of its most distinguished members. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society of London. His principal work, the Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste,' published in 1790, has

passed through several editions, and was translated into French. He died 17th May, 1839. His works are:

Essay on the Nature and principles of Taste. Edin. 1790, 4to. 3d. edit. 1815, 2 vols. 8vo. 4th edit. 1816, 2 vols. 8vo. A Discourse on the Fast Day, 1809, 8vo. A Thanksgiving Sermon, 1814, 8vo.

loaded cannons, at the very moment that they were fired by way of experiment, but she and the child were providentially not touched.

Like that of many other great painters, his genius for designing was discovered by accident. Being when a boy kept at home from school, on account of a burnt foot, his father seeing him one day doing nothing, reproved him for his idleness, and giving him a bit of chalk, told him to draw something with it on the floor. He accordingly

&c., and was so well pleased with his own suc

Lord Woodhouselee. Trans. Ed. R. Soc. viii. 515. 1818.

ALLAN, a name meaning, in the British, Alan, swift like a greyhound; in the Saxon, Alwin, winning all; and in the Celtic, Aluinn, when applied to mental qualities or conduct, illustrious. The primary meaning of the word, however, is sparkling or beautiful, and it is on that account the name of several rivers, particularly one in Perthshire, which waters the fertile district of Strathallan. It is the opinion of Chalmers that the Alauna of Ptolemy and of Richard of Westminster, (in his Itinera Romana, a work referable to the second

century,) was situated on the Allan, about a mile above its confluence with the Forth, so that the name has an ancient as well as a classical origin. The popular song of On the banks of Allan Water,' is supposed to refer to a smaller stream of the same name, a tributary of the Teviot. Allan is also not unfrequently a Christian name in Scotland, as Allan Ramsay.

ALLAN, DAVID, an eminent historical painter, the son of David Allan, shoremaster at Alloa, was born there on 13th February 1744. His mother, Janet Gullan, a native of Dunfermline, died a few days after his birth, and it is related of him that, when a baby, his mouth was so small that no nurse in his native place could give him suck, and a country woman being found, after some inquiry, a few miles from the town, whose breast he could take, he was, one very cold day, after being wrapped up in a basket, amidst cotton, to keep him warm, sent off to her under the charge of a man on horseback. On the road the horse stumbled, the man fell off, and the little Allan being thrown out of the basket among the snow which then covered the ground, received a severe cut on his head. While yet a mere child of little more than eighteen months old, he experienced another narrow escape from a premature death. The servant girl who had the care of him, while out with him in her arms one day in the autumn of 1745, thoughtlessly ran in front of some

was seldom afterwards out of his hand. His sense of the ludicrous was great, and he could not alHaving ways resist the propensity to satire. when about ten years of age drawn a caricature on his slate of his schoolmaster, a conceited old dominie, who used to strut about the school attired in a tartan nightcap and long tartan gown, and circulated it among the boys, it fell into the hands of the object of it, who straightway complained to Allan's father, and he was in consequence with drawn from his school. On being questioned by his father as to how he had the impudence to insult his master in such a way, he answered, “I only made it like him, and it was all for fun." In one account of his life it is stated that the first rude efforts of his genius were formed merely by a knife, and displayed a degree of taste and skill far above his years; and these having attracted the notice of Mr. Stewart, then collector of the customs at Alloa, that gentleman, when at Glasgow, mentioned the merits of young Allan to Mr. Foulis, the celebrated printer, and he was sent, on the 25th of February 1755, when eleven years of age, to the Messrs. Foulis' academy of painting and engraving at Glasgow, where he remained seven years. In the year 1764 some of his performances attracted the notice of Lord Cathcart of Shaw Park, near Alloa. At the expense of his lordship, Mr. Abercromby of Tullibody, and other persons of fortune in Clackmannanshire, to whom his talents had recommended him, among whom were Lady Frances Erskine of Mar, and Lady Charlotte Erskine, he afterwards proceeded to Italy, and studied for sixteen years at Rome. In 1775, he received the gold medal given by the academy of St. Luke, in

gances of the church of Rome of that time, which appear to have excited his sense of the ludicrous. Besides these he published four engravings, done in aquatinta by Paul Sandby, from drawings made by himself when at Rome, where, in a vein of quiet drollery, he holds up to ridicule the festivities of that city in connection with the sports of the carnival. Several of the figures were portraits of persons well known to the English who visited Rome during his stay there, and their truthfulness gave much satisfaction at the time.

His personal appearance was not in his favour. "His figure," says the author of his life in Brown's Scenery edition of the Gentle Shepherd, 1808, “was a bad resemblance of his humorous precursor of the English metropolis. He was under the middle size; of a slender, feeble make; with a long, sharp, lean, white, coarse face, much pitted by the small pox, and fair hair. His large prominent eyes, of a light colour, looked weak, near-sighted, and not very animated. His nose was long and high, his mouth wide, and both ill-shaped. His whole exterior to strangers appeared unengaging, trifling and mean. His deportment was timid and obsequious. The prejudices naturally excited by these external disadvantages at introduction, were soon, however, dispelled on acquaintance; and, as he became easy and pleased, gradually yielded to agreeable sensations; till they insensibly vanished, and were not only overlooked, but, from the effect of contrast, even heightened the attractions by which they were so unexpectedly followed. When in company he esteemed, and which suited his taste, as restraint wore off, his eye imperceptibly became active, bright and penetrating; his manner and address quick, lively, and interesting- always kind, polite, and respectful; his conversation open and gay, humorous without satire, and playfully replete with benevolence, observation, and anecdote." He resided in Dickson's close, High street, Edinburgh, where he received private pupils in his art. One of the most celebrated of his pupils was the late Mr. H. W. Williams, commonly called Grecian Williams. "The satiric humour and drollery," says Mr. Wilson, in his Memorials of Edinburgh, (vol. ii. page 40), "of his well-known 'rebuke scene' in a country church, and the lively expression and spirit of the General Assembly,' and

others of his own etchings, amply justify the character he enjoyed among his contemporaries as a truthful and humorous delineator of nature."

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As a painter,” says the author of his life already quoted, "at least in his own country, he neither excelled in drawing, composition, colouring, nor effect. Like Hogarth, too, beauty, grace, and grandeur, either of individual outline and form, or of style, constitute no part of his merit. He was no Corregio, Raphael, or Michael Angelo. He painted portraits, as well as Hogarth, below the size of life; but they are recommended by nothing save a strong homely resemblance. As an artist and a man of genius, his characteristic talent lay in expression, in the imitation of nature with truth and humour, especially in the representation of ludicrous scenes in low life. His vigilant eye was ever on the watch for every eccentric figure, every motley group, or ridiculous incident, out of which his pencil or his needle could draw innocent entertainment and mirth." He died at Edinburgh on the 6th of August 1796, in the 53d year of his age, and was interred in the High Calton buryingground. He had married in 1788 Shirley Welsh, the youngest daughter of Thomas Welsh, a carver and gilder in Edinburgh. He had five children, three of whom died in infancy. His surviving son, David, went out as a cadet to India in 1806. He also left a daughter named Barbara.-Brown's Scenery edition of the Gentle Shepherd, appendix.

ALLAN, ROBERT, a minor poet, some of whose lyrics and songs have long been popular in Scotland, was born at Kilbarchan, in Renfrewshire, 4th November, 1774. He was a handloom weaver, and all his life in humble circumstances. To relieve the tedium of his occupation he occasionally had recourse to poetry. In 1836, a volume of his poems was published by subscription, but made no great impression. The principal poem in the volume, entitled An Address to the Robin,' is written in the Scottish dialect. His most popular pieces are 'The bonny built wherry;' 'The Covenanter's Lament;' 'Woman's wark will ne'er be dune;' 'Haud awa' frae me, Donald;' and the ballad 'O speed, Lord Nithsdale.' He had a numerous family, all of whom were married except his youngest son, a portrait painter of great promise, who emigrated to the United States. Desirous of