Man of letters, born in Aberdeen; elected literature as his profession in preference to theology, with the study of which he commenced; joined the staff of the Messrs. Chambers; settled in London, and became professor of English Literature in University College, from the chair of which he removed to the corresponding one in Edinburgh in 1865; edited Macmillan's Magazine from 1859 to 1868; his great work, the "Life of Milton," in 6 vols., a thorough book, and of great historical value; has written on "British Novelists and their Styles," "Life of Drummond of Hawthornden," etc.; became in 1893 Historiographer-Royal of Scotland; born 1822.