Sir W. Elliot on Denholm and its Vicinity. 31T 



poor parents, having no advantages of position or wealth to 

 foster the culture of talents of a high order, he contrived, hy 

 the native energy of his character, aided by a wonderful 

 memory and extraordinary versatility, to amass an amount of 

 knowledge and information on every subject, which brought 

 him to the notice, and admitted him to the intimacy, of that 

 assemblage of distinguished men, for which the northern 

 capital was then remarkable. Walter Scott, Dr. Robert 

 Anderson, and Richard Heber first took him by the hand, and 

 through them he became acquainted with the first men of the 

 day. His extraordinary powers of application enabled him to 

 give his attention to every branch of study — classics, mathe- 

 matics, antiquities, poetry, medicine, botany, chemistry, &c., 

 but his favourite pursuit was philology, and some of his earliest 

 efforts were metrical translations from European and oriental 

 languages. "When some of his friends remonstrated with him 

 on such a course of indefinite and miscellaneous study, his 

 characteristic reply was, '^ Dash it man, what does it matter? 

 if ye hae the scaffolding ready ye can sune run up the build- 

 ing!" And he shortly afterwards proved the justice of his 

 plan, at least in his own case; for when, through the interest 

 of his literary friends, he obtained a promise of an appoint- 

 ment to India, to enable him to prosecute the comparative 

 study of languages, the only nomination of the season remain- 

 ing unappropriated was a Madras assistant surgconship. No- 

 wise discouraged, he at once prepared himself to accept it. 

 Although he had been educated for the church and was already 

 a licensed preacher, so great was his desire for travel, such his 

 thirst for distinction in his favourite pursuits, that by dint of 

 application aided by an elementary knowledge of medicine 

 acquired in the course of his discursive reading, he was en- 

 abled to pass his surgeon's examination with credit in six 

 months, immediately after which he took the degree of M.D. 

 at Aberdeen. He sailed for India in 1803, and was at once 

 appointed by Lord Wm. Bentinck to the medical charge of 

 the trigonometrical survey, under Lambton, in Mysore, that 

 he might devote himself expressly to the native languages, 

 and to the natural history of the country. He set to work 

 with his usual energy, but his health soon failed. Attacked 

 with disease of the liver in 1805, he was obliged to resort for 

 change to the western coast, and thence proceeded in a native 

 vessel to Penang. There he remained for several months, 

 during which he mastered the structure and affinities of the 

 Indo-Chinese languages, the results of which he communi- 



