GORDON, ROBERT, was born in Aberdeenshire about the year 15S0. He studied first at Aberdeen, and afterwards at Paris. On his father's death in 1600 be returned to Scotland, and succeeded to his ancestral estate of Straloch. At this time the vast collection of maps, and corresponding letter-press geographical and historical descriptions, projected by Blaeu of Amsterdam, was iu progress. The Dutch editors had been put in possession of some geographical drafts of the various provinces of Scotland, drawn by Timothy Pont, an eminent geographer. These drafts, which are now preserved in the Advo cates' Library, are singularly minute and curious, and very valuable as throwing light on the state of the country and the condition of property in Scotland at the time when they were executed. Pont had died in the execution of his task, leaving these drafts, minute and apparently accurate, but fragmentary and totally desti tote of arrangement. The editors of the Atlas applied to King Charles, and solicited his patronage of the portion of the work appli cable to Scotland, and his appointment of a person qualified to com plete the work. It was placed by royal authority in Gordon's hands, in 1641. The part of Blaeu's Atlas, commonly called Theatrum Scotian,' was finished by Gordon in 1648, and forms one of the eleven volumes of that work. It contains forty-nine minute and highly finished maps of the various provinces of Scotland, accompanied by a description in Latin, full of the results of extensive and accurate research. The result of the knowledge and labour bestowed on this
work was to give a greater prominence to Scotlaud in this general geographical work than the position of the country entitled it to. Gordon's labours were considered as of so much national importance, that by a special act of parliament he was exempt from the quartering of soldiers and other public burdens, and, as he abstained from con necting himself with either side, he was respected in the midst of his labours by both the parties by which the country was then distracted. Gordon died in 1661. The geographical papers which he had originally prepared were still more extensive than the work published by Blaeu. There is a large mass of them among the manuscripts in the Advo cates' Library, in the printed catalogues of which their titles will be found, and some portions of them have been lately printed by the book-clubs. Gordon had collected materials for a history of his own adventurous time. His son, James Gordon, clergyman of Rothlemay, who seems to have assisted him in his geographical labours, put these materials in a narrative form, and the ' History of Scots Affairs,' thus prepared, was printed in 1841, in three volumes, 4to, for the Spalding Club.