HUME 



CHAPTER I 



EARLY LIFE: LITERARY AND POLITICAL 

 WRITINGS 



DAVID HUME was born in Edinburgh on the 

 26th of April (0. S.), 17H- His parents were then 

 residing in the parish of the Tron church, ap- 

 parently on a visit to the Scottish capital, as 

 the small estate which his father, Joseph Hume, 

 or Home, inherited, lay in Berwickshire, on the 

 banks of the Whitadder or Whitewater, a few 

 miles from the border, and within sight of English 

 ground. The paternal mansion was little more 

 than a very modest farmhouse,* and the property 

 derived its name of Ninewells from a considerable 



* A picture of the house, taken from Drummond's His- 

 tory of Noble British Families, is to be seen in Chambers's 

 Book of Days (April 26th) ; and if, as Drummond says, " It 

 is a favourable specimen of the best Scotch lairds' houses," 

 all that can be said is that the worst Scotch lairds must 

 have been poorly lodged indeed. 



144 3 



