PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX AND 1899. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by WHITTEMORE, NILES, AND HALL, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART was a younger son of a Scotch clergyman, and was born in 1794 in the parish of Cambusnethan. When he was two years old his father removed to Glasgow, and in this city he passed the remaining years of his childhood. At an early age he entered the University of Glasgow, where he at once distinguished himself by his proficiency as a scholar, and by his rich promise of future eminence. In 1809, upon the presentation of the Senatus of this venerable institution, he was entered of Baliol College, Oxford. Here he fully sustained his reputation for excellent scholarship; and in 1813 he took the highest honors awarded to young men of his standing. Before the completion of his collegiate course he visited the Continent, and spent some time in Germany in studying the language and literature of that country. Upon his return to England he resumed his connection with Baliol College, and was graduated in 1817 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. After leaving Oxford he was admitted to the Scotch bar; but he soon relinquished the practice of the law for the more congenial pursuit of polite literature. Upon the commencement of Blackwood's Magazine, he became one of its ablest and most frequent contributors; and it is known that he wrote a considerable part of the Noctes Ambrosianæ. It was from the tone But and temper of his contributions to this journal that the famous quarrel arose which resulted in the death of John Scott, a friend of Charles Lamb, and at that time editor of the London Magazine. The pages of Blackwood's Magazine were from the first disfigured by gross personalities, and by sweeping abuse of every prominent person who differed with its writers upon political and literary questions. To some of these articles Scott replied with considerable asperity through the pages of his own journal. Lockhart considered himself aggrieved by the turn which the discussion took, and challenged his antagonist. in the correspondence relative to the proposed meeting, new elements were introduced, which changed it into a duel between Scott and a lawyer named Christie, Lockhart's second. The duel was fought by moonlight at Chalk Farm, famous as the scene of the bloodless encounter between Moore and Jeffrey, and Scott was mortally wounded. His opponent and the seconds were tried for wilful murder, and were acquitted. The whole transaction, however, must be regarded as a heavy stain upon Lockhart's character, since he was both the aggressor and the challenging party. In 1819 he published anonymously Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk, a series of sketches of persons of note in Scotland, written with much spirit and ability, but marked by a strong party tone. It is said that the publication of this work led to Lockhart's intimacy with Sir Walter Scott, whose eldest daughter he married in the following year. A son by this marriage, John Hugh Lockhart, was the Hugh Little-John, Esq. to whom Sir Walter dedicated the charming Tales of a Grandfather. Mrs. Lockhart died in the spring of 1837, a few years after the death of her father, and several of Lockhart's children died at an early age. His married life extended over about seventeen years, and was only clouded by these frequent bereavements. In his Life of Scott, he has given a pleasing picture of the happy |