‘As a popular sketch of an intensely popular theme, Mr. Geddie’s contribution to the “Famous Scots Series” is most excellent.’
‘It may be predicted that lovers of romantic literature will re-peruse the old ballads with a quickened zest after reading Mr. Geddie’s book. We have not had a more welcome little volume for many a day.’
‘One of the most delightful and eloquent appreciations of the ballad literature of Scotland that has ever seen the light.’
‘The author has certainly made a contribution of remarkable value to the literary history of Scotland. We do not know of a book in which the subject has been treated with deeper sympathy or out of a fuller knowledge.’
‘Professor Herkless has made us all his debtors by his thorough-going and unwearied research, by his collecting materials from out-of-the-way quarters, and making much that was previously vague and shadowy clear and distinct.’
‘This volume is ably written, is full of interest and instruction, and enables the reader to form a conception of the man who in his day and generation gave his life for Christ’s cause and kingdom.’
‘In selecting Professor Herkless to prepare this addition to the “Famous Scots Series” of books, the publishers have made an excellent choice. The vigorous, manly style adopted is exactly suited to the subject, and Richard Cameron is presented to the reader in a manner as interesting as it is impressive.... Professor Herkless has done remarkably well, and the portrait he has so cleverly delineated of one of Scotland’s most cherished heroes is one that will never fade.’
‘This little book is full of insight and knowledge, and by many picturesque incidents and pithy sayings it helps us to understand in a vivid and intimate sense the high qualities and golden deeds which rendered Sir James Simpson’s strenuous life impressive and memorable.’
‘It is indeed long since we have read such a charmingly-written biography as this little Life of the most typical and “Famous Scot” that his countrymen have been proud of since the time of Sir Walter.... There is not a dull, irrelevant, orsuperfluouspage in all Miss Simpson’s booklet, and she has performed the biographer’s chief duty—that of selection—with consummate skill and judgment.’
‘The narrative throughout is well balanced, and the biographer has been wisely advised in giving prominence to her father’s great achievement—the introduction of chloroform—and what led to it.’
‘The most notable feature of Professor Blaikie’s book—and none could be more commendable—is its perfect balance and proportion. In other words, justice is done equally to the private and to the public life of Chalmers, if possible greater justice than has been done by Mrs. Oliphant.’
‘No one can read the admirable and vivid sketch of his life which Dr. Blaikie has written without feeling admiration for the man, and gaining inspiration from his example.’
‘This is one of the best volumes of the excellent “Famous Scots Series,” and one of the fairest and most discriminating biographies of Boswell that have ever appeared.’
‘It is the admirable manner in which the very complexity of the man is indicated that makes W. Keith Leask’s biography of him one of peculiar merit and interest.... It is not only a life of Boswell, but a picture of his time—vivid, faithful, impressive.’
‘Mr. W. K. Leask has approached the biographer of Johnson in the only possible way by which a really interesting book could have been arrived at—by way of the open mind.... The defence of Boswell in the concluding chapter of his delightful study is one of the finest and most convincing passages that have recently appeared in the field of British biography.’
‘It is impossible to read the pages of this little work without being struck not only by its historical value, but by the fairness of its criticism.’
‘The book is written in a crisp and lively style.... The picture of the great novelist is complete and lifelike. Not only does Mr. Smeaton give a scholarly sketch and estimate of Smollett’s literary career, he constantly keeps the reader in conscious touch and sympathy with his personality, and produces a portrait of the man as a man which is not likely to be readily forgotten.’
‘Tobias Smollett was versatile enough to deserve a distinguished place in any gallery of gifted Scots, such as the one to which Mr. Smeaton has contributed this clever and lifelike portrait.’
‘The writer has given us in brief compass the pith of what is known about an able and patriotic if somewhat dogmatic and impracticable Scotsman who lived in stormy times.... Mr. Omond describes, in a clear, terse, vigorous way, the constitution of the Old Scots Parliament, and the part taken by Fletcher as a public man in the stormy debates that took place prior to the union of the Parliaments in 1707. This part of the book gives an admirable summary of the state of Scottish politics and of the national feeling at an important period.’
‘Unmistakably the most interesting and complete story of the life of Fletcher of Saltoun that has yet appeared. Mr. Omond has had many facilities placed at his disposal, and of these he has made excellent use.’
‘Mr. Omond has told the story of Fletcher of Saltoun in this monograph with ability and judgment.’
‘In brief compass, Sir George Douglas gives us skilfully blended together much pleasantly written biography and just and judicious criticism.’
‘It need not be said that to every one interested in the literature of the first half of the century, and especially to every Scotsman so interested, “The Blackwood Group” is a phrase abounding in promise. And really Sir George Douglas fulfils the promise he tacitly makes in his title. He is intimately acquainted not only with the books of the different members of the “group,” but also with their environment, social and otherwise. Besides, he writes with sympathy as well as knowledge.’
‘A worthy addition to the “Famous Scots Series” is that of Norman Macleod, the renowned minister of the Barony of Glasgow, and a man as typical of everything generous and broadminded in the State Church in Scotland as Thomas Guthrie was in the Free Churches. The biography is the work of John Wellwood, who has approached it with proper appreciation of the robustness of the subject.’
‘Its general picturesqueness is effective, while the criticism is eminently liberal and sound.’
‘It is one of the great merits of Mr. Wellwood’s book that it is wholly free from dulness. His attention once secured, the reader is carried irresistibly along till he has finished the whole of the fascinating story.’
‘Mr. Wellwood is in thorough sympathy with his hero, and has given us in this little volume a graphic and picturesque sketch of him.’
‘Mr. Saintsbury’s miniature is a gem of its kind.... Mr. Saintsbury’s critique of the Waverley Novels will, I venture to think, despite all that has been written upon them, discover fresh beauties for their admirers.’
‘A fresh and charming biography.’
‘Apart from Lockhart, we do not know any one who has given a better picture of Scott than Mr. Saintsbury, and there is no sounder and more comprehensive estimate of his work.’
‘The little volume is bright, informative reading, and is a worthy addition to a capital and much-needed series.’
‘Mr. Barbé’s sketch sticks close to the facts of his life, and these are sought out from the best sources and are arranged with much judgment, and on the whole with an impartial mind.’
‘A conscientious and thorough piece of work, showing wide and accurate knowledge.’
‘This scholarly monograph seeks to unravel the seeming contradictions of a great career, as well as to show that Kirkcaldy of Grange was a sincere patriot.’
‘Mr. Barbé has put together a very instructive and interesting account of his career.’
‘One of the most interesting of the “Famous Scots” Series is devoted to “Robert Fergusson” the poet, to whom “the greater Robert,” as he freely acknowledged, was under so many obligations. Dr. Grosart is perhaps the best living authority on all that relates to the bard of “The Farmer’s Ingle,” and he gives many new facts and corrects a number of erroneous statements that have hitherto obtained currency respecting him. We have read it with genuine pleasure.’
‘It is a creditable, useful, and painstaking book, a genuine contribution to Scottish literary history.’
‘The little volume is a thoroughly competent piece of work, and forms a valuable addition to an excellent series.’
‘The book will be welcomed as a worthy addition to that wonderfully entertaining and instructive series of biographies, the “Famous Scots.”
‘A just appreciation of Thomson as poet and dramatist, and an interesting record of the conditions under which he rose to fame, as also of his friendships with the great ones of the eighteenth century.’
‘The story of Thomson’s claim to the disputed authorship of “Rule Britannia” is sustained by his countryman with spirit, and in our judgment with success.’
‘The book is one which every lover of Thomson will welcome, and which students of poetry cannot well afford to neglect.’
‘This is one of the compactest and best written volumes of the useful series of biographies to which it belongs.’
‘We owe to Mr. Maclachlan not only a charming life-story, if at times a pathetic one, but a vivid chapter in the romance of Africa. Geography has no more wonderful tale than that dealing with the unravelling of the mystery of the Niger.’
‘Mr. Maclachlan recounts with incisive vigour the story of Mungo Park’s heroic wanderings and the services which he rendered to geographical research.’
‘It is a thrilling story, powerfully told, of one of Scotland’s noblest sons.’
‘Mungo Park has his record here summarised in such a manner as to win, inform, and delight.’
‘The little book is a virile recruit of the “Famous Scots Series.”’
‘This monograph is both picturesque and critical.’
‘To the many students of philosophy in Scotland a special interest will attach to Professor Calderwood’s sketch of David Hume from the fact that it is the last piece of work done by its lamented author; and very pleasing it is to note the fairness and charity of the judgment passed by the most evangelical of philosophers upon the man who used to be denounced as the prophet of infidelity.’
‘Fulfils admirably well the purpose of the writer, which was that of presenting in clear, fair, and concise lines Hume and his philosophy to the mind of his countrymen and of the world.’
‘This biography is well written, and it will no doubt be considered, as it really is, one of the best of the “Famous Scots Series.”’
‘Mr. Smeaton looks narrowly into the characteristics of Dunbar’s genius, and does well to insist on the almost Shakespearian range of his gifts. He contends that in elegy, as well as in satire and allegory, Dunbar’s place in English literature is amongst the great masters of the craft of letters.’
‘This is a bright and picturesquely written monograph, presenting in readable form the results of the critical research undertaken by Laing, Schipper, and the other scholars who during the present century have done so much for the elucidation of the greatest of our early Scottish poets.’
‘A graphic and informed account not only of the man and his works, but of his immediate environment and of the times in which he lived.’
‘The book is an admirable biography, one of the liveliest and most readable in the series.’
‘Mr. Murison is to be congratulated on this little book. After much hard and discriminative labour he has pieced together by far the best, one might say the only rational and coherent, account of Wallace that exists.’
‘Professor Murison has acquitted himself of his task like a patriot.’
‘Capital reading.’
‘A scholarly and impartial little volume, one of the best yet published in the “Famous Scots Series.”’
‘A bright little book which will be much relished north of the Tweed, and also among those Scottish exiles who are supposed to be pining away their lives south of it.’
‘Anyhow, here, at least, we have his life-story—a most difficult tale to tell—recorded with a painstaking research and in a spirit of appreciative candour which leave almost nothing to be desired.’
‘The portrait, drawn as it is by a loving hand, is absolutely photographic in its likeness, and the literary criticisms with which the book is pleasantly studded are alike careful and judicious, and with most of them the ordinary reader will cordially agree.’
‘This little book is sure to get a welcome.’
‘Sense and sensibility are in these pages, as well as knowledge and delicate discrimination.’
‘Certainly one of the most charming biographies we have ever come across. The writer has style, sympathy, distinction, and understanding. We were loth to put the book aside. Its one fault is that it is too short.’
‘One of the most charming sketches—it is scarcely a biography—of a literary man that could be found has just been published as the latest number of the “Famous Scots Series”—“R. Louis Stevenson,” by Miss Black. The excellence of the little book lies in its artless charm, in its loose and easy style, in its author’s evident love and delight in her subject.’
‘A model of sympathetic appreciation and of succinct and lucid exposition.’
‘Professor Campbell Fraser’s volume on Thomas Reid is one of the most able and valuable of an able and valuable series. He supplies what must be allowed to be a distinct want in our literature, in the shape of a brief, popular, and accessible biography of the founder of the so-called Scottish School of Philosophy, written with notable perspicuity and sympathy by one who has made a special study of the problems that engaged the mind of Reid.’
‘We do not know any volume of the “Famous Scots Series” that deserves or is likely to receive a heartier welcome from the educated public than this life and estimate of Reid by Professor Campbell Fraser. The writer is no amateur, but a past-master in the subject of Scottish philosophy, and it has evidently been a real pleasure to him to expiscate quite a number of new facts regarding the professional and private life of its best representative.’
‘The little work is of high excellence—comprehensive in view, dear in exposition, and exemplary in literary style.’
‘Mr. Campbell Fraser has added to the “Famous Scots Series” an excellent little book on Reid and his philosophy, dealing lucidly with the philosopher’s relations with contemporary thinkers and with modern thought.’
‘One of the most artistically conceived and gracefully written of the series to which it belongs.’
‘The facts of the two lives are presented by Miss Masson with intelligence and spirit, and the volume will take a good place among the rest of the series.’
‘This little book is written with brains and a degree of courage which is in keeping with its convictions. It has vision, too, and that counts for righteousness, if anywhere, in political economy.’
‘Smith’s life is briefly and clearly told, and there is a good deal of independent criticism interspersed amidst the chapters on the philosopher’s two principal treatises. Mr. Macpherson’s analysis of Smith’s economic teaching makes excellent reading.’
‘One of the best of an admirable series.’
‘I have learned much from your sketch of Adam Smith’s life and work. It presents the essential facts in a lucid and interesting way. Especially am I glad to see that you have insisted upon the individualistic character of his teaching. It is well that his authority on the side of individualism should be put forward in these days of rampant Socialism, when the great mass of legislative measures extend public agency and restrict private agency; the advocates of such measures being blind to the fact that by small steps they are bringing about a state in which the citizen will have lost all freedom.’
‘A sound and able piece of work, and contains a fair and discerning estimate of Smith in his essential character as the author of the doctrine of Free Trade, and consequently of the modern science of economics.’
‘The story is well told, and it takes one through a somewhat obscure period with which it is well to be acquainted. No better guide could be found than Mr. Morison.’
‘The great aspects of his career as Principal of Glasgow and then of St. Andrews—it has been said that the European renown of the Scottish Universities began with Melville—are admirably discussed in this virile, and at the same time critical monograph.’
‘Mr. Morison outlines the main facts of Melville’s life-work with singular lucidity and point. He displays a full and accurate knowledge of the ecclesiastical history of the period, and his judgments are invariably sound. Altogether the book is one of the best of the series.’
‘Mr. Morison writes with full knowledge of Scottish history, and also with what is equally important, perfect sympathy with the strong men who made it.’
‘Mr. Morison has told Melville’s story with a care for accurate history.’
‘Ferrier the man, and even Ferrier the professor, Miss Haldane brings near to us, an attractive and interesting figure.’
‘His splendid and transcendental thought and fine eloquence were so inspiring and stimulating, and his personal charm was so fascinating, that a study of the man must engage the sympathies of every student. The author, who is already known for admirable work in the philosophical field, has written an excellent exposition of Ferrier’s views.’
‘Professor Murison has given us a book for which not only Scots, but every man who can appreciate a record of great days worthily told will be grateful.’
‘The story of Bruce is brilliantly told in clear and flexible language, which draws the reader on with the interest of a novel. Professor Murison is a most impartial and thoroughly reliable critic, and may be followed with confidence by all who desire a truthful and unprejudiced picture of this greatest of the Scots.’
‘A worthy, as it is a necessary, addition to an admirable series.’
‘He has sifted for himself State records, official papers, old chronicles, and has come to his own conclusions without the aid of modern historians. Therein lies the value of the book: it is a fresh, independent, critical estimate of a man who emancipated Scotland from a thraldom which was almost worse than death. Bruce’s career from first to last is described in these pages with uncompromised fidelity, and no attempt is made to gloss over the faults of a masterful nature.’
‘Professor Murison has given us a book for which not only Scots, but every man who can appreciate a record of great days worthily told, will be grateful.’
‘Sir George Douglas has contributed a gracefully written and well-knit biography of the Ettrick Shepherd to the “Famous Scots” Series. It follows in a spirit of kindly criticism the steps of Hogg through the shadow and sunshine, the failures and successes of his career, from the hillsides of Yarrow and Ettrick to the more slippery places of the world of literature, and back again to the solitude of the forest; and it gives us judicious and sympathetic appreciations of his work in prose and in verse, much of it already fallen into unmerited neglect.’
‘A capital biography—full, careful, discriminating, and sympathetic.’
‘The story of James Hogg’s manly, honourable battle with poverty, and of his literary achievement, is excellently told by Sir George Douglas.’
‘The book is accurate, and must have cost research, but it is written in a pleasant gossipy manner, quite as if Hogg had flung the flavour of Hogg’s writings over his biographer.’
‘We have no hesitation in saying that this valuable and interesting volume will be welcomed by the Scots people as heartily as any that have preceded it.’
‘A very useful, compact, well-digested, and well-written account of Campbell’s career and literary labours.’
Transcriber’s NoteIrregular or archaic spelling and irregular hyphenation are retained. Minor changes to punctuation, in the index and in section headings, have been made without comment.Footnotes have been moved to the end of the book.In the Daily Chronicle’s review of SIR JAMES YOUNG SIMPSON, by Eve Blantyre Simpson, “superflous” has been changed to “superfluous”.
Irregular or archaic spelling and irregular hyphenation are retained. Minor changes to punctuation, in the index and in section headings, have been made without comment.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the book.
In the Daily Chronicle’s review of SIR JAMES YOUNG SIMPSON, by Eve Blantyre Simpson, “superflous” has been changed to “superfluous”.