CONTENTS. A Poem to the Memory of the Right Honourable the Lord Talbot, late Chancellor of Great Britain 82 MEMOIR OF THOMSON. BY SIR HARRIS NICOLAS. "Tutored by thee, sweet Poetry exalts With music, image, sentiment, and thoughts, JAMES THOMSON was the eldest son of the Reverend Thomas Thomson, of Ednam, in the shire of Roxburgh, at which place the Poet was born on the 11th of September, 1700. Less has been said of his parents than they merit, and from the slight manner in which they have been noticed the idea may have arisen that he was of obscure origin. His father was well descended; and his mother was Beatrix, the daughter and co-heiress of Mr. Trotter, of Fogo,* a genteel family in the neighbourhood of Greenlaw in Berwickshire. Mr. Thomson was licensed to preach on the 17th of June, 1691, was ordained minister *"1693, Oct. 6. The said day Mr. Thomas Thomson, minister of Ednam, and Beatrix Trotter, in the parish of Kelso, gave up their names for proclamation in order to marriage." Some notices of Mr. Thomson occur in "Kirkwood's Plea before the Kirk," 4to. London, 1698. Mrs. Thomson's sister married first Mr. Hume, and secondly the Rev. Mr. Nicolson, minister of Preston and Buncle. |