z.] ANTECEDENTS. 57
to whom many of the principal public buildings in Edinburgh are due.
Third generation.-21 males and 20 females, of whom 2 males deserve especial notice:-(1) The Right Hon. Lyon Playfair, M.P., F.R.S., formerly professor of chemistry, long engaged in scientific administration of various kinds, and postmaster-general at the close of the late administration ; (2) Colonel R. L. Playfair, R.A., the well-known consul-general of Algiers, and naturalist. A third brother is a professor at King's College.
RoscoE.-The type of this family is strongly marked ; it has been characterized by much cultivation, refinement, and poetical taste.
First generation.-William Roscoe, author of " Lorenzo di Medici," " Leo X." &c. The above mentioned characteristics were strongly marked in him. (Life by his son, Memoirs by Hartley Coleridge in "Northern Worthies," and " Sketches " by Washington Irving.)
Second generation.-7 males and 3 females, of whom 4 males and 2 females deserve notice:-
