short piece written in memory of Mr. Law, 

 one of the professors of the University of Edinburgh, 'The 

 Grave ' is the only production of Blair's which we possess. 

 The author died of a fever, February 4, 1746, in the .17th 

 year of his age. Home, the author of ' Douglas,' 

 him in his living. (Anderson's Lives qf Scottish Poets.) 



BLAISE HILL is one of a chain of antient forii 

 which may be traced along the southern part of the vale of 

 the river Severn, beginning at the Somersetshire Avn, 

 and extending upwards of forty miles in a north-easterly 

 direction, and so situated as to be capable of communicating 



ana, the ramparti; I b the ditcbcj ; e e, t)u ancient entrance!; t, Ktnn. 

 wntou I1U1 ; t, the entrance to the modern alia. 



