SKENE, WILLIAM FORBES (1807-1892).—­Historian, 2nd s. of James S. of Rubislaw, friend of Sir Walter Scott, was a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, and Clerk of the Bills in the Court of Session.  He wrote and ed. historical works of considerable authority, The Highlanders of Scotland (1837), and his most important work, Celtic Scotland (1876-80), and ed. of The Four Ancient Books of Wales (1868), and other Celtic writings.

SKINNER, JOHN (1721-1807).—­Historian and song-writer, s. of a schoolmaster at Birse, Aberdeenshire, was ed. at Marischal Coll.  Brought up as a Presbyterian, he became an Episcopalian and ministered to a congregation at Longside, near Peterhead, for 65 years.  He wrote The Ecclesiastical History of Scotland from the Episcopalian point of view, and several songs of which The Reel of Tullochgorum and The Ewie wi’ the Crookit Horn are the best known, and he also rendered some of the Psalms into Latin.  He kept up a rhyming correspondence with Burns.

SKIPSEY, JOSEPH (1832-1903).—­Poet, b. near North Shields, and from childhood worked in the mines.  He pub. a few pieces of poetry in 1859, and soon after left working underground and became caretaker of Shakespeare’s house at Stratford-on-Avon.  During the last 30 years of his life he pub. several vols. of poetry, including The Collier Lad and Carols from the Coal Fields; and he ed. some vols. for the “Canterbury Poets.” Memoir by R.S.  Watson (1908).

SMART, CHRISTOPHER (1722-1771).—­Poet, s. of the steward to Lord Vane, was b. at Shipbourne, Kent, and by the bounty of the Duchess of Cleveland sent to Camb.  Here his ill-balanced mind showed itself in wild folly.  Leaving the Univ. he came to London and maintained himself by conducting and writing for periodicals.  His Poems on Several Occasions, which contained “The Hop Garden,” was issued in 1752, and The Hilliad in 1753 against “Sir” John Hill, a notoriety of the day who had attacked him.  His mind ultimately gave way, and it was in confinement that he produced by far his most remarkable work, the Song to David, a most original and powerful poem.  Unfortunate to the last, he d. in the King’s Bench prison, to which he had been committed for debt.  He also translated Horace.

SMEDLEY, FRANK (1818-1864).—­Novelist, was the author of several novels which had considerable popularity, including Frank Fairleigh (1850), Lewis Arundel (1852), and Harry Coverdale’s Courtship (1855).  S. was a life-long cripple.