82 
MEMOIR OP BRUCE. 
success. In 1790, seventeen years after his return 
to Europe, his journals were printed and laid before 
the public in five large quarto volumes, dedicated 
to the Icing. In his preface, he frankly explained 
the reason which had delayed the publication so 
long ; and he admits, that “ an undeserved and un- 
expected neglect, and want of patronage, had been 
at least part of the cause.” The work, on its ap- 
pearance, was attacked by the same violent spirit of 
contradiction that had incessantly persecuted the 
author; and it is stated, that in consequence of 
these calumnies, several copies of it were sold in 
Dublin as waste paper. The fame and honour of 
Bruce have long ago emerged from the cloud of 
misrepresentation which ignorance and prejudice 
had gendered ; and his name will go down to pos- 
terity as one of the most brave, honourable, intelli- 
gent, and enterprising travellers that Great Britain 
ever produced. 
The remainder of his history is short. His do- 
mestic occupations were divided between the care 
of his estate and his literary pursuits. His fondness 
for astronomy induced him to erect a temporary 
observatory on the top of Kinnaird House, where he 
made his observations, dressed in the Abyssinian 
costume; a circumstance which made the good 
people in the neighbourhood believe that “ the 
laird was gaen daft.” He was often dressed in a 
turban, and used almost every morning, in company 
with his young and amiable daughter, to ride slowly 
over his grounds to his coaleries, mounted on a 
