MALLET. F DAVID MALLET, having no written memorial, I am able to give no other account than fuch as is fupplied by the unauthorised loquacity of common fame, and a very flight perfonal knowledge. He was by his original one of the Macgregors, a clan that became, about fixty years ago, under the conduct of Robin Roy, fo formidable and fo infamous for violence and robbery, that the name was annulled by a legal abolition; and when they were all to denominate themfelves anew, the father, I fuppofe, of this author called himself Malloch. David Malloch was, by the penury of his parents, compelled to be Janitor of the High School at Edinburgh; a mean office, of which he did not afterwards delight to hear. But he furmounted the disadvantages of his birth and fortune; for when the Duke of Montrofe applied to the College of Edinburgh for a tutor to educate his fons, Malloch was recommended; and I never heard that he dif honoured his credentials. When his pupils were fent to fee the world, they were intrufted to his care; and having conducted them round the common circle of modifh travels, he returned with them to London, where, by the influence of the family in which he refided, he naturally gained admiffion to many perfons of the higheft rank, and the highest character, to wits, nobles, and statesmen. Of his works, I know not whether I can trace the feries. His firft production was William and Margaret*; of which, though *Mallet's William and Margaret was printed in Aaron Hill's Plain Dealer, N° 36, July 24, 1724. In its original state it was very different from what it is in the last edition of his works. |