some of the cherished
recollections of the days when amid its "howffs," and "laigh"
half-doored shops he "gat schulin' and sport." He lost his father, who
was a brewer, when he was only ten years old, and, being the youngest of
the family, which consisted of three daughters and himself, his early
training devolved upon his mother, who contrived to obtain for her
children the advantage of an ordinary education. James Ballantine must,
however, be considered as a self-taught man. Beyond the training which
he received in early life, he owes his present position to his own
indefatigable exertions.

By his father's death, the poet was necessitated, while yet a mere boy,
to exert himself for his own support and the assistance of the family.
He was, accordingly, apprenticed to a house-painter in the city, and
very soon attained to considerable proficiency in his trade. On growing
up to manhood, he made strenuous exertions to obtain the educational
advantages which were not within his reach at an earlier period of life,
and about his twentieth year he attended the University of Edinburgh for
the study of anatomy, with a view to his professional improvement. At a
subsequent period he turned his attention to the art of painting on
glass, and he has long been well-known as one of the most distinguished
of British artists in that department. At the period Mr Ballantine began
his career as a glass-painter, the art had greatly degenerated in
character; and the position to which it has of late years attained is
chiefly owing to his good taste and archaeological researches. When the
designs and specimens of glass-painting for the windows of the House of
Lords were publicly competed for, the Royal Commissioners of the Fine
Arts adjudged those produced by Mr Ballantine as the best which were
exhibited, and the execution of the work was intrusted to him. A few
years ago he published a work on stained glass, which has been
translated and published in Germany, where it retains its popularity. Mr
Ballantine has thus never allowed his literary pursuits to interfere
with the exercise of his chosen avocations; "he has," in the words of
Lord Cockburn, "made the business feed the Muses, and the Muses grace
the business."

Although Mr Ballantine began at a very early age to woo the Muse, some
of his most popular pieces having been produced about his sixteenth
year, he made his first appearance in print in the pages of "Whistle
Binkie." In 1843 h