GRAVE by ROBERT BLAIR. To which are added, Gran's Flegy WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD; AND PARNELL'S HERMIT. With Briographical Notices of the Authors. from D ANDERSON'S EDITION of the BRITISH POETS. Sdinburgh ང་ LIFE OF BLAIR. THERE are few particulars of the personal history of Blair known, and those few are such as give little scope for amplification and embellishment. The life of a country clergyman, constantly engaged in the duties of his profession, the practice of the domestic virtues, and the occupations of literature, however respectable such a character may be, can afford but slender materials for biography. Robert Blair was the eldest son of the Rev. David Blair, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, and chaplain to the Nisbet, daughter of King. His mother was Nisbet, Esq. of Carfin. He was born about the beginning of the last century; had the most liberal education in the University of Edinburgh, and afterwards was sent abroad by his father for his improvement, and spent some time on the Continent. After undergoing the usual trials, he was ordained minister of Athelstaneford, in the county of East Lothian, in the year 1731, where he passed the remainder of his life. As his fortune was easy, he lived very much in the style of a gentleman, and was greatly respected by Sir Francis Kinloch, Bart. of Gilmerton, patron of the parish, and by all the gentlemen in the neighbourhood. He was a man He was a of learning, and of elegant taste and manners. botanist and florist, which he showed in the cultivation of his garden; and was also conversant in optical and microscopical knowledge. He was a man of sincere piety, and very assiduous in discharging the duties of his clerical functions. As a preacher, he was serious and warm, and discovered the imagination of a poet. He married Isabella Law, daughter of Mr Law of Elvingston, a lady of uncommon beauty and amiable manners. With her father, who had been professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, who was his relation, and had been left one of his tutors, he had been long and intimately connected; and, upon occasion of his death, which happened several years before his marriage |