Historical Society, from which he hoped much; but his expectations were not fully realised, and the society was dissolved twenty years after. In 1837 Tytler finally settled in London, thenceforth only visiting Scotland in the summer.
In 1839 he published ‘England under the reign of Edward VI and Mary’ (London, 8vo), which included a series of original letters illustrating the contemporary history of Europe. The original matter first published in it rendered it a work of value. In the same year (1839) Tytler wrote the article ‘Scotland’ for the seventh edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica.’ This article was afterwards enlarged and separately published. It reached a tenth edition in 1863 (Edinburgh, 8vo).
In the autumn of 1843, when the last volume of his ‘History of Scotland’ was published, he was invited by the queen to Windsor to assist Prince Albert in arranging the royal historical miniatures. He wrote for the queen a paper on the Darnley jewel, of which a few copies were printed. Next year he was granted a pension of 200l. by Sir Robert Peel for his literary services. He died at Malvern on 24 Dec. 1849, and was buried in the family vault, Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh. He was twice married: first, on 30 March 1826, to Rachel Hog of Newliston; and, secondly, on 11 Aug. 1845, to Anastasia, daughter of Thomson Bonar of Camden Place, Kent, long an intimate friend of his sisters. He left three children by his first wife: one daughter, Mary, and two sons—Alexander and Thomas Patrick—who both entered the Madras native infantry.
Besides the works already mentioned, Tytler was the author of: 1. ‘Life of Sir Thomas Craig,’ Edinburgh, 1823, 12mo (reprinted from ‘Blackwood's Magazine’). 2. ‘Historical and Critical Introduction to an Inquiry into Revival of Greek Literature in Italy.’ 3. ‘Life of King Henry VIII,’ Edinburgh, 1837. 4. ‘Letters between the Home Office, State Paper Office,’ &c., London, 1839. 5. ‘On the Portraits of Queen Mary of Scots.’
[Biographical Sketch prefixed to fourth volume of edition of History, 1864; Memoir of Patrick Fraser Tytler, by his friend, the Rev. John W. Burgon, Fellow of Oriel, 1859; and his sister Miss Anne Tytler's Reminiscences, which are largely used by Burgon.]
TYTLER, WILLIAM (1711–1792), Scottish historian, son of Alexander Tytler, writer in Edinburgh, and Jane, daughter of W. Leslie of Aberdeen, was born on 12 Oct. 1711. He was educated at the high school and university of Edinburgh, and became in 1744 a writer to the signet, the principal corporation of solicitors in Scotland. He was successful in his profession, and acquired the picturesque estate of Woodhouselee on the south of the Pentlands, still possessed by his descendants. Tytler was deeply interested in archæology and history. He joined the Select Society founded by Allan Ramsay (1713–1784) [q. v.], the painter, in 1754, and took part in its debates. Many distinguished men of letters were members of the society, and Tytler formed a close intimacy with them. He for the first time distinguished himself as an author by contributing papers to the ‘Lounger,’ among others one on the ‘Defects of Modern Female Education in teaching the Duties of a Wife’ (No. 16). His first independent work, published in 1759, was ‘The Inquiry, Historical and Critical, into the Evidence against Mary Queen of Scots, and an Examination of the Histories of Dr. Robertson and David Hume with respect to that Evidence.’ Though he had been preceded in 1754 by Walter Goodall (1706?–1766) [q. v.], his work continued, till the publication in 1809 of John Hosack's ‘Mary Queen of Scots and her Accusers,’ the most widely read of the literary productions of Mary's apologists. Tytler's work, which went through four editions, was translated into French in 1772, and again in 1860, and it was reviewed by Dr. Johnson and Smollett. He wrote a supplement on ‘the Bothwell marriage,’ published in the ‘Transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland’ in 1792. In 1783 he published ‘The Poetical Remains of James I, King of Scotland,’ and was the discoverer in a manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford of the ‘Kingis Quair,’ the authorship of which he ascribed on grounds generally accepted to that king. A recent attempt to contest this by Mr. J. T. T. Brown, Glasgow, 1896, though ingenious, is not, it is thought, successful. ‘Christ's Kirk on the Green,’ a comic ballad in a very different style, which Tytler also attributed to James, is now admitted to be of a later date.
Tytler also wrote ‘Observations on the Vision,’ a poem first published in Ramsay's ‘Evergreen,’ in which he defended Ramsay's title to its authorship; and ‘An Account of the Fashionable Amusements and Entertainments of Edinburgh in the Last Century, with the Plan of a grand Concert of Music on St. Cecilia's Day, 1695.’ He was an accomplished player on the harpsichord and on the flute, and was an original member of the Musical Society of Edinburgh. His prescription for a happy old age has been often quoted: ‘short but cheerful meals, music, and a good
