ment to the existing monarchical form of government. The prevailing tone of
his mind was political, and he used to argue on topics which interested him with
great ardour and even enthusiasm, insomuch that he often appeared suffering
from passion when he was not.
In the year 1794, Mr Kerr was induced to embark his fortune, which was not inconsiderable, in the purchase and management of a paper-mill at Ayton in Berwickshire. The speculation, after a trial of several years, turned out unfortunately, and reduced him in the latter part of life to circumstances very inconsistent with his merits, either as a man or as an author. These circumstances, however, renewed his exertions in literature, after they had been long intermitted. In 1809, he published a General View of the Agriculture of Berwickshire, and in 1811, Memoirs of Mr William Smellie, and a History of Scotland during the reign of Robert Bruce, both of which last were in two volumes octavo. About the same time, he conducted through the press, for Mr Blackwood, a General Collection of Voyages and Travels, in eighteen volumes octavo. The memoirs of Mr Smellie, though disproportioned to the subject, contain much valuable literary anecdote. Mr Kerr's last work was a translation of Cuvier's Essay on the Theory of the Earth, which was published in 1815 (after his death), with an introduction and notes by professor Jamieson. The event just alluded to took place on the 11th of October, 1813, w hen he was about fifty-eight years of age. He left one son, a captain in the navy, and two daughters, both of whom were married.
Mr Kerr was a kind and warm-hearted man, liberal and honourable in his dealings, possessed of extensive information, and in every respect an ornament to society.
KIRKALDY, William, one of the earliest converts to the protestant faith in Scotland, and a brave and accomplished man, was the eldest son of Sir James Kirkaldy of Grange, high treasurer to James V. of Scotland.[1] Of the period of his birth and the method of his education we have been unable to discover any satisfactory information ; but like the greater number of the Scottish barons at that time, he seems to have chosen, or to have been devoted by his parents, to the profession of arms. At the death of James, his father seems to have lost his situation in the government; yet with a view of procuring that nobleman's assistance to the cause of protestantism, he was one of the most active assistants in raising Arran to the regency; but in the hope he had formed, he was to a considerable extent disappointed.
Young Grange, as well as his father, had embraced the principles of the Reformation; and his first appearance in the historic page is as one of the conspirators against the persecutor, cardinal David Beaton. The circumstances of this renowned conspiracy have already been commemorated in these pages. The conspirators having, by an act which cannot be justified, avenged the death of the martyr Wishart by assassinating his murderer, shut themselves up in the castle of St Andrews, which they held for several months, and only surrendered, after being besieged by a French force, in the end of July or the beginning of August, 1546. It was stipulated that the lives of all that were in the castle should be spared; that they should be transported to France, whence, if they did not choose to continue in that country, they were to be transported to whatever other country they chose, Scotland excepted. The victors, however, did not find it necessary or convenient to attend to the terms of the stipulation; the greater part of the garrison were sent to the gal-
- ↑ The facts in this article are in general taken from the memoir of Kirkaldy of Grange by Mr Graham Dalyell, a gentleman who has been so minute in his investigations that it would be difficult to find a fact of importance omitted by him.
