the author of the well-known tragedy of Douglas, was born in 1722 at Leith, of which place his father was town-clerk. He was educated at the grammar school of his native town, and afterwards at the University of Edinburgh. Admitted into the church in 1745, he was in the following year appointed to succeed Robert Blair, author of The Grave, as minister of the parish of Athelstaneford. Here he composed that play which has hitherto kept his name from oblivion; and which, when rejected by Garrick, was acted with splendid success on the Edinburgh stage. It is hard for the strictest purists to discover anything in this tragedy that is not perfectly consistent with the most rigid code of morals. Its appearance on the stage, however, raised a storm in the Church; and one clergyman was suspended from his office for having gone to the theatre to see it played. Home was himself threatened with deposition; and many of his friends were loaded with abuse. By the following Assembly, however, he was treated with greater lenity; and though he resigned his charge on the June following, and retired to England, it was without the stigma of ecclesiastical censure. The drama itself is not altogether that piece of empty and sonorous bombast that it is sometimes alleged to be. Its moral tone and purport are high; its plot, if not wrought out with the highest tragic skill, is at least interesting; and the diction is chaste and polished, sometimes even elegant. Home's subsequent plays of Agis, The Siege of Aquileia, The Fatal Discovery, Alonzo, and Alfred, did not enjoy even a temporary success; and his only historical work, The History of the Rebellion in Scotland in 1745-6, was hardly more fortunate. In 1762, the year in which Samuel Johnson was pensioned, Home was similarly rewarded, and to the same amount (£300 a-year), through the influence of Lord Bute. For ten years after his retirement from the church, Home lived chiefly in London. In 1767 he returned to Scotland, where he spent the remainder of his days, varying the ordinary routine of his life by annual visits to London. He died at Merchiston, near Edinburgh, in 1808, in his 86th year. The character of his only successful play has been already indicated. It only remains to add that in private life he was one of the most amiable men of his age. Though fond of the society of the great, he courted rather than shunned that of his humble friends, and it was one of his chief duties and pleasures to bring forward and encourage rising talent. Many a youth who afterwards rose to wealth and fame owed his first step in life to the good offices of the author of Douglas.

Home, Sir Everard, an eminent surgeon, was born about the year 1755. He was of Scottish extraction, and his connection with the Hunters brought him into notice at an early period of life. At one time he was held in high estimation as a surgical practitioner. He was one of the surgeons to St George's Hospital; and this circumstance, added to the publication of various works which attained a considerable share of celebrity, contributed to extend his reputation, the advantages of which he lived nearly half a century to enjoy. In 1813 he was created a baronet, and was also appointed sergeant-surgeon to the king. He died August 31, 1832, in the 77th year of his age. He was the author of Practical Observations on Stricture; Lectures on Comparative Anatomy; and of various papers in the Philosophical Transactions.