JVotices of Eminent Men deceased in Great Britain. 307 



For many years past Mr. Smithson has resided abroad, principally, 

 I believe, on account of his health : but he carried with him the es- , 

 teem and regard of various private friends, and of a still larger num- 

 ber of persons who appreciated and admired his acquirements. 



6. Mr. Henry Browne. — No one, I believe, was ever more 

 distinguished in the important station of commanding those vessels 

 which secure to England the commerce of nations unknown to 

 former ages ; nor did any one more largely contribute towards intro- 

 ducing the modern refinements of nautical astronomy, which skill- 

 fully pursued, and under favorable circumstances determine the place 

 of a ship with greater accuracy, than what in the early part of the 

 last century would have been thought amply sufficient for headlands, 

 roadsteads, or harbors of the first importance. And I cannot omit 

 this opportunity of congratulating all those who addict themselves to 

 astronomical pursuits, or who feel an interest in the perfection of ge- 

 ography and navigation, on the great improvements recently suggested 

 and likely to be made in our national ephemeris; improvements 

 which, in part at least, I hoped to have got adopted tw^elve years 

 ago : but now under more fortunate auspices I flatter myself that 

 they will be carried into execution, and their practical advantages 

 cannot fail of being very great. 



Retired to private life, Mr. Browne usefully amused his declining 

 years by a continuance of his favorite pursuits; and up to the latest" 

 period of his life he patronised, encouraged, and promoted pracUcal 

 astronomy. ■ 



6. The late Duke of Atholl demands also attention, not on ac- 

 count of his high station, but as a patron of science, and especially 

 of that most important, interesting and rapidly improving branch of 

 science, geology. 



Geology, deriving its birth from the continent of Europe, seems 

 to have been drawn to this island by the genius of Dr. Hutton, and 

 here to have grown with the vigor of youth under the fostering hands 

 of many who now hear me, and also of a gentleman to whom the 

 Duke of Atholl afforded every assistance to be derived from his 

 large property, and his extensive influence. 



The Duke of Atholl has also at once enriched and decorated his 

 country ; and afforded an instructive example to all other proprietors 

 of similar wastes, by clothing tracts of land, incapable of a different 

 cultivation, with the most valuable of the pines. His forests of larch, 

 which have acquired maturity in the course of a single life, promise 



