knack, though always with the best intentions, of making exactly such proposals for their amendment as would entirely defeat the operation of some of Lord Westbury's most masterly measures’ (Law Magazine and Review, 1873, p. 724). Few men enjoyed greater personal popularity. Lord Campbell declares ‘there never lived a better man than Rolfe’ (Life of John, Lord Campbell, ii. 125); while Greville says: ‘Nobody is so agreeable as Rolfe—a clear head, vivacity, information, an extraordinary pleasantness of manner without being soft or affected, extreme good humour, cheerfulness, and tact make his society on the whole as attractive as that of anybody I ever met’ (Memoirs, 2nd part, 1885, ii. 265).
There is an oil portrait of Cranworth by George Richmond, R.A., in the National Portrait Gallery. A crayon drawing of Cranworth by the same artist has been engraved by Francis Holl.
Cranworth's judgments are reported in Meeson and Welsby (v.–xvi.), Welsby, Hurlstone, and Gordon (i.–v.), Hall and Twells (ii.), Macnaghten and Gordon (ii.), De Gex, Macnaghten, and Gordon (i.–viii.), De Gex and Jones (i. and ii.), De Gex, Jones, and Smith (ii.–iv.), Clark's ‘House of Lords Cases’ (iv.–xi.), Moore's ‘Privy Council Cases,’ and the ‘Law Reports,’ English and Irish Appeal Cases (i.–iii.), Chancery Appeal Cases (i.).
[Foss's Judges of England, 1864, ix. 251–3; Nash's Life of Richard, Lord Westbury, 1888, i. 133–4, 138, 150–1, 159, 168–70, ii. 10, 77, 144, 149, 152, 153, 176; W. O'Connor Morris's Memoirs and Thoughts of a Life, 1895, pp. 129–30; Random Recollections of the House of Commons, 1836, pp. 222–3; Times, 27–30 July 1868; Law Times, xlv. 260–1, xcvi. 415–16; Law Magazine and Review, xxvi. 278–84; Illustrated London News, 1 and 15 Aug. 1868; Gent. Mag. 1868, new ser. i. 563–4; Annual Register, 1868, ii. 167–8; G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage, ii. 403; Whishaw's Synopsis of the Bar, 1835, p. 120; Cambridge University Calendar, 1894–5, pp. 152, 508; Holgate's Winchester Commoners, 1800–35, pp. 27, 40; W. Haig Browne's Charterhouse Past and Present, 1879, p. 204; Lincoln's Inn Registers; Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament, ii. 340, 352, 365; Haydn's Book of Dignities, 1890; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. i. 495, ii. 56, 94, 8th ser. viii. 168.]
ROLLAND, JOHN (fl. 1560), Scottish poet, was probably son of John Rolland who in 1481 was sub-dean of Glasgow (see Dempster, xvi. 1051). From a writ among the Laing charters it appears that he was a presbyter of the diocese of Glasgow, and that in 1555 he was acting as a notary at Dalkeith. He attests the document with the words ‘Ego vero Joannes Rolland presbyter Glasguensis Diocesis publicus sacra auctoritate apostolica notarius.’
Before 1560 he composed a poem entitled ‘The Court of Venus,’ and about May 1560 wrote a second poem called ‘The Seven Sages.’ In the interval between the composition of these poems he turned protestant; the later poem strongly contrasts with the earlier in its reference to Rome. There is no evidence that he was alive after 1560, and the publication of all his works was doubtless posthumous.
Rolland wrote: 1. ‘Ane Treatise callit the Court of Venus, dividit into Four Buikes newlie compylit be John Rolland in Dalkeith,’ Edinburgh, 1575. The circumstances attending the composition of this poem are related in the second of Rolland's works, and it was clearly composed before 1560, probably dating from the reign of James V (1527–42); it was reproduced and edited for the Scottish Text Society by the Rev. Walter Gregor in 1889. 2. ‘The Sevin Seagis translatit out of prois in Scottis meter by Johne Rolland in Dalkeith with ane Moralitie efter everie Doctours tale and seclike after the emprice tale, togidder with ane loving and laude to everie Doctour after his awin tale, and ane exclamation and outcrying upon the empereours wife after her fals contruvit tale,’ Edinburgh, 1578; reprinted in 1590, 1592, 1599, 1606, 1620, 1631. From internal evidence the poem is proved to have been written after the attack on Leith in February 1560, and before the treaty of Edinburgh in July of the same year. The first edition was reproduced by the Bannatyne Club, vol. lix., and in Sibbald's ‘Chronicle of Scottish Poetry’ (cf. G. Büchner's ‘Die Historia Septem Sapientum … nebst einer Untersuchung über die Quelle der Sevin Seagis des Johann Rolland von Dalkeith,’ in Varnhagen's Erlanger Beiträge zur englischen Philologie). Sibbald also conjecturally ascribes to Rolland ‘The Tale of the Thrie Priestis of Peblis,’ which was probably written about 1540, and is printed in Pinkerton's ‘Ancient Scottish Poems,’ 1786, and by Sibbald in his ‘Chronicle of Scottish Poetry,’ 1802, ii. 227.
Catharine Rolland, daughter of another John Rolland, who married, in 1610, Dr. William Gould, the principal of King's College, Aberdeen, founded in 1659 several Rolland bursaries at Marischal College, Aberdeen.
[Reprints of Rolland's two poems in the Scottish Text Society and the Bannatyne Club; Irving's Lives of Scottish Poets, ii. 297; Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry; Burke's Commoners; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib.]
