HAMILTON. 



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his crown in Ireland, he gave count Hamilton a regi- 

 ment of infantry, and made him governor of Limerick; 

 but, on the ruin of the royal cause, he accompanied 

 James to France, where he passed the rest of his life. 

 His wit and talents secured him admission into the 

 first circles, where he was generally esteemed for his 

 agreeable manners and amiable disposition. He died 

 at St Germain, in 1720. Count Hamilton is chiefly 

 known as an author by his Memoirs of Count Gram- 

 mont, a lively and spirited production, exhibiting a 

 free, and, in the general outline, a faithful delinea- 

 tion of the voluptuous court of Charles II. The 

 count's other works are Poems and Fairy Tales, 

 which, as well as the Memoirs, are in French, 

 and display elegance of style and fertility of inven- 

 tion. 



HAMILTON, ELIZABETH, a lady of considerable 

 literary attainments, was born at Belfast, in Ireland, 

 25th July, 1758. Having become an orphan at an 

 early age, she was brought up under the care of her 

 uncle, who resided near Stirling, in Scotland, and, 

 during her residence in his family, made herself inti- 

 mately acquainted with those national peculiarities 

 which she afterwards delineated so admirably in her 

 Cottagers of Glenburnie. Besides this little work, 

 which attracted much attention, she wrote the Letters 

 of a Hindoo Rajah (2 vols. 8vo) ; the Life of Agrip- 

 pina (3 vols. 8vo) ; and Memoirs of Modern Phi- 

 losophers ; works which, under the popular form of 

 novels, are replete with sound sense and information. 

 Her other writings are, Hints for Public Schools ; 

 Popular Essays (2 vols. 8vo) ; Rules of the Annuity 

 Fund, &c. ; Exercises in Religious Knowledge 

 (12mo) ; Letters on the Formation of the Religious 

 and Moral Principle (2 vols.) ; and On the Elemen- 

 tary Principles of Education. She was never married, 

 but enjoyed an extensive acquaintance, especially 

 among the talented of her own sex, one of whom, 

 Miss Benger, after her decease, printed a selection 

 from her correspondence, with a prefatory account of 

 her life and habits. She died July 23, 1816. 



HAMILTON, GAVIN, a painter of considerable 

 distinction in the last century, was descended from 

 an ancient family in Scotland, and born in the town 

 of Lanark. Being sent when very young to Rome, 

 he became a scholar of the celebrated Augustine 

 Mossuchi, and there devoted himself during the re- 

 mainder of his life, with the exception of occasional 

 visits to Scotland, to historic painting. In some of 

 his visits to his native country, he painted a few por- 

 traits, the best of which are considered to be two full 

 lengths of the duke and duchess of Hamilton. He 

 died in 1775 or 1776. 



In his historical pictures, Mr Hamilton shows that 

 he studied the chaste models of antiquity with more 

 attention than the living figures around him ; which 

 has given his paintings of ancient histories that pro- 

 priety with regard to costume, which distinguished 

 them at the time from most modern compositions. 

 One of his greatest works was his Homer, consisting 

 of a series of pictures, representing scenes taken from 

 the Iliad ; these have been dispersed into various 

 parts of Europe, and can now only be seen in one con- 

 tinued series in the excellent engravings made of 

 them by Cunego, under the eye of Mr Hamilton him- 

 self. Several of these paintings came to Britain, but 

 only three reached Scotland. One of these, the part- 

 ing of Hector and Andromache, was in the possession 

 of the duke of Hamilton. Another represents the 

 death of Lucretia, in the collection of the earl of 

 Hopetoun, and was deemed by all judges as a capital 

 performance. The third was in the house of a Mrs 

 Scott, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. It re- 

 presents Achilles dragging the body of Hector round 

 the walls of Troy. The figure of Achilles in this 



picture is painted with truth and spirit, and might 

 stand the test of the severest criticism. It was in 

 the grand and terrible Mr Hamilton chiefly excelled. 

 His female characters had more of the dignity of 

 Juno, or the coldness of Diana, tlian the soft invit- 

 ing playfulness of the goddess of love. Perhaps the 

 best collection of his paintings is to be found in a 

 saloon in the villa Borghese, where the story of 

 Paris is represented in different compartments. 



Mr Hamilton published at Rome in 1773 a folio 

 volume, entitled " Schola Picturae Italia," or the 

 " Italian School of Painting,'' composed of a number 

 of fine engravings by Cunego, making part of the 

 collection of Piraneisi ; he there traces the different 

 styles from Leonardo da Vinci, to the Carraccis ; all 

 the drawings were made by Mr Hamilton himself, 

 and this admirable collection now forms one of the 

 principal treasures in the first libraries in Europe. 

 All his best pictures were likewise engraved under 

 his own eye by artists of the first ability. From being 

 profoundly acquainted with the history of the ancieni 

 state of Italy, he was enabled to bring to light many 

 of the long buried treasures of antiquity, and to this 

 noble object he devoted almost the whole of the latter 

 part of his life. He was permitted by the govern- 

 ment of the Roman states to open scavos in various 

 places; at CentumcellcB, Velaetri, Ostia, and above 

 all at Tivoli, among the ruins of Adrian's villa ; and 

 it must be owned, that the success which crowned 

 his researches made ample amends for the loss which 

 painting may have suffered by the intermission of his 

 practice and example. Many of the first collections 

 in Germany and Russia are enriched by statues, busts, 

 and bas relievos of his discovery. In the collection 

 of the Museo Clementine, next to the treasures of 

 Belvidere, the contributions of Hamilton were by far 

 the most important. The Apollo, with six of tho 

 nine muses, were all of his finding. At the ruins of 

 ancient Gabii, he was also very fortunate, particu- 

 larly in the discovery of a Diana, a Germanicas, 

 a Pan, and several rich columns of vert antique, and 

 marmo fiorito. The paintings in fresco, preserved 

 also by his great care and research, are admitted to 

 surpass all others found in Italy. 



HAMILTON, ROBERT, LL.D., a mathematician 

 and political economist, was the son of a bookseller in 

 Edinburgh, and born in June, 1743. While studying 

 at the university of Edinburgh, he displayed great 

 talents in mathematics, and in 1766, though then but 

 a young man, he was prevailed on by his friends to 

 offer himself as a candidate for the mathematical 

 chair of Marischal college in Aberdeen, then vacant 

 by the death of Mr Stewart. The application was 

 unsuccessful, but he left behind him a very high 

 sense of his abilities in the minds of the judges of the 

 competition. After this Mr Hamilton became a part- 

 ner in the conducting of a paper mill, which had been 

 established by his father a concern which, in 1769, 

 he relinquished to the care of a manager, on his ap- 

 pointment to the rectorship of the academy at Perth. 

 In 1771 he married Miss Anne Mitchell of Ladath, 

 whom he had the misfortune of losing seven years 

 afterwards. In 1779, the chair of natural philosophy 

 in Marischal college, in the gift of the crown, was 

 presented to Dr Hamilton. From this chair he ef- 

 fected an exchange with Dr Copland to the mathe- 

 matical chair, as wing better suited to his inclination 

 and ability. A short time before this he had com- 

 menced the series of useful works which have so de- 

 servedly raised his name. In 1777, appeared the 

 practical work, so well known by the name of " Ha- 

 milton's Merchandise." In 1796, he published his 

 Arithmetic, a work which has been frequently re- 

 printed, in 1800, another work of a similar elemen- 

 tary description, 'called " Heads of a Course of 



