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ROBERTSON. 



JOINED in friendship and in fame with the great 

 man whose life and writings we have been contem- 

 plating, and, equally with him, founder of the repu- 

 tation of our country for excellence in historical com- 

 position, was William Robertson, also a native of 

 Scotland. His father, a learned, pious, and eloquent 

 divine, was settled for several years as minister of the 

 Scotch church in London Wall, but had returned to 

 Scotland before his marriage with Miss Pitcairn of 

 Dreghorn, in the county of Edinburgh, and was settled 

 at Borthwick, in the same county, at the time of the 

 historian's birth, on the 19th of September, 1721. I 

 have been curious to ascertain the kind of genius which 

 distinguished his father beside his talent for drawing, 

 of which I possess a specimen showing some skill,* 

 and by the kindness of a kinsman I have had the great 



* It is a miniature in Indian ink of James, Earl of Seafield, one 

 of the forfeited Lords, to whom he was believed to be distantly re- 

 lated. A tradition prevailed in the family that they descended 

 from John Knox. The historian professed himself quite unac- 

 quainted with the reasons of this rumour which connected him with 

 " the rustic Apostle," whose character and conduct he has described 

 most faithfully and strikingly. 



