Mr. THOMAS CHRISTIE

was the son of a Merchant of Montrose, where he was born in October 1761; and, after a good school education, was placed in the counting-house by his father, whose opinion was, that whatever course of life the young man might adopt, a system of mercantile arrangement would greatly facilitate his pursuits. It is probable that he went through the routine of counting-house business with due attention, especially under the guidance of his father; but his leisure hours were devoted to the cultivation of general Literature, with such assiduity, that at a very early age he was qualified to embrace any of the learned professions with every promise of arriving at distinction.

His inclination appears to have led him at first to the study of Medicine and Natural History *;

* I shall give a specimen of his attention to that study :

"DEAR SIR, Montrose, June 26, 1784. Among many other impediments to the progress of science, one is the different names which the same thing passes under, not only in different kingdoms, but in different parts of the same kingdom. A Correspondent in your Magazine (LIV. 106.) observes, that Mr. Daines Barrington, in his Miscellanies, has said that the Mountain Ash is not indigenous in the Southern counties; which mistake he fell into, from not knowing that Quickbeam is the name commonly given to that tree in these parts. Many instances of similar mistakes have occurred to me. The Writers of books on Natural History appear to me not to have been sufficiently careful to form a complete Nomenclature of the animals, birds, fishes, insects, plants, and trees, which they describe, so as to enable their readers, in different countries, to know what object in Nature their descriptions refer to. To remedy these defects, and the perplexities which result from them, people in different parts of the country ought to furnish lists of the names of things in those parts where they reside. To excite some of your Correspondents to do this, I shall subjoin a few articles, which have occurred to me, to shew the difference between names in Scotland and England. - The Mountain Ash, or Quickbeam, is with us the Rantry, or Roddan Tree. The red berries it pro

duces

and, with the ardent spirit which he possessed, he soon became a proficient. He came to London in the Autumn of 1784; and in pursuance of his original plan of perfecting himself in the study of Physic, brought recommendatory Letters to some eminent Practitioners, and particularly to the late

duces are called Roddans. Concerning this tree there are various superstitions.The Plant Sorrel we called Sourrichs.-Buttermilk, called Bladda, from the Gaelic Bladdach.-The Lark is the Laverock, or Larick.-The Linnet, the Lintwhite.-The Thrush, the Mavis, from the French Mauvis, a Thrush.-The Magpye, the Pyot.-The Chaffinch, the Shillfa.-The Tom-tit, the Oxeye.-The Kite, the Gledd, from the Saxon Glidan, to glide, because this bird moves through long tracts of air without shaking its wings.-The Great Tern, I suppose, our Pictarney.—The Arctic Gull, is the Dirty Aulin.—The Land-rail, is the Corn-craik, from the noise it makes, by oroμaTo-Toua.-The Lapwing is with us the Teuchat.-The Fox is with us, the Tod.-The Toad, the Tedd-The Frog, the Paddock.—The Weasel, I suppose, the Whitterit.-The Mole, the Maudawort.-The Crab, the Parton. -The Periwinkle, the Wilk.-The Hollibut, the Turbot.-The Turbot, the Bannock-Flook.-The Flounder, the Flook. - Small differences are easily got over; as the Wran for Wren, Pertrick for Partridge, &c.; but I should be glad to see the English names corresponding to many other Scotch terms: thus of birds, the Bleucheret, Cheret, or Stone-Chatter, Colhood, Sandy-Larick ; and how our Craws, Hoody Craws, and Corbies, correspond with the English Crows, Ravens, Royston Crows, &c. I do not know what animal answers to our Fumart, and to several others. We have many droll names of Insects, as the Cloc, King-Colin, Horngolach, (called in England, I believe, the Earwig,) Maggy with the mony feet*, &c. Many of these names I conceive are derived from the Northern languages, and from the Gaelic. The etymologies of some of them may be curious. Most of them are now used only by the vulgar, as the higher classes of people are daily adopting the language and manners of England. We call the house spider Eter-Cap. In the Welsh, it is Atyr-Cop, i. e. the Top Insect, because it lodges near the roof. The Fumart, I assure you, is a much larger and fiercer animal than the Weasel. Whether it be the PoleCat, I have not yet been able to learn. T. C." “MR. URBAN, Montrose, Dec. 1, 1784.

"I am obliged to your Correspondent from Berkshire, who significs, vol. LIV. p. 731, his approbation of the plan I proposed for the advancement of natural knowledge. He ascertains the Ox-eye to be the greater Tom-tit, and mentions that the two lesser

* Probably our Hundred Legs, or Millepedes. R. (Gent. Mag. LIV. 732.) Or, more likely, a Scolopendra, or Julus. T. G. C.

species

worthy Dr. Samuel-Foart Simmons, for whom he ever after entertained the highest esteem.

At this period he was frequently a welcome visitor at my house; and an entertaining Correspondent *, both as a private friend, and a contributor to the labours of Sylvanus Urban.

species are called, the one Tom-tub, and the other Blue-bottle. I shall be glad to consult Albin's "Natural History;" but it may be some time before I can see it in this sequestered corner. R. G. determines the Fumart to be the Pole-cat, on the authority of Ray's "Collection of Northern Words."

"To S. H. (p. 731.) I can freely say, that if the proposed correction of Macbeth in the passage,

:

'Aroint thee, witch!'

can be defended in other respects, it will stand its ground in this for universally in this part of the country the rantree is esteemed a preservative against witchcraft. I have seen a branch of it placed above the door of a byre, or cow-house, to ward off evil from the beasts within. And hence also the distich,

'A rantree and a red thread

Gars (makes) au (all) the witches dance to dead (death).” It seems highly probable that the sailor's wife should threaten the witch in these terms: "I've rantree, witch!" When any more synonyms occur, I shall readily communicate them.

THOMAS CHRISTIE."

* "DEAR SIR, Montrose, March 4, 1785. "I shall be glad to receive a few lines from you, to know how you continue in health. I fear you are too closely engaged. The ill effects may be felt afterwards, though not immediately the human mind is minorem æternis consiliis. Your Magazine for December, 1784, is just come. I think you told me you wrote some part of the Review; but I suppose you are not the author of every article. If you were, I should be inclined to chide with you a little on the subject of the account given of my Uncle's Sermons +. That paragraph, 1 see, has been penned by one who holds Trinitarian sentiments. With this I have no quarrel. God grant us all charity and mutual love. Nor do I blame the Writer for not entering into the dispute.' But might he not have said whether the book was well or ill executed, on its principles and might he not have

"Discourses on the Divine Unity: or, A Scriptural Proof and Demonstration of the one Supreme Deity of the God and Father of All, and of the subordinate Character and inferior Nature of our Lord Jesus Christ; with a Confutation of the Doctrine of a Co-equal and Con-substantial Trinity in Unity; and a full Reply to the Objections of Trinitarians. By William Christie, Junior, Merchant in Montrose." The Review of it, which is brief and laconic, was written by Mr. Gough.

spared

After passing several months in London, he returned to Montrose, still undetermined between the choice of Medicine and Merchandize. In the Win

ters, however, of 1785 * and 1786 he closely attended the medical classes at Edinburgh, and in the spared the reflection on the type, when the Author has made an apology for it in the Preface? The Review gives no account of the book at all, but in a blunt dry way, which will produce an unfavourable impression. My Uncle, however, has received Letters from various persons in England, thanking him for his work; and the copies are all sold off. Excuse these remarks. It is a subject on which I may have indulged a little partiality. I hope my Query about Thomas Heath will appear in the Magazine *. The inclosed Letter †, addressed to Dr. Campbell, which lately came into my hands, deserves a place in your Miscellany, which is the repository of every thing curious. I do not think it has been printed before, and I have reason to deem it authentic. Perhaps it has come abroad without the knowledge of the possessor; but I was laid under no restrictions by the gentleman from whom I received it. I condole with you on the death of Johnson, the ornament of letters, and the friend of Sylvanus Urban. If Sylvanus goes on as he has begun, new friends will spring up. With best wishes, I remain,

"Your Friend,

THOMAS CHRISTIE."

* In June 1785 he communicated the Resolutions of the Subscribers to a Library instituted that year at Montrose, of which he was the Secretary. "I send you," he says, "an account of an institution which is just established here. I hope it will be acceptable to several of your readers; and I heartily wish that our example may induce others to institute similar societies in the towns where they reside. People in small places labour under many disadvantages; but they may do much to remedy them by unanimity. If a plan of this kind be properly conducted, nothing can tend more to diffuse knowledge, and promote liberality of sentiment among mankind. Yours, &c. T. CHRISTIE." Edinburgh, Aug. 20, 1786. "I dare say you will be surprized at not having heard of me for so long a time. Indeed I have frequently blamed myself, for not writing to you; but, trust me, I have proposed it more than a dozen of times, and some cross thing always interfered. My occupations and avocations here are past description. You will be at no loss to conceive this; and it is comfortable for me, to have to offer this apology to one, whose own experience of that scene of hurry and labour, into which an active mind is necessarily led in a great town, will make him fully sensible of the force of the excuse, and readily disposed to receive it as valid.

"DEAR SIR,

See this Query answered in Gent. Mag. vol. LIV. p. 976. + From David Hume, esq. See it hereafter, p. 391. VOL. IX.

BB

"You

Summer of 1787 travelled, in search of general

"You will recollect the printed papers you gave me, relative to the Town of Perth, which were found among Dr. Ducarel's books, and which I said I should send to the Rev. Mr. Scott with your compliments. I was just thinking of doing it on my arrival here, when I received a letter from Mr. Scott, informing me that, at a meeting of the Society, it had been resolved to appoint me one of their Correspondent Members, and requesting my acceptance, sending me at the same time a copy of their regulations, &c. I was a little puzzled, as my studies have not run much in that line; and I dislike to be a buckram member in any society; however, as their plan takes in Natural History, and the business of a Correspondent Member is chiefly to procure for them information, when they request it, I thought it might be in my power perhaps to do something in these lines, and therefore accepted. I continue to take a peep of the Magazine still, when time permits. The Index Indicatorius is a noble thing. I see further particulars occurring relative to Hogarth and his Works. I presume you will keep sight of these, to be inserted at a future period in a new Edition of Mr. Hogarth's Life.

"Our friend Mr. Badcock wrote to me a few days ago, from Sanford House, near Crediton, Devonshire, the seat of Sir John Chichester. I am very happy to find that he has got a good deal better, though Mr. Griffiths does not speak to me so favourably as I could wish of his situation. Several gentlemen wished him to write the History of Devonshire,' but this he has declined. Professor White was with him lately. He is engaged in a great work-a complete History of Egypt, but Mr. Badcock is afraid he is too indolent to execute it.

"Dr. Gilbert Stewart is just dead at Musselburgh, near Edinburgh. He was a man of genius. If his heart had been equal to his head, how much he might have shone! but he disgraced his talents by the most shocking profligacy. With a constitution that might have stood the shock of ages, he has fallen, premature, a martyr to Intemperance. I fear he will not be regretted by many good men.

"We are going on in the literary way here, with our usual industry. Dr. Adam Smith is writing the History of Moral Philosophy; Dr. Macgill will soon publish his Essay on the Death of Jesus Christ, Svo; and his colleague Dr. Dalrymple, of Ayr, will print The Gospel History, in a new form, with notes, for the use of pious and unlearned Christians. Dr. Robertson will publish a new Edition of his History of Scotland, into which he will insert remarks in vindication of his opinions, especially relative to Queen Mary, in opposition to the attacks of Stewart and others. In winter Mr. Elliot will publish (if they can agree about the bargain) a new system of the Materia Medica, by our venerable Preceptor Dr. Cullen. And he will certainly print a History of the Church of Scotland,' 4 vols. 8vo, by the late