BUG 
the affidance of fo able a coadjutor muff have left Bucha¬ 
nan confiderably in the poffellion of his own time. With¬ 
out this fuppofition it had been impollible for him to write 
thofe political treatifes which he did in the year 1570, and 
about that time to fttpport the meafures of his party, and 
to blacken the characters of their adverfaries. 
In what year he began his celebrated Latin Hidory of 
Scotland is not clearly determined; but it is with proba¬ 
bility fuppofed to have been foon after thefe occalional 
publications. This work is divided into twenty books, be¬ 
ginning with the reign of Fergus, 330 years before Chrift, 
and ending with that of the unfortunate Mary; not lefs 
unfortunate in the tranfadlions of her feign, than to have 
had them tranfmitted to poderity by the brilliant pen of 
an hiftorian devoted to her enemies : all the latter years 
of his life were employed in this undertaking, and nothing 
but the mod refolute application could have enabled him 
tofinifh it, afflicted as he was with extreme ill health, la¬ 
bouring under the advances of old age, and continually 
interrupted by the indifpenfable duties-of the king’s' edu¬ 
cation. In the 27th epifile of his literary correfpondence, 
dated Nov. 9, 1579, not three years before his death, giv¬ 
ing an account of mod of his works, and of his trouble 
in feleCting and improving them, he concludes thus : 
“ And to all this I have added the talk of writing hidory, 
a laborious employment in the vigour of life, but which 
now, whild I am meditating upon my latter end, between 
the apprehendons of death on one hand, and the fhame of 
not proceeding on the other, is necelTarily become flow 
and unpleafant; yet I feel myfelf obliged to proceed, 
though unwilling to go on.” He had, however, at length 
the fatisfaftion of completing this the greated and the lad 
of his mortal labours ; but he furvived its publication 
fcarcely a fingle month. 
Although no perfon was ever better qualified, in point 
of abilities or information, to fhine in hidorical compofi- 
tion, or fince the days of Livy and Sallud has written with 
more chadifed tade, or perhaps with greater purity of 
dile, yet not only his enemies univerfally complain of his 
partiality, but even they who profefs tlie greated tender- 
nefs for his fame are fometimes inclined to quedion his ve¬ 
racity, and dill oftener to cenfure his want of moderation. 
Though Buchanan’s merits and fervices were not left with¬ 
out honours or recompence by his patrons, the earls of 
Murray and Moreton, fuccedi vely regents during the king’s 
minority, he arrived at mod of them but in the lated (fage 
of his life, and is faid to have left behind him neither eftates 
normoney. He was did madedireCtorof the royal chancery, 
afterwards keeper of the privy feal, and a member of the 
council; and penfioned on the revenues of the convent of 
Crofs-raguel. Broken at length by age and infirmities, 
he retired in 1381 from the court at Stirling to Edinburgh, 
red going every public charge, and calmly computing hiin- 
felf for the approaches of death. In a pleating and pa¬ 
thetic letter, written in the fpringof that year, to his only 
furviving friend in Portugal, he fays, “ I have for fome 
time bidden adieu to letters. Mv foie concern now is, how 
1 may mod quietly withdraw from my ill-alForted com¬ 
panions ; a dying man from the focietv of the living.”' 
Thus gracefully and deliberately quitting the fcene of life, 
departed this extraordinary man, on Friday morning the 
28th of Sept. 5582, in the 76th year of his age. Buchanan, 
with regard to his perfon, is faid to have been dovenly, 
inattentive'to drefs, and almod to have bordered upon ruf- 
ticity in his manners and appearance. ThecharaCter of his 
countenance was manly but a-uftere, and the portraits re¬ 
maining of him bear tedimony to this oblervation. But 
he was highly polilhed in his language and dyle of conver¬ 
sation, which was generally much feafoned with wit and 
humour. On every fubjedt he podefled a peculiar facility 
of ililudration by lively anecdotes and fhort moral exam¬ 
ples; and, when his knowledge and recoTledfion failed in 
fuggeding thefe, his invention immediately fupplied him. 
He has been too judly reproached with indances of re¬ 
venge,, and forgetfuLnefs of obligations. Thefe feein not r 
B U C -4 35 
however, to have been chara fieri die qualities, but occa¬ 
lional failures of his nobler nature, aridng from too vio¬ 
lent an attachment to party, and an affedtion too partial to¬ 
wards individuals. Various writers who have noticed this 
author, {peak of him in very different terms, according 
to their religious and political principles. From his works, 
however, it is evident, that; both as a Latin poet and 
prole writer, he hath rarely been equalled lince the reign 
ot Augudus; nor is he lels deferring of remembrance as 
a friend to the natural liberties of mankind, in oppodtion 
to ufurpation and tyranny. “ The happy genius of Bu¬ 
chanan (fays Dr. Robertfon), equally lortned to excel in 
profe and in verfe, more various, more original, and more 
elegant, than that of almod any other modern who writes 
in Latin, relledls, with regard to this particular, the great¬ 
ed lullre on his country.” To his memory an obelilk 100 
■feet nigh was eredled in 1788, by fubfeription, at Kil- 
lairn, the place of his nativity, deligned by Mr. J. Craig, 
nephew to the celebrated poet Thompfon. 
The following is a lid of his principal works. 1. Re- 
rum Scoticarum, &c. 2. Pfalmorum Davidis Paraphrads 
Poetica. 3. De Jure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus. 4. 
Pfalmusciv. cum judicio Barclaii, &c. 5. Plalmuscxx. 
cum analyli organica Beuzeri. 6. Baptilles, live Calum- 
nia. 7. Alciedis, Tragaedia. 8. Tragaediae facr;e, et 
exterae. 9. De Caleto recepto carmen, apud Stephan. 
10. Francifcanus et Fratres, &c. 11. Elegias, Silvias, &c. 
12. De fphera Herbornx. 13. Poemata, 14. Satyra in 
cardinalem Lotharingium. 15. Rudimenta Grammatices, 
Tho. Liuacri ex Anglico Sermone in Latinum Verfas. 16.. 
An Admonition to the true Lords. 17. De Profodia. 18. 
Cliamasleon, 1372. 19. Ad Viros iui Seculi Epidolx.. 
20. Liter;e Reginas Scoticae ad com. Bothweliae. 21. A, 
Detedfion of the Doings of Mary Queen of Scots, and of 
James earl of Bothwell, againd Henry lord Darnly. 22. 
Vita ab iplo Scripta biennio ante Mortem, cum Conimen- 
tario D. Rob. Sibbaldi, M. D. 23. Life of Mary Queen 
of Scots. Thefe have been printed often, and in various 
countries. An edition of them all colledled together was 
printed at Edinburgh in 1704, in 2 vols. folio. 
BUCHA'RIA, fee Bukharia. 
BUCHAU', an imperial town of Germany,, in the cir¬ 
cle of Swabia, (ituated on the Feder lake. It has no ter¬ 
ritory. It pays four florins for the Roman month, and its 
tax is fix teen rixdollars nineteen kreutzers: twenty-four 
miles fouth-wed of Ulm, and forty-three fouth-fuuth-ead 
of Stuttgart. Lat.48.6-N. Ion. 27. 1 r. E. Ferro. 
BUCHAW', a fmall country of Germany, in the cir¬ 
cle of the Upper Rhine, comprehending the efiate of the 
Abby of Fulda. Fulda is the capital. 
BU'CHEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of the 
Lower Rhine : twenty-two miles ead of Heidelberg. 
BU'CHENBERG, a town of Germany,, in the circle of 
Swabia, and territory of the Abby of Kempten : five miles 
wed-fouth-wed of of Kempten, and nine ead of liny. 
BUCHE'RI, a town of Italy, in the valley of Noto ; 
three miles ndrth-ead of Monte-Rolfo. 
BUCH'HOLZ, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Upper Saxony, and Ucker Mark of Brandenburg : twen¬ 
ty-three miles fouth-iouth-ead of Berlin. 
BUCHIGLIE'RA, a town of Italy, in the province ofi 
Calabria Citra : eleven miles wed-north-wed of Umbriatico. 
BUCH'LAHE r or Buchloe, a town of Germany, in 
the circle of Swabia, and bifliopric of Augfburg : eigh¬ 
teen miles fouth-fouth-wed of Augfburg, and nine ealt of 
Mindelheim. 
BUCHNE'RA,/! [fo named by Linnaeus- in honour of 
A. E. Buchner, a German naturalid.J In botany, ’a genus- 
of the clafs didynamia, order angiofpermia, natural order 
perfonat;-e. The generic characters are-—Calyx : perian- 
thium one-leafed, obfeurely five-toothed,' fcabrous, per¬ 
manent. Corolla: monopetalous; tube very long, fili¬ 
form, bowed ; border flat, fliort, five-cleft, equal : the 
two upper divifions very (hort, reflex ; the three lower 
cordate, nearly equal,. Stamina: filaments four, very 
fliort 
