49
years had consisted of nothing more than his half-
pay.
Dr. Armstrong was much beloved and respected
by his friends for his gentle and amiable dispositions,
as well as his extensive knowledge and abilities; but
a kind of morbid sensibility preyed upon his temper,
and a languid listlessness too frequently interrupted
his intellectual efforts. With Thomson's Castle of
Indolence he is appropriately connected, both as a
figure in the piece and as a contributor to the verse.
The following is his portraiture:—
With him was sometimes joined in silent walk
(Profoundly silent—for they never spoke),
One shyer still, who quite detested talk;
Oft stung by spleen, at once away he broke,
To groves of pine, and broad o'ershadowing oak,
There, inly thrilled, he wandered all alone,
And on himself his pensive fury wroke:
He never uttered word, save, when first shone
The glittering star of eve—" Thank heaven! the day is done!"
His contributions consist of four stanzas descriptive
of the diseases to which the votaries of indolence
finally become martyrs.
The rank of Dr. Armstrong as a poet is fixed by
his Art of Preserving Health, which is allowed to be
among the best didactic poems in the language. It
is true this species of poetry was never considered
among the highest, nor has it been able to retain its
place among the tastes of a modern and more refined
age. Armstrong, however, in having improved
upon a mode of composition fashionable in his own
time, must still be allowed considerable praise.
"His style," according to the judgment of Dr. Aikin,
"is distinguished by its simplicity—by a free use of
words which owe their strength to their plainness—
by the rejection of ambitious ornaments, and a near
approach to common phraseology. His sentences
are generally short and easy; his sense clear and
obvious. The full extent of his conceptions is taken
in at the first glance; and there are no lofty mysteries
to be unravelled by a repeated perusal. What keeps
his language from being prosaic, is the vigour of his
sentiments. He thinks boldly, feels strongly, and
therefore expresses himself poetically. When the
subject sinks, his style sinks with it; but he has for
the most part excluded topics incapable either of
vivid description or of the oratory of sentiment.
He had from nature a musical ear, whence his lines
are scarcely ever harsh, though apparently without
much study to render them smooth. On the whole,
it may not be too much to assert, that no writer in
blank verse can be found more free from stiffness and
affectation, more energetic without harshness, and
more dignified without formality."
ARNOT, HUGO, a historical and antiquarian
writer of the eighteenth century, was the son of
a merchant and ship-proprietor at Leith, where he
was born, December 8th, 1749. His name originally
was Pollock, which he changed in early life for
Arnot, on falling heir, through his mother, to the
estate of Balcormo in Fife. As "Hugo Arnot of
Balcormo, Esq.," he is entered as a member of the
Faculty of Advocates, December 5, 1772, when just
about to complete his twenty-third year. Previous
to this period he had had the misfortune to lose his
father. Another evil which befell him in early life
was a settled asthma, the result of a severe cold
which he caught in his fifteenth year. As this dis-
order was always aggravated by exertion of any kind,
it became a serious obstruction to his progress at the
bar: some of his pleadings, nevertheless, were much
admired, and obtained for him the applause of the
bench. Perhaps it was this interruption of his pro-
VOL.  I.
fessional career which caused him to turn his atten-
tion to literature. In 1779 appeared his History of
Edinburgh, I vol. 4to, a work of much research,
and greatly superior in a literary point of view to
the generality of local works. The style of the
historical part is elegant and epigrammatic, with
a vein of causticity highly characteristic of the
author. From this elaborate work the author is
said to have only realized a few pounds of profit;
a piratical impression, at less than half the price,
was published almost simultaneously at Dublin, and,
being shipped over to Scotland in great quantities,
completely threw the author's edition out of the
market. A bookseller's second edition, as it is called,
appeared after the author's death, being simply the
remainder of the former stock, embellished with
plates, and enlarged by some additions from the pen
of the publisher, Mr. Creech. Another edition was
published in 8vo, in 1817.
Mr. Arnot seems to have now lived on terms of
literary equality with those distinguished literary and
professional characters who were his fellow-towns-
men and contemporaries. He did not, however, for
some years, publish any other considerable or acknow-
ledged work. He devoted his mind chiefly to local
subjects, and sent forth numerous pamphlets and
newspaper essays, which had a considerable effect in
accelerating or promoting the erection of various
public works. The exertions of a man of his public
spirit and enlarged mind, at a time when the capital
of Scotland was undergoing such a thorough reno-
vation and improvement, must have been of material
service to the community, both of that and of all
succeeding ages. Such they were acknowledged to
be by the magistrates, who bestowed upon him the
freedom of the city. We are told that Mr. Arnot,
by means of his influence in local matters, was able
to retard the erection of the South Bridge of Edin-
burgh for ten years—not that he objected to such an
obvious improvement on its own account, but only
in so far as the magistrates could devise no other
method for defraying the expense than by a tax upon
carters; a mode of liquidating it which Mr. Arnot
thought grossly oppressive, as it fell in the first place
upon the poor. He also was the means of prevent-
ing for several years the formation of the present
splendid road between Edinburgh and Leith, on
account of the proposed plan (which was afterwards
unhappily carried into effect) of defraying the expense
by a toll; being convinced, from what he knew of
local authorities, that, if such an exaction were once
established, it would always, on some pretext or
other, be kept up.
In 1785 Mr. Arnot published A Collection of
Celebrated Criminal Trials in Scotland, with Histori-
cal and Critical Remarks, I vol. 4to; a work of per-
haps even greater research than his History of Edin-
burgh, and written in the same acutely metaphysical
and epigrammatic style. In the front of this volume
appears a large list of subscribers, embracing almost
all the eminent and considerable persons in Scotland,
with many of those in England, and testifying of
course to the literary and personal respectability of
Mr. Arnot. This work appeared without a pub-
lisher's name, probably for some reason connected
with the following circumstance. Owing perhaps
to the unwillingness of the author to allow a sufficient
profit to the booksellers, the whole body of that
trade in Edinburgh refused to let the subscription
papers and prospectuses hang in their shops; for
which reason the author announced, by means of an
advertisement in the newspapers, that these articles
might be seen in the coffee-houses. Mr. Arnot re-
ceived the sum of six hundred pounds for the copies