Bell, JOHN

Bell, JOHN, of Antermony, a celebrated Asiatic traveller, born in Campsie parish, Stirlingshire, in 1691, studied for the medical profession. In 1714 he went to St Petersburg, and soon after was appointed physician to an embassy from Russia to Persia. In 1719 he was sent upon another to China, through Siberia, from which he returned in 1821. Next year he accompanied an expedition to Persia, and in 1737 to Constantinople, where he settled for some years as a merchant. About 1746 he returned to Scotland, where he died at Antermony, July 1, 1780. His Travels were published in 1763, and reprinted in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels. Bell is said to have applied to Robertson for help in writing this work, when the latter recommended Gulliver's Travels as a model. Hence, perhaps, Bell's simplicity of style, long regarded as a model for travel-writing.