MEMOIR 
OF 
WILLIAM SMELLIE. 
William Smellie, the youngest son of 
Alexander Smellie, a master builder of suffi- 
cient eminence to have attained the title of 
Architect, is said to have been born in the 
Pleasance, one of the suburbs of the city of 
Edinburgh, in 1740 ; but there is no register of 
his birth extant, either from the parish records 
of the time being incorrectly kept, or, as is 
more probable, from his father not having atten- 
ded to the registration on account of his peculiar 
religious tenets, he being a member of that sect 
of Presbyterians which is termed Cameronians, 
a class of persons with whom readers of the 
present day have been made familiarly acquain- 
ted by the writings of Sir Walter Scott. There 
B 
