entirely into private life, residing first at Neidpath castle, near Peebles, afterwards at Hallyards on Manor Water, and finally at St. Andrews, where he died, February 21, 1816, in the ninety-third year of his age.—W. L. A.
FERGUSON, James, was born near Keith, a small town in Banffshire, Scotland, in the year 1710. His parents were persons of good character, but so poor as to be unable to send their children to school. James, however, was taught by his father to read and write, and he enjoyed the privilege, denied to the other members of the family, of attending the grammar-school of Keith for three months. He was self-educated in a more literal sense than that in which the term is applied to many who have made themselves illustrious. In Ferguson's own account of himself, prefixed to his "Select Mechanical Exercises"—one of the most interesting autobiographies in the English language—he tells us that his taste for mechanics was first excited when he was a boy of eight years of age, and by a singular incident. The roof of the cottage in which the family lived having become much decayed, and having gradually fallen from its proper position so as to be inconvenient and dangerous, his father, with a view to repair it by the introduction of some new beams, raised it by the application of a lever. The result powerfully excited the wonder of the child, and led to the development of a taste for mechanics which he never lost. He began immediately afterwards to make experiments with levers, wheels, and wedges, and before he emerged from boyhood wrote a treatise, in which he gave descriptions of his machines, and a statement of the principles on which they were constructed, and of the advantage which might be derived by their practical application in the business of life. This treatise, though stating principles which had been established long before, and though illustrated by diagrams of the rudest description, was beyond question one of the greatest marvels of boyish ingenuity, and showed Ferguson's genius for mechanics to be as remarkable as was that of Pascal for mathematics, or that of Mozart for music. For several years Ferguson was employed on some of the farms in the neighbourhood of his birthplace, and while his sheep were feeding around him on the hill-side, he employed himself in making models of mills, spinning-wheels, and such other machines as came under his observation; at night he was diligent in observing the heavens, making observations with his simple apparatus of a string and a few beads, to determine the apparent distances of the stars from each other, and noting upon a map the positions of the more remarkable constellations in our hemisphere. By the Rev. John Gilchrist of Keith, who had kindly explained to Ferguson the figure of the earth, and had given him the use of a map of the world, and of some geometrical instruments, he was introduced to Mr. Thomas Grant of Achoynaney, a gentleman of a benevolent disposition, who took him to his residence, and directed his butler, who was a person of some attainments, to give the inquiring youth such instruction as he could impart. From this person Ferguson obtained a little knowledge of decimal arithmetic and of algebraic notation. After this we find him an invalid in his father's house, suffering from an illness which had been brought on by excessive labour and insufficient food, but true to his mental instincts, amusing himself during the period of his convalescence, by making a clock which struck the hours on the neck of a broken bottle, and a watch with a spring made of whalebone, the wheels of both machines being of wood. The clock, he tells us, "kept time pretty well;" but the watch proved a failure, from the inability of the teeth of the wheels to bear the force of the balanced spring. On his recovery, Ferguson visited Sir James Dunbar of Durn, to whom he showed some maps and models which he had made. Sir James treated him kindly, and by his permission Ferguson remained a considerable time, earning a little money by cleaning clocks and drawing patterns for needlework, while in the evenings he steadily continued his astronomical observations By Lady Dipple, the sister of Sir James Dunbar, he was introduced to Mr. William Baird of Auchmedden, her son-in-law; and he lived with Mr. Baird for eight months, during which period he seems to have been chiefly occupied in drawing. Some of his sketches were deemed so promising, that, through the advice of friends, he came to Edinburgh with a view of studying regularly as an artist; but meeting with difficulties, he began to take likenesses in Indian ink, and was so successful that he soon had considerable employment. During his stay in Edinburgh, which extended over two years, Ferguson having conversed with some eminent physicians, and read a few books on the medical art, returned to his native district with the intention of practising medicine, but his success in this line of business was small. His own account is curious—"At the end of the second year," says he, "I left Edinburgh, and went to see my father, thinking myself tolerably well qualified to be a physician in that part of the country, and I carried a good deal of medicines, plasters, &c., thither; but to my mortification I soon found that all my medical theories and study were of little use in practice. And then, finding that very few paid me for the medicines they had, and that I was far from being so successful as I could wish, I quite left off that business, and began to think of taking to the more sure one of drawing pictures again. For this purpose I went to Inverness, where I had eight months' business." While at Inverness, Ferguson diligently prosecuted the study of astronomy; and after much labour he prepared a diagram, which he called the "Astronomical Rotula," being a scheme for showing the motions and places of the sun and moon in the ecliptic. After comparing this scheme with the almanacs of some preceding years, and satisfying himself that its computation of eclipses agreed with observed facts, he sent an account of it to the celebrated Colin Maclaurin, professor of mathematics in the university of Edinburgh, who corrected some slight errors in the work, and got it engraved and published. In May, 1743, Ferguson, who had been recently much occupied with the construction of orreries and other apparatus for the illustration of astronomical science, went to London, and there he continued to devote himself to his favourite studies, supporting himself and his family meanwhile by taking portraits. In 1748 he began to give lectures on astronomy, mechanics, pneumatics, and other branches of natural philosophy. The clearness of his statements and the familiar illustrations which he employed, the sparing use which he made of technical terms and mathematical reasoning, together with his admirable diagrams and mechanical apparatus, made Ferguson popular as a lecturer; and George III. showed his appreciation of the "peasant-boy philosopher's" genius and efforts by sometimes attending the lectures, and by giving the lecturer an annual pension of fifty pounds from the privy purse. Ferguson was admitted a member of the Royal Society, and communicated various valuable papers to the Transactions. He died in 1776, leaving about £6000 to his family, which he had acquired by his lectures, publications, and the sale of orreries, models, &c. His principal published works are—"Astronomical Tables, 1763;" "Tables and Tracts," 1767; "Easy Introduction to Astronomy," 1769; "Astronomy on Newton's Principles," 1756; "Select Mechanical Exercises," 1773; "Introduction to Electricity," 1770; "Lectures on select Subjects in Mechanics, Hydrostatics," &c., 1760. Some of these works, especially the "Astronomy on Newton's Principles" and the "Lectures," both of which have been admirably edited by Sir David Brewster, are of great and permanent value; for though Ferguson was almost entirely ignorant of the higher mathematics, he knew thoroughly what he did know of the various branches of philosophy which he taught, and could explain with remarkable clearness those profound truths which, though requiring the mightiest effort of the intellect to discover and establish by rigid scientific evidence, are, when once discovered, capable of being simply stated and easily apprehended.—J. B. J.
* FERGUSON, Robert, born at Carlisle, 1819, eldest son of Joseph Ferguson, late member of parliament for Carlisle. Robert Ferguson has published, in addition to a prose narrative of his travels in the East, a volume of poems, some of great beauty, entitled "Shadow of the Pyramid." His late studies have been chiefly connected with the antiquities of Northern Europe. His book on the "Northmen of Cumberland and Westmoreland" has shown the probable source from which the original population of that part of England was derived. The subject which he here investigates in reference to a particular district, is pursued on a more extensive scale in a volume lately published by him on English and Scandinavian surnames. He has aided in the formation and progress of literary and scientific institutions in the district where he resides, and has frequently held the office of mayor of his native city.—J. A., D.
FERGUSON or FERGUSSON, Robert, one of the minor poets of Scotland, was born at Edinburgh on the 5th September, 1750. William Ferguson, his father, was an Aberdonian, but had come to Edinburgh in search of employment about 1746, and eventually became a clerk in the British Linen Com-
