Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bell, Archibald

by Thomas Finlayson Henderson

BELL, ARCHIBALD (1755–1854), miscellaneous writer, was born in 1755. Admitted a member of the faculty of advocates, Edinburgh, in 1795, he became sheriff-depute of Ayrshire. He died at Edinburgh 6 Oct. 1854. He was the author of:

1. 'An Inquiry into the Policy and Practice of the Prohibition of the Use of Grain in the Distilleries,' 1808, second edition, 1810.
2. 'The Cabinet, a series of Essays, Moral and Literary' (anon.), 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1835.
3. 'Count Clermont, a Tragedy; Caius Toranius, a Tragedy, with other Poems,' 1841.
4. Melodies of Scotland,' 1849; the last being an attempt to supply words for the old national airs of such a correct and conventional type as not to offend the susceptibilities of the most fastidious. The verses are generally tasteful and spirited, but in no case have they been successful in supplanting those associated with the old melodies.

[Library Catalogue of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh.]

T. F. H.