though neither of them could boast of making a convert of his antagonist, a cordial friendship took place from that day, and a literary correspondence began, which suffered no interruption during their joint lives.”
We have various testimonies of the high respect in which Dr Doig was held by all who were acquainted with him, and the sincere regard felt for him by his friends. Mr Tytler, in his life of lord Kames, embraces the opportunity while treating of the controversy between him and lord Kames, to give a short outline of his life, as a small tribute of respect to the memory of a man whom he esteemed and honoured; and whose correspondence for several years, in the latter part of his life, was a source to him of the most rational pleasure and instruction. John Ramsay of Ochtertyre raised a mural tablet to his memory, on which he placed the following inscription:
DAVID DOIG! | DAVID DOIG! |
Dium tempus erit, vale! J. R. |
Farewell through time! |
A favourite amusement of Dr Doig was the composition of small poetical pieces, both in Latin and English, of which those of an epigrammatic turn were peculiarly excellent. From among those fugitive pieces, the magistrates of Stirling selected the following elegiac stanzas, which he had composed on the subject of his own life and studies, and engraved them upon a marble monument, erected to his memory, at the expense of the community of Stirling.
Edidici quædam, perlegi plura, notavi
Paucula, cum domino mox peritura suo;
Lubrica Pieriæ tentarem praemia palmæ,
Credulus, ingenio heu nimis alta meo.
Extincto famam ruituro crescere saxo
Posse putem, vivo qua mihi nullu fuit!
- ↑ Dr Doig, in company with Mr Ramsay, visited Oxford and Cambridge, in 1791, and some years after, they spent a few weeks together at Peterhead.