England in 1771, he obtained a respectable appointment under government,
and after the publication of his travels, which procured for him no common share
of reputation and respect, was nominated a member of several learned societies,
particularly of the Royal Society, London. In the transactions of this learned
body, are several papers of Mr Brydone, chiefly on the subject of electricity,
of which he was a profound student, and a close and anxious observer. He
spent the latter part of his life in retirement, at Lennel House, near Cold-
stream, where he was visited by the most distinguished persons hi literature and
public life. The author of Marmion has introduced into that work, tho following- episode respecting Mr Brydone :
"Where Lennel's convent closed their march:
There now is left but one frail arch,
Yet mourn thou not its cells;
Our time a fair exchange has made;
Hard by, in hospitable shade,
A reverend pilgrim dwells,
Well worth the whole Bernardine brood,
That e'er wore sandal, frock, or hood."
Patrick Brydone died at Lennel in 1818, at an advanced age.
BUCHAN, ELSPITH, the leader of a small sect of fanatics, now extinct, was the daughter of John Simpson, who kept an inn at Fitney-Can, the half way house between Banff and Portsoy. She was born in 1738, and educated in the Scottish Episcopal communion. Having been sent when a girl to Glasgow, in order to enter into a life of service, she married Robert Buchan, a workman in the pottery belonging to her master, with whom she lived for several years, and had several children. Having changed her original profession of faith for that of her husband, who was a burgher-seceder, her mind seems to have become perplexed with religious fancies, as is too often the case with those who alter their creed. She fell into a habit of interpreting the Scriptures literally, and began to promulgate certain strange doctrines, which she derived in this manner from holy writ. Having now removed to Irvine, she drew over to her own way of thinking, Mr Hugh Whyte, a Relief clergyman, who consequently abdicated his charge, and became her chief apostle. The sect was joined by persons of a rank of life in which no such susceptibility was to be expected. Mr Hunter, a writer, and several trading people in good circumstances, were among the converts. After having indulged their absurd fancies for several years at Irvine, the mass of the people at length rose in April, 1784, and assembled in a threatening and tumultuous manner around Mr Whyte's house, which had become the tabernacle of the new religion, and of which they broke all the windows. The Buchanites felt this insult so keenly, that they left the town to the number of forty-six persons, and, proceeding through Mauchline, Cumnock, Sanquhar, and Thornhill, did not halt till they arrived at a farmhouse, two miles south from the latter place, and thirteen from Dumfries, where they hired the out-houses for their habitation, in the hope of being permitted, in that lonely scene, to exercise their religion without further molestation. Mrs Buchan continued to be the great mistress of the ceremonies, and Mr Whyte to be the chief officiating priest. They possessed considerable property, which all enjoyed alike, and though several men were accompanied by their wives, all the responsibilities of the married state were given up. Some of them wrought gratuitously at their trades, for the benefit of those who employed them; but they professed only to consent to this, in order that they might have opportunities of bringing over other's to their own views. They scrupulously abjured all worldly considerations whatsoever, wishing only to lead a quiet and holy life, till the commencement of the Millennium, or
