SANDFORD. 



701 



Irom the fibres of its leaves, and during the rainy 

 season, when their country is under water, they 

 live on the summit of the trees. The mats they 

 form are suspended from tree to tree, and covered 

 on the upper side with clay. On these moist 

 couches the women light the fires necessary for 

 their cookery, and the traveller, who during the 

 night is floating down the stream of the river, 

 sees lights, as it were, suspended in the air at a 

 considerable elevation. 



In addition to the nourishment derived from the 

 pith of this tree, a wholesome repast is furnished 

 by the kernels of the fruit when ripe. 



SANDFORD, Sm DANIEL KEYT, K.B..D.C.L., 

 professor of Greek in the university of Glasgow, 

 was the second son of the Right Reverend Daniel 

 Sandford, bishop of the diocese of Edinburgh, and 

 was born in that city on the 3d of February, 1798. 

 He received the rudiments of his education under 

 the superintendence of his excellent and accom- 

 plished father, (who died in Jan. 1830) ; and both 

 at the high school and university of Edinburgh, 

 he was the best Grecian of his time. Iji 1813, he 

 was placed under the care and tuition of his god- 

 father, Mr Keyt, at Runcorn, in Cheshire, and re- 

 mained there two or three years, pursuing his clas- 

 sical studies with enthusiastic ardour. In 1817, he 

 entered Christ Church, Oxford, and soon attained the 

 first rank among the students in that celebrated 

 seat of learning. Of the university debating club, 

 in which questions not only on literature, philoso- 

 phy, and history, but even on general politics, were 

 discussed with freedom, Sir Daniel became an early 

 and active member, and there first learned the art, 

 as well as tasted the delight, of stirring the hearts 

 and exalting the minds of a large concourse of men. 

 In 1820 he took his degree with first class honours, 

 and gained the university prize in 1821. The sub- 

 ject was the " Study of Modern History," which 

 he discussed with great acuteness and eloquence. 

 The Greek chair in the university of Glasgow hav- 

 ing become vacant by the death of professor 

 Young, Sir Daniel, although an Episcopalian, was, 

 on the recommendation of men of all parties, 

 elected his successor in September, 1821, at the 

 early age of twenty-three. He entered with en- 

 thusiasm on the duties of the professorship in the 

 beginning of the session of that year, and not only 

 sustained but increased the celebrity of the Greek 

 chair. He introduced many improvements into the 

 system of instruction that had been pursued by 

 professor Young ; and by his unrivalled skill as a 

 teacher, and the enthusiasm of his classic genius, 

 awakened a new interest in the study of Greek li- 

 terature, not only in the university of Glasgow, 

 but throughout all Scotland.* Among the schol- 

 ars of Great Britain, he held the very first rank, 

 and, perhaps, since the time of Porson, it has been 

 justly observed, there has been no one equally dis- 

 tinguished for profound and elegant scholarship, 

 and an exquisite and happy mastery over the subtle 

 niceties of the Greek tongue. 



* The general character of the classical students of the uni- 

 versity of Glasgow may be gathered from a simple fact 

 brought forward by Sir D. K. Sandford in 1828. "At that 

 date, the Glasgowexhibitioners hadformed, forfourteen years, 

 about one-twentieth of the resident under-graduates of Balliol, 

 Uxford, and yet had obtained one-third of the university hon- 

 ours which had fallen to the share of that college; that is, the 

 proportion of academic distinctions was nearly as seven toonein 

 favour of the <;lasgo\y exhibitioners, over the students coming 

 from all other institutions and all other parts of the kingdom. 

 The proportion has not been diminished since the time when 

 this calculation was made." See Observations by the Princi- 

 pal and Profexaori of Glasgow college, on Schemes of Reform 

 proposed for the university of Glasgow. Glasgow, 1837. 



Ambitious of political distinction, Sir Daniel 

 took an active part in the numerous meetings for 

 parliamentary reform which were held in 1831 and 

 1832, and by his extraordinary abilities as a public 

 speaker, rapidly attained great popularity. On the 

 first election of members for Glasgow, under the 

 reform bill, he was one of six candidates who con- 

 tested for the representation of that city, and on 

 that occasion he stood third on the poll. In 1834, 

 he was elected member for Paisley, and the faculty 

 of the college left it optional for him to return 

 among them at the end of a year, should his suc- 

 cess in his parliamentary career not equal his most 

 sanguine expectations. He sat one session in par- 

 liament, but as his health during that period was 

 much affected, he deemed it prudent to resign his 

 seat. In the beginning of the following winter he 

 resumed his academic labours, and his return to the 

 peaceful and Attic retreats of Glasgow college was 

 hailed with delight by his colleagues, by the stu- 

 dents, and the friends of education in general. 

 From this time till his death, he lived during the 

 session in college, and in the summer in the vicin- 

 ity of Rothesay, in the island of Bute. He died 

 of typhus fever, at Glasgow, on the 4th of Feb. 

 1838, in the fortieth year of his age, and, in con- 

 formity with his own wish, was buried in the high 

 church-yard burying ground, Rothesay. His re- 

 mains were followed in mournful procession, to 

 the place of embarkation, at the Broomielaw, by 

 the professors and students, magistrates and clergy- 

 men, of the city, besides a large number of the 

 most respectable inhabitants, while all the vessels 

 in the harbour had their colours hoisted half-mast 

 high. 



Sir Daniel was married to Miss Charnock in 

 1824, and left a young and numerous family. The 

 honour of knighthood was conferred on him at St 

 James's palace, by William IV., in 1830; and dur- 

 ing his residence in London, in 1834, he took the 

 degree of doctor of civil law. His personal ap- 

 pearance was prepossessing. In stature he was 

 about the middle size, and of graceful figure. His 

 countenance was pale, his features sharp, and his 

 forehead high and expanding. His eyes, though 

 apparently weak, and in general heavy, assumed 

 great brilliancy when he became animated in speak- 

 ing or reading. His manners were affable and 

 courteous in the highest degree. His private tastes, 

 and the bias of his mind, were decidedly classical, 

 which tended to imbue his habits and capacities, as 

 a teacher of Greek, with a generous warmth and 

 enthusiasm, that contributed largely to his success 

 in this department of elegant learning. As a pub- 

 lic speaker, few equalled him in the grace and 

 variety of his oral addresses, or exhibited equal 

 mastery over the feelings of an audience. He pos- 

 sessed great tact in the management of his subject 

 was rich and ready in his illustrations and keen 

 and sarcastic in his irony. Sir Daniel published se- 

 veral elementary works for the use of his class, such 

 as a translation from the German of Thiersch's 

 Greek Grammar, Greek Extracts, Introduction to 

 the writing of Greek, Exercises in Homeric and 

 Attic Greek, &c. He also contributed a variety 

 of valuable articles to the Edinburgh Review and 

 Blackwood's Magazine. In the latter periodical, 

 his poetical translation of the Plutus and Nubes of 

 Aristophanes, and several papers entitled Alcibi- 

 ades the Boy and Alcibiades the Man, were highly 

 esteemed. But his most finished production was 

 the Essay on the Rise and Progress of Literature, 



