MARK ALEXANDER, a remarkable scholar and soldier, son of Robert Boyd of Pinkell in Ayrshire, and grandson of Robert Boyd, great chamberlain of Scotland, was born 13th January 1562. He lost his father in early life, and was educated by his uncle the learned James Boyd of Trochrig, "Tulchan," archbishop of Glasgow. His temper, however, was so violent that he soon quarrelled with his teachers, and abandoning his studies altogether, sought preferment at the court. Among the wildest spirits of that stormy period, the intolerable fierceness of his temper made it convenient for him to retire from Scotland and seek his fortune in France. He reached Paris with a small stock of money, which he soon lost in gaming. From Paris he went to Orleans, where he studied civil law under Robertus. The fame of Cujas next attracted him to Bourges. From Bourges he was driven by the plague to Lyons, and thence to Italy. On returning to France he was engaged to instruct a young nobleman, with whom, when the wars of the League broke out, he joined the Catholic party, though himself a Protestant. When the campaign terminated in 1588, he went to Toulouse and resumed his legal studies, which were speedily interrupted by an outbreak of bigotry on the part of the inhabitants, who, taking him for a Protestant, seized and threw him into prison. On his release he withdrew to Bordeaux. Till 1595 he led an unsettled life, sometimes studying, more frequently engaged in war. He found time, however, in 1592 to publish at Antwerp a volume of Latin poems, which he dedicated in a fulsome preface to James VI. He ultimately retired to his birthplace, where he died April 10, 1601. The best of his writings are the Epistolae Heroïdum, and the Hymni, which are to be found in the Delicia Poetarum Scotorum, Amsterdam, 1637, tom. i. p. 142. The diction of his poems, though copious, is far from being classical, and his sentiments, sometimes lofty and noble, are more frequently coarse and impure. The finest of his poetical pieces is that entitled The Tears of Venus on the Death of Adonis. The MSS. of his unpublished works are preserved in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh.

Zachary, a learned and pious clergyman of the Scottish Church, was born towards the end of the sixteenth century, and died in 1653 or 1654. He was for many years regent in the college of Saumur in France, but returned to his native country in 1621, to escape the persecution of the Protestants. In 1623 he was appointed minister of the Barony church in Glasgow, and held the office of rector of the university in the years 1634, 1635, and 1645. To his munificence the university is mainly indebted for the erection of its present buildings. Besides his library and MSS., he bequeathed to it the half of his fortune, a sum amounting to L.20,000 Scots. His bust over the gateway within the court commemorates his important benefactions. The number of his published works was considerable, and 86 of his MSS. are said to be preserved in the library of Glasgow College. His best known works are *The Last Battel of the Soul in Death*, 1629, of which a new edition, with a biography by Mr. Neil, was published at Glasgow in 1831; *Zion's Flowers*, 1644, the *English Academie*, and *Songs of Zion*. His poetical compositions are not without some merit, though the remarkable eccentricity of some of them has generally made them a source of amusement rather than of edification. The common statement that he made the printing of his metrical version of the Bible a condition of the reception of his grant to the university, is a mistake.