P. 523. Some time before his death he wrote a author of the Meditations, &c. who appears to very penitent letter to the Rev. James Hervey, have endeavoured to impress him with a sense of See Smollett's British Magazine,

his situation.

vol. v. p. 655.

P. 292. Since writing this life, I have disco-prospect. vered the following information respecting the family and title of the earl of Stirling. The person who assumed that title, and fought on the side of America, in the war 1774-82, and who died in 1783, was no relation of our poet. The title of earl of Stirling has been extinct since 1641, when the poet died. His corpse was deposited in a leaden coffin, in the family aile, in the church of Stirling, above ground, and remained entire till within these thirty years. Being much involved in debt at his death, and his descendants very poor, they never thought of making good their title to that dignity, till a very considerable time thereafter; but the mansion-house or church, which stood upon the banks of the river Devon, near Stirling, in which the records of the family descent were deposited, being swept away by a rapid current of the river after an uncommon fall of rain, rendered it impossible for the nearest akin to the family to make good his claim to the title. Several branches of this family still live at a village called Mainstry, on the above river, about three miles from Stirling, the oldest of which is the fourth in descent from the earl, and is a reputable farmer, and known by all the old people about that part of the country to be the real and nearest descendant of the earl of Stirling.

1 From a letter inserted in the London Chronicle, Oct. 1776, and signed GENEALOGIST. Beatson says, I know not upon what authority, that the title was not extinct until 1759.

VOL. XV.

WILLIAM THOMSON.

P. 4. According to Mr. Isaac Reed's MS. obituary, now in my possession, he died in 1765.

LLOYD.

P. 74. His name appeared, in 1761, to a translation of Voltaire's works, with that of Smollett, and in 1763, to a translation of Marmontel's Tales with that of C. Denis.

COOPER.

P. 503, for Thurgaton, read Thurgarton, bis.

VOL. XVI,
SMART.

P. 10. Poor Smart's custom of praying in the streets was very common. My friend, Mr. Nichols,