Born on 31 August 1843 at 28 Ann Street, Edinburgh, he was the only child of Alexander Stewart MacColl and his wife Eliza Fulford of Crediton. His father was a classicist and kept a school in Edinburgh; he was brought up at home with his first cousin, Alice Gaunter, who married James R. Jackson. MacColl entered
Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1862, but migrated next year to
Downing College, and was elected a scholar there in 1865. His coach
Richard Shilleto encouraged outside reading, and he took a second class in the classical tripos of 1866. In 1869, He was elected a fellow of Downing, having won the Hare Prize in 1868. He graduated B.A. in 1866 and proceeded M.A. in 1869. He became a student of
Lincoln's Inn on 21 January 1872, and was
called to the bar on 17 November 1875. At Cambridge, MacColl began an acquaintance with
Sir Charles Dilke, proprietor of the
Athenæum, and in 1871 Dilke appointed him editor of the magazine. He was in post up to the end of 1900, working without an assistant until 1896. As editor, he watched the style of contributors, and they could be corrected in published correspondence. MacColl ventured into society comparatively little, but occasionally visited
Westland Marston's Sunday parties. He went in later life to the
Athenæum Club, was one of
Leslie Stephen's "Sunday Tramps", and played golf. He travelled on the Continent in his vacations, making one Spanish tour. MacColl died unmarried, suddenly at his residence, 4 Campden Hill Square,
Kensington, on 16 December 1904, from heart failure. He was buried at Charlton cemetery, Blackheath, in the same grave with his parents. ==Works==