egarded as the most generally trustworthy and
valuable history of Scotland at present existing.

BURTON, SIR RICHARD FRANCIS (1821-1890).--Explorer and scholar, _s._ of
an officer in the army, was _b._ at Barham House, Herts, and after a
somewhat desultory education abroad as well as at home, entered upon a
life of travel, adventure, and military and civil service in almost every
quarter of the world, including India, Africa, the nearer East, and North
and South America, in the course of which he mastered 35 languages. As an
official his masterful ways and spirit of adventure frequently brought
him into collision with superior powers, by whom he not seldom considered
himself ill-used. He was the author of upwards of 50 books on a great
variety of subjects, including travels, novels, and translations, among
which are _Personal Narrative of a Journey to Mecca_ (1855), _First
Footprints in East Africa_ (1856), _Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa_
(1860), _The Nile Basin_, a translation and life of Camoens, an
absolutely literal translation of the _Arabian Nights_, with notes and
commentaries, of which his accomplished wife _pub._ an expurgated
edition. Lady B., who was the companion of his travels after 1861, also
wrote books on Syria, Arabia, and other eastern countries, as well as a
life of her husband, a number of whose manuscripts she destroyed.

BURTON, ROBERT (1577-1640).--Miscellaneous writer, _b._ at Lindley,
Leicestershire, and _ed._ at Oxf., took orders, and became Vicar of St.
Thomas, Oxf., 1616, and Rector of Segrave, Leicestershire, 1630. Subject
to depression of spirits, he wrote as an antidote the singular book which
has given him fame. _The Anatomy of Melancholy_, in which he appears
under the name of _Democritus Junior_, was _pub._ in 1621, and had great
popularity. In the words of Warton, "The author's variety of learning,
his quotations from rare and curious books, his pedantry sparkling with
rude wit and shapeless elegance ... have rendered it a repertory of
amusement and information." It has also proved a store-house from which
later authors have not scrupled to draw without acknowledgment. It was a
favourite book of Dr. Johnson. B. was a mathematician and dabbled in
astrology. When not under depression he was an amusing companion, "very
merry, facete, and juvenile," and a person of "great honesty, plain
dealing, and charity."

The best ed. is that of Rev. A.R. Shilleto, with introduction by A.H.