107 
of Edinburgh , Session 1880-81. 
the nation and the metropolis. He died on the 4th of December 
1879, in the 61st year of his age, having devoted the best part of his 
life in earnest endeavours to promote the welfare of others. 
Lord Ormidale. By the President. 
Robert Macfarlane, a judge of the Court of Session, under the 
title of Lord Ormidale, died on the 2d of November 1880, in his 
seventy-ninth year. He was in many respects a remarkable man, 
and his life had elements of interest and variety apart from his 
professional success. Vigour of thought and force of character 
were the principal features which distinguished him, and these 
enabled him, through many changing scenes and some vicissitudes, 
to assert a foremost rank at the Bar and on the Bench. 
He was horn in Glen Douglas, on Loch Lomond, on the 30tli of 
July 1802, among some of the grandest and most beautiful scenes 
of the Scottish Highlands. Nor were the traces of such a birth- 
place without a reflection in his character. The quick, ardent, 
intense enthusiasm which marked the man, were the natural fruit 
of a boyhood spent by mountain and flood ; and the cloud and sun- 
shine flitted across his impressionable spirit, as he must have seen 
them pass over his native hills. 
He attended the University of Glasgow in the four sessions from 
1816 to 1819, and then came to Edinburgh. Shortly afterwards he 
went on a voyage to the West Indies, in connection with the affairs 
of a relative, and after a short residence in Jamaica he spent four or 
five months in the United States, before returning to this country. 
Having on his return resolved to prosecute the legal profession, 
he became hound as apprentice to Mr James Greig, W.S. In this 
occupation he was associated with two men who were afterwards 
very eminent in their respective careers, and very distinguished mem- 
bers of this society. One was the late Lord Neaves, one of the most 
brilliant of our body, and the other our late lamented Treasurer, Mr 
David Smith, the loss of whose invaluable services we so deeply 
deplore. 
On finishing his apprenticeship, Mr Macfarlane resolved to 
enter the body of Writers to the Signet, and for more than ten 
years, from 1827 to 1838, carried on business in that capacity, as a 
