Medical Association in 1873. In 1875 he received the honorary
degree of LL. D. from Edinburgh University. He resigned the
Professorship of Surgery at King's College in 1870; but until
his death was Clinical Professor of Surgery and senior Surgeon
to King's College Hospital. He was also a Fellow of the Royal
Society.
"He was created baronet on the 23rd January 1866, an
honour which led to his receiving a presentation from three
hundred old pupils, consisting of a silver dessert service
worth £400, at the annual dinner of old King's
College men on the 21st of June 1866.
" He died in London, after an exhausting illness of Blight's
disease, l0th February 1877, and was buried at West Linton,
Peeblesshire, where his wife had been buried in 1860.
"He was succeeded by his son, Sir James Ferguson. A younger
son, Charles Hamilton, is a major in the army. He left besides
three daughters.
" A portrait of him by Lehmann, painted by subscription,
was presented to the London College of Surgeons in 1874, and
a replica is in the Edinburgh College of Surgeons.
" He was an excellent carpenter, rivalling skilled artisans.
He was a good violinist, an expert fly fisher, and very fond
of the drama.
"He was tall, distinguished, and of good presence; fond
of a joke, and very hospitable. He rendered gratuitous aid
to large numbers of clergymen, actors, authors, and governesses.
"
SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON OF PRESTON.
Another of the famous scientists connected with the district
was Sir William Hamilton of Preston. He was born on the 8th
of March 1788 in the College of Glasgow, and became Professor
of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh. His
father, Dr William Hamilton, was Professor of Anatomy and
Botany in the University of Glasgow. His mother was Elizabeth,
daughter of William Stirling, merchant, whose family had for
several generations been settled in Glasgow, where they occupied
an influential position. This was the same William Hamilton
who sought and obtained, as the nearest heir in succession,
the baronetcy of Preston (See under the Hamiltons, etc. ).
He died on the 6th of May 1856, at the age of sixty-eight
years, and was buried in
one of the vaults in St John's Chapel, Edinburgh. His tomb-
stone reads as follows: —
In Memory of
SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, Baronet,
Professor of Logic and Metaphysics
In the University of Edinburgh,
Who died 6th May 1856, age 68 years.
His aim
Was by a pure philosophy to teach
That
Now we see through a glass darkly.
Now we know in part.
His hope
That, in the life to come,
He should see face to face,
And know even as also he is known.
THE REV. DR CALDER MACPHAIL.
The information will no doubt be hailed with pleasure by quite
a host of friends, that in Dr Calder Macphail of Harlo House
we have amongst us a real student of the late great Metaphysician,
Sir William Hamilton of Preston. The Rev. Dr recalls yet with
no unstinted admiration the many lectures he listened to from
that truly great thinker and eloquent teacher, when he himself
was little more than a boy. Dr Macphail, though well stricken
in years, is still both " hale and hearty, " and
always ready to obey his Master in the work to which he was
called. This is the same Dr Calder Macphail who did so much
for education in the Highlands of Scotland.
SIR WALTER SCOTT.
Not the least among the " great and mighty" men
of Science, men of Law, and men of Literature, who, at one
time or other have had a dwelling-place here, was Sir Walter
Scott.
In his boyhood, while weakly, he was conveyed to the Pans
for the benefit of his health, and lived up an outside stair
a little to the east of Harlo Hill. He was wont to tell in
his after years, that he remembered being carried across the
street in the early mornings, and down through a " pend
" or arched-way to get his " salt water baths "
in the Firth o' Forth.
This was about the year 1777, and "it was during that
period, " say the ready writers in gazetteers, etc.,
that he gathered his historical information concerning Preston
Battle for the first of the series of his great novels "
Waverley. " He was but |
