TYTLER, Alexander Fraser (Lord Woodhouselee), son of the defender of Queen Mary, and father of the historian of Scotland, was born at Edinburgh, 4th October (old style) 1747. He was the eldest of eight children, and inherited the domestic virtues as well as the literary abilities of his admirable father, William Tytler. His mother was Anne, daughter of James Craig, Esq. of Dalnair—a woman remarkable for her feminine gifts and graces. In the home of these parents Alexander Tytler imbibed, at a very early period, those tastes which he afterwards cultivated with such singular success. His home proved, moreover, an admirable school of manners; for the defender of Queen Mary
Tytler, had gathered round himself whatever was most distin-
guished in the northern metropolis—the good and the great
of his time; and he lived at a period which may justly be
regarded as the golden age of Scottish literature.
Sent to a school at Kensington which was kept by Dr
Elphinstone, a friend of Johnson, Alexander Tytler attracted
the notice of Jortin by his skill in Latin verse, and concili-
ated the friendship of Dr Russell, a physician of Aleppo,
who was then residing in the neighbourhood of Kensington.
From him the youth acquired a taste for natural history
which never afterwards forsook him. At the age of seven-
teen he returned to Edinburgh, adopted the profession of the
law, and immediately found himself associated, as pupil
or as fellow-student, with all the men of that time who after-
wards became conspicuous in the literary annals of the
northern metropolis. These friendships never forsook him.
He was so happy as to retain to the end of life the intimacies
of his youth.
His literary and his professional career, though spread
over a considerable period of time, and attended with no
want either of variety or of success, may be briefly de-
scribed. He qualified himself to become an author on sub-
jects of such diverse interest as law, history, poetry, lan-
guage, natural science, and the belles lettres in general, by
a most studious youth, spent in domestic seclusion under
the paternal roof at Woodhouselee. Nothing that was
beautiful, whether in art or literature, was without attraction
for Alexander Tytler. At the age of twenty-three
(in 1770), he was called to the bar; but neither ambition,
nor that humbler but not less effectual spur to exertion
which a slender inheritance supplies, impelled the youthful
barrister to the laborious practice of his profession. He
loved Law, but he loved it as a science. By the advice of his
friend and patron, Henry Home, Lord Kames, he compiled a
supplementary volume to the Dictionary of Decisions, which
brought that work down to the time which was then called
"present." On this, his first undertaking of importance,
he spent four years. A further continuation of the same
work, which appeared in 1796, formed the solace of a
season of prolonged sickness and severe suffering; and a
Life of Lord Kames himself, which appeared in 1806, and
passed through more than one edition, was among the
latest of his literary efforts.
In 1786, Mr Tytler was appointed to the professorship of
Universal History and Roman Antiquities in the University
of Edinburgh; from which period, until the year 1800, he
devoted himself almost exclusively to the duties of his
office; and ten years of assiduous study were employed in
the composition and improvement of the course of lectures
which he read annually before a respectable body of students
—one of whom was the future author of Waverley. The
best known of Tytler's works (the Elements of General
History) exhibits the substance of those lectures. The
Elements, which have been translated into most of the
languages of Europe, and even into Hindoostanee, estab-
lished the fame of their author on a solid basis. The lec-
tures themselves were not published till the year 1834,
when they appeared in Murray's Family Library.
A short account of the Life and Writings of Dr John
Gregory; some papers in the Mirror and Lounger, which
were found to have been written on the blank leaves of his
sketch-book; An Account of the Origin and History of
the Royal Society; A Memoir of Robert Dundas, Lord
President of the Court of Session; and a paper on the
Vitrified Fossils of the Highlands, comprise the sum of Mr
Tytler's minor works from 1778 to 1789. In the following
year he read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh a series
of papers on translation, which he published shortly after-
wards under the modest title of an Essay on the Principles
of Translation. This performance attracted great and de-
served notice, passed through five editions, and has long
been regarded as a standard work. He also wrote a treatise
on the Law of Courts, Martial.
But it is high time to allude to the private side of this
excellent man's history, exhibiting as it does one of the
loveliest pictures which the annals of literature will be found
to supply. Happily wedded, at the age of twenty-nine, to
Ann, daughter and heiress of William Fraser, Esq. of Bel-
nain, he became the father of seven children, several of
whom attained to eminence or to literary celebrity. Ann
Fraser Tytler, his eldest daughter, at a mature period of
life, delighted the world by her inimitable stories (Mary
and Florence, Leila, &c.); Alexander, his third son,
achieved for himself no common reputation in India;
Patrick, the youngest, is the best known of any who have
ever borne Lord Woodhouselee's honoured family name.
William Fraser Tytler of Belnain, his eldest son, the late
much-respected sheriff and vice-lieutenant of Inverness-shire;
and James, his second son, now of Woodhouselee, have been
men honourable in their generation, and would have been of
those "who have left a name behind them," if the highest
public character and the most sterling private worth con-
stituted a title to the world's abiding homage. The youngest
daughter became the wife of James Baillie Fraser, Esq.
of Reelick, the well-known Eastern traveller.
In 1790 the subject of the present memoir was appointed
Judge-Advocate of Scotland; and Lord Melville, to whose
friendship he owed his advancement, subsequently raised
him to the bench of the Court of Session, where he took
his seat in the beginning of 1802, with the title of Lord
Woodhouselee. Free from academical engagements, and
placed in more than easy circumstances by the death of his
venerable father in 1792, it henceforth became his delight
to create a scene of rural and domestic bliss in his beloved
Woodhouselee. There, supremely happy in the society of
his wife and children; blessed with health, affluence, and
leisure; assiduous in the cultivation of those literary pur-
suits which formed the joy of his existence, and which had
the entire homage of his well-stored mind, refined classical
taste, and tutored understanding; given, moreover, to a
graceful hospitality, which made Woodhouselee the favourite
resort of all the most distinguished of his contemporaries
(for the delightful converse and perfect manners of its owner
was a favourite topic with his friends),—this excellent man
passed through life beloved and respected, and honoured by
all who knew him. Among his familiar and frequent guests
were Sir Walter Scott, Dugald Stewart, Henry McKenzie,
Dr Gregory (his friend and physician), Sir James Mackin-
tosh, Sydney Smith, and the Rev. Archibald Alison (father
of the historian), who afterwards became Lord Woodhouse-
lee's very feeling biographer. Many picturesque anecdotes
of these persons, as well as very lively sketches of those
bright days, are preserved in the touching reminiscences com-
mitted to writing, so late as the year 1856, by his daughter
Ann, and since published. Of his acute taste, a singular
indication is afforded by the fact, that he detected the
poetical powers of Lord Byron when, by the "Scotch Re-
viewers," they were made the subject of public ridicule.
But it is still in the bosom of his family, in the strict pri-
vacy of his home, amid the sweet charities of daily life, that
the admirable subject of this short memoir shines out in
most attractive colours. The unaffected piety of his dis-
position was ever overflowing in gratitude to the Giver of
all good for the happiness he enjoyed. Keenly alive to the
beauties of nature, he delighted in nothing so much as
fostering a like passion in his children, to the level of whose
tastes he loved to come down, and to relax his mind by
entering with almost boyish ardour into their games and
amusements. Music, in which all the family were skilled,
closed the day at Woodhouselee; and, seated at the early
supper-table with his children, together with his son
Patrick's accomplished tutor Mr John Black (author of some
pleasing poems and a Life of Tasso), he delighted to entertain the little circle with lively converse and witty anecdote; while a catch or glee, in which himself occasionally joined, concluded the happy evening. Lord Woodhouselee's tastes were all of that unambitious kind which find their fullest gratification amid the sacred charities of home. "Every evening whilst he was in town," writes his daughter Ann, "Mr Black used to assemble us in his favourite room, his library in the tower at the top of the house. The back window looked upon a little dell, through which ran the rippling burn which Leyden, whilst on a visit to Woodhouselee, addressed in a beautiful sonnet. The front window of the library commanded a most extensive view of the distant country; and in those days, when we knew my father was to be detained in town till late, we always placed a candle in the window. Often did he remark, that he never gained sight of this twinkling light through the trees of the avenue, without feeling his heart raised in gratitude to heaven for the many blessings by which he was surrounded, and the happy home to which he was returning."
"Of all my literary labours," he writes in his commonplace book, "that which affords me most pleasure, on reflection, is the edition I published of Derham's Physico-Theology." It appeared in 1799. "When engaged in that work, I had a constant sense that I was well employed, in contributing, as far as lay in my power, to those great and noble ends which this most worthy man proposed in his labours—the enforcing on mankind the conviction of an Eternal, Almighty, All-wise, and All-beneficient Author of Nature; the demonstration, in short, of that truth on which depends our greatest present happiness and our future hopes." Paley's Natural Theology had not yet appeared.
A political pamphlet, entitled, Ireland profiting by Example—of which 3000 copies were sold on the day of publication—and a Dissertation on the subject of Laura and Petrarch, are the only productions of the same prolific pen which it remains to notice. In the beginning of 1812, Lord Woodhouselee conveyed to London, and presented to the Prince-Regent, the insignia of the Bath which had been worn by his cousin, Sir J. H. Craig, governor-general of British North America, the last survivor of the Dalnair family. His description of that interview, sent to his wife on the same day, is very interesting. A baronetcy was soon after offered to him, which he declined.
Already was this excellent man conscious of a presentiment that his end was not far distant. In the beginning of winter he was prevailed upon to leave his favourite residence, and to remove to his town house—No. 65 (now 108) Prince's Street. On the 4th January 1813 he felt himself more than usually unwell; requested to have the service of the Church read to him, and solemnly blessed each one of his children before he retired to rest. Next morning he ordered his carriage, and desired that it might drive out on the road towards Woodhouselee. On coming within sight of his own grounds, he raised himself in the carriage, and his eye was observed to kindle as he looked once more upon the hills which he was so soon to leave, and which he had loved so well. The influence of the scene appeared to renew his strength, and on returning, he walked up the stairs of the house with more than usual vigour. But the excitement was momentary. He had scarcely entered his study before he sank down upon the floor, without a sigh or groan. Dr Gregory, the tried friend of half a century, was sent for; but when he arrived, it was found that medical skill was no longer of any avail.
Thus, at the age of sixty-five, died Lord Woodhouselee, one of the most accomplished gentlemen of his time. His literary performances have won for him the respect and gratitude of posterity, as, in his own day, they secured for him the admiration and applause of his contemporaries.
Few have left behind them a more fragrant memory; few have bequeathed to their children a lovelier example, or to their country a more unsullied name. In every relation of life he was admirable. He excelled in most departments of polite learning, as well as of the fine arts. He died universally beloved and regretted; and carried with him to the grave the abiding regrets of his children, and of a large circle of friends. (J. W. N.)