with Lockhart, then one of the principal writers in Blackwood's Magazine, nearly led to a duel with that gentleman, and, after a great deal of mutual abuse and misunderstanding, terminated in a duel between Scott and a friend of Lockhart's, a Mr. Christie, a London barrister. The duel was fought at Chalk farm, by moonlight, on the night of February 16, 1821. Scott fell, mortally wounded. The surviving principal in the duel and his second were tried for murder in the following April, and acquitted. After Scott's death was published a volume of his "Observations during a Journey on the Continent."—F. E.
SCOTT, John. See Eldon.
SCOTT, Sir Michael, a renowned philosopher and alleged wizard, who flourished during the first part of the thirteenth century, is supposed to have been the head of the Scotts of Balwearie in Fifeshire, though it must be admitted that there is no satisfactory evidence that this was the case. After prosecuting his studies for some time in his native country, he spent several years at Paris and at Oxford. At Padua, which in these days was celebrated for its schools of magic, he delivered lectures on astrology. He is believed to have also spent some time at Toledo and Salamanca in Spain, both famous then for their schools of black art. Michael subsequently proceeded to Germany, where he was patronized by Frederick II., a munificent and learned prince. On the death of Frederick he went to England in 1250, and after spending some time there in high favour, it is alleged, with the reigning monarch, he returned to Scotland, where he passed the remainder of his life. A Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie was one of the ambassadors in 1290 to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland, on the death of her grandfather, Alexander III. This may have been the wizard, but it is more probable that it was his son, who was sent in 1310, when an embassy was despatched to Norway, to negotiate respecting the cession of the Orkney islands. Sir Michael is believed to have died in 1291; but tradition varies concerning the place of his sepulture. Some contend for Holme Cultram in Cumberland, others for Melrose abbey. All accounts agree that his magical books were buried in his grave. Satchells, in his History of the Name of Scott, affirms that in 1629, happening to be at Burgh-under-Bowness in Cumberland, he was shown, by a person named Lancelot Scott, an extract from Sir Michael Scott's History, a work which "was never yet read through, nor never will, for no man dare it do;" that Satchells was then taken by him to the castle and shown the work, as large as the Book of Martyrs or the History of the Turks, "hanging on an iron pin;" and had also pointed out to him in the church Michael Scott's gravestone. Sir Michael was unquestionably a great scholar; but his earnest devotion to the abstruse studies of judicial astrology, alchemy, physiognomy, chemistry, and chiromancy, obtained for him the dubious reputation of a great magician. Dante mentions him in the twentieth canto of his Inferno as a renowned wizard; Boccaccio and other early Italian writers speak of him in the same character; and Mirandola makes a severe attack upon him in his book against astrology. Bishop Lesley states that Michael was celebrated for his knowledge of curious philosophy, astronomy, and medicine, as well as of magic. His memory is still preserved in Scotland in many a legendary tale, and the account of the opening of his grave in the Lay of the Last Minstrel has contributed not a little to revive and to perpetuate the fame of the great wizard. The works ascribed to Scott are the following—"Avicennam de Animalibus, ex Arabico in Latinum transtulit;" "De Procreatione et Hominis Phisionomia, Opus," 1477; "Quæstio curiosa de Natura Solis et Lunæ," Strasbourg, 1622; "Mensa Philosophica," Leipsic, 1603, translated into English under the title of the "Philosopher's Banquet," 1633.—J. T.
SCOTT, Michael, author of "Tom Cringle's Log," was born in Glasgow in 1789, and was educated first at the high school, and afterwards at the university, of his native city. In 1806, in his seventeenth year, he was sent to Jamaica, where he was employed in the management of several estates until 1810, when he joined a mercantile house in Kingston. With the exception of a visit to his native country in 1817-18, when he married, Mr. Scott remained in Jamaica until 1822, when he finally returned home, and became permanently resident in his native city. The publication of the work which has preserved his memory did not take place, however, till 1829. During his residence in Jamaica his business led him often to visit the adjacent islands, and the Spanish main. In this way he acquired that knowledge of West Indian scenery and character, as well as of sea life, which he has so powerfully delineated in "Tom Cringle's Log." That brilliant tale appeared originally in Blackwood's Magazine, and was afterwards published as a separate work in two volumes. It obtained a wide circulation both in this country and on the continent. The author carefully preserved his incognito; and it was not until his death in 1835 that the secret was fully made known even to his publishers.—J. T.
SCOT, Reginald or Reynold, one of the earliest of our writers on agriculture, and the courageous assailant of a belief in witchcraft, was a younger son of Sir John Scot of Scot's Hall, near Smeeth in Kent, and was born some time in the first half probably of the sixteenth century. He received his later education at Hart hall, Oxford, which he left, without taking a degree, to settle at Smeeth, where he seems to have devoted himself to study and to agriculture. He is known as the author of two works only. Of these, the earliest is entitled "A perfite platforme of a Hoppe Garden and necessarie Instructions for the making and mayntenance thereof." The earliest extant edition, dated 1578, announces the work as "newly corrected and augmented," so that there must have been at least one prior edition. It is the first treatise on the cultivation of the plant for which the author's native county has since become so celebrated, and which is said to have been introduced from Flanders into England so late as 1524. Scot's work is one of minute practical detail, and is illustrated by quaint and curious wood-cuts, representing the various operations of hop-cultivation as known to him. His second and more celebrated work, the well-known, though rare, "Discoverie of Witchcraft," appears to have been first published in 1584. Its chief object was to disabuse the public mind of a belief in the supernatural powers of witches, and to put an end to the punishment of the unhappy creatures suspected of witchcraft. Wierus, in his work De Prestigiis, published in 1564, had protested against the punishment of witches, but he took the ground that they were the victims of the devil, and admitted their possession of supernatural power. This, Scot, with a boldness wonderful in his age, emphatically denied. "My question," he says, "is not whether there be witches or none, but whether they can do such miraculous works as are imputed unto them;" and he asserts the negative with doubtless a great deal of pedantry, but with still more of courage and good sense. Scot brings to bear upon his subject not only learning and philosophical argument, but the results of personal inquiry, having taken the trouble to examine into the facts of cases of supposed witchcraft in his own district, and his reports of these are very interesting. One of the most curious sections of the volume is that devoted to a description of legerdemain as known in his day, with diagrams illustrating the performance of many conjuring tricks, some of which are still popular. Scot's work was of course fiercely attacked by learned believers in witchcraft, among them being King James I., who, in the preface to his Demonologie (first printed in 1597), states that he "wrote that book chiefly against the damnable opinions of Wierus and Scot." Scot himself died in 1599.—F. E.
SCOTT, Samuel, the best marine painter of his time in England, was born early in the eighteenth century, and died in London of the gout, October 12, 1772. The National gallery possesses two pictures by Scott—one of "Old London Bridge," in 1745, before the houses were removed; and the other of "Westminster Bridge," about 1750, the year of its completion. These pictures are not exactly marine views, but Walpole has pointed out that Scott was as successful in painting buildings as in sea-pieces. His style is simple portrait, without any attempt at effect. He was also a water-colour painter, if the art of the eighteenth century deserves the name, for its weak washed drawings, wanting both light and shade, and colour, and even accurate form. Dallaway terms him the father of the modern school of painting in water colours. Both his pictures and his drawings are very scarce. Walpole possessed several of Scott's pictures, but of small dimensions, and at the sale in 1842 the prices they realized ranged from about £3 to £7 only. William Marlow was the pupil of Scott.—(Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, &c., p. 709, ed. Wornum.)—R. N. W.
SCOT or SCOTT, Thomas, an active politician of the Civil War and Interregnum periods, born probably about the beginning of the seventeenth century, was, according to one account, the son of a small brewer, and himself carried on that trade in Bridewell precinct, afterwards becoming an attorney at Aylesbury. According to Ludlow, however, he was educated at Cambridge,
