In July, 1799, died Mr. William Curtis, the eminent writer on botany and entomology. He was the eldest son of Mr. John Curtis, of Alton, in Hampshire, a tanner, where he was born in 1746, and at the age of fourteen bound apprentice to his grandfather, an apothecary at Alton. During this period he was led to study botany by residing contiguous to the Crown Inn, and becoming acquainted with the ostler, John Lagg, a sober steady illiterate man of strong sense, who, assisted by the folio herbals of old Gerard and Parkinson, had gained so complete a knowledge of plants, that not one could be brought to himwhich he could not name without hesitation. Mr. Curtis happened to meet with Berkenhout's Botanical Lexicon; and this, with the ostler's, were almost the only books on botany which he had been able to procure during his residence at Alton. On his apprenticeship there drawing to a conclusion, his friends settled him in London, with Mr. George Vaux, surgeon, of Pudding-lane, and afterwards with Mr. Thomas Talwin, apothecary of Gracechurch-street, to whose business he succeeded. While with these gentlemen he attended St. Thomas's hospital, and the anatomical lectures there given by Mr. Else, as well as the lectures of Dr. George Fordyce, senior physician to that hospital. Dr. Fordyce, convinced of the necessity of botanical knowledge to medical students, was in the practice of accompanying his pupils into the country, near town, and instructing them in the principles of the science of botany. On these occasions Mr.Curtis assisted the doctor in demonstrating the plants which occurred; and frequently the doctor confided to him the entire task of demonstration. Mr. Curtis afterwards gave public lectures in botany, taking his pupils with him into the fields and woods in the neighbourhood of London. Nothing could be more pleasant than these excursions. At dinner time, the plants collected in the walk were produced and demonstrated; and the demonstrations were enlivened with a fund of humor natural to Mr. Curtis's disposition. He aptly connected the study of entomology with that of botany. About 1771, he published instructions for collecting and preserving insects; and, in 1772, a translation of the "Fundamenta Entomologia" of Linnæus. He was chosen demonstrator of botany to the Society of Apothecaries, and continued in that situation until finding it interfere too much with his professional duties, he resigned it.— Before this resignation took place, Mr. Curtis had become intimate with Thomas White, esq., brother of the Rev. Gilbert White, the historian of Selborne, and they jointly occupied a very small garden for the culture of British plants, near the Grange-road, at the bottom of Bermondsey-street. Here Mr. Curtis conceived the design of publishing his great work, the "Flora Londinensis," and having the good fortune to meet with an artist of uncommon talent in Mr. Kilburn, and receiving from Mr. White much valuable assistance, the Grange-road garden soon became too small for Mr. Curtis's extensive views. He took a larger piece of ground in Lambeth Marsh, where he soon formed the largest collection of British plants ever brought together into one place. But in the air of this place it became extremely difficult to preserve sea-plants, and many rare annuals required a more elevated situation. He removed his collection to spacious grounds at Brompton, where his wishes were gratified to the utmost extent of reasonable expectation, and where he continued till his death. Several years previous to this, Mr. Curtis found it incompatible with his profession, as an apothecary, to devote so much time as he wished to his favorite pursuits. He first took a partner, and soon after declined physic altogether, for and trivialis by the intrafoliaceous membrane. Many other instances of his accurate discernment might be mentioned. Mr. Curtis was no mean adept in ornithology. No bird could utter a note, whether its usual one, or that of love, or that of fear and surprise, but he could from the sound determine from what species it proceeded. He often regretted that he had not the power of imparting this knowledge. His skill in this particular enlivened many a herborization in waste wilds and embarrassing woods. In Entomology few men have observed more: it is only to be regretted that he committed so little to paper. He was so familiar with the motions of insects, that he could almost always declare the intent of those busy and seemingly playful actions in which they were so perpetually employed. natural history, and had nothing to depend upon for a livelihood but the precarious profits of his botanic garden and his pubfications. His Flora Londinensis was an object of universal admiration; and on this he bestowed unwearied care. But, with all its unrivalled merit, the number of copies sold scarcely ever exceeded three hundred. He disdained to have recourse to artifice and increased price to enable him to carry on the sale; but, in 1787, he projected the plan of his "Botanical Magazine," and what the sterling merit of his "Flora" could not accomplish, this effected. It bore a captivating appearance, was so easily purchaseable, and was executed with so much taste and accuracy, that it at once became popular; and, from its unvaried excellence, continued to be a mine of wealth to him, and greatly contributed to increase his botanical fame.-The mode of publication adopted in the Botanical Magazine held out a tempting lure to similar productions, and occasioned the "English Botany" of Dr. Smith and Mr. Sowerby.scious of great and various powers, it runs Unfortunately, Mr. Curtis considered the publication of this work as an act of hostility against himself, and this prevented him from communicating with Dr. Smith and even with the Linnæan Society, of which he was one of the oldest members, and where he had many personal friends. He was gratified with the friendship of Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Dryander, Dr. John Sims, to whom he committed memoirs of his life, and the most eminent naturalists of the age. Mr. Curtis abounded in innocent mirth; and his constant good humor gaye a pleasant cast to every thing he said or did. Few people formed so correct an opinion of themselves. "I have no pretensions," he said, in the memoirs which he left with Dr. Sims, "to be considered as a man of letters, or of great mental powers: I know myself and my imperfections. A consciousness of my inabilities makes me diffident, and produces in me a shyness, which some have been ready to construe into pride." In discernment, as applied to objects of natural history, he had few equals. He discovered the membranous calyptra in mosses, overlooked by Dillenius; and that the violas and oxalises produce seeds all the year through, though the latter produce no petals except in the spring, the former only sparingly in the autumn. He pointed out the distinction between Poa pratensis Mr. Curtis had not received a proper education. One evil almost always arises from this defect. The untutored mind does not know how to fix itself; con from subject to subject, and never pursues any to the limit at which it is capable of arriving. Thus Mr. Curtis was perpetually forming some new design or other, without completing any. He intended that his Flora Londinensis should contain all the plants growing wild within ten miles of London; and, afterwards, others of more distant situations; but he published only 72 numbers: 70 were of the former description, and two of the latter. He issued two little tracts upon Entomology; but added nothing farther to the series, except a tract on the browntailed moth, an unpublished paper upon the Aphis, and another upon the Sphex fabulosa. He began a new illustration of the botanical terms, &c., but he did not put out above two or three numbers. When the " English Botany" became popular, he thought to counteract the injury (as he thought it) of that work, by giving diminished figures of the plates of his Flora Londinensis; but did not proceed beyond a few numbers. His account of English grasses was not carried on to the end which he originally proposed. The only work to which he steadily adhered was his "Botanical Magazine.” Here he found an estatee. Every thing depended upon the regularity of the publication in all its points: he was compelled to punctuality; and he continued it punctually. His versatility was the consequence of what in his case, and from the circumstances of his family, was July 5. [To Mr. Hone.] unavoidable, an incorrect education. The THE "BLOODY HALL" OF BUCCLEUGH. affluent may profit from remarks of this kind, and do their duty, by giving their children not half finished and superficial, but regular and solid education. Mr. Curtis was the first botanist of note in this country who applied botany to the purposes of agriculture. Although, as has been before stated, Mr. Curtis's education was very confined, he had acquired some taste. Elegance and neatness pervaded whatever he took in hand. The form of his mind was portrayed in his garden, his library, his aviary; and even a dry "Catalogue of plants in the London Botanic Garden" became from his pen an amusing and instructive little volume. His delicacy never forsook him; nor would he willingly adopt the coarse vulgar names of some of the elder botanists, though sanctioned by the authority of Linnæus himself. In short, Mr. Curtis was an honest, laborious, worthy man; gentle, and humane, kind to every body; a pleasant companion, a good master, and a steady friend.* Fore Street, June 1, 1830. Sir,-The following anecdote was related to me by a very respectable old lady. It is well known in the neighbourhood of the occurrence it refers to, and may perhaps be considered worthy of a place in the Year Book. In the month of July, or August, 1745, a regiment of Highlanders, marching through Nithsdále, became jealous or suspicious of the principles of the duke of Buccleugh; and, as they came within view of his castle, they unanimously determined to learn his opinions. They hurried onward to the gate of the edifice, and, finding no resistance, passed the threshold, and drew up in the castle yard. The command was given to search for the duke, and every passage and every room was immediately traversed by the soldiers, to no effect; he had made his escape from the rear, unobserved, and had by that time distanced the castle some miles. It was now manifest that he adhered to the Hanover party, and, under their disappointment, they testified their sense of his grace's defection by driving a considerable number of oxen and sheep from the park into the large and magnificent hall of the castle, where they slew them, and made each other welcome with feast and revelry at the duke's expense. Some of the sheep were even taken up stairs, into the ballroom, and were there butchered; the blood spread over the apartment till it found its way down the stairs, and, in short, at their departure, the whole interior of the mansion bore the appearance of a common slaughter-house. The heads, skins, and offal, of the slain animals, were left scattered all over the place. Some of the blood still stains the boards in a passage leading to the hall, and, it is said, cannot possibly be cleansed away. It is even reported that the boards of the floor have been actually replaced to no purpose, for no sooner are new ones laid down than the blood appears as plainly as before. But certain it is that from that time the place has been called the Bloody Hall: to this day it bears that appellation. Besides indulging in riotous feasting, and drinking the liquors from the cellars, in this adventure, the highlanders cut, and, in some instances, destroyed with their DUKES OF QUEENSBERRY--QUEENSBERRY HOUSE, EDINBURGH-DRUMLANRIG CASTLE, &C. On the 6th of July, 1711, died in London, James, the second duke of Queensberry, a nobleman of distinguished abilities, and holding great appointments during the eventful times in which he lived. There are particulars concerning him and his family of no common interest. This James, the second duke, was son of William the first duke of Queensberry, who built Queensberry-house, near the foot of the Canongate, Edinburgh, a stupendous heavy looking mansion, which originally had very fine internal decorations, but these were sold and dispersed with the furniture many years ago. Mr. Chambers who mentions this, with many of the particulars about to be related, says, that Queensberry-house stands upon ground which unaccountably, without the following explanation, forms part of the county of Dumfries. Duke William, who erected the building, was lord-lieutenant of Dumfries-shire, and in that capacity his personal presence was frequently required within that county, while his ministerial duties in Edinburgh no less imperatively demanded his residence in the neighbourhood of the court. He had the omnipotence of the legislature at his command, and by that means procured the site of the house in the Canongate to be considered as part of the county of Dumfries. He thus put Mahomet to shame; for, finding it impossible to go to Dumfries-shire, he brought Dumfriesshire to him. Queensberry-house, Edinburgh, was occasionally visited by the family about the middle of the last century. The great Earl of Stair died in it in May 1747. The mansion was at one period divided, and the different portions were occupied by the families of the earl of Glasgow and the duke of Douglas, whose servants used to quarrel so violently, on account of their jarring interests and conflicting duties, that the two noble inhabitants were frequently afraid of the house being set on fire about their ears. The last duke William, who scarcely ever possessed it himself, gave the use of it gratuitously to sir James Montgomery, lord chief baron of the exchequer, who lived in it for a considerable time. The garden behind the house was for many years let to a gardener. People paid sixpence and were allowed to eat as many gooseberries as they could. The gudewife, who gave admittance, after receiving her fee, always said-' Now, eat as muckle as ye like; but pouch nane!' The house was at last sold by the duke to William Aitchison, of Drummore, esq., for a paltry sum, the greater part of which the purchaser afterwards got for the marble decorations, and other spoils of the mansion, which he brought to public sale. He intended to convert the property into a distillery; but, changing his mind, he afterwards sold it to Government for a greater sum than that which he originally gave for it; and it was then converted into a barrack. At present (1825) it is partly occupied as a fever hospital, and is advertised for sale. William, the first duke of Queensberry, further testified his taste in building, by the erection of that splendid edifice Drumlanrig Castle. Yet he grudged the expense of this great work so much, that he wrote, upon the bundle of accounts, "The de'il pike out his een that looks herein." He slept only one night at Drumlanrig; when, having been taken ill, he could make nobody hear him, and had nearly died for want of attendance. He lived ever after, when in the country, at Sanquhar Castle, a smaller but more convenient mansion. Duke William raised his family from comparative obscurity, to wealth and distinction, by parsimony and politics. During the reign of Charles II. he held many important offices, which were continued to him upon the accession of James II., when he had more power in the administration than any other man in Scotland. He was high treasurer of Scotland, governor of Edinburgh Castle, lord commissioner for his majesty in parliament, and, in 1686, ap pointed president of the privy council; but, not complying with the king's wishes to abolish the penal laws against popery, he was deprived of all his public employments the same year, and retired to the country. When the Prince of Orange landed he was struck with the utmost terror; and his wealth being nearest to his heart, he wrote to a friend, enquiring after some secluded spot in Cumberland, where he might safely deposit his plate. However, he resumed his courage, and was one of those Scottish noblemen who waited upon the prince to request him to undertake the administration of affairs. Submitting in every thing to the new government for policy's sake, he accepted the office of an extraordinary Lord of Session at the hands of king William, while he remained at heart a Jacobite. He died at Queensberry-house in 1695. Before the death of duke William, his son James, afterwards second duke of Queensberry, obtained several offices under the new government, which he assisted in establishing. He had been appointed a privy counsellor of Scotland by Charles II., and made a lieutenantcolonel of the army; but resigned his employments under James II. in 1688. King William received him with peculiar regard-presented to him a commission of captain of his Dutch Guard-restored him to the posts he had before heldmade him a lord of the bed-chamberappointed him to an important military situation in Scotland-conferred on him the office of a lord of the treasury-permitted him to vote in the House of Lords as a Scotch peer, while his father was living-and named him lord high treasurer of Scotland. At his father's death, he resigned all his military employments, received the order of the garter, and was made lord privy seal, an extraordinary lord of session, and sat for two sessions as lord high commissioner, as he did afterwards under queen Anne. He was deprived of his places in 1704; but, in the following year, was again at the head of the treasury, and made lord of the privy seal in the exchequer. He was one of the commissioners of the Union, which he was chiefly instrumental in procuring, and, being honored with public thanks from both kingdoms, he was elected one of the sixteen peers to represent Scotland. On his return to London he was met by a cavalcade of noblemen and gentlemen, and conducted to his house by forty coaches and four hundred horsemen. The next day he waited upon queen Anne, at Kensington, where he was received with distinction. He shortly afterwards received the English titles of duke of Dover, marquis of Beverley, and baron of Rippon-titles limited to lord Charles, his grace's second son, with a pension of £3000, charged upon the post office. From 1710 until his death he was one of the secretaries of state for the United Kingdom; and, jointly with lord Dartmouth, keeper of the signet. He married Mary, the fourth daughter of Charles Boyle, lord Clifford, eldest son of Richard, earl of Burlington and Cork, and of Jane, daughter and co-heir of William Seymour, duke of Somerset. When the vice-regal duties of lord high commissioner called James, the second duke of Queensberry, to Edinburgh, he constantly resided in the house at the Canongate, against which edifice the fury of the populace was often directed during those proceedings by which the duke achieved the union. Connected with Queensberry-house there is an awful tale of mystery and horror. His grace's eldest son James was an idiot of the most unhappy sort, rabid and gluttonous, and early grew to an immense height. In the familyvault at Durisdeer his unornamented coffin, of great length, is still to be seen. While the family resided in Edinburgh, this monstrous and unfortunate being was always kept confined in a ground apartment, in the western wing of the house; and till within these few years the boards still remained by which the windows of the dreadful receptacle were darkened, to prevent the idiot from looking out, or being seen. On the day the union was passed, all Edinburgh crowded to the Parliament close, to await the issue of the debate. The populace were eager to mob the chief promoters of the measure on their leaving the house. The whole household of the Commissioner went en masse, with perhaps a somewhat different object; and, among the rest, was the man whose duty it was to watch and attend "Lord Drumlanrig." Two members of the family alone were left behind, the madman and a little kitchen-boy who turned the spit. The insane creature hearing every thing unusually still around-the house being completely deserted, and the Canongate like a city of the dead--and observing his keeper to be absent, broke loose from his confinement, and roamed wildly |