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THE EARLDOM OF
MENTEITH.
INTRODUCTION.
page 20
There is abundant contemporary evidence to prove that Sir John Menteith
was the chief agent in the capture of Wallace. In the 'Chronicle of
Lancaster,' written in the thirteenth century, it is stated that 'William
Wallace was taken by a Scotsman, namely, Sir John Menteith, and carried to
London, where he was drawn, hanged, and beheaded.' In the account of the
capture and execution of Wallace contained in the Arundel manuscript,
written about the year 1320, it is stated that 'William Wallace was seized
in the house of Ralph Rae by Sir John Menteith, and carried to London by
Sir John de Segrave, where he was judged.' Fordun, who lived in the
reign of King Robert Bruce, when the memory of the exploits of Wallace
must have been quite fresh, says: 'The noble William Wallace was, by Sir
John Menteith, at Glasgow, while suspecting no
evil, fraudulently betrayed and seized, delivered to the King of England,
dismembered at London, and his quarters hung up in the towns of the most
public places in England and Scotland, in opprobium of the Scots.' Wyntoun,
whose 'Metrical Chronicle' was written in 1418, says—
THE EARLDOM OF MENTEITH.
INTRODUCTION.
page 20
'Schyre Jhon of Menteith in tha days
Tuk in Glasgow William Walays;
And sent hym untill Ingland sune,
There was he quartayrd and undone.'
THE EARLDOM OF MENTEITH.
INTRODUCTION.
page 20
The English chronicler, Langtoft, states that Menteith discovered the
retreat of Wallace through the treacherous information of Jack Short, his
servant, and that he came undercover of night and seized him in bed. A
passage in the 'Scala Chronica,' quoted by Leland, says, 'William Walleys
was taken of the Counte of Menteith, about Glasgow,
and sent to King Edward, and after was hanged, drawn, and quartered at
London.' But the most conclusive evidence of all that Menteith took a
prominent part in the betrayal and capture of Wallace is afforded by the
fact that while very liberal rewards were given to all the persons
concerned in this infamous affair, by far the largest share fell to
Menteith: he received land to the value of one hundred pounds.
THE DOUGLASES.
INTRODUCTION.
page 36
Through the innate energy of their character, the Douglases seem to have
sprung almost at a bound into the foremost rank of the Scottish nobles.
The first mention of their name in any authentic record is in a charter by
Joceline, Bishop of Glasgow, to the monks of
Kelso, between 1175 and 1199, which was witnessed by William of Dufglas,
who is said to have been either the brother or brother-in-law of Sir
Freskin de Kerdale in Moray. Sir William was a witness to a charter in
1240, and, along with Sir Andrew of Dufglas, to another charter in 1248.
His great-grandson, surnamed the 'Hardy,' from his valour and heroic
deeds, fought on the patriotic side in the War of Independence. He was
governor of the Castle of Berwick in 1296, when that town was besieged and
taken, after a resolute defence, by Edward I. The garrison of the castle
on capitulating were allowed to march out with the honours of war; but Sir
William Douglas was detained for some time a prisoner in one of the towers
of that fortress. On regaining his liberty he rejoined the patriotic
party, but fell once more into the hands of the English, and died in
confinement in the Tower of York in 1302. He was the father, by a sister
of the High Steward, of—
THE DOUGLASES.
INTRODUCTION.
page 46
HUGH DOUGLAS. 'Of this man,' says Godscroft, 'whether it was by reason of
the dulness of his mind, or infirmity of his body, we have no mention at
all in history of any of his actions.' The true reason was that he was a
canon of the Cathedral Church of Glasgow.
THE ANGUS DOUGLASES.
INTRODUCTION.
page 87
During the imprisonment of the head of the family in Dumbarton Castle the
reverend court renewed their dealing with the Marchioness, who was
compelled to appear before them in order to be examined touching her
'malignancy and obstinate continuance in the profession of popery.' She
appears to have given them smooth words, and to have made such apparent
concessions as induced them to leave her unmolested for a little while.
But their 'manifold expressions of lenity and long-suffering' toward her
failed to make the lady give up her 'disobedience,' and the Presbyters
proceeded to take steps for her excommunication and separation from her
children. For some unknown reason they paused in carrying out this
formidable process, which in those days was followed by forfeiture of
property and imprisonment. At length the Marquis found it necessary to
make his peace with the ruling powers, who had imposed upon him a fine of
50,000 merks; and at the commencement of the year 1647 he appeared before
the Lanark Presbytery, expressed his deep penitence for his violation of
the Covenant, and promised faithful adherence to it in time to come.
One-half of his fine was then remitted by the Estates, and he was released
from his long imprisonment. Still the Presbytery were not satisfied, and
he was constrained to agree that his children should be boarded with the
minister of the parish and be instructed by a tutor approved of by the
court. The reluctance with which his lordship submitted to these
restrictions was speedily made apparent to his tormentors by their
learning that he was arranging to send his youngest son to be brought up
in France. They renewed their deputations and their demands, and the
recusant peer and his wife were equally persistent in their adherence to
their own faith, though professing their willingness to comply with
the terms pressed on their acceptance by the Presbytery. At last the
patience of the sincere and zealous but intolerant brethren was exhausted,
and in October, 1648, when the Covenanters were dominant in Scotland and
all opposition crushed, they peremptorily ordered that, failing immediate
satisfaction, his lordship be summoned and the lady 'excommunicat.' The
Marquis appeared before them to answer 'for not keeping his son at the
school with a sufficient pedagogue approven by the Presbytery; for not
delivering his daughter to some Protestant friend by sight [under the
approval] of the Presbytery; for not having a sufficient chaplain approven
as said is for family exercise in his house; for not calling home his son
who is in France; and, finally, for his grievous oppression of his
tenants.' On all these points he was fain to make explanations and
concessions. Shortly after he supplicated the Presbytery to be allowed to
bring his son from the school of Glasgow to that
of Lanark, expressing his willingness, should his request be granted, that
'he should not come home to his parents except the Presbytery permit.'
THE ANGUS DOUGLASES.
INTRODUCTION.
page 91
The affair was hushed up, and no steps were taken by the public
authorities to bring the murderer to justice. It is uncertain at what time
the Duke returned to Scotland, and little or nothing is known of his
subsequent life until the time of his marriage more than thirty years
after this incident. In the year 1758, when his Grace was turned of sixty,
he married Margaret, daughter of James Douglas, of Mains, Dumbartonshire,
who was celebrated for her wit and beauty, and not less for her freedom of
speech and action. Dr. Carlyle of Musselburgh, who met this lady in the
year 1745, and made an excursion from Glasgow
with her and several other ladies and gentlemen, says, 'When we came to
Hamilton, she prayed us to send a messenger a few miles to bring to us a
clergyman of a neighbouring parish, a Mr. Thomas Clelland. He came to us
when we were viewing the romantic gardens of Barncluith. Thomas Clelland
was a good-looking little man, but his hair was becoming grey, which no
sooner Margaret observed than she rallied him pretty roughly (which
was her way) on his being an old fusty bachelor, and on his increasing
marks of age since she had seen him not more than a year before. After
bearing patiently all the efforts of her wit, "Margaret," says
he, "you know that I am master of the parish register, where your age
is recorded, and that I know when you may be with justice called an old
maid, in spite of your juvenile airs." "What care I, Tom?"
said she, "for I have for some time renounced your worthless set. I
have sworn to be Duchess of Douglas or never to mount a marriage
bed." She made her purpose good. When she uttered in jest this
prediction she was about thirty. It was fulfilled a few years after.'
Autobiography of Dr. Alexander Carlyle, Many stories are told of her
Grace's broad humour and freedom of speech. Dr. Johnson, who met her at
dinner in Boswell's house in Edinburgh in 1773, the year before her death,
described her as an 'old lady who talks broad Scotch with a paralytic
voice, and is scarcely understood by her own countrymen.' 'Had the doctor
seen her ten years earlier,' says Robert Chambers, 'when she was in
possession of all her faculties, he would have found out how much
comicality and rough wit could be expressed in broad Scotch under the coif
of a duchess.' She survived her husband twelve years.
THE SETONS.
INTRODUCTION.
page 136
The English insurgents insisted on carrying the war into England, where
they expected to be reinforced by the Jacobites and Roman Catholics in the
northern and western counties. The Scotsmen proposed that they should take
possession of Dumfries, Ayr, Glasgow, and other
towns in the south and west of Scotland, and attack the Duke of Argyll,
who lay at Stirling, in the flank and rear, while the Earl of Mar assailed
his army in front. The English portion of the insurgent forces, however,
persisted in carrying out their absurd scheme in spite of the strenuous
opposition of the Scots, and especially of the Highlanders, who broke out
in a mutiny against the English officers. The Earl of Wintoun disapproved
so strongly of this plan that he left the army with a considerable part of
his troop, and was marching northward when he was overtaken by a messenger
from the insurgent council, who entreated him to return. He stood for a
time pensive and silent, but at length he broke out with an exclamation
characteristic of his romantic and somewhat extravagant character. 'It
shall never be said to after generations that the Earl of Wintoun deserted
King James's interests or his country's good.' Then, laying hold of his
own ears, he added, 'You, or any man, shall have liberty to cut these out
of my head if we do not all repent it.' But though this unfortunate young
nobleman, constrained by mistaken loyalty, again joined the insurgent
forces, he ceased henceforward to take any interest in their deliberations
or debates. The Rev. Robert Patten, who officiated as chaplain to the
insurgents, and afterwards wrote a history of the rebellion, Patten turned
king's evidence and was the principal witness against the Earl on his
trial.* indeed states that the Earl 'was [p.136] never afterwards called
to any council of war, and was slighted in various ways, having often no
quarters provided for him, and at other times very bad ones, not fit for a
nobleman of his family; yet, being. in for it, he resolved to go forward,
and diverted himself with any company, telling many pleasant stories of
his travels, and his living unknown and obscurely with a blacksmith in
France, whom he served some years as a bellows-blower and under-servant,
till he was acquainted with the death of his father, and that his tutor
had given out that he was dead, upon which he resolved to return home, and
when there met with a cold reception.'
THE HAMILTON-DOUGLASES.
INTRODUCTION.
page 218
JAMES, fourth Duke of Hamilton, was born in 1658. After completing his
education at the University of Glasgow, he made a
tour on the Continent, and on his return, in 1679, he was appointed one of
the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber by Charles II., with whom he was a
favourite on account of his humour and wit. In 1683 he was nominated
Ambassador Extraordinary to France, and served in two campaigns as
aide-de-camp to the French King Louis XIV. On leaving France, after the
death of Charles II. in 1685, he was warmly recommended to his successor
by Louis himself. The Earl of Arran, as he was then called, received from
King James the office of Master of the Wardrobe, in addition to his former
post, the command of the Royal Regiment of Horse, and a part of the
forfeited estates of the Stewarts of Coltness, who were stripped of their
property on account of their adherence to the Presbyterian Church.
THE HAMILTON-DOUGLASES.
INTRODUCTION.
page 225
It is, unfortunately, only too well known to the whole country how
grievously these hopes have been disappointed. The Duke, who is now
forty-three years of age, married in 1873 the eldest daughter of the
seventh Duke of Manchester, but he still persists in neglecting his duties
both as a legislator and a landlord. He is a stranger m his ancestral
halls, and his neighbours, his tenants and retainers, are not known to him
even by sight. In no part of his Grace's conduct is his habitual disregard
of the claims, alike of his own dependents and of the public at large,
more conspicuous than in the mode in which he employs his power as the
proprietor of a large portion of Arran. That beautiful island is
apparently regarded by him as a hunting-park or preserve for the exclusive
use of himself and a few congenial companions, from which visitors are, as
far as possible, to be excluded, and where even the natives are allowed to
remain only on sufferance. The Duke scarcely ever sets foot in Arran, or
sees the face of a tenant or crofter there, except for a few weeks in the
shooting season. And yet, in order that his privacy during this brief
visit may not be intruded on, or his game run the risk of being disturbed,
he does everything in his power to entirely exclude his countrymen of all
classes from the island. Arran is well known to be the finest of all the
watering-places on the west coast of Scotland, whether the beauty and
variety of its scenery is considered, or its bracing air and unrivalled
facilities for sea-bathing. It is a favourite resort of the geologist and
the botanist, as well as of the tourist and the invalid in search of
health. But one and all are regarded as a nuisance by its lordly
proprietor; and since they cannot be forcibly expelled, every expedient is
tried to make their residence in the island uncomfortable and even
dangerous. For the purpose of preventing the erection of new and
commodious houses, feu charters are peremptorily refused, and sites can be
obtained only on a yearly lease, so that the owner is always liable to
ejection. The result is that thousands of the citizens of Glasgow,
of all classes, who year after year repair to Arran to enjoy its splendid
scenery and to recruit their health, are compelled to take up their
residence in overcrowded little dens of houses, most unhealthy as well as
uncomfortable. Even at Lamlash, which is a good many miles distant from
Brodick Castle, and is one of the most popular watering places on the
Clyde, permission cannot be obtained even to erect a pier for the
accommodation of the crowds of visitors who frequent it, and who are
consequently compelled at low tide to land in small boats, always
inconvenient and not unfrequently dangerous. And when they do reach the
shore, visitors have no resource but to take up their quarters in what is
significantly called 'The Colliers' Row,' or in some miserable low-roofed,
smoky little croft-house on the hill-side or in a narrow glen. Such
treatment of the citizens of Glasgow is
peculiarly unworthy in the representative of a house whose chiefs in
former days used to manifest a warm interest in the prosperity of that
great commercial emporium, and were proud of their connection with it. It
is no less ungrateful than unwise, for surely the owner of estates, whose
value has been enormously increased through the trade and commerce of the
large towns, is under peculiar obligations to do all in his power to
promote the health and comfort of their teeming, toil-worn population.
Such an abuse of the rights of property as the Duke persists in
perpetrating in this case is fraught with imminent peril to his order, and
he and landowners of his class would do well, for their own sakes, to
desist from such a high-handed use of their proprietary rights as will
raise the delicate and dangerous question whether the Legislature is not
bound, from a regard to the public welfare, to interfere with their
management, and to restrict their power over their estates.
THE CAMPBELLS OF ARGYLL.
INTRODUCTION.
page 242
ARCHIBALD, the celebrated Gillespic Grumach, eighth Earl and first Marquis
of Argyll, raised the house of Campbell to a greater height of political
power than it had ever before attained. This eminent patriot and statesman
was born in 1598, and was early introduced into public life. While yet
Lord Lorne he apprehended Patrick Macgregor, popularly called Glideroy, or
Gillie Roy, who, about the year 1632, at the head of a band of caterans,
plundered various districts of the Highlands. This noted freebooter and
nine of his gang, who were arrested at the same time, were tried and
executed in Edinburgh in July, 1636. The capture and fate of this bold
outlaw has been made the subject of a well-known ballad and of several
works of fiction. At the time of the Earl's accession to the family title
and estates, all Scotland was convulsed by the arbitrary and impolitic
innovations of Charles I. and Laud on the worship of the Scottish Church,
and Argyll, whose advice was solicited by the King, earnestly recommended
that they should be withdrawn. Finding that his counsel was not followed,
and that Charles was obstinately bent on carrying out his unconstitutional
policy, the Earl signed the National Covenant and attended the famous
Assembly which met at Glasgow, November, 1638,
and abolished the Episcopal form of government in Scotland. When the
Marquis of Hamilton, as High Commissioner, ordered the Assembly to
dissolve under pain of treason and withdrew on the refusal of the members
to disperse, Argyll alone of all the Privy Councillors refused to follow
his example, and at the close declared publicly his approbation of all
their decisive measures for the restoration of the Presbyterian form of
worship. In the following year, when Charles prepared to crush the
Covenanters by force of arms, Argyll raised nine hundred of his clansmen
and marched into the west to secure that part of the kingdom against the
threatened invasion of the Earl of Antrim and the Irish Romanists. In 1640
he received a commission from the Committee of Parliament, signed by the
Earl, afterwards Marquis, of Montrose and other leading Covenanters,
authorising him to proceed against the Earl of Athole, Lord Ogilvie, and
the Farquharsons in Braemar, to pursue them with fire and sword until he
brought them to their duty or utterly routed them out of the country.
Armed with this ruthless commission, Argyll proceeded to the north at the
head of five thousand men, and compelled the inhabitants of Badenoch,
Athole, and Mar to submit to the authority of the Parliament. Then,
marching eastward into Angus, he captured Airlie and Forthar, the castles
of the Earl of Airlie, who had left Scotland to avoid subscribing the
Covenant. Airlie Castle, which was defended by Lord Ogilvie, the eldest
son of the Earl, and was strongly garrisoned and furnished with large
stores of ammunition, had previously defied the efforts of the Earls of
Montrose and Kinghorn to reduce it. But on the approach of Argyll it was
abandoned by the garrison, and was laid in ruins by the Covenanters. This
is the incident which has been commemorated in the well-known ballad of
'The bonnie house of Airlie.'
THE CAMPBELLS OF LOUDOUN.
INTRODUCTION.
page 259
EARL OF LOUDOUN, and Baron Tarryhean and Mauchline by Charles I., 12th
May, 1633; but in consequence of his opposition to the measures of the
Court, the patent was stopped at the Chancery, and the title was suspended
until 1641. Following the lead of the chief of his house, the Earl took an
active part in the opposition to the attempt of Charles I. to force the
new Liturgy upon Scotland, and was a member of the celebrated General
Assembly which met in Glasgow in 1638. In the
following year he took and garrisoned the castles of Strathavon, Douglas,
and Tantallon for the Covenanters. He was one of the seven Scottish
noblemen who signed the letter addressed to the King of France, entreating
his assistance, and was in consequence arrested on a charge of
treason and committed to the Tower. He regained his liberty through the
influence of the Marquis of Hamilton, and was permitted to return to
Scotland. He became one of the most active leaders of the Covenanting
party, commanded the van of their army at the battle of Newburn, and was
one of the commissioners who negotiated the treaty of Ripon. He presided
at the opening of the Scottish Parliament, 15th July, 1641, and when the
King visited Scotland in the following month Loudoun's title of Earl was
allowed with precedence from 1633, and he was appointed High Chancellor of
Scotland and First Commissioner of the Treasury. But these favours failed
to win him over to the royal side, and he continued to support with great
vehemence all the measures adopted by the Presbyterian party. He took a
prominent part in promoting the 'Act of Classes,' excluding all who had
taken part in the 'Engagement' from offices of trust and from Parliament.
Much to his discredit, when the Marquis of Montrose was brought to the bar
of the Parliament House to receive sentence of death, the Chancellor
bitterly upbraided him for his violation of the Covenant, his league with
Irish rebels, and his invasion of the country. The behaviour of Loudoun on
this occasion—so unbecoming his high office—and the virulent abuse
which he poured upon the great Royalist, may be accounted for, but not
justified, by the sanguinary defeat of the clan Campbell at the battle of
Inverlochy, where his elder brother, the Laird of Lawers, fell. The Earl,
however, after the execution of Charles I., embraced the cause of his son,
and was in consequence, along with his son, Lord Mauchline, excepted out
of Cromwell's Act of Grace and Pardon in 1654; but £400 a year was
settled out of his estates on his wife. At the Restoration he was deprived
of his office of Chancellor, and fined £12,000 Scots. He died in 1663.
His son—
THE CAMPBELLS OF LOUDOUN.
INTRODUCTION.
page 261
JAMES MURE CAMPBELL, grandson of the second Earl of Loudoun. His father,
Sir James Campbell of Lawers, was a distinguished military officer, who
served under the Duke of Marlborough, and contributed greatly to the
victory of the allied forces at Malplaquet, 11th September, 1709. He
distinguished himself also at the battle of Dettingen, 16th June, 1743,
and was mortally wounded at Fontenoy, where he commanded the British
cavalry. His son James, the fifth Earl, assumed the name of Mure on
succeeding to the estate of his grandmother, the Countess of Glasgow,
heiress of the ancient family of Mure of Rowallan. He attained the rank of
major-general in the army, and died in 1786, leaving an only child—
THE CAMPBELLS OF BREADALBANE.
INTRODUCTION.
page 280
The second Marquis of Breadalbane represented Perthshire in the Parliament
of 1832, was made a Knight of the Thistle in 1838, was elected Lord Rector
of the University of Glasgow in 1841, and in 1848
was appointed Lord Chamberlain. His lordship was a zealous supporter of
the Free Church. He married, in 1821, Eliza, eldest daughter of George
Baillie, Esq., of Jerviswood, a lady of great amiability and of remarkable
beauty, who predeceased him. At his death, without issue, in 1862, the
Marquisate and Barony of Breadalbane and the Earldom of Ormelie, in the
peerage of the United Kingdom, became extinct. The Scottish honours were
claimed by John Alexander Gavin Campbell, of Glenfalloch, and by Charles
William Campbell, of Borland. Both claimants were descended from the fifth
son of Sir Robert Campbell, Baronet, ninth Laird of Glenorchy, and both
were the great-grandsons of William Campbell of Glenfalloch. James
Campbell, the grandfather of John A. G. Campbell, was the second son, John
Campbell, the grandfather of C. W. Campbell, was the third son, of
Glenfalloch. (The issue of the eldest son was extinct.) But James
Campbell, who was an officer in the army, eloped with the wife of
Christopher Ludlow, a medical practitioner of Chipping Sodbury, in
Gloucestershire. It was alleged that their eldest and only surviving son
was born while Dr. Ludlow was alive, and was consequently illegitimate. It
was contended that the subsequent marriage of Captain Campbell to Mrs.
Ludlow could not render legitimate a child born in these circumstances.
The case excited great attention, both on account of the peculiarity of
the circumstances and the importance of the interests at stake. There was
a want of definite information respecting the precise time of Dr. Ludlow's
death, and the decision of the House of Lords was given, though with
considerable hesitation, in favour of Campbell of Glenfalloch. He died in
1871, and was succeeded by his eldest son, the seventh Earl of Breadalbane,
born in 1851, who was created a peer of the United Kingdom in 1873, by the
title of Lord Breadalbane of Kenmore, and was elevated to the rank of
Marquis in 1885.
THE CAMPBELLS OF CAWDOR.
INTRODUCTION.
page 289
Islay was now absolutely won and held by the Campbells of Calder, but it
proved an expensive trophy to the winner. 'With the acquisition of Islay,'
says Mr. Cosmo Innes, 'began the misfortunes of the family. The expense of
winning and keeping the island; large bribes assuredly exacted by
courtiers; others possibly paid to the King for the gift; heavy rents to
be made forthcoming while the land was still in the hands of enemies or
waste; these causes, added to family expenses, the cost of two
establishments, visits to a Court where none were welcome empty-handed,
heaped up an amount of debt which in that age—innocent as yet of bills
and bank-notes— might have weighed down a better manager than Sir John
Campbell.' Numerous 'wadsetts,' or mortgages, were given on almost the
whole of his estates in Morayshire, and creditors of every degree were
clamorous for payment. Large droves of cattle were levied from the people
of Islay, and sent to England twice a year to pay the rent due to the
Crown. But still these dues fell into arrears, and at length, in 1619, the
luckless landlord was 'put to the horn' for nonpayment of the Crown rents.
In his deep distress Sir John proposed, in 1627, to sell Islay to his
kinsman Macdonald, Earl of Antrim, for £5,000 sterling, another £1,000
to be added to the price if, in the opinion of certain arbitrators, the
island should be worth more than £600 per annum of feu rent. The bargain,
however, was not carried out at this time, and the island remained a
century longer in the possession of the 'Thanes of Cawdor.' In the year
1723, John Campbell of Cawdor, M.P. for the county of Pembroke, mortgaged
Islay and Jura to Donald Campbell of Shawfield, Lord Provost of Glasgow,
for the sum of £6,000, reserving power to redeem 'these islands up till
1744. But in 1726 Cawdor made a sale of both Islay and Jura to Shawfield
for the additional sum of £6,000, making the price £12,000 in all. The
purchaser also became liable for the [p.289] payment of the 'wadsetts'
laid on the estates for the sum of £4,169, so that in reality the price
paid for the two islands amounted to £16,169. Reservation was made of two
small estates in Islay, named Sunderland and Terobolls, which had
previously been disposed of, and also of the right of the heirs of
Archibald, Earl of Argyll, to hunt in the forest of Jura—a privilege
which was only recently sold by the Duke to the present proprietor of the
island. Islay was purchased by the late Mr. Morison of London for £451,000.
When Pennant visited Islay in 1769, the rental was about £2,300: it now
amounts to £30,000 a year.*
THE MAULES.
INTRODUCTION.
page 344
FOX MAULE, second Baron Panmure and eleventh Earl of Dalhousie. He was
born in 1801, was educated at the Charterhouse, entered the army as an
ensign, and after serving for several years in Canada on the staff of his
uncle, the eighth Earl of Dalhousie, he retired in 1831 with the rank of
captain. He commenced his political career in 1835, when, after a very
keen contest, he was elected member for the county of Perth. He
subsequently represented successively the Elgin Burghs and the Burgh of
Perth. On the return of the Melbourne Ministry to office in 1835, Mr.
Maule was made Under Secretary for the Home Department; in 1841 he held
for a short period the office of Vice-President of the Board of Trade; in
1842 he was chosen Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow;
and on the downfall of Sir Robert Peel's Administration in 1846 he became
Secretary at War, with a seat in the Cabinet. In February, 1852, he
exchanged this office for the Presidency of the Board of Control. The
dissolution of the Russell Ministry, however, soon followed, and on the
death of his father in the course of the same year, Mr. Maule was elevated
to the House of Lords. Lord Panmure had no seat in the Coalition Cabinet,
under the Earl of Aberdeen, but when it fell to pieces during the war with
Russia, and Lord Palmerston became Prime Minister, he resumed his former
office of Secretary at War, somewhat modified in form, the duties of which
he discharged with great ability and untiring energy until the overthrow
of Lord Palmerston's Administration in 1858. Lord Panmure was appointed
Lord-Lieutenant of Forfarshire in 1849; Keeper of the Privy Seal and K.T.
in 1853. On the death of his cousin, the Marquis of Dalhousie, in 1860, he
succeeded to the titles of Earl of Dalhousie, Baron Ramsay of Kerington,
and Baron Ramsay of Dalhousie.
THE LAUDERDALE MAlTLANDS.
INTRODUCTION.
page 350
The 'Maitland Club,' which was established in Glasgow
after the model of the Bannatyne Club, derived its name from Sir Richard,
and published his own poems, along with his 'Cronicle and Historic of the
House and Sirname of Seaton.' He was employed in various public affairs by
James V., and also by the Regent Arran and Mary of Guise. Though he had
the misfortune to lose his sight in 1560, when he was in his sixty-fourth
year, his blindness did not incapacitate him from business. He held
successively the offices of a Lord of Session and of Lord Privy Seal. He
resigned his seat on the bench in 1584, having been more than seventy
years in the public service. The close of his life was saddened by the
death of two of his sons, William, the Secretary, and Thomas, a youth of
great promise, who died in Italy. Sir Richard died, full of years and
honours, in 1586, in the ninetieth year of his age. His wife, to whom he
had been united for sixty years, died on his funeral day. On the
retirement of the veteran judge from the bench, King James sent a letter
to the Court of Session, in which he states that Sir Richard 'hes deulie
and faithfully servit our grandshir, gude sir, gude dame, mother, and
ourself, being oftentymes employit in public charges, quhereof he
deutifullie and honestlie acquit himself, and being ane of your ordinar
number this mony yeiris has diligentlie, with all sincerity and integrity,
servit therein, and now being of werry great age, and altho' in spirit and
judgment able anon to serve as appertenes, by the great age, and being
unwell, is sa debilitat that he is not able to make sic continual residens
as he wald give, and being movit in conscience that by his absence for
lack of number, justice may be retardit and parties frustrat, [p.350] has
willingly demittit his office,' &c. The veteran judge obtained the
unusual privilege of nominating his successor.
THE LAUDERDALE MAlTLANDS.
INTRODUCTION.
page 366
His eldest surviving son, JAMES, eighth Earl, born in 1759, was a
distinguished politician and writer on political economy. He was educated
at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and
completed his training at Paris. He was admitted a member of the Faculty
of Advocates in 1780. In the same year he entered the House of Commons as
member for a Cornish borough. He attached himself to the Whig party under
Fox, and took a prominent part in the opposition to Lord North's
administration. He was appointed by the House of Commons one of the
managers of the impeachment of Warren Hastings. After succeeding to the
family titles and estates, he was chosen one of the representative peers
of Scotland. He was on a visit to Paris on account of his health, along
with Dr. Moore, the father of Sir John Moore, in 1792, when the attack on
the Tuileries and the imprisonment of Louis XVI. took place, but he
promptly quitted the French capital after the massacres of September 3rd
and the departure of the British ambassador. The shocking scenes which he
witnessed there, however, do not appear to have moderated his democratic
opinions. In the House of Lords the Earl distinguished himself by his
violent opposition to the war with France, the suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act, the Sedition Bills, and other measures of the Government. He
gloried in the designation of 'Citizen Maitland,' and on one occasion said
to the Duchess of Gordon that he hoped the time would come when he would
be known only by that designation. Her unscrupulous Grace replied that she
hoped to see him hanged first. The Earl of Lauderdale was regarded as the
leader of the Scottish Whigs, and when the Ministry of 'All the Talents'
was formed in 1806, he was created a peer of the United Kingdom, was sworn
a Privy Councillor, was appointed Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland,
and was entrusted with the whole ministerial patronage of that kingdom. On
the 2nd of August he was sent as Ambassador Extraordinary to Paris, with
full powers to conclude a peace with France, but the negotiations proved
abortive. His lordship went out of office on the change of Ministry in
1807, but he continued for many years to take an active part in public
affairs, in conjunction with the leaders of the Opposition. He deserted
his party, however, on the trial of Queen Caroline, and during the
remainder of his long public career he cooperated zealously with the
Tories. He died in 1839, in the eightieth year of his age.
THE HOMES.
INTRODUCTION.
page 388
The Earl obtained the Order of the Garter in 1609, and was installed at
Berwick with extraordinary pomp and magnificence. He is described by
Archbishop Spottiswood as a man of 'deep wit, few words, and in his
Majesty's service no less faithful than fortunate.' Calderwood, who
naturally took a very different view of the Earl's services, narrates with
evident satisfaction how in 1611 he was 'by death pulled down from the
height of his honour, even when he was about to solemnise magnificently
his daughter's marriage with the Lord Walden (afterwards Earl of Suffolk).
He purposed to celebrate St. George's day following in Berwick, where he
had almost finished a sumptuous and glorious palace. He was so busy and
left nothing undone to overthrow the discipline of our Church, and
specially at the Assembly holden last summer in Glasgow.
But none of his posterity enjoyeth a foot broad of land this day of his
conquest in Scotland.' As the Earl left no male issue, his titles expired
at his death. The elder of his two daughters married Sir James Home of
Cowdenknowes, and was the mother of the third Earl of Home.
THE JOHNSTONES OF ANNANDALE.
page 57
The chief seat of the Johnstones in those days of 'tugging and riving' was
Lochwood, in the parish ofJohnstone, the position of which, in the midst
of bogs and morasses, made it a fortalice of great strength, and led to
the remark of James VI., in allusion to the purpose which it served as a
stronghold offreebooters, that 'the man who built it must have been a
thief at heart.' Lochwood, however, was not the only fastness in which the
Johnstones stored their booty. A few miles from Moffat there is a
remarkable hollow, surrounded by hills on every side except at one narrow
point, where a small stream issues from it. 'It looks,' says Pate in
Peril, in 'Redgauntlet,' 'as if four hills were laying their heads
together to shut out any daylight from the dark hollow space between them.
A deep, black, blackguard-looking abyss of a hole it is, and goes straight
down from the roadside as perpendicular as it can do to be a heathery
brae. At the bottom there is a small bit of a brook that you would think
could hardly find its way out from the hills that are so closely jammed
round it.' This inaccessible hollow bore the name of the 'Marquis's
Beef-stand,' or 'Beef-tub,' because 'the Annandale loons used to put their
stolen cattle in there.' The Beef-stand was the scene of a remarkable
adventure to a Jacobite gentleman while on theroad to Carlisle to stand
his trial for his share in the rebellion of 1745. He made his escape from
hisguards at this spot in the manner which Sir Walter Scott makes Maxwell
of Summertrees, who bore the sobriquet of 'Pate in Peril,' describe in
graphic terms as an adventure of his own:—
'I found myself on foot,' he said, 'on a misty morning with my hand, just
for fear of going astray, linkedinto a handcuff, as they call it, with
poor Harry Redgauntlet's fastened into the other; and there we were
trudging along with about a score more that had thrust their horns ower
deep in the bog, just like ourselves, and a sergeant's guard of redcoats,
with two file of dragoons, to keep all quiet and give usheart to the
road.…Just when we came on the edge of this Beef-stand of the Johnstones,
I slipped out my hand from thehandcuff, cried to Harry, "Follow
me," whisked under the belly of the dragoon horse, flung my
plaidround me with the speed of lightning, threw myself on my side, for
there was no keeping my feet, and down the brae hurled I, over heather,
and fern, and blackberries, like a barrel down Chalmers' Close in Auld
Reekie. I never could help laughing when I think how the scoundrel
redcoats must have been bum-hazed; for the mist being, as I said, thick,
they had little notion, I take it, that they were on the vergeof such a
dilemma. I was half-way down—for rowing is faster wark than rinning—ere
they could get at their arms; and then it was flash, flash, flash, rap,
rap, rap, from the edge of the road; but my head was too jumbled to think
anything either of that or of the hard knocks I got among the stones. I
kept my senses together, whilk has been thought wonderful by all that ever
saw the place; and I helped myself with myhands as gallantly as I could,
and to the bottom I came. There I lay for half a moment; but the thought
of a gallows is worth all the salts and scent-bottles in the world for
bringing a man to himself. Up I sprung like a four-year-old colt. All the
hills were spinning round me like so many great big humming-tops. But
there was no time to think of that neither, more especially as the mist
had risen a little with the firing. I could see the villains like sae many
crows on the edge of the brae; and I reckon that they saw me, for some of
the loons were beginning to crawl down the hill, but liker auld wives in
their red cloaks, coming frae a field-preaching, than such a souple lad as
I. Accordingly they soon began to stop and load their pieces. "Good-e'en
to you, gentlemen," thought I, "if that is to be the gate of it.
If you have any farther word with me you maun come as far as
Carriefrawgauns." And so off I set, and never buck went faster ower
the braes than I did; and I never stopped till I had put three waters,
reasonably deep, as the season was rainy, half-a-dozen mountains, and a
few thousand acres of the wurst moss and ling in Scotland betwixt me and
my friends the redcoats.'
Sir Walter Scott says he saw in his youth the gentleman to whom the
adventure actually happened.* [p.56] The Johnstones, unlike the Armstrongs,
Elliots, and Grahams, 'sought the beeves that made theirbroth' only in
Cumberland and Northumberland, though they would probably have had no
scruples inmaking a prey of any outlying cattle belonging to the Maxwells,
with whom they had a hereditary feud.Lord Maxwell, the head of this great
family, was in the sixteenth century the most powerful man in the
south-west of Scotland. But the Johnstones, though inferior in numbers and
power, were able, throughtheir valour, and the strong position which they
held in the mountainous district of Annandale, to maintain their ground
against their formidable rivals. In 1585 Lord Maxwell opposed the
profligate government of the worthless royal favourite, James Stewart,
Earl of Arran, and was in consequence declared a rebel. According to the
common, but most objectionable practice of that period, the Court gave a
commission to Johnstone, his enemy, to proceed against him with fire and
sword, and to apprehend him; and two bands of hired soldiers, commanded by
Captains Cranstoun and Lammie, were despatched to Johnstone's assistance.
They were intercepted, however, on Crawford Moor, by Robert Maxwell, of
Castlemilk, and after a sharp conflict the mercenary forces were defeated.
Lammie and most of his company were killed, and Cranstoun was taken
prisoner. In relating this incident Sir Walter Scott says, 'It is devoutly
to be wished that this Lammie may have been the miscreant who, in the day
of Queen Mary's distress, when she surrendered to the nobles at Carberry
Hill, "his ensign being of white taffety, had painted on it the cruel
murder of King Henry, and laid down before her Majesty at what time she
presented herself as prisoner to the Lords." It was very probably so,
as he was then, and continued to be till his death, a hired soldier of the
Government. Nine months after the incident in question, the following
entry appears in the Lord Treasurer's books, under March 18, 1567-8:
"To Captain Andro Lambie, for his expenses passand of Glasgow
to Edinburgh to uplift certain men of weir, and to make one Handsenyie of
white taffety, £25" [Scots]. He was then acting for the Regent
Moray. It seems probable that, having spoiled his ensign by the picture of
the king's murder, he was now gratified with a new one at the expense of
his employer.'— See Domestic Annals of Scotland, i. p. 156, note, and
Border Minstrelsy, ii. p. 134, note.* Maxwell followed up his success by
[p.57] setting fire to Johnstone's castle of Lochwood, remarking with
savage glee that he would give Lady Johnstone light enough by which 'to
set her hood.' Unfortunately, besides the 'haill house, bedding,and
plenisching,' Johnstone's charter-chest, containing the whole muniments of
the family, and many other valuable papers, perished in the flames.
THE STEWARTS OF TRAQUAIR.
page 72
When 'the ten years' conflict' between the King and the Covenanters began,
in the memorable General Assembly which met at Glasgow
in November, 1638, the Earl of Traquair was one of the assessors to the
Royal Commissioner, the Marquis of Hamilton. After the Covenanters had, by
an appeal to arms, compelled the King to yield to their demands in the
Pacification of Berwick, Traquair was appointed Lord High Commissioner to
the General Assembly which met at Edinburgh, 12th August, 1639. He had a
very difficult, and, indeed, dangerous task to perform. While apparently
willing to yield to the popular current, the King was obstinately bent on
carrying out his own schemes. His representative was therefore instructed
to appear to grant everything which the people desired, but with such
artful qualifications and reservations, as in reality to concede nothing.
He was 'to give way for the present to that which will be prejudicial to
the Church, and to the Government, but to do so in such a way as would
reserve a plea for withdrawing these concessions when the proper time
should come.' A hint was also given to the clergy that they should deliver
secretly to the Commissioner a 'protestation and remonstrance against this
Assembly and Parliament,' which might afterwards serve as a pretext for
cancelling their proceedings. Traquair seems to have played his difficult
part with great dexterity. On the one hand he gave assent in his Majesty's
name to the Acts of the Glasgow Assembly, the
abolition of Episcopacy, the rescinding of the five Articles of Perth, and
the ratification of the Covenant, to which he appended his signature, both
as Commissioner and as an individual. On the other hand he made at the
outset a most plausible pretext, reserving his Majesty's right for redress
of anything that might be done prejudicial to his service.
THE STEWARTS OF TRAQUAIR.
page 80
The second Earl of Traquair died in April, 1666, in his forty-fourth year,
having had issue only by his second wife, four sons and three daughters.
The Privy Council, apprehensive that the Dowager Lady Traquair would bring
up her elder surviving son, William, in the Roman Catholic faith, enjoined
her, in1672, when the youthful Earl had reached his fifteenth year, to
attend at Holyrood House, and bring her son with her. She thought fit to
disobey this summons, and a warrant was immediately issued to
messengers-at-arms to bring the Countess, along with her son, before the
Council. Both were produced within a week. In the Privy Council Records,
under date February 8, the disposal of the case is thus narrated, 'Compeared
the Countess of Traquair, with her son the Earl, who is ordered to be
consigned to the care of the Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow,
to be educated in the Reformed religion, at sight of the Archbishop of Glasgow.
No Popish servants to be allowed to attend him.' The order was, however,
by some means evaded, and was repeated nearly two years later, December,
1673. Once more 'at Holyrood House, the Countess of Traquair compeared to
exhibit her son the Earl, in order to be educated in the Reformed
religion. The Council resolve he shall be sent to a good school, with a
pedagogue and servants, as the Archbishop of Glasgow
should name, the Earl of Galloway to defray charges. A letter to be sent
to the Archbishop, and that the lady in the meantime keep the Earl, her
son, for ten or twelve days.'
THE DRUMMONDS.
page 90
It thus appears that the founder of the Drummond family was not a
Hungarian prince, or even gentleman, but Malcolm Beg, chamberlain to the
Earl of Lennox. When the War of Independence broke out the Drummonds
embraced the patriotic side. JOHN OF DRUMMOND was taken prisoner at the
battle of Dunbar, and was imprisoned in the castle of Wisbeach; but he was
set at liberty in August, 1297, on Sir Edmund Hastings, proprietor of part
of Menteith in right of his wife, Lady Isabella Comyn, offering himself as
security, and on the condition that he would accompany King Edward to
France. His eldest son, SIR MALCOLM DRUMMOND, was a zealous supporter of
the claims of Robert Bruce to the Scottish throne, and like his father
fell into the hands of the English, having been taken prisoner by SirJohn
Segrave. On hearing this 'good news,' King Edward, on the [p.90] 20th of
August, 1301, offered oblations at the shrine of St. Mungo, in the
cathedral of Glasgow. After the independence of
the country was secured by the crowning victory of Bannockburn, MALCOLM
was rewarded for his services by King Robert Bruce with lands in
Perthshire. Sir Robert Douglas, the eminent genealogist, conjectures that
the caltrops, or four-spiked pieces of iron, with the motto 'Gang warily,'
in the armorial bearings of the Drummonds, were bestowed as an
acknowledgment of Sir Malcolm's active efforts in the use of these
formidable weapons at the battle of Bannockburn. His grandson, JOHN
DRUMMOND, married the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Montefex,
It has hitherto been supposed that the estates of Stobhall and Cargill, on
the Tay, which still belong to the family, came into the possession of the
Drummonds by marriage with this heiress, but they were in reality bestowed
by David II. on Queen Margaret, and were given by her to Malcolm of
Drummond, her nephew.* the first of the numerous fortunate marriages made
by the Drummonds. Maurice, another grandson, married the heiress of
Concraig and of the Stewardship of Strathearn. A second son, SIR MALCOLM,
whom Wyntoun terms 'a manfull knycht, baith wise and wary,' fought at the
battle of Otterburn in 1388, in which his brother-in-law, James, second
Earl of Douglas and Mar, was killed, and succeeded him in the latter
earldom, in right of his wife, Lady Isabel Douglas, only daughter of
William, first Earl of Douglas. He seems to have had some share in the
capture at that battle of Ralph Percy, brother of the famous Hotspur, as
he received from Robert III. a pension of £20, in satisfaction of the
third part of Percy's ransom, which exceeded £600. He died of his 'hard
captivity' which he endured at the hands of a band of ruffians by whom he
was seized and imprisoned. His widow, the heiress of the ancient family of
Mar, was forcibly married by Alexander Stewart, a natural son of 'the Wolf
of Badenoch.'
THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND
CARDROSS.
page 125
DAVID STEWART ERSKINE, eleventh Earl of Buchan, born in 1742. He was
educated at the University of Glasgow, was for a
short time in the army, next tried the diplomatic profession, under the
great Lord Chatham (then Mr. Pitt), and in 1766 was appointed Secretary to
the British Embassy in Spain. He did not, however, proceed to Madrid, and
it was reported at the time that he declined to do so because the
ambassador, Sir James Gray, was a person of inferior social rank.
According to Horace Walpole, the father of Sir James was first a
box-keeper, and then a footman to James VII. Boswell mentions that in
discussing the merits of this question with Sir Alexander Macdonald, Dr.
Johnson observed that, perhaps, in point of interest the young lord did
wrong, but in point of dignity he did well. Sir Alexander held that Lord
Cardross was altogether wrong, and contended that Mr. Pitt meant it as an
advantageous thing to him. 'Why, sir,' said Johnson, 'Mr. Pitt might think
it an [p.125] advantageous thing for him to make him a vintner, and get
him all the Portugal trade; but he would have demeaned himself strangely
had he accepted of such a situation. Sir, had he gone as secretary while
his inferior was ambassador, he would have been a traitor to his rank and
his family.' Boswell's Life of Johnson, iii. p. 111.* Mr. Croker has
justly remarked upon this discussion, 'If this principle were to be
admitted, the young nobility would be excluded from all professions, for
the superiors in the professions would frequently be their inferiors in
personal rank. Would Johnson have dissuaded Lord Cardross from entering on
the military profession, because at his outset he must have been commanded
by a person inferior in personal rank?' Professor Rouet, however, wrote to
his cousin, Baron Mure, 'Cardross does not go to Spain because of the bad
state of his father's health.' But it must be admitted that the other
reason alleged for declining the office was quite in keeping with the
character of the young patrician.
THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND
CARDROSS.
page 130
HENRY ERSKINE was the second son of Henry David, tenth Earl of Buchan, and
brother of the eleventh Earl. He was born in 1746, and received his
education at three of the Scottish universities— namely, St. Andrews,
Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and was called to the Bar
in 1768. He speedily attracted attention by his legal knowledge, the
variety and extent of his accomplishments, his eloquence, his wit, and his
animated and graceful manner. Like his brothers David and Thomas, Henry
Erskine early embraced Liberal principles, and steadfastly adhered to them
through 'good report and bad report.' He was appointed Lord Advocate under
the Coalition Ministry of Mr. Fox and Lord North, and it is gratifying to
state that Henry Dundas, who had previously held that office, wrote him to
say that though he could not approve of the change, he wished him all
health and happiness to enjoy the office, and offered him all the
assistance in his power in the performance of his duties. On the morning
of the appointment Erskine met Dundas in the Outer House, who, observing
that the latter had already resumed the ordinary stuff gown usually worn
by advocates, he said gaily that he must leave off talking to go and order
his silk gown, the official robe of the Lord Advocate. 'It is hardly worth
while,' said Dundas drily, 'for the time you will want it; you had better
borrow mine.' 'From your readiness in making the offer,' replied Erskine,
'I have no doubt that the gown is a gown made to fit any party; but
however short my time in office may be, it shall never be said of Henry
Erskine that he put on the abandoned habits of his predecessor.' He did
not, however, long enjoy his new silk gown. When the short-lived Coalition
Ministry came to an end, Mr. Erskine was succeeded by Mr. Ilay Campbell,
who became afterwards Lord President of the Court of Session. On resigning
his gown, Erskine said to his successor, whose stature was not equal to
his, 'My Lord, you must take nothing off it, for I'll soon need it again.'
Mr. Campbell replied, 'It will be long enough, Harry, before you get it
again.' He did get it again, but not till after twenty years had passed.
THE GRAHAMS.
page 147
The young Earl was only fourteen years of age at the time of his father's
death, in 1626. Two years previously he had been placed under a private
tutor in Glasgow, obviously with the view of
preparing him to enter a university; and in January, 1627, he was enrolled
as an alumnus in the University of St. Andrews. The accounts of his tutor
show that, during the residence of the youthful nobleman at that
celebrated seat of learning, his recreations were riding, hunting,
hawking, archery, and golf. He showed a fondness also for poetry and
chess, and for heroic and romantic histories. The frequent entries in his
accounts of donations to the poor—to a 'rymer,' a dumb woman, a dwarf,
'poor Irishe women,'—show that his purse was always open to the needy.
He was no less liberal to minstrels, morrice-dancers, jugglers, town
officers and drummers, and to the servants 7coachmen, footmen, and
nurses—in the country houses which he visited. He seems, even at this
early period, to have attracted public attention and expectations, for in
a poem by William Lithgow, entitled 'Scotland's Welcome to her Native Son,
and Soveraigne Lord, King Charles,' the Genius of Scotland, addressing the
King, thus refers to the youthful head of the Grahams:—
THE GRAHAMS.
page 156
This crowning victory made Montrose for the time master of Scotland. The
leaders of the Covenanting party fled for refuge to Berwick, and numbers
of the Lowland nobility, who had hitherto stood aloof, now declared in
favour of the royal cause. Montrose proceeded to Glasgow,
which he laid under a heavy contribution, and put to death some of the
principal citizens as incendiaries. The city of Edinburgh sent
commissioners to entreat his clemency. A special commission was sent by
the King, appointing Montrose Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-General of
Scotland, and he issued a proclamation for a new Parliament to meet at Glasgow
in October. From the outset of his career the object which Montrose had
in view was to clear Scotland of the Covenanting forces, and then to
lead his victorious army into England, to the assistance of the King. In
accordance with this plan he now directed his march towards the Borders,
where he expected to be joined by a body of fifteen hundred horse, under
Lord Digby. But the Highlanders, according to their usual custom, now
quitted the army, and returned home for the purpose of depositing their
plunder in a place of security. The Gordons, with their leader, Lord
Aboyne, soon after followed their example, so that, when Montrose began
his march towards the Tweed, his force had dwindled down to a body
scarcely more numerous than when he was wandering through Athole and
Badenoch.
THE GRAHAMS.
page 166
The Duke, who was Chancellor of the University of Glasgow,
died 7th January, 1742. The eldest of his four sons died in infancy. The
second was created a peer of Great Britain by the title of Earl and Baron
Graham of Belford, 23rd May, 1732, with remainder to his brother. He died
unmarried in 1741. The third son—
THE GRAHAMS.
page 167
JAMES, third Duke of Montrose. He represented in the House of Commons,
first the borough of Richmond, in Yorkshire, at the general election of
1780, and subsequently Great Bedwin in 1784. He was appointed one of the
Lords of the Treasury on the formation of the Ministry of Mr. Pitt in
1783, became Paymaster of the Forces in 1789, and one of the Commissioners
of the Indian Board. He was appointed Master of the Horse in 1790—an
office which he resigned for that of Lord Justice-General of Scotland in
1795. He was also President of the Board of Trade, June 10, 1804, and
Joint Postmaster-General, July 13 in the same year. He was removed by the
Ministry of 'All the Talents' in 1806, but on the return of the Tories to
power in the following year, he was again made Master of the Horse, an
office which he held until 1821, when he succeeded the Marquis of Hertford
as Lord Chamberlain. Like his father, he was Chancellor of the University
of Glasgow, and was also Lord-Lieu-tenant of the
counties of Stirling and Dumbarton, in which, before the Reform Bill, his
influence was predominant. He died December 30th, 1836.
THOMAS GRAHAM, LORD
LYNEDOCH.
page 172
In the autumn of 1787, Mrs. Graham happened to be on a visit at Blair, to
the Duchess of Athole, along with their youngest sister, Miss Cathcart,
then in her seventeenth year, when Robert Burns, at that time on a tour in
the Highlands, came with a letter of introduction to the Duke. His Grace
was from home, but the visitor was cordially welcomed by the Duchess, and
the Duke returned before he left Blair. The poet afterwards declared that
the two days (September 1st and 2nd) which he spent there, were among the
happiest days of his life. In a letter which he wrote from Inverness, on
September 5th, to Mr. Walker, afterwards Professor of Humanity, of Glasgow,
who was then residing at Blair Athole, enclosing his well-known 'Humble
Petition of Bruar Water,' the poet says, 'The "little-angel
band"—I declare I prayed for them very sincerely today at the Fall
of Fyers. I shall never forget the fine family-piece I saw at Blair: the
amiable, the truly noble Duchess, with her smiling little seraph in her
lap, at the head of the table; the lovely "olive-plants," as the
Hebrew bard finely says, round the happy mother; the beautiful Mrs.
Graham; the lovely sweet Miss Cathcart, &c. I wish I had the power of
Guido to do them justice.' Sad to tell, these three lovely sisters all
passed away in the flower of their youth. The Duchesssurvived Burns's
visit only three years, and Mrs. Graham five. Miss Cathcart, who was
singularly amiable as well as beautiful, was cut off at twenty-four. And
yet other three members of the Cathcart family lived to a great age. In
order to induce Burns to visit her and her husband at Lynedoch, Mrs.
Graham offered to conduct him to a spot hallowed in Scottish song—the
graves of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, which lie in the bosom of that
romantic estate. Bessie Bell was the daughter of the Laird of Kinnaird,
and Mary Gray of the Laird of Lynedoch.An intimate friendship existed
between them, and when the plague of 1666 broke out, the two young ladies
built themselves a house in a retired and romantic spot, called the
Burnbraes, about three-quarters of a mile westward from Lynedoch House,
where they resided for some time, and were supplied with food by a young
gentleman of Perth, who, it is said, was in love with them both. The
disease wasunfortunately communicated to them by their lover, and proved
fatal. 'The pest came frae the burrowstoun, and slew them baith thegither.'
They were buried in a sequestered spot called the Dronach Haugh, at the
foot of of a brae of the same name, upon the banks of the river Almond.
The beauty and the fate of these 'twa bonnie lasses' arc commemorated in
an old ballad bearing their name.* He promised to do so, and there is
every probability that he performed his promise when he visited Mr. Ramsay
of Auchtertyre in the following October. It is not unworthy of mention
that Lord Lynedoch had a handsome iron railing placed round these
celebrated graves, and caused them to be neatly trimmed, and covered with
wild flowers.
THOMAS GRAHAM, LORD LYNEDOCH.
page 180
At the passage of the Bidassoa, which separates France and Spain, General
Graham commanded the leftwing of the British army, and, after an obstinate
conflict, succeeded in establishing his victorious troops on the French
territory. But the return of the complaint in his eyes, and the general
state of his health, obliged him to resign his command and return home. In
return for his eminent services, he now received a third time the thanks
of Parliament, and the freedom of the cities of London and Edinburgh was
conferred upon him. His health was so far recovered that early in 1814 he
was able to take the command of the British forces in Holland, and
directed the unsuccessful attempt, March 8th, to carry the strong fortress
of Bergen-op-Zoom by a night attack. On the 3rd of May, 1814, he was
raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Lynedoch of Balgowan;
but, in keeping with his disinterested and high-minded character, he
declined the grant of £2,000a year, to himself and to his heirs, which
was voted as usual to accompany the title. Other honours, both British and
foreign, were heaped upon him. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the
Order of St. Michael and St. George, of the Spanish Order of St.
Ferdinand, and of the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword. He was
raised to the full rank of general in 1821, was nominated colonel of the
14th Foot in 1826, which in 1834 he exchanged for that of the Royals. He
was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow,
and in 1829 was appointed Governor of Dumbarton Castle, a post of more
honour than profit, as the salary was only £170 a year.
THE SCOTTS OF BUCCLEUCH.
page 221
HENRY, became third Duke of Buccleuch in 1751, and in 1810 he succeeded to
the titles and large estates of the Queensberry family. He was educated at
Eton, and in 1764 his Grace and his brother, Campbell Scott, set out on
their travels, accompanied by the celebrated Adam Smith, author of the
'Wealth of Nations,' who received an annuity of £300 in compensation for
the salary of his chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow,
which he had of course to resign when he undertook the charge of the young
Duke. Their tour, which lasted nearly three years, afforded an opportunity
to the philosopher and his pupils to become acquainted with Quesnay,
Turgot, D'Alembert, Necker, Marmontel, and others who had attained the
highest eminence in literature and science. The Duke's brother, the Hon.
Campbell Scott, was assassinated in the streets of Paris on the 18th of
October, 1766, and immediately after this sad event his Grace returned to
London. For Adam Smith, who had nursed him during an illness at Compiègne
with remarkable tenderness and assiduous attention, the Duke cherished the
greatest affection and esteem. 'We continued to live in friendship,' he
said, 'till the hour of his death; and I shall always remain with the
impression of having lost a friend, whom I loved and respected not only
for his great talents, but for every private virtue.' It was through the
Duke's influence that Smith was appointed, in 1778, one of the
Commissioners of Customs in Scotland.
THE SCOTTS OF BUCCLEUCH.
page 231
As the Duke advanced in years, tokens of the universal respect in which he
was held were multiplied. While still a youth, the Duke of Wellington
created him a Knight of the Thistle—a distinction which he resigned when
he received the Order of the Garter from Sir Robert Peel in 1834. In
London he was made High Steward of Westminster, and a Governor of the
Charterhouse. In 1841 he was appointed to the Lord-Lieutenancy of
Roxburghshire, in addition to that of Midlothian. In the following year he
had the honour of entertaining the Queen on the occasion of her first
visit to Scotland. As Captain-General of the Royal Company of Archers, it
was his duty to receive, and to be in close attendance, on her Majesty
when she landed at Granton. In recognition of his sympathy with scientific
pursuits and aims, he was elected President of the British Association,
which met at Dundee in September, 1867. He contributed the handsome sum of
£4,000 to the fund for extending the buildings of the Edinburgh
University, for which the senatus expressed their gratitude, along with
their recognition of the Duke's eminent position, and general public
services, by conferring on him, in 1874, the honorary degree of LL.D. His
Grace had previously received the same distinction from his Alma Mater,
while Oxford had bestowed upon him its corresponding degree of D.C.L. He
was President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; and to crown the
honours which he received of this class, on the lamented death of Sir
William Stirling Maxwell, his Grace, with the cordial approval of all
parties, political and ecclesiastical, was chosen Chancellor of the
University of Glasgow.
THE SCOTTS OF HARDEN.
page 246
Raeburn's eldest son, William, at the age of twenty-four, fell in a duel
with Pringle of Crichton, which was fought with swords, near Selkirk, in
1707. The second son, Walter, received a good education at the University
of Glasgow. He was a zealous Jacobite, and was
called 'Beardie,' from a vow which he had made never to shave his beard
till the exiled royal family were restored. Sir Walter Scott says of him
'that it would have been well if his zeal for the banished dynasty of
Stewart had stopped with his letting his beard grow. But he took arms, and
intrigued in their cause, until he lost all he had in the world, and, as I
have heard, ran a narrow risk of being hanged, had it not been for the
interference of Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth.'
THE FRASERS OF LOVAT.
page 286
Lovat's titles and estates were of course forfeited, but the latter were
restored, in 1774, to SIMON FRASER, the eldest son of the rebel lord, who
entered the royal army in 1756, and ultimately attained the rank of
lieutenant-general. At a time when he did not possess an acre of the
Fraser estates, he raised among the clan a regiment of fourteen hundred
men, called the 78th or Fraser Highlanders, and served at their head with
great distinction in America, and especially under General Wolfe, at the
memorable battle on the heights of Abraham, where he commanded the left
wing of the British army. With all his bravery and military skill, General
Fraser does not appear to have commanded much affection or esteem. An old
Highlander in Glasgow, to whom he had failed to
keep his promise, is reported to have said to him, 'As long as you live,
Simon of Lovat will never die.' And Mrs. Grant of Laggan declared that in
him 'a pleasing exterior covered a large share of his father's character,
and that no heart was ever harder, no hands more rapacious, than his.'
THE GORDONS.
page 299
ALEXANDER, third Earl of Huntly, according to Holinshed, was held in the
highest reputation of all the Scottish nobility for his valour, joined
with wisdom and policy. He contributed greatly to the suppression of a
rebellion in the Isles in 1505, and in the following year he stormed the
castle of Stornoway, in Lewis, the stronghold of Torquil Macleod, the
leader of the insurgents. The Earl, along with Lord Home, commanded the
left wing of the Scottish army at the battle of Flodden, 9th September,
1513, and overpowered and threw into disorder the division commanded by
Sir Edward Howard. The Earl and his brother, the Earl of Sutherland, were
among the few Scottish nobles who returned in safety from that fatal
field, but Sir William Gordon of Gight was among the slain, as was also
Alexander Gordon, heir-apparent of Lochinvar. When the Queen-Dowager was
appointed Regent of the kingdom, the Parliament resolved that she should
be guided by the counsels of Huntly, along with Angus and the Archbishop
of Glasgow. During the minority of James V.
Huntly's authority was predominant in the north. When the Duke of Albany
left the country in 1517, the Earl was nominated one of the Council of
Regency, and, in the following year, he was appointed the royal lieutenant
over all Scotland, except the West Highlands. He died at Paris, 16th
January, 1524. By his first wife, a daughter of John, Earl of Athole,
uterine brother of James IV., the Earl had four sons and two daughters. By
his second wife, a daughter of Lord Gray, he had no issue. His eldest
son, George, died young. John, his second son, also predeceased him,
leaving two sons by his wife Margaret, an illegitimate daughter of James
IV. Alexander, his third son, was ancestor of the Gordons of Cluny; and
the fourth, William, was Bishop of Aberdeen from 1547 to his death in
1577.
THE GORDONS.
page 308
It is startling to learn that several of the most costly articles of which
Queen Mary had thus despoiled her unfortunate subject were employed to
deck the apartments in the Kirk of Field which were hastily fitted up for
Darnley when he was brought from Glasgow to the
place selected for his murder. The hall was hung with five pieces of
tapestry, part of the plunder of Strathbogie. The walls of the king's
chamber on the upper floor were hung with six pieces of tapestry, which,
like the hangings of the wall, had been spoiled from the Gordons after
Corrichie. There were two or three cushions of red velvet, a high chair
covered with purple velvet, and a little table with a broad cloth, or
cover of green velvet, also brought from Strathbogie.
THE GORDONS.
page 317
When the tidings of this atrocity reached the capital next morning, the
whole city was immediately in commotion. Loud lamentations were heard on
every side for the death of Moray, who was a great favourite with the
people, and especially with the Presbyterian party, and the King himself
was violently denounced as a participant in the murder. There were various
suspicious circumstances which strengthened the general conviction that
James was not free from guilt in the matter, notwithstanding his public
and solemn protestation of his own innocence. The public indignation grew
so strong and threatening that he withdrew in great alarm to Glasgow;
but he persisted notwithstanding in his determination to screen Huntly. In
a letter which James wrote to him at this crisis, he says, 'Since your
passing herefra, I have been in such danger and perill of my life, as
since I was borne I was never in the like, partlie by the grudging and
tumults of the people, and partlie by the exclamation of the ministrie,
whereby I was moved to dissemble. Alwise I sall remain constant. When you
come heree, come not by the ferries, and if ye doe, accompanie yourself as
yee respect your own preservation.' With the hope of putting a stop to the
loud clamours for justice, James at length made a show of proceeding
against Huntly. The Earl was accordingly summoned to surrender and stand
his trial; and having received from the King a secret assurance of safety,
he at once obeyed, and on the 10th of March, 1592, he entered himself in
ward in the castle of Blackness. But as soon as the popular feeling
against him was somewhat allayed, he was set at liberty, on finding
security to re-enter and stand his trial, when he should be required. No
trial, however, was intended, and none ever took place, and this mockery
of justice was terminated by Huntly obtaining the royal pardon and being
permitted to return to Court.
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