which were excellent. But the judges gave the preference to a wine marked

Ce vin d'Ecosse

Merite quelque chose; which was found to have been prepared according to the following receipt: "For a twenty pint cask, five onehalf pints of white-currant juice, eleven pints of water, and twenty-eight pounds of sugar are required. Mix all in a large tub; skim the liquor well; put it in a barrel, and fill up the barrel with water and sugar (one pound of sugar to a pint of water,) as Jong as the liquor ferments; afterwards add half a bottle of whisky; then bung up the barrel. The wine will be ready for bottling by April or May."

burgh, which for many generations has been among the most celebrated of the British Empire for Learning, and the eminent Scholars it has produced. From the High School, it is presumed, Mr Elphinston went to the College of Edinburgh, as he mentions in one of his letters, a recollection from college; where, or soon after he left it, he became the tutor of Lord Blantyre. He took a pleasure in boasting of being a tutor when he was scarcely seventeen years old.— About the time he came of age he was introduced to the celebrated His

torian Carte; whom he accompanied in a tour through Holland and Brabant, and to Paris, where he remained some time an inmate in the house of his fellow-traveller and friend, received great civilities, and perfected his knowledge and practice of the French language, in which he not

PHINSTON.

From Nichols's Literary Anecdotes.

JAMES ELPHINSTON was born at Edinburgh, Dec. 6, 1721. He was the son of the Rev. William Elphinston; his mother's maiden name was Honeyman; she was the daughter of the Minister of Kinef, and the niece of Dr Honeyman, bishop of Orkney. By the marriage of his sister with the late William Strachan, Esq. the King's Printer, he was uncle to the Rev. Dr George Strachan, vicar of Islington,.rector of Cranham, and prebendary of Rochester; to the present Andrew Strachan, Esq. M.P. who succeeded his father as his Majesty's Printer; to the late Mrs Spottiswoode, the wife of the late John Spottiswoode, Esq. of Spottiswoode in Scotland; and to the late Mrs Johnston, the wife of the late Andrew Johnston, Esq. father of the present Gen. Johnston, and of the Lady of Sir Andrew Monro, bart.

Mr Elphinston received his education at the High School of Edin

prose and verse with the facility and elegance of the most accomplished natives. On the death of Mr Carte,

ten years after, Mr Elphinston mentioned him in the following manner to a friend: You will, I am sure, condole with me on the loss of my valuable friend Mr Carte. He was in London some weeks ago, preparing for the publication of his fourth volume. He was most cordial good company. But he breathed no less benefit to the public than to his friends. He told me, that, after finishing his history, when he could play with his time, as he phrased it, he meant to animadvert upon Lord Bolingbroke. Tho' this last must fall by his own inconsistence, what has England not lost in her Historian! and how light to me, in comparison, was a group of deaths, that crowded upon us in one morning, which separately might each have claimed a tear, but which were all swallowed up in Mr Carte's!-On Mr Elphinston's leaving France, he immediately repaired to his native country.—

friends the great character who was then rector, Dr Jortin, whose death, in 1770, was severely felt by Mr Elphinston.

6

In March 1776, he gave up his school, but continued to reside in the same house in Kensington for some time longer, employing himself in a Translation of Martial, the Proposals for publishing which he now began to circulate. He removed from Kensington in 1778; and in the same year lost his wife. His grief on that event was deep. 'Such a loss,' as Dr Johnson wrote to him on the occasion, 'lacerates the mind, and breaks the whole system of purposes and hopes. It leaves a dismal vacuity in life, that affords nothing on which the affections can fix, or to which endeavour may be directed.' It is remarkable how ingenious grief is in starting accusations of deficiency towards a beloved object torn away from all future attentions. In a letter to his nephew he says: Though I flattered myself that I was neither inattentive nor insensible to what I enjoyed, various and poignant are the regrets I now feel, when I reflect how imperfectly I promoted the happiness of her I certainly held dearest on earth, and how often I rather intended than administered the numberless assiduities indispensable to the comfort of one who composed every comfort to me. The consolation and affection he received from his friends, and the flowing in of subscriptions to his Translation of Martial, conspired to draw him from despondence and being advised to visit Scotland, he gave up his residence in London, disposed of his furniture, and in a short time set out upon his journey. In Scotland he received numberless civilities; and there was a talk among his friends of the necessity of establishing a Professorship of the Modern Languages at the University of Edinburgh, with a wish that he should fill the chair. The idea had been suggested by Mr (soon

after Sir John) Sinclair, of Ulbster. The Lord Chief Baron Montgomery; Dr Robertson, the Historiographer of Scotland; the Earl of Dalhousie, who had been Mr Elphinston's pupil; Lord Elphinston, and others, were consulted on the subject: but it fell to the ground, and in the Autumn of 1779 he returned to London, having previously given a Course of Lectures on the English Language, first at Edinburgh, and then in the Publichall of the University of Glasgow.He now published his System of Orthography, under the title of Propriety ascertained in her Picture;' and determined to support his theory by practice, to make an effort to change the whole system of Etymology for that of Analogy, to set Derivation at defiance, and create a revolution in favour of Pronunciation; or, in his own words, to make Orthography the Mirror of Orthocpy. From this time, for the rest of his life, whatever he published or wrote was committed to paper in his new mode of spelling.-Mr/Elphinston was a Quixote in whatever he judged right: in religion, in virtue, in benevolent interferences, the force of custom or a host of foes made no impression upon him; the only question with him was, should it be, or should it not be? Such a man might be foiled in an attempt, but was not likely to be diverted from one in which he thought right was to be supported against wrong. The worst that can be said of his perseverance in so hopeless a pursuit is, that it was a foible by which he injured no one but himself. Painful indeed is it to think that a man of such merit and virtue should, by a well-meant undertaking, contract means of comfort, already but too narrow: but, in Mr Elphinston's case, this pain is compensated to the observer, by contemplating the rectitude of soul and perseverance in frugality that preserved his mind untainted and unbroken. He lived upon

the

the square with the world; and, supported by conscience and temperance, health and spirits never forsook him to the last day of his life. In his sister and brother-in-law he had real friends: but the sincerity of Mr Strahan in his opinion of Mr Elphinston's scheme, and the spirit of the latter, who defended his own judgment, created a difference which at one time wore the appearance, without having the reality, of alienation, as was fully proved. Mr Strahan died in the year 1785, and bequeathed 100 pounds ayear, 100 pounds in ready money, and 20 guineas for mourning,to Mr Elphinston, who expressed himself deeply sensible of a generosity, though not then first demonstrated, never before fully known.' His sister survived her husband about a month; and by her will left her brother two hundred a year more. Noble spirits! ye have now received him in the mansions of bliss, where your generosity is unceasingly repaid with a glorious and eternal interest. If the voice of a mortal can accompany an angel thro' the everlasting gates, receive with his heavenly the earthly tribute of one who now wafts it as his pen passes along the paper that records your worth.-Mr Elphinston was no solitary being a more social or affectionate heart was never bestowed on man. Being now easy in his circumstances, he espoused a lady who, though many years younger than himself, had the discernment to appreciate the merits both of his head and heart. On the 6th of October 1785, Miss Falconar, the daughter of the Rev. James Falconar, and the niece of Bishop Fal conar, bestowed her hand upon him; and a happier marriage, as proved by an experience of four and twenty years, has seldom been celebrated. Soon after their marriage, the brother of Mr Elphinston, in a voyage to India, wrote a letter to his sister, which was to have been sent by a vessel met at sea, but he finished it too late; the

vessel was under weigh: upon this he consigned the letter to an empty bottle, which he corked, and threw overboard. It was picked up, nine months after the date of it, by some fishermen, on the coast of Normandy, near Bayeux. This circumstance, apparently trivial, proved of great importance in the life of Mr Elphinston, as it was the cause of a friendship with M. De Delleville, the Judge of the Admiralty of Bayeux, from which he received much gratification. Besides this, it appears to have afforded the celebrated St Pierre some arguments in favour of his visionary system respecting the tides.

In the year 1787 he once more visited Scotland, where he was again received with affection and respect; and, after a short stay, he returned to England, and fixed his residence at Islington; where he continued for some years, cultivating friendship by social intercourse and epistolary correspondence; and where, having preserved a large collection of letters during the space of 40 years, he amused himself in his leisure with arranging and publishing a selection of them. In the Spring of 1792, drawn by friendship, he removed from Islington to Elstre, in Hertfordshire, where his time was devoted to the same rational enjoyments; friendship, conversation, and letters; where Old Age gradually and not uneasily advanced upon him; and where, reposing on the affection, and supported by the increasing assiduity of an amiable and exemplary wife, he lingered cheerfully on the verge of eternity, prepared, if ever man was, to obey with equal cheerfulness the summons to pass it.-About three years ago the convenience of being nearer tow induced him to take a house at Hammersmith, where he continued till his death, which took place on the 8th of October 1809, in the 88th year of his age. Though he may be said to have possessed uninterrupted health,

health, yet, a few weeks previous to his dissolution, one of his legs swelled, and put on an appearance that ex. cited apprehension; but this was totally removed, and he continued well and happy during his remaining days, on the very last of which no unusual symptoms were observed to create alarm. He went to bed rather earlier than usual; but awoke in the night, and, endeavouring to sit up, found himself too feeble; on which Mrs Elphinston called in her sister, and shortly after he breathed his last, without a struggle or a pang. He was buried at Kensington; the same unwearied and never-failing attention which Mrs Elphinston had bestowed upon him for nearly a quarter of a century, continued after life; he had many years ago rather hinted than expressed a wish to her that his remains might be deposited there; the recollection was followed by a ready compliance, and he was attended thither by a number of friends who loved and revered him.-Mr Elphinston's Works were numerous: a critical investigation of them would lead to great length: most of them possess sterling merit; which, however, has been veiled by the orthographical clothing he perseveringly gave to all he wrote. He was a great Scholar, and an excellent Critic. As a Poet, his versification was sometimes flowing and smooth, at others, unharmonious, and sacrificed not only to sense, but too often to rhyme, in which he allowed no licence. As a Prose Writer, he had early habituated his pen to an inverted arrangement, which he cararried into almost every subject he touched upon; but he was seldom obscure; and at times he wrote with a simplicity which shewed that he had the choice of style; as is apparent throughout his correspondence, which is, unfortunately, published in his own analogical orthography.-But, after all, it is as a man and a Christian that he excelled; as a son, a brother, a

husband, and a father to many, though he never had children of his own, as a friend, an enlightened patriot, and a loyal subject. His manners were simple, his rectitude undeviating.' In Religion, he embraced the State Establishment to its full extent. His piety, though exemplary, was devoid of shew; the sincerity of it was selfevident; but, though unobtrusive, it became impatient on the least attempt at profaneness, and an oath he could not endure. On such occasions he never failed boldly to correct the vice whencesoever it proceeded--Mr Elphinston was middle-sized and slender in his person: he had a peculiar countenance, which perhaps would have been considered an ordinary one, but for the spirit, and intellectual emanation which it possessed. He had singularities, some of which were undoubtedly foibles. He never complied with fashion in the alteration of his clothes. In a letter to a friend in 1782, he says, Time has no more changed my heart than my dress;' and he might have said it again on the 8th of October 1809. The colour of his suit of clothes was invariably, except when in mourning, what is cal led a drab; his coat was made in the fashion that reigned, when he returned from France, in the beginning of the last century, with flaps and buttons to the pockets and sleeves, and without a cape: he always wore a powdered bag-wig, with a high toupee; and walked with a cocked hat and an amber-headed cane; his shoebuckles had seldom been changed, and were always of the same size, and he never put on boots. It must be observed, however, that be lately, more than once, offered to make any change Mrs Elphinston might deem proper: but in her eyes his virtues and worth had so sanctified his appearance, that she would have thought the alteration a sacrilege. Mr Elphinston's principal foibles originated, some in virtue itself, and others