Skip to main content

Full text of "Autobiography, containing memorials of the men and events of his time"

See other formats 


t*i't''tU'uUWi^<':<'i'('(]i'  1-: 


:   r'f$ 

Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.archive.org/details/autobiograpliyconOOcarluoft 


//  /J^^t/'^^-t^^   ^^^'^ 


1^^ 


C^'Z'^ry^^^^^<--*-^\-^^^<^^^^^^ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


THE    REV.    DE    CAELYLE 


\ 


.J       .v\\\ 


\V 


//■    ■  (f  ■ 


(37, 


a.  A/.^Zfyn/7,f}^^^^/  „.^y/a/i/fa:^ iLyn-et^i^fu^  cm  ^77'' 


C^e>Co<3^ 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


REV.  DR  ALEXANDER  OARLYLE 


MINISTER    OF    INVERESK 


OOJiTAlNIHQ 


MEMORIALS    OF    THE    ME>T    AND 
EVENTS    OF   HIS   TIME 


WILLIAM    BLACKWOOD    AND    SONS 

EDINBURGH    AND    LONDON 

MDCCCLX 


ADVERTISEMENT, 


The  reader  will  soon  discover  that  this  is  a  work 
requiring'  no  introduction  to  his  attention.  Indeed, 
whoever  catches  a  glimpse  of  the  attractions  of  the 
interior,  wUl  not  be  disposed  patiently  to  listen  to 
any  details  intended  to  detain  him  on  the  threshold ; 
and  I  have,  therefore,  thought  it  best  to  reserve 
editorial  explanations  for  the  end. 

The  Publishers  did  me  the  honour  to  place  in  my 
hands  the  manuscript  of  the  Autobiography,  and 
several  other  documents,  without  any  restriction  on 
the  extent  to  which  they  should  be  published.  The 
reader  is  entitled  to  explanations  both  as  to  the  nature 
and  condition  of  these  materials,  and  the  manner 
in  which  I  thought  it  fitting  to  execute  the  trust 
confided  to  me.  For  these  explanations  I  refer  to 
the  Supplementary  Chapter. 

J.  H.  BUETON. 
Edinbubgh,  November  1860, 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 
17^-1736:   AGE,  BIRTH  TO  14. 

PAGE 

His  birth — His  father  and  the  family — Precocious  ministerings — Preston- 
pans  and  its  social  circle — Colonel  Charteris — Erskine  of  Grange — Lady 
Grange  and  her  adventiires — Colonel  Gardiner:  Doddridge's  account  of 
his  conversion  corrected — The  Murray  Keiths  —  A  tour  to  Dumfries — 
The  social  habits  of  the  borderers  —  Hanging  of  a  border  thief —  Goes 
to  the  Uniyersity  of  Edinbui^h — First  session — His  teachers  and  com- 
panions— Dr  Witherspoon  of  New  York — Sir  John  Dalrymple — MTjaurin 
the  mathematician,  .......     1-32 

CHAPTER  n. 

173ft-1743:    AGE,  14-21. 

Events  of  the  Porteous  mob — Sees  the  escape  of  Robertson  from  church — 
Present  at  the  execution  of  Wilson,  and  Porteous  firing  on  the  people — 
The  night  of  the  mob — University  studies — Logic — Rise  of  the  medical 
school — Anecdotes  and  adventures — Reminiscences  of  fellow-students — 
Sir  John  Pringle — First  acquaintance  with  Robertson  the  historian  and 
John  Home  the  dramatist — Achievements  in  dancing — Ruddiman  the 
grammarian — Looking  about  for  a  profession — Medicine — The  army — 
The  Church — An  evening's  adventures  with  Lord  Lovat  and  Erskine  of 
Grange — Arrangements  for  studjring  in  Glasgow — Clerical  convivialities 
— Last  session  at  Edinburgh,  ......     33-66 

CHAPTER  lU. 

1743-1745 :   AGE,  21-23. 

Goes  to  Glasgow — Leechman,  Hutcheson,  and  the  other  professors — Life 
and  society  in  Glasgow — Rise  of  trade — Origin  of  Glasgow  suppers — Clubs 
— Hutcheson  the  metaphysician — Simson  and  Stewart  the  mathematicians 
— Moore^Tour  among  the  clergy  of  Haddington :  sketches  of  them — 
The  author  of  "  The  Grave" — Return  to  Glasgow — College  theatricals- 
Travelling  adventures — News  of  the  landing  of  Prince  Charles— A  volun- 
teer corps — Preparations  for  the  defence  of  Edinburgh — The  march  and 
recall  of  the  volunteers— The  Provost's  conduct — Adventures  as  a  dis- 


Vm  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

embodied  volunteer — Adventures  of  John  Home  and  Robertson  the  his- 
torian— Expedition  to  view  Cope's  army — The  position  of  the  two  armies 
— His  last  interview  with  Colonel  Gardiner — Instructions  to  be  wakened 
when  the  battle  begins — Is  wakened,  and  description  of  what  he  sees 
—  The  battle  —  Incidents  —  Inspection  of  the  Highland  army  —  Prince 
Charles — Preparations  for  going  to  Holland,       ....     67-155 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1745-1746:   AGE,  23-24. 

Sets  off  for  Holland  —A  corporation  dinner  at  Newcastle — Adventures  at 
Yarmouth — Ley  den  and  the  students  there — John  Gregory — John  Wilkes 
— Immateriality  Baxter  —  Charles  Townshend  —  Dr  Aitken  —  Return  to 
Britain — Fellow-passengers — Violetti  the  dancer — Taken  to  court — Lon- 
don society — The  Lyons — Lord  Heathfield — Smollett  and  John  Blair — 
Suppers  at  the  Golden  Ball — London  getting  the  news  of  the  battle  of 
Culloden — William  Guthrie  and  Anson's  voyages— Byron's  nawative— 
The  theatres  and  theatrical  celebrities — Literary  society — Thomson — 
Armstrong-Seeker,         .......     156-197 

CHAPTER  V. 

1746-1748 :   AGE,  24-26. 

Return  to  Scotland — English  scenery — Windsor — Oxford — Travelling  adven- 
tures— Presented  to  the  church  of  Cockburnspath — Subsequently  settled 
at  Inveresk — His  settlement  there  prophesied  and  foreordained — Anec- 
dotes— Anthony  Collins — Social  life  in  Inveresk  and  Musselburgh — Eng- 
lish notion  that  the  Scots  have  no  humour— John  Home — Sketch  of  the 
assistant  at  Inveresk,       .......     198-225 

CHAPTER  VI. 

1748-1753:    AGE,  26-31. 

Ecclesiastical  matters — The  affair  of  George  Logan— Sketches  of  the  clergy 
— Webster — Wallace — Contemporary  history  of  the  Church — The  "Mode- 
rates" and  the  "Wild"  party — The  patronage  question — Riding  commit- 
tees— Revolution  in  Church  polity,  and  Carlyle's  share  in  it— Sketches  of 
leaders  in  the  Assembly — Lord  Islay,  Marchmont,  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot — 
Principal  Tullidelph, 226-257 

CHAPTER  VII. 

1753-1756:    AGE,  31-34. 

Sketches  of  society — Lord  Milton — Lady  Hervey — Smollett's  visit — Cullen's 
mimicries— Notices  aad  anecdotes  of  David  Hume,  Adam  Smith,  Adam 
Ferguson,  Dr  Robertson,  Dr  Blair,  John  Home  —Foundation  of  the  Select 
Society — Completion  of  the  tragedy  of  "  Douglas" — Adventures  of  its 
author  and  his  friends  in  conveying  it  to  London — Admiral  Byng— The 
Carriers'  Inn,        ........     258-309 


CONTENTS.  IX 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
1756-1758:   AGE,  34-36. 

PAGE 

Preparations  for  acting  the  tragedy  of  "Douglas"  in  Edinburgh — The 
rehearsal — The  success — Carlyle  attends — A  war  of  pamphlets — Removed 
into  the  Church  Courts — The  '•  Libel"  against  Carlyle — The  ecclesiastical 
conflict — Characteristics  of  the  combatants — The  clei^y  of  Scotland  and 
the  stage— Conduct  of  Dundas  and  Wedderbum — Home  and  his  success 
— Archibald  Duke  of  Argyle  and  his  habits,      ....     310-332 

CHAPTER   IX. 

1758:   AGE,  36. 

Finds  Robertson  in  London  about  his  histoiy — Home  joins  them — Their 
friends  and  adventures  —  Chatham  —  John  Blair  the  mathematician  — 
Bishop  Douglas — Smollett  and  his  levee  of  authors — A  day  with  Garrick 
at  his  villa — Feats  at  golf  there — A  Methodist  meeting-house — The  clergy 
of  Scotland  and  the  Window-tax — Adam  the  architect— An  expedition 
to  Portsmouth — Adventures  by  land  and  sea — Meeting  with  Lord  Bute — 
The  journey  home  —Oxford — Woodstock  —  Blenheim — Birmingham — 
Lord  Littleton — Shenstone  at  the  Leasowes,     ....     333-377 

CHAPTER  X. 

1758-1759 :    AGE,  36-37. 

Visit  to  Invei-ary — Pamphlet  in  defence  of  Chatham — Charles  Townshend 
and  the  hospitalities  of  Dalkeith  —  A  story  of  a  haimch  of  venison  — 
Wilkie  of  the  "  Epigoniad"  —A  corporation  row  in  Dumfries^ —  Andrew 
Crosbie— Ossian  Macpherson — The  militia  pamphlet,  .  .     378-401 

CHAPTER  XI. 

1760-1763:    AGE,  38-41. 

His  marriage  —  Sentimental  retrospects  —  Present  happiness  —  Adam  Fer- 
guson and  sister  Peg — Death  of  Greorge  IL  and  the  Duke  of  Argyle — 
Change  in  the  administration  of  Scotch  affairs — Newcastle  and  its  society 
in  17150 — The  Edinburgh  Poker  Club — Lord  Elibank's  sentimental  adven- 
tm-es — Dr  Robertson  and  the  leadership  of  the  Church  of  Scotland — Har- 
rogate and  the  company  there  -Andrew  Millar  the  bookseller — Benjamin 
Franklin— Lord  Clive,      .......     402-444 

CHAPTER  XII. 

1764-1766:   AGE,  42-44. 

Domestic  affairs — Henry  Dundas — Harrogate  revisited — Adventures  with  a 
remarkable  bore — The  author  of  "  Crazy  Tales  " — Ambassador  Keith — 
Education  of  the  Scots  gentry — John  Gregory — Mrs  Montague  and  her 
coterie — Death  of  the  author's  father— Sudden  death  of  his  friend  Jardine 
— Church  politics,  .......     445-469 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

1766-1768:    AGE,  44-46. 


PAGE 


Visit  to  Lord  Glasgow  with  Robertson  —  Convivialities  —  Synod  business 
—  Dr  Armstrong — An  excursion  to  Tweeddale  and  across  the  border — 
Adventures  in  Carlisle  —  The  Duke  of  Buccleuch  and  festivities  at  Dal- 
keith— Adam  Smith  there — Professor  Millar  of  Glasgovr,  .    470-495 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

1769-1770:    AGE,  47-48. 

The  clergy  of  Scotland  and  the  Window-tax — Carlyle  appointed  their  cham- 
pion— Sojourn  in  London — The  Scotch  dancing  assembly— The  Church  of 
Scotland's  claims  to  consideration  —  Negotiations  with  statesmen  —  Dr 
Dodd  preaching  to  the  Magdalens — The  career  of  Colonel  Dow — Anec- 
dotes of  Wolfe  and  Quebec — Garrick  and  John  Home's  plays — Decision  of 
the  Douglas  Cause— Lord  Mansfield — The  Excitement — Conversation  at 
Mrs  Montague's — The  return  home — Back  to  London  about  the  Window- 
tax — Anecdotes  of  the  formation  of  the  North  Ministry — Conclusion,      496-635 

SUPPLEMENTARY   CHAPTER. 

His  correspondence  on  Church  matters — His  influence — His  lighter  corres- 
pondence —  The  great  contest  of  the  clerkship  —  The  augmentation 
question — Politics — Collins' s  Ode  on  the  superstition  of  the  Highlands 
— Carlyle  and  poetry — Domestic  history — His  personal  appearance — The 
composition  of  his  autobiography — Condition  and  editing  of  the  manu- 
scripts— His  last  days— His  death,        .....     536-576 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


DPt    ALEXANDER    CARLYLE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

1722-1736  — AGE,   BIRTH  TO   14. 

HIS  BIRTH HIS  FATHER  AND  THE  FAMILY PRECOCIOUS  MINISTERIXGS 

PRESTOXPAXS  AND  ITS  SOCIAL   CIRCLE COLONTX    CHARTERIS 

ERSKINE     OF    GRANGE LADY    GRANGE   AND    HER    ADVENTURES 

COLONEL    GARDINER  :    DODDRIDGe's  ACCOUNT    OF   HIS   CONVERSION- 
CORRECTED THE    MURRAY     KEITHS A    TOUR    TO    DUMFRIES 

THE     SOCIAL      HABITS      OF     THE     BORDERERS  HANGING     OP     A 

BORDER     THIEF GOES    TO    THE     UNIVERSITY    OF    EDINBURGH 

FIRST     SESSION HIS    TEACHERS    AND    COMPANIONS DR    WITHER- 

SPOON    OF   NEW     YORK — SIR    JOHN    DALRYMPLE — M'LAURIN   THE 
MATHEMATICIAN. 

Musselburgh,  Jan.  26.  1800. 
Having  observed  liow  carelessly,  and  consequently 
how  falsely,  history  is  w  ritten,  I  have  long  resolved  to 
note  down  certain  facts  within  my  own  knowledge, 
under  the  title  of  Anecdotes  and  Characters  of  the 
TiTfies,  that  may  be  subservient  to  a  future  historian, 
if  not  to  embellish  his  page,  yet  to  keep  him  within 
the  bounds  of  truth  and  certainty. 

A 


2  CHILDHOOD. 

I  have  been  too  late  in  beginning  tliis  work,  as  on 
this  very  day  I  enter  on  the  seventy-ninth  year  of  my 
age ;  which  circumstance,  as  it  renders  it  not  improbable 
that  I  may  be  stopped  short  in  the  middle  of  my 
annals,  will  undoubtedly  make  it  difficult  for  me  to 
recall  the  memory  of  many  past  transactions  in  my 
long  life  with  that  precision  and  clearness  which  such 
a  work  requires.  But  I  will  admit  of  no  more  excuses 
for  indolence  or  procrastination,  and  endeavour  (with 
God's  blessing)  to  serve  posterity,  to  the  best  of  my 
ability,  with  such  a  faithful  picture  of  times  and 
characters  as  came  within  my  view  in  the  humble  and 
private  sphere  of  life,  in  comparison  with  that  of  many 
others,  in  which  I  have  always  acted ;  remembering, 
however,  that  in  whatever  sphere  men  act,  the  agents 
and  instruments  are  still  the  same,  viz.  the  faculties 
and  passions  of  human  nature. 

The  first  characters  which  I  could  discriminate  were 
those  of  my  own  family,  which  I  was  able  to  mark  at 
a  very  early  age.  My  father  was  of  a  moderate 
understanding,  of  ordinary  learning  and  accomplish- 
ments for  the  times,  for  he  was  born  in  1690  ;  of  a 
warm,  open,  and  benevolent  temper ;  most  faithful 
and  diligent  in  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  an  ortho- 
dox and  popular  orator.  He  was  entirely  beloved 
and  much  caressed  by  the  whole  parish.*  My  mother 
was  a  person  of  superior  understanding,  of  a  calm  and 
firm  temper,  of  an  elegant  and  reflecting  mind  ;  and 
considering  that  she  was  the  eldest  of  seven  daughters 

*  He  was  minister  of  the  itarish  of  Prcston])ans. 


THE    FAMILY.  3 

and  three  sons  of  a  country  clergyman,  near  Dum- 
fries, and  was  born  in  1700,  she  had  received  an 
education,  and  improved  by  it,  far  beyond  what  could 
have  been  expected.  Good  sense,  however,  and  dignity 
of  conduct,  were  her  chief  attributes.  The  effect  of 
this  was,  that  she  was  as  much  respected  as  my  father 
was  beloved. 

They  were  in  very  narrow  circumstances  till  the 
stipend  was  largely  augmented  in  the  year  1732. 
Two  of  the  judges,  who  were  his  heritors.  Lords 
Grange  and  Drummore,  came  down  from  the  bench 
and  pleaded  his  cause.*  And  the  estate  of  the  patron, 
then  Morison  of  Prestongrange,  being  under  seques- 
tration, it  was  with  little  difficidty  that  a  greater 
augmentation  than  was  usual  at  that  period  was 
obtained  ;  for  the  stipend  was  raised  by  it  from  £70 
to  <£140  per  annum. 

In  the  year  1 729,  the  good  people  had  a  visit  from 
London  that  proved  expensive  and  troublesome.  It 
was  Mrs  Lyon,  a  sister  of  my  father's,  and  her  son  and 
daughter.  Her  deceased  husband  was  Mr  Lyon  of 
Easter  Ogill,  a  branch  of  the  Strathmore  family,  who 
had  been  in  the  EebeUion  1715,  and,  havino^  been 
pardoned,  had  attempted  to  carry  on  business  in 
London,  but  was  riuned  in  the  South  Sea.f  This 
lady,  who  came  down  on  business,  after  a  few  weeks 
w^ent  into  lodgings  in  Edinburgh,  where  she  lost  her 


*  His  heritors— that  is  to  say,  proimetors  of  land  in  his  parish  liable  to 
contribute  to  the  {ayment  of  his  stipend. — Ed. 
t  Viz.,  the  South-Sea  Scheme. 


4  THE   FAMILY. 

daughter  iu  the  smallpox,  and  soon  after  returned 
to  my  father's,  where  she  remained  for  some  months. 
She  was  young  and  beautiful,  and  vain,  not  so  much 
of  her  person  (to  which  she  had  a  good  title)  as  of  her 
husband's  great  family,  to  which  she  annexed  her  own, 
and,  by  a  little  stretch  of  imagination  and  a  search 
into  antiquity,  made  it  great  also.  Her  son,  who  was 
a  year  and  a  half  older  than  myself,  was  very  hand- 
some and  good-natured,  though  much  indulged.  My 
father  was  partial  to  him,  and  I  grew  a  little  jealous. 
But  the  excess  of  his  mother's  fondness  soon  cured  my 
father  of  his ;  and  as  I  was  acknowledged  to  be  the 
better  scholar  of  the  two,  I  soon  lost  all  uneasiness, 
and  came  to  love  my  cousin  most  sincerely,  though 
he  intercepted  many  of  the  good  things  that  I  should 
have  got. 

Not  long  after  this,  another  sister  of  my  father's 
came  down  from  London,  who  was  a  widow  also,  but 
had  no  children.  She  staid  with  us  for  a  year,  and 
during  that  time  taught  me  to  read  English,  with 
just  pronunciation  and  a  very  tolerable  accent — an 
accomplishment  which  in  those  days  was  very  rare. 
Long  before  she  came  down,  I  had  been  taught  to 
read  by  an  old  woman,  who  kept  a  school,  so  per- 
fectly, that  at  six  years  of  age  I  had  read  a  large 
portion  of  the  Bible  to  a  dozen  of  old  women,  who 
had  been  excluded  the  church  by  a  crowed  which 
had  made  me  leave  it  also,  and  whom  I  observed  sit- 
ting on  the  outside  of  a  door,  where  they  could  not 
hear.      Upon  this  I  proposed  to  read  a  portion  of 


PRESTONPANS — COLONEL   CHARTERIS.  5 

Scripture  to  them,  to  which  they  agreed,  and  set  me 
on  a  tombstone,  whence  I  read  verj-  audibly  to  a  con- 
gregation, which  increased  to  about  a  score,  the  whole 
of  the  Song  of  Solomon.  This  would  not  deserve  to 
be  notod,  but  for  the  effect  it  had  afterwards. 

There  lived  in  the  town  and  parish  of  Prestonpans 
at  this  time  several  respectable  and  wealthy  people — 
such  as  the  Mathies,  the  Hogs,  the  Youngs,  and  the 
Shirreffs.  There  still  remained  some  foreiorn  trade, 
though  their  shipping  had  been  reduced  from  twenty 
to  half  the  number  since  the  Union,  which  put  an  end 
to  the  foreign  trade  in  the  ports  of  the  Firth  of  Forth. 
There  was  a  custom-house  established  here,  the  supe- 
rior officers  of  which,  with  their  families,  added  to  the 
mercantile  class  which  still  remained,  made  a  respect- 
able society  enough. 

The  two  great  men  of  the  parish,  however,  were 
Morison  of  Prestongrange,  the  patron,  and  the  Hon- 
ourable James  Erskine  of  Grange,  one  of  the  Supreme 
Judges.  The  first  was  elected  Member  of  Parliament 
for  East  Lothian  in  the  first  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain,  although  the  celebrated  Andrew  Fletcher  of 
Saltoun  was  the  other  candidate.  But  Government 
took  part  with  Morison,  and  Fletcher  had  only  nine 
votes.  Morison  had  been  very  rich,  but  had  suffered 
himself  to  be  stripped  by  the  famous  gambler  of  those 
times.  Colonel  Charteris,  whom  I  once  saw  with  him 
in  church,  when  I  was  five  or  six  years  of  age ;  and 
being  fully  impressed  with  the  popular  opinion  that 
he  was  a  wizard,  who  had  a  fascinating  power,  I  never 


6  COLONEL   CHARTERIS. 

once  took  my  eyes  off  him  during  the  whole  service, 
beheving  that  I  should  be  a  dead  man  the  moment  I 
did.  This  Colonel  Charteris  was  of  a  very  ancient 
family  in  Dumfriesshire,  the  first  of  whom,  being  one 
of  the  followers  of  Robert  Bruce,  had  acquired  a  great 
estate,  a  small  part  of  which  is  still  in  the  family. 
The  colonel  had  been  otherwise  well  connected,  for  he 
was  cousin- german  to  Sir  Francis  Kinloch,  and,  when 
a  boy,  was  educated  with  him  at  the  village  school. 
Many  stories  were  told  of  him,  which  would  never 
have  been  heard  of  had  he  not  afterwards  been  so 
much  celebrated  in  the  annals  of  infamy.  He  was  a 
great  profligate,  no  doubt,  but  there  have  been  as  bad 
men  and  greater  plunderers  than  he  was,  who  have 
escaped  with  little  public  notice.  But  he  was  one  of 
the  Eunners  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  and  defended  him 
in  all  places  of  resort,  which  drew  the  wrath  of  the 
Tories  upon  him,  and  particularly  sharpened  the  pens 
of  Pope  and  Arbuthnot  against  him.  For  had  it  not 
been  for  the  w^itty  epitaph  of  the  latter,  Charteris 
might  have  escaped  in  the  crowd  of  gamesters  and 
debauchees,  who  are  only  railed  at  by  their  pigeons, 
and  soon  fall  into  total  oblivion.  This  simple  gentle- 
man's estate  [Morison's]  soon  went  under  seques- 
tration for  the  payment  of  his  debts.  He  was  so 
imaginary  and  credulous  as  to  believe  that  close  by 
his  creek  of  Morison's  Haven  was  the  place  where  St 
John  wrote  the  Apocalypse,  because  some  old  vaults 
had  been  discovered  in  digging  a  mill-race  for  a  mill 
that  went  by  sea-water.     This  had  probably  been  put 


LORD   AXD    LADY   GRANGE.  7 

iuto  his  head  by  the  annual  meeting  of  the  oldest 
lodge  of  operative  masons  in  Scotland  at  that  place 
on  St  John's  Day. 

IMy  Lord  Grange  was  the  leading  man  in  the  parish, 
and  had  brought  my  father  to  Prestonpans  from  Cum- 
bertrees  in  his  native  county  Annandale,  where  he  had 
been  settled  for  four  years,  and  where  I  was  born. 
Lord  Grange  was  Justice-Clerk  in  the  end  of  Queen 
Anne's  reign,  but  had  been  dismissed  from  that  office 
in  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  George  I.,  when  his 
brother,  the  Earl  of  Mar,  lost  the  Secretary  of  State's 
office,  which  he  had  held  for  some  years.  After  this, 
and  during  the  Rebellion,  Lord  Grange  kept  close  at 
his  house  of  Preston,  on  an  estate  which  he  had  re- 
cently bought  from  the .  heirs  of  a  Dr  Oswald,  but 
which  had  not  long  before  been  the  family  estate  of  a 
very  ancient  cadet  of  the  family  of  Hamilton.  Dur- 
ing the  Rebellion,  and  some  time  after,  Lord  Grange 
amused  himself  in  laying  out  and  planting  a  fine 
garden,  in  the  style  of  those  times,  full  of  close  walks 
and  labyrinths  and  wildernesses,  which,  though  it  did 
not  occupy  above  four  or  five  acres,  cost  one  at  least 
two  hours  to  perambulate.  This  garden  or  pleasure- 
ground  was  soon  brought  to  perfection  by  his  defend- 
ing it  from  the  westerly  and  south-westerly  winds  by 
hedges  of  common  elder,  which  in  a  few  years  were 
above  sixteen  feet  high,  and  completely  sheltered  all 
the  interior  grounds.  This  garden  continued  to  be 
an  object  of  curiosity  down  to  the  year  1740,  insomuch 
that  flocks  of  company  resorted  to  it  from  Edinburgh, 


8  LORD    AND    LADY   GRANGE. 

during  the  summer,  on  Saturdays  and  Mondays  (for 
Sunday  was  not  at  that  time  a  day  of  pleasure),  and 
were  highly  gratified  by  the  sight,  there  being  nothing 
at  that  time  like  it  in  Scotland,  except  at  Alloa,  the 
seat  of  the  Earl  of  Mar,  of  which  indeed  it  was  a 
copy  in  miniature. 

My  Lady  Grange  was  Rachel  Chiesly,  the  daughter 
of  Chiesly  of  Dairy,  the  person  who  shot  President 
Lockhart  in  the  dark,  when  standing  within  the  head 
of  a  close  in  the  Lawnmarket,  because  he  had  voted 
against  him  in  a  cause  depending  before  the  Court.* 
He  was  the  son  or  grandson  of  a  Chiesly,  who,  in 
Baillies  Letters,  is  called  Man  to  the  famous  Mr  Alex- 
ander Henderson ;  that  is  to  say,  secretary,  for  he 
accompanied  Mr  Henderson  on  his  journey  to  London, 
and  having  met  the  Court  somewhere  on  their  way, 
Chiesly  was  knighted  by  Charles  L  ;  so  that,  being  a 
new  family,  they  must  have  had  few  relations,  which, 
added  to  the  atrocious  deed  of  her  father,  had  made 
the  public  very  cool  in  the  interest  of  Lady  Grange. 
This  lady  had  been  very  beautiful,  but  was  of  a  violent 
temper.  She  had,  it  was  said,  been  debauched  by  her 
husband  before  marriage  ;  and  as  he  was  postponing 


*  It  was  not,  strictly  speaking,  a  decision  of  the  Conrt  that  infuriated 
Chiesly,  but  a  finding  in  an  arbitration.  He  was  desirous,  and  thought 
himself  entitled,  to  leave  his  wife,  with  whona  he  had  quarrelled,  and  his 
children,  to  starve.  The  question  of  liis  liability  for  their  support  having 
been  referred  to  President  Lockhart  and  Lord  Kemnay,  they  found  him 
boimd  to  make  his  family  an  allowance.  It  may  be  proper  to  exjJain  that 
Grange  and  his  wife  were  not  Lord  and  Lady  in  the  English  sense,  as  a  jwer 
and  peeress,  but  by  the  custom  of  Scotland,  which  gives  "  Lord"  to  a  judge, 
and  used  to  give  "  Lady"  to  the  wife  of  a  landed  i)roprietor.  — Ed. 


LORD    AND    LADY    GRANGE.  9 

or  evading  the  performance  of  his  promise  to  marry 
her,  it  was  believed  that,  by  threatening  his  life,  she 
had  obtained  the  fulfilment  of  it. 

It  was  Lord  Grange's  custom  to  go  frequently  to 
London  in  the  spring ;  and  though  he  seemed  quiet  and 
inactive  here,  it  was  supposed  that  he  resented  his 
having  been  turned  out  of  the  Justice-Clerk's  office  in 
1714,  and  might  secretly  be  carrying  on  plots  when 
at  London.  Be  that  as  it  may,  he  had  contracted 
such  a  violent  aversion  at  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  that 
having,  by  intrigue  and  hypocrisy,  secured  a  majority 
of  the  district  of  burg-hs  of  which  Stirlinor  is  the 
chief,  he  threw  up  his  seat  as  a  Judge  in  the  Court  of 
Session,  was  elected  member  for  that  district,  and 
went  to  London  to  attend  Parliament,  and  to  overturn 
Sir  Robert  Walpole,  not  merely  in  his  own  opinion, 
but  in  the  opinion  of  many  who  were  dupes  to  his 
cunning,  and  his  pretensions  to  abilities  that  he  had 
not.*  But  his  first  appearance  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons undeceived  his  sanguine  friends,  and  silenced 
him  for  ever.  He  chose  to  make  his  maiden  speech 
on  the  Witches  BiU,  as  it  was  called  ;  and  being 
learned  in  deemonologia,  with  books  on  which  subject 
his  library  was  filled,  he  made  a  long  canting  speech 
that  set  the  House  in  a  titter  of  laughter,  and  convinced 
Sir  Robert  that  he  had  no  need  of  any  extraordinary 
armour  against  this  champion  of  the  house  of  jMar.t 

*  A  Bill  to  regulate  elections  in  Scotland  vras  then  passing,  and  Walpole 
addetl  to  it  a  clause  disqiialif  j-ing  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Session  from  sitting 
in  Parliament,  for  the  piirjjose,  it  was  said,  of  keeping  Erskine  out. — Ed. 

t  The  ' '  Act  to  repeal  the  statute  made  in  the  firet  year  of  King  James  I. , 


10  LORD   AND   LADY   GRANGE. 

The  truth  was,  that  the  man  had  neither-  learning  nor 
ability.  He  was  no  lawyer,  and  he  was  a  bad  speaker. 
He  had  been  raised  on  the  shoulders  of  his  brother, 
the  Earl  of  Mar,  in  the  end  of  the  Queen's  reign,  but 
had  never  distinguished  himself.  In  the  General  As- 
sembly  itself,  which  many  gentlemen  afterwards  made 
a  school  of  popular  eloquence,  and  where  he  took  the 
high-flying  side  that  he  might  annoy  Government,  his 
appearances  were  but  rare  and  unimpressive  ;  but  as 
he  was  understood  to  be  a  great  plotter,  he  was  sup- 
posed to  reserve  himself  for  some  greater  occasions. 

In  Mr  Erskine's  annual  visits  to  London,  he  had 
attached  himself  to  a  mistress,  a  handsome  Scotch- 
woman, Fanny  Lindsay,  who  kept  a  coffeehouse  about 
the  bottom  of  the  Hay  market.  This  had  come  to  his 
lady's  ears,  and  did  not  tend  to  make  her  less  out- 
rageous. He  had  taken  every  method  to  soothe  her. 
As  she  loved  command,  he  had  made  her  factor  upon 
his  estate,  and  given  her  the  whole  management  of 
his  affairs.  When  absent,  he  wrote  her  the  most 
flattering  letters,  and,  what  was  still  more  flattering, 

intituled  'An  Act  against  Conjuration,  Witchcraft,  and  dealing  with 
evil  and  wicked  Spirits,  except  so  much  thereof,"  &c.,  was  passed  early 
in  the  session  of  1735.  Unfortunately,  we  have  no  account  of  any  debate 
on  the  measiire,  and  thus  lose  Erskine's  speech,  which  was  probably  ciu-ioup, 
for  the  vulgar  superstitions  of  the  day  seem  to  have  taken  fast  hold  on  him, 
and  his  diary  is  fidl  of  dreams,  prognostics,  and  commimings  with  ]>ersons 
sui)ematurally  gifted.  The  tenor  of  his  "canting  sjieech"  may  perhaps  be 
inferred  from  the  following  testimony  borne  in  1743  against  the  same  Bill, 
by  the  Associate  Presbj-tery :  "  The  penal  statutes  against  witches  have 
been  repealed  by  the  Parliament,  contrary  to  the  express  law  of  God; 
by  which  a  holy  God  may  be  provoked,  in  a  way  of  righteous  judgment,  to 
leave  those  who  are  already  ensnared  to  be  hardened  more  and  more,  and 
to  permit  Satan  to  temjit  and  seduce  others  to  the  same  wicked  and  danger- 
ous snares." — Ed. 


LORD    AND   LADY   GRANGE.  11 

he  was  said,  when  present,  to  have  imparted  secrets 
to  her,  which,  if  disclosed,  might  have  reached  his  life. 
Still  she  was  unquiet,  and  led  him  a  miserable  life. 
What  was  true  is  uncertain  ;  for  though  her  outward 
appearance  was  stormy  and  outrageous.  Lord  Grange 
not  improbably  exaggerated  the  violence  of  her  behav- 
iour to  his  faraiUar  friends  as  an  apology  for  what  he 
afterwards  did ;  for  he  alleged  to  them  that  his  life 
was  hourly  in  danger,  and  that  she  slept  with  lethal 
weapons  under  her  pillow.  He  once  showed  my  father 
a  razor  which  he  had  found  concealed  there. 

Whatever  might  be  the  truth,  he  executed  one  oi 
the  boldest  and  most  violent  projects  that  ever  had 
been  attempted  since  the  nation  was  governed  by 
laws ;  for  he  seized  his  lady  in  his  house  in  Edin- 
burgh, and  by  main  force  carried  her  off  through 
Stirling  to  the  Highlands,  whence,  after  several  weeks, 
she  was  at  last  landed  in  St  Kilda,  a  desolate  isle  in 
the  Western  Ocean,  sixty  miles  distant  from  the  Long 
Island.  There  she  continued  to  live  to  the  end  of  her 
days,  which  was  not  before  the  year  17 — ,  in  the  most 
wretched  condition,  in  the  society  of  none  but  sav- 
ages, and  often  with  scanty  provision  of  the  coarsest 
fare,  and  but  rarely  enjoying  the  comfort  of  a  pound 
of  tea,  which  she  sometimes  got  from  shipmasters  who 
accidentally  called.*      Lord  Granges  accomplices  in 

*  She  was  carried  oflF  in  1732 ;  and  after  being  detainetl  about  two  years 
in  the  small  island  of  Hesker,  was  conveyed  to  St  EUda.  On  the  affair 
getting  wind,  she  was  afterwards  removed  to  Harris,  where  she  died  in  1745, 
before  the  arrangements  for  oljtaining  her  release,  and  a  full  inquiry  into  the 
aSbir,  could  be  completed.— Ed. 


12  LORD   AND   LADY   GRANGE. 

this  atrocious  act  were  believed  to  be  Lord  Lovat  and 
the  Laird  of  M'Leod,  the  first  as  being  the  most  famous 
plotter  in  the  kingdom,  and  the  second  as  equally 
unprincipled,  and  the  proprietor  of  the  island  of  St 
Kilda.  What  was  most  extraordinary  was,  that,  except 
in  conversation  for  a  few  weeks  only,  this  enormous 
act,  committed  in  the  midst  of  the  metropolis  of  Scot- 
land by  a  person  who  had  been  Lord  Justice-Clerk, 
was  not  taken  the  least  notice  of  by  any  of  her  own 
family,  or  by  the  King's  Advocate  or  Solicitor,  or  any 
of  tlie  guardians  of  the  laws.  Two  of  her  sons  were 
grown  up  to  manhood — her  eldest  daughter  was  the 
wife  of  the  Earl  of  Kintore — who  acquiesced  in  what 
they  considered  as  a  necessary  act  of  justice  for  the 
preservation  of  their  father's  life.  Nay,  the  second 
son  was  supposed  to  be  one  of  the  persons  who  came 
masked  to  the  house,  and  carried  her  off  in  a  chair  to 
the  place  where  she  was  set  on  horseback. 

This  artful  man,  by  cant  and  hypocrisy,  persuaded 
all  his  intimate  friends  that  this  act  was  necessary 
for  the  preservation  of  her  life  as  well  as  of  his  ; 
and  that  it  was  only  confining  a  mad  woman  in  a 
place  of  safety,  where  she  was  tenderly  cared  for,  and 
for  whom  he  professed  not  merely  an  afiectionate  re- 
gard, but  the  most  passionate  love.  It  was  many  years 
afterwards  before  it  w^as  known  that  she  had  been  sent 
to  such  a  horrid  place  as  St  Kilda  ;  and  it  was  gene- 
rally believed  that  she  was  kept  comfortably,  though  in 
confinement,  in  some  castle  in  the  Highlands  belonging 
to  Lovat  or  M'Leod.     The  public  in  general,  though 


LORD   AND   LADY    GRANGE.  13 

clamorous  enough,  could  take  no  step,  seeing  that  the 
fiimily  were  not  displeased,  and  supposing  that  Lord 
Grange  had  satisfied  the  Justice-Clerk  and  other  high 
officers  of  the  law  with  the  propriety  of  his  conduct. 

From  what  I  could  learn  at  the  time,  and  after- 
wards came  to  know.  Lord  Grange  was  in  one  respect 
a  character  not  unlike  Cromwell  and  some  of  his  asso- 
ciates— a  real  enthusiast,  but  at  the  same  time  licen- 
tious in  his  morals. 

He  had  my  father  very  frequently  with  him  in  the 
evenings,  and  kept  him  to  very  late  hours.  They 
were  imderstood  to  pass  much  of  their  time  in  prayer, 
and  in  settling  the  high  points  of  Calvinism ;  for  their 
creed  was  that  of  Geneva.  Lord  Grange  was  not  un- 
entertaining  in  conversation,  for  he  had  a  great  many 
anecdotes  which  he  related  agreeably,  and  was  fair- 
complexioned,  good-looking,  and  insinuating. 

After  those  meetings  for  private  prayer,  however, 
in  which  they  passed  several  hours  before  supper, 
praying  alternately,  they  did  not  part  without  wine ; 
for  my  mother  used  to  complain  of  their  late  hours, 
and  suspected  that  the  claret  had  flowed  liberally.* 

*  Those  meetings  might  partly  be  calculated  to  keep  Grange  free  of  his 
wife's  company,  which  was  always  stormy  and  outrageoiis.  I  remember  well 
that  when  I  was  invited  on  Saturdays  to  pass  the  afternoon  with  the  two 
youngest  daughters,  Jean  and  Rachel,  and  their  younger  brother  John,  who 
was  of  my  age,  then  about  six  or  seven,  although  they  had  a  well  fitted-up 
closet  for  children's  play,  we  always  kept  alternate  watch  at  the  dot)r,  lest 
my  lady  should  come  suddenly  upon  us ;  which  was  needless,  as  I  observed 
to  them,  for  her  clamour  was  sufQciently  loud  as  she  came  through  the 
rooms  and  passages. 

In  the  "Recollections"  there  is  the  following  account  of  an  interview 
with  the  lady  : — 

"  I  had  travelled  half  a  mile  westwards  to  the  Red  Bum,  which  divides 


14  LORD   AND    LADY   GRAKGE. 

Notwithstanding  this  intimacy,  there  were  periods  of 
half  a  year  at  a  time  when  there  was  no  intercourse 
between  them  at  all.  My  father's  conjecture  was, 
that  at  those  times  he  was  engaged  in  a  course  of  de- 

Prestonpans  from  its  siibvirbs  the  Cuthill,  and  was  hovering  on  the  brink  of 
this  river,  uncertain  whether  or  not  I  should  venture  over.  In  this  state  I 
v/as  met  by  a  coach,  which  stopped,  and  which  was  under  the  command  of 
Lady  Grange.  She  ordered  her  footman  to  seize  me  directly  and  pxit  me 
into  the  coach.  It  was  in  vain  to  fly,  so  I  was  flmig  into  her  coach  reluc- 
tant and  sidky.  She  tried  to  soothe  me,  but  it  would  not  do.  She  had 
provoked  me  on  the  Sunday,  by  telling  my  father  that  I  played  myself  at 
church,  that  she  had  detected  me  smUing  at  her  son  John  (exactly  of  my 
age),  and  trying  to  wiite  with  my  finger  on  the  dusty  desk  that  was  before  me. 
She  was  gorgeously  dressed  :  her  face  was  like  the  moon,  and  patched  all  over, 
not  for  ornament,  but  use.  For  these  eighty  years  that  I  have  been  wander- 
ing in  this  wdlderness,  I  have  seen  nothing  like  her  but  General  Dickson  of 
Kilbucho.  In  short,  she  appeared  to  me  to  be  the  lady  with  whom  all  well- 
educated  children  were  acquainted,  the  Great  Scarlet  Whore  of  Babylon. 
She  landed  me  at  my  father's  door,  and  gave  me  to  my  mother,  with  injunc- 
tions to  keep  me  nearer  home,  or  I  would  be  lost.  This,  however,  drew  on 
a  nearer  connection,  for  the  two  misses,  who  had  been  in  the  coach,  came 
down  Avith  Jolui,  who  was  yoimger  than  them,  and  invited  me  to  drink  tea 
with  them  next  Saturday  :  to  this  I  had  no  aversion,  and  weut  accordingly. 
The  young  ladies  had  a  fine  closet,  charmingly  furnished,  with  chairs,  a 
table,  a  set  of  china  and  everything  belonging  to  it.  The  misses  set  about 
making  tea,  for  they  had  a  fire  in  the  room,  and  a  maid  came  to  helj)  them, 
tdl  at  length  we  heard  a  shrill  voice  screaming,  '  Mary  Erskine,  my  angel 
Mary  Erskine  ! ' 

"This  was  Coimtess  of  Kintore  afterwards,  and  now  very  near  that  honoiu". 
The  girls  seemed  frightened  out  of  their  wits,  and  so  did  the  maid.  The 
clamour  ceased  ;  but  the  girls  ordered  John  and  me  to  stand  sentry  in  our 
txims,  with  vigilant  ear,  and  give  them  notice  whenever  the  storm  began 
again.  We  had  sweet-cake  and  almonds  and  raisins,  of  which  a  small 
paper  bag  was  given  me  for  my  brother  Loudwick,  James,  Lord  Grange's 
godson,  who  came  last,  being  still  at  nurse.  I  had  no  great  enjoyment, 
notwithstanding  the  good  things  and  the  kisses  given,  for  I  had  by  contagion 
caught  a  mighty  fear  of  my  lady  from  them.  But  I  was  soon  relieved,  for 
my  father's  man  came  for  me  at  seven  o'clock.  The  moment  I  was  out  of 
sight  of  the  house,  I  took  out  my  paper  bag  and  ate  up  its  contents,  l)ril)ing 
the  servant  with  a  few,  for  Loudwck  was  gone  to  his  native  country  to  die 
at  our  grandfather's.  When  I  read  the  fable  of  the  '  City  Mouse  and 
Coimtry  Mouse,'  this  .scene  came  fresh  to  my  memory.  What  trials  and 
■dangei's  have  children  to  go  tlirough  I  " 


LORD    AND    LADY    GRAXGE.  15 

bauchery  at  Edinburgh,  and  interrupted  his  religious 
exercises.  For  in  those  intervals  he  not  only  neglected 
my  father's  company,  but  absented  himself  from  church, 
and  did  not  attend  the  sacrament — religious  services 
which  at  other  times  he  would  not  have  neglected  for 
the  world.  Keport,  however,  said  that  he  and  his 
associates,  of  whom  a  Mr  Michael  Menzies,  a  brother 
of  the  I.aird  of  St  Germains,  and  Thomas  Elliott,  W.S. 
(the  father  of  Sir  John  Elliott,  physician  in  London), 
were  two,  passed  their  time  in  alternate  scenes  of  the 
exercises  of  religion  and  debauchery,  spending  the  day 
in  meetings  for  prayer  and  pious  conversation,  and 
their  nights  in  lewdness  and  reveUinsj.  Some  men 
are  of  opinion  that  they  could  not  be  equally  sincere 
in  both.  I  am  apt  to  think  that  they  were,  for 
human  nature  is  capable  of  wonderful  freaks.  There 
is  no  doubt  of  their  profligacy  ;  and  I  have  frequently 
seen  them  drowned  in  tears,  during  the  whole  of  a 
sacramental  Sunday,  when,  so  far  as  my  observation 
could  reach,  they  could  have  no  rational  object  in  act- 
ing a  part.*     The  Marquess  of  Lothian  of  that  day, 

*  Grange  kept  a  diary,  a  portion  of  which  was  printed  in  1834^  under  the 
title.  Extracts  jyom  the  Diary  of  a  Member  of  the  College  of  Justice.  It  tends, 
on  the  whole,  to  confirm  Carlyle's  view  of  his  character ;  but  it  is  drier  read- 
ing than  one  would  expect  from  the  self-commimings  of  a  man  whose  char- 
acter was  cast  between  extremes  so  wide  apart,  and  whose  career  had  been 
so  remarkable.  Along  with  the  hankering  after  dreams  and  prophecies 
already  aUuded  to,  it  contains  chiefly  accounts  of  his  conduct  and  views  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  church  courts.  It  mentions  some  pieces  of  conduct 
on  his  own  part,  which,  if  not  criminal,  would  not  then,  or  now,  be  deemed 
very  consistent  with  honoiu" — as,  for  instance,  how  he  examined  a  private 
diary  kept  by  the  family  tutor,  in  order  that  he  might  see  what  was  said 
therein  about  himself  and  his  household ;  and  the  result,  as  peojJe  who  piur- 
sue  such  investigations  usually  find,  was  not  agreeable.    Each  reader  will 


16  COLONEL   GARDINER. 

whom  I  have  seen  attending  the  sacrament  at  Pres- 
tonpans  with  Lord  Grange,  and  whom  no  man  sus- 
pected of  plots  or  hypocrisy,  was  much  addicted  to 
debauchery.  The  natural  casuistry  of  the  passions 
grants  dispensations  with  more  facility  than  the  Church 
of  Kome. 

About  this  time  two  or  three  other  remarkable  men 
came  to  live  in  the  parish.  The  celebrated  Col.  Gar- 
diner bought  the  estate  of  Banktoun,  where  Lord  Drum- 
more  had  resided  for  a  year  or  two  before  he  bought 
the  small  estate  of  Westpans,  which  he  called  Drum- 
more,  and  where  he  resided  till  his  death  in  1755. 

The  first  Gardiner,  who  was  afterwards  killed  in  the 
battle  of  Preston,  was  a  noted  enthusiast,  a  very  weak, 
honest,  and  brave  man,  who  had  once  been  a  great 
rake,  and  was  converted,  as  he  told  my  father,  by  his 
reading  a  book  called  Gurnall's  Christian  Armour, 
which  his  mother  had  put  in  his  trunk  many  years 
before.  He  had  never  looked  at  it  till  one  day  at 
Paris,  where  he  was  attending  the  Earl  of  Stair,  who 
was  ambassador  to  that  court  from  the  year  1715  to 
the  Eegent's  death,  when,  having  an  intrigue  with  a 

judge  for  himself  how  much  sincerity  there  is  in  the  following  extract  from 
the  diary: — "  I  have  reason  to  thank  God  that  I  was  put  out  from  the  office 
of  Justice -Clerk,  for  beside  many  reasons  from  the  times  and  my  own  circiun- 
stances,  and  other  reasons  from  myself,  this  one  is  sufficient — that  I  have 
thereby  so  miich  more  time  to  emi)loy  about  God  and  religion.  If  I  con- 
sider how  very  much  more  I  have  since  1  was  neither  concerned  in  the 
Court  of  Justiciary  nor  in  the  politics,  how  can  I  answer  for  the  little 
advances  I  have  made  in  the  knowledge  of  religion  ?  If,  while  I  have  that 
leisure,  I  be  enabled,  through  grace,  to  improve  it  for  that  end,  I  need  not 
grudge  the  want  of  the  £400  sterling  yearly  :  for  this  is  worth  all  the  world, 
and  God  can  i)rovide  for  my  family  in  his  own  good  time  and  way."— (P.  34. 


COLOXEL   GARDINER    AND    DODDRIDGE.  17 

surgeon's  wife,  and  the  hour  of  appointment  not  being 
come,  he  thought  he  would  pass  the  time  in  turning 
over  the  leaves  of  the  book,  to  see  what  the  divine 
could  say  about  armour,  which  he  thought  he  under- 
stood as  well  as  he.  He  was  so  much  taken  with  this 
book,  that  he  allowed  his  hour  of  appointment  to  pass, 
never  saw  his  mistress  more,  and  from  that  day  left 
off  all  his  rakish  habits,  which  consisted  in  swearing 
and  whoring  (for  he  never  was  a  drinker),  and  the 
contempt  of  sacred  things,  and  became  a  serious  good 
Christian  ever  after. 

Dr  Doddridge  has  marred  this  story,  either  through 
mistake,  or  throusfh  a  desire  to  make  Gardiner's  con- 
version  more  supernatural,  for  he  says  that  his  appoint- 
ment was  at  miduight,  and  introduces  some  sort  of 
meteor  or  blaze  of  light,  that  alarmed  the  new  con- 
vert.* But  this  was  not  the  case ;  for  I  have  heard 
Gardiner  tell  the  story  at  least  three  or  four  times,  to 
different  sets  of  people — for  he  was  not  shy  or  back- 
ward to  speak  on  the  subject,  as  many  would  have  been. 
But  it  was  at  mid-day,  for  the  appointment  was  at  one 

*  "He  thought  he  saw  an  unusxial  blaze  of  light  fall  on  the  book  while  he 
was  reading,  which  he  at  first  imagined  might  happen  by  some  accident  in 
the  cantUe.  But  lifting  up  his  eyes,  he  apprehended,  to  his  extreme  amaze- 
ment, that  there  was  before  him,  as  it  were  suspended  in  the  air,  a  visible 
rei)resentation  of  the  Lord  Jescs  Christ  upon  the  Cross,  siuTounded  on  all 
sides  with  a  glory ;  and  was  impressed  as  if  a  voice,  or  something  equivalent 
to  a  voice,  had  come  to  him,  to  this  effect  (for  he  was  not  confident  as  to 
the  very  words),  '  Oh,  sinner  I  did  I  suffer  this  for  thee,  and  are  these  the 
returns?'  But  whether  this  were  an  audible  voice,  or  only  a  strong  impres- 
sion on  his  mind  equally  striking,  he  did  not  seem  very  confident ;  though, 
to  the  best  of  my  remembrance,  he  rather  judgetl  it  to  be  the  former." — 
DoDDRUXiE's  Remarkable  Pasaagea  tn  the  Life  of  Celond  Gardiner,  §  32. 

B 


18  COLONEL   GARDINER   AND    DODDRIDGE. 

o'clock ;  and  he  told  us  the  reason  of  it,  which  was,  that 
the  surgeon,  or  apothecary,  had  shown  some  symptoms 
of  jealousy,  and  they  chose  a  time  of  day  when  he  was 
necessarily  employed  abroad  in  his  business. 

I  have  also  conversed  with  my  father  upon  it,  after 
Doddridge's  book  was  published,  who  always  persisted 
in  saying  that  the  appointment  was  at  one  o'clock, 
for  the  reason  mentioned,  and  that  Gardiner  having 
changed  his  lodging,  he  found  a  book  when  rummag- 
ing an  old  trunk  to  the  bottom,  which  my  father  said 
was  Gurnall's  Christian  Ai^mour,  but  to  which  Dod- 
dridge gives  the  name  of  The  Christian  Soldier ;  or. 
Heaven  Taken  by  Storm,  by  Thomas  Watson.*  Dod- 
dridge, in  a  note,  says  that  his  edition  of  the  story 
was  confirmed  in  a  letter  from  a  Eev.  Mr  Spears,  in 
which  there  was  not  the  least  diflference  from  the  ac- 
count he  had  taken  down  in  writing  the  very  night  in 
which  the  Colonel  had  told  him  the  story.  This  Mr 
Spears  had  been  Lord  Grange's  chaplain,  and  I  knew 
him  to  have  no  great  regard  to  truth,  when  deviating 

*  ' '  The  Christian  in  Complete  Armour ;  or,  A  Treatise  on  the  Saints'  War 
with  the  Devil :  wherein  a  discovery  is  made  of  the  policy,  power,  wicked- 
ness, and  stratagems  made  use  of  by  that  enemy  of  God  and  his  peojJe ;  a 
magazine  opened  from  whence  the  Christian  is  furnished  with  special  anns 
for  the  battle,  assisted  in  buckling  on  his  armom*,  and  taught  the  use  of  his 
weapons — together  with  the  happy  issue  of  the  whole  war. — By  William 
GuRNALL,  A.M.,  formerly  of  Lavenham,  Suffolk.  1656-62."  Three  voliunes 
quarto.  The  Christian  Soldier;  or,  Heaven  Taken  by  Storm,  one  of  many 
works  written  by  Thomas  Watson,  one  of  the  non-juring  clergy  driven  out 
by  the  Act  of  Conformity,  api)ears  to  be  very  rare ;  it  is  not  in  the  list  of  its 
author's  works  in  Watt's  BiUiotheca.  Doddridge,  before  he  wrote  his  well- 
known  Remarkable  Passaf/es,  had  preached  and  published  a  funeral  sermon 
on  Colonel  Gardiner,  which  he  called  The  Cliristian  Warrior  Animated  and 
Crowned-  an  evident  assimilation  to  the  title  of  Watson's  book. — Ed. 


COLOXEL   GARDINER    AND   DODDRIDGE.  19 

from  it  suited  his  purpose  ;  at  any  rate,  lie  was  not  a 
man  to  contradict  Doddridge,  who  had  most  likely 
told  him  his  story.  It  is  remarkable  that,  though  the 
Doctor  had  written  down  everything  exactly,  and 
could  take  his  oath,  yet  he  had  omitted  to  mark  the 
day  of  the  week  on  which  the  conversion  happened, 
but,  if  not  mistaken,  thinks  it  was  Sabbath.  This 
aggravates  the  sin  of  the  appointment,  and  hallows 
the  conversion. 

The  Colonel,  who  was  truly  an  honest  well-meaning 
man  and  a  pious  Christian,  was  very  ostentatious  ; 
though,  to  tell  the  truth,  he  boasted  oftener  of  his 
conversion  than  of  the  dangerous  battles  he  had 
been  in.  As  he  told  the  story,  however,  there  was 
nothing  supernatural  in  it ;  for  many  a  rake  of  about 
thirty  years  of  age  has  been  reclaimed  by  some  cir- 
cumstance that  set  him  a-thinking,  as  the  accidental 
readinor  of  this  book  had  done  to  Gardiner.  He  was 
a  very  skilful  horseman,  wliich  had  recommended  him 
to  Lord  Stair  as  a  suitable  part  of  his  train  when  he 
was  ambassador  at  Paris,  and  lived  in  great  splendour. 
Gardiner  married  Lady  Frances  Erskine,  one  of  the 
daughters  of  the  Earl  of  Buchan,  a  lively,  little,  de- 
formed woman,  very  religious,  and  a  great  breeder. 
Their  children  were  no  way  distinguished,  except  the 
eldest  daughter,  Fanny,  who  was  very  beautiful,  and 
became  the  wife  of  Sir  James  Baird. 

Lord  Drummore,  one  of  the  Judges,  was  a  second 
or  third  son  of  the  President  Sir  Hew  Dalr}^mple,  of 
North  Berwick,  a  man  very  popular  and  agreeable  in 


20  NEIGHBOURS. 

his  manners,  and  an  universal  favourite !  He  was  a 
great  friend  of  the  poor,  not  merely  by  giving  alms, 
in  which  he  was  not  slack,  but  by  encouraging  agri- 
culture and  manufactures,  and  by  devoting  his  spare 
time  in  acting  as  a  justice  of  peace  in  the  two 
parishes  of  Inveresk  and  Preston  pans,  where  his  estate 
lay,  and  did  much  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood, and  to  promote  the  peace  of  the  country. 
It  were  happy  for  the  country,  if  every  man  of  as 
much  knowledge  and  authority  as  the  Judges  are  sup- 
posed to  have,  would  lay  himself  out  as  this  good  man 
did.  By  doing  so  they  might  prevent  many  a  lawsuit 
that  ends  in  the  ruin  of  the  parties.  Lord  Drummore 
had  many  children. 

Mr  Robert  Keith  of  Craig,  who  was  afterwards  am- 
bassador at  many  courts,  and  who  was  a  man  of 
ability  and  very  agreeable  manners,  came  also  about 
this  time  to  live  in  the  parish.  His  sons.  Sir  Robert 
Murray  Keith,  K.B.,  and  Sir  Basil  Keith,  were  after- 
wards well  known.* 

There  lived  at  the  same  time  there,  Colin  Campbell, 
Esq.,  a  brother  of  Sir  James,  of  Arbruchal,  who  was 
Collector  of  the  Customs  ;  and  when  he  was  appointed 

*  Abundant  information  about  this  family  will  be  found  in  the  3l  emoirs 
and  Corre^ondence  of  Sir  Robert  Murray  Keith,  1849.  The  elder  Keith  was 
ambassador  at  Vienna,  and  subsequently  at  St  Petersbiu-g,  diu-ing  the  revolu- 
tion which  placed  the  Empress  Catherine  on  the  throne.  His  wife  was  the 
prototype  of  Scott's  sketch  of  Mrs  Bethune  Baliol.  The  son,  Sir  Robert, 
was  the  ambassador  in  Denmark  who  saved  Queen  Caroline  Matilda,  George 
III.'s  sister,  from  the  fate  to  which  she  was  destined  on  account  of  the 
affair  of  Struensee. — Ed. 


THE   FIRST    TOUR.  21 

a  Commissioner  of  the  Board  of  Customs,  George 
Cheap,  Esq.,  became  his  successor,  a  brother  of  the 
Laird  of  Eossie,  all  of  whom  had  large  families  of 
seven  or  eight  boys  and  girls,  which  made  up  a  society 
of  genteel  young  people  seldom  to  be  met  with  in  such 
a  place. 

When  I  was  very  young,  I  usually  passed  the  school 
vacation,  first  at  Mr  ^lenzies',  of  St  Germains,  and 
afterwards  at  Seton  House,  when  the  family  came  to 
live  there  upon  the  sale  of  their  estate.  I  was  very 
often  there,  as  I  was  a  great  favourite  of  the  lady's, 
one  of  the  Sinclairs  of  Stevenson,  and  of  her  two 
daughters,  who  were  two  or  three  years  older  than  I 
was.  These  excursions  from  home  opened  the  mind 
of  a  yoimg  person,  who  had  some  turn  for  observation. 

The  first  journey  I  made,  however,  was  to  Dum- 
friesshire, in  the  summer  1733,  when  I  was  eleven 
years  of  age.  There  I  not  only  became  weU  acquainted 
with  my  grandfather,  Mr  A.  Eobison  [minister  of 
Tinwald],  a  very  respectable  clergyman,  and  with  my 
grandmother,  Mrs  Jean  Graham,  and  their  then  un- 
married daughters  ;  but  I  became  well  acquainted  with 
the  town  of  Dumfries,  where  I  resided  for  several 
weeks  at  Provost  Bell's,  whose  wife  was  one  of  my 
mother's  sisters,  two  more  of  whom  were  settled  in 
that  town — one  of  them,  the  wife  of  the  clergyman, 
Mr  Wight,  and  the  other  of  the  sherifi-clerk.  I  was 
soon  ver}^  intimate  with  a  few  boys  of  this  town 
about  my  own  age,  and  became  a  favourite  by  t^ach- 


22  TOUR   ON   THE    BORDEE. 

ing  them  some  of  our  sports  and  plays  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  capital,  that  they  had  never  heard.* 

At  this  time,  too,  I  made  a  very  agreeable  tonr  round 
the  country  with  my  father  and  Mr  Kobert  Jardine 
[minister  of  Lochmaben],the  father  of  Dr  Jardine,  after- 
wards minister  of  Edinburgh.  Though  they  were  very 
orthodox  and  pious  clergymen,  they  had,  both  of  them,  a 
very  great  turn  for  fun  and  buffoonery  ;  and  wherever 
they  went,  made  all  the  children  quite  happy,  and  set 
all  the  maids  on  the  titter.  That  they  might  not  want 
amusement,  they  took  along  with  them,  for  the  first 
two  days,  a  Mess  John  Allan,  a  minister  who  lay  in 
their  route,  with  whom  they  could  use  every  sort  of 
freedom,  and  who  was  their  constant  butt.     As  he  had 

*  On  this  journey  it  was  that  I  first  witnessed  an  execution.  There  was 
one  Jock  Johnstone  who  had  been  condemned  for  robbery,  and,  being  acces- 
sory to  a  murder,  to  be  execiited  at  Dumfries.  This  fellow  was  but  twenty 
years  of  age,  but  strong  and  bold,  and  a  great  ringleader.  It  was  strongly 
reported  that  the  thieves  were  collecting  in  all  quarters,  in  order  to  come  to 
Dumfries  on  the  day  of  the  execution,  and  make  a  deforcement  as  they  were 
conducting  Jock  to  the  gallows,  which  was  usually  erected  on  a  muir  out  of 
town.  The  magistrates  became  anxious  ;  and  there  being  no  military  force 
nearer  than  Edinbm-gh,  they  resolved  to  erect  the  gallows  before  the  door  of 
the  prison,  with  a  scaffold  or  platform  leading  from  the  door  to  the  fatal 
tree,  and  they  armed  about  one  hundred  of  their  stoutest  burgesses  with 
Lochaber  axes  to  form  a  guard  roimd  the  scaffold.  The  day  and  hoiu-  of 
execution  came,  and  I  was  placed  in  the  Avindow  of  the  provost's  house  directly 
opposite  the  prison :  the  crowd  was  great,  and  the  i)rei)arations  alarming  to  a 
young  imagination  :  at  last  the  prison-door  ojiened,  and  Jock  ajipearcd, 
enclosed  by  six  town-officers.  When  he  first  issued  from  the  door,  he 
looked  a  little  astonished  ;  but  looking  round  a  whde,  he  proceeded  with  a 
bold  step.  Psalms  and  prayers  being  over,  the  rojie  was  fastened  about  his 
neck,  and  he  was  prompted  to  ascend  a  short  ladder  fastened  to  the  gallows, 
to  be  thrown  off.  Here  his  resistance  and  my  terror  began.  Jock  was  curly- 
haired  and  fierce-looking,  and  very  strong  of  his  size — about  five  feet  eight 
inches.  The  moment  they  asked  him  to  go  up  the  ladder,  he  took  hold 
of  the  rope  round  his  neck,  which  was  fastened  to  the  gallows,  and,  with 


TOUR   ON   THE    BORDER.  23 

no  resistance  in  him,  and  could  only  laugh  when  they 
rallied  him,  or  played  him  boyish  tricks,  I  thought  it 
but  very  dull  entertainment.  Nor  did  I  much  ap- 
prove of  their  turning  the  backsides  of  their  wigs 
foremost,  and  making  faces  to  divert  the  children,  in 
the  midst  of  very  grave  discourse  about  the  state  of  re- 
ligion in  the  country,  and  the  progress  of  the  gospel. 
Among  the  places  we  visited  was  Bridekirk,  the  seat 
of  the  eldest  cadet  of  Lord  Carlyle's  family,  of  which 
my  father  was  descended,  I  saw,  likewise,  a  small 
pendicle  of  the  estate  which  had  been  assigned  as  the 
portion  of  his  grandfather,  and  which  he  himself  had 
tried  to  recover  by  a  lawsuit,  but  was  defeated  for 
want  of  a  principal  paper.     We  did  not  see  the  laird, 


repeated  violent  pulls,  attempted  to  pull  it  down ;  and  his  eflforts  were  so 
strong  that  it  was  feared  he  woidd  have  succeeded.  The  crowd,  in  the 
mean  time,  felt  much  emotion,  and  the  fear  of  the  magistrates  increased.  I 
wished  myself  on  the  top  of  CrifFel,  or  anywhere  but  there.  But  the  at- 
tempt to  go  through  the  crowd  appeared  more  dangerous  than  to  stay  where 
I  was,  out  of  sight  of  the  gallows.  I  returned  to  my  station  again,  resolving 
manfully  to  abide  the  worst  extremity. 

Jock  struggletl  and  roared,  for  he  Ijecame  like  a  furious  wild  beast,  and  all 
that  six  men  could  do,  they  could  not  bind  him  ;  and  having  with  wrestling 
hard  forced  up  the  pinions  on  his  arms,  they  were  afraid,  and  he  became 
more  formidable ;  when  one  of  the  magistrates,  recollecting  that  there  was  a 
master  mason  or  carpenter,  of  the  name  of  Baxter,  who  was  by  far  the 
strongest  man  in  Diunfries,  they  with  difficulty  prevailed  vrith  him,  for  the 
honour  of  the  town,  to  come  on  the  scaffold.  He  came,  and,  putting  aside 
the  six  men  who  were  keeping  him  down,  he  seized  him,  and  made  no  more 
difficulty  than  a  nurse  does  in  handling  her  child  :  he  bound  him  hand  and 
foot  in  a  few  minutes,  and  laid  him  quietly  down  on  his  face  near  the  edge 
of  the  scaffold,  and  retired.  Jock,  the  moment  he  felt  his  grasp,  found  him- 
self sulxiued,  and  became  calm,  and  resigned  himself  to  his  fate.  This 
dreadfid  scene  cost  me  many  nights'  sleep. 

[^X.B. — The  greater iK>rtion  of  this  narrative  is  taken  from  the  "Recollec- 
tions," where  it  is  more  fully,  anil,  as  it  seemed  to  the  Etlitor,  more  inctur- 
esquely  told,  than  in  the  note  appended  by  the  author  to  his  Autobiograjihy.] 


24  TOUR   ON   THE    BORDER. 

who  was  from  home  ;  but  we  saw  the  lady,  who  was 
a  much  greater  curiosity.  She  was  a  very  large  and 
powerful  virago,  about  forty  years  of  age,  and  received 
us  with  much  kindness  and  hospitality ;  for  the 
brandy-bottle — a  Scotch  pint— made  its  appearance 
immediately,  and  we  were  obliged  to  take  our  morning, 
as  they  called  it,  which  was  indeed  the  universal 
fashion  of  the  country  at  that  time.  This  lady,  who,  I 
confess,  had  not  many  charms  for  me,  was  said  to  be 
able  to  empty  one  of  those  large  bottles  of  brandy, 
smuggled  from  the  Isle  of  Man,  at  a  sitting.  They 
had  no  whisky  at  that  time,  there  being  then  no  dis- 
tilleries in  the  south  of  Scotland.* 

The  face  of  the  country  was  particularly  desolate, 
not  having  yet  reaped  any  benefit  from  the  union  of 
the  Parliaments  ;  nor  was  it  recovered  from  the  efi'ects 


*  This  interview  is  thus  related  in  the  ' '  Recollections  : " — 
"The  laird  was  gone  to  Dumfries,  much  to  our  disappointment ;  but  the 
lady  came  out,  and,  in  her  excess  of  kindness,  had  almost  pulled  Mr  Jardine 
off  his  horse  ;  but  they  were  obstinate,  and  said  they  were  obliged  to  go  to 
Kelhead  ;  but  they  delivered  up  Mess  John  Allan  to  her,  as  they  had  no 
farther  use  for  him.  I  had  never  seen  such  a  virago  as  Lady  Bridekirk,  not 
even  among  the  oyster- women  of  Prestonpans.  She  was  like  a  sergeant  of 
foot  in  women's  clothes  ;  or  rather  like  an  overgrown  coachman  of  a  Quaker 
persuasion.  On  onr  peremptory  refusal  to  alight,  she  darted  into  the  house 
like  a  hogshead  down  a  slope,  and  returned  instantly  with  a  pint  bottle  of 
brandy — a  Scots  pint,  I  mean — and  a  stray  beer-glass,  into  which  she  filled 
almost  a  bimaper.  After  a  long  grace  said  1  ly  Mr  Jardine — for  it  was  liis  turn 
now,  being  the  third  brandy-bottle  we  had  seen  since  we  left  Lochmaben — 
she  emptied  it  to  oiu'  healths,  and  made  the  gentlemen  follow  her  example  : 
she  said  she  would  spare  me  as  I  was  so  young,  but  ordered  a  maid  to  bring  a 
gingerbread  cake  from  the  cupboard,  a  luncheon  of  which  she  put  in  my  pocket. 
This  lady  was  famous,  even  in  the  Annandale  border,  both  at  the  bowl  and 
in  battle  :  she  coiild  di'ink  a  Scots  pint  of  brandy  with  ease ;  and  when  the 
men  grew  oljstrejterous  in  their  cups,  she  coidd  either  put  them  out  of  doors, 
or  to  bed,  as  she  found  most  convenient." 


TOUR    OS   THE    EORDEE.  25 

of  that  century  of  wretched  government  which  pre- 
ceded the  Eevohition,  and  commenced  at  the  accession 
of  James.  The  Border  wars  and  depredations  had 
happily  ceased  ;  but  the  borderers,  having  lost  what 
excited  their  activity,  were  in  a  dormant  state  during 
the  whole  of  the  seventeenth  century,  unless  it  was 
during  the  time  of  the  grand  Eebellion,  and  the  strug- 
gles between  Episcopacy  and  Presbytery. 

On  this  excursion  we  dined  with  Sir  William  Dou- 
glas of  Kelhead,  whose  grandfather  was  a  son  of  the 
family  of  Queensberry.  When  he  met  us  in  his  stable- 
yard,  I  took  him  for  a  grieve  or  barnman,  for  he 
wore  a  blue  bonnet  over  his  thin  grey  hairs,  and  a 
hodden-grey  coat.  But  on  a  nearer  view  of  him,  he 
appeared  to  be  well-bred  and  sensible,  and  was  parti- 
cularly kind  to  my  father,  who,  I  understood,  had 
been  his  godson,  having  been  born  in  the  neighbour- 
hood on  a  farm  his  father  rented  from  Sir  William, 
My  father's  mother,  who  was  Jean  Jardine,  a  daughter 
of  the  family  of  Applegarth,  had  died  a  week  after  his 
birth  in  1690.     His  father  Hved  till  1721. 

In  the  evening  we  went  to  visit  an  old  gentleman, 
a  cousin  of  my  father's,  James  Carlyle  of  Braken- 
whate,  who  had  been  an  officer  in  James  II.'s  time, 
and  threw  up  his  commission  at  the  Eevolution  rather 
than  take  the  oaths.    He  was  a  little  fresh-lookinor  old 

o 

man  of  eighty-six,  very  lively  in  conversation,  and  par- 
ticularly fond  of  my  father.  His  house,  which  was  not 
much  better  than  a  cottage,  though  there  were  two 
rooms  above  stairs  as  well  as  below,  was  full  of  guns 


26  TOUR   ON   THE    BORDER. 

and  swords,  and  other  warlike  instruments.  He  liad 
been  so  dissolute  in  liis  youth  that  his  nickname  in 
the  country  was  Jamie  Gaeloose.  His  wife,  who  ap- 
peared to  be  older  than  himself,  though  she  was  seven 
years  younger,  was  of  a  very  hospitable  disposition. 
This  small  house  being  easily  filled,  I  went  to  bed  in 
the  parlour  while  the  company  were  at  supper.  But, 
tired  as  I  was,  it  was  long  before  I  fell  asleep  ;  for  as 
my  father  had  told  me  that  I  was  to  sleep  with  my 
cousin,  I  was  in  great  fear  that  it  would  be  the  old 
woman.  Weariness  overcame  my  fear,  however,  and 
I  did  not  awake  till  the  tea-things  were  on  the  table, 
and  did  not  know  that  it  was  the  old  gentleman  who 
slept  with  me  till  my  father  afterwards  told  me, 
which  relieved  me  from  my  anxious  curiosity.  After 
breakfast  our  old  friend  would  needs  give  us  a  con- 
voy, and  mounted  his  horse,  a  grey  stallion  of  about 
fourteen  and  a  half  hands  high,  as  nimbly  as  if  he 
had  been  only  thirty.  Not  long  after  he  separated 
from  us,  I  took  an  opportunity  of  asking  my  father 
what  had  been  the  subject  of  a  very  earnest  conversa- 
tion he  had  had  the  evening  before,  when  they  were 
walking  in  the  garden.  He  told  me  that  his  cousin 
had  pressed  him  very  much  to  accept  of  his  estate, 
which  he  would  dispose  to  him,  as  his  only  surviving 
daughter  had  distressed  him  by  her  marriage,  and  he 
had  no  liking  to  her  children.  My  father  had  rejected 
his  proposal,  and  taken  much  pains  to  convince  the 
old  gentleman  of  the  injustice  and  cruelty  of  his  pro- 
cedure, which  had  made  him  loud  and  angry,  and  had 


TOUR   ON   THE    BORDER.  27 

drawn  my  curious  attention.  He  died  three  years 
after,  without  a  will,  and  the  little  estate  was  soon 
drowned  in  debt  and  absorbed  into  the  great  one, 
which  made  my  father  say  afterwards  that  he  believed 
he  had  been  righteous  ovei'much. 

This  was  the  first  opportunity  I  had  of  being  well 
acquainted  with  my  grandfather,  Mr  Alexander  Robi- 
son,  who  was  a  man  very  much  respected  for  his  good 
sense  and  steadiness,  and  moderation  in  church  courts. 
He  had  been  minister  at  Tinwald  since  the  year  1697, 
and  was  a  member  of  the  commission  which  sat  during 
the  Union  Parliament.     He  was  truly  a  man  of  a 
sound  head,  and  in  the  midst  of  very  warm  times  was 
resorted  to  by  his  neighbours,  both  laity  and  clergy, 
for  temperate  and  sound  advice.     He  lived  to   the 
year  1761,  and  I  passed  several  summers,  and  one 
winter  entirely,  at  his  house,  when  I  was  a  student. 
He  had  a  tolerably  good  collection  of  books,  was  a 
man  of  a  liberal  mind,  and  had  more  allowance  to 
give  to  people  of  different  opinions,  and  more  indul- 
gence to  the  levities  of  youth,  than  any  man  I  ever 
knew  of  such  strict  principles  and  conduct.    His  wife, 
Jean  Graham,  connected  with  many  of  the  principal 
families  in  Galloway,  and  descended  by  her  mother 
from  the  Queensberry  family  (as  my  father  was,  at  a 
greater  distance  by  his  mother,  of  the  Jardine  Hall 
family),  gave  the  worthy  people  and  their  children  an 
air  of  greater  consequence  than  their  neighbours  of 
the  same  rank,  and  tended  to  make  them  deserve  the 
respect  which  was  shown  them.     When  I  look  back 


28  TOUR    ON    THE    BORDER. 

on  the  fulness  of  very  good  living  to  their  numerous 
family,  and  to  their  cheerful  hospitality  to  strangers — 
when  I  recollect  the  decent  education  they  gave  their 
children,  and  how  happily  the  daughters  were  settled 
in  the  world ;  and  recollect  that  they  had  not  £70 
per  annum  besides  the  £500  w^hich  was  my  grand- 
mother's portion,  £100  of  which  was  remaining  for 
the  three  eldest  daughters  as  they  w^ere  married  off  in 
their  turns,  it  appears  quite  surprising  how  it  was 
possible  for  them  to  live  as  they  did,  and  keep  their 
credit.  What  I  have  seen,  both  at  their  house  and  my 
father's,  on  their  slender  incomes,  surpasses  all  belief. 
But  it  was  wonderful  what  moderation  and  a  strict 
economy  was  able  to  do  in  those  days. 

In  my  infancy  I  had  witnessed  the  greatest  trial 
they  had  ever  gone  through.  Their  eldest  son,  a 
youth  of  eighteen,  who  had  studied  at  Glasgow  Col- 
lege, but  was  to  go  to  the  Divinity  Hall  at  Edinburgh 
in  winter  1724,  to  be  near  my  father,  then  removed  to 
Prestonpans,  went  to  Dumfries  to  bid  farewell  to  his 
second  sister,  Mrs  Bell,  and  left  the  town  in  a  clear 
frosty  night  in  the  beginning  of  December,  but  having 
missed  the  road  about  a  mile  from  Dumfries,  fell  into 
a  peat  pot,  as  it  is  called,  and  was  drowned.  He 
was  impatiently  expected  at  night,  and  next  morn- 
ing. My  brother  and  I  had  got  some  halfpence  to 
give  him  to  purchase  some  sugar -plums  for  us,  so 
that  we  w^ere  not  the  least  impatient  of  the  family. 
What  was  our  disappointment,  w^hen,  about  eleven 
o'clock,  information  came  that  he  had  been  drowned 


EDIXBUEGH   COLLEGE.  29 

and  our  comfits  lost !  This  I  mention  merely  to  note 
at  what  an  early  age  interesting  events  make  an  im- 
pression on  children's  memories,  for  I  was  then  only 
two  years  and  t^n  months  old,  and  to  this  day  I  re- 
member it  as  well  as  any  event  of  my  life  * 

Two  years  after  this  journey  into  my  native  country, 
which  had  the  effect  of  attaching  me  very  much  to  my 
grandfather  and  his  family,  and  gave  him  a  great 
ascendant  over  my  mind,  I  was  sent  to  the  CoUege  of 
Edinburgh,  which  I  entered  on  the  1st  of  November 
1735.f  I  had  the  good-luck  to  be  placed  in  a  house 
in  Edinburgh  where  there  was  very  good  company ; 
for  John,  afterwards  Colonel  Maxwell,  and  his  brother 
Alexander,  were  boarded  there,  whose  tutor,  being  an 
acquaintance  of  my  father  s,  took  some  charge  of  me. 
John  Witherspoon,  the  celebrated  doctor,  was  ako  in 
the  house ;  and  Sir  Harry  Nisbet  of  Dean,  and  John 

*  Here  it  may  not  be  imjHoper  to  relate  an  extratHdinaiy  incidoit  to  show 
haw  soon  boys  are  capaUe  ai  deep  impoatar&  Tbere  was  a  boy  at  sdioQl  in 
tihe  same  class  with  me  whose  name  was  Msthie.  He  was  t&j  intimate 
with  me^  and  was  between  eleren  and  twelve  yeais  old,  when  all  at  once  he 
produced  mote  mimi^  than  anybody,  thon^  his  moflicr  was  an  indigent 
widow  of  a  ahipmasto;  and  continaed  only  to  deal  in  hoops  and  stares  £<»* 
tiie  support  ci  her  £unily.  This  boy  having  at  diGTerent  times  showed  xaore 
money  than  I  thfon^it  he  had  any  lij^t  to  have,  I  preyed  him  vety  (dose  to 
tdl  me  how  he  had  got  it.  After  many  shifts,  he  at  last  told  me  that  his 
grandfather  had  ^ipeared  to  him  in  an  evening,  and  disclosed  a  hiddoi  trea- 
sure in  the  garret  of  his  mothers  house,  between  the  floor  and  the  ceiling. 
He  pretended  to  show  me  tiie  spot,  but  wonld  never  open  it  to  me.  He 
made  sevo^  a^tHntmoits  with  me,  which  I  kept,  to  meet  ihe  old  graitle- 
man,  bat  he  never  sppeated.  I  tried  every  method  to  make  him  confess  his 
imposture,  but  without  tikcL  After  some  time,  I  heard  that  he  had  robbed 
his  mother's  drawers. 

■f  We  had  a  very  good  master  at  ftestonpans,  an  Alexander  Hannan,  an 
old  fellow-student  of  my  fathet's^  whom  he  hniu^t  there,  and  who  implicitly 
followed  his  directions.     He  possessed  CTcdlent  tnnslatiana  ol  the  dawarat 


30  DR   WITHERSPOON — SIR   J.    DALRYMPLE. 

Dalrymple,  now  Sir  John  of  Cranstoun,  not  being 
able  to  afford  tutors  of  their  own,  and  being  near 
relations  of  the  Maxwells,  came  every  afternoon  to 
prepare  their  lessons  under  the  care  of  our  tutor. 

The  future  life  and  public  character  of  Dr  Wither- 
spoon  are  perfectly  known.  At  the  time  I  speak  of 
he  was  a  good  scholar,  far  advanced  for  his  age,  very 
sensible  and  shrewd,  but  of  a  disagreeable  temper, 
which  was  irritated  by  a  flat  voice  and  awkward 
manner,  which  prevented  his  making  an  impression 
on  his  companions  of  either  sex  that  was  at  all  ade- 
quate to  his  ability.  This  defect,  when  he  was  a  lad, 
stuck  to  him  when  he  grew  up  to  manhood,  and 
so  much  roused  his  envy  and  jealousy,  and  made  him 
take  a  road  to  distinction  very  different  from  that 
of  his  more  successful  companions.* 

John  Maxwell  was  remarkably  tall  and  well  made, 
and  one  of  the  handsomest  youths  of  his  time,  but  of 
such  gentle  manners  and  so  soft  a  temper  that  nobody 
could  then  foresee  that  he  was  to  prove  one  of  the 
bravest  officers  in  the  allied  army  under  Prince  Ferdi- 
nand in  the  year  1759. 

Sir  Harry  Nisbet  was  a  very  amiable  youth,  who 
took  also  to  the  army,  was  a  distinguished  officer  and 
remarkably  handsome,  but  fell  at  an  early  age  in  the 
battle  of  Val  [^] 

The  character  of  Sir  John  Dalrymple,  whom  I  shall 
have   occasion   to    mention   afterwards,   is   perfectly 

*  Though  Witherspoon  is  now  little  remembered,  an  account  of  his  rather 
remarkable  career  will  be  foimd  in  the  ordinary  biographical  dictionaries.  —  Ed. 


PROFESSOR   AND    CLASS-FELLOWS.  31 

known  ;  it  is  sufficient  to  say  here  tliat  tlie  blossom 
promised  better  fruit.* 

I  was  entered  in  Mr  Kerr's  class,  who  was  at  that 
time  Professor  of  Humanity,  and  was  very  much 
master  of  his  business.  Like  other  schoolmasters,  he 
was  very  partial  to  his  scholars  of  rank,  and  having 
two  lords  at  his  class — viz.,  Lord  Balgonie  and  Lord 
Dalziel — he  took  great  pains  to  make  them  (especially 
the  first,  for  the  second  was  hardly  ostensible)  appear 
among  the  best  scholars,  which  would  not  do,  and 
only  served  to  make  him  ridiculous,  as  well  as  his 
young  lord.  The  best  by  far  at  the  class  were  Colonel 
Eobert  Hepburn  of  Keith;  James  Edgar,  Esq.,  after- 
wards a  Commissioner  of  the  Customs  ;f  Alexander 
Tait,  Esq.,  Clerk  of  Session  ;  and  Alexander  Bertram, 
of  the  Nisbet  family,  who  died  young.  William 
Wnkie  the  poet  and  I  came  next  in  order,  and  he 
(Mr  Kerr)  used  to  allege  long  after  that  we  turned 
Latin  into  English  better  than  they  did,  though  we 
could  not  so  well  turn  English  into  Latin  ;  which 
was  probably  owing  to  their  being  taught  better  at 
the  High  School  than  we  were  in  the  country.  I 
mention  those  circumstances  because  those  gentle- 
men continued  to  keep  the  same  rank  in  society 
when  they  grew  up  that  they  held  when  they  were 
boys.     I  was  sent  next  year  to  the  first  class   of 

*  The  author  of  the  Memoirs  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  in  which  so 
much  light  is  thrown  on  the  history  of  the  later  Stewarts  and  the  Revolution 
l)eriod. — Ed. 

+  Ajx  accoimt  of  "  Commissioner  Edgar  "  will  be  found  in  Kay's  Edinhunjh 
Portraits. — Ed. 


32  PROFESSOR   AND    CLASS-FELLOWS. 

matliematics,  taught  by  Mr  M'Laurin,  which  cost  me 
little  trouble,  as  ray  father  had  carried  me  through 
the  first  book  of  Euclid  in  the  summer.  In  this 
branch  I  gained  an  ascendant  over  our  tutor,  Pat. 
Baillie,  afterwards  minister  of  Borrowstounness,  which 
he  took  care  never  to  forget.  He  was  a  very  good 
Latin  scholar,  and  so  expert  in  the  Greek  that  he 
taught  Professor  Drummond's  class  for  a  whole  winter 
when  he  was  ill.  But  he  had  no  mathematics,  nor 
much  science  of  any  kind.  One  night,  when  I  was 
conning  my  Latin  lesson  in  the  room  with  him  and 
his  pupils,  he  was  going  over  a  proposition  of  Euclid 
with  John  Maxwell,  who  had  hitherto  got  no  hold  of 
the  science.  He  blundered  so  excessively  in  doing  this 
that  I  could  not  help  laughing  aloud.  He  was  en- 
raged at  first,  but,  when  calm,  he  bid  me  try  if  I  could 
do  it  better.  I  went  through  the  proposition  so 
readily  that  he  committed  John  to  my  care  in  that 
branch,  which  he  was  so  good-natured  as  not  to  take 
amiss,  though  he  was  a  year  older  than  I  was.  At 
the  end  of  a  week  he  fell  into  the  proper  train 
of  thinking,  and  needed  assistance  no  longer.  Mr 
M'Laurin  was  at  this  time  a  favourite  professor,  and 
no  wonder,  as  he  was  the  clearest  and  most  agreeable 
lecturer  on  that  abstract  science  that  ever  I  heard. 
He  made  mathematics  a  fashionable  study,  which  was 
felt  afterwards  in  the  war  that  followed  in  1 743,  when 
nine-tenths  of  the  engineers  of  the  army  were  Scottish 
officers.  The  Academy  at  Woolwich  was  not  then 
established. 


CHAPTEE   II. 

1736-43:  AGE,  14-21. 

KVEXTS    OF    THE    POBTEOUS    MOB SEES    THE    ESCAPE    OF    ROBEKTSOX 

FROM    CHURCH PRESENT    AT    THE    EXECCTIOX    OF    WILSOX,    AXD 

PORTEOCS    FIRIXG    OX    THE    PEOPLE THE    XIGHJ    OF    THE    MOB 

UXIVERSITY    STUDIES LOGIC RISE   OF   THE   MEDICAL    SCHOOL 

AXECDOTES   AXD    ADVEXTURES REMTXISCEXCES     OF   FELLOW-STU- 

DEXTS — SIR  JOHX  PRIXGLE FIRST  ACQUAIXTAXCE  WITH    ROBERT- 
SOX  THE   HISTORIAX  AXD  JOHX   HOME   THE  DRAMATIST ACHIEVE- 

MEXTS     EN     DAXCIXG RUDDIMAX     THE     GRAMMARIAX LOOKIXG 

ABOUT  FOR  A  PROFESSIOX MEDICIXE THE   ARMY THE  CHURCH 

^AX  EVEXIXGS  ADVEXTURES  WITH   LORD  LOVAT  AXT)  ERSKIXE  OF 

GRAXGE ARRAXGEMEXTS    FOR    STUDTIXG  IX  GLASGOW CLERICAL 

COXVIVIALITIES LAST  SESSIOX  AT  EDIXBURGH. 

I  WAS  witness  to  a  very  extraordinary  scene  that 
happened  in  the  month  of  February  or  March  1736, 
which  was  the  escape  of  Eobertson,  a  condemned 
criminal,  from  the  Tolbooth  Church  in  Edinburorh. 
In  those  days  it  was  usual  to  bring  the  criminals  who 
were  condemned  to  death  into  that  church,  to  attend 
public  woi-ship  every  Sunday  after  their  condemna- 
tion, when  the  clergyman  made  some  part  of  his 
discourse  and  prayers  to  suit  their  situation  ;  which, 
among  other  circumstances  of  solemnity  which  then 
attended  the  state  of  condemned  criminals,  had  no 
small  effect   on   the    public  mind.      Robertson  and 

c 


34  THE   POKTEOUS   MOB. 

Wilson  were  smugglers,  and  had  been  condemned  for 
robbing  a  custom-house,  where  some  of  their  goods 
had  been  deposited  ;  a  crime  which  at  that  time  did 
not  seem,  in  the  opinion  of  the  common  people,  to 
deserve  so  severe  a  punishment.  I  was  carried  by  an 
acquaintance  to  church  to  see  the  prisoners  on  the 
Sunday  before  the  day  of  execution.  We  went  early 
into  the  church  on  purpose  to  see  them  come  in,  and 
were  seated  in  a  pew  before  the  gallery  in  front  of  the 
pulpit.  Soon  after  we  went  into  the  church  by  the 
door  from  the  Parliament  Close,  the  criminals  were 
brought  in  by  the  door  next  the  Tolbooth,  and  placed 
in  a  long  pew,  not  far  from  the  pulpit.  Four  soldiers 
came  in  with  them,  and  placed  Robertson  at  the  head 
of  the  pew,  and  Wilson  below  him,  two  of  themselves 
sitting  below  Wilson,  and  two  in  a  pew  behind  him. 

The  bells  were  ringing  and  the  doors  were  open, 
while  the  people  were  coming  into  the  church.  Ro- 
bertson watched  his  opportunity,  and,  suddenly  spring- 
ing up,  got  over  the  pew  into  the  passage  that  led  in 
to  the  door  in  the  Parliament  Close,  and,  no  person 
ojffering  to  lay  hands  on  him,  made  his  escape  in  a 
moment — so  much  the  more  easily,  perhaps,  as  every- 
body's attention  was  drawn  to  Wilson,  who  was  a 
stronger  man,  and  who,  attempting  to  follow  Robert- 
son, was  seized  by  the  soldiers,  and  struggled  so  loug 
with  them  that  the  two  who  at  last  followed  Robert- 
son were  too  late.  It  was  reported  that  he  had  main- 
tained his  struggle  that  he  might  let  his  companion 
have  time.     That  might  be  his  second  thought,  but 


THE    PORTEOUS   MOB.  35 

liis  first  certainly  was  to  escape  himself,  for  I  saw  him 
set  his  foot  on  the  seat  to  leap  over,  when  the  soldiers 
pulled  him  back.  Wilson  was  immediately  carried 
out  to  the  Tolbooth,  and  Eobertson,  getting  unin- 
terrupted through  the  Parliament  Square,  down  the 
back  stairs,  into  the  Cowgate,  was  heard  of  no  more 
till  he  arrived  in  Holland.  This  was  an  interesting 
scene,  and  by  filling  the  public  mind  with  compassion 
for  the  unhappy  person  who  did  not  escape,  and  who 
was  the  better  character  of  the  two,  hud  probably 
some  influence  in  producing  what  followed :  for 
when  the  sentence  against  Wilson  came  to  be  executed 
a  few  weeks  thereafter,  a  very  strong  opinion  pre- 
vailed that  there  was  a  plot  to  force  the  Town  Guard, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  attend  executions  under  the  order 
of  a  civil  magistrate. 

There  was  a  Captain  Porteous,  who  by  his  good 
behaviour  in  the  army  had  obtained  a  subaltern's 
commission,  and  had  afterwards,  when  on  half-pay, 
been  preferred  to  the  command  of  the  City  Guard, 
This  man,  by  his  skill  in  manly  exercises,  particularly 
the  golf,  and  by  gentlemanly  behaviour,  was  admitted 
into  the  company  of  his  superiors,  which  elated  his 
mind,  and  added  insolence  to  his  native  roughness,  so 
that  he  was  much  hated  and  feared  by  the  mob  of 
Edinburgh.  When  the  day  of  execution  came,  the 
rumour  of  a  deforcement  at  the  gallows  prevailed 
strongly ;  and  the  Provost  and  Magistrates  (not  in 
their  own  minds  very  strong)  thought  it  a  good  mea- 
sure to  apply  for  three  or  four  companies  of  a  march- 


36  THE    PORTEOUS    MOB. 

ing  regiment  that  lay  in  the  Canongate,  to  be  drawn 
up  in  the  liawnmarket,  a  street  leading  from  the 
Tolbooth  to  the  Grassmarket,  the  place  of  execution, 
in  order  to  overawe  the  mob  by  their  being  at  hand. 
Porteous,  who,  it  is  said,  had  his  natural  courage  in- 
creased to  rage  by  any  suspicion  that  he  and  his  Guard 
could  not  execute  the  law,  and  beino;  heated  likewise 
with  wine — for  he  had  dined,  as  the  custom  then  was, 
between  one  and  two — became  perfectly  furious  when 
he  passed  by  the  three  companies  drawn  up  in  the 
street  as  he  marched  along  with  his  prisoner. 

Mr  Baillie  had  taken  windows  in  a  house  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Grassmarket,  for  his  pupils  and  me, 
in  the  second  floor,  about  seventy  or  eighty  yards 
westward  of  the  place  of  execution,  where  w^e  went  in 
due  time  to  see  the  show ;  to  which  I  had  no  small 
aversion,  having  seen  one  at  Dumfries,  the  execution 
of  Jock  Johnstone,  which  shocked  me  very  much.* 
When  we  arrived  at  the  house,  some  people  who  were 
looking  from  the  windows  were  displaced,  and  went 
to  a  window  in  the  common  stair,  about  two  feet 
below  the  level  of  ours.  The  street  is  long  and  wide, 
and  there  was  a  very  great  crowd  assembled.  The 
execution  went  on  with  the  usual  forms,  and  Wilson 
behaved  in  a  manner  very  Ijecoming  his  situation. 
There  was  not  the  least  appearance  of  an  attempt  to 
rescue ;  but  soon  after  the  executioner  had  done  his 
duty,  there  was  an  attack  made  upon  him,  as  usual 
on    such   occasions,    by   the   boys   and  blackguards 

*  See  above,  p.  22,  note. 


THE   PORTEOUS   MOB.  37 

throwing  stones  and  dirt  in  testimony  of  their  abhor- 
rence of  the  hangman.  But  there  was  no  attempt  to 
break  through  the  guard  and  cut  down  the  prisoner. 
It  was  generally  said  that  there  was  very  little,  if  any, 
more  violence  than  had  usually  happened  on  such 
occasions.  Porteous,  however,  inflamed  with  wine 
and  jealousy,  thought  proper  to  order  his  Guard  to 
fire,  their  muskets  being  loaded  with  slugs ;  and 
when  the  soldiers  showed  reluctance,  I  saw  him  turn 
to  them  with  threatenincr  oesture  and  an  inflamed 
countenance.  They  obeyed,  and  fired ;  but  wishing  to 
do  as  little  harm  as  possible,  many  of  them  elevated 
their  pieces,  the  efiect  of  which  was  that  some  people 
were  wounded  in  the  windows  ;  and  one  unfortunate 
lad,  whom  we  had  displaced,  was  killed  in  the  stair 
window  by  a  slug  entering  his  head.  His  name  was 
Henry  Black,  a  journeyman  tailor,  whose  bride  was  the 
daughter  of  the  house  we  were  in.  She  fainted  away 
when  he  was  brought  into  the  house  speechless,  where 
he  only  lived  till  nine  or  ten  o'clock.  We  had  seen 
many  people,  women  and  men,  fall  on  the  street,  and 
at  first  thought  it  was  only  through  fear,  and  by  their 
crowding  on  one  another  to  escape.  But  when  the 
crowd  dispersed,  we  saw  them  lying  dead  or  wounded, 
and  had  no  longer  any  doubt  of  what  had  happened. 
The  numbers  were  said  to  be  eight  or  nine  killed,  and 
double  the  number  wounded  ;  but  this  was  never 
exactly  known. 

This  unprovoked  slaughter  irritated  the  common 
people  to  the  last ;  and  the  state  of  grief  and  rage 


38  THE    PORTEOUS    MOB. 

into  which  their  minds  were  thrown,  was  visible  in 
the  high  commotion  that  appeared  in  the  multitude. 
Our  tutor  was  very  anxious  to  have  us  all  safe  in  our 
lodgings,  but  durst  not  venture  out  to  see  if  it  was 
practicable  to  go  home.  I  offered  to  go ;  w^ent,  and 
soon  returned,  offering  to  conduct  them  safe  to  our 
lodgings,  which  were  only  half-way  down  the  Lawn- 
market,  by  what  w^as  called  the  Castle  Wynd,  which 
was  just  at  hand,  to  the  westward.  There  we  re- 
mained safely,  and  were  not  allowed  to  stir  out  any 
more  that  night  till  about  nine  o'clock,  when,  the 
streets  having  long  been  quiet,  we  all  grew  anxious 
to  learn  the  fate  of  Henry  Black,  and  I  was  allowed 
to  go  back  to  the  house.  I  took  the  younger  Maxwell 
with  me,  and  found  that  he  had  expired  an  hour  be- 
fore we  arrived.  A  single  slug  had  penetrated  the 
side  of  his  head  an  inch  above  the  ear.  The  sequel 
of  this  affair  was,  that  Porteous  was  tried  and  con- 
demned to  be  hanged  ;  but  by  the  intercession  of 
some  of  the  Judges  themselves,  who  thought  his  case 
hard,  he  was  reprieved  by  the  Queen-Regent.  The 
Magistrates,  who  on  this  occasion,  as  on  the  former, 
acted  weakly,  designed  to  have  removed  him  to  the 
Castle  for  greater  security.  But  a  plot  w^as  laid  and 
conducted  by  some  persons  unknown  with  the  great- 
est secrecy,  policy,  and  vigour,  to  prevent  that  design, 
by  forcing  the  prison  the  night  before,  and  executing 
the  sentence  upon  him  themselves,  which  to  effectuate 
cost  them  from  eight  at  night  till  two  in  the  morning ; 
and  yet  this  plot  was  managed  so  dexterously  that 


THE    PORTEOUS    MOB.  39 

they  met  with  no  iutemiption,  though  there  were 
five  companies  of  a  marching  regiment  lying  in  the 
Canongate. 

This  happened  on  the  7th  of  September  1736; 
and  so  prepossessed  were  the  minds  of  every  person 
that  something  extraordinary  would  take  place  that 
day,  that  I,  at  Prestonpans,  nine  miles  from  Edinburgh, 
dreamt  that  I  saw  Captain  Porteous  hanged  in  the 
Grassmarket.  I  got  up  betwixt  six  and  seven,  and 
went  to  my  father's  servant,  who  was  thrashing  in 
the  bam  which  lay  on  the  roadside  leading  to  Aber- 
lady  and  North  Berwick,  who  said  that  several  men 
on  horseback  had  passed  about  five  in  the  morning, 
whom  having  asked  for  news,  they  replied  there  was 
none,  but  that  Captain  Porteous  had  been  dragged 
out  of  prison,  and  hanged  on  a  dyer's  tree  at  two 
o'clock  that  mornincr. 

This  bold  and  lawless  deed  not  only  provoked  the 
Queen,  who  was  Eegent  at  the  time,  but  gave  some 
uneasiness  to  Government.  It  was  represented  as  a 
dangerous  plot,  and  was  ignorantly  connected  with  a 
great  meeting  of  zealous  Covenanters,  of  whom  many 
still  remained  in  Galloway  and  the  west,  which  had 
been  held  in  summer,  in  Pentland  Hills,  to  renew  the 
Covenant.  But  this  was  a  mistake  ;  for  the  murder 
of  Porteous  had  been  planned  and  executed  by  a  few 
of  the  relations  or  friends  of  those  whom  he  had 
slain ;  who.  being  of  a  rank  superior  to  mere  mob, 
had  carried  on  their  design  with  so  much  secrecy, 
abilitv,  and  steadiness  as  made  it  be  ascribed  to  a 


40  THE    PORTEOUS    MOB. 

still  higher  order,  who  were  political  enemies  to  Gov- 
ernment. Tliis  idea  provoked  Lord  Isla,  who  then 
managed  the  affairs  of  Scotland  under  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  to  carry  through  an  Act  of  Parliament  in 
next  session  for  the  discovery  of  the  murderers  of 
Captain  Porteous,  to  be  published  by  reading  it  for 
twelve  months,  every  Sunday  forenoon,  in  all  the 
churches  in  Scotland,  immediately  after  divine  service, 
or  rather  in  the  middle  of  it,  for  the  minister  was  or- 
dained to  read  it  between  the  lecture  and  the  sermon, 
two  discourses  usually  given  at  that  time.  This 
clause,  it  was  said,  was  intended  to  purge  the  Church 
of  fanatics,  for  as  it  was  believed  that  most  clergymen 
of  that  description  would  not  read  the  Act,  they 
would  become  liable  to  the  penalty,  which  was  depo- 
sition. By  good-luck  for  the  clergy,  there  was  an- 
other party  distinction  among  them  (besides  that 
occasioned  by  their  ecclesiastical  differences),  viz., 
that  of  Argathelian  and  Squadrone,  of  wJiich  po- 
litical divisions  there  were  some  both  of  the  hio;]i- 
flying  and  moderate  clergy.*  Some  very  sensible 
men  of  the  latter  class  having  discovered  the  design 
of  the  Act,  either  by  information  or  sagacity,  convened 

*  The  term  "  Argathelian "  is  new  to  the  Editor,  but  the  meaning  is 
obvious.  "Argathelia"  is  the  Latin  name  of  the  province  of  Argyle,  and 
the  word  doubtless  ai)plied  to  those  who  favoured  that  unlimited  influence 
in  the  affairs  of  Scotland  exercised  by  the  family  of  Argyle  liefore  the 
ascendancy  of  Lord  Bute.  The  name  of  "  Squadi'one"  had  been  long  used  to 
designate  a  public  party  professing  entire  independence.  The  "  ecclesias- 
tical differences  "  concentrated  themselves  in  a  disjnite,  of  memorable  im- 
portance to  the  Chm-ch  of  Scotland,  called  "  The  Marrow  Controversy," 
from  one  party  standing  by,  and  the  other  impiigning,  Fisher's  Mairow  of 
Modern  Divinity. — Ed. 


THE    PORTEOUS    MOB.  41 

meetings  of  clergy  at  Edinburgh,  and  formed  resolu- 
tions, and  carried  on  correspondence  tlirough  the 
Church  to  persuade  as  many  as  possible  to  disobey 
the  Act,  that  the  great  number  of  offenders  might 
secure  the  safety  of  the  whole.  This  was  actually  the 
case,  for  as  one-half  of  the  clergy,  at  least,  disobeyed 
in  one  shape  or  other,  the  idea  of  inflicting  the 
penalty  was  dropt  altogether.  In  the  mean  time,  the 
distress  and  perplexity  which  this  Act  occasioned  in 
many  families  of  the  clergy,  was  of  itself  a  cruel 
punishment  for  a  crime  in  which  they  had  no  hand. 
The  anxious  days  and  sleepless  nights  which  it  occa- 
sioned to  such  ministers  as  had  families,  and  at  the 
same  time  scruples  about  the  lawfulness  of  reading 
the  Act,  were  such  as  no  one  could  imagine  who  had 
not  witnessed  the  scene. 

The  part  my  grandfather  took  was  manly  and 
decided ;  for,  not  thinking  the  reading  of  the  Act 
unlawful,  he  pointedly  obeyed.  My  father  was  very 
scrupulous,  being  influenced  by  Mr  Erskine  of  Grange, 
and  other  enemies  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  good  sense  of  his  wife,  and  the  con- 
sideration of  eight  or  nine  children  whom  he  then 
had,  and  who  were  in  dansjer  of  beinor  turned  out  on 
the  world,  pulled  him  very  hard  on  the  side  of  obe- 
dience. A  letter  from  my  grandfather  at  last  settled 
his  mind,  and  he  read  the  x\ct. 

What  seemed  extraordinary,  after  all  the  anxiety 
of  Grovernment,  and  the  violent  means  they  took  to 
make  a  discovery,  not  one  of  those  murderers  was 


42  PROFESSORS    AND    COMPANIONS, 

ever  found.  Twenty  years  afterwards,  two  or  three 
persons  returned  from  different  parts  of  the  world, 
who  were  supposed  to  be  of  the  number ;  but,  so  far 
as  I  heard,  they  never  disclosed  themselves. 

In  my  second  year  at  the  College,  November  1736, 
besides  attending  M'Laurin's  class  for  mathematics, 
and  Kerr's  private  class,  in  which  he  read  Juvenal, 
Tacitus,  &c.,  and  opened  up  the  beauties  and  peculiar- 
ities of  the  Latin  tongue,  I  went  to  the  Logic  class, 
taught  by  Mr  John  Stevenson,  who,  though  he  had 
no  pretensions  to  superiority  in  point  of  learning  and 
genius,  yet  was  the  most  popular  of  all  the  Professors 
on  account  of  his  civility  and  even  kindness  to  his 
students,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  useful ;  for 
being  a  man  of  sense  and  industry,  he  had  made  a 
judicious  selection  from  the  French  and  English 
critics,  which  he  gave  at  the  morning  hour  of  eight, 
when  he  read  with  us  Aristotle's  Poetics  and  Longinus 
On  the  Sublime.  At  eleven  he  read  Ileineccius'  Logic, 
and  an  abridgement  of  Locke's  Essay ;  and  in  the 
afternoon  at  two — for  such  were  the  hours  of  attend- 
ance in  those  times — he  read  to  us  a  compendious 
history  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  and  an  account  of 
their  tenets.  On  all  these  branches  we  were  carefully 
examined  at  least  three  times  a-week.  Whether  or 
not  it  was  owing  to  the  time  of  life  at  which  we 
entered  this  class,  being  all  about  fifteen  years  of  age 
or  upwards,  when  the  mind  begins  to  open,  or  to  the 
excellence  of  the  lectures  and  the  nature  of  some  of 
the  subjects,  we  could  not  then  say,  but  all  of  us 


PROFESSORS    AND    COMPANIONS.  43 

received  the  same  impression — viz.,  that  our  minds 
were  more  enlarged,  and  that  we  received  greater 
benefit  from  that  class  than  from  any  other.  With  a 
due  regard  to  the  merit  of  the  Professor,  I  must 
ascribe  this  impression  chiefly  to  the  natural  ejQfect 
which  the  subject  of  criticism  and  of  rational  logic 
has  upon  the  opening  mind.  Having  learned  Greek 
pretty  well  at  school,  my  father  thought  fit  to  make 
me  pass  that  class,  especially  as  it  was  taught  at  that 
time  by  an  old  sickly  man,  who  could  seldom  attend, 
and  employed  substitutes. 

This  separated  me  from  some  of  my  companions, 
and  brought  me  acquainted  with  new  ones.  Sun- 
dry of  my  class-fellows  remained  another  year  with 
Kerr,  and  Sir  Gilbert  Elliott,  John  Home,  and  many 
others,  went  back  to  him  that  year.  It  was  this  year 
that  I  attended  the  French  master,  one  Kerr,  who,  for 
leave  given  him  to  teach  in  a  College  room,  taught 
his  scholars  the  whole  session  for  a  guinea,  which  w^as 
then  all  that  the  regents  could  demand  for  a  session 
of  the  College,  from  the  1st  of  November  to  the  Ist  of 
June.  During  that  course  we  were  made  sufiiciently 
masters  of  French  to  be  able  to  read  any  book.  To 
improve  our  pronunciation,  he  made  us  get  one  of 
Moliere's  plays  by  heart,  which  we  were  to  have 
acted,  but  never  did.  It  was  the  Medecin  malyre 
lui,  in  which  1  had  the  part  of  Sganarelle. 

-  Besides  the  young  gentlemen  who  had  resided  with 
us  in  the  former  year,  there  came  into  the  lodging 
below  two  Irish  students  of  medicine,  whose  names 


44)  PROFESSORS   AND    COMPANIONS. 

were  Conway  and  Lesly,  who  were  perfectly  well-bred 
and  agreeable,  and  with  whom,  though  a  year  or  two 
older,  I  was  very  intimate.  They  were  among  the 
first  Irish  students  whom  the  fame  of  the  first  Monro 
and  the  other  medical  Professors  had  brought  over  ; 
and  they  were  not  disappointed.  They  were  sober 
and  studious,  as  well  as  well-bred,  and  had  none  of 
that  restless  and  turbulent  disposition,  dignified  with 
the  name  of  spirit  and  fire,  which  has  often  since 
made  the  youth  of  that  country  such  troublesome 
members  of  society.  Mr  Lesly  Avas  a  clergyman's 
son,  of  Scottish  extraction,  and  was  acknowledged  as 
a  distant  relation  by  some  of  the  Eglintoun  family. 
Conway's  relations  were  all  beyond  the  Channel.  I 
was  so  much  their  favourite  both  this  year  and  the 
following,  when  they  returned,  and  lived  so  much 
with  them,  that  they  had  very  nearly  persuaded  me 
to  be  of  their  profession.  At  this  time  the  medical 
school  of  Edinburgh  was  but  rising  into  fame.  There 
were  not  so  many  as  twenty  English  and  Irish 
students  this  year  in  the  College.  The  Professors 
were  men  of  eminence.  Besides  Monro,  Professor  of 
Anatomy,  there  were  Dr  Sinclair,* 

I  was  in  use  of  going  to  my  father's  on  Saturdays 
once  a-fortnight,  and  returning  on  Monday  ;  but  this 
little  journey  was  less  frequently  performed  this 
winter,  as  Sir  Harry  Nisbet's  mother.  Lady  Nisbet,  a 
sister  of  Sir  Eobert  Morton's,  very  frequently  invited 
me  to  accompany  her  son  and  the  Maxwells  to  the 

*  Sic.  He  seems  to  liave  intended  to  add  other  names.— Ed. 


rrvOFESSOES  and  compaxions.  45 

house  of  Dean,  within  a  mile  of  Edinburgh,  where  we 
passed  the  day  in  hunting  with  the  greyhounds,  and 
generally  returned  to  town  in  the  evening.  Here  I 
had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  a  new  set  of  company 
(my  circle  having  been  very  limited  in  Edinburgh), 
whose  manners  were  more  worthy  of  imitation,  and 
whose  conversation  had  more  the  tone  of  the  world. 
Here  I  frequently  met  with  Mr  Baron  Dalrymple,  the 
youngest  brother  of  the  then  Earl  of  Stair,  and  grand- 
father of  the  present  Earl.  He  was  held  to  be  a  man  of 
wit  and  humour  ;  and,  in  the  language  and  manners  of 
the  gentlemen  of  Scotland  before  the  Union,  exhibited 
a  specimen  of  conversation  that  was  so  free  as  to 
border  a  little  on  licentiousness,  especially  before  the 
ladies ;  but  he  never  failed  to  keep  the  table  in  a  roar. 

Having  passed  the  Greek  class,  I  missed  many  of 
my  most  intimate  companions,  who  either  remained 
one  year  longer  at  the  Latin  class,  or  attended  the 
Greek.  But  I  made  n6w  ones,  who  were  very  agree- 
able, such  as  Sir  Alexander  Cockburn  of  Langton,  who 
had  been  bred  in  England  till  now,  and  John  Gibson, 
the  son  of  Sir  Alexander  Gibson  of  Addison,  both  of 
whom  perished  in  the  war  that  was  approaching. 

In  summer  1737  I  was  at  Prestonpans  ;  and  in 
July,  two  or  three  days  before  my  youngest  sister 
Jenny  was  born,  afterwards  Mrs  Bell,  I  met  with  an 
accident  which  confined  me  many  weeks,  which  was  a 
shot  in  my  leg,  occasioned  by  the  virole  of  a  ramrod 
having  fallen  into  a  musket  at  a  review  in  Mussel- 
burgh Links,  part  of  which  lodged  in  the  outside  of 


46  PROFESSORS   AND    COMPANIONS. 

the  calf  of  my  leg,  and  could  not  be  extracted  till  after 
the  place  had  been  twice  laid  open,  when  it  came  out 
Avith  a  dressing,  and  was  about  the  size  of  the  head  of 
a  nail.  This  was  the  reason  why  I  made  no  excursion 
to  Dumfriesshire  this  summer. 

Early  in  the  summer  I  lost  one  of  the  dearest  friends 
I  ever  had,  who  died  of  a  fever.  We  had  often  settled 
it  between  us,  that  whoever  should  die  first,  should 
appear  to  the  other,  and  tell  him  the  secrets  of  the 
invisible  world.  I  walked  every  evening  for  hours  in 
the  fields  and  links  of  Prestonpans,  in  hopes  of  meet- 
ing my  friend ;  but  he  never  appeared.  This  disap- 
pointment, together  with  the  knowledge  I  had  acquired 
at  the  Logic  class,  cured  me  of  many  prejudices  about 
ghosts  and  hobgoblins  and  witches,  of  which  till  that 
time  I  stood  not  a  little  in  awe. 

The  next  session  of  the  College,  beginning  in  No- 
vember 1737,  I  lodged  in  the  same  house  and  had  the 
same  companions  as  I  had  the  two  preceding  years. 
Besides  Sir  Robert  Stewart's  Natural  Philosophy  class, 
which  was  very  ill  taught,  as  he  was  worn  out  with 
age,  and  never  had  excelled,  I  attended  M'Laurin's 
second  class,  and  Dr  Pringle's  Moral  Philosophy,  be- 
sides two  hours  at  the  writing-master  to  improve  my 
hand,  and  a  second  attendance  on  JNIr  Kerr's  private 
class.  The  circle  of  my  acquaintance  was  but  little 
enlarged,  and  I  derived  more  agreeable  amusement 
from  the  two  Irish  students,  who  returned  to  their 
former  habitation,  than  from  any  other  acquaintance, 
except  the  Maxwells  and  their  friends.     My  acquaint- 


DANCING.  47 

ance  with  Dr  Kobertson  began  about  this  time.  I 
never  was  at  the  same  class  with  him,  for,  though  but 
a  few  months  older,  he  was  at  College  one  session  before 
me.  One  of  the  years,  too,  he  was  seized  with  a  fever, 
which  was  dangerous,  and  confined  him  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  winter.  I  went  to  see  him  sometimes  when 
he  was  recoverinij,  when  in  his  conversation  one  could 
perceive  the  opening  dawn  of  that  day  which  after- 
wards shone  so  bright.  I  became  also  acquainted  with 
John  Home  this  year,  though  he  was  one  year  behind 
me  at  College,  and  eight  months  younger.  He  was  gay 
and  talkative,  and  a  great  favourite  with  his  com- 
panions. 

I  was  very  fond  of  dancing,  in  which  1  was  a  great 
proficient,  having  been  taught  at  two  different  periods 
in  the  country,  though  the  manners  were  then  so  strict 
that  I  was  not  allowed  to  exercise  my  talent  at  penny- 
weddings,  or  any  balls  but  those  of  the  dancing-school. 
Even  this  would  have  been  denied  me,  as  it  was  to 
Robertson  and  Witherspoon,  and  other  clergymen's 
sons,  at  that  time,  had  it  not  been  for  the  persuasion 
of  those  aunts  of  mine  who  had  been  bred  in  England, 
and  for  some  papers  in  the  Spectator  which  were 
pointed  out  to  my  father,  which  seemed  to  convince 
him  that  dancing  would  make  me  a  more  accomplished 
preacher,  if  ever  I  had  the  honour  to  mount  the  pulpit. 
]^Iy  mother  too,  who  generally  was  right,  used  her 
sway  in  this  article  of  education.  But  I  had  not  the 
means  of  using  this  talent,  of  which  I  was  not  a  little 
vain,  till  luckily  I  was  introduced  to  Madame  Yiolante, 


48  SIR   JOHN   PEINGLE. 

an  Italian  stage-dancer,  who  kept  a  mucli-frequented 
school  for  young  ladies,  but  admitted  of  no  boys  above 
seven  or  eight  years  of  age,  so  that  she  wished  very 
much  for  senior  lads  to  dance  with  her  grown-up 
misses  weekly  at  her  practisings.  I  became  a  favourite 
of  this  dancing-mistress,  and  attended  her  very  faith- 
fully with  two  or  three  of  my  companions,  and  had 
my  choice  of  partners  on  all  occasions,  insomuch  that 
I  became  a  great  proficient  in  this  branch  at  little  or 
no  expense.  It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that,  hav- 
ing nothing  to  do  at  Stewart's  class,  through  the  in- 
capacity of  the  master,  and  M'Laurin's  giving  me  no 
trouble,  as  I  had  a  great  promptitude  in  learning 
mathematics,  I  had  a  good  deal  of  spare  time  this 
session,  which  I  spent,  as  well  as  all  the  money  I  got, 
at  a  billiard-table,  w^hich  unluckily  was  within  fifty 
yards  of  the  College.  I  was  so  sensible  of  the  folly 
of  this,  however,  that  next  year  I  abandoned  it  alto- 
gether. 

Dr  Pringle,  afterwards  Sir  John,  was  an  agreeable 
lecturer,  though  no  great  master  of  the  science  he 
taught.*  His  lectures  were  chiefly  a  compilation  from 
Lord  Bacon's  works  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  Puffen- 
dorf's  small  book,  which  he  made  his  text,  we  should 
not  have  been  instructed  in  the  rudiments  of  the 
science.  Once  a-week,  however,  he  gave  us  a  lecture 
in  Latin,  in  which  language  he  excelled,  and  was  even 
held  equal  to  Dr  John  Sinclair,  Professor  of  the  Theory 

*  Afterwards  well  known  in  scientific  society  in  London,  where  he  became 
President  of  the  Royal  Society. — Ed. 


THE    METAPHYSICAL   SCHOOL.  49 

of  Medicine,  the  most  eminent  Latin  scliolar  at  that 
time,  except  the  great  grammarian  Ruddiman.  The 
celebrated  Dr  Hutchison  of  Glasgow,  who  was  the  first 
that  distinguished  himself  in  that  important  branch 
of  literature,  was  now  beginning  his  career,  and  had 
drawn  ample  stores  from  the  ancients,  which  he  im- 
proved into  system,  and  embellished  by  the  exertions 
of  an  ardent  and  virtuous  mind.  He  was  soon  followed 
by  Smith,  who  had  been  his  scholar,  and  sat  for  some 
years  in  his  chair ;  by  Ferguson  at  Edinburgh ;  by  Keid 
and  Beattie,  which  last  was  more  an  orator  than  a 
philosopher ;  together  with  David  Hume,  whose  works, 
thouoh  dangerous  and  heretical,  illustrated  the  science, 
and  called  forth  the  exertions  of  men  of  equal  genius 
and  sounder  principles. 

I  passed  the  greater  part  of  this  summer  (1738)  at 
my  grandfather's,  at  Tinwald,  near  Dumfries,  who  had 
a  tolerably  good  collection  of  books,  and  where  I  read 
for  many  hours  in  the  day.  I  contracted  the  greatest 
respect  for  my  grandfather,  and  attachment  to  his 
family  ;  and  became  well  acquainted  with  the  young 
people  of  Dumfries,  and  afterwards  held  a  correspond- 
ence by  letters  with  one  of  them,  which  was  of  use 
in  forming  my  epistolary  style. 

A  new  family  came  this  year  to  Prestonpans ;  for 
Colin  Campbell,  Esq.,  the  brother  of  Sir  James  of 
Arbruchal,  had  fallen  in  arrears  as  Collector  of  the 
Customs,  and  was  suspended.  But  his  wife  dying  at 
that  very  time,  an  excellent  woman  of  the  family  of 
Sir  James  Holburn,  and  leaving  him  eight  or  nine 

D 


50  M'LAUEIN    THE    MATHEMATICIAN. 

cliilclren,  his  situation  drew  compassion  from  his  friends, 
especially  from  Archibald,  Earl  of  Isla,  and  James 
Campbell  of  St  Germains,  who  were  his  securities,  and 
who  had  no  chance  of  being  reimbursed  the  sum  of 
£800  or  £1000  of  arrears  into  which  he  had  fallen, 
but  by  his  preferment.  He  was  soon  made  a  Commis- 
sioner of  the  Board  of  Customs,  an  oflfice  at  that  time  of 
£1000  per  annum.  This  deprived  us  of  a  very  agree- 
able family,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  which  were  my 
companions.  Mr  Campbell  was  succeeded  by  Mr 
George  Cheap,  of  the  Cheaps  of  Rossie  in  Fife,  whose 
wife,  an  aunt  of  the  Lord  Chancellor  Wedderburn, 
had  just  died  and  left  a  family  of  eight  children,  two 
of  them  beautiful  girls  of  sixteen  or  eighteen,  and  six 
sons,  the  eldest  of  whom  was  a  year  older  than  I,  but 
was  an  apprentice  to  a  Writer  to  the  Signet  in  Edin- 
burgh. This  family,  though  less  sociable  than  the 
former,  soon  became  intimate  with  ours  ;  and  one  of 
them  very  early  made  an  impression  on  me,  which 
had  lasting  effects. 

In  November  1738  I  ao;ain  attended  the  College  of 
Edinburgh  ;  and,  besides  a  second  year  of  the  Moral 
Philosophy,  I  was  a  third  year  at  M'Laurin's  class, 
who,  on  account  of  the  advanced  age  and  incapacity 
of  Sir  Robert  Stewart,  not  only  taught  Astronomy, 
but  gave  us  a  course  of  experiments  in  Mechanics,  with 
many  excellent  lectures  in  Natural  Philosophy,  which 
fully  compensated  the  defects  of  the  other  class.  About 
this  time  the  choice  of  a  profession  became  absolutely 
necessary.     I  had  thoughts  of  the  army  and  the  law, 


CHOICE    OF   A    PROFESSION.  51 

but  was  persuaded  to  desist  from  any  views  on  them 
by  my  father's  being  unable  to  carry  on  my  educa- 
tion for  the  length  of  time  necessary  in  the  one,  or  to 
support  me  till  he  could  procure  a  commission  for  me, 
as  he  had  no  money  to  purchase ;  and  by  means  of 
the  long  peace,  the  establishment  of  the  army  was  low. 
Both  these  having  failed,  by  the  persuasion  of  Lesly 
and  Conway,  my  Irish  friends,  I  thought  of  surgery, 
and  had  prevailed  so  far  that  my  father  went  to  Edin- 
burgh in  the  autumn  to  look  out  for  a  master  in  that 
profession.* 

In  the  mean  time  came  a  letter  from  my  grandfather, 
in  favour  of  his  own  profession  and  that  of  my  father, 
written  with  so  much  force  and  energy,  and  stating 
so  many  reasons  for  my  yielding  to  the  wish  of  my 
friends  and  the  conveniency  of  a  family  stiU  consisting 
of  eight  children,  of  whom  I  was  the  eldest,  that  I 
yielded  to  the  influence  of  parental  wishes  and  advice, 
which  in  those  days  swayed  the  minds  of  young  men 
much  more  than  they  do  now,  or  have  done  for  many 
years  past.      I  therefore  consented   that   my  name 

*  I  tlrew  up  with  them  [Leslie  and  Conway],  and  they  had  almost  induced 
me  to  be  a  doctor,  had  not  the  dissection  of  a  child,  which  they  bought  of  a 
poor  tailor  for  6s.,  disgusted  me  completely.  The  man  had  asked  6s.  6<l., 
but  they  beat  him  down  the  6tL  by  asserting  that  the  bargain  was  to  him 
worth  more  than  12*.,  as  it  saved  him  all  the  exjiense  of  burial.  The  hearing 
of  this  bargain,  together  with  that  of  the  dialogue  in  which  they  carrietl  it  on, 
were  not  less  grating  to  my  feelings  than  the  dissection  itself.  Before  that 
I  had  lieen  captivated  by  the  sight  of  a  handsome  comet  of  the  Greys,  and 
would  neetls  be  a  soldier ;  but  my  father  having  no  money  to  purchase  a 
commission  for  me,  and  not  being  able,  he  said,  to  spare  as  much  money  per 
day  as  would  make  me  live  like  a  gentleman,  although  Colonel  Gardiner 
said  he  would  recommend  me  for  a  cadet  in  a  very  good  regiment,  I  desiste«l 
from  this  also. — Recollections, 


02  DUMFRIES. 

should  this  year  be  enrolled  in  the  list  of  students  of 
divinity,  though  regular  attendance  was  not  enjoined. 

On  the  13th  of  January  1739,  there  was  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  moon,  to  view  which  M'Laurin  invited 
his  senior  scholars,  of  whom  I  was  one.  About  a  dozen 
of  us  remained  till  near  one  o'clock  on  the  Sunday 
morning,  when  the  greatest  tempest  arose  that  I  re- 
member. Eight  or  ten  of  us  were  so  much  alarmed  with 
the  fall  of  bricks  or  slates  in  the  College  Wynd,  that 
we  called  a  council  of  war  in  a  stair-foot,  and  got  to 
the  High  Street  safe  by  walking  in  file  down  the 
Cowgate  and  up  Niddry's  Wynd. 

I  passed  most  of  the  summer  this  year  in  Dumfries- 
shire, where  my  grandfather  kept  me  pretty  close  to 
my  studies,  though  I  frequently  walked  in  the  after- 
noons to  Dumfries,  and  brought  him  the  newspapers 
from  Provost  Bell,  his  son-in-law,  w^ho  had  by  that 
time  acquired  the  chief  sway  in  the  burgh,  having 
taken  the  side  of  the  Duke  of  Queensberry,  in  oppo- 
sition to  Charles  Erskine  of  Tinwald,  at  that  time  the 
Solicitor.  George  Bell  was  not  a  man  of  ability,  but 
he  was  successful  in  trade,  was  popular  in  his  man- 
ners, and,  having  a  gentlemanly  spirit,  was  a  favourite 
with  the  nobility  and  gentry  in  the  neighbourhood. 
He  had  a  constant  correspondence  with  the  Duke  of 
Queensberry,  and  retained  his  friendship  till  his  death 
in  1757.  What  Bell  wanted  in  capacity  or  judgment 
was  fully  compensated  by  his  wife,  Margaret  Bobison, 
the  second  of  my  mother's  sisters,  and  afterwards  still 
more  by  my  sister  Margaret,  whom  they  reared,  as 


FRIENDS   AND   COMPANIONS.  53 

they  liad  no  children,  and  who,  when  she  grew  up, 
added  beauty  and  address  to  a  very  uncommon  un- 
derstanding. During  the  period  when  I  so  much 
frequented  Dumfries,  there  was  a  very  agreeable  so- 
ciety in  that  town.  They  were  not  numerous,  but 
the  few  were  better  informed,  and  more  agreeable  in 
society,  than  any  to  be  met  with  in  so  small  a  town. 

I  returned  home  before  winter,  but  did  not  attend 
the  College,  though  I  was  enrolled  a  student  of  divi- 
nity. But  my  father  had  promised  to  Lord  Drum- 
more,  his  great  friend,  that  I  should  pass  most  of  my 
time  with  his  eldest  son,  ^Ir  Hew  H.  Dalrymple,  who, 
not  liking'  to  live  in  Edinburgh,  was  to  pass  the 
winter  m  the  house  of  Walliford.  adjacent  to  his  estate 
of  Drummore,  where  he  had  only  a  farmhouse  at  that 
time,  with  two  rooms  on  a  ground-floor,  which  would 
have  ill  agreed  with  Mr  Hew's  health,  which  was 
threatened  with  symptoms  of  consumption,  the  dis- 
ease of  which,  he  died  five  or  six  years  afterwards, 
havinof  been  married,  but  leavinor  no  issue. 

Mr  Hew  H.  Dalr}Tnple  had  been  intended  for  the 
Church  of  England,  and  with  that  view  had  been 
educated  at  Oxford,  and  was  an  accomplished  scholar ; 
but  his  elder  brother  John  having  died  at  Naples,  he 
fell  heir  to  his  mother's  estate.  He  was  five  or  six 
years  older  than  I,  and  being  frank  and  communica- 
tive, I  received  much  benefit  from  his  conversation, 
which  was  iustructive,  and  his  manners,  which  were 
elegant.  With  this  gentleman  I  lived  all  winter, 
retiurning  generally  to  my  father's  house  on  Saturdays, 


54  THE    DALRYMPLES    AND    KEITHS. 

when  Lord  Driimmore  returned  from  Edinburgli,  and 
went  back  again  on  Monday,  when  I  resumed  my 
station.  We  passed  great  part  of  the  day  in  Novem- 
ber and  December  planting  trees  round  the  enclosures 
at  Drummore,  which,  by  their  appearance  at  present, 
prove  that  they  were  not  well  chosen,  for  they  are 
very  small  of  their  age ;  but  they  were  too  old  when 
they  were  planted.  After  the  frost  set  in  about 
Christmas,  we  passed  our  days  very  much  in  following 
the  greyhounds  on  foot  or  on  horseback,  and  though 
our  evenings  were  generally  solitary,  between  reading 
and  talking  we  never  tired.  Mr  Hew's  manners  were 
as  gentle  as  his  mind  was  enlightened.  We  had'  little 
intercourse  with  the  neighbours,  except  with  my 
father's  family,  with  Mr  Cheap's  (the  Collector),  where 
there  were  two  beautiful  girls,  and  with  Mr  Keith, 
afterwards  ambassador,  whose  wife's  sister  was  the 
widow  of  Sir  Robert  Dalrymple,  brother  of  Lord 
Drummore.  They  were  twins,  and  so  like  each  other, 
that  even  when  I  saw  them  first,  when  they  were  at 
least  thirty,  it  was  hardly  possible  to  distinguish 
them.  In  their  youth,  their  lovers,  I  have  heard  them 
say,  always  mistook  them  when  a  sign  or  watchword 
had  not  been  agreed  on.  Mr  Keith  was  a  very  agree- 
able man,  had  much  knowledge  of  modern  history 
and  genealogy,  and,  being  a  pleasing  talker,  made  an 
agreeable  companion.  Of  him  and  his  intimate  friend, 
Mr  Hepburn  of  Keith,  it  was  said  that  the  witty  Lady 
Dick  (Lord  Royston's  daughter)  said  that  Mr  Keith 
told  her  nothing  but  what  she  knew^  before,  though  in 


THE    DALRYMPLES    AND    KEITHS.  55 

a  very  agreeable  manner,  but  that  Hepburn  never 
said  anything  that  was  not  new  to  her, — thus  marking 
the  difference  between  genius  and  ability.  Keith  was 
a  minion  of  the  great  Mareschal  Stair,  and  went 
abroad  with  him  in  1 743,  when  he  got  the  command 
of  the  army.  But  I  observed  that  Lord  Stair's  par- 
tiality to  Keith  made  him  no  great  favourite  of  the 
Dalrymples.  Colonel  Gardiner  had  been  another 
minion  of  Lord  Stair,  but  being  illiterate,  and  con- 
sidered as  a  fanatic,  the  gentleman  I  mention  had  no 
intimacy  with  him,  though  they  admitted  that  he  was 
a  very  honest  and  well-meaning  brave  man. 

My  father  had  sometimes  expressed  a  wish  that  I 
should  allow  myself  to  be  recommended  to  take  charge 
of  a  pupil,  as  that  was  the  most  likely  way  to  obtain 
a  church  in  Scotland ;  but  he  did  not  press  me  on 
this  subject,  for  as  he  had  been  four  years  in  that 
station  himself,  though  he  was  very  fortunate  in  his 
pupils,  he  felt  how  degrading  it  was.  By  that  time  I 
had  been  acquainted  with  a  few  preceptors,  had  ob- 
served how  they  were  treated,  and  had  contracted  an 
abhorrence  of  the  employment — insomuch  that,  when 
I  consented  to  follow  out  the  clerical  profession,  it 
was  on  condition  I  should  never  be  urged  to  go  into 
a  family,  as  it  was  called,  engaging  at  the  same  time 
to  make  my  expenses  as  moderate  as  possible. 

This  was  the  winter  of  the  hard  frost  which  com- 
menced in  the  end  of  December  1739,  and  lasted  for 
three  months.  As  there  were  no  canals  or  rivers  of 
extent  enough  in  this  part  of  the  country  to  encourage 


56  PROFESSORS   AND    COMPANIONS. 

the  fine  exercise  of  skating,  we  contented  ourselves 
with  the  winter  diversion  of  curling,  which  is  peculiar 
to  Scotland,  and  became  tolerable  proficients  in  that 
manly  exercise.  It  is  the  more  interesting,  as  it  is 
usual  for  the  young  men  of  adjacent  parishes  to  con- 
tend against  each  other  for  a  whole  winter's  day, 
and  at  the  end  of  it  to  dine  together  with  much 
jollity. 

I  passed  the  summer  of  this  year,  as  usual,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Dumfries,  and  kept  up  my  con- 
nection with  the  young  people  of  that  town  as  I 
had  done  formerly.  I  returned  home  in  the  autumn, 
and  passed  some  part  of  the  winter  in  Edinburgh, 
attending  the  divinity  class,  which  had  no  attrac- 
tions, as  the  Professor,  though  said  to  be  learned, 
was  dull  and  tedious  in  his  lectures,  insomuch  that 
at  the  end  of  seven  years  he  had  only  lectured  half 
through  Pictet's  Compend  of  Theology.  I  became 
acquainted,  however,  with  several  students,  with 
whom  I  had  not  been  intimate,  such  as  Dr  Hugh 
Blair,  and  the  Bannatines,  and  Dr  Jardine,  all  my 
seniors ;  Dr  John  Blair,  afterwards  Prebendary  of 
Westminster  ;  John  Home,  William  Robertson,  George 
Logan,  William  Wilkie,  &c.  There  was  one  advan- 
tage attending  the  lectures  of  a  dull  professor — viz., 
that  he  could  form  no  school,  and  the  students  were 
left  entirely  to  themselves,  and  naturally  formed 
opinions  far  more  liberal  than  those  they  got  from 
the  Professor.  This  was  the  answer  I  gave  to  Patrick 
Lord  Elibank,  one  of  the  most  learned  and  ingenious 


GRANGE   A^^D    LOVAT.  57 

noblemen  of  his  time,  when  he  asked  me  one  day, 
many  years  afterwards,  what  could  be  the  reason  that 
the  young  clergymen  of  that  period  so  far  surpassed 
their  predecessors  of  his  early  days  in  useful  accom- 
plishments and  liberality  of  mind — \dz.,  that  the 
Professor  of  Theology  was  dull,  and  Dutch,  and  prolix. 
His  lordship  said  he  perfectly  understood  me,  and 
that  this  entirely  accounted  for  the  change. 

In  summer  1741  I  remained  for  the  most  part  at 
home,  and  it  was  about  that  time  that  my  old  school- 
master, Mr  Hannan,  having  died  of  fever,  and  Mr 
John  Halket  having  come  in  his  place,  I  was  witness 
to  a  scene  that  made  a  strong  impression  upon  me. 
This  Mr  Halket  had  been  tutor  to  Lord  Lovat's  eldest 
son  Simon,  afterwards  well  known  as  General  Fraser. 
Halket  had  remained  for  two  years  with  Lovat,  and 
knew  all  his  ways.  But  he  had  parted  with  him  on 
his  cominor  to  Edinburorh  for  the  education  of  that 
son,  to  whom  he  gave  a  tutor  of  a  superior  order,  Mr 
Hugh  Blair,  afterwards  the  celebrated  Doctor.  But 
he  still  retained  so  much  reg-ard  for  Halket  that  he 
thought  proper  to  fix  his  second  son,  Alexander 
Fraser,  with  him  at  the  school  of  Prestonpans,  believ- 
ing that  he  was  a  much  more  proper  hand  for  training 
an  untutored  savage  than  the  mild  and  elesrant  Dr 
Blair.  It  was  in  the  course  of  this  summer  that 
Lovat  brought  his  son  Alexander  to  be  placed  with. 
Halket,  from  whom,  understanding  that  I  was  a  young 
scholar  livino-  in  the  town  who  might  be  usefid  to  his 
son,  he  ordered  Halket  to  invite  me  to  dine  with  him 


58  GRANGE   AND    LOVAT. 

and  his  company  at  Lucky  Yint's,  a  celebrated  vil- 
lage tavern  in  the  west  end  of  the  town. 

His  company  consisted  of  Mr  Erskine  of  Grange, 
with  three  or  four  gentlemen  of  the  name  of  Fraser, 
one  of  whom  was  his  man  of  business,  together  with 
Halket,  his  son  Alexander,  and  myself.  The  two  old 
gentlemen  disputed  for  some  time  which  of  them 
should  say  grace.  At  last  Lovat  yielded,  and  gave 
us  two  or  three  pious  sentences  in  French,  which  Mr 
Erskine  and  I  understood,  and  we  only.  As  soon  as 
we  were  set,  Lovat  asked  me  to  send  him  a  whiting 
from  the  dish  of  fish  that  was  next  me.  As  they 
were  all  haddocks,  I  answered  that  they  were  not 
whitings,  but,  according  to  the  proverb,  he  that  got  a 
haddock  for  a  whiting  was  not  ill  off.  This  saying 
takes  its  rise  from  the  superiority  of  haddocks  to  whit- 
ings in  the  Firth  of  Forth.  Upon  this  his  lordship 
stormed  and  swore  more  than  fifty  dragoons  ;  he  w^as 
sure  they  must  be  whitings,  as  he  had  bespoke  them. 
Halket  tipped  me  the  wink,  and  I  retracted,  saying 
that  I  had  but  little  skill,  and  as  his  lordship  had 
bespoke  them,  I  must  certainly  be  mistaken.  Upon 
this  he  calmed,  and  I  sent  him  one,  which  he  was 
quite  pleased  with,  swearing  again  that  he  never  could 
eat  a  haddock  all  his  life.  The  landlady  told  me 
afterwards  that  as  he  had  been  very  peremptory 
against  haddocks,  and  she  had  no  other,  she  had  made 
her  cook  carefully  scrape  out  St  Peter's  mark  on  the 
shoulders,  which  she  had  often  done  before  with  suc- 
cess.    We  had  a  very  good  plain  dinner.      As  the 


GRANGE    AND    LOVAT.  59 

claret  was  excellent,  and  circulated  fast,  tlie  two  old 
gentlemen  grew  very  merry,  and  tlieir  conversation 
became  youthful  and  gay.   What  I  observed  was,  that 
Grange,  without  appearing  to  flatter,  was  very  obser- 
vant of  Lovat,  and  did  everything  to  please  him.    He 
had  provided  Geordy  Sym,  who  was  Lord  Drum- 
raore's  piper,  to   entertain  Lovat  after  dinner ;  but 
though  he  was  reckoned  the  best  piper  in  the  country, 
Lovat  despised  him,  and  said  he  was  only  fit  to  play 
reels  to  Grange's  oyster-women.     He  grew  frisky  at 
last,  however,  and  upon  Kate  Yint,  the  landlady's 
daughter,  coming  into  the  room,  he  insisted  on  her 
staying  to  dance  with  him.     She  was   a  handsome 
girl,  with  fine  black  eyes  and  an  agreeable  person  ; 
and  tliouo;h  without  the  advantages  of  dress  or  man- 
ners,  she,  by  means  of  her  good  sense  and  a  bashful 
air,  was  verv  alluring:.     She  was  a  mistress  of  Lord 
Drummore,    who  lived   in  the  neighbourhood;    and 
though  her  mother  would  not  part  with  her,  as  she 
drew  much  company  to  the  house,  she  was  said  to  be 
faithful  to  him ;  except  only  in  the  case  of  Captain 
Merry,  who  married  her,  and  soon  after  went  abroad 
with  his  regiment.     When  he  died  she  enjoyed  the 
pension.     She  had  two  sons  by  Drummore  and  one 
by  Merry.     One  of  the  first  was  a  pretty  lad  and  a 
good  officer,  for   he   was  a  master   and  commander 
before  he  died.     Lovat  was  at  this  time  seventy-five, 
and  Grange  not  much  younger  ;  yet  the  wine  and 
the  yoimg  woman  emboldened  them  to  dance  a  reel, 
till  Kate,  observing  Lo vat's  legs  as  thick  as  posts,  fell 


60  GEANGE    AND    LOVAT. 

a-laughing,  and  ran  oflf.  She  missed  lier  second 
course  of  kisses,  as  was  then  the  fashion  of  the  coun- 
try, though  she  had  endured  the  first.  This  was  a 
scene  not  easily  forgotten. 

Lovat  was  tall  and  stately,  and  might  have  been 
handsome  in  his  youth,  with  a  very  flat  nose.  His 
manner  was  not  disagreeable,  though  his  address  con- 
sisted chiefly  in  gross  flattery  and  in  the  due  appli- 
cation of  money.  He  did  not  make  on  me  the  im- 
pression of  a  man  of  a  leading  mind.  His  suppleness 
and  profligacy  were  apparent.  The  convivium  was 
not  over,  though  the  evening  approached.  He  con- 
veyed his  son  to  the  house  were  he  was  to  be  boarded, 
for  Halket  had  not  taken  up  house  ;  and  there,  while 
we  drank  tea,  he  won  the  heart  of  the  landlady,  a 
decent  widow  of  a  shipmaster,  and  of  her  niece,  by 
fair  speeches,  intermixed  with  kisses  to  the  niece,  who 
was  about  thirty,  and  such  advices  as  a  man  in  a 
state  of  ebriety  could  give.  The  coach  was  in  waiting, 
but  Grange  would  not  yet  part  with  him,  and  insisted 
on  his  accepting  of  a  banquet  from  him  at  his  house 
in  Preston.  Lovat  was  in  a  yielding  humour,  and  it 
was  agreed  to.  The  Frasers,  who  were  on  horseback, 
were  sent  to  Edinburgh,  the  boy  was  left  with  his 
dame,  and  Lovat  and  Grange,  and  Halket  and  I,  went 
up  to  Preston,  only  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant,  and 
were  received  in  Grange's  library,  a  cube  of  twenty 
feet,  in  a  pavilion  of  the  house  which  extended  into  a 
small  wilderness  of  not  more  than  half  an  acre,  which 
was  sacred  to  Grange's  private  walks,  and  to  which 


GRANGE    AND    LOVAT.  61 

there  was  no  entry  but  through  the  pavilion.  This 
wilderness  was  said  to  be  his  place  of  retreat  from  his 
lady  when  she  was  in  her  fits  of  termagancy,  which 
were  not  unfrequent,  and  were  said  by  his  minions  to 
be  devoted  to  meditation  and  prayer.  But  as  there 
was  a  secret  door  to  the  fields,  it  was  reported  that  he 
had  occasionally  admitted  fair  maidens  to  solace  him 
for  his  sufiering-s  from  the  clamour  of  his  ^-ife.  This 
room  had  been  well  stored  with  books  from  top  to 
bottom,  but  at  this  time  was  much  thinned,  there 
remaining  only  a  large  collection  of  books  on  dsemo- 
nologia,  which  was  Grange's  particular  study.  In  this 
room  there  was  a  fine  collection  of  fruit  and  biscuits, 
and  a  new  deluo-e  of  excellent  claret.  At  ten  o'clock 
the  two  old  gentlemen  mounted  their  coach  to  Edin- 
burgh, and  thus  closed  a  very  memorable  day. 

In  the  following  winter — viz.,  November  1741 — I 
attended  the  Divinity  Hall  at  Edinburgh  again  for 
three  or  four  months,  and  delivered  a  discourse,  De 
Fide  Salvifica,  a  very  improper  subject  for  so  young 
a  student,  which  attracted  no  attention  from  any  one 
but  the  Professor,  who  was  pleased  with  it,  as  it  re- 
sembled his  own  Dutch  Latin. 

The  summer  1742  I  passed  at  home,  making  only 
a  few  excursions  into  East  Lothian,  where  I  had 
sundry  companions.  My  father,  ever  attentive  to 
what  he  thought  was  best  for  me,  and  desirous  to 
ease  himself  as  much  as  possible  from  the  expense  of 
my  education,  availed  himself  of  my  mother's  being  a 
relation  of  the  Hon.  Basil  Hamilton — for  their  mothers 


62  GLASGOW   BURSARY. 

were  cousins — and  applied  to  the  Duke  of  Hamilton 
for  one  of  the  bursaries  given  by  Duchess  Ann  of 
that  family  in  the  former  century  to  students  in 
divinity  to  pass  two  winters  in  Glasgow  College,  and 
a  third  in  some  foreign  university,  the  salary  for 
the  first  two  years,  £100  Scots  annually,  and  for  the 
third,  £400  ;  which  might  have  been  competent  as 
far  back  as  1670,  but  was  very  far  short  of  the  most 
moderate  expense  at  which  a  student  could  live  in 
1742/"'  But  I  was  pleased  with  this  plan,  as  it  opened 
a  prospect  of  going  abroad.  The  presentation  was 
obtained,  and  my  father  and  I  set  out  on  horseback 
for  Glasgow  in  the  beginning  of  November,  and  ar- 
rived there  next  forenoon,  having  stayed  all  night  at 
Mr  Dundas's  of  Castle  Gary,  on  the  old  Eoman  wall. 
My  father  immediately  repaired  to  the  College  to  con- 
sult with  an  old  friend  of  his,  Mr  Dick,  Professor  of 
Natural  Philosophy,  how  he  was  to  proceed  with  his 
presentation.  I  was  surprised  to  see  him  return  after 
in  a  great  flurry,  Mr  Dick  having  assured  him  that 
there  was  no  vacant  bursary,  nor  would  be  till  next 
year.  The  next  object  was  how  to  secure  it,  in  which 
we  were  both  much  interested — my  father,  to  prevent 
my  deviating  into  some  other  employment ;  and  I,  for 
fear  I  should  have  been  forced  to  become  tutor  to 
some  young  gentleman,  a  situation  which,  as  I  then 
observed  it,  had  become  an  object  of  my  abhorrence. 
Several  of  my  companions  had  the  same  turn  of  mind  ; 
for  neither  Kobertson,  nor  John  Home,  nor  George 

*  A  himdred  poiincls  Scots  are  equivalent  to  £8,  6.s.  8d.  sterling.  — Ed. 


GLASGOW  BURSARY. 


63 


Loojan  were  ever  tutors.  We  thouo-lit  we  had  ob- 
served  that  all  tutors  had  contracted  a  certain  obse- 
quiousness or  bassesse,  which  alarmed  us  for  ourselves. 
A  little  experience  corrected  this  prejudice,  for  I  knew 
many  afterwards  who  had  passed  through  that  sta- 
tion, and  yet  had  retained  a  manly  independency 
both  in  mind  and  manner. 

After  a  hasty  dinner,  we  took  our  horses  by  four 
in  the  afternoon,  and  riding  all  night  by  the  nearest 
road,  which  was  as  bad  as  possible,  we  arrived  in 
Edinburgh  by  eight  in  the  morning.  My  father 
dressed  himself,  and  went  down  to  the  Abbey,  where, 
to  his  great  joy,  he  found  that  Duke  Hamilton  was 
not  set  out  for  London,  as  he  was  afraid  he  might 
have  been,  and  obtained  a  promise  that  the  presenta- 
tion should  be  renewed  next  year. 

In  compensation  for  this  disappointment,  I  passed 
the  greatest  part  of  this  winter  at  my  grandfather's,  at 
Tinwald,  where  I  read  for  many  hours  of  the  day,  and 
generally  took  the  weekly  amusement  of  passing  one 
day  and  night  at  Dumfries,  where  I  met  with  agree- 
able society,  both  male  and  female. 

I  returned  to  Edinburgh  in  March,  and  attended 
the  Divinity  Hall  for  a  few  weeks.  Living  at  Edin- 
burgh continued  still  to  be  wonderfully  cheap,  as  there 
were  ordinaries  for  young  gentlemeo,  at  fourpence 
a-head  for  a  very  good  diuner  of  broth  and  beef,  and 
a  roast  and  potatoes  every  day,  with  fish  three  or  four 
times  a- week,  and  all  the  small-beer  that  was  called 
for  till  the  cloth  was   removed.      In  the  summer  I 


64<  SOCIAL   HABITS. 

passed  some  time  in  East  Lothian,  where  by  accident 
at  that  period  there  were  no  less  than  a  dozen  young 
scholars,  preachers,  and  students  in  divinity,  who  gene- 
rally met  there  on  the  presbytery  day.  For  two  or 
three  times  we  dined  with  the  presbytery  by  invi- 
tation ;  but  finding  that  we  w^ere  not  very  welcome 
guests,  and  that  whatever  number  there  were  in  com- 
pany they  never  allowed  them  more  than  two  bottles 
of  small  Lisbon  wine,  we  bespoke  a  dinner  for  our- 
selves in  another  tavern  ;  and  when  the  days  were 
short,  generally  stayed  all  night.  By  this  time  even 
the  second  tavern  in  Haddington  (where  the  presby- 
tery dined,  having  quarrelled  with  the  first)  had  knives 
and  forks  for  their  table.  But  ten  or  twelve  years  be- 
fore that  time,  my  father  used  to  carry  a  shagreen  case, 
with  a  knife  and  fork  and  spoon,  as  they  perhaps  do 
still  on  many  parts  of  the  Continent.  When  I  at- 
tended, in  1742  and  1743,  they  had  still  but  one  glass 
on  the  table,  which  went  round  with  the  bottle. 

Very  early  in  the  afternoon,  Mr  Stedman,  a  minis- 
ter in  the  town,  and  one  or  two  more  of  the  clergy- 
men, used  to  resort  to  our  company,  and  keep  up 
an  enlightened  conversation  till  bedtime.  The  chief 
subjects  were  the  deistical  controversy  and  moral  phi- 
losophy, as  connected  with  theology.  Besides  Sted- 
man, Murray  and  Glen  almost  always  attended  us.* 

John  Witherspoon  was  of  this  party,  he  who  was 


*  Mr  Edward  Stedman  was  second  minister  of  Haddington,  and  a  man 
of  very  superior  understanding.  He  it  was  who  first  directed  Dr  Kobeiison 
how  to  obtain  his  leading  in  the  Church,  and  who  was  the  friend  and  sup- 


WITHERSPOON    OF   NEW    YORK.  65 

afterwards  a  member  of  the  American  Congress,  and 
Adam  Dickson,  who  afterwards  wrote  so  well  on  Hus- 
bandry. They  were  both  clergymen's  sons,  but  of 
very  different  characters  ;  the  one  open,  frank,  and 
generous,  pretending  only  to  what  he  was,  and  sup- 
porting his  title  with  spirit ;  the  other  close,  and 
suspicious,  and  jealous,  and  always  aspiring  at  a  supe- 
riority that  he  was  not  able  to  maintain.  I  used  some- 
times to  go  with  him  for  a  day  or  two  to  his  father's 
house  at  Gifford  Hall,  where  we  passed  the  day  in  fish- 
ing, to  be  out  of  reach  of  his  father,  who  was  very  sulky 
and  tyrannical,  but  who,  being  much  given  to  glut- 
tony, fell  asleep  early,  and  went  always  to  bed  at  nine, 
and,  being  as  fat  as  a  porpoise,  was  not  to  be  awaked, 
so  that  we  had  three  or  four  hours  of  liberty  every 
niorht  to  amuse  ourselves  with  the  daug-hters  of  the 
family,  and  their  cousins  who  resorted  to  us  from  the 
village,  when  the  old  man  was  gone  to  rest.  This  John 
loved  of  all  things  ;  and  this  sort  of  company  he  en- 
joyed in  greater  perfection  when  he  returned  my  visits, 
when  we  had  still  more  companions  of  the  fair  sex, 
and  no  restraint  from  an  austere  father  ;  so  that  I 
always  considered  the  austerity  of  manners  and  aver- 
sion to  social  joy  which  he  affected  afterwards,  as  the 
arts  of  hypocrisy  and  ambition  ;  for  he  had  a  strong 

porter  of  John  Jlome,  when  he  was  in  danger  of  being  deposed  for  writing 
the  tragetly  of  Douglas.  It  was  Stedman  who,  with  the  aid  of  Hugh 
BannatjTie,  then  minister  of  Dirleton,  and  Robertson,  conducted  the  affairs 
of  the  presbyterj'  of  Haddington  in  such  a  manner  that  they  were  never 
able  to  reach  John  Home,  till  it  was  convenient  for  him  to  resign  his 
charge. 

E 


G6  THE    KEITH   FAMILY. 

and  enlightened  understanding,  far  above  enthusiasm, 
and  a  temper  that  did  not  seem  liable  to  it.'^ 

It  was  this  summer  that  my  father  received  from 
Mr  Keith  (afterwards  ambassador)  a  letter,  desiring 
that  I  might  be  sent  over  to  him  immediately.  He 
had  been  sent  for  b}^  Lord  Stair,  and  went  to  Ger- 
many with  him  as  his  private  secretary.  This  was 
after  the  battle  of  Dettingen.  But  I  knew  nothing 
of  it  for  some  years,  otherwise  I  might  probably  have 
broke  through  my  father's  plan.  When  Lord  Stair 
lost  the  command  of  the  army,  Mr  Keith  lived  with 
him  at  London,  and  had  a  guinea  a-day  conferred  on 
him,  till  he  was  sent  to  Holland  in  1746  or  1747  as 
Resident.  His  knowledge  of  modern  history,  and  of 
all  the  treaties,  &c.,  made  him  be  valued. 

*  Thomas  Hepbiim,  a  distinguished  minister,  who  died  minister  of 
Athelstaneford,  and  was  bom  and  bred  in  the  neighbom"hood,  used  to 
allege  that  a  Dr  Nisbet  of  Montrose,  a  man  of  some  learning  and  ability, 
which  he  used  to  disjilay  with  little  judgment  in  the  Assembly,  was  Wither- 
spoon's  son,  and  that  he  was  supjwrted  in  this  opinion  by  the  scandalous 
chronicle  of  the  country.  Tlieir  features,  no  doubt,  had  a  strong  resem- 
blance, but  their  persons  were  unlike,  neither  were  their  tempers  at  all 
similar.  Any  likeness  there  was  between  them  in  their  sentiments  and 
public  api^earances  might  be  accounted  for  by  the  great  admiration  the 
junior  must  have  had  for  the  senior,  as  he  was  bred  up  mider  his  eye,  in 
the  same  parish,  in  which  he  was  much  admired.  Whether  or  not  lie 
was  his  son,  he  followed  his  exami)le,  for  he  became  discontented,  and 
migrated  to  America  during  the  Rebellion,  where  he  was  Principal  of 
Carlisle  CoUege,  Pennsylvania,  for  which  he  was  well  qualified  in  point  of 
learning.  But  no  preferment  nor  climate  can  cnre  a  discontented  mind,  for 
he  became  miserable  at  one  time  because  lie  coidd  not  return. 


CHAPTER    III. 

174S-1745 :  AGE,  21-23. 

GOES  TO  GLASGOW LEECHMAX,  HUTCHESON,  AND  THE  OTHER  PROFES- 
SORS  LIFE   AND    SOCIETY   IN   GL-VSGOW RISE  OF  TRADE ORIGIN 

OF   GLASGOW  SUPPERS CLUBS HUTCHESON  THE   METAPHYSICIAN 

SIMSON    AND    STEWART    THE    MATHEMATICIANS MOORE TOUR 

AMONG   THE  CLERGY    OF    HADDINGTON:   SKETCHES   OF  THEM THE 

AUTHOR    OF    "the   GRAVE " RETURN    TO    GLASGOW COLLEGE 

THEATRICALS TRAVELLING    ADVENTURES NT:WS     OF    THE    LAND- 
ING   OF   PRINCE    CHARLES A    VOLUNTEER    CORPS PREPARATIONS 

FOR   THE   DEFENCE    OF    EDINBURGH THE     MARCH     ANT)   RECALL 

OF     THE     VOLUNTEERS THE     PROVOST's     CONDUCT ADVENTURES 

AS    A    DISEMBODIED    VOLUNTEER ADVENTURES    OF    JOHN  HOME 

AND    ROBERTSON   THE    HISTORIAN EXPEDITION   TO    VIEW    COPE's 

ARMY THE     POSITION     OF     THE    TWO    ARMIES HIS    LAST    INTER- 
VIEW WITH  C0L0NT:L    GARDINER INSTRUCTIONS    TO    BE    WAKENED 

WHEN     THE     BATTLE     BEGINS IS     WAKENED,     AND     DESCRIPTION 

OF    WHAT     HE    SEES THE     BATTLE INCIDENTS INSPECTION    OF 

THE     HIGHLANT)     ARMY PRINCE     CHARLES PREPARATIONS    FOR 

GOING   TO    HOLLAND. 

In  November  1 743  I  went  to  Glasgow,  much  more 
opportunely  than  I  should  have  done  the  preceding 
year,  for  the  old  Professor  of  Divinity,  Mr  Potter, 
who  had  been  a  very  short  while  there,  died  in  the 
week  I  went  to  College  ;  and  his  chair,  being  in  the 
gift  of  the  University,  was  immediately  filled  b^  ]\Ir 
William  Leechman,  a  neighbouring  clergyman,  a  per- 
son thoroughly  well  qualified  for  the  ofiice,  of  which 


68  GLASGOW   IN    1743. 

he  gave  the  most  satisfactory  proof  for  a  great  many 
years  that  he  continued  Professor  of  Theology,  which 
was  till  the  death  of  Principal  Neil  Campbell  raised 
him  to  the  head  of  the  University.  He  was  a  distin- 
guished preacher,  and  was  followed  when  he  was  occa- 
sionally in  Edinburgh.  His  appearance  was  that  of 
an  ascetic,  reduced  by  fasting  and  prayer  ;  but  in  aid 
of  fine  composition,  he  delivered  liis  sermons  with  such 
fervent  spirit,  and  in  so  persuasive  a  manner,  as  cap- 
tivated every  audience,*  This  was  so  much  the  case 
that  his  admirers  regretted  that  he  should  be  with- 
drawn from  the  pulpit,  for  the  Professor  of  Theology 
has  no  charge  in  Glasgow,  and  preaches  only  occasion- 
ally. It  was  much  for  the  good  of  the  Church,  how- 
ever, that  he  was  raised  to  a  station  of  more  extensive 
usefulness ;  for  while  his  interesting  manner  drew  the 
steady  attention  of  the  students,  the  judicious  choice 
and  arrangement  of  his  matter  formed  the  most  in- 
structive set  of  lectures  on  theology  that  had,  it  was 
thought,  ever  been  delivered  in  Scotland.  It  was,  no 
doubt,  owing  to  him,  and  his  friend  and  colleague  Mr 
Hutcheson,  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy,  that  a  better 
taste  and  greater  liberality  of  sentiment  were  intro- 
duced among  the  clergy  in  the  western  provinces  of 
Scotland. 

Able  as  this  gentleman  was,  however,  and  highly 
unexceptionable  not  only  in  morals  but  in  decorum  of 


*  A  portrait  of  Leechman,  from  a  painting  by  W.  Millar,  very  character- 
istic, and  in  harmony  with  tliis  desciijition,  is  prefixed  to  an  edition  of  his 
Sermons:  London,  2  vols.  8vo,  1789. — Ed. 


GLASGOW   IN    1743.  69 

behaviour,  he  was  not  allowed  to  ascend  his  chair 
without  much  opposition,  and  even  a  prosecution  for 
heresy.  Invulnerable  as  he  seemed  to  be,  the  keen 
and  prying  eye  of  fanaticism  discovered  a  weak  place, 
to  which  they  directed  their  attacks.  There  had  been 
published  at  Glasgow,  or  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Dr 
Leechman's  church,  in  the  country,  before  he  came  to 
Glasgow,  about  that  period,  a  small  pamphlet  against 
the  use  of  prayer,  which  had  circulated  amongst  the 
inferior  ranks,  and  had  made  no  small  impression, 
being  artfully  composed.  To  counteract  this  poison 
Leechman  had  composed  and  published  his  sermon 
on  the  nature,  reasonableness,  and  advantages  of 
prayer  ;  with  an  attempt  to  answer  the  objections 
against  it,  from  Matthew,  xxvi.  41.  In  this  sermon, 
though  admirably  well  composed,  in  defence  of  prayer 
as  a  duty  of  natural  religion,  the  author  had  forgot, 
or  omitted  to  state,  the  obligations  on  Christians  to 
pray  in  the  name  of  Christ.  The  nature  of  his  subject 
did  not  lead  him  to  state  this  part  of  a  Christian's 
prayer,  and  perhaps  he  thought  that  the  inserting 
anything  relative  to  that  point  might  disgust  or  lessen 
the  curiosity  of  those  for  whose  conviction  he  had 
published  the  sermon.  The  fanatical  or  high-flying 
clergy  in  the  presbytery  of  Glasgow  took  advantage 
of  this  omission,  and  instituted  an  inquiry  into  the 
heresy  contained  in  this  sermon  by  omission,  which 
lasted  with  much  theological  acrimony  on  the  part 
of  the  inquirers  (who  were  chiefly  those  who  had 
encouraged  Cambuslang's  work,  as  it  was  called,  two 


70  GLASGOW    PROFESSORS — HUTCHESON. 

years  before),  till  it  was  finally  settled  in  favour  of  the 
Professor  by  the  General  Assembly  1 744.*  Instead  of 
raising  any  anxiety  among  the  students  in  theology, 
or  creating  any  suspicion  of  Dr  Leechman's  orthodoxy, 
this  fit  of  zeal  against  him  tended  much  to  spread 
and  establish  his  superior  character. 

I  attended  Hutcheson's  class  this  year  with  great 
satisfaction  and  improvement.  He  was  a  good-looking 
man,  of  an  engaging  countenance.  He  delivered  his 
lectures  without  notes,  walking  backwards  and  for- 
wards in  the  area  of  his  room.  As  his  elocution  was 
good,  and  his  voice  and  manner  pleasing,  he  raised 
the  attention  of  his  hearers  at  all  times  ;  and  when 
the  subject  led  Lim  to  explain  and  enforce  the  moral 
virtues  and  duties,  he  displayed  a  fervent  and  per- 
suasive eloquence  which  was  irresistible.  Besides  the 
lectures  he  gave  through  the  week,  he,  every  Sunday 
at  six  o'clock,  opened  his  class-room  to  whoever  chose 
to  attend,  when  he  delivered  a  set  of  lectures  on 
Grotius  de  veritate  Religionis  Christiance,  which, 
though  learned  and  ingenious,  were  adapted  to  every 
capacity  ;  for  on  that  evening  he  expected  to  be 
attended,  not  only  by  students,  but  by  many  of  the 
people  of  the  city ;  and  he  was  not  disappointed,  for 
this  free  lecture  always  drew  crowds  of  attendants. 

Besides  Hutcheson  and  Leechman,  there  were  at  that 

*  CaniLudamJ s  Work :  Rev-ivals  in  the  Parish  of  Cambuslang  in  Lanark- 
sliire  in  the  year  1742.  They  were  the  occasion  of  abundant  controversy ; 
but  the  fullest  account  of  them  will  be  foimd  in  Narrative  of  the  extra- 
ordinaru  Work  of  the  Spirit  of  God  at  Cambmlang,  Kilsytli,  <kc.,  written  by 
Mr  James  Robe  and  others. — Ei>. 


GLASGOW    PROFESSORS SIMSOX.  71 

period  several  eminent  professors  in  that  university  ; 
particularly  ^Ir  Eobert  Simson,  the  great  mathema- 
tician, and  Mr  Alexander  Dunlop,  the  Professor  of 
Greek.  The  last,  besides  his  eminence  as  a  Greek 
scholar,  was  distinguished  by  his  strong  good  sense 
and  capacity  for  business ;  and  being  a  man  of  a  lead- 
ing mind,  was  supposed,  with  the  aid  of  Hutcheson, 
to  direct  and  manage  all  the  affairs  of  the  University 
(for  it  is  a  wealthy  corporation,  and  has  much  busi- 
ness), besides  the  charge  of  presiding  over  literature, 
and  maintaining  the  discipline  of  the  College. 

One  difference  I  remarked  between  this  University 
and  that  of  Edinburgh,  where  I  had  been  bred,  which 
was,  that  although  at  that  time  there  appeared  to  be  a 
marked  superiority  in  the  best  scholars  and  most  dili- 
gent students  of  Edinburgh,  yet  in  Glasgow,  learning 
seemed  to  be  an  object  of  more  importance,  and  the 
habit  of  application  was  much  more  general.  Besides 
the  instruction  I  received  from  Di-s  Hutcheson  and 
Leechman,  I  derived  much  pleasure,  as  well  as  enlarge- 
ment of  skill  in  the  Greek  language,  from  Mr  Dunlop's 
translations  and  criticisms  of  the  great  tragic  writers 
in  that  language.  I  likewise  attended  the  Professor 
of  Hebrew,  a  Mr  ^lorthland,  who  was  master  of  his 
business.  I  had  neglected  that  branch  in  Edinburgh, 
the  professor  being  then  superannuated. 

In  the  second  week  I  was  in  Glassow  I  went  to  the 
dancing  assembly  with  some  of  my  new  acquaintance, 
and  was  there  introduced  to  a  married  lady  who 
claimed  kindred  vdih  me,  her  mother's  name  being 


72  GLASGOW   SOCIETY. 

Carlyle,  of  the  Limekiln  family.  She  carried  me  home 
to  sup  with  her  that  night,  with  a  brother  of  hers, 
two  years  younger  than  me,  and  some  other  young 
people.  This  was  the  commencement  of  an  intimate 
friendship  that  lasted  during  the  whole  of  the  lady's 
life,  which  was  four  or  five  and  twenty  years.  She 
was  connected  with  all  the  best  families  in  Glasgow 
and  the  country  round.  Her  husband  was  a  good  sort 
of  man,  and  very  opulent ;  and  as  they  had  no  chil- 
dren, he  took  pleasure  in  her  exercising  a  genteel 
hospitality.  I  became  acquainted  with  all  the  best 
families  in  the  town  by  this  lady's  means  ;  and  by  a 
letter  I  had  procured  from  my  friend  James  Edgar, 
afterwards  a  Commissioner  of  the  Customs,  I  also  soon 
became  well  acquainted  with  all  the  young  ladies  who 
lived  in  the  College.  He  had  studied  law  the  preced- 
ing year  at  Glasgow,  under  Professor  Hercules  Lind- 
say, at  that  time  of  some  note.  On  asking  him  for  a 
letter  of  introduction  to  some  one  of  his  companions, 
he  gave  me  one  to  Miss  Mally  Campbell,  the  daughter 
of  the  Principal ;  and  when  I  seemed  surprised  at 
his  choice,  he  added  that  I  would  find  her  not  only 
more  beautiful  than  any  woman  there,  but  more 
sensible  and  friendly  than  all  the  professors  put  to- 
gether, and  much  more  useful  to  me.  This  I  found  to 
be  literally  true. 

The  city  of  Glasgow  at  this  time,  though  very  in- 
dustrious, wealthy,  and  commercial,  was  far  inferior 
to  what  it  afterwards  became,  both  before  and  after 
the  failure  of  the  Virginia  trade.     The  modes  of  life. 


GLASGOW   SOCIETY.  73 

too,  and  manners,  were  different  from  what  they  are 
at  present.  Their  chief  branches  were  the  tobacco 
trade  with  the  American  colonies,  and  sugar  and  rum 
with  the  West  India.  There  were  not  manufacturers 
sufficient,  either  there  or  at  Paisley,  to  supply  an  out- 
ward-bound cargo  for  Virginia.  For  this  purpose  they 
were  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  Manchester.  Manu- 
factures  were  in  tlieir  infancy.  About  this  time  the 
inkle  manufactory  was  first  begun  by  Ingram  &  Glas- 
ford,  and  was  shown  to  strangers  as  a  great  curiosity. 
But  the  merchants  had  industiy  and  stock,  and  the 
habits  of  business,  and  were  ready  to  seize  with  eager- 
ness, and  prosecute  with  vigour,  every  new  object  in 
commerce  or  manufactures  that  promised  success. 

Few  of  them  could  be  called  leai-ned  merchants  ; 
yet  there  was  a  weekly  club,  of  which  a  Provost  Coch- 
rane was  the  founder  and  a  leading  member,  in  which 
their  express  design  was  to  inquire  into  the  nature  and 
principles  of  trade  in  all  its  branches,  and  to  communi- 
cate their  knowledge  and  views  on  that  subject  to  each 
other.  I  was  not  acquainted  with  Provost  CochraDe 
at  this  time,  but  I  observed  that  the  members  of  this 
society  had  the  highest  admiration  of  his  knowledge 
and  talents.  I  became  well  acquainted  with  him 
twenty  years  afterwards,  when  Drs  Smith  and  Wight 
were  members  of  the  club,  and  was  made  sensible  that 
too  much  could  not  be  said  of  his  accurate  and  exten- 
sive knowledge,  of  his  agreeable  manners,  and  collo- 
quial eloquence.  Dr  Smith  acknowledged  his  obliga- 
tions to  this  gentleman's  information,  when  he  was 


74         '  GLASGOW   SOCIETY. 

collecting  materials  for  his  Wealth  of  Nations ;  and 
tlie  junior  merchants  who  have  flourished  since  his 
time,  and  extended  their  commerce  far  beyond  what 
was  then  dreamt  of,  confess,  with  respectful  remem- 
brance, that  it  was  Andrew  Cochrane  who  first  opened 
and  enlarged  their  views.* 

It  was  not  long  before  I  was  well  established  in  close 
intimacy  with  many  of  my  fellow-students,  and  soon 
felt  the  superiority  of  an  education  in  the  College  of 
Edinburgh  ;  not  in  point  of  knowledge,  or  acquire- 
ments in  the  languages  or  sciences,  but  in  know- 
ledge of  the  world,  and  a  certain  manner  and  ad- 
dress that  can  only  be  attained  in  the  capital.  It 
must  be  confessed  that  at  this  time  they  were  far 
behind  in  Glasgow,  not  only  in  their  manner  of  living, 
but  in  those  accomplishments  and  that  taste  that  be- 
long to  people  of  opulence,  much  more  to  persons  of 
education.  There  were  only  a  few  families  of  ancient 
citizens  who  pretended  to  be  gentlemen  ;  and  a  few 
others,  who  were  recent  settlers  there,  who  had  ob- 
tained wealth  and  consideration  in  trade.  The  rest 
were  shopkeepers  and  mechanics,  or  successful  pedlars, 
who  occupied  large  warerooms  full  of  manufactures  of 
all  sorts,  to  furnish  a  cargo  to  Virginia.  It  was  usual 
for  the  sons  of  merchants  to  attend  the  College  for  one 
or  two  years,  and  a  few  of  them  completed  their 
academical  education.  In  this  respect  the  females 
were   still  worse  off,   for  at  that  period  there   was 

*  For  information  regarding  Coclirane,  Simson,  and  the  other  Glasgow 
celebrities  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  the  reader  is  refciTcd  to  Glasgoio  and 
its  Clubs,  by  Dr  Strang,  and  to  the  Cochrane  Correspondence,  i)rintcd  in  1836 
for  the  Maitland  Club.— Ed. 


GLASGOW   SOCIETY.  75 

neither  a  teacher  of  French  nor  of  music  in  the  town. 
The  consequence  of  this  was  twofold  ;  first,  the  young 
ladies  were  entirely  without  accomplishments,  and  in 
general  had  nothing  to  recommend  them  but  good 
looks  and  fine  clothes,  for  their  manners  were  un- 
gainly. Secondly,  the  few  who  were  distinguished 
drew  all  the  young  men  of  sense  and  taste  about  them ; 
for,  being  void  of  frivolous  accomplishments,  which  in 
some  respects  make  all  women  equal,  they  trusted 
only  to  superior  understanding  and  wit,  to  natural 
elegance  and  unaffected  manners. 

There  never  was  but  one  concert  during  the  two 
winters  I  was  at  Glasgow,  and  that  was  given  by 
Walter  Scott,  Esq.  of  Harden,  who  was  himself  an 
eminent  performer  on  the  violin  ;  and  his  band  of 
assistants  consisted  of  two  dancing-school  fiddlers 
and  the  town- waits. 

The  manner  of  living,  too,  at  this  time,  was  but 
coarse  and  vulgar.  Yeiy  few  of  the  wealthiest  gave 
dinners  to  anybody  but  English  ridere,  or  their  own 
relations  at  Christmas  holidays.  There  were  not  half- 
a-dozen  families  in  town  who  had  men-servants  ;  some 
of  those  were  kept  by  the  professors  who  had  boarders. 
There  were  neither  post-chaises  nor  hackney-coaches 
in  the  town,  and  only  three  or  four  sedan-chairs  for 
carrying  midwives  about  in  the  night,  and  old  ladies  to 
church,  or  to  the  dancing  assemblies  once  a-fortnight. 

The  principal  merchants,  fatigued  with  the  morn- 
ing's business,  took  an  early  dinner  with  their  families 
at  home,  and  then  resorted  to  the  coffeehouse  or  tavern 
to  read  the  newspapers,  which  they  generally  did  in 


76  GLASGOW    CLUBS. 

companies  of  four  or  five  in  separate  rooms,  over  a 
bottle  of  claret  or  a  bowl  of  puncb.  But  tbey  never 
staid  supper,  but  always  went  home  by  nine  o'clock, 
without  company  or  further  amusement.  At  last  an 
arch  fellow  from  Dublin,  a  IVIr  Cockaine,  came  to  be 
master  of  the  chief  coffeehouse,  who  seduced  them 
gradually  to  stay  supper  by  placing  a  few  nice  cold 
things  at  first  on  the  table,  as  relishers  to  the  wine, 
till  he  gradually  led  them  on  to  bespeak  fine  hot  sup- 
pers, and  to  remain  till  midnight. 

There  was  an  order  of  women  at  that  time  in  Glas- 
gow, who,  being  either  young  widows  not  wealthy,  or 
young  women  unprovided  for,  were  set  up  in  small 
grocery-shops  in  various  parts  of  the  town,  and  gene- 
rally were  protected  and  countenanced  by  some  credi- 
table merchant.  In  their  back  shops  much  time  and 
money  were  consumed  ;  for  it  being  customary  then 
to  drink  drams  and  white  wine  in  the  forenoon,  the 
tipplers  resorted  much  to  those  shops,  where  there  were 
bedrooms  ;  and  the  patron,  with  his  friends,  frequently 
passed  the  evening  there  also,  as  taverns  were  not  fre- 
quented by  persons  who  affected  characters  of  strict 
decency. 

I  was  admitted  a  member  of  two  clubs,  one  entirely 
literary,  which  was  held  in  the  porter's  lodge  at  the 
College,  and  where  w^e  criticised  books  and  wrote 
abridgements  of  them,  with  critical  essays  ;  and  to 
this  society  \<^e  submitted  the  discourses  which  we 
were  to  deliver  in  the  Divinity  Hall  in  our  turns,  when 
we  were  appointed  by  the  professor.     The  other  club 


GLASGOW   CLUBS.  77 

met  in  i\Ir  Dugald's  tavern  near  the  Cross,  weekly, 
and  admitted  a  mixture  of  young  gentlemen,  who 
were  not  intended  for  the  study  of  theology.  There 
met  there  John  Bradefoot,  afterwards  minister  of  Dun- 
sire  ;  James  Leslie,  of  Kilmarnock  ;  John  Robertson, 
of  Dunblane ;  James  Hamilton,  of  Paisley ;  and  Ro- 
bert Lawson,  of  London  Wall.  There  also  came  some 
young  merchants,  such  as  Robin  Bogle,  my  relation  ; 
James  and  George  Anderson,  William  Sellers  and 
Robin  Craig.  Here  we  drank  a  little  punch  after  our 
beefsteaks  and  pancakes,  and  the  expense  never  ex- 
ceeded Is.  6d.,  seldom  Is. 

Our  conversation  was  almost  entirely  literar}'- ;  and 
we  were  of  such  good  fame,  that  some  ministers  of  the 
neighbourhood,  when  occasionally  in  Glasgow,  fre- 
quented our  club.  Hyndman  had  been  twice  intro- 
duced by  members  ;  and  being  at  that  time  passing 
his  trials  as  a  probationer  before  that  presbytery  in 
which  his  native  town  of  Greenock  lay,  he  had  become 
well  acquainted  with  Mr  Robert  Baton,  minister  of 
Renfrew,  who,  though  a  man  well  accomplished  and  of 
liberal  sentiments,  was  too  much  a  man  of  worth  and 
principle  not  to  be  offended  by  licentious  manners  in 
students  of  divinity.  Hyndman,  by  way  of  gaining 
favour  with  this  man,  took  occasion  to  hint  to  him 
to  advise  his  nephew,  Robert  Lawson,  not  to  fre- 
quent our  club,  as  it  admitted  and  encouraged  conver- 
sation not  suitable  to  the  profession  we  were  to  follow. 
He  mentioned  two  instances,  one  of  which  Lawson  said 
was  false,  and  the  other  disguised  by  exaggeration. 


78  GLASGOW   SOCIETY. 

Lawson,  who  was  a  lad  of  pure  morals,  told  me  this  ; 
and  as  the  best  antidote  to  this  injurious  impression, 
which  had  been  made  chiefly  against  me,  I  begged  him 
to  let  his  uncle  know  that  I  would  accept  of  the  in- 
vitation he  had  given  through  him,  to  pass  a  night  or 
two  with  him  at  Renfrew.  We  accordingly  went  next 
Saturday,  and  met  with  a  gracious  reception,  and  staid 
all  next  day  and  heard  him  preach,  at  which  he  was 
thought  to  excel  (though  he  was  almost  the  only  person 
who  read  in  those  days,  in  which  he  truly  excelled) ; 
and  being  a  very  handsome  man,  his  delivery  much 
enhanced  the  value  of  his  composition.  We  heard  him 
read  another  sermon  at  night  in  his  study,  with  much 
satisfaction,  as  he  told  us  it  was  one  of  his  best,  and 
was  a  good  model ;  to  this  we  respectfully  assented, 
and  the  good  man  was  pleased.  When  we  took  leave 
on  Monday  morning,  he  politely  requested  another 
visit,  and  said  to  me,  with  a  smile,  he  was  now  forti- 
fied against  tale-bearers.  These  societies  contributed 
much  to  our  improvement  ;  and  as  moderation  and 
early  hours  were  inviolable  rules  of  both  institutions, 
they  served  to  open  and  enlarge  our  minds. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  session,  however,  I  was 
introduced  to  a  club  w^hich  gave  me  much  more  sat- 
isfaction— I  mean  that  of  Mr  Robert  Simson,  the  cele- 
brated Professor  of  Mathematics.  Mr  Robert  Dick, 
Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy,  an  old  friend  of  my 
father's,  one  evening  after  I  had  dined  with  him,  said 
he  was  going  to  Mr  Robert's  club,  and  if  I  had  a 
mind,  he  would  take  me  there  and  introduce  me.    I 


GLASGOW   SOCIETY.  79 

readily  accepted  the  honour.  I  had  been  introduced 
to  Mr  Robert  before  in  the  College  court,  for  he  was 
extremely  courteous,  and  showed  civility  to  every 
student  who  fell  in  his  way.  Though  I  was  not  at- 
tending any  of  his  classes,  having  attended  M'Laurin 
in  Edinburgh  for  three  sessions,  he  received  me  with 
great  kindness  ;  and  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  please 
him  so  much,  that  he  asked  me  to  be  a  member  of 
his  Friday's  club,  which  I  readily  agreed  to.  Mr 
Simson,  though  a  great  humorist,  who  had  a  very 
particular  way  of  living,  was  well-bred  and  com- 
plaisant, was  a  comely  man,  of  a  good  size,  and  had 
a  very  prepossessing  countenance.  He  lived  entirely 
at  the  small  tavern  opposite  the  College  gate,  kept  by 
a  Mrs  ^Millar.  He  breakfasted,  dined,  and  supped 
there,  and  almost  never  accepted  of  any  invitations 
to  dinner,  and  paid  no  visits,  but  to  illustrious  or 
learned  strangers,  who  wished  to  see  the  University ; 
on  such  occasions  he  was  always  the  cicerone.  He 
showed  the  curiosities  of  the  College,  which  consisted 
of  a  few  manuscripts  and  a  large  collection  of  Roman 
antiquities,  from  Severus'  Wall  or  Graham's  Dyke,  in 
the  neighbourhood,  with  a  display  of  much  knowledge 
and  taste.  He  was  particularly  averse  to  the  com- 
pany of  ladieSj  and,  except  one  day  in  the  year,  when 
he  drank  tea  at  Principal  Campbell's,  and  conversed 
with  gaiety  and  ease  with  his  daughter  Mally,  who 
was  always  his  first  toast,  he  was  never  in  company 
with  them.  It  was  said  to  have  been  otherwise  with 
him  in  his  youth,  and  that  he  had  been  much  attached 


80  EGBERT    STMSON. 

to  one  lady,  to  whom  he  had  made  proposals,  but  on 
her  refusing  him  he  became  disgusted  with  the  sex. 
The  lady  was  dead  before  I  became  acquainted  with 
the  family,  but  her  husband  I  knew,  and  must  confess 
that  in  her  choice  the  lady  had  preferred  a  satyr  to 
Hyperion. 

Mr  Simson  almost  never  left  the  bounds  of  the 
College,  having  a  large  garden  to  walk  in,  unless  it 
was  on  Saturday,  when,  with  two  chosen  companions, 
he  always  walked  into  the  country,  but  no  farther 
than  the  village  of  Anderston,  one  mile  off,  where  he 
had  a  dinner  bespoke,  and  where  he  always  treated 
the  company,  not  only  when  he  had  no  other  than  his 
two  humble  attendants,  but  when  he  casually  added 
one  or  two  more,  which  happened  twice  to  myself. 
If  any  of  the  club  met  him  on  Saturday  night  at  his 
hotel,  he  took  it  very  kind,  for  he  was  in  good  spirits, 
though  fatigued  with  the  company  of  his  satellites, 
and  revived  on  the  sight  of  a  fresh  companion  or  two 
for  the  evening.  He  was  of  a  mild  temper  and  an 
engaging  demeanour,  and  was  master  of  all  know- 
ledge, even  of  theology,  which  he  told  us  he  had 
learned  by  being  one  year  amanuensis  to  his  uncle, 
the  Professor  of  Divinity.  His  knowledge  he  de- 
livered in  an  easy  colloquial  style,  with  the  simplicity 
of  a  child,  and  without  the  least  symptom  of  self- 
sufficiency  or  arrogance. 

His  club  at  that  time  consisted  chiefly  of  Hercules 
Lindsay,  Teacher  of  Law,  who  was  talkative  and 
assuming ;  of  James  Moore,  Professor  of  Greek  on 


SIMSOX — MATHEW   STEWART.  81 

the  death  of  ^Ir  Dunlop,  a  very  lively  and  witty  man, 
and  a  famous  Grecian,  but  a  more  famous  punster ; 
Mr  Dick,  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy,  a  very 
worthy  man,  and  of  an  agreeable  temper ;  and  ]Mr 
James  Purdie,  the  rector  of  the  grammar-school,  who 
had  not  much  to  recommend  him  but  his  being  an 
adept  in  grammar.  Having  been  asked  to  see  a 
famous  comet  that  appeared  this  winter  or  the  fol- 
lowing, through  Professor  Dick's  telescope,  which  was 
the  best  in  the  College  at  that  time,  when  Mr  Purdie 
retired  from  takinor  his  view  of  it,  he  turned  to  Mr 
Simson,  and  said,  "  ^Ir  Robert,  I  believe  it  is  hie  or 
hcec  cometa,  a  comet."  To  settle  the  gender  of  the 
Latin  was  all  he  thought  of  this  great  and  uncommon 
phenomenon  of  nature. 

Mr  Simson's  most  constant  attendant,  however, 
and  greatest  favourite,  was  his  own  scholar,  Mr 
Mathew  Stewart,  afterwards  Professor  of  Mathematics 
in  the  Colleo;e  of  Edinburo;h,  much  celebrated  for  his 
profound  knowledge  in  that  science.  Dui'ing  the 
course  of  summer  he  was  ordained  minister  of  Rose- 
neath,  but  resided  during  the  winter  in  Glasgow  Col- 
lege. He  was  of  an  amiable  disposition  and  of  a 
most  ingenuous  mind,  and  was  highly  valued  in  the 
society  of  Glasgow  University ;  but  when  he  was 
preferred  to  a  chair  in  Edinburgh,  being  of  diminu- 
tive stature  and  of  an  ordinary  appearance,  and 
having  withal  an  embarrassed  elocution,  he  was  not 
able  to  bring  himself  into  good  company ;  and  being 
left  out  of  the  society  of  those  who  shoidd  have  seen 

F 


82  HUTCHESON. 

through,  the  shell,  and  put  a  due  value  on  the  kernel, 
he  fell  into  company  of  an  inferior  sort,  and  adopted 
their  habits  with  too  great  facility. 

With  this  club,  and  an  accidental  stranger  at 
times,  the  great  Mr  Robert  Simson  relaxed  his  mind 
every  evening  from  the  severe  studies  of  the  day ;  for 
though  there  was  properly  but  one  club  night  in  the 
week,  yet,  as  he  never  failed  to  be  there,  some  one  or 
two  commonly  attended  him,  or  at  least  one  of  the 
two  minions  whom  he  could  command  at  any  time,  as 
he  paid  their  reckoning. 

The  fame  of  Mr  Hutcheson  had  filled  the  College 
with  students  of  philosophy,  and  Leechman's  high 
character  brought  all  the  students  of  divinity  from 
the  western  provinces,  as  Hutcheson  attracted  the 
Irish.  There  were  sundry  young  gentlemen  from 
Ireland,  with  their  tutors,  one  of  whom  was  Archibald 
M'Laine,  pastor  at  the  Hague,  the  celebrated  trans- 
lator of  Mosheim's  Ecclesiastical  History  (who  had 
himself  been  bred  at  Glasgow  College).  With  him 
I  became  better  acquainted  next  session,  and  I  have 
often  regretted  since  that  it  has  never  been  my  lot 
to  meet  him  during  the  many  times  I  have  been  for 
months  in  London,  as  his  enlightened  mind,  engaging 
manners,  and  animated  conversation,  gave  reason  to 
hope  for  excellent  fruit  when  he  arrived  at  maturity. 
There  were  of  young  men  of  fashion  attending  the 
College,  Walter  Lord  Blantyre,  who  died  young ;  Sir 

Kennedy,   and   his   brother  David,  afterwards 

Lord   Cassilis ;    Walter    Scott    of    Harden ;    James 


FELLOW-STUDENTS.  83 

ISIurray  of  Brougliton  ;  and  Dunbar  Hamilton,  after- 
wards Earl  of  Selkirk.  The  education  of  this  last 
gentleman  had  been  marred  at  an  English  academy 
in  Yorkshire.  "When  his  father,  the  Hon.  Basil  Hamil- 
ton, died,  he  came  to  Glasgow,  but  finding  that  he 
was  so  ill  founded  in  Latin  as  to  be  unfit  to  attend 
a  public  class,  he  had  resolution  enough,  at  the  age 
of  fifteen,  to  pass  seven  or  eight  hours  a-day  with 
Purdie  the  grammarian  for  the  greater  part  of  two 
years,  when,  having  acquired  Latin,  he  took  James 
Moore,  the  Greek  scholar,  for  his  private  tutor, 
fitted  up  rooms  for  himself  in  the  College,  and  lived 
there  with  Moore  in  the  most  retired  manner,  visiting 
nobody  but  Miss  ^L  Campbell,  and  letting  nobody  in 
to  him  but  Lord  Blantyre  and  myself,  as  I  was  his 
distant  relation.  In  this  manner  he  lived  for  ten 
years,  hardly  leaving  the  College  for  a  few  weeks  in 
summer,  till  he  had  acquired  the  ancient  tongues  in 
perfection,  and  was  master  of  ancient  philosophy: 
the  effect  of  which  was,  that  with  much  rectitude  and 
good  intention,  and  some  talent,  he  came  into  the 
world  more  fit  to  be  a  Professor  than  an  Earl. 

There  was  one  advantage  I  derived  from  my  Edin- 
l)urgh  education,  which  set  me  up  a  little  in  the  eyes 
of  my  equals,  though  I  soon  tired  of  the  employment. 
Professor  Leechman  devoted  one  evening  every  week 
from  five  to  eight  to  conversation  with  his  students, 
who  assembled  on  Fridays  about  six  or  seven  together, 
and  were  first  received  in  the  Professor's  own  library. 
But  Dr  Leechman  was  not  able  to  carry  on  common 


8-1.  GLASGOW   PUOFESSORS. 

conversation,  and  when  he  spoke  at  all,  it  was  a  short 
lecture.  This  was  therefore  a  very  dull  meeting,  and 
everybody  longed  to  be  called  in  to  tea  with  Mrs 
Leechman,  whose  talent  being  different  from  that  of 
her  husband,  she  was  able  to  maintain  a  continued 
conversation  on  plays,  novels,  poetry,  and  the  fashions. 
The  rest  of  the  lads  being  for  the  most  part  raw  and 
awkward,  after  trying  it  once  in  their  turns,  they  be- 
came silent,  and  the  dialogue  rested  between  the  lady 
and  me.  When  she  observed  this,  she  requested  me 
to  attend  as  her  assistant  every  night.  I  did  so  for  a 
little  while,  but  it  became  too  intolerable  not  to  be 
soon  given  up. 

What  Dr  Leechman  wanted  in  the  talent  for  con- 
versation was  fully  compensated  by  his  ability  as  a 
Professor,  for  in  the  chair  he  shone  with  great  lustre. 
It  was  owing  to  Hutcheson  and  him  that  a  new  school 
was  formed  in  the  western  provinces  of  Scotland,  where 
the  clergy  till  that  period  were  narrow  and  bigoted, 
and  had  never  ventured  to  range  in  their  mind  beyond 
the  bounds  of  strict  orthodoxy.  For  though  neither 
of  these  professors  taught  any  heresy,  yet  they  opened 
and  enlarged  the  minds  of  the  students,  which  soon 
gave  them  a  turn  for  free  inquiry ;  the  result  of  which 
was,  candour  and  liberality  of  sentiment.  From  ex- 
perience, this  freedom  of  thought  was  not  found  so 
dangerous  as  might  at  first  be  apprehended ;  for  though 
the  daring  youth  made  excursions  into  the  unbounded 
regions  of  metaphysical  perplexity,  yet  all  the  judicious 
soon  returned  to  the  lower  sphere  of  long-established 
trutlis,  which  they  found  not  only  more  subservient  to 


LEECHMAN    AND    HUTCHESON.  85 

the  good  order  of  society,  but  necessary  to  fix  their 
own  minds  in  some  degree  of  stability. 

Hutcheson  was  a  great  admirer  of  Shaftesbury,  and 
adopted  much  of  his  writings  into  his  lectures;  and,  to 
recommend  him  more  to  his  students,  was  at  great 
pains  in  private  to  prove  that  the  noble  moralist  was 
no  enemy  to  the  Christian  religion ;  but  that  all  ap- 
pearances of  that  kind,  which  are  very  numerous  in 
his  works,  flowed  only  from  an  excess  of  generous 
indignation  against  the  fanatics  of  Charles  I.'s  reign. 
Leechman  and  he  both  were  supposed  to  lean  to 
Socinianism.  Men  of  sense,  however,  soon  perceived 
that  it  was  an  arduous  task  to  defend  Christianity  on 
that  ground,  and  w^ere  glad  to  adopt  more  common 
and  vulgar  principles,  which  were  well  compacted 
together  in  a  uniform  system,  which  it  was  not  easy 
to  demolish. 

Leechman's  manner  of  teaching  theology  was  excel- 
lent, and  I  found  my  sphere  of  knowledge  in  that 
science  greatly  enlarged,  though  I  had  attended  the 
Professor  in  Edinburgh  pretty  closely  for  two  or  three 
years ;  but  he  copied  the  Dutch  divines,  and,  had  he 
lived,  would  have  taken  twenty  years  to  have  gone 
through  the  system  which  Dr  Leechman  accomplished 
in  two  years,  besides  giving  us  admirable  lectures  on 
the  Gospels,  on  the  proofs  of  Christianity,  and  the  art 
of  composition.  If  there  was  any  defect,  it  was  in  the 
small  number  of  exercises  prescribed  to  the  students, 
for  one  discourse  in  a  session  was  by  no  means  suffi- 
cient to  produce  a  habit  of  composition  :  our  literaiy 
clubs,  in  some  degree,  supplied  that  defect. 


86  THE    OSWALDS. 

I  had  been  called  home  to  Prestoupans  in  January 
to  see  my  brother  James,  who  was  then  dying  of  a 
consumption  ;  he  was  in  his  nineteenth  year,  and  died 
in  March.  He  had  been  sent  to  London  several  years 
before  to  be  bred  to  business,  but  an  accident  threw 
him  into  bad  health,  and  he  had  been  at  home  for  two 
years  or  more.  He  was  not  a  lad  of  parts,  but  remark- 
ably handsome  and  agreeable.  I  found  him  perfectly 
reconciled  to  a  premature  death. 

I  had  left  my  original  companions  at  Edinburgh, 
who  had  every  kind  of  merit  to  create  attachment ; 
but  I  found  a  few  in  Glasgow  University  who  in  some 
degree  supplied  their  places,  who  were  worthy  and 
able  young  men,  and  afterwards  filled  their  ranks 
in  society  with  credit,  though  they  had  neither  the 
strength  nor  the  polish  of  the  Blairs,  and  Eobertsons, 
and  Fergusons,  and  Homes.  Near  the  end  of  the  ses- 
sion I  made  an  acquaintance  with  a  young  gentleman, 
which  next  year  grew  into  the  strictest  friendship. 
This  was  William  Sellar,  then  an  apprentice  in  his 
third  or  fourth  year  with  the  Oswalds,  at  that  time 
among  the  most  eminent  merchants  in  Glasgow.  He 
was  the  son  of  a  Writer  to  the  Signet  in  Edinburgh, 
had  been  two  or  three  years  at  the  College  there,  was 
handsome  and  well  -  bred,  and  of  very  agreeable 
manners.  Though  not  learned,  he  had  a  philosophical 
and  observing  mind,  and  was  shrewd  in  discerning 
characters.  This  young  man,  my  junior  by  a  year  or 
two,  attached  himself  to  me  on  our  first  acquaintance, 
and  I  soon  repaid  him  with  my  affection,  for  I  found 


THE   OSWALDS.  87 

that  the  qualities  of  his  heart  were  not  inferior  to 
those  of  his  imderstanding.  He  was  daily  conversant 
with  the  principal  merchants,  as  I  was  with  the  stu- 
dents and  members  of  the  University,  on  whom  our 
observations  were  a  great  source  of  instructive  enter- 
tainment. He  had  the  celebrated  Jenny  Fall  (after- 
wards Lady  Anstnither),  a  coquette  and  a  beauty,  for 
months  together  in  the  house  with  him ;  and  as  his 
person  and  manner  drew  the  marked  attention  of  the 
ladies,  he  derived  considerable  improvement  from  the 
constant  intercourse  with  this  young  lady  and  her 
companions,  for  she  was  lively  and  clever,  no  less  than 
beautiful.  He  had  also  the  benefit  of  Mr  Eichard 
Oswald's  conversation,  a  man  afterwards  so  much  cele- 
brated as  to  be  employed  by  Government  in  settling 
the  peace  of  Paris  in  1788.  This  gentleman  was 
much  confined  to  the  house  by  sore  eyes,  and  yet  was 
able  to  pass  his  time  almost  entirely  in  reading,  and 
becoming  a  very  learned  and  intelligent  merchant ; 
and  having  acquired  some  thousand  pounds  by  being 
prize  agent  to  his  cousins,  whose  privateer  had  taken 
a  prize  worth  £15,000,  he  a  few  years  after  this  period 
established  himself  in  London,  and  acquired  a  great 
fortune,  which,  having  no  children  of  his  o^-n,  he  left 
to  the  grandson  of  his  brother,  a  respectable  clergy- 
man of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  and  thus  founded 
that  family  of  Oswalds,  who  continue  to  flourish  in 
the  shire  of  Ayr. 

I  lived  this  winter  in  the  same  house  with  Dr  Robert 
Hamilton,  Professor  of  Anatomv,  an  ingenious  and 


88  GLASGOW    PEOFESSOES    AND    STUDENTS. 

well-bred  man  ;  but  with  him  I  had  little  intercourse, 
except  at  breakfast  now  and  then,  for  he  always  dined 
abroad.  He  had  a  younger  brother,  a  student  of 
divinity,  afterwards  his  father's  successor  at  Bothwell, 
who  was  vain  and  showy,  but  who  exposed  himself 
very  much  through  a  desire  of  distinction.  He  was  a 
relation  of  ]\Irs  Leechman's,  and  it  had  been  hinted  to 
him  that  the  Professor  expected  a  remarkable  discourse 
from  him.  He  accordingly  delivered  one  which  gave 
universal  satisfaction,  and  was  much  extolled  by  the 
Professor.  But,  very  unfortunately  for  Hamilton,  half- 
a-dozen  of  students,  in  going  down  a  street,  resorted 
to  a  bookseller's  shop,  where  one  of  them,  taking  a 
volume  from  a  shelf,  was  struck,  on  opening  the  book, 
to  find  the  first  sermon  from  the  text  he  had  just 
heard  preached  upon.  He  read  on,  and  found  it  was 
verbatim  from  beginning  to  end  what  he  had  heard  in 
the  hall.  He  showed  it  to  his  companions,  who  laughed 
heartily,  and  spread  the  story  all  over  the  town  before 
night — not  soon  enough  to  prevent  the  vainglorious 
orator  from  circulating  two  fine  copies  of  it,  one 
among  the  ladies  in  the  College,  and  another  in  the 
town.  What  aggravated  the  folly  and  imprudence  of 
this  young  man  was,  that  he  was  by  no  means  defi- 
cient in  parts,  of  which  he  gave  us  sundry  specimens. 
His  cousin  and  namesake,  James  Hamilton,  afterwards 
minister  of  Paisley,  was  much  ashamed  of  him,  and 
being  a  much  more  sterling  man,  was  able  to  keep 
down  his  vanity  ever  after.  He  had  submitted  his 
manuscript  to  the  club,  and  two  or  three  criticisms 


GLASGOW   PROFESSORS   AND   STODENTS.  89 

had  been  made  on  it,  but  he  would  alter  nothing. 
After  Dr  Robert  Hamilton's  death,  which  was  prema- 
ture, a  younger  brother  succeeded  him  in  the  anatomi- 
cal chair,  who  was  very  able.  He  dying  young  also, 
his  son  was  advanced,  who  was  said  to  have  surpassed 
all  his  predecessors  in  ability.  They  were  descended 
from  the  family  of  Hamiltons  of  Preston,  a  very 
ancient  branch  of  Duke  Hamilton's  family. 

Dr  Johnstone,  who  was  said  to  be  very  able,  was  at 
this  time  Professor  of  ^ledicine,  but  he  was  very  old, 
and  died  this  year ;  and  was  succeeded  by  Dr  William 
CiiUen,  who  had  been  settled  at  Hamilton.  In  those 
days  there  were  but  few  students  of  physic  in  Glasgow 
University.  Dr  Cullen,  and  his  successor  Dr  Black, 
with  the  younger  Hamiltons,  brought  the  school  of 
medicine  more  into  repute  there. 

In  the  month  of  March  or  April  this  year,  having 
gone  down  with  a  merchant  to  visit  New  Port-Glas- 
gow, as  our  dinner  was  preparing  at  the  inn,  we  were 
alarmed  with  the  howling  and  weeping  of  half-a-dozen 
of  women  in  the  kitchen,  which  was  so  loud  and  last- 
ing that  I  went  to  see  what  was  the  matter,  when, 
after  some  time,  I  learnt  from  the  calmest  amons:  them 
that  a  pedlar  had  left  a  copy  of  Peden's  Prophecies 
that  morning,  which  having  read  part  of,  they  found 
that  he  had  predicted  woes  of  every  kind  to  the  people 
of  Scotland  ;  and  in  particular  that  Clyde  would  run 
with  blood  in  the  year  1744,  which  now  being  some 
montlis  advanced,  they  believed  that  their  destruction 
was  at  hand.     I  was  puzzled  how  to  pacify  them,  but 


90  CLERICAL   TOUE. 

calling  for  the  book,  I  found  that  the  passage  which 
had  terrified  them  was  contained  in  the  forty-fourth 
paragraph,  without  any  allusion  whatever  to  the  year ; 
and  by  this  means  I  quieted  their  lamentations.  Had 
the  intended  expedition  of  Mareschal  Saxe  been  car- 
ried into  execution  in  that  year,  as  was  intended,  their 
fears  might  have  been  realised. 

Though  the  theological  lectures  closed  in  the  be- 
ginning of  May,  on  account  of  some  accidental  circum- 
stances, I  did  not  get  to  my  father's  till  the  middle  of 
that  month.  My  father's  wish  was,  that  I  should  pass 
through  my  trials  to  be  admitted  a  probationer  in 
summer  1745,  and  leave  nothing  undone  but  the 
finishing  forms,  when  I  returned  in  1746  from  a 
foreign  Protestant  university,  where  I  was  bound  to 
go  by  the  terms  of  the  exhibition  I  held.  I  was 
therefore  to  spend  a  part  of  this  summer,  1744,  in 
visiting  the  clergy  of  the  presbytery  of  Haddington, 
as  the  forms  required  that  I  should  perform  that  duty 
before  I  was  admitted  to  trials. 

I  made  my  tour  accordingly  early  in  summer,  and 
shall  give  a  short  specimen  of  my  reception  and  the 
characters  I  met  with.  I  first  passed 'a  day  at  Aber- 
lady,  where  Mr  Andrew  Dickson  was  then  minister, 
the  father  of  Adam  Dickson,  the  author  of  many 
excellent  works  on  agriculture.  Mr  Dickson  was  a 
well-bred  formal  old  man,  and  was  reckoned  a  good 
preacher,  though  lame  enough  in  the  article  of  know- 
ledge, or  indeed  in  discernment.  Among  the  first 
questions  he  put  to  me  was,  "  Had  I  read  the  fiimous 


CLERICAL   TOUR.  91 

■p&m^hlet,  Christianity  not  founded  on  Argument?" 
I  answered  that  I  had.  He  replied  that  certainly 
that  elaborate  work  was  the  ablest  defence  of  our  holy 
religion  that  had  been  published  in  our  times ;  and 
that  the  author  of  it,  who  was  unknown  to  him,  de- 
served tlie  highest  praise.  I  looked  surprised,  and 
was  going  to  make  him  an  answer  according  to  my 
opinion,  which  was  that  it  was  the  shrewdest  attack 
that  ever  had  been  made  on  Christianity.  But  his 
son  observed  me,  and  broke  in  by  saying  that  he  had 
had  some  disputes  with  his  father  on  the  subject,  but 
now  yielded,  and  had  come  in  to  his  opinion  :  I  only 
subjoined,  that  whoever  saw  it  in  that  light  must 
subscribe  to  its  superiority.  The  old  gentleman  was 
pleased,  and  went  on  descanting  on  the  great  merit 
of  this  new  proof  of  revealed  religion,  which  was  quite 
unanswerable.  Having  settled  that  point,  there  was 
no  danger  of  my  differing  from  him  in  any  other  of 
his  notions. 

Next  day  I  proceeded  to  Dirleton,  the  neighbouring 
parish,  where  Mr  James  Glen  was  the  incumbent. 
This  was  a  man  of  middle  age,  fat  and  unwieldy, 
good-natured  and  open-hearted,  very  social,  though 
quick-tempered  and  jealous.  He  was  a  great  master 
of  the  Deistical  controversy,  had  read  all  the  books, 
and  never  stopped,  for  it  was  his  first  topic  with  me, 
till  he  completely  refuted  Christianity  not  founded 
on  Argument,  which  he  said  was  truly  very  insidious. 
There  was  not  much  time,  however,  this  day  for 
theology,  as  it  happened  to  be  his  cherry  feast.    There 


92  CLERICAL    TOUR. 

being  many  fine  trees  of  that  fruit  in  his  garden,  when 
they  were  fully  ripe  it  was  his  custom  to  invite  some 
of  his  neighbours  and  their  families  to  pass  the  day 
with  him  and  his  daughters,  and  the  only  son  then 
at  home,  Mr  Alexander  Glen,  who  was  a  student,  and 
two  years  my  junior.  We  were  a  very  large  company, 
among  whom  were  Congalton  of  that  Ilk,  a  very  sin- 
gular gentleman,  of  very  good  parts,  and  extremely 
promising  when  he  passed  advocate,  but  who  had 
become  a  drunken  laird,  though  the  brilliancy  of  his 
wit  frequently  broke  through  the  cloud.  There  were 
likewise  four  Miss  Hepburns  of  Beanston,  who  were 
young,  handsome,  and  gay.  The  old  people  dispersed 
not  long  after  dinner,  and  went  their  several  ways  ; 
Congalton  and  his  swaggering  blades  went  to  the 
village  changehouse,  and  remained  there  all  night. 
There  net  being  lodging  in  the  house  for  us  all,  the 
young  men  remained  as  late  as  they  could  in  the 
parlour,  and  then  had  mattresses  brought  in  to  sleep 
a  while  upon. 

When  I  wished  to  depart  next  day  with  the  rest  of 
the  company,  the  old  man  protested  against  that,  for 
we  had  not  yet  sufficiently  settled  the  Deistical  con- 
troversy, and  the  foundations  of  moral  sentiment.  I 
consented,  and  as  his  daughters  had  detained  two 
Misses  Hepburns,  I  passed  the  day  very  well  between 
disputing  with  my  landlord  and  w^alking  about  and 
philandering  with  the  ladies.  When  I  came  to 
leave  him  after  breakfast  the  next  day,  it  was  with 
the  greatest  difficulty  he  would  part  with  me,  and  not 


CLERICAL   TOUR.  93 

till  after  lie  had  taken  my  solemn  promise  to  come 
soon  back,  as  I  was  the  only  friend  he  had  left  in  the 
world.  I  at  last  escaped,  after  he  had  shed  a  flood  of 
tears.  I  was  uneasy,  and  asked  afterwards  if  he  was 
not  a  very  solitary  man :  "  No,"  they  said,  "  but  he 
was  of  a  jealous  temper,  and  thought  he  was  hated,  if 
he  was  not  resorted  to  more  than  was  possible." 

The  next  clergyman,  Mr  George  Murray  of  North 
Berwick,  was  in  appearance  quite  the  opposite  of  Mr 
Glen,  for  he  was  a  dry,  withered  stick,  and  as  cold 
and  repulsive  in  his  manner  as  the  other  was  kind 
and  inviting ;  but  he  was  not  the  less  to  be  depended 
on  for  that,  for  he  was  veiy  worthy  and  sensible, 
though,  at  the  age  of  fifty,  as  torpid  in  mind  as  in 
body.  His  wife,  however,  of  the  name  of  Reid,  the 
former  minister's  daughter,  by  whose  interest  he  got 
the  church,  was  as  swift  to  speak  as  he  was  slow;  and 
as  he  never  interrupted  her,  she  kept  up  the  conver- 
sation, such  as  it  was,  without  ceasing,  except  that 
her  household  aflaii's  took  her  sometimes  out  of  the 
room,  when  he  began  some  metaphysical  argument, 
but  dropped  it  the  moment  she  appeared,  for  he  said 
Anny  did  not  like  those  subjects.  Worn  out,  how- 
ever, with  the  fatigue  of  the  cherry  feast,  I  longed  to 
be  in  bed,  and  took  the  first  opportunity  of  a  cessation 
in  Anny's  clapper  to  request  to  be  shown  to  my  room : 
this  was  complied  with  about  eleven  ;  but  the  worthy 
man  accompanied  me,  and  beiug  at  last  safe  and  at 
liberty,  he  began  a  conversation  on  liberty  and  neces- 
sity, and  the  foundation  of  morals,  and  the  Deistical 


94f  CLERICAL   TOUR. 

controversy,  that  lasted  till  two  in  tlie  morning.  I 
got  away  time  enough  next  day  to  reach  Haddington 
before  dinner,  having  passed  by  Athelstaneford,  where 
the  minister,  Mr  Eobert  Blair,  author  of  The  Grave, 
was  said  to  be  dying  slowly  ;  or,  at  any  rate,  was  so 
austere  and  void  of  urbanity  as  to  make  him  quite 
disagreeable  to  young  people.  His  wife,  who  was  in 
every  respect  the  opposite  (a  sister  of  Sheriff  Law), 
was  frank  and  open,  and  uncommonly  handsome  ;  yet, 
even  with  her  allurements  and  his  acknowledged 
ability,  his  house  was  unfrequented.  I  passed  on  to 
Haddington,  and  dined  with  Mr  Edward  Stedman,  a 
man  of  first-rate  sense  aud  ability,  and  the  leader  of 
the  presbytery.  We  called  on  his  father-in-law, 
Mr  Patrick  Wilkie,  who  had  as  little  desire  to  examine 
young  men  as  he  had  capacity  to  judge  of  their  pro- 
ficiency, so  that  I  had  only  to  pay  my  compliments 
and  pass  an  hour  or  two  with  Stedman,  whom  I  knew 
well  before,  and  who,  with  the  sombre  constrained  air 
of  a  Jesuit  or  an  old  Covenanter,  had  an  enlightened 
and  ardent  mind,  and  comprehended  all  things  human 
and  divine.  From  him  I  went  early  in  the  evening 
to  Mr  Barclay's  at  Moreham,  a  good  sensible  man,  but 
with  not  many  words  or  topics  of  conversation,  for  he 
was  a  great  mathematician  :  with  the  help  of  his  wife 
and  daughter,  however,  we  made  shift  to  spend  the 
evening,  and  retired  at  an  early  hour. 

I  passed  on  next  forenoon  to  Garvald,  where  his 
son-in-law,  Mr  Archibald  Blair,  brother  of  Mr  Robert, 
lived.     He  seemed  as  torpid  as  George  Murray,  and 


CLERICAL   TOUR.  95 

not  more  enlightened  than  Patrick  Wilkie.  He  con- 
versed none.  As  we  walked  out  before  dinner  to  see 
the  views,  which  were  not  remarkable,  I  thought  I 
might  try  to  examine  him,  and  put  a  question  to  him 
as  we  entered  the  churchyard,  which  he  answered 
when  we  got  to  the  far  end  of  the  glebe.  His  wife, 
however,  made  it  well  up.  This,  with  other  instances, 
convinced  me  that  it  would  have  been  bettet  if  the 
wives  had  preached,  and  the  husbands  spun. 

From  hence  I  went  to  the  next  manse,  which  was 
Tester,  where  I  had  been  very  frequently  before  with 
John  Witherspoon,  afterwards  the  celebrated  doctor.* 
The  father,  who  had  very  few  topics  to  examine  on, 
as  the  depth  of  his  reading  was  in  the  sermons  of  the 
French  Calvinist  ministers,  which  he  preached  daily, 
was,  besides,  too  lazy  to  engage  in  auy thing  so  arduous 
as  the  examination  of  a  student — how  to  eat  and 
drink  and  sleep  being  his  sole  care,  though  he  was  not 
without  parts,  if  the  soul  had  not  been  buried  under 
a  mountain  of  flesh.  The  next  I  went  to  was  old 
Lundie  of  Saltoun,  a  pious  and  primitive  old  man, 
very  respectful  in  his  manners,  and  very  kind.  He 
had  been  bred  an  old  Scotch  Episcopalian,  and  was 
averse  to  the  Confession  of  Faith  :  the  presbytery 
showed  lenity  towards  him,  so  he  did  not  sign  it  to 
his  dying  day,  for  which  reason  he  never  could  be 
a  member  of  Assembly. 

The  last  I  went  to  on  this  tour  was  Mathew  Sim- 
son,  of  Pencaitland,  a  brother  of  Professor  Simson  s, 

*  See  above,  p.  64. 


96  CLERICAL    TOUR. 

who  had  been  suspended  for  heresy,  and  an  uncle  of 
the  celebrated  Dr  Robert  Simson,  both  of  Glasgow. 
Their  father  was  Mr  Patrick  Simson,  of  Renfrew,  who 
had  been  tutor  to  some  of  the  family  of  Argyle.  Mr 
Mathew  was  an  old  man,  but  very  different  in  his 
manner  from  Mr  Lundie,  for  he  was  frank  and  open 
and  familiar,  as  much  as  the  other  was  reserved  and 
dignified.  He  was  an  excellent  examinator,  for  he 
answered  all  his  own  questions,  and  concluded  all  with 
a  receipt  for  making  sermons,  which  he  said  would 
serve  as  a  general  rule,  and  answer  well,  be  the  text 
what  it  would.  This  was  to  begin  first  with  an  ac- 
count of  the  fall  of  man,  and  the  depravity  of  human 
nature ;  then  a  statement  of  the  means  of  our  recovery 
by  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and,  thirdly, 
an  application  consisting  of  observations,  or  uses,  or 
reflections,  or  practical  references  tending  to  make  us 
good  men.  For  my  patient  hearing,  he  made  me  a 
present  of  a  pen-case  of  his  own  turning,  and  added,  if 
I  would  come  and  stay  a  week  with  him  he  would 
teach  me  to  turn,  and  converse  over  the  system  with 
me,  for  he  saw  I  was  tolerably  well  founded,  as  my 
father  was  an  able  Calvinist.  He  said  he  would  order 
his  son  Patrick,  who  Avas  a  more  powerful  master  of 
the  turning-loom  than  he  was,  to  turn  me  a  nice  snuff- 
box or  egg-cup,  which  I  pleased.  But  Pat  was  lazy, 
and  liked  better  to  go  about  with  the  gun,  from  which 
he  did  not  restrain  him,  as  he  not  only  furnished  his 
sisters  with  plenty  of  partridges  and  hares,  but  like- 
wise gratified  the  Lady  Pencaitland  with  many.   Thus 


A  JOURNEY.  97 

ended  my  preparatory  trial  by  visiting  the  clergy,  for 
with  the  two  or  three  nearer  home  I  was  well  ac- 
quainted. 

Early  in  November  this  year,  1 744,  I  returned  to 
Glasgow.  As  it  was  a  hard  frost,  I  chose  to  walk,  and 
went  the  first  day  to  my  friend  ^Ir  Hew  Horn's  at  Fox- 
hall,  near  Kirkliston.  He  had  been  married  for  a  year 
or  two  to  Miss  Ino-lis,  a  dauorhter  of  Sir  John  Ino;lis,  a 
handsome,  agreeable  woman.  I  perceived  that  he  was 
much  changed,  and  thought  him  in  a  very  dangerous 
way.  He  was,  however,  very  cheerful  and  pleasant, 
and  sat  up  with  me  till  eleven  o'clock.  I  breakfasted 
with  him  next  morning,  and  then  took  my  leave,  with 
a  foreboding  that  I  should  see  him  no  more,  which 
was  verified,  for  he  gave  way  not  many  months  after- 
wards. In  him  I  lost  a  most  valuable  friend.  I 
walked  to  Whitburn  at  an  early  hour,  but  could  ven- 
ture no  further,  as  there  was  no  tolerable  lodging- 
house  within  my  reach.  There  was  then  not  even  a 
cottage  nearer  than  the  Kirk  of  Shotts,  and  AMiit- 
burn  itself  was  a  solitaiy  house  in  a  desolate  country. 

Next  morning  the  frost  was  gone,  and  such  a  deluge 
of  rain  and  tempest  of  wind  took  possession  of  the 
atmosphere,  as  put  an  end  to  aU  travelling.  This  was 
on  Thui-sday  morning  ;  and  the  wet  thaw  and  bad 
weather  continuins;,  I  was  oblis;ed  to  remain  there  for 
several  days,  for  there  was  in  those  days  neither  coach 
nor  chaise  on  the  road,  and  not  even  a  saddle-horse  to 
be  had.  At  last,  on  Sunday  morning,  being  the  fourth 
day,  an  open  chaise  reluming  from  Edinburgh  to 

6 


98  RETURN    TO    GLASGOW. 

Glasgow  took  me  in,  and  conveyed  me  safe.  I  had 
passed  my  time  more  tolerably  than  I  expected ;  for 
though  the  landlord  was  ignorant  and  stupid,  his  wife 
was  a  sensible  woman,  and  in  her  youth  had  been 
celebrated  in  a  song  under  the  name  of  the  "  Bonny 
Lass  of  Livingstone.'^  They  had  five  children,  but  no 
books  but  the  Bible  and  Sir  Richard  Blackmore's  epic 
poem  of  "  Prince  Arthur,"  which  the  landlord  brought 
me  in  one  day  by  the  name  of  a  song-book,  which  he 
said  would  divert  me ;  and  so  it  did,  for  I  had  not  met 
with  it  before.  The  walls  and  windows  were  all 
scrawled  with  poetry ;  and  I  amused  myself  not  a 
little  in  composing  a  satire  on  my  predecessors,  which 
I  also  inscribed  on  the  walls,  to  the  great  delight  of 
my  landlady,  who  showed  it  for  many  years  afterwards 
with  vanity  to  her  travellers.  When  I  came  to  pay 
my  reckoning,  to  my  astonishment  she  only  charged 
me  3s.  6d.  for  lodging  and  board  for  four  days.  I  had 
presented  the  little  girls  with  ribbons  I  bought  from  a 
wandering  pedlar  who  had  taken  shelter  from  the  storm. 
But  my  whole  expense,  maid-servant  and  all,  was  only 
5s. ;  such  was  the  rate  of  travelling  in  those  days. 

I  had  my  lodging  this  session  in  a  college-room, 
which  I  had  furnished  for  the  session  at  a  moderate 
rent.  I  had  never  been  without  a  cough  in  the 
former  winter,  when  I  lodged  in  a  warm  house  in 
King  Street,  opposite  to  what  was  the  butchers'  market 
in  those  days  ;  but  such  was  the  difference  between 
the  air  of  the  College  and  the  lower  streets  of  Glasgow, 
that  in  my  new  apartment,  though  only  bare  walls, 


COLLEGE   THEATRICALS.  99 

and  twenty  feet  by  seventeen,  I  never  had  cold  or 
cough  all  the  winter.  John  Donaldson,  a  college  ser- 
vant, lighted  my  fire  and  made  my  bed  ;  and  a  maid 
from  the  landlady  who  furnished  the  room,  came  once 
a  fortnight  with  clean  linens.  There  were  two  Eng- 
lish students  of  theology  who  lived  on  the  floor  below, 
and  nobody  above  me.  I  again  attended  the  lectures 
of  Professors  Leechman  and  Hutcheson,  with  much 
satisfaction  and  improvement. 

Young  Sellar,  whom  I  mentioned  before,  became  my 
most  intimate  friend  ;  he  came  to  me  whenever  he  was 
at  leisure,  and  we  passed  our  time  very  agreeably  to- 
gether. He  enlarged  my  circle  of  acquaintance  by 
introducing  me  to  the  ladies  whom  he  visited  ;  and  I 
introduced  him  to  my  two  intimates,  ^liss  Campbell 
and  Mrs  D.,  who,  he  admitted,  were  superior  to  any  of 
his  former  acquaintance.  In  an  excursion  with  him 
to  Hamilton  the  year  before,  he  had  made  me  ac- 
quainted with  Dr  Cullen,  and  now  that  he  was  come 
to  Glasgow,  I  improved  that  acquaintance.  I  became 
intimate  with  Dr  M'Lean,  whom  I  mentioned  before, 
and  on  his  suggestion  we  prepared  to  act  the  tragedy 
of  Cato  to  a  select  company  in  the  College.  Our 
parts  were  allotted,  and  we  rehearsed  it  well,  though 
we  never  acted  it  before  an  audience.  M'Lean  and  I 
allotted  the  parts  :  I  was  to  be  Cato ;  he  was  ^llarcus ; 
our  fiiend  Seller,  Juba ;  a  Mr  Lesly  was  to  do  Lucius  ; 
an  English  student  of  the  name  of  Seddon  was  to  be 
Stj^hax;  and  Eobin  Bogle,  Sempronius.  Miss  Campbell 
was  our  Marcia,  and  Miss  Wood,  Lucia ;  I  have  for- 


100  FRANCIS    HUTCHESON. 

got  our  Fortius.  We  rehearsed  it  twice,  but  never 
acted  it.  Though  we  never  acted  our  play,  we  at- 
tained one  of  our  chief  purposes,  which  was,  to  become 
more  intimate  with  the  ladies.  Lord  Selkirk  would 
not  join  us,  though  he  took  much  pleasure  in  instruct- 
ing Miss  Campbell. 

In  our  literary  club  this  session  we  took  to  review- 
ing books  as  a  proper  exercise.  Mr  Thom,  who  was 
afterwards  minister  of  Go  van,  a  learned  man,  of  a  very 
particular  but  ingenious  turn  of  mind,  though  much 
senior  to  any  of  us,  was  one  of  our  members,  and  had 
great  sway  among  us.  He  had  quarrelled  with 
Hutcheson  ;  and  having  heard  me  say  that  Hutche- 
son's  book  on  the  Passions  was  not  intelligible,  he 
assigned  it  to  me,  that  I  might  understand  it  better. 
I  accordingly  reviewed  it  in  a  few  pages,  and  took 
much  pains  to  unravel  certain  intricacies  both  of 
thought  and  expression  that  had  run  through  it  :  this 
I  did  with  much  freedom,  though  not  without  respect 
to  the  author.  This  essay  pleased  my  friends  ;  and 
one  of  them,  by  Thom's  instigation,  carried  a  copy  of 
it  to  Hutcheson.  He  glanced  it  over  and  returned  it, 
saying  that  the  young  gentleman  might  be  in  the 
right,  but  that  he  had  long  ago  made  up  his  mind  on 
those  subjects,  and  could  not  now  take  the  trouble  to 
revise  them. 

Not  long  after  this,  I  had  certain  proof  of  the  gen- 
tleness and  candour  of  this  eminent  Professor ;  for  when 
I  delivered  a  discourse  in  the  Divinity  Hall,  it  hap- 
pened to  please  the  Professor  (Leechman)  so  much,  that 


FRANCIS   HUTCHESON.  101 

he  gave  it  very  liberal  praise,  both  in  pubhc  and  pri- 
vate ;  insomuch  that  it  was  borrowed  by  one  of  his 
minions,  and  handed  about  the  College  with  so  much 
approbation  that  Mr  Hutcheson  wished  to  see  it. 
When  he  had  read  it,  he  returned  it  with  unqualified 
applause,  though  it  contained  some  things  which  a 
jealous  mind  might  have  interpreted  as  an  attack  on 
his  favourite  doctrine  of  a  moral  sense.  His  civility 
was  now  accompanied  with  some  degree  of  confidence. 
I  preserved  my  intimacy  with  my  friends  of  last 
winter,  and  added  a  few  more  families  to  my  ac- 
quaintance, which  made  the  time  pass  very  agreeably. 
I  had  been  introduced  to  Mr  Purdie,  the  rector  of 
the  school,  wha  had,  at  North  Berwick,  taught  many 
of  my  young  friends  in  the  Lothians,  and  particu- 
larly the  whole  name  of  Dalrymple.  He  had  half-a- 
dozen  or  eight  boarders,  for  whom  his  daughters  kept 
a  very  good  table,  insomuch  that  I  was  often  invited 
to  dinner,  and  became  intimate  in  the  family.  The 
eldest  daughter,  who  was  a  sensible,  prudent  woman, 
and  mistress  of  the  house,  being  about  forty,  sent 
for  me  one  Saturday  morning  in  haste ;  and  when  I 
arrived,  she  took  me  into  a  room  apart  from  her 
sisters,  who  were  girls  under  twenty ;  and  there,  with 
many  tears,  informed  me  that  her  father,  having  been 
much  intoxicated  on  the  Friday  or  Saturday  before, 
had  never  since  been  sober ;  that  he  had  not  at- 
tended the  school  all  the  w  eek,  and  that  he  now  was 
firmly  determined  to  resign  his  office,  as  he  was  sen- 
sible he  could  not  abstain  from  dram-drinking.     She 


102  AN    INCIDENT. 

added  that  he  had  not  saved  much  money,  having 
been  held  down  by  some  idle  and  wasteful  sons,  and 
that  they  could  ill  afford  to  want  the  emoluments 
of  his  office.  She  concluded  by  telling  me  that  she 
had  previously  informed  her  father  that  she  was  going 
to  send  for  me,  and  impart  his  secret  to  me  for  advice. 
To  this  he  had  not  objected,  and  when  I  was  carried 
to  his  room  he  received  me  with  open  arms,  told  me 
his  dismal  case  with  tears  and  lamentations,  and  his 
firm  resolution  to  resign,  as  he  was  sensible  he  could 
not  reform,  and  could  no  longer  be  of  use.  He  con- 
cluded by  asking  for  a  dram,  which  was  the  second 
he  had  called  for  before  nine  o'clock.  I  laughed  and 
rallied,  and  w^as  serious  and  grave  with  him  by  turns, 
and  used  every  argument  I  could  to  break  him  off 
his  habit,  but  to  no  purpose  ;  for  he  answered  all  my 
arguments  by  the  impossibility  of  his  ever  reforming, 
and  consequently  of  ever  appearing  again  in  the 
world.  He  concluded  with  "  Nelly,  give  me  a  dram," 
which  she  durst  not  refuse,  otherwise  he  would  have 
fired  the  house.  To  have  time  to  think  and  consult 
about  him,  I  went  from  him  to  the  breakfast  parlour. 
When  I  was  leaving  him,  he  prayed  me  to  return  as 
soon  as  possible,  as  he  could  not  bear  his  own 
thoughts  alone. 

When  at  breakfast,  I  thought  of  an  expedient  which 
I  imagined  I  could  depend  upon  for  him,  if  it  took 
effect.  I  communicated  my  plan  to  his  daughter, 
and  she  was  pleased.  When  I  went  to  him  again,  I 
told  him  I  was  truly  sorry  I  could  not  pass  that  day 


AN   INCIDENT.  103 

with  liim,  as  I  was  obliged  to  go  to  Stirling,  by  my 
father's  orders,  upon  business,  and  that  I  had  made 
choice  of  that  day,  as  I  could  return  without  missing 
more  than  one  day  of  the  College.  I  added  that  I 
had  never  been  there,  and  had  not  been  able  to  find  a 
companion,  for  which  I  was  sorry.  "  Nelly,"  said  he, 
with  great  quickness,  "  do  you  think  I  could  sit  on  a 
horse  ?  if  I  could,  I  would  go  with  him  and  show  him 
the  way."  I  cajoled  him  on  this,  and  so  did  his 
daughter ;  and,  in  short,  after  an  early  dinner  while 
the  horses  and  a  servant  were  preparing,  we  set  out 
for  Stirlinoj  about  one  o'clock,  I  havinor  taken  his 
w-ord  before  his  daughter,  that  in  all  things  he  would 
comply  with  my  will,  otherwise  I  would  certainly 
return. 

I  had  much  difficulty  to  get  him  to  pass  the  little 
village  public-houses  which  were  in  our  way,  without 
calling  for  drams.  He  made  this  attempt  half-a-dozen 
times  in  the  first  stage,  but  I  would  not  consent,  and 
besides  promised  him  he  should  have  as  much  wine  as 
he  pleased.  With  much  difficulty  I  got  him  to  Kil- 
syth, where  we  stopped  to  feed  our  horses,  and  where 
we  drank  a  bottle  of  claret.  In  short,  I  got  him  to 
Stirling  before  it  was  quite  dark,  in  the  second  week 
of  April,  old  style :  he  ate  a  hearty  supper,  and  we 
had  another  bottle  of  claret,  and  he  confessed  he 
never  slept  sound  but  that  night,  since  he  was  taken 
ill.  In  short,  we  remained  at  Stirling  aU  Sunday, 
attended  church,  and  had  our  dinner  and  claret,  and 
our  walk  on  the  Castle-hUl  in  the  evening.    I  brought 


101  SOCIAL    SKETCHES. 

him  to  his  own  house  on  Monday  by  five  o'clock. 
The  man's  habit  was  broken  ;  he  was  again  of  a  sound 
mind,  and  he  attended  his  school  on  Tuesday  in  per- 
fect health.  As  many  of  the  Professors  were  Purdie's 
friends,  this  successful  act  of  kindness  to  him  raised 
me  in  their  esteem,  and  atoned  for  many  levities 
with  which  I  had  been  taxed. 

He  lived  many  years  after  this,  but  did  not  leave 
his  family  independent.  One  of  his  daughters  was 
married  creditably  in  Edinburgh :  the  two  eldest 
came  to  live  there  after  his  death,  but  were  in  indi- 
gence. In  the  year  1778  I  happened  to  be  for  a 
few  weeks  at  Buxton,  where  I  met  with  Sir  William 
Gordon,  K.B.,  who  had  been  a  boarder  at  Purdie's  for 
two  or  three  years  before  1745,  and  who  was  at  Ley- 
den  with  me  in  the  end  of  that  year.  Eiding  out 
with  him  one  day,  he  happened  to  ask  me  in  what 
state  Purdie's  family  was  left  1  I  told  him  what  I 
knew,  and  added  that  they  had  a  kind  remembrance 
of  him,  for  that  not  many  months  after  he  had  left 
them,  I  heard  Nelly  say,  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  upon 
an  insult  having  been  ofiered  them  by  some  of  their 
neighbours,  that  they  durst  not  have  done  so  if 
Willy  Gordon  had  been  in  the  house.  He  answered 
that  the  father  had  very  often  licked  him,  but  he  had 
no  resentment,  as  it  was  for  his  advantage,  and  that 
the  daughters  were  good  girls.  He  concluded  by 
offering  me  a  sum  of  money.  I  thought  it  better  to 
accept  of  an  annual  pension  of  £10,  which  he  remitted 
to  them  by  me  for  several  years. 


SOCIAL   SKETCHES.  105 

My  friendship  mtli  Mrs  D.  and  lier  brother  never 
impaired,  though,  ha^v^ug  a  more  extended  acquaint- 
ance than  I  had  the  preceding  year,  I  was  frequently 
engaged  when  they  wished  to  have  me  with  them. 

I  became  acquainted  with  Mr  Wood's  family,  where 
there  were  tliree  or  four  very  agreeable  daughters, 
besides  the  Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  Andrew 
the  clergyman,  who  died  rector  of  Gateshead,  by 
Newcastle,  in  the  year  1772,  of  a  fever  which  he  con- 
tracted by  exerting  himself  with  the  utmost  humanity 
to  save  his  parishioners  on  the  fatal  night  when  the 
bridge  of  Newcastle  fell.  Here  it  was  that  I  met 
with  Colonel  Robert  Hepburn  of  Keith  for  the  first 
time  since  we  had  been  at  the  same  class  together  in 
the  year  1736.  We  left  Mr  Wood's  early  in  an  even- 
ing after  drinking  tea,  retired  to  Cockaine's  tavern, 
and  did  not  part  till  near  five  in  the  morning.  ]\Iost 
unfortunately  for  me,  I  had  made  an  appointment 
with  Mr  James  Hogg,  a  probationer,  and  tutor  to  the 
four  sons  of  Sir  John  Douglas  of  Kelhead,  to  ride  ten  or 
twelve  miles  with  them  on  their  way  to  Annandale  ; 
and  I  had  hardly  become  warm  in  bed  when  rap-rap 
he  came  to  my  door,  and  insisted  on  my  getting  up 
and  fulfiUiug  my  promise.  Never  in  my  life  had  I 
such  reluctance  to  fulfil  any  promise,  for  Hepburn  had 
proposed  to  make  rack  punch  our  beverage  after  sup- 
per, which  I  had  never  tasted  before,  and  which  had 
given  me  the  first  headache  I  had  almost  ever  felt. 
There  was  no  help  for  it.  It  was  a  fine  morning  in  the 
second  week  of  May ;  we  breakfasted  at  Hamilton, 


106  SOCIAL   SKETCHES. 

and  I  rode  six  miles  farther  with  them  and  re- 
turned. 

James  Hogg  was  a  man  of  a  good  heart  and  un- 
common generosity.  Sir  John's  affairs  were  com- 
pletely deranged,  and  he  could  raise  no  money  to 
carry  on  the  education  of  his  boys.  Hogg  had  a  little 
patrimony  of  his  own,  nearly  £200  :  rather  than  his 
pupils  should  suffer,  two  of  whom  were  fit  for  college, 
he  came  to  Glasgow  with  all  the  four,  and  with  a 
trusty  old  woman  of  a  servant :  he  kept  a  small  house 
for  them  in  King  Street,  and  being  an  excellent  econo- 
mist, fed  them  well  at  the  least  possible  expense.  I 
frequently  dined  with  him  and  them,  and  was  aston- 
ished at  his  good  management.  This  he  continued 
all  the  next  year  also,  when  Sir  John  was  sent  to  the 
Tower  of  London  for  rebellious  practices.  This  debt, 
together  with  arrears  of  wages,  was  not  paid  till  many 
years  afterwards,  when  Hogg  was  minister  of  Linlith- 
gow, where  he  died  by  a  fall  from  his  horse  in  spring 
1770.  Had  his  understanding  been  as  strong  as  his 
heart  was  generous,  he  would  have  been  a  first-rate 
character. 

In  that  week,  or  that  immediately  following,  Will 
Sellar  and  I,  and  Eobin  Bogle  of  Shettleston,  went 
on  a  party  with  ladies,  two  Miss  Woods  and  Peggy 
Douglas  of  Mains,  a  celebrated  wit  and  a  beauty,  even 
then  in  the  wane.  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 


SOCIAL   SKETCHES.  107 

viewing  the  romantic  gardens  of  Bamcluch,  which  lie 
between  Hamilton  and  the  Dog-  Kennel. 

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.  x\fter  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  must 
be  with  justice  called  an  old  maid,  in  spite  of  your 
juvenile  airs."  "  What  care  I,  Tom  1 "  said  she  ;  "  for  I 
have  for  some  time  renounced  your  worthless  sex  :  I 
have  sworn  to  be  Duchess  of  Douglas,  or  never  to 
mount  a  marriage-bed."  This  happened  in  May  1 745. 
She  made  her  purpose  good.  When  she  made  this 
prediction  she  was  about  thirty.  It  was  fulfilled  a 
few  years  aft^r.'" 

I  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  temper  and 
spirit  of  the  clergy  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Glasgow  a 
second  time  this  year,  by  means  of  a  trial  of  a  clergy- 
man in  the  county  of  Ajrr  for  certain  alleged  crimes, 
which  came  by  appeal  before  the  Synod  of  Glasgow. 
The  person  tried  was  a  very  sensible  man,  of  much 
wit  and  humour,  who  had  made  a  butt  of  a  neigh- 
bouring  clergyman,  who  was  weak,  and  at  the  same 


*  Margaret,  daughter  of  James  Douglas  of  Mains,  was  married  in  1758  to 
Archibald,  first  and  last  Duke  of  Douglas.  She  dietl  in  177-t,  leaving  a  tra- 
ditional reputation  for  much  freedom  of  speech  and  action. — £d. 


108  SOCIAL   SKETCHES. 

time  good-natured,  and  had  all  the  qualities  of  a  butt. 
He  was  found  out,  however,  to  be  a  man  full  of  deep 
resentment,  and  so  malicious  as  to  turn  frolic  into 
crime.  After  many  very  late  sederunts  of  the  Synod, 
and  at  last  a  hearing  of  the  General  Assembly,  the 
aflfair  was  dismissed.  The  gentleman  was  settled  in 
the  parish  to  which  he  was  presented,  and  many  years 
afterwards  died  minister  of  Glasgow,  where  his  good 
name  had  been  so  much  traduced,  much  regretted  ; — a 
caution  to  young  men  of  wit  and  humour  to  beware 
of  fools  as  much  as  knaves. 

I  was  detained  later  at  Glasgow  than  I  would  have 
chosen,  that  I  might  obtain  my  credentials  from  the 
University,  as  by  the  tenor  of  the  Act  of  Bursary  I  was 
obliged  on  this  third  year  to  repair  to  some  foreign 
Protestant  university.  I  had  taken  my  degree  of  A.M. 
at  Edinburgh,  and  had  only  to  get  here  my  certifi- 
cate of  attendance  for  two  years,  and  my  Latin  letter 
recommending  me  to  foreign  academies.  I  must  ac- 
knowledge that  I  had  profited  much  by  two  years' 
study  at  Glasgow  in  two  important  branches — viz., 
moral  philosophy  and  tlieology ;  along  with  which 
last  I  received  very  excellent  instructions  on  compo- 
sition, for  Leechman  was  not  only  fervent  in  spirit 
when  he  lectured,  but  ornamented  all  his  discourses 
with  a  taste  derived  from  his  knowledge  of  belles 
lettres. 

In  the  months  of  June  and  July  1745,  I  went 
through  most  of  my  trials  in  the  presbytery  of  Had- 
dington, as  my  father  was  resolved  I  should  be  ready 


SOCIAL   SKETCHES.  109 

to  take  out  my  licence  within  a  montli  after  my 
return  from  abroad.  In  the  month  of  August  I  went 
to  Dumfriesshire,  to  pass  a  few  weeks  there,  and  to 
take  leave  of  my  friends.  About  the  end  of  that 
month  I  received  orders  from  my  father  to  repair  to 
Drumlanrig  Castle,  to  meet  his  friend  Dr  John  Sin- 
clair, M.D.,  who  was  to  be  some  days  there  on  his 
way  from  Moffat  to  Dumfries,  and  after  that  to  re- 
turn home  as  soon  as  1  could,  as  he  expected  to  be 
home  about  the  18th  of  next  month  with  my  mother 
from  Langton,  near  Dunse,  where  they  were  drinking 
goats'  whey. 

I  accordingly  met  Dr  Sinclair  at  Drumlanrig,  where 
I  had  been  frequently  before  with  my  friend  James 
Ferguson  of  Craigdarroch,  who  was  then  acting  com- 
missioner for  his  Grace  the  Duke  of  Queensberry.  He 
had  been  bred  to  the  law,  but  relinquished  the  bar 
for  this  employment,  which  seated  him  within  a  few 
miles  of  his  own  estate,  which  needed  improvement. 
His  first  lady  was  a  sister  of  Sir  Henry  Nisbet's,  who 
died  young ;  his  second  was  her  cousin,  a  daughter  of 
the  Hon.  Baron  Dalrymple,  Dr  Sinclair  had  been  my 
father's  class-fellow,  and  had  a  great  regard  for  him  ; 
he  was  an  elegant  scholar,  and  remarkable  for  his  per- 
fect knowledge  of  the  Latin  tongue,  which  in  those 
days  was  much  cultivated  in  Scotland.  The  profes- 
sors of  medicine  then  taught  in  Latin,  and  Dr  Sin- 
clair was  one  of  that  first  set  who  raised  the  fame  of 
the  school  of  medicine  in  Edinburgh  above  that  of 
any  other  in  Europe.     He  and  Dr  John  Clerk,  the 


no  LANDING    OF   PEINCE    CHARLES. 

great  practising  physician,  had  found  Moffat  waters 
agree  with  themselves,  and  frequented  it  every  season 
in  their  turns  for  a  month  or  six  weeks,  and  by  that 
means  drew  many  of  their  patients  there,  which  made 
it  be  more  frequented  than  it  has  been  of  late  years, 
when  there  is  much  better  accommodation. 

I  had  promised  Mr  R.  Bogle  and  his  sister  to  pass 
a  few  days  with  them  at  Moffat,  on  the  road  to  which 
I  passed  one  day  with  my  friend  William  Cunning- 
ham, minister  of  Durisdeer,  the  Duke  of  Queens- 
berry's  parish  church.  He  was  knowing  and  accom- 
plished, and  pleasing  and  elegant  in  his  manners, 
beyond  most  of  the  Scottish  clergymen  of  that  day. 
The  Duchess  of  Queensberry  (Lady  K.  Hyde)  had 
discovered  his  merit  on  her  visit  to  Scotland,  and  had 
him  constantly  with  her,  so  that  he  was  called  the 
Duchess's  Walking-staff.  From  his  house  I  crossed  to 
Moffat,  about  fifteen  miles  off,  but  did  not  reach  it 
that  night  on  account  of  a  thunder-storm  which  had 
made  the  waters  impassable,  so  that  I  was  obliged  to 
lodge  in  what  they  call  a  shieling,  where  I  was  used 
with  great  hospitality  and  uncommon  politeness  by 
a  young  farmer  and  his  sister,  who  were  then  residing 
there,  attending  the  milking  of  the  ewes,  the  business 
of  that  season  in  a  sheep  country. 

When  I  got  to  Moffat,  I  found  my  expecting  friends 
still  there,  though  the  news  had  arrived  that  the 
Chevalier  Prince  Charles  had  landed  in  the  north  with 
a  small  train,  had  been  joined  by  many  of  the  clans, 
and  might  be  expected  to  break  down  into  the  low 


ED12S BURGH   IN   THE   '45.  Ill 

country,  unless  Sir  John  Cope,  who  was  then  on  his 
march  north,  should  meet  with  them  and  disperse 
them.  I  remained  only  a  few  days  at  Moffat,  as  the 
news  became  more  important  and  alarming  every 
day ;  and,  taking  leave  of  my  friends,  I  got  home  to 
Prestonpans  on  the  evening  of  the  12th  of  September. 
My  father,  &c.,  were  not  returned,  but  I  was  perfectly 
informed  of  the  state  of  public  affairs  by  many  per- 
sons in  the  place,  who  told  me  that  Prince  Charles 
had  evaded  Sir  John  Cope,  who  found  himself  obliged 
to  march  on  to  Inverness,  not  venturing  to  attack  the 
Highlanders  on  the  hLQ  of  Corry-arrock,  and  was  then 
proceeding  to  Aberdeen,  where  transports  were  sent 
to  bring  his  army  by  sea  to  the  Firth.  I  was  also 
informed  that  as  the  Highlanders  were  making  hasty 
marches,  the  city  of  Edinburgh  was  putting  itself  in 
some  state  of  defence,  so  as  to  be  able  to  resist  the 
rebels  in  case  of  an  attack  before  Sir  John  Cope 
arrived. 

On  this  news  I  repaired  to  Edinburgh  the  next 
day,  which  was  the  13th,  and,  meeting  many  of  my 
companions,  found  that  they  were  enlisting  them- 
selves in  a  corps  of  four  hundred  Volunteers,  which 
had  been  embodied  the  day  before,  and  were  thought 
necessary  for  the  defence  of  the  city.  Messrs  William 
Robertson,  John  Home,  "William  M'Ghie,  Hugh  Ban- 
natyne,  William  Cleghorn,  AVilliam  Wilkie,  George 
Logan,  and  many  others,  had  enlisted  into  the  first  or 
College  Company,  as  it  was  called,  which  was  to  be 
commanded  by  Provost  Drummond,  who  was  expected 


112  EDINBURGH   IN   THE   '45. 

to  return  that  day  from  London,  where  he  had  been 
for  some  time.  On  the  14th  I  joined  that  company, 
and  had  arms  put  into  my  hands,  and  attended  a 
drill-serjeant  that  afternoon  and  the  next  day  to 
learn  the  manual  exercise,  which  I  had  formerly  been 
taught  by  my  father,  who  had  himself  been  a  Volun- 
teer in  the  end  of  Queen  Anne's  reign,  when  there 
was  an  alarm  about  the  Pretender,  but  were  obliged 
to  hold  their  meetings  in  malt-barns  in  the  night,  and 
by  candle-light. 

The  city  was  in  great  ferment  and  bustle  at  this 
time ;  for  besides  the  two  parties  of  Whigs  and  Jacob- 
ites— of  which  a  well-informed  citizen  told  me  there 
were  two-thirds  of  the  men  in  the  city  of  the  first 
description,  or  friends  to  Government ;  and  of  the 
second,  or  enemies  to  Government,  two-thirds  of  the 
ladies, — besides  this  division,  there  was  another  be- 
tween those  who  were  keen  for  preparing  with  zeal 
and  activity  to  defend  the  city,  and  those  who  were 
averse  to  that  measure,  which  were  Provost  Stuart  and 
all  his  friends ;  and  this  appeared  so  plainly  from  the 
Provost's  conduct  and  manner  at  the  time,  that  there 
was  not  a  Whig  in  town  who  did  not  suspect  that  he 
favoured  the  Pretender's  cause  ;  and  however  cau- 
tiously he  acted  in  his  capacity  of  chief  magistrate, 
there  were  not  a  few  who  suspected  that  his  back- 
wardness and  coldness  in  the  measure  of  arming  the 
people,  w^as  part  of  a  plan  to  admit  the  Pretender  into 
the  city. 

It  was  very  true  that  a  half-armed  regiment  of  new 


EDIKBUKGH    IN   THE   '45.  113 

raised  men,  with  four  hundred  Volunteers  from  the 
city,  and  two  hundred  from  other  places,  might  not 
be  thought  sufficient  for  the  defence  of  the  city,  had 
it  been  seriously  besieged  ;  yet,  considering  that  the 
Highlanders  were  not  more  than  1800,  and  the  half 
of  them  only  armed — that  they  were  averse  to  ap- 
proach walls,  and  afraid  of  cannon — I  am  persuaded 
that,  had  the  dragoons  proved  firm  and  resolute,  in- 
stead of  running  away  to  Dunbar  to  meet  Sir  John 
Cope,  it  was  more  than  two  to  one  that  the  rebels 
had  never  approached  the  city  till  they  had  defeated 
Cope,  which,  in  that  case,  they  would  not  probably 
have  attempted.  Farther,  I  am  of  opinion,  that  if 
that  part  of  the  Town  Council  who  were  Whigs  had 
found  good  ground  to  have  put  Stuart  under  arrest, 
the  city  would  have  held  out. 

In  this  opinion  of  Stuart  I  was  confirmed,  when  in 
London,  the  following  month  of  April  I  happened 
to  be  in  the  British  or  Forrest's  Cofieehouse,  I  forget 
which,  in  the  afternoon  of  the  day  when  the  news  of 
the  victory  at  Culloden  arrived.  I  was  sitting  at  a 
table  with  Dr  Smollett  and  Bob  Smith  (the  Duke  of 
Koxburgh's  Smith),  when  John  Stuart,  the  son  of  the 
Provost,  who  was  then  confined  in  the  Tower,  after 
turning  pale  and  murmuring  many  curses,  left  the 
room  in  a  rage,  and  slapped  the  door  behind  him  with 
much  violence.  I  said  to  my  two  companions,  that 
lad  Stuart  is  either  a  madman  or  a  fool  to  discover 
himself  in  this  manner,  when  his  father  is  in  the 
Tower  on  suspicion.      Smith,  who  knew  him  best, 

H 


114  THE    VOLUNTEEES    IN   THE    '45. 

acquiesced  in  my  opinion,  and  added,  that  he  had 
never  seen  him  so  much  beside  himself. 

For  a  few  days  past  M'Laurin  the  professor  had 
been  busy  on  the  walls  on  the  south  side  of  the  town, 
endeavouring  to  make  them  more  defensible,  and  had 
even  erected  some  small  cannon  near  to  Potterrow 
Port,  which  I  saw.  I  visited  my  old  master  when  he 
w^as  busy,  who  seemed  to  have  no  doubt  that  he  could 
make  the  walls  defensible  against  a  sudden  attack, 
but  complained  of  want  of  service,  and  at  the  same 
time  encouraged  me  and  my  companions  to  be  dili- 
gent in  learning  the  use  of  arms.  We  were  busy  all 
Saturday,  when  there  arrived  in  town  Bruce  of  Ken- 
nett,  with  a  considerable  number  of  Volunteers,  above 
100  from  his  country,  and  Sir  Robert  Dickson  with 
130  or  140  from  Musselburgh  and  the  parish  of  In- 
veresk  ;  this  increased  the  strength  and  added  to  the 
courage  of  the  loyal  inhabitants. 

On  Sunday  morning  the  15th,  however,  news  had 
arrived  in  town  that  the  rebel  army  had  been  at  Lin- 
lithgow the  night  before,  and  were  on  full  march  to- 
wards Edinburgh.  This  altered  the  face  of  affairs, 
and  made  thinking  people  fear  that  they  might  be  in 
possession  of  Edinburgh  before  Cope  arrived.  The 
Volunteers  rendezvoused  in  the  College  Yards  before 
ten  o'clock,  to  the  number  of  about  400.  Captain 
Drummond  appeared  at  ten,  and,  walking  up  in  front 
of  the  right  of  his  company,  where  I  stood  with  all 
my  companions  of  the  corps,  he  addressed  us  in  a 
speech  of  some  length,  the  purport  of  which  w^as,  that 


THE   VOLUNTEERS   IN   THE  '45.  115 

it  had  been  agreed  by  the  General,  and  the  Officers  of 
the  Crown,  that  the  military  force  should  oppose  the 
rebels  on  their  march  to  Edinburgh,  consisting  of  the 
Town  Guard,  that  part  of  the  new  regiment  who  had 
got  arms,  with  the  Volunteers  from  the  country.  WTiat 
he  had  to  propose  to  us  was,  that  we  should  join  this 
force,  and  expose  our  lives  in  defence  of  the  capital  of 
Scotland,  and  the  security  of  our  country's  laws  and 
liberties.  He  added  that,  as  there  was  a  necessity  for 
leaving  some  men  in  arms  for  the  defence  of  the  city, 
that  any  persons  choosing  the  one  service  rather  than 
the  other  would  bring  no  imputation  of  blame,  but 
that  he  hoped  his  company  would  distinguish  them- 
selves by  their  zeal  and  spirit  on  this  occasion.  This 
was  answered  by  an  unanimous  shout  of  applause. 

We  were  marched  immediately  up  to  the  Lawn- 
market,  where  we  halted  tiU  the  other  companies  should 
follow.  They  were  late  in  making  their  appearance, 
and  some  of  their  officers,  coming  up  to  us  whUe  in 
the  street,  told  us  that  most  of  the  privates  were  un- 
wiHing  to  march.  During  this  halt,  Hamilton's  dra- 
goons, who  had  been  at  Leith,  marched  past  our  corps, 
on  their  route  to  join  Gardiner's  regiment,  who  were 
at  the  Colt  Bridge.  We  cheered  them,  in  passing,  with 
a  huzzah ;  and  the  spectators  began  to  think  at  last, 
that  some  serious  fighting  was  likely  to  ensue,  though 
before  this  moment  many  of  them  had  laughed  at  and 
ridiculed  the  Volunteers.  A  striking  example  of  this 
we  had  in  our  company,  for  a  Mr  Hawthorn,  a  son  of 
Bailie  Hawthorn,  who  had  laughed  at  his  companions 


116  THE    VOLUNTEERS    IN    THE    '45. 

among  the  Volunteers,  seeing  us  pass  tlirougla  tlie 
Luckenbooths  in  good  order,  and  with  apparent  mili- 
tary ardour,  ran  immediately  up-stairs  to  his  father's 
house,  and,  fetching  his  fowling-piece  and  his  small 
sword,  joined  us  before  we  left  the  Lawnmarket. 

While  we  remained  there,  which  was  great  part  of 
an  hour,  the  mob  in  the  street  and  the  ladies  in  the 
windows  treated  us  very  variously,  many  with  lamen- 
tation, and  even  with  tears,  and  some  with  apparent 
scorn  and  derision.  In  one  house  on  the  south  side 
of  the  street  there  was  a  row  of  windows,  full  of 
ladies,  who  appeared  to  enjoy  our  march  to  danger 
with  much  levity  and  mirth.  Some  of  our  warm 
Volunteers  observed  them,  and  threatened  to  fire  into 
the  windows  if  they  were  not  instantly  let  down, 
which  was  immediately  complied  with.  In  marching 
down  the  Bow,  a  narrow  winding  street,  the  scene  was 
different,  for  all  the  spectators  were  in  tears,  and  utter- 
ing loud  lamentations  ;  insomuch  that  Mr  Kinloch,  a 
probationer,  the  son  of  Mr  Kinloch,  one  of  the  High 
Church  ministers,  wlio  was  in  the  second  rank  just 
behind  Hew  Ballantine,  said  to  him  in  a  melancholy 
tone,  "  Mr  Hew,  Mr  Hew,  does  not  this  remind  you  of  a 
passage  in  Livy,  when  the  Gens  Fabii  marched  out  of 
Eome  to  prevent  the  Gauls  entering  the  city,  and  the 
whole  matrons  and  virgins  of  Rome  were  wringing  their 
hands,  and  loudly  lamenting  the  certain  danger  to 
which  that  generous  tribe  was  going  to  be  exposed  ? " 
"  Hold  your  tongue,"  says  Ballantine,  "  otherwise  I 
shall  complain  to  the  officer,  for  you'll  discourage  the 


THE   VOLUNTEERS   IX   THE   '45.  117 

men."  "  You  must  recollect  the  end,  Mr  Hew,  omnes 
ad  unum  pei^eri."  This  occasioned  a  hearty  laugh 
among  those  who  heard  it,  which  being  over,  Ballan- 
tine  half  whispered  Kinloch,  "  Eobin,  if  you  are  afraid, 
you  had  better  steal  off  when  you  can  find  an  oppor- 
tunity ;  I  shall  not  tell  that  you  are  gone  till  we  are 
too  far  off  to  recover  you." 

AVe  halted  in  the  Grassmarket,  near  the  West  Port, 
that  the  other  bodies  who  were  to  join  us  might  come. 
On  our  march,  even  our  company  had  lost  part  of 
their  number,  and  none  of  the  other  Volunteers  had 
come  up.  The  day  being  advanced  to  between  twelve 
and  one  o'clock,  the  brewers  who  lived  in  that  end  of 
the  street  brought  out  bread  and  cheese,  and  strong 
ale  and  brandy,  as  a  refreshment  for  us,  in  the  belief 
that  we  needed  it,  in  marching  on  such  an  enterprise. 
While  we  remained  in  this  position,  my  younger 
brother  William,  then  near  fifteen,  as  promising  a 
young  man  as  ever  was  born,  of  a  fine  genius,  and  an 
excellent  scholar,  though  he  had  been  kept  back  with 
very  bad  health,  came  up  to  me.  He  had  walked 
into  town  that  morning  in  his  anxiety  about  me,  and 
learniDg  that  I  was  with  the  company  on  our  march 
to  fight  the  rebels,  he  had  run  down  with  great 
anxiety  from  the  house  where  I  lodged,  to  leam  how 
things  really  stood.  He  was  melancholy  and  much 
alarmed.  I  withdrew  with  him  to  the  head  of  a 
neighbouring  close,  and  endeavoured  to  abate  his 
fears,  by  assuring  him  that  our  march  was  only  a 
feint  to   keep  back  the  Highlanders,  and   that   we 


118  THE   VOLUNTEERS    IN    THE   '45. 

should  in  a  little  while  be  ordered  back  to  our  field 
for  exercise  in  the  College.      His  anxiety  began  to 
abate,  when,  thinking  that,  whatever  should  happen, 
it  would  be  better  for  me  to  trust  him  with  a  Por- 
tugal piece  of  thirty-six  shillings  and  three  guineas 
that  I  had  in  my  pocket,  I  delivered  them  over  to 
him.      On  this  he  burst  into  tears,  and  said  I  surely 
did  not  think  as  I  said,  but  believed  I  was  going  out 
to  danger,  otherwise  I  Avould  not  so  readily  part  with 
my  money.     I  comforted  him  the  best  way  I  could,  and 
took  back  the  greater  part  of  the  money,  assuring  him 
that  I  did  not  believe  yet  that  we  would  be  sent  out, 
or  if  we  were,  I  thought  we  would  be  in  such  force  that 
the  rebels  would  not  face  us.    The  young  man  was  com- 
forted, and  I  gave  him  a  rendezvous  for  nine  at  night. 
"While  we  were  waiting  for  an  additional  force,  a 
body  of  the  clergy  (the  forenoon  service  being  but  ill 
attended  on  account  of  the  ringing  of  the  fire  bell, 
which  is  the  great  alarm  in  Edinburgh),  who  were  the 
two  Wisharts,  Wallace,  Glen,  Logan,  &c.,  came  to  us. 
Dr  AVilliam  Wishart,  Principal  of  the  College,  was 
their  prolocutor,  and  called  upon  us  in  a  most  pathetic 
speech  to  desist  from  this  rash  enterprise,  which  he 
said  was  exposing  the  flower  of  the  youth  of  Edin- 
burgh, and  the  hope  of  the  next  generation,  to  the  dan- 
ger of  being  cut  ofi",  or  made  prisoners  and  maltreated, 
without  any  just  or  adequate  object ;  that  our  num- 
ber added  so  very  little  to  the  force  that  was  intended 
against  the  rebels,  that  withdrawing  us  would  make 
little  difference,  while  our  loss  would  be  irreparable,  and 


THE    VOLUXTEEES    IX   THE    '45.  119 

that  at  any  rate  a  body  of  men  in  arms  was  necessary 
to  keep  the  city  quiet  during  the  absence  of  the  armed 
force,  and  therefore  he  prayed  and  besought  the  Volun- 
teers and  their  officers  to  give  up  all  thoughts  of  leav- 
ing the  city  defenceless,  to  be  a  prey  to  the  seditious. 
This  discourse,  and  others  similar  to  it,  had  an  eflfect 
upon  many  of  us,  though  youthful  ardour  made  us 
reluctant  to  abandon  the  prospect  of  showing  our 
prowess.  Two  or  three  of  the  warmest  of  our  youths 
remonstrated  against  those  unreasonable  speeches,  and 
seemed  eager  for  the  fight.  From  that  moment  I  saw 
the  impropriety  of  sending  us  out,  but  till  the  order 
was  recalled,  it  was  our  duty  to  remain  in  readiness 
to  obey.  "We  remained  for  near  an  hour  longer,  and 
were  joined  by  another  body  of  Volunteers,  and  part 
of  the  new  reodment  that  was  raisino;.  Not  lonir 
after  came  an  order  for  the  Volimteers  to  march 
back  to  the  College  Yards,  when  Provost  Drummond, 
who  had  been  absent,  returned  and  put  himself  at  our 
head,  and  marched  us  back.  In  the  mean  time  the 
other  force  that  had  been  collected,  with  ninety  men 
of  the  Town  Guard,  &c.,  &c.,  marched  out  to  the  Colt 
Bridge,  and  joined  the  dragoons,  who  were  watching 
the  approach  of  the  enemy.  Some  of  the  Volunteers 
imagined  that  this  manoeuvre  about  the  Volunteers 
was  entirely  Drimmiond's,  and  that  he  had  no  mind 
to  face  the  rebels,  though  he  had  made  a  parade  of 
courage  and  zeal,  to  make  himself  popular.  But  this 
was  not  the  man's  character — want  of  personal  courage 
was  not  his  defect.     It  was  civil  courage  in  which  he 


120        THE  DEFENCE  OF  EDINBURGH. 

failed  ;  for  all  his  life  he  had  a  great  deference  to  his 
superiors.  But  I  then  thought  as  I  do  now,  that  his 
offer  to  carry  out  the  Volunteers  was  owing  to  his  zeal 
and  prowess — for  personally  he  was  a  gallant  High- 
lander ;  but  on  better  considering  the  matter,  after  hear- 
ing the  remonstrance  of  the  clergy,  he  did  not  think 
that  he  could  well  be  answerable  for  exposing  so  many 
young  men  of  condition  to  certain  danger  and  uncer- 
tain victory. 

When  we  were  dismissed  from  the  College  Yards, 
we  were  ordered  to  rendezvous  there  again  in  the 
evening,  as  night  guards  were  to  be  posted  round  the 
whole  city.  Twelve  or  thirteen  of  the  most  intimate 
friends  went  to  a  late  dinner  to  a  Mrs  Turnbull's, 
then  next  house  to  the  Tron  Church.  Many  things 
were  talked  of  with  great  freedom,  for  the  company 
were  William  M'Ghie,  William  Cleghorn,  William 
Eobertson,  John  Home,  Hugh  Ballantine,  and  I.  The 
other  names  I  have  forgot.  Sundry  proposals  were 
made,  one  of  which  was  that  we  should  march  off 
with  our  arms  into  England,  and  raise  a  volunteering 
spirit ;  or  at  any  rate  that  we  should  join  Sir  John 
Cope's  army,  and  try  to  get  as  many  as  possible  to 
follow  us.  As  I  had  been  separated  from  my  com- 
panions for  two  years,  by  my  attendance  at  Glasgow, 
I  had  less  confidence  to  speak  my  mind,  especially 
as  some  of  my  warm  associates  thought  everybody 
cowardly,  or  a  secret  Jacobite,  who  did  not  agree  with 
them.  However,  perceiving  that  some  of  the  company 
did  not  agree  with  the  chief  speakers,  I  ventured  to 


THE   DEFENCE   OF   EDINBURGH. 


121 


state,  that  before  we  resolved  to  march  off  with  our 
arms,  we  should  take  care  to  have  a  suflBcient  number 
of  followers  ;  for  even  if  it  were  a  lawful  act  to  march 
off  with  our  arms  without  orders,  we  would  appear 
ridiculous  and  contemptible  if  there  were  no  more  of 
us  than  the  present  company,  and  I  guessed  we  could 
not  reckon  on  three  or  four  more.  This  brought  out 
M'Ghie  and  Hew  Ballantine,  who  were  considered  the 
steadiest  men  amongst  us.  This  occasioned  a  warm 
altercation,  for  Cleghorn  and  Home,  in  those  days, 
were  very  fiery.  At  last,  however,  it  was  settled  that 
we  should  try,  in  the  course  of  next  day,  to  find  if  we 
could  prevail  on  any  considerable  number  to  follow 
us,  and  if  not,  that  we  should  carry  our  arms  to  the 
Castle,  that  they  might  not  fall  into  the  enemies' 
hands,  and  then  make  the  best  of  our  way  separately 
to  Sir  John  Cope's  army,  and  offer  our  service. 

When  the  night-watch  was  set,  all  the  company  I 
have  now  mentioned  were  appointed  to  guard  the 
Trinity  Hospital,  in  Leith  Wynd,  which  was  one  of  the 
weakest  parts  of  the  city.  There  twelve  of  us  were 
placed  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant  Alexander 
Scott,  a  young  man  of  spirit,  a  merchant  in  the  city, 
and  not  two  or  three  years  senior  to  the  eldest  of  ns. 
Here  we  had  nothing  to  do  all  night  but  make 
responses  every  half  hour,  as  the  "All's  weU"  came 
round  from  the  other  guards  that  were  posted  at 
certain  distances,  so  that  a  stranger  who  was  ap- 
proaching the  city  would  have  thought  it  was  going 
to  be  gallantly  defended.     But  we  knew  the  contraiy ; 


122  THE   CAPTURE   OF   EDINBUEGH. 

for,  as  Provost  Stuart  and  all  his  friends  had  been 
against  making  any  preparation  for  defence,  when 
they  yielded  to  the  zeal  of  their  opponents,  they 
hung  a  dead  weight  on  every  measure.  This  we 
were  all  sensible  of,  and  had  now  no  doubt  that  they 
wished  the  city  to  fall  into  the  Pretender's  hands, 
however  carefully  they  might  hide  their  intentions. 

At  one  o'clock,  the  Lord  Provost  and  his  guard 
visited  all  the  posts,  and  found  us  at  Trinity  Hospital 
very  alert.  When  he  was  gone,  "  Did  you  not  see," 
said  John  Home  to  me,  "  how  pale  the  traitor  looked, 
when  he  found  us  so  vigilant  1 "  "  No,"  I  replied,  "  I 
thought  he  looked  and  behaved  perfectly  well,  and  it 
was  the  light  from  the  lantern  that  made  him  appear 
pale."  AVhen  we  were  relieved  in  the  morning,  I  went 
to  my  lodging,  and  tried  to  get  a  few  hours'  sleep ; 
but  though  the  house  was  down  a  close,  the  noise 
was  so  great,  and  my  spirits  so  much  agitated,  that  I 
got  none. 

At  noon  on  the  1 6th,  when  I  went  to  the  streets,  I 
heard  that  General  Fowlks  had  arrived  from  London 
early,  and,  by  order  of  General  Guest,  had  taken  com- 
mand of  the  2d  Eegiment  of  Dragoons,  who,  having 
retired  the  night  before  from  Corstorphine,  where  they 
left  only  a  guard,  had  marched  with  them  to  the  Golt 
Bridge,  a  mile  nearer  than  Corstorphine,  and  were 
joined  by  the  same  body  of  foot  that  had  been  with 
them  on  the  15th.  The  rebels,  however,  were  slowly 
approaching,  and  there  was  no  news  of  Sir  John  Cope's 
arrival  with  the  army  from  Aberdeen  ;  and  the  general 


THE   CAPTURE   OF   EDIXBUEGH.  123 

opinion  was,  tliat  the  town  would  certainly  be  given 
up.  Tlie  most  zealous  Whigs  came  now  to  think  this 
necessary,  as  they  plainly  thought  they  saw  Provost 
Stuart  and  his  friends,  so  far  from  co-operating  with 
their  zeal,  retarded  every  measure. 

But  the  fate  of  the  city  was  decided  early  in  the 
afternoon,  when  the  two  regiments  of  dragoons  were 
seen  about  four  o'clock  on  their  march  from  the  Colt 
Bridge  to  Leith,  by  the  long  dykes,  as  then  called ; 
now   George   Street   in  the  New  Town.     Then  the 
clamour  arose,  that  it  would  be  madness  to  think  of 
defending  the  town,  as  the*  dragoons  had  fled.     The 
alarm  bell  was  rung — a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants 
with  the  magistrates  was  convened,  first  in  the  Gold- 
smith's Hall,  and  when  the  crowd  increased,  in  the 
New  Church  aisle.     The  four  companies  of  Volunteers 
rendezvoused  in  the  Lawnmarket,  and,  growing  im- 
patient, sent  two  of  their  lieutenants  to  the  Provost  for 
orders,  for  the  captains  had  been  sent  for  to  the  meet- 
ing.    They  soon  returned  without  any  orders,  and 
said  all  was  clamour  and  discordance.     "While  they 
were  absent,  two  Volunteers  in  the  rear  rank  (Boyle 
and  Weir),  just  behind,  quarrelled,  when  debating 
whether  or  not  the  city  should  be  surrendered,  and 
were  going  to  attack  one  another,  one  with  his  musket 
and  bayonet,  and  the  other  with  his  small  sword, 
having  flung   down   his   musket.      They  were  soon 
separated  without  any  harm,  and  placed  asunder  from 
each  other.     At  this  time,  a  man  on  horseback,  whom 
nobody  knew,  came  up  from  the  Bow,  and,  riding  at  a 


121        THE  CAPTURE  OF  EDINBURGH. 

quick  pace  along  the  line  of  Volunteers,  called  out 
that  the  Highlanders  were  at  hand,  and  that  they 
were  16,000  strong.  This  fellow  did  not  stop  to  be 
examined,  but  rode  off  at  the  gallop.  About  this 
time,  a  letter  had  come,  directed  to  the  Provost,  sum- 
moning the'  town  to  surrender,  and  alarming  them 
with  the  consequence  in  case  any  opposition  w^as 
made. 

The  Provost  made  a  scrupulous  feint  about  reading 
the  letter,  but  this  point  was  soon  carried,  and  all 
idea  of  defence  was  abandoned.  Soon  after,  Captain 
Drummond  joined  us  in  the  Lawnmarket,  with  an- 
other captain  or  two.  He  sent  to  General  Guest, 
after  conversing  a  little  with  the  lieutenant,  to  acquaint 
him  that  the  Volunteers  were  coming  to  the  Castle  to 
deliver  their  arms.  The  messenger  soon  returned, 
and  we  marched  up,  glad  to  deliver  them,  lest  they 
should  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  which 
the  delay  of  orders  seemed  to  favour,  though  not  a 
little  ashamed  and  afflicted  at  our  inglorious  cam- 
paign. 

We  endeavoured  to  engage  as  many  as  we  could  to 
meet  us  at  Haddington,  and  there  deliberate  what 
was  to  be  done,  as  we  conjectured  that,  now  that  the 
town  of  Edinburgh  had  surrendered,  Sir  John  Cope 
would  not  land  nearer  than  Dunbar.  Upon  being 
asked  by  two  of  my  friends  what  I  was  to  do — viz., 
William  Robertson  and  William  Cleghorn — I  told  them 
that  I  meant  to  go  that  night  to  my  father's,  at 
Prestonpans,  where,  if  they  would  join  me  next  day, 


I 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  EDINBURGH.        125 

by  that  time  events  might  take  place  that  would  fix 
our  resolution.  Our  ardour  for  arms  and  the  field 
was  not  abated. 

As  it  was  now  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  I  went  to  a 
house  near  the  Nether  Bow  Port,  where  I  had  ap- 
pointed my  brother  to  meet  me,  that  we  might  walk 
home  together.  Having  foreseen  the  events  that  took 
place,  as  the  rebels  were  so  near  the  town,  I  wished 
to  take  the  road  as  soon  as  possible,  but  on  attempt- 
ing to  get  out  of  the  gate,  in  the  inside  of  which 
several  loaded  carts  or  wacrorons  were  standinor,  I  found 
the  gates  locked,  and  the  keys  lodged  with  the  Pro- 
vost. The  carts  were  said  to  contain  the  bap^craae  of 
Sir  John  Cope's  army,  &c.,  and  each  party  interpreted 
the  shutting  of  the  gates  according  to  their  own  fancy 
— one  side  thinking  this  was  a  manoeuvre  to  prevent 
their  reaching  Sir  John  ;  and  the  other,  to  hinder 
them  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  it  was  half-past  eight  o'clock  before 
the  gate  was  opened,  when  I  heard  the  baggage  was 
ordered  back  to  the  Castle.  At  a  later  hour  they 
were  sent  to  Dunbar. 

My  brother  and  I  set  out  immediately,  and  after 
passing  through  the  crowd  at  the  head  of  the  Canon- 
gate,  who  were  pressing  both  ways  to  get  out  and  in, 
we  went  through  the  Abbey,  by  St  xVnn's  Yards  and 
the  Duke's  Walk,  to  Jock's  Lodge,  meeting  hardly  a 
mortal  the  whole  way.  When  we  came  down  near 
the  sands,  I  chose  that  way  rather  than  the  road 
through  the  whins,  as  there  was  no  moonlight,  and 


126       THE  RETREAT  OF  THE  DRAGOONS. 

the  whins  were  dark  and  solitary,  but  the  sands 
always  lightsome  when  the  sea  is  in  ebb,  which  was 
then  the  case.  We  walked  slowly,  as  I  had  been 
fatigued,  and  my  brother  not  strong;  and,  having  met 
no  mortal  but  one  man  on  horseback  as  we  entered 
the  sands,  riding  at  a  brisk  trot,  who  hailed  us,  we 
arrived  at  the  west  end  of  Prestonpans,  having  shunned 
Musselburgh  by  passing  on  the  north  side,  without 
meeting  or  being  overtaken  by  anybody.  When  we 
came  to  the  gate  of  Lucky  Vint's  Courtyard,  a  tavern 
or  inn  then  much  frequented,  I  was  astonished  to 
meet  with  the  utmost  alarm  and  confusion  —  the 
officers  of  the  dragoons  calling  for  their  horses  in  the 
greatest  hurr)^.  On  stepping  into  the  Court,  Lord 
Drummore,  the  judge,  saw  me  (his  house  being  near, 
he  had  come  down  to  sup  with  the  officers).  He 
immediately  made  up  to  me,  and  hastily  inquired 
"  Whence  I  had  come  1 "  "  From  Edinburgh  direct." 
"  Had  the  town  surrendered  1 "  "  No !  but  it  was 
expected  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  rebels  early  to- 
morrow." "Were  there  any  Highlanders  on  their 
march  this  wayl "  "Not  a  soul ;"  I  could  answer  for 
it,  as  I  had  left  Edinburgh  past  eight  o'clock,  and  had 
walked  out  deliberately,  and  seen  not  a  creature  but 
the  horseman  in  the  sands. 

He  turned  to  the  officers,  and  repeated  my  intelli- 
gence, and  asserted  that  it  must  be  a  false  alarm,  as 
he  could  depend  on  me.  But  this  had  no  effect,  for 
they  believed  the  Highlanders  were  at  hand.  It  was 
in  vain  to  tell  them  that  they  had  neither  wings  nor 


THE   RETREAT    OF   THE   DRAGOONS.  127 

horses,  nor  were  invisible — away  they  went,  as  fast 
as  they  eould,  to  their  respective  corps,  who,  on 
marching  from  Leith,  where  they  thought  themselves 
not  safe,  had  halted  in  an  open  field,  above  the  west 
end  of  Prestonpans,  between  Prestongrange  and  the 
enclosures  of  Mr  Nisbet,  lying  west  from  the  village 
of  Preston.  On  inquiring  what  was  become  of  Gar- 
diner, Drummore  told  me,  that  being  quite  worn  out 
on  their  arrival  on  that  ground,  he  had  begged  to  go 
to  his  own  house,  within  half  a  mile,  where  he  had 
been  since  eight  o'clock,  and  where  he  had  locked 
himself  in,  and  could  not  be  awaked  till  four  in  the 
morniug,  his  usual  hour.  I  went  through  the  town 
to  my  father's,  and  before  I  got  there  I  heard  the 
dragoons  marching  in  confusion,  so  strong  was  their 
panic,  on  the  road  that  leads  by  the  back  of  the 
gardens  to  Port  Seaton,  Aberlady,  and  Xorth  Berwick, 
all  the  way  by  the  shore.  ]Sly  father  and  mother 
were  not  yet  come  home. 

Before  six  on  Tuesday  morning,  the  1 7th,  Mr  James 
Hay,  a  gentleman  in  the  town,  who  was  afterwards  a 
lieutenant  iii  the  Edinburgh  Eegiment,  came  to  my 
bedside,  and  eagerly  inquired  what  I  thought  was  to 
be  done,  as  the  dragoons,  in  marchino:  along  in  their 
confusion,  had  strewed  the  road  eastward  with  ac- 
coutrements of  every  kind — pistols,  swords,  skullcaps, 
&c.  I  said  that  people  should  be  employed  imme- 
diately to  gather  them  up,  and  send  them  after,  which 
was  done,  and  amounted  to  what  filled  a  close  cart 
and  a  couple  of  creels  on  horseback.     By  this  time  it 


128  THE    EETREAT    OF    THE    DTJAGOONS. 

was  reported  that  the  transports  with  Cope  were  seen 
off  Dunbar.  But  it  was  not  this  news,  for  it  was  not 
then  come,  that  made  the  dragoons  scamper  from 
their  ground  on  the  preceding  night.  It  was  an  un- 
lucky dragoon,  who,  slipping  a  little  aside  for  a  pea- 
sheaf  to  his  horse,  for  there  were  some  on  the  ground 
not  led  off,  fell  into  a  coal-pit,  not  filled  up,  when  his 
side-arms  and  accoutrements  made  such  a  noise,  as 
alarmed  a  body  of  men,  who,  for  two  days,  had  been 
completely  panic-struck. 

About  mid-day,  I  grew  anxious  for  the  arrival  of 
my  two  companions,  Cleghorn  and  Eobertson.  I, 
therefore,  walked  out  on  the  road  to  Edinburgh,  when, 
on  going  as  far  as  where  the  turnpike  is  now,  below 
Drummore,  I  met  with  Eobertson  on  horseback,  who 
told  me  that  a  little  way  behind  him  was  Cleghorn 
and  a  cousin  of  his  own,  a  Mr  Fraser  of  the  Excise, 
who  wished  to  accompany  us  to  Sir  John  Cope's 
camp,  for  it  was  now  known  that  he  was  to  land 
that  day  at  Dunbar,  and  the  city  of  Edinburgh  had 
been  surrendered  early  that  morning  to  the  Highland 
army. 

We  waited  till  our  companions  came  up,  and  walked 
together  to  my  father's  house,  where  I  had  ordered 
some  dinner  to  be  prepared  for  them  by  two  o'clock. 
They  were  urgent  to  have  it  sooner,  as  they  wished  to 
begin  our  journey  towards  Dunbar  as  long  before 
sunset  as  they  could. 

As  we  were  finishing  a  small  bowl  of  punch  that  I 
had  made   for   them  after   dinner,  James  Hay,  the 


ADVENTURES    IN    THE   '45.  129 

gentleman  I  mentioned  before,  paid  us  a  visit,  and 
immediately  after  the  ordinary  civilities,  said  earnestly 
that  he  had  a  small  favour  to  ask  of  us,  which  was 
that  we  would  be  so  good  as  accept  of  a  small  colla- 
tion which  his  sister  and  he  had  provided  at  their 
house — that  of  Charles  Sheriff,  the  most  eminent  mer- 
chant in  the  place,  who  had  died  not  long  before,  and 
left  a  widow  and  four  daughters  with  this  gentleman, 
their  uncle,  to  manage  their  affairs.  We  declined 
accepting  this  invitation  for  fear  of  being  too  late. 
He  continued  strongly  to  solicit  our  company,  adding 
that  he  would  detain  us  a  very  short  while,  as  he  had 
only  four  bottles  of  burgundy,  which  if  we  did  not 
accept  of,  he  would  be  obliged  to  give  to  the  High- 
landers. The  name  of  burgundy,  which  some  of  us 
had  never  tasted,  disposed  us  to  listen  to  terms,  and 
we  immediately  adjourned  to  Mrs  Sheriff's,  not  an 
hundred  yards  distant.  We  found  very  good  apples 
and  pears  and  biscuit  set  out  for  us,  and  after  one 
bottle  of  claret  to  wast  away  the  taste  of  the  whisky 
punch,  we  fell  to  the  burgundy,  which  we  thought 
excellent ;  and  in  little  more  than  an  hour  we  were 
ready  to  take  the  road,  it  being  then  not  long  after 
five  o'clock.  Robertson  mounted  his  horse,  and  left 
us  to  go  round  by  his  house  at  Gladsmuir  to  get 
a  little  money,  as  he  had  not  wherewithal  to  defray 
his  expenses,  and  mentioned  an  hour  when  he  pro- 
mised to  meet  us  at  Bangley  Braefoot,  jMaggie  John- 
stone's, a  public-house  on  the  road  leading  to  Dunbar, 
by  Garlton  Hills,  a  mile  to  the  north  of  Haddington. 

I 


130  ADVENTURES   IN   THE   '45. 

There  were  no  horses  here  for  me,  for  though  my 
father  kept  two,  he  had  them  both  at  the  Goat  Whey 
quarters. 

When  we  came  within  sight  of  the  door  of  this 
house,  we  saw  Eobertson  dismounting  from  his  horse : 
we  got  some  beer  or  porter  to  refresh  us  after  our 
walk,  and  having  broken  off  in  the  middle  of  a 
keen  dispute  between  Cleghorn  and  a  recruiting  ser- 
geant, whether  the  musket  and  bayonet,  or  broad- 
sword and  target,  were  the  best  weapons,  we  proceed- 
ed on  our  journey,  still  a  little  doubtful  if  it  was 
true  that  Sir  John  Cope  had  arrived.  We  proceeded 
slowly,  for  it  was  dark,  till  we  came  to  Linton  Bridge. 
Eobertson,  with  his  usual  prudence,  proposed  to  stay 
all  night,  it  being  ten  o'clock,  and  still  double  beds 
for  us  all.  Cleghorn's  ardour  and  mine  resisted  this 
proposal ;  and  getting  a  loan  of  Robertson's  horse,  we 
proceeded  on  to  the  camp  at  Dunbar,  that  we  might 
be  more  certain  of  Sir  John's  arrival.  At  Belton  Inn, 
within  a  mile  of  the  camp,  we  were  certified  of  it, 
and  might  then  have  turned  in,  but  we  obstinately 
persisted  in  our  plan,  fancying  that  we  should  find 
friends  among  the  officers  to  receive  us  into  their 
tents.  When  we  arrived  at  the  camp  we  were  not 
allowed  admittance,  and  the  officer  on  the  picket, 
whom  Cleo-horn  knew,  assured  us  that  there  was  not 
an  inch  of  room  for  us  or  our  horse,  either  in  camp  or 
at  Dunbar,  and  advised  us  to  return.  Being  at  last 
persuaded  that  Cope  was  landed,  and  that  we  had 
played  the  fool,  we  first  attempted  Belton  Inn,  but  it 


COLOXEL    GAEDIXER.  131 

was  choked  full  by  that  time,  as  we  were  convinced 
by  eight  or  ten  footmen  lounging  in  the  kitchen  on 
tables  and  chairs.  We  tried  the  inn  at  Linton  with 
the  same  success.  At  last  we  were  obliared  to  knock 
up  the  minister.  Mat.  Reid,  at  two  in  the  morning, 
who,  taking  us  for  marauders  from  the  camp,  kept  us 
an  hour  at  the  door.  We  were  hardly  well  asleep,  when, 
about  six,  Robertson  came  to  demand  his  horse,  quite 
stout  and  well  refreshed,  as  well  as  his  cousin  Fraser, 
while  we  were  jaded  and  undone ;  such  is  the  difference 
between  wisdom  and  folly. 

After  breakfasting,  however,  at  the  inn,  we  set  out 
again  for  Dunbar,  in  sanguine  hopes  that  we  should 
soon  return  with  the  army,  and  give  a  good  account 
of  Sir  John  Cope,  On  our  way,  we  visited  the  camp, 
which  lay  a  mile  west  of  Dunbar.  As  soon  as  I 
arrived  at  the  town,  I  inquired  for  Colonel  Gardiner, 
and  went  and  visited  him  at  Mr  Pyot's  the  minister 
of  the  town,  where  he  lodged.  He  received  me  with 
kindness,  and  invited  me  to  dine  with  him  at  two 
o'clock,  and  to  come  to  him  a  little  before  the  hour. 
I  went  to  him  at  half-past  one,  and  he  took  me  to 
walk  in  the  garden.  He  looked  pale  and  dejected, 
which  I  attributed  to  his  bad  health  and  the  fatigue 
he  had  lately  undergone.  I  began  to  ask  him  if  he 
was  not  now  quite  satisfied  with  the  junction  of  the 
foot  with  the  dragoons,  and  confident  that  they  would 
give  account  of  the  rebels.  He  answered  dejectedly 
that  he  hoped  it  might  be  so,  but — and  then  made  a 
long  pause.     I  said,  that  to  be  sure  they  had  made  a 


132  COLONEL   GARDINEK. 

very  hasty  retreat ;  "  a  foul  flight,"  said  he,  "  Sandie, 
and  they  have  not  recovered  from  their  panic ;  and  I'll 
tell  you  in  confidence  that  I  have  not  above  ten  men 
in  my  regiment  whom  I  am  certain  will  follow  me. 
But  we  must  give  them  battle  now,  and  God's  will  be 
done ! " 

We  were  called  to  dinner,  where  there  was  nobody 
but  the  family  and  Cornet  Kerr,  a  kinsman  of  the 
colonel.  He  assumed  an  air  of  gaiety  at  dinner,  and 
inquiring  of  me  the  adventures  of  the  night,  rallied 
me  as  a  raw  soldier  in  not  taking  up  with  the  first 
good  quarters  I  could  get ;  and  when  the  approach- 
ing event  was  mentioned,  spoke  of  victory  as  a  thing 
certain,  "  if  God  were  on  our  side."  We  sat  very 
short  time  after  dinner.  The  Colonel  went  to  look 
after  his  regiment,  and  prepare  them  for  to-morrow's 
march,  and  I  to  look  out  for  my  companions ;  on  find- 
ing them,  it  was  agreed  to  return  back  to  Linton,  as 
between  the  dragoons  and  the  concourse  of  strangers, 
there  was  not  a  bed  to  be  had.  We  returned  accord- 
ingly to  Linton,  and  made  good  our  quarters  at  the 
minister's,  where  we  remained  till  the  army  passed 
in  the  morning  on  their  route  to  Haddington.  John 
Home  had  arrived  at  Dunbar  on  Wednesday,  and 
said  he  had  numbered  the  Highlanders,  and  thought 
they  were  about  1900  ;  but  that  they  were  ill  armed, 
though  that  defect  was  now  supplied  at  Edinburgh. 
There  were  many  of  the  Volunteers  all  night  at  Linton, 
whom  we  saw  in  the  morning,  and  with  whom  we 
appointed  to  meet  in  an  inn  at  Haddington. 


BATTLE   OF   PRESTONPANS.  133 

As  the  army  passed  about  eleven  or  twelve,  we 
joined  them  and  marched  along  with  them ;  they  took 
the  hill  road  by  Charteris  Dykes  ;  and  when  we  were 
about  Beanston,  I  was  accosted  by  Major  Bowles, 
whom  I  knew,  and  who,  desirous  of  some  conversa- 
tion with  me,  made  his  servant  dismount  and  give 
me  his  horse,  which  I  gladly  accepted  of,  being  a  good 
deal  worn  out  with  the  fatigue  of  the  preceding  day. 
The  major  was  completely  ignorant  of  the  state  of  the 
country  and  of  the  character  of  the  Highlanders.  I 
found  him  perfectly  ignorant  and  credulous,  and  in 
the  power  of  every  person  with  whom  he  conversed. 
I  was  not  acquainted  with  the  discipline  of  armies  ; 
but  it  appeared  to  me  to  be  very  imprudent  to  allow 
all  the  common  people  to  converse  with  the  soldiers 
on  their  march  as  they  pleased,  by  which  means  their 
panic  was  kept  up,  and  perhaps  their  principles  cor- 
rupted. Many  people  in  East  Lothian  at  that  time 
were  Jacobites,  and  they  were  most  forward  to  mix 
with  the  soldiers.  The  commons  in  general,  as  well 
as  two-thirds  of  the  gentry  at  that  period,  had  no 
aversion  to  the  family  of  Stuart ;  and  could  their  re- 
ligion have  been  secured,  would  have  been  very  glad 
to  see  them  on  the  throne  again. 

Cope's  small  army  sat  down  for  the  afternoon  and 
night  in  an  open  field  on  the  west  side  of  Haddington. 
The  Volunteers,  to  the  number  of  twenty-five,  assem- 
bled at  the  principal  inn,  where  also  sundry  officers  of 
dragoons  and  those  on  the  staft'  came  for  their  dinner. 
While  our  dinner  was  preparing,  an  alarm  was  beat 


134  BATTLE    OF    PEESTONPANS. 

in  the  camp,  which  occasioned  a  great  hurry-scurry 
in  the  courtyard  with  the  officers  taking  their  horses, 
which  some  of  them  did  with  no  small  reluctance, 
either  through  love  of  their  dinner  or  aversion  to  the 
enemy.  I  saw  Colonel  Gardiner  passing  very  slowly, 
and  ran  to  him  to  ask  what  was  the  matter.  He  said 
it  could  be  nothing  but  a  false  alarm,  and  would  soon 
be  over.  The  army,  however,  was  drawn  out  imme- 
diately, and  it  was  found  to  be  a  false  alarm.  The 
Honourable  Francis  Charteris  had  been  married  the 
day  before,  at  Prestonhall,  to  Lady  Francis  Gordon, 
the  Duchess  of  Gordon's  daughter,  who  was  supposed 
to  favour  the  Pretender,  though  she  had  a  large  pen- 
sion from  Government.  How  that  might  be  nobody 
knew,  but  it  was  alleged  that  the  alarm  followed 
their  coach,  as  they  passed  to  their  house  at  New 
Amisfield. 

After  dinner.  Captain  Drummond  came  to  us  at 
the  inn,  to  whom  we  unanimously  gave  a  commission 
to  apply  to  the  general  for  arms  to  us,  and  to  appoint 
us  a  station  in  the  line,  as  we  had  not  only  our  cap- 
tain, but  one  of  our  lieutenants  with  us.  Drummond 
left  us  to  make  this  application,  but  was  very  long  in 
returning,  and  the  answer  he  brought  was  not  so 
agreeable.  It  was,  that  the  General  did  not  think  we 
could  be  so  serviceable  by  taking  arms,  as  w^e  might 
be  in  taking  post-horses  through  the  night,  and  re- 
connoitring the  roads  leading  from  the  enemy  towards 
our  army,  and  bringing  an  account  of  what  move- 
ments there  were.     This  was  agreed  to  after  some 


BATTLE    OF   PRESTONPANS.  135 

hesitation,  and  sixteen  of  us  were  selected  to  go  out, 
two  and  two — one  set  at  eight  in  the  evening,  and 
another  at  twelve.  Four  of  those  were  thought  use- 
less, as  there  were  only  three  roads  that  could  be 
reconnoitred.  I  was  of  the  first  set,  being  chosen  by 
Mr  William  ^I'Ghie  as  his  companion,  and  we  chose 
the  road  by  the  sea-coast,  through  Longniddry,  Port- 
seaton,  and  Prestonpans,  as  that  with  which  I  was 
best  acquainted.  We  set  out  not  long  after  eight 
o'clock,  and  found  everything  perfectly  quiet  as  we 
expected.  At  Prestonpans  we  called  at  my  father's, 
and  found  that  they  had  returned  home  on  Wednes- 
day ;  and  having  requested  them  to  wait  supper  till 
our  return,  we  rode  on  to  Westpans,  in  the  county  of 
Midlothian,  near  Musselburgh ;  and  still  meeting  with 
nothing  on  which  to  report,  we  returned  to  supper  at 
my  father's.  While  we  were  there,  an  application 
was  made  to  us  by  BaUie  Hepburn,  the  baron  bailie 
or  magistrate  of  the  place,  against  a  young  gentleman, 
a  student  of  medicine,  as  he  said,  who  had  appeared 
in  arms  in  the  town,  aud  pretended  that  he  wished  to 
be  conducted  to  Cope's  army.  We  went  down  from 
the  manse  to  a  public-house,  where  this  gentleman 
was  confined.  At  the  first  glance,  M'Ghie  knew  him 
to  be  a  student,  though  not  personally  acquainted 
with  him,  and  got  him  relieved  immediately,  and 
brought  him  up  to  supper.  M'Ghie  took  all  the  pains 
he  could  to  persuade  this  gentleman,  whose  name  was 
Myrie,  to  attach  himself  to  the  Volunteers,  and  not  to 
join  the  army ;  but  he  would  not  be  persuaded,  and 


136  BATTLE   OF    PRESTONPANS. 

actually  joined  one  of  the  regiments  on  their  march 
next  morning,  and  was  sadly  wounded  at  the  battle. 

Francis  Garden,  afterwards  Lord  Gardenstone,  and 
Robert  Cunningham,  afterwards  the  General  in  Ireland, 
followed  Mr  M'Ghie  and  me,  and  were  taken  prisoners, 
and  not  very  well  used.  They  had  gone  as  far  as 
Crystall's  Inn,  west  of  Musselburgh,  and  had  sat  with 
a  window  open  after  daylight  at  a  regale  of  white  wine 
and  oysters,  when  they  were  observed  by  one  of  the 
Prince's  Life  Guards  who  was  riding  past,  not  in  uni- 
form, but  armed  with  pistols  ;  they  took  to  their 
horses,  when  he,  pretending  to  take  them  for  rebels, 
they  avowed  they  were  King's  men,  and  were  taken  to 
the  camp  at  Duddingston. 

When  M'Ghie  and  I  returned  to  Haddington  about 
one  o'clock,  all  the  beds  were  taken  up,  and  we  had  to 
sleep  in  the  kitchen  on  benches  and  chairs.  To  our 
regret  we  found  that  several  Volunteers  had  single 
beds  to  themselves,  a  part  of  which  we  might  have 
occupied.  Sir  John  Cope  and  his  army  marched  in 
the  morning,  I  think,  not  till  nine  o'clock,  and  to  my 
great  surprise,  instead  of  keeping  the  post-road  through 
Tranent  Muir,  which  was  high  ground  and  com- 
manded the  country  south  for  several  miles,  as  it  did 
that  to  the  north  for  two  or  three  miles  towards  the 
sea,  they  turned  to  the  right  by  Elvingston  and  the 
village  of  Trabroun,  till  they  past  Longniddry  on  the 
north,  and  St  Germains  on  the  south,  when,  on  en- 
tering the  defile  made  by  the  enclosures  there,  they 
halted  for  near  an  hour,  and  then  marched  into  the 


BATTLE    OF    PRESTONPANS.  137 

open  field  of  two  miles  in  length  and  one  and  a-half 
in  breadth,  extending  from  Seaton  to  Preston,  and 
from  Tranent  Meadow  to  the  sea.     I  understood  after- 
wards that  the  General's  intention  was  (if  he  had  any 
will  of  his  own)  to  occupy  the  field  lying  between 
Walliford,  Smeaton,  and  Inveresk,  where  he  would  have 
had  the  river  Esk  running  through  deep  banks  in 
front,  and  the  towns  of  Dalkeith  and  Musselburgh  at 
hand  to  supply  him  with  provisions.      In  this  camp 
he  could  not  have  been  surprised  ;  and  in  marching  to 
this  ground  the  road  through  Tranent  was  not  more 
distant  by  100  yards  than  that  by  Seaton.     But  they 
were  too  late  in  marching  ;  for  when  they  camje  to  St 
Germains,  their  scouts,  who  were  chiefly  Lords  Home 
and  Loudon,  brought  them  intellio;ence  that  the  rebel 
army  were  on  their  march,  on  which,  after  an  hour's 
halt,  when,  by  turning  to  the  left,  they  might  have 
reached  the  high  ground  at  Tranent  before  the  rebels, 
they  marched  on  to  that  plain  before  described,  now 
called  the  field  of  battle.     This  field  was  entirely 
clear  of  the  crop,  the  last  sheaves  having  been  carried 
in  the  night  before;  and  neither  cottage,  tree,  or  bush 
were  in  its  whole  extent,  except  one  solitary  thorn 
bush  which  grew  on  the  march  between  Seaton  and 
Preston  fields,  around  and  near  to  which  lay  the  great- 
est number  of  slain,  and  which  remains  there  to  this 
day,  though  the  fields  have  been  long  since  com- 
pletely enclosed. 

The  army  marched  straight  to  the  west  end  of  this 
field  till  they  came  near  the  walls  of  the  enclosures  of 


138  BATTLE    OF    PRESTONPANS. 

Preston,  which  reached  from  the  road  leading  from 
the  village  of  Preston  north  to  Tranent  meadow  and 
Banktown,  down  almost  half-way  to  Prestonpans,  to 
which  town,  from  this  enclosure,  there  was  no  inter- 
ruption; and  the  whole  projections  of  those  enclosures 
into  the  plain  to  the  east  were  not  above  300  yards. 
That  part  of  it  which  belonged  to  Preston  estate  was 
divided  into  three  shots,  as  they  were  called,  or  rigg 
lengths,  the  under  shot,  the  middle,  and  the  upper.  A 
cart  road  for  carrying  out  dung  divided  the  two  first, 
which  lay  gently  sloping  to  the  sea,  from  which  it  was 
separated  by  garden  walls,  and  a  large  enclosure  for 
a  rabbit  warren.  The  upper  shot  was  divided  from 
the  middle  one  by  a  foot-path,  and  lay  almost  level, 
sloping  almost  imperceptibly  to  Tranent  Meadow.  This 
was  properly  the  field  of  battle,  which  on  account  of 
the  slope  was  not  seen  fully  from  the  lower  fields  or 
the  town.  Near  to  those  walls  on  the  east  the  army 
formed  their  first  line  of  battle  fronting  west.  They 
were  hardly  formed,  when  the  rebel  army  appeared  on 
the  high  ground  at  Birsley,  south-west  of  our  army 
about  a  mile.  On  sight  of  them  our  army  shouted. 
They  drew  nearer  Tranent,  and  our  army  shifted  a 
little  eastward  to  front  them.  All  this  took  place  by 
one  o'clock. 

Colonel  Gardiner  having  informed  the  General  and 
his  staff  that  I  was  at  hand  to  execute  anything  in 
my  power  for  the  good  of  the  service,  there  was  sent 
to  me  a  message  to  inquire  if  I  could  provide  a  pro- 
per person  to  venture  up  to  the  Highland  army,  to 


BATTLE    OF    PRESTONPANS.  139 

make  his  observations,  and  particularly  to  notice  if 
they  had  any  cannon,  or  if  they  were  breaking  ground 
anywhere.  With  some  difficulty  I  prevailed  on  my 
father's  church-officer,  a  fine  stout  man,  to  make  this 
expedition,  which  he  did  immediately.  A  little  fur- 
ther on  in  the  afternoon  the  same  aide-de-camp,  an 
uncle  of  Sir  Ealph  Abercrombie's,  came  to  request 
me  to  keep  a  look-out  from  the  top  of  the  steeple, 
and  observe  if  at  any  time  any  detachment  from 
the  main  army  was  sent  westwards.  In  the  mean 
time  the  Highlanders  lay  with  their  right  close  to 
Tranent,  and  had  detached  some  companies  down  to 
the  churchyard,  which  was  close  by  a  waggon-way 
which  led  directly  down  to  our  army,  and  crossed 
the  road  leading  between  Preston  and  Seaton,  where 
Cope's  six  or  seven  pieces  of  cannon  were  placed,  not 
above  a  third  of  a  mile  distant  from  the  church.  As 
the  Highlanders  appeared  north  of  the  church  in 
the  churchyard,  which  was  higher  than  the  waggon- 
way,  the  cannon  were  fired,  and  dislodged  them  from 
thence.  Not  long  after  this,  about  four  in  the  after- 
noon, the  rebels  made  a  movement  to  the  westward  of 
Birsley,  where  they  had  first  appeared,  and  our  army 
took  their  first  position.  Soon  after  this  I  observed 
from  the  steeple  a  large  detachment  of  Highlanders, 
about  300  or  400,  lodge  themselves  in  what  was  called 
the  Thorny  Loan,  which  led  from  the  west  end  of 
Preston  to  the  village  of  Dolphingston  to  the  south- 
west. I  mounted  my  horse  to  make  this  known  to 
the  General,  and  met  the  aide-de-camp  riding  briskly 


140  BATTLE    OF   PRESTONPANS. 

down  the  field,  and  told  him  what  I  had  seen.  I  im- 
mediately returned  to  my  station  in  the  steeple.  As 
twilight  approached,  I  observed  that  detachment  with- 
drawn, and  was  going  up  the  field  to  tell  this  when 
my  doughty  arrived,  who  was  going  to  tell  me  his 
story  how  numerous  and  fierce  the  Highlanders  were 
— -how  keen  for  the  fight — and  how  they  would  make 
but  a  breakfast  of  our  men.  I  made  him  go  with 
me  to  the  General  to  tell  his  own  story.  In  the 
mean  time  I  visited  Colonel  Gardiner  for  a  third  time 
that  day  on  his  post,  and  found  him  grave,  but  serene 
and  resigned ;  and  he  concluded  by  praying  God  to 
bless  me,  and  that  he  could  not  wish  for  a  better  night 
to  lie  on  the  field ;  and  then  called  for  his  cloak  and 
other  conveniences  for  lying  down,  as  he  said  they 
would  be  awaked  early  enough  in  the  morning,  as  he 
thought,  by  the  countenance  of  the  enemy,  for  they  had 
now  shifted  their  position  to  a  sloping  field  east  from 
the  church,  and  were  very  near  our  army,  with  little 
more  than  the  morass  between.  Coming  down  the  field 
I  asked  my  messenger  if  they  had  not  paid  him  for 
his  danger.  Not  a  farthing  had  they  given  him,  which 
being  of  a  piece  with  the  rest  of  the  General's  conduct, 
raised  no  sanguine  hopes  for  to-morrow.  I  gave  the 
poor  fellow  half-a-crown,  which  was  half  my  substance, 
having  delivered  the  gold  to  my  father  the  night  before. 
When  I  returned  to  my  father's  house,  I  found 
it  crowded  with  strangers,  some  of  them  Volunteers, 
and  some  Merse  clergymen,  particularly  Monteith  and 
Laurie,  and  Pat.  Simson.     They  were  very  noisy  and 


BATTLE    OF    PRESTONPAKS.  141 

boastful  of  tlieir  achievements,  one  of  them  having 
the  dracroon's  broadsword  who  had  fallen  into  the 
coal-pit,  and  the  other  the  musket  he  had  taken  from 
a  Highland  soldier  between  the  armies.  Simson, 
who  was  cousin  to  Adam  Drummond  of  Meginch, 
captain  and  paymaster  in  Lee's  regiment,  had  a  pair 
of  saddle-bags  intrusted  to  him,  containing  400  guineas, 
which  Patrick  not  imprudently  gave  to  my  father  to 
keep  all  night  for  him,  out  of  any  danger  of  being 
plundered.  Perceiving  that  there  would  be  no  room 
for  me,  without  incommoding  the  strangers,  I  stole 
away  to  a  neighbouring  widow  gentlewoman's,  where 
I  bespoke  a  bed,  and  returned  to  supper  at  my  father's. 
But  no  sooner  had  I  cut  up  the  cold  surloin  which  my 
mother  had  provided,  than  I  fell  fast  asleep,  having 
been  much  worn  out  with  all  the  fatigues  of  the  pre- 
ceding week.     I  retired  directly. 

I  directed  the  maid  to  awake  me  the  moment  the 
battle  began,  and  fell  into  a  profound  sleep  in  an  in- 
stant. I  had  no  need  to  be  awaked,  though  the  maid 
was  punctual,  for  I  heard  the  first  cannon  that  was 
fired,  and  started  to  my  clothes  ;  which,  as  I  neither 
buckled  nor  gartered,  were  on  in  a  moment,  and  im- 
mediately went  to  my  father's,  not  a  hundred  yards  off. 
All  the  strangers  were  gone,  and  my  father  had  been 
up  before  daylight,  and  had  resorted  to  the  steeple. 
While  I  was  conversing  with  my  mother,  he  returned 
to  the  house,  and  assured  me  of  what  I  had  guessed 
before,  that  we  were  completely  defeated.  I  ran  into 
the  garden  where  there  was  a  mount  in  the  south-east 


142  BATTLE    OF    PRESTONPANS. 

corner,  from  which  one  coukl  see  the  fields  almost  to 
the  verge  of  that  part  where  the  battle  was  fought. 
Even  at  that  time,  which  could  hardly  be  more  than  ten 
or  fifteen  minutes  after  firing  the  first  cannon,  the 
whole  prospect  was  filled  with  runaways,  and  High- 
landers pursuing  them.  Many  had  their  coats  turned 
as  prisoners,  but  were  still  trying  to  reach  the  town  in 
hopes  of  escaping.  The  pursuing  Highlanders,  when 
they  could  not  overtake,  fired  at  them,  and  I  saw 
two  fall  in  the  glebe.  By-and-by  a  Highland  officer 
whom  I  knew  to  be  Lord  Elcho  passed  with  his  train, 
and  had  an  air  of  savage  ferocity  that  disgusted  and 
alarmed.  He  inquired  fiercely  of  me  where  a  public- 
house  was  to  be  found  ;  I  answered  him  very  meekly, 
not  doubting  but  that,  if  I  had  displeased  him  with  my 
tone,  his  reply  would  have  been  with  a  pistol  bullet. 

The  crowd  of  wounded  and  dying  now  approached 
with  all  their  followers,  but  their  groans  and  agonies 
were  nothing  compared  with  the  bowlings,  and  cries, 
and  lamentations  of  the  women,  which  suppressed  man- 
hood and  created  despondency.  Not  long  after  the 
Duke  of  Perth  appeared  with  his  train,  who  asked  me, 
in  a  very  difi'erent  tone,  the  way  to  Collector  Cheap's, 
to  which  house  he  had  ordered  our  wounded  officers. 
Knowing  the  family  were  from  home,  I  answered  the 
questions  of  victorious  clemency  with  more  assurance 
of  personal  safety,  than  I  had  done  to  unappeased  fury. 
I  directed  him  the  way  to  the  house,  which  was  hard 
by  that  where  I  had  slept. 

The  rebel  army  had  before  day  marched  in  three 


BATTLE    OF    PRESTONPANS.  143 

divisions,  one  of  which  went  straight  down  the  waggon- 
way  to  attack  our  cannon,  the  other  two  crossed  the 
Morass  near  Seaton  House ;  one  of  which  marched 
north  towards  Port-Seaton,  where  the  field  is  broadest, 
to  attack  our  rear,  but  over-marched  themselves,  and 
fell  in  with  a  few  companies  that  were  guarding  the 
baggage  in  a  small  enclosure  near  Cockenzie,  and  took 
the  whole.  The  main  body  marched  west  through  the 
plains,  and  just  at  the  break  of  day  attacked  our  army. 
After  firing  once,  they  run  on  with  their  broadswords, 
and  our  people  fled.  The  dragoons  attempted  to 
charge,  under  Colonel  Whitney,  who  was  wounded, 
but  wheeled  immediately,  and  rode  off  through  the 
defile  between  Preston  and  Bankton,  to  Dolphingston, 
half  a  mile  off.  Colonel  Gardiner,  with  his  division, 
attempted  to  charge,  but  was  only  followed  by  eleven 
men,  as  he  had  foretold,  Cornet  Kerr  being  one.  He 
continued  fighting,  and  had  received  several  wounds, 
and  was  at  last  brought  down  by  the  stroke  of  a 
broadsword  over  the  head.  He  was  carried  to  the 
minister's  house  at  Tranent,  where  he  lived  till  next 
forenoon.  His  own  house,  which  was  nearer,  was  made 
an  hospital  for  the  Highlanders,  no  person  of  our  army 
being  carried  there  but  the  Master  of  Torphichen,  who 
was  so  badly  wounded  that  he  could  be  sent  to  no 
greater  distance.  Some  of  the  dragoons  fled  as  far  as 
Edinburgh,  and  one  stood  all  day  at  the  Castle-gate, 
as  General  Guest  would  not  allow  him  to  be  taken  in. 
A  considerable  body  of  dragoons  met  at  Dolphingston 
immediately  after  the  rout,  little  more  than  half  a 


144  BATTLE    OF    PRESTONPANS. 

mile  from  the  field,  where  Cope  joined  them ;  and 
where  it  was  said  Lord  Drummore  offered  to  conduct 
them  back,  with  assurance  of  victory  when  the  High- 
landers were  busy  with  the  booty.  But  they  could 
not  be  prevailed  on  by  his  eloquence  no  more  than  by 
the  youthful  ardour  of  Earls  Home  and  Loudon. 
After  a  short  halt,  they  marched  over  Falside  Hill  to 
Lauder.  Sir  Peter  Halket,  a  captain  in  Lee's  regi- 
ment, acted  a  distinguished  part  on  this  occasion ;  for 
after  the  rout  he  kept  his  company  together  ;  and  get- 
ting behind  a  ditch  in  Tranent  Meadow,  he  kept  firing 
away  on  the  rebels  till  they  were  glad  to  let  him  sur- 
render on  terms. 

In  the  mean  time  my  father  became  very  uneasy 
lest  I  should  be  ill  treated  by  the  rebels,  as  they  would 
discover  that  I  had  been  a  Volunteer  in  Edinburgh  ; 
he  therefore  ordered  the  horses  to  be  saddled,  and 
telling  me  that  the  sea  was  out,  and  that  we  could 
escape  by  the  shore  without  being  seen,  we  mounted, 
taking  a  short  leave  of  my  mother  and  the  young 
ones,  and  took  the  way  he  had  pointed  out.  We 
escaped  without  interruption  till  we  came  to  Port- 
seton  harbour,  a  mile  off,  where  we  were  obliged  to 
turn  up  on  the  land,  when  my  father  observing  a 
small  party  of  Highlanders,  who  were  pursuing  two 
or  three  carts  with  baggage  that  were  attempting  to 
escape,  and  coming  up  with  the  foremost  driver,  Avho 
would  not  stop  when  called  to,  they  shot  him  on  the 
spot.  This  daunted  my  father,  who  turned  imme- 
diately, and  took  the  way  we  came.     We  were  back 


BATTLE    OF   PRESTOXPANS.  145 

again  soon  after,  when,  taking  oflF  my  boots  and  put- 
ting on  shoes,  I  had  the  appearance  of  a  person  who 
had  not  been  abroad.  I  then  proposed  to  go  to  Col- 
lector Cheap's  house,  where  I  understood  there  were 
twenty-three  wounded  officers,  to  offer  my  assistance 
to  the  surgeons,  Cunningham  and  Trotter,  the  first  of 
whom  I  knew.  They  were  surgeons  of  the  dragoons, 
and  had  surrendered  that  they  might  attend  the 
officers.  T\Tien  I  went  in,  I  told  Cimningham  (after- 
wards the  most  eminent  surgeon  in  Dublin)  that  I 
had  come  to  offer  them  my  services,  as,  though  no 
suroreon,  I  had  better  hands  than  a  common  servant. 
They  were  obliged  to  me ;  but  the  only  service  I  could 
do  to  them  was  to  try  to  find  one  of  their  medicine- 
chests  among  the  baggage,  as  they  could  do  nothing 
for  want  of  instruments.  I  readily  undertook  this 
task,  provided  they  would  fui'nish  me  with  a  guard. 
This  they  hoped  they  could  do ;  and  knocking  at  the 
door  of  an  inner  room,  a  Highland  officer  appeared, 
whom  they  called  Captain  Stewart.  He  was  good-look- 
ing, grave,  and  of  polished  manners.  He  answered  that 
he  would  soon  find  a  proper  conductor  for  me,  and  de- 
spatched a  servant  with  a  message.  In  the  mean  time 
I  observed  a  very  handsome  young  officer  lying  in  an 
easy-chair  in  a  faint,  and  seemingly  dying.  They 
led  me  to  a  chest  of  drawers,  where  there  lay  a  piece 
of  his  skull,  about  two  fingers'  breadth  and  an  inch  and 
a-half  long.  I  said,  "  This  gentleman  must  die."  "  No," 
said  Cuimingham,  "  the  brain  is  not  affected,  nor  any 
vital  part :  he  has  youth  and  a  fine  constitution  on  his 

K 


146  BATTLE    OF   PRESTONPANS. 

side ;  and  could  I  but  get  my  instruments,  there 
would  be  no  fear  of  him."  This  man  was  Captain 
Blake.  Captain  Stewart's  messenger  arrived  with 
a  fine,  brisk,  little,  well-dressed  Highlander,  armed 
cap-a-pie  with  pistols,  and  dirk,  and  broadsword. 
Captain  Stewart  gave  him  his  orders,  and  we  set 
off  immediately. 

Never  did  any  young  man  more  perfectly  display 
the  boastful  temper  of  a  raw  soldier,  new  to  conflict 
and  victory,  than  this  Highland  warrior.  He  said  he 
had  that  morning  been  armour-bearer  to  the  Duke  of 
Perth,  whose  valour  was  as  conspicuous  as  his  cle- 
mency ;  that  now  there  was  no  doubt  of  their  final 
success,  as  the  Almighty  had  blessed  them  with  this 
almost  bloodless  victory  on  their  part ;  that  He  had 
made  the  sun  to  shine  upon  them  uninterruptedly 
since  their  first  setting  out ;  that  no  brawling  woman 
had  cursed,  nor  even  a  dog  had  barked  at  them  ;  that 
not  a  cloud  had  interposed  between  them  and  the 

blessings  of  Heaven,  and  that  this  happy  morning 

here  he  was  interrupted  in  his  harangue  by  observing 
in  the  street  a  couple  of  grooms  leading  four  fine 
blood-horses.  He  drew  a  pistol  from  his  belt,,  and 
darted  at  the  foremost  in  a  moment.  "  Who  are  you, 
sir?  and  where  are  you  going?  and  whom  are  you  seek- 
ing'?" It  was  answered  with  an  uncovered  head  and 
a  dastardly  tone,  "  I  am  Sir  John  Cope's  coachman,  and 
I  am  seeking  my  master."  "  You'll  not  find  him  here, 
sir,  but  you  and  your  man  and  your  horses  are  my 
prisoners.     Go  directly  to  the  Collector's  house,  and 


BATTLE   OF   PRESTONPANS.  147 

put  up  your  horses  in  the  stable,  and  wait  till  I  return 
from  a  piece  of  public  service.  Do  this  directly,  as 
you  regard  your  lives/'  They  instantly  obeyed.  A 
few  paces  further  on  he  met  an  officer's  servant  with 
two  handsome  geldings  and  a  large  and  full  clothes- 
bag.  Similar  questions  and  answers  were  made,  and 
we  found  them  all  in  the  place  to  which  they  were 
ordered,  on  our  return. 

It  was  not  long  before  we  arrived  at  Cockenzie, 
where,  under  the  protection  of  my  guard,  I  had  an 
opportunity  of  seeing  this  victorious  army.  In  gene- 
ral they  were  of  low  stature  and  dirty,  and  of  a  con- 
temptible appearance.  The  officers  with  whom  I 
mixed  were  gentleman-like,  and  very  civil  to  me,  as  I 
was  on  an  errand  of  humanity.  I  was  conducted  to 
Locheil,  who  was  polished  and  gentle,  and  who  ordered 
a  soldier  to  make  all  the  inquiry  he  could  about  the 
medicine-chests  of  the  dragoons.  After  an  hour's 
search,  we  returned  without  finding  any  of  them,  nor 
were  they  ever  afterwards  recovered.  This  view  I 
had  of  the  rebel  army  confirmed  me  in  the  prepos- 
session that  nothing  but  the  weakest  and  most  un- 
accountable bad  conduct  on  our  part  could  have 
possibly  given  them  the  victory.  God  forbid  that 
Britain  should  ever  again  be  in  dano-er  of  being  over- 
run  by  such  a  despicable  enemy,  for,  at  the  best,  the 
Highlanders  were  at  that  time  but  a  raw  militia,  who 
were  not  cowards. 

On  our  return  from  looking  for  the  medicine-chests, 
we  saw  walking  on  the  sea-shore,  at  the  east  end  of 


148  BATTLE    OF    PRESTONPANS. 

Prestonpans,  all  the  officers  who  were  taken  prisoners. 
I  then  saw  human  nature  in  its  most  abject  form,  for 
almost  every  aspect  bore  in  it  shame,  and  dejection, 
and  despair.  They  were  deeply  mortified  with  what 
had  happened,  and  timidly  anxious  about  the  future, 
for  they  were  doubtful  whether  they  were  to  be  treated 
as  prisoners  of  war  or  as  rebels.  I  ventured  to  speak 
to  one  of  them,  who  was  nearest  me,  a  Major  Severn  ; 
for  Major  Bowles,  my  acquaintance,  was  much  wounded, 
and  at  the  Collector's.  He  answered  some  questions  I 
put  to  him  with  civility,  and  I  told  him  what  errand 
I  had  been  on,  and  with  what  humanity  I  had  seen 
the  wounded  officers  treated,  and  ventured  to  assert 
that  the  prisoners  would  be  well  used.  The  confi- 
dence with  which  I  spoke  seemed  to  raise  his  spirits, 
which  I  completed  by  saying  that  nothing  could  have 
been  expected  but  what  had  happened,  when  the  foot 
were  so  shamefully  deserted  by  the  dragoons. 

Before  we  got  back  to  the  Collector's  house,  the 
wounded  officers  were  all  dressed ;  Captain  Blake's 
head  was  trepanned,  and  he  was  laid  in  bed,  for  they 
had  got  instruments  from  a  surgeon  who  lived  in  the 
town,  of  whom  I  had  told  Cunningham ;  and  they 
were  ordered  up  to  Bankton,  Colonel  Gardiner's  house, 
where  the  wounded  Highlanders  were,  and  also  the 
Honourable  Mr  Sandilands.  Two  captains  of  ours  had 
been  killed  outright  besides  Gardiner — viz.  Captain 
Stewart  of  Physgill,  whose  wife  was  my  relation,  and 
who  has  a  monument  for  him  erected  in  the  church- 
yard  of  Prestonpans   by  his   father-in-law,  Patrick 


BATTLE    OF    PRESTONPANS.  149 

Heron  of  Heron,  Esq. ;  the  other  was  Captain  Brymer 
of  Edrom,  in  the  Merse. 

While  we  were  breakfasting  at  my  father's,  some 
young  friends  of  mine  called,  among  whom  was  James 
Dunlop,  junr.,  of  Garnkirk,  my  particular  acquaint- 
ance at  Glasgow.    He  and  his  companions  had  ridden 
through  the  field  of  battle,  and  being  well  acquainted 
with  the  Highland  chiefs,  assured  us  there  was  no 
danger,  as  they  were  civil  to  everybody.      My  father, 
who  was  impatient  till  he  saw  me  safe,  listened  to 
this,  and  immediately  ordered  the  horses.     We  rode 
through  the  field  of  battle  where  the  dead  bodies  still 
lay,  between  eleven  and  twelve  o'clock,  mostly  stript. 
There  were  about  two  hundred,  we  thought.     There 
were  only  slight  guards  and  a  few  straggling  boys. 
We  rode  along  the  field  to  Seaton,  and  met  no  inter- 
ruption till  we  came  close  to  the  village,  when  four 
Highlanders  darted  out  of  it,  and  cried  in  a  wild  tone, 
presenting  their  pieces,  "Fourich,  fourichl"  {i.e.  Stop, 
stop !)    By  advice  of  our  Glasgow  friends  we  stopped, 
and   gave  them    shillings  a-piece,  with  which  they 
were  heartily  contented.    We  parted  with  our  friends 
and  rode  on,  and  got  to  Mr  Hamilton's,  minister  of 
Bolton,  a  solitary  place  at  a  distance  from  any  road, 
by  two  o'clock,  and  remained  there  all  day.     My  fa- 
ther, having  time  to  recollect  himself,  fell  into  a  new 
anxiety,  for   he   then   called  to  mind   that,  besides 
sundry  watches  and  purses  which  he  had  taken  to 
keep,  he  also  had  Pat.  Simson's  four  hundred  guineas. 
After  many  proposals  and  projects,  and  among  the 


150  BATTLE    OF    PRESTONPANS, 

rest  my  earnest  desire  to  return  alone,  it  was  at  last 
agreed  to  write  a  letter  in  I^atin  to  John  Ritchie  the 
schoolmaster,  afterwards  minister  of  Abercorn,  and 
instruct  him  how  to  go  at  night  and  secrete  the 
watches  and  purses  if  still  there,  and  bury  the  saddle- 
bags in  the  garden.  Ritchie  was  also  requested  to 
come  to  us  next  day. 

My  father  and  Mr  Hamilton  carried  on  the  work 
of  that  day,  Sunday,  with  zeal,  and  not  only  prayed 
fervently  for  the  King,  but  warned  the  people  against 
being  seduced  by  appearances  to  believe  that  the 
Lord  was  with  the  rebels,  and  that  their  cause  would 
in  the  end  be  prosperous.  But  no  sooner  had  we 
dined  than  my  father  grew  impatient  to  see  my 
mother  and  the  children,  Ritchie  having  written  by 
the  messenger  that  all  was  quiet.  He  wanted  to  go 
alone,  but  that  I  could  not  allow.  We  set  out  in  due 
time,  and  arrived  before  it  was  dark,  and  found  the 
family  quite  well,  and  my  mother  in  good  spirits. 
She  was  naturally  strong-minded,  and  void  of  ima- 
ginary fears  ;  but  she  had  received  comfort  from  the 
attention  paid  to  her,  for  Captain  Stewart,  by  the 
Duke  of  Perth's  order,  as  he  said,  gave  one  of  his 
ensigns,  a  Mr  Brydone,  a  particular  charge  of  our 
family,  and  ordered  him  to  call  upon  her  at  least  twice 
a-day. 

We  soon  began  to  think  of  my  father's  charge  of 
watches  and  money  ;  and  when  it  was  dark  enough 
I  went  into  the  garden  to  look  for  the  place  where 
Ritchie  had  buried  the  saddle-bags.      This  was  no 


BATTLE    OF    PKESTONPANS.  151 

difficult  search,  for  he  had  written  us  that  they  were 
below  a  particular  pear-tree.  To  be  sure,  he  had  buried 
the  treasure,  but  he  had  left  the  leather  belts  by  which 
they  were  fixed  fully  above  ground,  so  that  if  the 
Highlanders  had  been  of  a  curious  or  prowling  dis- 
position, they  must  have  discovered  this  important 
sum. 

Soon  after  this  Eitchie  arrived.  He  had  set  out 
for  Bolton  early  in  the  afternoon  ;  but  taking  a  dif- 
ferent road,  that  was  nearer  for  people  on  foot,  he  did 
not  meet  us,  and  had  returned  immediately.  On  set- 
ting out,  not  twenty  yards  from  the  manse  of  Preston- 
pans,  he  was  stopped  by  a  single  Highlander,  who 
took  from  him  all  the  money  that  he  had,  which  was 
six  shillings  ;  but  as  he  spared  his  watch,  he  was  con- 
tented. Not  long  after  came  in  ray  mother's  guard. 
Ensign  Brydone,  a  well-looking,  sweet-tempered  young 
man,  about  twenty  years  of  age.  He  was  Captain 
Stewart's  ensign.  Finding  all  the  family  assembled 
again,  he  resisted  my  mother's  faint  invitation  to 
supper.  She  replied  that  as  he  was  her  guard,  she 
hoped  he  would  come  as  often  as  he  could.  He  pro- 
mised to  breakfast  with  us  next  morning.  He  came 
at  the  hour  appointed,  nine  o'clock.  My  mother's 
custom  was  to  mask  the  tea  before  morning  prayer, 
which  she  did  ;  and  soon  after  my  father  came  into 
the  room  he  called  the  servants  to  prayers.  We  knelt 
down,  when  Brydone  turning  awkwardly,  his  broad- 
sword swept  off  the  table  a  china  plate  with  a  roll  of 
butter  on  it.     Prayer  being  ended,  the  good  lady  did 


152  BATTLE    OF    PEESTONPANS. 

not  forget  her  plate,  but,  taking  it  up  whole,  she 
said,  smiling,  and  with  a  curtsy,  "  Captain  Brydone, 
this  is  a  good  omen,  and  I  trust  our  cause  will  be 
as  safe  in  the  end  from  your  army  as  my  plate 
has  been  from  the  sweep  of  your  sword."  The  young 
man  bowed,  and  sat  down  to  breakfast  and  ate 
heartily ;  but  I  afterwards  thought  that  the  bad 
success  of  his  sword  and  my  mother's  application 
had  made  him  thoughtful,  as  Highlanders  are  very 
superstitious. 

During  the  rest  of  the  week,  while  I  remained 
at  home,  finding  him  very  ignorant  of  history  and 
without  political  principles,  unless  it  was  a  blind 
attachment  to  the  chief,  I  thought  I  convinced 
him,  in  the  many  walks  I  had  with  him,  that  his 
cause  would  in  the  end  be  unsuccessful.  I  learned 
afterwards,  that  though  he  marched  with  them  to 
England,  he  retired  before  the  battle  of  Falkirk, 
and  appeared  no  more.  He  was  a  miller's  son  near 
Drummond  Castle. 

On  Tuesday,  and  not  sooner,  came  many  young 
surgeons  from  Edinburgh  to  dress  the  wounded  sol- 
diers, most  of  whom  lay  on  straw  in  the  schoolroom. 
As  almost  all  their  wounds  were  with  the  broadsword, 
they  had  suffered  little.  The  surgeons  returned  to 
Edinburgh  in  the  evening,  and  came  back  again  for 
three  days.  As  one  of  them  was  Colin  Sirason,  a 
brother  of  Patrick's,  the  clergyman  at  Fala,  and  ap- 
prentice to  Adam  Drummond  their  uncle,  we  trust- 
ed him  and  his  companions  with  the  four  hundred 


PEINCE   CHARLES   EDWARD.  153 

guineas,  which  at  dijfferent  times  they  carried  in  their 
pockets  and  delivered  safe  to  Captain  Adam  Drum- 
mond  of  Megginch,  then  a  prisoner  in  Queensberry 
House  in  the  Canongate. 

I  remained  at  home  all  this  week,  about  the  end  of 
which  my  friend  William  Seller  came  from  Edinburgh 
to  see  me,  and  pressed  me  much  to  come  to  Edin- 
burgh and  stay  with  him  at  his  father's  house.  Hav- 
ing several  things  to  purchase  to  prepare  for  my 
voyage  to  Holland,  I  went  to  town  on  the  following 
Monday,  and  remained  with  him  till  Thursday.  Be- 
sides his  father  and  sisters,  there  lodged  in  the  house 
Mr  Smith,  and  there  came  also  to  supper  every  night 
his  son,  afterwards  Mr  Seton  of  Touch,  having  mar- 
ried the  heiress  of  that  name.  As  Prince  Charles 
had  issued  a  proclamation  allowing  all  the  Volunteers 
of  Edinburgh  three  weeks,  during  which  they  might 
pay  their  court  to  him  at  the  Abbey,  and  receive  a 
free  pardon,  I  went  twice  down  to  the  Abbey  Court 
with  my  friend  about  twelve  o'clock,  to  wait  till  the 
Prince  should  come  out  of  the  Palace  and  mount 
his  horse  to  ride  to  the  east  side  of  Arthur  Seat  to 
visit  his  army.  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  see  him 
both  days,  one  of  which  I  was  close  by  him  when  he 
walked  through  the  guard.  He  was  a  good-looking 
man,  of  about  five  feet  ten  inches ;  his  hair  was  dark 
red,  and  his  eyes  black.  His  features  were  regular, 
his  visage  long,  much  sunburnt  and  freckled,  and  his 
countenance  thoughtful  and  melancholy.  He  mounted 
his  horse  and  rode  off  through  St  Ann's  Yards  and 


154  PRINCE    CHARLES   EDWARD. 

the  Duke's  Walk  to  his  army.  There  was  no  crowd 
after  him — about  three  or  four  hundred  each  day.  By 
that  time  curiosity  had  been  satisfied. 

In  the  house  where  I  lived  they  were  all  Jacobites, 
and  I  heard  much  of  their  conversation.  When  young 
Seller  and  I  retired  from  them  at  night,  he  agreed 
with  me  that  they  had  less  ground  for  being  so  san- 
guine and  upish  than  they  imagined.  The  court  at 
the  Abbey  was  dull  and  sombre — the  Prince  was 
melancholy  ;  he  seemed  to  have  no  confidence  in  any- 
body, not  even  in  the  ladies,  w^ho  were  much  his 
friends ;  far  less  had  he  the  spirit  to  venture  to  the 
High  Church  of  Edinburgh  and  take  the  sacrament, 
as  his  great  uncle  Charles  II.  had  done  the  Cove- 
nant, which  would  have  secured  him  the  low-country 
commons,  as  he  already  had  the  Highlanders  by  at- 
tachment. He  was  thought  to  have  loitered  too  long 
at  Edinburgh,  and,  without  doubt,  had  he  marched 
immediately  to  Newcastle,  he  might  have  distressed 
the  city  of  London  not  a  little.  But  besides  that  his 
army  wanted  clothing  and  necessaries,  the  victory  at 
Preston  put  an  end  to  his  authority.  He  had  not  a 
mind  fit  for  command  at  any  time,  far  less  to  rule  the 
Highland  chiefs  in  prosperity. 

I  returned  to  Prestonpans  on  Thursday,  and  as  I 
was  to  set  out  for  Newcastle  on  Monday  to  take  ship- 
ping for  Holland,  I  sent  to  Captain  Blake,  Avho  was 
recovering  well,  to  tell  him  that  if  he  had  any  letters 
for  Berwick,  I  would  take  charge  of  them.  He  prayed 
me  to  call  on  him  immediately.      He  said  he  was 


INCIDENTS.  155 

quite  well,  and  complained  of  nothing  but  the  pain  of 
a  little  cut  he  had  got  on  one  of  his  fino-ers.  He  said 
he  would  trouble  me  with  a  letter  to  a  friend  at 
Berwick,  and  that  it  would  be  ready  on  Saturday  at 
four  o'clock,  when  he  begged  I  would  call  on  him.  I 
went  at  the  hour,  and  found  him  dressed  and  looking 
weU,  with  a  small  table  and  a  bottle  and  glasses  be- 
fore him.  "  What!"  says  I ;  "  Captain  Blake,  are  you 
allowed  to  drink  wine  1 "  "  Yes,"  said  he,  "  and  as  I 
expected  you,  I  postponed  my  few  glasses  till  I  should 
drink  to  your  good  journey."  To  be  sure,  we  drank 
out  the  bottle  of  claret ;  and  when  I  sent  to  inquire 
for  him  on  Sunday,  he  said  he  had  slept  better  than 
ever.  I  never  saw  this  man  more ;  but  I  heard  he 
had  sold  out  of  the  army,  and  was  married.  In 
spring  1800,  when  the  E^ng  was  very  ill,  and  in 
danger,  I  observed  in  the  papers  that  he  had  left  a 
written  message,  mentioning  the  wounds  he  had  re- 
ceived at  the  battle  of  Preston.  On  seeing  this,  I 
wrote  to  him  as  the  only  living  witness  who  could 
attest  the  truth  of  his  note  left  at  St  James's.  I  had 
a  letter  from  him  dated  the  1st  of  March  that  year, 
written  in  high  spirits,  and  inviting  me  to  Great 
George  Street,  Westminster,  where  he  hoped  we  would 
uncork  a  bottle  with  more  pleasure  than  we  had  done 
in  1745,  but  to  come  soon,  for  he  was  verging  on 
eighty-one.     He  died  this  spring,  1802. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

1745-1746:  AGE,  21-22. 

SETS   OFF   FOR   HOLLAND — A   CORPORATION  DINNER  AT  NEWCASTLE — 

ADVENTURES  AT  YARMOUTH LEYDEN  AND   THE  STUDENTS  THERE 

JOHN    GREGORY JOHN    WILKES IMMATERIALITY    BAXTER 

CHARLES    TOWNSHEND DR   AITKEN RETURN    TO    BRITAIN FEL- 
LOW-PASSENGERS  VIOLETTI    THE    DANCER TAKEN    TO    COURT 

LONDON    SOCIETY THE    LYONS LORD    HEATHFIELD SMOLLETT 

AND    JOHN    BLAIR SUPPERS    AT    THE    GOLDEN    BALL LONDON 

GETTING    THE    NEWS    OF    THE     BATTLE     OF    CULLODEN  WILLIAM 

GUTHRIE     AND     ANSOn's     VOYAGES BYROn's     NARRATIVE THE 

THEATRES    AND    THEATRICAL    CELEBRITIES LITERARY    SOCIETY 

THOMSON — ARMSTRONG SECKER. 

On  Monday  morning,  the  9t\i  of  October,  old  style, 
my  father  and  I  set  out  for  Newcastle  on  horseback, 
where  we  arrived  on  Wednesday  to  dinner.  Having 
secured  my  passage  on  board  a  small  vessel  going  to 
Rotterdam,  that  was  to  sail  whenever  there  was  a 
convoy,  we  rode  to  Sunderland  to  visit  some  emigrants 
whom  we  understood  were  there,  and  found  old  George 
Buchan  and  his  brother-in-law,  Mr  William  Grant, 
afterwards  Lord  Advocate,  and  Lord  Prestongrange. 
We  dined  with  them,  and  were  told  that  Lord  Drum- 
more  and  many  others  of  our  friends  had  taken  up 
their  residence  at  Bishop  Auckland,  where  they  wished 


NEWCASTLE   IN    1745.  157 

to  have  been  had  there  been  room.  Next  day  my 
father  and  the  servant  set  out  on  their  journey  home, 
and  I  having  been  acquainted  \yith  some  of  the  Com- 
mon Council  of  Newcastle,  was  invited  to  dine  with 
the  mayor  at  one  of  their  guild  dinners.  A  Mr 
Fen  wick,  I  think,  was  mayor  that  year.  I  was  seated 
at  the  end  of  one  of  the  long  tables  in  the  same  room, 
next  Mr  John  Simpson,  afterwards  Aldennan  Simpson, 
sheriff  of  Newcastle  for  that  year.  As  I  was  fresh  from 
Scotland,  I  had  to  answer  all  the  questions  that  were 
put  to  me  concerning  the  affairs  of  that  country,  and 
I  saw  my  intelligence  punctually  detailed  in  the 
Neivcastle  Journal  next  morning.  Of  that  company 
there  was  one  gentleman,  a  wine  merchant,  who  was 
alive  in  the  year  1797  or  1798  ;  when  happening  to 
dine  with  the  mayor,  the  subject  was  talked  of,  and 
he  recollected  it  perfectly. 

At  the  inn  where  I  slept  I  met  with  my  companion 
Bob  Cunninorham,  w^ho  had  been  a  Volunteer  in  Edin- 
burgh,  and  with  Francis  Garden,  who  had  been  taken 
prisoner  by  the  rebels,  as  narrated  in  Home's  History.* 
He  and  I  supped  together  one  of  the  nights.  He  was 
studying  law ;  but  his  father  being  an  officer,  and 
at  that  time  Lieutenant  of  Stirling  Castle,  he  had  a 
military  turn,  which  was  heightened  by  the  short 
campaign  he  had  made.     He  resented  the  bad  usage 

*  The  incident  is  mentioned  above,  p.  136.  Francis  Garden  was  raised  to 
the  bench  in  1764,  when  he  took  the  title  of  Lord  Gardenstone  :  he  was  author 
of  misceUanies  in  prose  and  verse,  and  travelling  memorandiuns.  The  im- 
mediately following  sentences  might  seem  to  refer  to  him,  but  they  are 
intended  to  refer  to  Cunningham. — Ed. 


158  SHIELDS    IN    1745. 

his  father's  nephew,  Murray  of  Broughton,  the  Pre- 
tender's Secretary,  had  given  him  during  the  day  he 
was  a  captive,  and  wa?  determined  to  become  a  volun- 
teer in  some  regiment  till  the  rebellion  was  suppressed ; 
but  expressed  a  strong  abhorrence  at  the  subordina- 
tion in  the  army,  and  the  mortifications  to  which  it 
exposed  a  man.  I  argued  that  he  ought  either  to 
return  immediately  to  his  studies,  or  fix  on  the  army 
for  his  profession,  and  stated  the  difference  between 
modern  armies  and  those  of  Greece  and  Eome,  with 
which  his  imagination  was  fired,  where  a  man  could 
be  a  leading  citizen  and  a  great  general  at  the  same 
time.  He  debated  on  this  point  till  two  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  though  he  did  not  confess  he  was  convinced, 
he  went  into  the  army  immediately,  and  rose  till  he 
became  a  general  of  horse  in  Ireland.  He  was,  at  the 
time  I  met  him,  very  handsome,  and  had  an  enlight- 
ened and  ardent  mind.  He  went  to  Durham  next 
morning,  and  I  never  saw  him  more. 

On  the  Tuesday  I  was  summoned  to  go  down  to 
Shields,  as  the  sloop  had  fallen  down  there,  and  was  to 
sail  immediately  with  the  London  convoy.  I  went 
down  accordingly,  and  had  to  live  for  six  days  with 
the  rude  and  ignorant  masters  of  colliers.  There  was 
one  army  surgeon  of  the  name  of  Allan,  a  Stirling 
man,  who  had  taken  his  passage,  and  had  some  con- 
versation. At  last,  on  Monday  the  1 4th  of  October, 
I  went  on  board  the  "Blagdon"  of  Newcastle,  Tim 
Whinny,  master,  who  boasted  that  his  vessel  had 
ridden  out  the  great  storm  of  January  29,  1739,  at 


YARMOUTH   IN    1745.  159 

the  back  of  Inchkeith.  She  was  loaded  with  kits  of 
butter  and  glass  bottles.  I  was  the  only  passenger. 
There  was,  besides  the  master,  a  mate,  an  old  sailor, 
and  two  boys.  As  we  let  the  great  ships  go  out 
before  us,  it  was  night  almost  before  we  got  over  the 
bar. 

Next  day,  the  weather  being  calm  and  moderate, 
we  had  an  asreeable  sail  along  the  coast  of  Yorkshire : 
in  the  evening,  however,  the  gale  rose,  separated  the 
fleet  of  about  eighty  sail,  and  drove  us  off  shore. 
We  passed  a  dreary  night  with  sickness,  and  not 
without  fear,  for  the  idle  boys  had  mislaid  things,  and 
it  was  two  hours  before  the  hatches  could  be  closed. 
The  gale  abated  in  the  morning,  and  about  mid-day 
we  made  for  the  coast  again,  but  did  not  come  in 
with  the  land  till  two  o'clock,  when  we  descried  the 
Norfolk  coast,  and  saw  many  ships  making  for  Yar- 
mouth. About  ten  at  night  we  came  up  with  them, 
and  found  them  to  be  part  of  the  fleet  w4th  which  we 
had  sailed  from  Shields.  Next  day,  Friday  the  18th, 
we  came  into  Yarmouth  Roads,  when  the  master  and 
I  went  ashore  in  the  boat.  The  master  was  as  much 
a  stranger  there  as  I  was,  for  though  he  had  been 
often  in  the  roads,  he  had  never  gone  ashore.  This 
town  is  handsome,  and  lies  in  a  singular  situation. 
It  stands  on  a  flat  plain,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  the  sea.  It  is  an  oblong  square,  about  a  mile  in 
length,  and  a  third  part  as  broad.  The  whole  length 
is  intersected  by  three  streets,  which  are  rather  too 
narrow.     That  nearest  is  weU  built,  and  lands  on  the 


160  YARMOUTH    IN    1745. 

marketplace  to  the  north,  which  is  very  spacious,  and 
remarkably  well  provided  with  every  kind  of  vivres 
for  the  pot  and  the  spit. 

The  market-women  are  clean  beyond  example,  and 
the  butchers  themselves  dressed  with  great  neatness 
indeed.  In  short,  there  was  nothing  to  offend  the 
eye  or  any  of  the  senses  in  Yarmouth  market.  Very 
genteel-looking  women  were  providing  for  their  fami- 
lies. But  the  quay,  which  is  on  the  west  side  of  the 
town,  and  lies  parallel  to  the  beach,  is  the  most  remark- 
able thing  about  the  town,  though  there  is  a  fine 
old  Gothic  church  in  the  marketplace,  with  a  very 
lofty  steeple,  the  spire  of  which  is  crooked,  and  like- 
wise a  fine  modern  chapel-of-ease  in  the  street  lead- 
ing to  it.  The  quay  is  a  mile  long,  and  is  formed  by 
a  river,  the  mouth  of  which,  above  a  mile  distant  at 
the  village  of  Gorelston,  forms  the  harbour.  The 
largest  colliers  can  deliver  their  goods  at  the  quay, 
and  the  street  behind  it  has  only  one  row  of  the 
handsomest  houses  in  the  town.  As  the  master  and 
I  knew  nobody,  we  went  into  the  house  of  a  Eobin 
Sad,  at  the  sign  of  the  Three  Kings,  who,  standing  at 
his  own  door  near  the  south  end  of  the  quay,  had  such 
an  inviting  aspect  and  manner  that  I  could  not  resist 
him.  His  house  was  perhaps  not  second-best,  but  it 
was  cleanly,  and  I  staid  two  nights  with  him.  He  enter- 
tained me  much,  for  he  had  been  several  years  a  mate 
in  the  Mediterranean  in  his  youth,  and  was  vain  and 
boastful,  and  presumptuous  and  ignorant,  to  my  great 
delight. 


YARMOUTH    IX    1745.  161 

In  the  evening  two  men  had  come  into  the  house 
and  drank  a  pot  or  two  of  ale.  He  said  they  were 
custom-house  officers,  and  was  ill-pleased,  as  they  did 
not  use  to  frequent  his  house,  but  they  had  come  into 
the  common  room  on  hearing  of  my  being  in  the 
house ;  and  though  they  sat  at  a  distance  from  the  fire- 
place, where  the  landlord  and  I  were,  they  could  hear 
our  conversation.  Next  morning,  after  nine,  they 
came  again,  and  with  many  apologies,  addressing  them- 
selves to  me,  said  they  had  orders  from  the  Commis- 
sioners to  inquire  my  name  and  designation,  as  they 
understood  I  was  going  beyond  sea  to  Holland.  I  had 
no  scruple  in  writing  it  down  to  them.  They  returned 
in  half  an  hour,  and  told  me  that  they  were  ordered 
to  carry  me  before  the  Lord  Mayor.  I  went  accord- 
ingly down  to  Justice  Hall,  where  I  waited  a  little 
while  in  an  ante-chamber,  and  overheard  my  landlord 
Sad  under  examination.  He  was  very  high  and  resent- 
ful in  his  answers,  and  had  a  tone  of  contempt  for  men 
who,  he  said,  were  unfit  to  rule,  as  they  did  not  know 
the  value  of  any  coins  but  those  of  England.  He 
answered  with  a  still  more  saucy  pride,  when  they 
asked  him  what  expense  I  made,  and  in  the  end  told 
them  exultingly  that  I  had  ordered  him  to  buy  the 
best  goose  in  the  market  for  to-morrow's  dinner.  I  was 
called  in  and  examined.  The  Mayor  was  an  old  grey- 
headed man,  of  a  mild  address.  He  had  been  a  common 
fisher,  and  had  become  very  rich,  though  he  coidd  not 
write,  but  signed  his  name  with  a  stamp.  After  my 
examination,  under  which  I  had  nothing  to  conceal, 

L 


162  YARMOUTH    IN    1745. 

they  told  me,  as  I  was  going  abroad,  they  were  obliged 
to  tender  me  the  oaths  or  detain  me.  I  objected  to 
that,  as  they  had  no  ground  of  suspicion,  and  offered 
to  show  them  my  diploma  as  Master  of  Arts  of  the 
University  of  Edinburgh,  and  a  Latin  letter  from  the 
University  of  Glasgow  to  any  Foreign  University 
where  I  might  happen  to  go.  They  declined  looking 
at  them,  and  insisted  on  my  taking  the  oaths,  which 
accordingly  were  administered,  and  I  was  dismissed. 
I  did  not  know  that  the  habeas  corpus  was  not  then 
suspended,  and  that  if  they  had  detained  me  I  could 
have  recovered  large  expenses  from  them.  I  amused 
myself  in  town  till  the  master  came  on  shore,  when, 
after  dinner,  we  walked  down  to  Gorleston,  the  har- 
bour at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  where  we  heard  of 
three  vessels  which  were  to  sail  without  convoy,  on 
Monday,  with  the  ebb  tide. 

I  staid  this  night  with  landlord  Sad,  and  invited 
the  master  to  dine  with  us  next  day,  being  Sunday, 
when  we  were  to  have  our  fine  goose  roasted.  I  went 
in  the  morning  to  their  fine  chapel,  which  was  paneled 
with  mahogany,  and  saw  a  very  populous  audience. 
The  service  and  the  sermon  were  but  so  so.  Tim 
Whinny  came  in  good  time,  and  we  were  on  board  by 
four  o'clock,  and  fell  down  opposite  the  harbour  of 
Gorleston.  As  the  three  colliers  which  were  to  venture 
over  to  Holland  without  convoy  were  bound  for  a 
different  port  from  Helvoet,  w^hich  was  our  object,  our 
master  spent  all  the  morning  of  Monday  making 
inquiry  for  any  ship  that  was  going  where  we  were 


ROTTERDAM.  1G3 

bound,  and  ranged  the  coast  down  as  far  as  Lowestoff 
for  this  purpose,  but  was  disappointed.  This  made  us  so 
late  of  sailing,  that  the  three  ships  which  took  through 
the  gat  or  opening  between  sand-banks,  were  almost 
out  of  sicjht  before  we  ventured  to  sail.  Tim's  caution 
was  increased  by  his  having  his  whole  property  on 
board,  which  he  often  mentioned.  At  last,  after  a 
solemn  council  on  the  quarter-deck,  where  I  gave  my 
voice  strongly  for  our  immediate  departure,  we  followed 
the  track  of  the  three  ships,  the  last  of  which  was  still 
in  sight ;  and  having  a  fine  night,  with  a  fair  breeze  of 
wind,  we  came  within  sight  of  land  at  ten  o'clock 
next  day.  The  shore  is  so  flat,  and  the  country  so 
level,  that  one  sees  nothing  on  approaching  it  but 
tops  of  steeples  and  masts  of  ships.  Early  in  the 
afternoon  I  got  on  shore  at  Helvoet,  on  the  island 
of  Voom,  and  put  up  at  an  English  house,  where  one 
Fell  was  the  landlord. 

There  I  saw  the  first  specimen  of  Dutch  cleanli- 
ness, so  little  to  be  expected  in  a  small  seaport.  As 
I  wished  to  be  as  soon  as  I  could  at  Rotterdam,  I 
quitted  my  friend  Tim  Whinny  to  come  up  at  his 
leisure,  and  went  on  board  the  Rotterdam  schuyt  at 
nine  in  the  morning,  and  arrived  there  in  a  few  hours. 
The  beauty  of  this  town,  and  of  the  river  Maas  that 
flows  by  it  and  forms  its  harbour,  is  well  known. 
The  sight  of  the  Boompjes,  and  of  the  canals  that 
carry  shipping  through  the  whole  town,  surprised  and 
pleased  me  much.  I  had  been  directed  to  put  up  at 
Caters,  an  English  house,  where  I  took  up  my  lodg- 


164  ROTTERDAM. 

ings  accordingly,  and  adhered  to  it  in  the  two  or 
three  trips  1  made  afterwards  to  this  city,  and  found 
it  an  exceeding  good  house,  where  the  expense  was 
moderate,  and  everything  good.  In  the  afternoon  I 
inquired  for  Mr  Kobert  Herries,  on  whom  I  had  my 
credit,  and  found  his  house  on  the  Scotch  Dyke,  after 
passing  in  the  doit-boat  over  the  canal  that  separates 
it  from  the  end  of  the  Boompjes. 

From  Mr  Herries  I  met  with  a  very  kind  reception. 
He  was  a  handsome  young  man,  of  a  good  family  in 
Ann  an  dale,  who  had  not  succeeded  in  business  at 
Dumfries,  and  had  been  sent  over  by  my  uncle  Pro- 
vost George  Bell,  of  that  town,  as  their  agent  and 
factor — as  at  that  time  they  dealt  pretty  deep  in  the 
tobacco  trade.  He  had  immediately  assimilated  to 
the  manners  of  the  Dutch,  and  was  much  respected 
among  them.  He  lived  in  a  very  good  house,  with  a 
Mr  Eobertson  and  his  wife  from  Aberdeen — very  sen- 
sible, good  sort  of  people.  They  took  very  much  to 
me,  and  insisted  on  my  dining  with  them  every  day. 
Next  door  to  them  lived  a  Mr  Livingston,  from  Aber- 
deen also,  who  was  thought  to  be  rich.  His  wife  was 
the  daughter  of  Mr  Kennedy,  one  of  the  ministers  of 
the  Scotch  Church.  She  was  a  very  handsome  and 
agreeable  woman  ;  and  neither  of  the  ladies  having 
children,  they  had  little  care,  and  lived  a  very  sociable 
and  pleasant  life,  especially  my  landlady,  whose  at- 
tractions consisted  chiefly  in  good  sense  and  good 
temper.  Our  neighbour  being  young  and  gay  as  well  as 
handsome,  had  not  quite  so  much  liberty.    Mr  Herries 


ROTTERDAM.  165 

and  liis  friends  advised  me  to  remain  some  days  with 
them,  because,  our  king's  birthday  having  happened 
lately,  the  British  students  were  to  have  a  grand  enter- 
tainment, and  it  was  better  for  me  to  escape  the  ex- 
pense that  might  be  incurred  by  going  there  too  soon. 
Besides,  I  had  to  equip  myself  in  clothes,  and  with  a 
sword  and  other  necessaries,  with  which  I  could  be 
better  and  cheaper  supplied  at  Rotterdam  than  at 
Leyden.  I  took  their  advice,  and  they  were  so  oblig- 
ing as  to  have  new  company  for  me  every  day,  among 
whom  were  Mess.  Kennedy,  and"  Ainslie  his  colleague ; 
the  first  was  popular,  and  pompous,  and  political,  and 
an  Irishman.  The  second  was  a  plain,  sensible  Scotch- 
man, less  sought  after,  but  more  respectable  than  his 
colleague.  During  my  stay  at  Rotterdam  I  was  in- 
formed of  everything,  and  saw  eveiything  that  was 
new  or  curious. 

Travelling  in  Holland  by  means  of  the  canals  is 
easy  and  commodious  ;  and  though  the  country  is  so 
flat  that  one  can  see  to  no  distance,  yet  the  banks  of 
the  canals,  especially  as  you  approach  the  cities,  are 
so  much  adorned  with  pleasure-houses  and  flower- 
gardens  as  to  furnish  a  constant  succession,  not  of  the 
grand  and  sublime  or  magnificent  works  of  nature, 
but  of  a  profusion  of  the  rich  and  gaudy  effects  of 
opulence  without  taste.  When  I  arrived  at  Leyden, 
which  was  in  a  few  hours,  I  found  my  lodgings  ready, 
having  had  a  correspondence  from  Rotterdam  with 
Thomas  Dickson,  M.D.,  afterwards  my  brother-in-law. 
They  were  in  the  house  of  a  ^Madame  Yandertasse, 


166  LEYDEN. 

on  the  Long  Bridge.  There  were  in  her  house  besides, 
Dr  Dickson,  Dr  John  Gregory,  Mr  Nicholas  Monckly, 
and  a  Mr  Skirrat,  a  student  of  law.  Vandertasse's 
was  an  established  lodging-house,  her  father  and 
mother  having  carried  on  that  business,  so  that  we 
lived  very  well  there  at  a  moderate  rate — that  is, 
sixteen  stivers  for  dinner,  two  for  coffee,  six  for 
supper  and  for  breakfast.  She  was  a  lively  little 
Frenchwoman,  about  thirty -six,  had  been  tolerably 
well-looking,  and  was  plump  and  in  good  condition. 
As  she  had  only  one'  maid-servant,  and  five  gentle- 
men to  provide  for,  she  led  an  active  and  laborious 
life ;  insomuch  that  she  had  but  little  time  for  her 
toilet,  except  in  the  article  of  the  coif,  which  no 
Frenchwoman  omits.  But  on  Sundays,  when  she 
had  leisure  to  dress  herself  for  the  French  Church, 
either  in  the  morning  or  evening,  then  who  but 
Mademoiselle  Vandertasse  !  She  spoke  English  per- 
fectly well,  as  the  guests  of  the  house  had  been  mostly 
British. 

As  I  had  come  last,  I  had  the  worst  bed-chamber. 
Besides  board,  we  paid  pretty  high  for  our  rooms,  and 
dearest  of  all  for  fuel,  which  was  chiefly  peat.  We 
had  very  good  small  claret  at  a  shilling  a  bottle,  giv- 
ing her  the  benefit  of  our  exemption  from  town  duty 
for  sixty  stoups  of  wine  for  every  student.  Our  house 
was  in  high  repute  for  the  best  cofi'ee,  so  that  our 
friends  were  pleased  when  they  were  invited  to  par- 
take with  us  of  that  delicious  beverage.  We  had  no 
company  to  dinner ;    but  in  the  evenings   about  a 


THE    BRITISH    STUDENTS.  167 

dozen  of  us  met  at  one  another's  rooms  in  turn  three 
times  a-week,  and  drank  coffee,  and  smoked  tobacco, 
and  chatted  about  politics,  and  drank  claret,  and 
supped  on  bukkam  (Dutch  red-herrings),  and  eggs, 
and  salad,  and  never  sat  later  than  twelve  o'clock — 
at  Mr  Gowan's,  the  clergyman,  never  later  than  ten, 
unless  when  we  deceived  him  by  making  such  a  noise 
when  the  hour  was  ringing  as  prevented  his  hear- 
ing it. 

Though  I  had  not  been  acquainted  with  John 
Gregory  formerly,  which  was  owing  to  my  two 
winters'  residence  at  Glasgow  when  he  was  in  Edin- 
burgh, yet,  as  he  knew  most  of  my  friends  there,  we 
soon  became  intimate  together,  and  generally  passed 
two  hours  every  forenoon  in  walking.  His  friend 
Monckly  being  very  fat,  and  a  bad  walker,  could  not 
follow  us.  There  were  at  this  time  about  twenty- 
two  British  students  at  Ley  den,  of  whom,  besides  the 
five  at  our  house  already  named,  were  the  Honourable 
Charles  Towmshend,  afterwards  a  distinguished  states- 
man and  husband  to  Lady  Dalkeith,  the  mother  of 
the  Duke  of  Buccleuch  ;  Mr  James  Johnston,  junior, 
of  Westerhall ;  Dr  Anthony  Askew  ;  John  Campbell, 
junior,  of  Stonefield  ;  his  tutor  Mr  Morton,  afterwards 
a  professor  at  St  Andrews ;  John  Wilkes,  his  companion 
Mr  Bland,  and  their  tutor  Mr  Lyson  ;  Mr  Freeman 
from  Jamaica  ;  Mr  Doddeswell,  afterwards  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  ;  ^Ir  Wetherell  from  the  \Yest 
Indies  ;  Dr  Charles  Congalton,  to  this  day  physician 
in  Edinburgh  ;  an  Irish  gentleman,  Keefe,  I  think,  in 


168  LEYDEN. 

his  house  ;  Willie  Gordon,  afterwards  K.B.,  with  four 
or  five  more,  whose  names  I  have  forgot,  and  who  did 
not  associate  with  my  friends. 

On  the  first  Sunday  evening  I  was  in  Leyden,  I 
walked  round  the  Cingle — a  fine  walk  on  the  outside 
of  the  Rhine,  which  formed  the  wet  ditch  of  the  town — 
with  John  Gregory,  who  introduced  me  to  the  British 
students  as  we  met  them,  not  without  giving  me  a 
short  character  of  them,  which  I  found  in  general  a 
very  just  outline.  When  we  came  to  John  Wilkes, 
whose  ugly  countenance  in  early  youth  was  very  strik- 
ing, I  asked  earnestly  who  he  was.  His  answer  was, 
that  he  was  the  son  of  a  London  distiller  or  brewer, 
who  wanted  to  be  a  fine  gentleman  and  man  of  taste, 
which  he  could  never  be,  for  God  and  nature  had 
been  against  him.  1  came  to  know  Wilkes  very  well 
afterwards,  and  found  him  to  be  a  sprightly  enter- 
taining fellow — too  much  so  for  his  years,  as  he  was 
but  eighteen  ;  for  even  then  he  showed  something  of 
daring  profligacy,  for  which  he  was  afterwards  noto- 
rious. Though  he  was  fond  of  learning,  and  passion- 
ately desirous  of  being  thought  something  extraor- 
dinary, he  was  unlucky  in  having  an  old  ignorant 
pedant  of  a  dissenting  parson  for  his  tutor.  This 
man,  a  Mr  Leeson  or  Lyson,  had  been  singled  out  by 
the  father  as  the  best  tutor  in  the  world  for  his  most 
promising  son,  because,  at  the  age  of  threescore,  after 
studying  controversy  for  more  than  thirty  years,  he 
told  his  congregation  that  he  was  going  to  leave  them, 
and  would  tell  them  the  reason  next  Sunday;  when, 


THE    BRITISH    STUDENTS.  169 

being  fiilly  convened,  he  told  them  that,  with  much 
anxiety  and  care,  he  had  examined  the  Arian  contro- 
versy, and  was  now  convinced  that  the  creed  he  had 
read  to  them  as  his  creed  was  false,  and  that  he  had 
now  adopted  that  of  the  Arians,  and  was  to  bid  them 
farewell.  The  people  were  shocked  with  this  creed, 
and  not  so  sorry  as  they  would  otherwise  have  been 
to  part  with  him,  for  he  was  a  good-natured  well- 
meaning  man.  His  chief  object  seemed  to  be  to  make 
Wilkes  an  Arian  also,  and  he  teased  him  so  much 
about  it  that  he  was  obliged  to  declare  that  he  did 
not  believe  the  Bible  at  all,  which  produced  a  quarrel 
between  them,  and  Wilkes,  for  refuge,  went  frequently 
to  Utrecht,  where  he  met  with  Immateriality  Baxter, 
as  he  was  called,  who  then  attended  Lord  Blantyre 
and  Mr  Hay  of  Drummellier,  as  he  had  formerly  done 
Lord  John  Gray. 

This  gentleman  was  more  to  Wilkes's  taste  than 
his  own  tutor  ;  for  though  he  was  a  profound  philo- 
sopher and  a  hard  student,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
a  man  of  the  world,  and  of  such  pleasing  conversa- 
tion as  attracted  the  young.  Baxter  was  so  much 
pleased  with  Wilkes  that  he  dedicated  one  of  his 
pieces  to  him.  He  died  in  1750,  which  fact  leads 
me  to  correct  an  error  in  the  account  of  Baxter's 
life,  in  which  he  is  much  praised  for  his  keeping  well 
with  Wilkes,  though  he  had  given  so  much  umbrage 
to  the  Scotch.  But  this  is  a  gross  mistake,  for  the 
people  of  that  nation  were  always  Wilkes's  favourites 
till  1763,  thirteen  years  after  Baxter's  death,  when  he 


170  LEYDEN. 

became  a  violent  party-writer,  and  wished  to  raise  his 
fame  and  fortune  on  the  ruin  of  Lord  Bute.* 

Wilkes  was  very  fond  of  shining  in  conversation 
very  prematurely,  for  at  that  time  he  had  but  little 
knowledge  except  what  he  derived  from  Baxter  in 
his  frequent  visits  to  Utrecht.  In  the  art  of  shining, 
however,  he  was  much  outdone  by  Charles  Town- 
shend,  who  was  not  above  a  year  older,  and  had  still 
less  furniture  in  his  head ;  but  then  his  person  and 
manners  were  more  engaging.  He  had  more  wit  and 
humour,  and  a  turn  for  mimicry  ;  and,  above  all,  had 
the  talent  of  translating  other  men's  thoughts,  which 
they  had  produced  in  the  simple  style  of  conversation, 
into  the  most  charming  language,  which  not  only  took 
the  ear  but  elevated  the  thoughts.  No  person  I  ever 
knew  nearly  equalled  Charles  Townshend  in  this  talent 
but  Dr  Eobertson,  who,  though  he  had  a  very  great 
fund  of  knowledge  and  thought  of  his  own,  was  yet 
so  passionately  fond  of  shining,  that  he  seized  what 
was  nearest  at  hand — the  conversation  of  his  friends 
of  that  morning  or  the  day  before — and  embellished 

*  The  friendship  here  alludefl  to  is  interesting,  as  affording  evidence  that 
Wilkes  had  been  able  to  attach  to  himself  at  least  one  virtuous  and  en- 
lightened friend.  Baxter  afterwards  wrote  to  him  thus:  "We  talked 
much  on  this,  you  may  remember,  in  the  capuchin's  garden  at  Spa.  I 
have  finished  the  Prima  Cura ;  it  is  in  the  dialogue  way,  and  design  to 
inscribe  it  to  my  dear  John  Wilkes,  whom,  under  a  borrowed  name,  I  have 
made  one  of  the  interlocutors.  If  you  are  against  this  whim  (which  a 
passionate  love  for  you  has  made  me  conceive),  I  \\ill  drop  it." — Wilkes's 
Corresjmndence,  i.  15.  Wilkes  does  not  a})iiear  to  have  been  against  this 
whim.  The  "Appendix  to  the  First  Part  of  the  Inquiry  into  the  Nature 
of  the  Human  Soul"  appeared  in  1750,  within  a  few  months  after  this  letter 
was  ^vritten.  Its  author  did  not  live  to  see  it  j)rinted,  but  it  contains  the 
dedication.  — Ed. 


THE    BRITISH    STUDENTS.  171 

it  with  such  rich  language,  that  they  hardly  knew  it 
again  themselves,  insomuch  that  he  was  the  greatest 
plagiary  in  conversation  that  ever  I  knew.  It  is  to 
this,  probably,  that  his  biographer  alludes  (his  strong 
itch  for  shining)  when  he  confesses  he  liked  his  con- 
versation best  when  he  had  not  an  audience.* 

Gregory's  chum,  Dr  Monckly,  had  this  talent  too, 
and  exercised  it  so  as  to  bring  on  him  the  highest 
ridicule.  He  was  in  reality  an  ignorant  vain  block- 
head, who  had  the  most  passionate  desire  of  shining, 
which  Gregory  was  entirely  above.  His  usual  method 
was  to  get  Gregory  into  his  room,  either  before  or 
after  breakfast,  when  he  settled  with  him  what  were 
to  be  the  leading  topics  of  the  day,  especially  at  our 
coffee  parties  and  our  club  suppers,  for  we  soon  broke 
him  of  his  attempt  to  shine  at  dinner.  Having  thus 
settled  everything  with  Gregory,  and  heard  his  opin- 
ion, he  let  hiTn  go  a-walking  with  me,  and  jotted  down 
the  topics  and  arguments  he  had  heard.  The  very 
prospect  of  the  glory  he  was  to  earn  in  the  evening 
made  him  contented  and  happy  all  day,  Gregory 
kept  his  secret  as  I  did,  who  was  generally  let  into  it 
in  our  walk,  and  prayed  not  to  contradict  the  fat 
man,  which  I  seldom  did  when  he  was  not  too  pro- 

•  In  allasion  evidently  to  the  following  passage  in  Dugald  Stewart's 
account  of  the  life  and  writings  of  Robertson. ^Ed.  "In  the  company  of 
strangers  he  increased  his  exertions  to  amuse  and  inform ;  and  the  splendid 
variety  of  his  conversation  was  commonly  the  chief  circumstance  on  which 
they  dwelt  in  enumerating  his  talents ;  and  yet  I  must  acknowledge,  for 
my  own  j)art,  that  much  as  I  always  admired  his  powers,  when  they  were 
thus  called  forth,  I  enjoyed  his  society  less  than  when  1  saw  him  in  the 
circle  of  his  intimates,  or  in  the  bosom  of  his  family. ' ' 


172  LEYDEN. 

yoking.  Unfortunately,  one  night  Gregory  took  it  into 
his  head  to  contradict  him  when  he  was  haranguing 
very  pompously  on  tragedy  or  comedy,  or  some  sub- 
ject of  criticism.  The  poor  man  looked  as  if  he  had 
been  shot,  and  after  recovering  himself,  said  with 
a  ghastly  smile,  "  Surely  this  was  not  always  your 
opinion."  Gregory  persisted,  and  after  saying  that 
criticism  was  a  subject  on  which  he  thought  it  lawful 
to  change,  he  entirely  refuted  the  poor  undone  doctor  : 
not  another  word  did  he  utter  the  whole  evening.  He 
had  his  coffee  in  his  room  next  morning,  and  sent  for 
Gregory  before  we  left  the  parlour.  I  waited  for  an 
hour,  when  at  last  he  joined  me,  and  told  me  he  had 
been  rated  at  no  allowance  by  the  fat  man  ;  and  when 
he  defended  himself  by  saying  that  he  had  gone  far 
beyond  the  bounds  prescribed,  the  poor  soul  fell  into 
tears,  and  said  he  was  undone,  as  he  had  lost  the  only 
friend  he  had  in  the  world.  It  cost  Gregory  some 
time  to  comfort  him  and  to  exhort  him,  by  exacting 
from  him  some  deference  to  himself  at  our  future 
parties  (for  the  blockhead  till  then  had  never  so  much 
as  said  what  is  your  opinion  on  this  subject,  Dr  Gre- 
gory). A  new  settlement  was  made  between  them,  and 
we  went  on  very  well;  for  when  some  of  the  rest  were 
debating  bond  fide  with  the  absurd  animal,  I,  who 
was  in  the  secret,  gave  him  line  and  encouragement 
till  he  had  got  far  beyond  his  depth,  while  Gregory 
was  sitting  silent  in  a  corner,  and  never  interposed 
till  he  was  in  danger  of  being  drowned  in  the  mud. 
This  may  seem  a  cruel  amusement,  but  I  forgave 


THE    BRITISH    STUDENTS.  173 

Gregory,  for  there  was  no  living  with  Monckly  with- 
out it. 

We  passed  our  time  in  general  very  agreeably,  and 
very  profitably  too  ;  for  the  conversations  at  our  even- 
ing meetings  of  young  men  of  good  knowledge,  intended 
for  different  professions,  could  not  fail  to  be  instruc- 
tive, much  more  so  than  the  lectures,  which,  except 
two,  that  of  civil  law  and  that  of  chemistry,  were  very 
dull.  I  asked  Gregory  why  he  did  not  attend  the 
lectures,  which  he  answered  by  asking  in  his  turn 
why  I  did  not  attend  the  divinity  professors  (for 
there  were  no  less  than  four  of  them).  Having  heard 
all  they  could  say  in  a  much  better  form  at  home,  we 
went  but  rar6ly,  and  for  form's  sake  only,  to  hear  the 
Dutchmen.  At  this  time  we  were  in  great  anxiety 
about  the  Kebellion,  and  were  frequently  three  or  four 
weeks  without  getting  a  packet  from  England  ;  inso- 
much that  Gregory  and  I  agreed  to  make  a  trip  to 
Kotterdam  to  learn  if  they  had  heard  anything  by 
fishing-boats.  We  went  one  day  and  returned  the 
next,  without  learning  anything.  We  dined  with  my 
agreeable  friends  on  the  Scotch  Dyke,  Herries  and 
Robertson.  In  returning  in  the  schuyt,  I  said  to 
Gregory  that  he  would  be  laughed  at  for  having  gone 
so  far  and  having  brought  back  no  news,  but  if  he 
would  support  me  I  would  frame  a  gazette.  He 
promised,  and  I  immediately  wrote  a  few  paragraphs, 
which  I  said  I  had  copied  from  Allan  the  banker's 
private  letter  he  had  got  by  a  fishing-boat.  This  was 
to  impose  on  Dr  Askew,  for  Allan  was  his  banker.     I 


174  LEYDEN. 

took  care  also  to  make  Admiral  Townshend  take  two 
ships'of  the  line  at  Newfoundland,  for  he  was  Charles 
Townshend's  uncle,  and  so  on  with  the  rest  of  our 
friends.  On  our  arrival  they  all  assembled  at  our 
lodging,  and  our  news  passed  current  for  all  that  day. 
At  night  we  disclosed  our  fabrication,  being  unable  to 
hold  out  any  longer.  On  another  occasion  I  went 
down  with  Dr  Askew,  who,  as  a  learned  man  of  twenty- 
eight,  had  come  over  to  Leyden  to  collate  manuscripts 
of  ^Eschylus  for  a  new  edition.  His  father  had  given 
him  £10,000  in  the  stocks,  so  that  he  was  a  man  of 
importance.  Askew's  errand  at  this  time  was  to  cheat 
his  banker  Allan,  as  he  said  he  would  draw  on  him 
for  £100,  which  he  did  not  want,  becailse  Exchange 
was  at  that  time  against  Holland.  In  vain  did  I  try 
to  persuade  him  that  the  banker  would  take  care  not 
to  lose  by  him.  But  he  persisted,  such  being  the 
skill  in  business  of  this  eminent  Grecian.  He  had 
some  drollery,  but  neither  much  sense  nor  useful  learn- 
ing. He  was  much  alarmed  when  the  Highlanders 
got  as  far  as  Derby,  and  believed  that  London  would 
be  taken  and  the  bank  ruined.  I  endeavoured  in  vain 
to  raise  his  spirits  ;  at  last  I  told  him  that  personally 
I  did  not  much  care,  for  I  had  nothing  to  lose,  and 
would  not  return  to  Britain  under  a  bad  Government. 
You  are  the  very  man  I  want,  says  he,  for  I  have  £400 
or  £500  worth  of  books,  and  some  name  as  a  Greek 
scholar.  We'll  begin  bookselling,  and  you  shall  be  my 
partner  and  auctioneer.  This  was  soon  settled,  and  as 
soon  forgot  when  the  rebels  marched  back  from  Derby. 


THE    BRITISH   STUDENTS.  175 

AVlieii  Gregory  and  I  were  alannecl  at  some  of  the 
expensive  suppers  some  of  our  friends  gave  from  the 
taverns,  we  went  to  Askew,  whose  turn  was  next,  and 
easily  persuaded  him  to  limit  his  suppers  to  eggs  and 
bukkam  and  salad,  which  he  accordingly  gave  us  next 
night,  which,  with  tobacco  of  40  stivers  a  lb.  and  very 
good  claret,  pleased  us  all.  After  this  no  more  fine 
suppers  were  presented,  and  Gowans,  the  old  minister 
of  the  Scottish  Church,  ventured  to  be  of  our  number, 
and  was  very  pleasant. 

I  went  twice  to  the  Hague,  which  was  then  a  very 
delightful  place.  Here  I  met  with  my  kinsman, 
Willie  Jardine,  now  Sir  William,  who  was  a  cornet  in 
the  Prince  of  Orange's  Horse  Guards,  and  then  a  very 
handsome  genteel  fellow,  for  as  odd  as  he  has  turned 
out  since.  Though  I  had  no  introduction  to  anybody 
there,  and  no  acquaintance  but  the  two  students  who 
accompanied  me  the  first  time,  I  thought  it  a  delight- 
ful place.  A  ball  that  was  given  about  this  time  by 
the  Imperial  Ambassador,  on  the  Empress's  birthday, 
was  fatal  to  one  of  our  students — a  very  genteel, 
agreeable  rake,  as  ever  I  saw,  from  the  AYest  Indies. 
At  a  preceding  dancing  assembly  he  had  been  taken 
out  by  a  Princess  of  Waldeck,  and  had  acquitted 
himself  so  well  that  she  procured  him  an  invitation 
to  the  birthday  ball,  and  engaged  him  to  dance  with 
her.  He  had  run  himself  out  a  good  deal  before  ;  and 
a  fine  suit  of  white  and  silver,  which  cost  £60,  com- 
pleted his  distress,  and  he  was  obliged  to  retire  with- 
out showing  it  to  us  more  than  once.      There  was 


1 76  LEYDEN. 

another  West  Indian  there,  a  Mr  Freeman,  a  man  of 
fortune,  sedate  and  sensible.  He  was  very  handsome 
and  well-made.  Having  been  three  years  in  Leyden, 
he  was  the  best  skater  there.  There  was  an  East 
India  captain  resident  in  that  city,  whom  the  Dutch 
set  up  as  a  rival  to  Freeman,  and  they  frequently 
appeared  on  the  Rhine  together.  The  Dutchman  was 
tall  and  jolly,  but  very  active  withal.  The  ladies, 
however,  gave  the  palm  to  Freeman,  who  was  so 
handsome,  and  having  a  figure  much  like  Garrick,  all 
his  motions  were  perfectly  genteel.  This  gentleman, 
after  we  left  Leyden,  made  the  tour  of  Italy,  Sicily, 
and  Greece,  with  Willie  Gordon  and  Doddeswell ;  the 
former  of  whom  told  me  long  afterwards  that  he  had 
died  soon  after  he  returned  to  Jamaica,  which  was 
Gordon's  own  native  country,  though  his  parents  were 
Scotch,  and  cousins  of  Gordon  of  Hawhead,  in  Aber- 
deenshire. He  was  too  young  and  too  dissipated  to 
attend  our  evening  meetings ;  neither  did  Charles  Con- 
galton,  who  was  one  of  the' best  young  men  I  have  ever 
known.  His  pretence  was  that  he  could  not  leave  his 
Irish  chum  of  the  name  of  Keefe ;  but  the  truth  was, 
that  having  been  bred  a  Jacobite,  and  having  many 
friends  and.  relations  in  the  Rebellion,  he  did  not  like 
to  keep  company  with  those  who  were  warm  friends 
of  Government.  Dickson  and  he  were  my  companions 
on  a  tour  to  Amsterdam,  where  we  staid  only  three 
days,  and  were  much  pleased  with  the  magnificence, 
wealth,  and  trade  of  that  city.  Dickson  was  a  very 
honest  fellow,  but  rather  dull,  and  a  hard  student.     As 


THE    BRITISH    STUDENTS.  177 

I  commonly  sat  up  an  hour  after  the  rest  had  gone  to 
their  rooms,  chatting  or  reading  French  with  Made- 
moiselle, and  as  Dickson's  apartment  was  next  the 
parlour,  he  complained  much  of  the  noise  we  made, 
laughing  and  talking,  because  it  disturbed  him,  who 
was  a  midnight  student.  He  broke  in  upon  us  with 
impertinent  curiosity,  but  I  drove  him  to  his  bed,  and 
by  sitting  up  an  hour  longer  that  night,  and  making 
more  noise  than  usual,  we  reduced  him  to  patience  and 
close  quarters  ever  after,  and  we  made  less  noise.  I 
mentioned  somewhere  that  Mademoiselle  had  paid  for 
her  English,  which  was  true,  for  she  had  an  affair  with 
a  Scotch  gentleman  ten  or  twelve  years  before,  and 
had  followed  him  to  Leith  on  pretence  of  a  promise, 
of  which,  however,  she  made  nothing  but  a  piece 
of  money. 

At  Christmas  time,  three  or  four  of  us  passed  three 
days  at  Rotterdam,  where  my  friends  were  very  agree- 
able to  my  companions.  Young  Kennedy,  whom  we 
had  known  at  Amsterdam,  was  visiting  his  father  at 
this  time,  as  well  as  young  Ainslie,  the  other  minister  s 
son,  which  improved  our  parties.  ^Irs  Kennedy,  the 
mother,  was  ill  of  a  consumption,  and  British  physicians 
being  in  great  credit  there,  Monckly,  who  was  called 
Doctor,  though  he  had  not  taken  his  degree,  being 
always  more  forward  than  anybody  in  showing  himself 
off,  was  pitched  upon  by  Mr  Kennedy  to  visit  his  wife. 
Gregory,  who  was  really  a  physician,  and  had  acquired 
both  knowledge  and  skill  by  having  been  an  appren- 
tice in  his  brother's  shop  at  Aberdeen,  and  visited  the 

M 


178  LEYDEN. 

patients  with  him,  was  kept  in  the  background  ;  but 
he  was  anxiously  consulted  by  Monckly  twice  a-day, 
and  taught  him  his  lesson,  which  he  repeated  very 
exactly,  for  I  heard  him  two  or  three  times,  being  a 
familiar  in  the  house,  while  the  good  Doctor  was  uncon- 
scious that  I  knew  of  his  secret  oracle.  For  all  this, 
Monckly  was  only  ridiculous  on  account  of  his  childish 
vanity,  and  his  love  of  showing  himself  off.  He  was, 
in  reality,  a  very  good-natured  and  obliging  man,  of 
much  benevolence  as  well  as  courtesy.  He  practised 
afterwards  in  London  with  credit,  for  they  cured  him 
of  his  affectation  at  Batson's.  He  died  not  many 
years  after. 

At  this  time  five  or  six  of  us  made  an  agreeable 
journey  on  skates,  to  see  the  painted  glass  in  the 
church  at  Tergou.  It  was  distant  twelve  miles.  AVe 
left  Eotterdam  at  ten  o'clock,  saw  the  church,  and 
dined,  and  returned  to  Eotterdam  between  five  and 
six  in  the  evening.  It  was  moonlight,  and  a  gentle 
breeze  on  our  back,  so  that  we  returned  in  an  hour 
and  a  quarter. 

Gregory,  though  a  far  abler  man  than  Monckly,  and 
not  less  a  man  of  learning  for  his  age  than  of  taste, 
in  the  most  important  qualities  was  not  superior  to 
Monckly.  When  he  was  afterwards  tried  by  the 
ardent  spirits  of  Edinburgh  and  the  prying  eyes  of 
rivalship,  he  did  not  escape  without  the  imputation 
of  being  cold,  selfish,  and  cunning.  His  pretensions 
to  be  more  religious  than  others  of  his  profession,  and 
his  constant  eulogies  on  the  female  sex   as  at  least 


THE    BRITISH   STUDENTS.  l79 

equal,  if  not  superior,  to  the  male,  were  supposed  to 
be  lures  of  reputatiou,  or  professional  arts  to  get  into 
business.  When  those  objections  were  made  to  him 
at  Edinburgh,  I  was  able  to  take  off  the  edge  from 
them,  by  assuring  people  that  his  notions  and  modes  of 
talking  were  not  newly  adopted  for  a  purpose,  for  that 
when  at  Leyden,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  or  twenty- 
two,  he  was  equally  incessant  and  warm  on  those 
topics,  though  he  had  not  a  female  to  flatter,  nor  ever 
went  to  church  but  when  I  dragged  him  to  please 
old  Go  wan.  Having  found  Aberdeen  too  narrow 
a  circle  for  him,  he  tried  London  for  a  twelvemonth 
without  success — ^for  l^eing  ungainly  in  his  person 
and  manner,  and  no  lucky  accident  having  befallen 
him,  he  could  not  make  his  way  suddenly  in  a 
situation  where  external  graces  and  address  go  much 
further  than  profound  learning  or  professional  skilL 
Dr  Gregory,  however,  was  not  without  address,  for 
he  was  much  a  master  of  conversation  on  all  subjects, 
and  without  gross  flattery  obtained  even  more  than  a 
favourable  hearing  to  himself ;  for  never  contradicting 
you  at  first,  but  rather  assenting  or  yielding,  as  it 
were,  to  your  knowledge  and  taste,  he  very  often 
brought  you  round  to  think  as  he  did,  and  to  con- 
sider him  a  superior  man.  In  all  my  dealings  with 
him — for  he  was  my  family  physician — I  found  him 
friendly,  affectionate,  and  generous. 

An  unlucky  accident  happened  about  the  end  of 
January,  which  disturbed  the  harmony  of  our  society, 
and  introduced  imeasiness  and  suspicion  among  us. 


180  LEYDEX. 

At  an  evening  meeting,  where  I  happened  not  to  be, 
Charles  Townshend,  who  had  a  great  deal  of  wit 
which  he  was  fond  to  show,  even  sometimes  at  the 
expense  of  his  friends,  though  in  reality  one  of  the 
best-natured  of  men,  took  it  in  his  head  to  make  a 
butt  of  James  Johnstone,  afterwards  Sir  James  of 
Westerhall.  Not  contented  with  the  smartness  of  his 
raillery,  lest  it  should  be  obscure,  he  frequently  ac- 
companied it  with  that  motion  of  the  tongue  in  the 
cheek  which  explains  and  aggravates  everything.  He 
continued  during  the  evening  to  make  game  of  James, 
who,  slow  of  apprehension  and  unsuspicious,  had  taken 
all  in  good  part.  Some  one  of  the  company,  however, 
who  had  felt  Charles's  smartness,  which  he  did  not 
choose  to  resent,  had  gone  in  the  morning  to  John- 
stone and  opened  his  eyes  on  Townshend's  behaviour 
over-night. 

Johnstone,  though  not  apt  to  take  offence,  was 
prompt  enough  in  his  resentment  when  taken,  and 
immediately  resolved  to  put  Charles's  courage  to  the 
test.  I  was  sent  for  next  forenoon  by  twelve  o'clock 
to  Charles's  lodgings,  who  looked  pale  and  undone, 
more  than  I  had  ever  seen  him.  He  was  liable  at 
that  time  to  convulsion  fits,  which  seldom  failed  to 
attack  him  after  a  late  supper.  I  asked  him  what 
was  the  matter  with  him  ;  he  answered,  that  he  had 
been  late  up,  and  had  been  ill.  He  next  asked  me  if 
I  had  ever  observed  him  use  James  Johnstone  with 
ill-natured  raillery  or  sarcasm  in  company,  or  ridicule 
him  behind  his  back.     I  answered  him  that  I  had 


THE    BRITISH   STUDENTS.  181 

never  perceived  anything  between   them   but   that 
playsome  kind  of  raillery  so  frequent  among  good 
friends  and  companions,  and  that  when  Johnstone 
was  absent  I  had  never  heard  him  ridicule  him  but 
for  trifles,  in  spite  of  which  I  conceived  he  had  a 
respect  for  him.     Upon  this  he  showed  me  a  letter 
from  Johnstone,  taxinor  him  with  havinof  often  treated 
him  with  contempt  in  company,  and  particularly  for 
his  behaviour  the  nisjht  before,  which  havino;  been 
made  to  advert  to   by  a   friend  who  was  sharper- 
sighted  than  him,  had  brought  sundry  things  to  his 
recollection,  which,  though  he  did  not  mind  at  the 
time,  were  fully  explained  to  him  by  his  behaviour 
to  him  the  night  before.     The  letter  concluded  with 
a  challenge.     "And  what  answer  are  you  to  make 
to  this  1 "  said  I.     "  Not  fight,  to  be  sure,"  said  he, 
"  for  I  have  no  quarrel  with  Johnstone,  who  is  the 
best-natured  man  in  the  world."     *'  If  you  can  make 
it  up,  and  keep  it  secret,  it  may  do,  otherwise  you'll 
be  dishonoured  by  the  transaction."     I  added,  "  Find 
out  the  malicious  scoundrel  if  you  can  who  has  acted 
like  a  vile  informer,  and  take  vengeance  on  him."    He 
seemed    quite   irresolute,  and  I  left   him  with   this 
advice,  either  to  make  it  up,  or  put  it  over  as  soon 
as  possible.     He  made  it  up,  to  be  sure,  but  it  was  in 
a  manner  that  hurt  him,  for  Johnstone  and  he  went 
round  all  the  lodgings  in  Leyden,  and  inquired  of 
everybody  if  any  of  them  had  ever  heard  or  seen  him 
ridicule  Johnstone.     Everybody  said  no  to  this,  and 
he  and  Johnstone  became  the  greater  friends.     But  it 


182         DEPARTURE  FROM  HOLLAND. 

did  him  more  harm  than  it  would  or  ought  to  have 
done  at  his  raw  age,  if  he  had  not  afterwards  betrayed 
want  of  firmness  of  character.  This  was  a  pity,  for 
he  had  unbounded  capacity  and  application,  and  was 
good-tempered  and  affectionate. 

This  accident  in  some  measure  broke  the  bond  of 
our  society,  but  it  was  of  little  importance  to  us,  who 
meant  to  leave  Leyden  very  soon.  Gregory  and  I 
had  agreed  to  go  to  London  together,  and  when 
Monckly  heard  of  this  resolution,  he  determined  to 
accompany  us.  His  monitor  had  advised  him  to  take 
his  degree  in  Leyden,  but  the  honest  man  did  not 
choose  to  stand  the  examination  ;  and  he  knew  that 
by  paying  a  little  more  he  could  get  his  diploma  sent 
after  him.  Dickson  remained  to  take  his  degree,  as 
he  regarded  the  additional  guineas  much  more  than 
he  feared  the  examination.  Gregory,  with  a  degree 
of  malice  due  to  the  fat  man  for  his  vanity  and  pre- 
sumption, pressed  him  very  much  to  abide  the  trial, 
and  blazoned  to  him  the  inglorious  retreat  he  was 
about  to  make ;  but  it  would  not  do,  as  Gregory 
knew  perfectly  beforehand. 

About  the  end  of  February  or  the  beginning  of 
March  we  set  out  on  our  return  to  Britain;  when, 
passing  two  days  very  agreeably  with  our  friends  at 
Eotterdam,  we  fell  down  to  Helvoet,  and  took  our 
passage  on  board  the  packet,  which  was  to  sail  for 
Harwich  next  morning.  On  the  journey  and  voyage 
Monckly  assumed  his  proper  station,  which  was  that 
of  treasurer  and  director;  and,  to  say  the  truth,  he  did 


ARRIVAL    IN   ENGLAND.  183 

it  well ;  for  except  in  one  instance,  he  managed  our 
afl^irs  with  a  decent  economy,  no  less  than  with,  the 
generosity  that  became  his  assumed  office.  The  ex- 
ception to  this  was  his  allowing  himself  to  be  imposed 
upon  by  the  landlord  of  the  inn  at  Helvoet,  in  lapng 
in  sea-stores  for  our  voyage,  for  he  said  he  had  known 
packets  on  the  sea  for  a  week  by  calms,  &c.  The 
director  elect,  therefore,  laid  in  a  cold  ham  and  a  couple 
of  fowls,  with  a  sirloin  of  beef,  nine  bottles  of  wine 
and  three  of  brandy,  none  of  all  which  we  were  able 
to  taste  except  the  brandy. 

We  sailed  from  Helvoet  at  eight  in  the  morning, 
and  having  a  fine  brisk  gale,  quite  fair,  we  arrived  on 
the  coast  of  England  by  eight  in  the  evening  ;  though, 
having  made  the  land  too  far  to  the  northward,  it  was 
near  twelve  before  we  got  down  to  Harwich.  AVe 
had  beds  in  the  cabin,  and  were  all  so  heartily  sea- 
sick that  we  were  hardly  able  to  lift  up  our  heads 
the  whole  day,  far  less  to  partake  of  any  of  our  sea- 
stores,  except  a  little  brandy  to  settle  our  stomachs. 

We  had  one  cabin  passenger,  who  was  afterwards 
much  celebrated.  AYhen  we  were  on  the  quarterdeck 
in  the  morning,  we  observed  three  foreigners,  of  dif- 
ferent ages,  who  had  under  their  care  a  young  person 
of  about  sixteen,  very  handsome  indeed,  whom  we 
took  for  a  Hanoverian  baron  coming  to  Britain  to  pay 
his  court  at  St  James's.  The  gale  freshened  so  soon 
that  we  had  not  an  opportunity  of  conversing  with 
those  foreigners,  when  we  were  obliged  to  take  to  our 
beds  in  the  cabin.     The  young  person  was  the  only 


184  TRAVELLING    COMPANIONS. 

one  of  the  strangers  who  had  a  berth  there,  because, 
as  we  supposed,  it  occasioned  an  additional  freight. 
My  bed  was  directly  opposite  to  that  of  the  stranger, 
but  we  were  so  sick  that  there  was  no  conversation 
among  us  till  the  young  foreigner  became  very  fright- 
ened in  spite  of  the  sickness,  and  called  out  to  me  in 
French,  if  we  were  not  in  danger.  The  voice  betrayed 
her  sex  at  once,  no  less  than  her  fears.  I  consoled 
her  as  well  as  I  could,  and  soon  brought  her  above 
the  fear  of  danger.  This  beautiful  person  was  Violetti 
the  dancer,  who  was  engaged  to  the  opera  in  the  Hay- 
market,  This  we  were  made  certain  of  by  the  man, 
who  called  himself  her  father,  waiting  on  us  next  day 
at  Harwich,  requesting  our  countenance  to  his  daugh- 
ter on  her  first  appearance,  and  on  her  benefit.  I 
accordingly  was  at  the  opera  the  first  night  she  ap- 
peared, where  she  was  the  first  dancer,  and  main- 
tained her  ground  till  Garrick  married  her. 

We  had  so  much  trouble  about  our  baggage  that 
we  did  not  get  from  Harwich  till  one  o'clock,  and  I 
was  obliged  to  leave  Leeson's  picture,  which  I  had 
undertaken  to  carry  to  London  for  John  Wilkes.  We 
passed  the  night  at  Colchester,  where  the  foreigners 
were  likely  to  be  roughly  treated,  as  the  servants  at 
the  inn  took  ofi'ence  at  the  young  woman  in  men's 
clothes,  as  one  room  was  only  bespoke  for  all  the  four. 
We  interposed,  however,  when  Monckly's  authority, 
backed  by  us,  prevented  their  being  insulted.  They 
travelled  in  a  separate  coach  from  us,  but  we  made 
the  young  lady  dine  with  us  next  day,  which  secured 


FRIENDS    IN    LONDON.  185 

her  good  treatment.  We  were  so  late  in  getting  to 
London  that  we  remained  all  night  together  in  an  inn 
in  Friday  Street,  and  separated  next  day,  with  a  pro- 
mise of  seeing  one  another  often  ;  yet  so  great  is  the 
city  of  London,  and  so  busy  is  everybody  kept  there, 
that,  intimate  as  we  had  been,  it  was  three  weeks  or  a 
month  before  we  met  again.  We  had  not  yet  found 
out  the  British  Coflfeehouse,  where  so  many  of  our 
countrymen  assembled  daily. 

I  orot  a  coach,  and  went  to  Xew  Bond  Street  to 
my  cousin.  Captain  Lyon's,  who  had  been  married  for 
a  few  years  to  Lady  Catherine  Bridges,  a  daughter  of 
the  Marquess  of  Carnarvon,  and  grandchild  of  the 
Duke  of  Chandos.  Lyon's  mother  was  an  acquaint- 
ance of  the  Marchioness,  the  young  lady's  mother  of 
the  Dysart  family.  The  Marchioness  had  fallen  in 
love  with  Lyon,  who  was  one  of  the  handsomest  men 
in  London,  but  he  escaped  by  marrying  the  daughter, 
who,  though  not  handsome,  was  young  and  alluring, 
and  had  the  prospect  of  a  great  fortune,  as  she  had 
only  one  sister,  who  was  deformed.  Here  I  renewed 
my  acquaintance  with  my  aunt  Lyon,  who  was  still 
a  fine  woman.  Her  elder  sister,  Mrs  Paterson,  the 
wddow  of  a  Captain  Paterson  of  the  Bannockburn 
family,  a  very  plain-looking  sensible  woman,  kept 
house  with  her,  while  the  son  and  his  family  lived  in 
the  next  house,  which  belonged  to  Mrs  Lyon.  Lady 
Catherine  had  by  this  time  two  girls,  three  and  four 
years  of  age,  as  beautiful  children  as  ever  were  seen. 
They  had  bespoke  for  me  a  small  lodging  in  Little 


186  SOCIETY   IN    LONDON. 

Madden  Street,  within  sight  of  the  back  of  their 
house.  Lyon  was  a  cheerful  fine  fellow  as  ever  was 
born,  who  had  just  returned  with  his  troop  of  the 
Horse-Guards  from  Flanders,  where  he  and  they  had 
been  for  two  campaigns  under  the  Duke  of  Cumber- 
land. Witli  them  and  their  friends  I  passed  part  of 
my  time ;  but  having  found  some  of  my  old  friends 
lounging  about  the  British  and  Forrest's  Coffeehouses, 
in  Cockspur  Street,  Charing  Cross — viz.  John  Blair, 
afterwards  a  prebendary  of  Westminster,  Robert 
Smith,  afterwards  distinguished  by  the  appellation  of 
the  Duke  of  Roxburgh's  Smith,  who  introduced  me  to 
Dr  Smollett,  with  whom  he  was  intimate,  and  Charles 
Congalton  arriving  in  a  few  weeks  from  Leyden,  who 
was  a  stranger  as  well  as  myself  in  London — I  was 
at  no  loss  how  to  pass  my  time  agreeably,  when  Lyon 
and  his  family  were  engaged  in  their  own  circle.* 

By  Lyon,  however,  I  was  introduced  to  some 
families  of  condition,  and  was  carried  to  court  of  an 
evening,  for  George  IL  at  that  time  had  evening  draw- 
ing-rooms, where  his  Majesty  and  Princess  Amelia, 
who  had  been  a  lovely  woman,  played  at  cards,  and  the 
courtiers  sauntered  for  an  hour  or  two.  This  was  a 
very  insipid  amusement.  I  went  with  Lyon  also  and 
his  lady  to  a  ridotta  at  the  Haymarket,  a  ball  where 
there  were  not  fewer  than  fifteen  hundred  people,  and 

*  Of  John  Blair,  the  chronologist,  some  notices  will  be  found  in  the  His- 
tory of  Hinckley  (of  which  he  was  vicar)  by  Nichols,  in  the  sixth  volume  of 
the  Topographia  Britannica.  Robert  Smith  is  probably  the  same  who  suc- 
ceeded Bentley  as  Master  of  Trinity  CoUege,  Cambridge.  He  was  very 
eminent  in  ojitics  and  mathematics,  but  scarcely  anything  is  now  known  of 
him  beyond  a  scanty  notice  in  Hutton's  Mathematical  Dictionary. — Ed. 


THE    LYONS — HEATH  FIELD.  187 

which  Eobert  Keith,  the  ambassador,  told  me,  in  the 
entry,  was  a  strong  proof  of  the  greatness  and  opu- 
lence of  London,  for  he  had  stood  in  the  entry,  he  said, 
and  had  seen  all  the  ladies  come  in,  and  was  certain 
that  not  one-half  of  them  were  of  the  Court  end  of  the 
town,  for  he  knew  every  one  of  them.  Lady  Cathe- 
rine Lyon,  whom  I  squired  that  night,  and  with  whom 
I  danced,  introduced  me  to  many  of  her  acquaintance, 
and  among  the  rest  to  Lady  Dalkeith  and  her  sisters, 
the  daughters  of  John,  Duke  of  Argyle,  who,  she  said, 
were  her  cousins.  The  Countess  was  then  with  child 
of  Henry,  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  who  was  born  on  the 
14th  of  September  thereafter,  who  was  my  much- 
respected  patron  and  highly-honoured  friend. 

Captain  Lyon  introduced  me  to  his  friends,  the 
officers  of  the  Horse-Guards,  with  whom  I  lived  a  good 
deal.  The  troop  he  belonged  to,  which,  I  think,  was 
Lord  Tyrawley's,  was  one  of  the  two  which  had  been 
abroad  in  Flanders,  between  whom  and  those  at  home 
there  was  a  strong  emulation  who  should  entertain 
most  expensively  when  on  guard.  Their  parties  were 
generally  in  the  evening,  when  they  had  the  most 
expensive  suppers  that  could  be  got  from  a  tavern 
— amongst  other  things  champagne  and  ice-creams, 
both  which  were  new  to  me,  and  the  last  then  rare 
in  London.  I  had  many  very  agreeable  parties  with 
those  officers,  who  were  all  men  of  the  world,  and 
some  of  them  of  erudition  and  understandinor.  One 
I  must  particularly  mention  was  Captain  Elliot,  after- 
wards Lord  Heathfield,  the  celebrated  defender   of 


188  SOCIETY   IN   LONDON. 

Gibraltar.  A  parcel  of  us  happened  to  meet  in  the 
Park  in  a  fine  evening  in  April,  who,  on  asking  each 
other  how  they  were  engaged,  seven  or  eight  of  us 
agreed  to  sup  at  the  Cardigan  at  Charing  Cross,  among 
whom  Elliot  was  one.  Lyon  and  I  undertook  to  go 
directly  to  the  house  and  bespeak  a  room,  and  were  soon 
joined  by  our  company  and  two  or  three  more  of  their 
friends,  whom  they  had  met  in  their  walk.  We  passed 
the  evening  very  pleasantly,  and  when  the  bill  was 
called  for,  a  Mr  Philips,  who  was  in  the  chair,  and 
who,  by  the  death  of  a  relation  that  morning,  had 
succeeded  to  an  estate  of  £1000  a-year,  washed  to  pay 
the  whole  reckoning,  which  he  said  was  a  trifle.  This 
was  resisted.  He  then  said  he  would  play  odds  or 
evens  with  all  the  company  in  their  turns,  whether  he 
or  they  should  pay.  This  was  agreed  to,  and  he  con- 
trived to  lose  to  everybody  except  Captain  Elliot,  who 
said  he  never  played  for  his  reckoning.  I  observed 
on  this  afterwards  to  Lyon  that  this  appeared  parti- 
cular, and  that  Elliot,  though  by  his  conversation  a 
very  sensible  man,  yet  did  not  yield  to  the  humour  of 
the  company,  which  was  to  gratify  Philips.  He  an- 
swered me,  that  though  Captain  Elliot  was  somewhat 
singular  and  austere  in  his  manners,  yet  he  was  a  very 
worthy  and  able  officer,  for  whom  he  had  great  esteem. 
This  trait  of  singularity  occurred  to  me  when  he  be- 
came so  distinguished  an  officer,  whom  I  should  rather 
have  noted  as  sour  and  untractable. 

John  Blair  had  passed  his  trials  as  a  preacher  in 
Scotland,  but  having  a  few  hundred  j^ounds  of  patri- 


BLAIR — SMOLLETT.  189 

mony,  chose  to  pay  a  visit  to  London,  where  he  loit- 
ered till  he  spent  it  all.  After  some  time  he  thought 
of  completing  and  publishing  his  Chronological  Tables, 
the  plan  of  which  had  been  given  him  by  Dr  Hugh 
Blair,  the  celebrated  preacher.  He  became  acquainted 
with  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  with  whom  he  was  soon  a 
favourite,  and  having  been  ordained  by  him,  was  pre- 
sented to  the  livinsj  of  Burton  Cogles,  in  his  diocese. 
He  was  afterwards  teacher  of  mathematics  to  the 
Duke  of  York,  the  King's  brother,  and  was  by  his 
interest  preferred  to  be  a  prebendary  of  Westminster. 
He  was  a  lively  agreeable  fellow,  and  one  of  the  most 
friendly  men  in  the  world.  Smith  had  been  abroad 
with  the  young  Laird  of  M'Leod  of  that  period,  and 
was  called  home  with  his  pupil  when  the  Rebellion 
began.  He  had  been  ill  rewarded,  and  was  on  his 
shifts  in  London.  He  was  a  man  of  superior  under- 
standing, and  of  a  most  gentlemanly  address.  With 
Smollett  he  was  very  intimate.  We  four,  with  one  or 
two  more,  frequently  resorted  to  a  small  tavern  in  the 
corner  of  Cockspur  Street  at  the  Golden  Ball,  where 
we  had  a  frugal  supper  and  a  little  punch,  as  the 
finances  of  none  of  the  company  were  in  very  good 
order.  But  we  had  rich  enough  conversation  on 
literary  subjects,  which  was  enlivened  by  Smollett's 
agreeable  stories,  which  he  told  with  peculiar  grace. 

Soon  after  our  acquaintance,  Smollett  showed  me 
his  tragedy  of  ''James  L  of  Scotland,"  which  he  never 
could  bring  on  the  stage.  For  this  the  managers  could 
not  be  blamed,  though  it  soured  him  against  them, 


190  SOCIETY   IN   LONDON. 

and  he  appealed  to  the  public  by  printing  it ;  but  the 
public  seemed  to  take  part  with  the  managers. 

I  was  in  the  coffeehouse  with  Smollett  when  the  news 
of  the  battle  of  Culloden  arrived,  and  when  London  all 
over  was  in  a  perfect  uproar  of  joy.  It  was  then  that 
Jack  Stuart,  the  son  of  the  Provost,  behaved  in  the  man- 
ner I  before  mentioned.  About  9  o'clock  I  wished  to 
go  home  to  Lyon's,  in  New  Bond  Street,  as  I  had  pro- 
mised to  sup  with  him  that  night,  it  being  the  anni- 
versary of  his  marriage  night,  or  the  birthday  of  one 
of  his  children.  I  asked  Smollett  if  he  was  ready  to 
go,  as  he  lived  at  Mayfair ;  he  said  he  was,  and  would 
conduct  me.  The  mob  were  so  riotous,  and  the 
squibs  so  numerous  and  incessant  that  we  were  glad 
to  go  into  a  narrow  entry  to  put  our  wigs  in  our 
pockets,  and  to  take  our  swords  from  our  belts  and 
walk  with  them  in  our  hands,  as  everybody  then  wore 
swords ;  and,  after  cautioning  me  against  speaking  a 
word,  lest  the  mob  should  discover  my  country  and  be- 
come insolent,  "  for  John  Bull,"  says  he,  "  is  as  haughty 
and  valiant  to-night  as  he  was  abject  and  cowardly 
on  the  Black  Wednesday  when  the  Highlanders  were 
at  Derby."  After  we  got  to  the  head  of  the  Hay- 
market  through  incessant  fire,  the  Doctor  led  me  by 
narrow  lanes,  where  we  met  nobody  but  a  few  boys  at 
a  pitiful  bonfire,  who  very  civilly  asked  us  for  six- 
pence, which  I  gave  them.  I  saw  not  Smollett  again 
for  some  time  after,  when  he  showed  Smith  and  me 
the  manuscript  of  his  Tears  of  Scotland,  which  was 
published   not   long   after,  and  had    such   a   run  of 


SMOLLETT — GUTHRIE.  191 

approbation.  Smollett,  though  a  Tory,  was  not  a 
Jacobite,  but  he  had  the  feelings  of  a  Scotch  gentle- 
man on  the  reported  cruelties  that  were  said  to  be 
exercised  after  the  battle  of  Culloden. 

My  cousin  Lyon  was  an  Englishman  born,  though 
of  Scottish  parents,  and  an  officer  in  the  Guards,  and 
perfectly  loyal,  and  yet  even  he  did  not  seem  to  rejoice 
so  cordially  at  the  victory  as  I  expected,  "  What's  the 
matter '? "  says  I ;  "  has  your  Strathmore  blood  got  up, 
that  you  are  not  pleased  with  the  quelling  of  the  Ee- 
bellion  1 "  "  God  knows,"  said  he,  "  I  heartily  rejoice 
that  it  is  quelled ;  but  I'm  sorry  that  it  has  been 
accomplished  by  the  Duke  of  C ,  for  if  he  was  be- 
fore the  most  insolent  of  all  commanders,  what  will 
he  be  now  V  I  afterwards  found  that  this  sentiment 
prevailed  more  than  I  had  imagined  ;  and  yet,  though 
no  general,  he  had  certainly  more  parts  and  talents 
than  any  of  the  family. 

I  was  witness  to  a  scene  in  the  British  Coffeehouse, 
which  was  afterwards  explained  to  me.  Captain 
David  Cheap,  who  was  on  Anson's  voyage,  and  had 
been  wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Chili,  and  was  detained 
there  for  some  time  by  the  Spaniards,  had  arrived  in 
London,  and  frequented  this  coffeehouse.  Being  a  man 
of  sense  and  knowledge,  he  was  employed  by  Lord  An- 
son to  look  out  for  a  proper  person  to  write  his  voyage, 
the  chaplain,  whose  journal  furnished  the  chief  mate- 
rials, being  unequal  to  the  task.  Captain  Cheap  had  a 
predilection  for  his  countrymen,  and  having  heard  of 
Guthrie,  the  writer  of  the  WeMminster  Journal,  &c.. 


192  SOCIETY    IN    LONDON^. 

he  had  come  down  to  the  coffeehouse  that  evening  to 
inquire  about  him,  and,  if  he  was  pleased  with  what 
he  heard,  would  have  him  introduced.  Not  long 
after  Cheap  had  sat  down  and  called  for  coffee,  Guthrie 
arrived,  dressed  in  laced  clothes,  and  talking  loud  to 
everybody,  and  soon  fell  a-wrangling  with  a  gentle- 
man about  tragedy  and  comedy  and  the  unities,  &c., 
and  laid  down  the  law  of  the  drama  in  a  peremptory 
manner,  supporting  his  arguments  with  cursing  and 
swearing.  I  saw  he  [Cheap]  was  astonished,  when,  ris- 
ing and  going  to  the  bar,  he  asked  who  this  was,  and 
finding  it  was  Guthrie,  whom  he  had  come  down  to  in- 
quire about,  he  paid  his  coffee  and  slunk  off  in  silence. 
I  knew  him  well  afterwards,  and  asked  him  one  day  if 
he  remembered  the  incident.  He  told  me  that  it  was 
true  that  he  came  there  with  the  design  of  talking 
with  Guthrie  on  the  subject  of  the  voyage,  but  was  so 
much  disgusted  with  his  vapouring  manner  that  he 
thought  no  more  of  him."^^ 

*  Of  William  Guthrie,  whose  name  is  on  the  title-pages  of  many  voluminous 
works,  one  of  which,  the  Geographical  Grammar,  had  great  celebrity  and  a 
vast  circulation,  various  notices  will  be  found  in  D' Israeli's  Calamities  of 
Authors  and  BosweU's  Johnson.  The  account  of  Anson's  voyage,  so  well 
esteemed  in  its  own  day,  and  so  well  worth  reading  in  the  present,  both 
from  the  interesting  character  of  the  events  and  the  acbnirable  way  in  which 
they  are  told,  professes  to  have  been  compiled  from  Anson's  own  })apers  by 
Richard  W^ alter,  siu"geon  of  the  Centurion,  one  of  the  vessels  in  the  expedi- 
tion. It  is  believetl,  however,  that  the  work  was  edited,  if  not  almost  re- 
written, by  Benjamin  Robins,  the  mathematician.  William  Davis,  in  his 
Olio,  or  Bibliographical  and  Literary  Anecdotes  and  Memoranda,  says  : 
' '  Walters'  manuscript,  which  was  at  first  intended  to  have  been  printed, 
being  little  more  than  a  transcript  from  the  shiiVs  journals,  Mr  Robins  was 
recoimnended  as  a  proper  person  to  revise  it;  and  it  was  then  determined 
that  the  whole  shoidd  be  written  by  him,  the  transcripts  of  the  journals 
serving  as  materials  oidy ;  and  that,  with  the  Introduction  and  many  dis- 


LONDON    IN    1746.  193 

I  met  Captain  Cheap  in  Scotland  two  years  after 
this,  when  he  came  to  visit  his  relations.  I  met  him 
often  at  his  half-brothers,  George  Cheap,  Collector 
of  Customs,  at  Prestonpans,  and  in  summer  at  goat- 
whey  quarters,  where  I  lived  with  him  for  three 
weeks,  and  became  very  confidential  with  him.  He 
had  a  sound  and  sagacious  understandinor  and  an 
intrepid  mind,  and  had  great  injustice  done  to  him 
in  Byron's  Narrative,  which  jNIajor  Hamilton,  who 
was  one  of  the  unfortunate  people  in  the  Wager, 
told  me  was  in  many  things  false  or  exaggerated.* 
One  instance  I  remember,  which  is  this,  that  Cheap 
was  so  selfish  that  he  had  concealed  four  pounds  of  seal 
in  the  lining  of  his  coat,  to  abstract  from  the  com- 
pany for  his  own  use.  He,  no  doubt,  had  the  piece 
of  seal,  and  Captain  Hamilton  saw  him  secrete  it ; 
but  when  they  had  got  clear  of  a  cazique,  who  plun- 
dered them  of  all  he  could,  the  captain,  producing  his 
seal,  said  to  his  companions,  "  That  devil  wanted  to 
reduce  me  to  his  own  terms  by  famine,  but  I  out- 
plotted  him  ;    for  with  this  piece  of  seal  we  could 

sertations  in  the  body  of  the  book,  of  which  not  the  least  hint  had  been 
given  by  Walter,  he  extended  the  account,  in  his  own  pecidiar  style  and 
manner,  to  nearly  twice  its  original  size."  Davis  prints  a  letter  from  Lord 
Anson,  tending  to  confirm  his  statement — Ed. 

*  The  book  here  referred  to,  written  by  the  i)oet's  grandfather,  and  cited 
in  Don  Juan  as  "My  grandad's  Narrative,"  was  very  popidar.  Its  title  is 
"  The  Narrative  of  the  Honourable  John  Eyron  (commander  in  a  late  expedi- 
tion round  the  world) ;  containing  an  account  of  the  great  distresses  suffered 
by  himself  and  his  companions  on  the  coast  of  Patagonia,  from  the  year 
1740  till  their  arrival  m.  England  in  17-46 ;  with  a  description  of  St  Jago  de 
Chili,  and  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  inhabitants.  Also  a  relation  of 
the  loss  of  the  Wager  man-of-war,  one  of  Lord  Anson's  squatlron  :  "  1768.— 
Ed. 

N 


194  LONDON    IN    1746. 

have  held  out  twenty-four  hours  longer."  Another 
trait  of  his  character  Captain  Hamilton  told  me,  which 
was, — that  when  they  arrived  in  Chili,  to  the  number 
of  eleven,  who  had  adhered  to  Cheap,  and  who  were 
truly,  for  hunger  and  nakedness,  worse  than  the  low- 
est beggars,  and  were  delighted  with  the  arrival  of  a 
Spanish  officer  from  the  governor,  who  presented  Cheap 
with  a  petition,  which  he  said  he  behoved  to  sign, 
otherwise  they  could  not  be  taken  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Spanish  governor ;  Cheap,  having  glanced 
this  paper  with  his  eye,  and  throwing  it  indignantly 
on  the  ground,  said  sternly  to  the  officer  that  he 
would  not  sign  such  a  paper,  for  the  officers  of  the 
King  of  England  could  die  of  hunger,  but  they  dis- 
dained to  beg.  Hamilton  and  Byron  and  all  the 
people  fell  into  despair,  for  they  believed  that  the 
captain  was  gone  mad,  and  that  they  were  all  undone. 
But  it  had  a  quite  contrary  effect,  for  the  officer  now 
treated  him  with  unbounded  respect,  and,  going  hastily 
to  the  governor,  returned  immediately  with  a  blank 
sheet  of  paper,  and  desired  Captain  Cheap  to  dictate 
or  write  his  request  in  his  own  way. 

Hamilton  added  that  Byron  and  he  being  then  very 
young,  about  sixteen  or  seventeen,  they  frequently 
thought  they  were  ruined  by  the  captain's  behaviour, 
which  was  often  mysterious,  and  alw^ays  arrogant  and 
high  ;  but  that  yet  in  the  sequel  they  found  that  he 
had  always  acted  under  the  guidance  of  a  sagacious 
foresight.  This  was  marking  him  as  a  character  truly 
fit  for  command,  which  was  the  conclusion  I  drew 


LONDON   IN    1746.  195 

from  my  intercourse  with  him  in  Scotland.  On  my 
inquiring  at  Hamilton  what  had  made  Byron  so  severe, 
he  said  he  believed  it  was  that  the  captain  one  day 
had  called  him  "pnppy"  when  he  was  petulant,  and 
feeling  himself  in  the  wrong,  he  endeavoured  to  make 
up  with  Byron  by  greater  civility,  which  the  other 
rejecting.  Cheap  kept  him  at  a  greater  distance.  He 
entirely  cleared  Cheap  from  any  blame  for  shooting 
Cozens,  into  which  he  was  led  by  unavoidable  cir- 
cumstances, and  which  completely  re-established  his 
authority. 

As  I  had  seen  the  Chevalier  Prince  Charles  frequently 
in  Scotland,  I  was  appealed  to  if  a  print  that  was 
selling  in  all  the  shops  was  not  like  him.  My  answer 
was,  that  it  had  not  the  least  resemblance.  Having 
been  taken  one  nio;ht,  however,  to  a  meetins;  of  the 
Koyal  Society  by  Microscope  Baker,  there  was  intro- 
duced a  Hanoverian  baron,  whose  likeness  was  so 
strong  to  the  print  which  passed  for  the  young  Pre- 
tender, that  I  had  no  doubt  that,  he  being  a  stranger, 
the  printsellers  had  got  him  sketched  out,  that  they 
might  make  something  of  it  before  his  vera  effigies 
could  be  had.  Experiments  in  electricity  were  then 
but  new  in  England,  and  I  saw  them  well  exhibited 
at  Baker's,  whose  wife,  by  the  by,  was  a  daughter  of 
the  celebrated  Daniel  Defoe. 

I  dined  frequently  with  a  club  of  officers,  mostly 
Scotch,  at  a  coffeehouse  at  Chiu-ch  Court  in  the  Strand, 
where  Charles  Congalton  lodged,  and  who  introduced 
me  to  the  club,  many  of  whom  were  old  acquaintances. 


J9G  LONDON  IN   174G. 

such  as  Captain  Henry  Fletcher,  Boyd  Porterfield,  and 
sundry  more  who  had  been  spared  at  the  fatal  battle 
of  FonteDoy.  We  had  an  excellent  dinner  at  lOd. 
' — I  thought  as  good  as  those  in  Holland  at  a  guilder. 
The  company,  however,  were  so  much  pleased  that 
they  voluntarily  raised  it  to  Is.  6d.,  and  they  were 
right ;  for  as  they  generally  went  to  the  play  at  six 
o'clock,  the  advance  of  the  ordinary  left  them  at 
liberty  to  forsake  the  bottle  early. 

The  theatres  were  not  very  attractive  this  season, 
as  Garrick  had  gone  over  to  Dublin ;  there  still  re- 
mained, however,  what  was  enough  for  a  stranger — 
Mrs  Pritchard,  and  Mrs  Clive,  and  Macklin,  who  were 
all  excellent  in  their  way.  But  I  had  seen  Hughes 
and  Mrs  Hamilton  in  Edinburgh,  and  whether  or  not 
it  might  be  owing  to  the  force  of  first  impressions,  I 
then  thought  that  they  were  not  surpassed  by  those 
I  saw  in  London. 

Of  the  literary  people  I  met  with  at  this  time  in 
London,  I  must  not  forget  Thomson  the  poet  and  Dr 
Armstrong.  Dickson  had  come  to  London  from  Ley- 
den  with  his  degree  of  M.D.,  and  had  been  introduced 
to  Armstrong,  who  was  his  countryman.  A  party 
was  formed  at  the  Ducie  Tavern  at  Temple  Bar,  where 
the  company  were  Armstrong,  Dickson,  and  Andrew 
Millar,  with  Murdoch  his  friend.''     Thomson  came  at 

*  As  to  Dickson,  see  further  on,  p.  206.  The  Reverend  Patrick  Murdoch 
was  the  author  of  several  scientific  works,  and  of  memoirs  of  M  'Laurin  the 
mathematician  and  Thomson  the  poet,  to  whom  he  is  said  to  have  sat  for 
the  portrait  of  the  "little,  fat,  round,  oily  man  of  God"  in  tlie  Castle  of 
Indolence,  who  "had  a  roguish  twinkle  in  his  eye,  and  shone  all  glittering 
with  ungodly  dew." — Ed. 


LONDON    IN    1746.  197 

last,  and  disappointed  me  both  by  bis  appearance  and 
conversation.  Armstrong  bore  bim  down,  having  got 
into  his  sarcastical  vein  by  the  wine  he  had  drunk 
before  Thomson  joined  us. 

At  that  particular  time  strangers  were  excluded 
from  the  House  of  Commons,  and  I  had  not  then  a 
strong  curiosity  for  that  kind  of  entertainment.  I 
saw  all  the  sights  as  usual  for  strang-ers  in  London, 
and  having  procured  a  small  pamphlet  which  de- 
scribed the  public  buildings  with  taste  and  discern- 
ment, I  visited  them  with  that  in  my  hand.  On 
Sundays  I  wfent  with  Lyon  and  his  family  to  St 
George's  Church  in  Hanover  Square.  Sometimes  I 
went  to  St  James's  Church  to  hear  Dr  Seeker,  who 
was  the  rector  of  that  parish,  and  a  fine  preacher.  I 
was  twice  at  the  opera,  which  seemed  so  very  far 
from  real  life  and  so  imnatural  that  I  was  pleased 
with  nothing  but  the  dancing,  which  was  exquisite, 
especially  that  of  Violetti. 


CHAPTEK   y. 

1746-1748 :  AGE,  24-26, 

RETURN    TO    SCOTLAND ENGLISH    SCENERY WINDSOR  —  OXFORD  — 

TRAVELLING     ADVENTURES PRESENTED     TO      THE      CHURCH     OF 

COCKBURNSPxVTH SUBSEQUENTLY    SETTLED    AT    INVERESK HIS 

SETTLEMENT  THERE  PROPHESIED  AND  FOREORDAINED ANECDOTES 

ANTHONY    COLLINS SOCIAL    LIFE    IN    INVERESK    AND    MUSSEL- 
BURGH  ENGLISH    NOTION    THAT    THE    SCOTS    HAVE    NO    HUMOUR 

JOHN  HOME SKETCH  OF  THE  ASSISTANT  AT  INVERESK. 

Vauxhall  furnislied  early  in  May  a  fine  entertain- 
ment, but  I  was  now  urged  by  my  father  to  return 
home  ;  and  accordingly  Charles  Congalton  and  I  left 
London  about  the  middle  of  May  on  horseback,  and, 
having  Windsor  and  Oxford  to  see,  we  took  the 
west  road,  and  were  delighted  with  the  beauty  of  the 
country.  At  Windsor,  which  charmed  us,  we  met 
with  some  old  acquaintances — Dr  Francis  Home  and 
Dr  Adam  Austin,  who  were  then  surgeons  of  dragoons, 
and  who,  when  afterwards  settled  at  Edinburgh  as 
physicians,  became  eminent  in  their  line.  At  Oxford 
we  knew  nobody  but  Dr  John  Smith,  M.D.,  who  was 
a  Glasgow  exhibitioner,  and  then  taught  mathematics 
with  success  in  Oxford.     He  was  a  good  kind  of  man, 


JOURNEY   TO   SCOTLAND.  199 

and  became  an  eminent  practitioner.  He  went  about 
with  us,  and  showed  us  all  the  colleges,  with  which 
we  were  really  astonished.  We  took  the  road  by 
Warwick,  and  were  much  pleased  with  that  town  and 
Lord  Brooks'  castle.  When  we  came  to  Lichfield, 
we  met,  as  we  expected,  with  John  Dickson  of  Kil- 
bucho,  M.P.,  who  accompanied  us  during  the  rest  of 
our  journey,  till  we  arrived  in  Scotland. 

As  three  make  a  better  travelling  party  than  two, 
society  was  improved  by  tliis  junction ;  for  though  Kil- 
bucho  was  a  singular  man,  he  knew  the  country,  which 
he  had  often  travelled ;  and  his  absurdities,  which  were 
innocent,  amused  us.  As  well  as  he  knew  the  country, 
however,  when  we  came  to  the  river  Esk,  and  to  the 
usual  place  of  passing  it — for  there  was  then  no  bridge 
opposite  Gretna  Green — although  he  had  insisted  on 
our  dismissing  the  g-uide  we  had  brought  from  some 
distance  to  show  us  the  road,  yet  nothing  could  per- 
suade him,  nor  even  his  servant,  to  venture  into  that 
ford  which  he  professed  he  knew  so  well.  The  tide 
was  not  up,  but  the  river  was  a  little  swollen.  Con- 
galton  and  I  became  impatient  of  his  obstinate  cow- 
ardice, and,  thinking  we  observed  the  footstep  of  a 
horse  on  the  opposite  side  (what  we  thought  a  horse's 
footstep  turned  out  a  piece  of  sea-ware  which  the  tide 
had  left),  we  ventured  in  together  and  got  safe  through, 
while  the  gallant  knight  of  the  shire  for  the  county  of 
Peebles,  with  his  squire,  stood  on  the  bank  till  he  saw 
us  safe  through.  This  disgusted  us  not  a  little,  but 
as  I  was  to  part  with  him  at  Gretna,  and  go  round  by 


200  JOURNEY    TO    SCOTLAND. 

Annan  and  Dumfries  to  visit  my  friends,  .1  had  only 
half  an  hour  more  of  his  company,  which  I  passed  in 
deriding  his  cowardice.  Congalton,  anxious  to  get 
soon  to  Edinburgh,  accompanied  him  by  the  Moffat 
road.  But  strange  to  tell  of  a  Scotch  laird,  when 
they  came  to  the  Crook  Inn,  within  a  few  miles  of 
Kilbucho,  which  lies  about  half  a  mile  off  the  road  as 
it  approaches  Broughton,  he  wished  Congalton  a  good 
evening  without  having  the  hospitality  to  ask  him  to 
lodge  a  night  with  him,  or  even  to  breakfast  as  he 
passed  next  morning.  I  was  happy  to  find  after- 
wards that  all  the  Tweeddale  lairds  were  not  like 
this  savage. 

I  passed  only  two  days  at  Dumfries  and  Tinwald, 
at  w^hich  last  place  my  old  grandfather,  who  was  then 
seventy-two,  was  rejoiced  to  see  me,  and  not  a  little 
proud  to  find  that  his  arguments  had  prevailed,  and 
had  sufficient  force  to  prevent  my  deviating  into 
any  other  profession  than  the  clerical.  When  I  re- 
turned to  my  father's  house,  I  found  all  the  family  in 
good  health  except  my  brother  William,  who  was  then 
in  his  sixteenth  year,  and  had  all  the  appearance  of 
going  into  a  decline.  My  favourite  sister  Catherine 
had  fallen  a  prey  to  the  same  disease  in  February. 
I  had  described  to  Gregory  when  at  Ley  den  the  state 
of  her  health,  and  the  qualities  of  mind  and  temper 
that  had  attached  me  to  her  so  strongly.  He  said 
that  I  would  never  see  her  again,  for  those  exquisite 
qualities  were  generally  attached  to  such  a  frail  tex- 
ture of  body  as  promised  but  short  duration.    AVilliam 


FIRST    SERMON.  201 

was  as  remarkable  in  one  sex  as  she  was  in  the  other; 
an  excellent  capacity  for  languages  and  sciences,  a 
kind  and  generous  temper,  a  magnanimous  soul,  and 
that  superior  leading  mind  that  made  him  be  always 
looked  up  to  by  his  companions ;  with  a  beautiful 
countenance  and  a  seemingly  well-formed  body,  which 
were  not  proof  against  the  slow  but  certain  progress 
of  that  insidious  disease.  He  lived  to  November 
1747,  and  then,  to  my  infinite  regret,  gave  way  to 
fate. 

I  had  only  one  sermon  to  deliver  before  the  Presby- 
tery of  Haddington  to  become  a  preacher,  which  was 
over  in  June.  My  fii-st  appearances  were  attended  to 
with  much  expectation ;  and  I  had  the  satisfaction  to 
find  that  the  first  sermon  I  ever  preached,  not  on 
trials,  which  was  on  the  fast  day  before  the  sacra- 
ment at  Tranent,  had  met  with  universal  approbation. 
The  genteel  people  of  Prestonpans  parish  were  all 
there ;  and  one  young  lady,  to  whom  I  had  been  long 
attached,  not  having  been  able  to  conceal  her  admira- 
tion of  my  oratory,  I  inwardly  applauded  my  own 
resolution  of  adhering  to  the  promise  I  had  made  my 
family  to  persevere  in  the  clerical  profession. 

I  revisited  Dumfries  and  Tinwald  again  to  preach 
two  Sundays  for  my  grandfather,  who  gave  me  his 
warmest  approbation.  One  Mr  William  Stewart,  an 
old  clergyman,  who  heard  me  on  a  week-day  at  Dum- 
fries, gave  me  more  self-confidence,  for  he  was  a  good 
judge,  without  partiality.  I  returned  home,  and  con- 
tinued composing  a  sermon  now  and  then,  which  I 


202  PROFESSIONAL    PROSPECTS. 

first  preached  for  my  father,  and  then  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood. 

Our  society  was  still  pretty  good  ;  for  though  Hew 
Horn  was  no  more,  Mr  Keith  had  left  us,  and  Cheap's 
eldest  son,  Alexander,  had  been  killed  at  the  battle  of 
Fontenoy, — Mr  William  Grant,  then  Lord  Advocate, 
had  bought  Prestongrange,  and  resided  much  there  : 
Lord  Drummore,  too,  was  still  in  the  parish,  and  with 
both  of  them  I  was  in  good  habits.  Hew  Bannatine 
had  been  ordained  minister  of  Ormiston,  who  was  a 
first-rate  man  for  sound  understanding  and  classical 
learning;  Robertson  was  at  Gladsmuir;  and  in  Janu- 
ary 1747  John  Home  was  settled  at  Athelstaneford  ; 
so  that  I  had  neighbours  and  companions  of  the  first 
rank  in  point  of  mind  and  erudition. 

In  harvest  this  year  I  was  presented  by  John  Hay, 
Esq.  of  Spot,  to  the  church  of  Cockburnspath.  As 
my  father  and  grandfather  were  always  against  re- 
sisting Providence,  I  was  obliged  to  accept  of  it.  It 
was  an  obscure  distant  place,  without  amenity,  com- 
fort, or  society,  where  if  I  had  been  settled,  I  would 
have  more  probably  fallen  into  idleness  and  dissipa- 
tion than  a  course  of  study ;  for  preferment  is  so 
difficult  to  be  obtained  in  our  Church,  and  so  trifling 
when  you  have  obtained  it,  that  it  requires  great 
energy  of  mind  not  to  fall  asleep  when  you  are  fixed 
in  a  country  charge.  From  this  I  was  relieved,  by 
great  good-luck.  There  was  a  Mr  Andrew  Gray, 
afterwards  minister  of  Abernethy,  who  was  a  very 
great  friend  of  my  father's.     He  had  been  preaching 


PROFESSIONAL  PROSPECTS.  203 

one  Sunday  in  the  beginning  of  1747  for  Fred.  Car- 
michael,  minister  of  Inveresk,  and  stayed  with  him  all 
nio;ht :  from  him  he  had  drawn  the  secret  that  Presi- 
dent  Forbes,  who  lived  in  his  parish,  had  secured  for 
him  a  church  that  was  recently  vacant  in  Edinburgh. 
Gray,  who  was  very  friendly  and  ardent,  and  knew 
my  father's  connections,  urged  him  without  loss  of 
time  to  apply  for  Inveresk.  By  this  time  I  had 
preached  thrice  at  Cockbumspath,  and  was  very  ac- 
ceptable to  the  people.  My  father  was  unwilling  to 
take  any  step  about  a  church  that  would  not  even  be 
vacant  for  a  year  to  come ;  but  Gray  was  very  urgent, 
and  backed  all  his  other  arguments  with  my  father 
with  the  idea  that  his  not  doing  his  utmost  would  be 
peevishly  rejecting  the  gift  of  Providence  when  within 
his  reach.  My  father  at  last  mounted  his  horse,  for 
that  he  would  have  done  had  the  distance  been  but 
half  a  mile,  and  away  he  went,  and  found  Lord  Drum- 
'more  on  the  point  of  going  to  Edinburgh  for  the  week. 
My  father  opened  his  budget,  which  he  received  most 
cordially,  and  told  him  there  was  great  probability  of 
success,  for  that  he  was  well  enough  to  write  both  to 
the  Duke  of  Buccleuch  the  patron,  and  to  the  Duke 
of  Queensberry,  his  brother-in-law.  Besides  that. 
Provost  BeU  of  Dumfries  had  everything  to  say  with 
the  Duke  of  Queensberry.  In  a  few  posts  there  were 
favourable  answers  from  both  the  dukes,  and  a  pro- 
mise of  Inveresk. 

Lord  Drummore  was  a  true  friend  of  my  father, 
and  had  in  summer  1746  recommended  me  to  Lord 


204-  PROFESSIONAL   PROSPECTS. 

Stair  for  one  of  his  churches  that  was  about  to  be 
vacant  by  the  translation  of  the  minister ;  and  I 
preached  a  day  at  Kirkliston  before  his  lady  with 
that  view.  But  the  translation  did  not  take  place  at 
that  time.  Mr  Hay  had  presented  me  to  Cockburns- 
path,  and  on  that  I  would  have  been  settled.  The 
Crown,  soon  after  I  gave  it  up,  commenced  a  pro- 
secution against  Mr  Hay,  and  were  found  to  have 
the  right.  Mr  John  Hay  of  Spot  was  a  very  good 
man,  though  not  of  remarkable  talents  :  he  died  un- 
married, and  the  estate  went  to  his  brother  Wil- 
liam. My  father  had  been  their  tutor  in  the  year 
1714-15,  and  they  retained  the  greatest  regard  for 
him. 

In  the  preceding  winter  I  had  preached  three  times 
at  Cockburnspath,  and  was  so  acceptable  to  the  people 
that  I  should  have  an  unanimous  call,  which  was  on 
the  point  of  being  moderated  when  the  promise  of 
Inveresk  was  obtained.  My  father  wished  me  to  let 
ray  settlement  go  on,  but  I  resisted  that,  as  I  thought 
it  was  tampering  with  people  to  enter  into  so  close  a 
relation  with  them  that  was  so  soon  to  be  dissolved. 
The  puzzle  was  how  to  get  off  from  the  Presbytery  of 
Dunbar,  who  were  desirous  of  having  me  among 
them ;  but  I  soon  solved  the  difficulty  by  saying  to 
Lord  Drummore  and  my  father  that  nothing  could 
be  so  easy;  for  as  I  had  accepted  of  the  presentation 
by  a  letter  of  acceptance,  I  had  nothing  to  do  but  to 
withdraw  that  acceptance  ;  this  I  accordingly  did  in 
January  or  February  1747.     At  this  period  it  was 


PROFESSIONAL  PROSPECTS.  205 

that  John  Home  was  settled  in  Athelstaneford,  which 
he  obtained  by  the  interest  of  Alexander  Home, 
Esq.  of  Eccles,  afterwards  Solicitor-General,  with  Sir 
Francis  Kinloch,  who  was  his  uncle.  He  was  still 
alive  as  well  as  his  lady,  but  his  son  David,  who  was 
the  year  before  married  to  Harriet  Cockburn,  the 
sister  of  Sir  Alexander,  was  living  in  the  house  of 
Gilmerton,  which,  as  it  had  been  always  hospitable, 
was  rendered  more  agreeable  by  the  young  people  ; 
for  the  husband  was  shrewd  and  sensible,  and  his 
wife  beautiful,  lively,  and  agreeable,  and  was  aspiring 
at  some  knowledge  and  taste  in  belles  lettres.  This 
house,  for  that  reason,  became  a  great  resort  for  John 
Home  and  his  friends  of  the  clergy. 

This  summer,  1747,  passed  as  usual  in  visiting 
Dumfriesshire,  where  I  had  many  friends  and  rela- 
tions ;  where,  in  addition  to  the  rest,  I  became  well 
acquainted  with  Mr  William  Cunningham,  at  that 
time  minister  of  Durrisdeer,  and  one  of  the  most 
accomplished  and  agreeable  of  our  order.  When  the 
Duchess  of  Queensberry  was  at  Drumlanrig,  where  she 
was  at  least  one  summer  after  he  was  minister,  she  soon 
discovered  his  superior  merit,  and  made  him  her  daily 
companion,  insomuch  that  the  servants  and  country 
people  called  him  her  Grace's  walking  -  staff.  My 
cousin,  William  Wight,  afterwards  professor  at  Glas- 
gow, was  a  great  favourite  of  this  gentleman,  and 
used  to  live  much  Avith  him  in  summer  durins:  the 
vacation  of  the  College  of  Edinburgh,  and  was  very 
much  improved  by  his  instructive  conversation. 


206  FAMILY   POLITICS. 

My  sister  Margaret,  who  had  been  brought  up  at 
Dumfries  by  her  aunt  Bell,  who  had  no  children,  was 
now  past  fifteen,  and  already  disclosed  all  that  beauty 
of  person,  sweetness  of  temper  and  disposition,  and 
that  superiority  of  talents  which  made  her  afterwards 
be  so  much  admired,  and  gave  her  a  sway  in  the 
politics  of  the  town  which  was  surprising  in  so 
young  a  female.  Her  uncle,  George  Bell,  was  the 
political  leader,  who  was  governed  by  his  wife, — who 
was  swayed  by  her  niece  and  Frank  Baton,  Surveyor 
of  the  Customs,  who  was  a  very  able  man,  and  who, 
with  my  sister,  were  the  secret  springs  of  all  the  pro- 
vost's conduct. 

Dr  Thomas  Dickson,  who  was  his  nephew,  by  his 
solicitation,  after  trying  London  for  nine  years,  was 
prevailed  on  by  his  uncle,  the  provost,  to  come  down 
to  Dumfries  in  1755,  to  try  his  fortune  as  a  practi- 
tioner of  physic  ;  but  Dr  Even  Gilchrist  was  too  well 
established,  and  the  field  too  narrow,  for  him  to 
do  anything  ;  so  at  the  end  of  a  year  he  returned  to 
London  again,  where  he  did  better.  During  that 
year,  however,  he  did  what  was  not  very  agreeable  to 
me.  He  gained  my  sister's  affections,  and  a  promise 
of  marriage,  though  in  point  of  mind  there  was  a  very 
great  inequality ;  but  he  had  been  the  only  young 
man  in  the  town  whose  conversation  was  enlightened 
enough  for  her  superior  understanding,  and  she  had 
been  pestered  by  the  courtship  of  several  vulgar 
and  illiterate  blockheads,  to  be  clear  of  whom  she 
engaged  herself,  though  that  engagement  could  not 


FAMILY    POLITICS.  207 

be  fulfilled  for  four  years  or  more,  when  their  uncle 
the  provost  was  dead,  and  Dickson  in  better  circum- 
stances. 

I  had,  for  three  weeks  this  summer,  been  at  the 
goat-whey  with  Mrs  Cheap's  family,  at  a  place  called 
Duchery,  at  the  head  of  the  Forth,  where  I  met 
Captain  David  Cheap,  above  mentioned.  There  was 
also  the  magnet  which  drew  me  after  her,  with  unseen 
though  irresistible  power, — the  star  that  swayed  and 
guided  all  my  actions ;  and  there  I  hoped  that,  by 
acquiring  the  esteem  of  the  uncle,  I  had  the  better 
chance  of  obtaining  my  object.  In  the  first  I  suc- 
ceeded, but  in  the  last  I  finally  failed,  though  I  did 
not  desist  from  the  persistence  for  several  years  after. 
In  the  end  of  this  year  my  brother  William  died,  at 
the  age  of  seventeen,  who,  in  spite  of  his  long  bad 
health,  was  likely  to  have  acquired  as  much  learning 
and  science  as,  with  his  good  sense,  would  have  made 
him  a  distinguished  member  of  society.  He  was 
much  regretted  by  all  his  companions,  who  loved  him 
to  excess.  His  own  chief  reo^ret  was,  that  he  was  not 
to  live  to  see  me  minister  of  Inveresk,  the  prospect  of 
which  settlement  so  near  my  father  had  given  him 
much  satisfaction. 

When  Mr  Frederick  Carmichael  was  translated  to 
Edinburgh,  and  the  time  drew  near  when  I  was  to  be 
presented  to  Inveresk,  there  arose  much  murmuring 
in  the  parish  against  me,  as  too  young,  too  full  of 
levity,  and  too  much  addicted  to  the  company  of  my 
superiors,  to  be  fit  for  so  important  a  charge,  together 


208  SETTLEMENT    AT    INVERESK. 

with  many  doubts  about  my  having  the  grace  of  God, 
an  occult  quality  which  the  people  cannot  define,  but 
surely  is  in  full  opposition  to  the  defects  they  saw  in 
me.*  A  part  of  my  early  history  was  on  this  occasion 
of  more  effect  than  can  be  conceived.  There  was  one 
Ann  Hall,  a  sempstress,  who  had  lived  close  by  the 
manse  of  Prestonpans  when  I  was  a  boy.  She  was 
by  this  time  married  at  Dalkeith,  and  a  Seceder  of 
the  strictest  sect,  and  a  great  leader  among  her  own 
people.  As  many  people  from  Inveresk  parish  fre- 
quented her  shop  at  Dalkeith  on  market-days,  the 
conversation  naturally  fell  on  the  subject  of  who  was 
to  be  their  minister.  By  this  time  I  had  been  pre- 
sented, but  they  said  it  would  be  uphill  work,  for  an 
opposition  was  rising  against  so  young  a  man,  to 
whom  they  had  many  faults,  and  that  they  expected 
to  be  able  to  prevent  the  settlement.  "  Your  opposi- 
tion will  be  altogether  in  vain,"  says  Mrs  Ann,  "  for  I 
know  that  it  is .  foreordained  that  he  shall  be  your 
minister.  He  foretold  it  himself  when  he  was  but  six 
years  of  age  ;  and  you  know  that  *  out  of  the  mouths 
of  babes  and  sucklings,' "  &c.  The  case  was,  that  soon 
after  I  had  read  the  Bible  to  the  old  wives  in  the 
churchyard,  as  1  mentioned  (p.  4),  1  was  diverting 
myself  on  Mrs  Ann's  stairhead,  as  was  often  the  case. 
She  came  to  the  door,  and,  stroking  my  head  and 
caressing  me,  she  called  me  a  fine  boy,  and  hoped  to 

*  In  his  ' '  Recollections, "  lie  adds  to  tliis  catalogue  of  objections — ' '  I  danced 
frequently  in  a  manner  prohibited  by  the  laws  of  the  Church  ;  that  I  wore 
my  hat  agee  ;  and  had  been  seen  galloping  tlirough  the  Links  one  day  lie- 
tween  one  and  two  o'cl(x;k." 


SETTLEMENT   AT   INVERESK.  209 

live  to  see  me  my  father's  successor.  "  No,  no,"  says 
I  (I  suppose,  alarmed  at  tlie  thoughts  of  my  father 
dying  so  soon),  "  111  never  be  minister  of  that  church; 
but  yonder's  my  church,"  pointing  to  the  steeple  of 
Inveresk,  which  was  distinctly  seen  from  the  stair- 
head. She  held  up  her  hands  with  wonder,  and  stored 
it  up  itL  her  heart ;  and  telling  this  simple  story 
twenty  times  every  market-day  to  Musselburgh  people 
for  several  months,  it  paade  such  an  impression  that 
the  opposition  died  away.  The  reign  of  enthusiasm 
was  so  recent,  that  such  anecdotes  still  made  an 
impression  on  the  populace. 

After  all  the  forms  were  gone  through,  and  about 
a  year  had  elapsed  after  the  translation  of  JMr  Frede- 
rick Carmichael  to  Edinburgh,  I  was  ordained  minister 
of  Inveresk,  on  the  2d  of  August,  O.S.,  1748,  by  Mr 
Eobert  Paton,  minister  of  Lasswade  (as  honest  and 
gentlemanly  a  person  as  any  of  his  cloth),  with  the 
almost  universal  goodwill  of  the  parish.  The  only 
person  of  consideration  who  was  not  present  at  the 
ordination  was  Sir  James  Dalrymple  of  Newhailes, 
who  had  taken  umbrage  at  his  being  refused  the  pre- 
sentation, when  he  had  applied  for  it  to  Gersham 
Carmichael,  the  brother  of  Frederick.  He  and  his 
family,  however,  attended  the  church  on  the  first 
Sunday  after  the  ordination,  when  he  came  round  and 
welcomed  me  to  the  parish,  and  invited  me  to  dine 
with  him  next  day,  which  I  did,  and  continued  ever 
after  in  perfect  friendship  with  him  till  his  death  in 
1751. 

o 


210  PERSONAL   SKETCHES. 

Sir  James  Dalrjmple  was  the  son  of  Sir  David,  who 
had  been  King's  Advocate  from  1709  to  1720,  and  was 
the  youngest,  and,  as  was  said,  the  ablest,  of  all  the 
sons  of  the  first  Lord  Stair.  He  had  loaded  himself 
with  debt  in  the  South  Sea,  but  his  son  Sir  James 
was  Auditor  of  the  Exchequer,  which  enabled  him  to 
keep  up  the  rank  of  his  family.  He  was  hospitable  and 
gentlemanly,  and  very  charitable.  He  died  in  1751  of 
a  lingering  disorder  (an  anasarca),  and  wished  me  to  be 
often  with  him  when  he  was  ill ;  and  though  he  never 
wished  me  to  pray  with  him  when  we  were  left  alone, 
always  gave  the  conversation  a  serious  turn,  and 
talked  like  a  man  who  knew  he  was  dying.  His  lady 
(Lady  Christian  Hamilton,  a  sister  of  the  celebrated 
Lord  Binning,  who  died  before  him)  had  warned  me 
against  speaking  to  him  about  death,  "for  Jamie,"  she 
said,  "was  timid;"  so  I  allowed  him  always  to  lead  the 
conversation.  One  day  we  were  talking  of  the  deist- 
ical  controversy,  and  of  the  progress  of  deism,  when 
he  told  me  that  he  knew  Collins,  the  author  of  one  of 
the  shrewdest  books  against  revealed  religion.  He 
said  he  was  one  of  the  best  men  he  ever  had  known, 
and  practised  every  Christian  virtue  without  believing 
in  the  Gospel ;  and  added,  that  though  he  had  swam 
ashore  on  a  plank — for  he  was  sure  he  must  be  in 
heaven — yet  it  was  not  for  other  people  to  throw  them- 
selves into  the  sea  at  a  venture.  This  proved  him  to 
be  a  sincere  though  liberal-minded  Christian.  I  was 
sorry  for  his  death,  for  he  was  respected  in  the  parish, 
and  had  treated  me  with  much  kindness. 


PERSONAL   SKETCHES.  211 

There  was  a  Mr  James  Graham,  advocate,  living 
here  at  this  time,  a  man  of  distinguished  parts  and 
great  business.  He  was  raised  to  the  bench  in  1749, 
and  died  in  1751.  He  had  one  daughter,  Mrs  Baron 
Mure.  He  was  an  open  friendly  man,  and  gave  me 
every  sort  of  countenance  both  as  his  minister  and 
friend,  and  was  a  man  of  great  public  spirit.  He  was 
liable  in  a  great  degree  to  a  nervous  disorder,  which 
oppressed  him  with  low  spirits :  he  knew  when  he 
was  going  to  fall  ill,  and  as  it  sometimes  conj&ned  him 
for  three  months,  he  sent  back  his  fees  to  the  agents, 
who  all  of  them  waited  tiQ  he  recovered,  and  applied 
to  him  again.  He  was  Dougalstone's  brother,  and  a 
very  powei-fid  barrister.* 

Lord  Elchies,  a  senior  Judge,  lived  at  Carberry,  in 
the  parish,  and  was  in  all  respects  a  most  regular  and 
exemplary  parishioner.t  His  lady,  who  was  a  sister 
of  Sii*  Eobert  Dickson's,  was  dead,  and  his  family  con- 
sisted of  three  sons  and  three  or  four  daughters,  un- 
married, for  some  of  the  elder  daughters  were  married. 
He  came  every  Sunday  with  all  his  family  to  church, 
and  remained  to  the  afternoon  service.  As  he  lived  in 
the  House  of  Carberry,  he  had  the  aisle  in  the  church 
which  belonged  to  that  estate,  where  there  was  a  very 
good  room,  where  he  retired  to  a  cold  collation,  and 


*  DoTigalston  was  the  name  of  the  family  estate,  inherited  by  the  elder 
brother.     The  Judge  took  the  title  of  Lord  Easdale.— Ed. 

+  Patrick  Grant,  Lord  Elchies,  •well  known  to  lawyers  by  his  Collection  of 
Reports  of  the  Decisions  of  the  Court  of  Session  from  1733  to  1754,  arranged 
in  alphabetical  order,  according  to  the  matter  of  the  legal  principle  involved 
in  each  case.     See  Tytler's  Lift  of  KatntA,  L  39.— Ed. 


212  PERSONAL   SKETCHES. 

took  Sir  Eobert  Dickson  and  me  always  with  him 
when  I  did  not  preach  in  the  afternoon.  He  was  an 
eminent  Judge,  and  had  great  knowledge  of  the  law  ; 
but  though  he  was  held  to  be  a  severe  character,  I 
found  him  a  man  agreeable  and  good-tempered  in 
society.  He  attended  as  an  elder  at  the  time  that  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  administered, 
and  followed  one  practice,  in  which  he  was  singular. 
It  is  the  custom  for  elders  to  serve  tables  in  sets 
and  by  turns,  that  all  may  serve  and  none  be  fatigued. 
When  it  was  his  turn  to  retire  to  his  seat,  he  entered 
it,  as  it  was  close  by  the  communion-table,  but  never 
sat  down  till  the  elements  were  removed,  which  could 
not  be  less  than  an  hour  and  a-half.  I  mentioned 
this  singularity  to  him  one  day,  wishing  to  have  it 
explained,  when  he  said  that  he  thought  it  irreverent 
for  any  one  who  ministered  at  the  table  to  sit  dow^n 
while  the  sacred  symbols  were  present.  He  removed 
to  the  House  of  Inch,  nearer  Edinburgh  (when  an 
owner  came  to  live  at  Carberry,  about  the  year  1752), 
and  died  of  a  fever  in  1754,  being  one  of  nine  Judges 
who  died  in  the  course  of  two  years,  or  a  little  more. 
His  eldest  son  was  Mr  Baron  Grant;  his  second, 
Eobert,  captain  of  a  fifty  -  gun  ship,  died  young ; 
Andrew,  the  third,  survived  his  brothers,  and  died,  as 
the  Baron  did,  in  Granada. 

Sir  Robert  Dickson  of  Carberry,  Bart.,  was  great- 
grandson  of  Dr  David  Dickson,  a  celebrated  professor 
of  divinity  in  Edinburgh,  who  was  one  of  the  com- 
mittee who  attended  the  Scotch  army  in  England,  in 


PEESONAL   SKETCHES.  213 

Charles  I.'s  time,  and  got  his  share  of  the  sum  that 
was  paid  for  delivering  the  King  to  the  English  army. 
His  having  acquired  an  estate  in  those  days  does  not 
imply  that  he  had  acquired  much  money,  for  land  was 
very  cheap  in  those  days.  There  was  annexed  to  the 
estate  the  lordship  of  Inveresk,  now  in  the  Duke  of 
Buccleuch,  with  the  patronage  of  the  parish. 

This  Sir  Eobert,  being  a  weak  vain  man,  had  got 
through  his  whole  fortune.  The  estate  was  sold,  and 
he  now  lived  in  a  house  in  Inveresk,  opposite  to  Mr 
Colt's,  called  Rosebank,  built  near  a  hundred  years 
before  by  Sir  Thomas  Young,  Knight.  Sir  Robert 
Dickson's  lady  was  a  daughter  of  Douglas  of  Dornoch, 
a  worthy  and  patient  woman,  who  thought  it  her 
duty  not  only  to  bear,  but  palliate  the  weaknesses 
and  faults  of  her  husband.  They  had  one  son,  Robert, 
who  was  in  the  same  classes  at  the  College  with  me, 
and  was  very  promising.  He  went  young  to  the  East 
Indies  to  try  to  mend  their  broken  fortunes,  and  died 
in  a  few  years.  There  were  three  or  four  daughters. 
Sir  Robert  had  obtained  an  office  in  the  Customs  or 
Excise  of  about  £'130,  on  which,  by  the  good  manage- 
ment of  his  wife  and  daughters,  he  in  those  days  lived 
very  decently,  and  was  respected  by  the  common 
people,  as  he  had  been  once  at  the  head  of  the  parish. 
He  loved  twopenny  and  low  company,  which  contri- 
buted to  his  popularity,  together  with  his  being  mild 
and  silent  even  in  his  cups. 

Colin  Campbell,  Esq.,  who  had  been  Collector  at 
Prestonpans,   and  was   promoted   to   the    Board   of 


214  PERSONAL   SKETCHES. 

Customs  in  1738,  lived  now  at  Pinkie  House,  and 
had  several  sons  and  daughters,  my  early  com- 
panions. 

There  lived  at  that  time,  in  the  corner  of  Pinkie 
House,  by  himself,  Archibald  Robertson,  commonly 
called  the  Gospel,  uncle  to  the  celebrated  Dr  Robertson 
— -a  very  singular  character,  who  made  great  part  of 
our  amusement  at  Pinkie  House,  as  he  came  through 
a  passage  from  his  own  apartment  every  night  to 
supper,  and  dined  there  likewise,  as  often  as  he  pleased, 
for  which  he  paid  them  a  cart  of  coals  in  the  week,  as 
he  took  charge  of  Pinkie  coal,  which  his  brother-in- 
law,  William  Adam,  architect,  and  he,  had  a  lease  of. 
He  was  a  rigid  Presbyterian,  and  a  severe  old  bachelor, 
whose  humours  diverted  us  much.  He  was  at  first 
very  fond  of  me,  because  he  said  I  had  common- 
sense,  but  he  doubted  I  had  but  little  of  the  grace  of 
God  in  me  ;  and  when  Dr  George  Kay,  one  of  his 
great  friends,  posed  him  on  that  notion,  he  could  not 
explain  what  he  meant,  but  answered  that  I  was  too 
good  company  to  have  any  deep  tincture  of  religion. 
Kay  then  asked  if  he  thought  he  had  any  grace,  as  he 
had  seen  him  much  amused  and  pleased  when  he 
sang,  which  was  more  than  I  could  do.  He  replied, 
that  his  singing,  though  so  excellent,  did  not  much 
raise  him  in  his  opinion. 

There  was  likewise  living  at  Inveresk,  John  Murray, 
Esq.,  Clerk  of  Session,  of  the  Ochtertyre  family,  who, 
having  been  a  rake  and  spendthrift,  had  married 
Lucky  Thom,   a   celebrated   tavern-keeper,  to  clear 


PERSONAL   SKETCHES.  215 

c£4000  of  debt  that  he  had  contracted  to  her.*  She 
was  dead,  but  there  was  a  fine  girl  of  a  daughter,  who 
kept  house  for  her  father.  There  was  very  good 
company,  especially  of  the  Jacobite  party,  came  about 
the  house,  where  I  was  very  often. 

There  was  likewise  Mr  Oliver  Colt,  who  resided  in 
the  family  house  in  Inveresk,  who,  in  two  or  three 
years  afterwards,  by  the  death  of  an  uncle  and  brother, 
had  come  to  a  laro;e  fortune.  He  was  descended  of 
those  clergymen  of  the  parish,  the  first  of  whom  was 
ordained  in  1609,  whose  father,  I  have  heard,  was  a 
professor  at  St  Andrews. 

Oliver  was  a  man  of  mean  appearance  and. habits, 
and  had  passed  much  of  his  time  with  the  magistrates 
and  burghers  of  Musselburgh,  and,  ha^dng  humour, 
was  a  great  master  of  their  vulgar  wit.  AMien  he 
grew  rich,  he  was  deserted  by  his  old  friends,  and 
had  not  manners  to  draw  better  company  about  him, 
insomuch  that,  having  been  confined  for  a  good  while 
to  his  house  by  illness,  though  not  keeping  his  room, 
when  an  old  lady,  a  Mrs  Carse,  went  in  to  ask  for 
him,  he  complained  bitterly  that  it  was  the  forty-third 
day  that  he  had  been  confined,  and  no  neighbour  had 
ever  come  near  him.  He  married  afterwards  a  lady 
of  quality,  and  had  enough  of  company.  His  son 
Kobert,  who  died  in  1798,  was  one  of  the  best  and 
worthiest  men  that  ever  the  parish  bred  in  my  time, 
and  I  was  much  afflicted  with  his  early  death. 

*  Lest  the  reader  should  doubt  the  printer's  accuracy,  it  is  deemed  pru- 
dent to  state  that  £4000  is  the  actual  amount  stated  in  the  author's  MS. — 
Ed. 


216  PERSONAL   SKETCHES. 

The  magistrates  and  town-council  were  at  this  time 
less  respectable  than  they  had  been ;  for  the  Whigs, 
in  1745,  had  turned  out  the  Jacobites,  who  were 
more  gentlemanlike  than  their  successors,  and  were 
overlooked  by  Government,  as  Musselburgh  was  only 
a  burgh  of  regality,  dependent  on  the  Duke  of 
Buccleuch.  The  new  magistrates  were  of  very  low 
manners  and  habits,  but  good  Whigs  and  Presby- 
terians. All  of  the  burghers,  except  two  of  the  old 
magistrates.  Smart  and  Vernon,  still  preserved  the 
old  custom  at  their  family  feasts  of  making  the  com- 
pany pay  for  their  drink.  There  were  few  or  no  shops 
in  the  town,  and  but  one  in  each  of  the  streets  of 
Musselburgh  and  Fisherrow,  where  even  a  pound  of 
sugar  could  be  bought,  and  that  alw^ays  one  penny 
per  pound  dearer  than  at  Edinburgh ;  so  that  they  had 
very  little  sale  at  a  time  when  a  woman  would  have 
run  to  Edinburgh  w^ith  her  basket,  and  brought  half  a 
hundredweight  for  a  groat,  which  did  not  rise  to 
above  sixpence  till  after  the  year  1760. 

There  were  no  lodging-houses  at  this  time  in  the 
town,  and  as  it  was  a  dragoon  quarter,  where  generally 
two  troops  lay,  the  officers  were  obliged  to  accept 
their  billets  in  burghers'  houses.  The  only  lodging  I 
remember  was  in  a  by-street,  between  Musselburgh 
and  Newbigging,  where  the  late  General  George  Ward 
and  his  chum  lodged  for  a  year,  and  where  a  corporal 
and  his  wife  would  not  think  themselves  well  accom- 
modated now.  As  in  those  days  the  dragoons  gene- 
rally stayed  two  years  in  Scotland,  and  did  not  always 


PERSONAL   SKETCHES.  2l7 

change  quarters  at  the  end  of  a  year,  I  became  inti- 
mate with  Ward,  then  a  lieutenant,  a  sensible  man 
and  a  good  scholar,  and  pleasant  company,  though  he 
stuttered, 

I  have  not  yet  mentioned  the  two  most  able  inhabi- 
tants here  at  this  time,  who  were  Alexander  Wood, 
surgeon,  and  Commissioner  Cardonnel.  Sandie  Wood 
was  very  young,  not  above  twenty-one  or  twenty-two ; 
but  there  being  an  opening  here  by  means  of  the 
illness  of  the  senior  practitioner,  Wood  was  in\dted 
out  by  a  few  of  the  principal  people,  and  got  immed- 
iately into  some  business.  His  father,  an  opident 
farmer  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Edinburgh,  had  bound 
him  an  apprentice  to  his  brother,  a  surgeon,  weU 
employed  by  people  of  inferior  rank,  and  surgeon 
to  the  poorhouse,  then  recently  erected.  Sandie 
Wood  was  a  handsome  stout  feUow,  with  fine  black 
eyes,  and  altogether  of  an  agreeable  and  engaging 
appearance.  He  was  perfectly  illiterate  in  every- 
thing that  did  not  belong  to  his  own  profession,  in 
which  even  he  was  *by  no  means  a  great  student. 
Some  scrapes  he  got  into  with  women  drove  him 
from  this  place  in  two  or  three  years  for  his  good. 
One  gentlewoman  he  got  with  child,  and  did  not 
marry.  When  he  had  got  over  this  difficulty,  another 
fell  with  child  to  him,  whom  he  married.  She  died 
of  her  child  ;  and  Sanders  was  soon  after  called  to  a 
berth  in  Edinburgh,  on  the  death  of  his  uncle. 

Sanders  supplied  his  want  of  learning  with  good 
sense,  and  a  mind  as  decisive  as  his  eye  was  quick. 


218  PERSONAL  SKETCHES. 

He  knew  the  symptoms  of  diseases  with  a  glance,  and 
having  no  superfluous  talk  about  politics  or  news — for 
books  very  few  of  the  profession  knew  anything  about 
— he  wasted  no  time  in  idle  talk,  like  many  of  his 
brethren,  but  passed  on  through  steep  and  narrow 
lanes,  and  upright  stairs  of  six  or  seven  stories  high, 
by  which  means  he  got  soon  into  good  business,  and 
at  last,  his  hands  being  as  good  as  his  eyes,  on  the 
death  of  George  Lauder  he  became  the  greatest  and 
most  successful  operator  for  the  stone,  and  for  all 
other  difficult  cases.  His  manners  were  careless  and 
unpolished,  and  his  roughness  often  offended ;  but  it 
was  soon  discovered  that,  in  spite  of  his  usual 
demeanour,  he  was  remarkably  tender-hearted,  and 
never  slighted  any  case  where  there  was  the  least 
danger.  I  found  him  always  a  very  honest,  friendly, 
and  kind  physician.  He  is  doing  business  yet  in  his 
seventy-fourth  year,  and  although  his  faculties  are 
impaired,  and  his  operations  long  over,  he  gives  satis- 
faction to  his  patients.  He  has  always  been  convivial, 
belongs  to  many  clubs,  and  sings  a  good  song. 

The  other  person  was  Mansfelt  Cardonnel,  Esq., 
Commissioner  of  the  Customs.  His  father,  Adam  de 
Cardonnel  (for  they  were  French  Protestants  by  de- 
scent), had  been  secretary  to  the  Duke  of  Schomberg, 
who  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  the  Boyne,  at  the  age 
of  eighty.  He  had  been  aff'ronted  the  day  before  by 
King  William  not  having  intrusted  him  as  usual  with 
his  plan  of  the  battle,  as  Adam  de  Cardonnel  told 
his  son.     Another  brother,  James,  was  secretary  to 


PERSONAL    SKETCHES.  219 

the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  and  had  made  a  large  for- 
tune. His  daughter  and  heiress  was  Lady  Talbot, 
mother  of  Lord  Dynevor.  My  friend's  mother 
was  a  natural  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Mon- 
mouth  ;  and  as  he  was  by  some  other  line  related  to 
Waller  the  poet,  he  used  to  boast  of  his  being  de- 
scended from  the  Usurper  as  well  as  the  royal  line. 
He  was  not  a  man  of  much  depth  or  genius,  but  he 
had  a  rio;ht  soimd  understanding;,  and  was  a  man  of 
great  honour  and  integrity,  and  the  most  agreeable 
companion  that  ever  was.  He  excelled  in  story- 
telling, like  his  great-grandfather,  Charles  H.,  but 
he  seldom  or  ever  repeated  them,  and  indeed  had 
such  a  collection  as  served  to  season  every  conversa- 
tion. He  was  very  fond  of  my  companions,  particu- 
larly of  John  Home,  who  was  very  often  with  me. 
On  a  very  limited  income  he  lived  very  hospitably  ; 
he  had  many  children,  but  only  one  son,  a  doctor, 
remained.  The  son  is  now  Adam  de  Cardonnel  Law- 
son  of  Chirton,  close  by  Sheills,  a  fine  estate  that  was 
left  him  by  a  Mr  Hilton  Lawson,  a  cousin  of  his 
mother's,  whose  name  was  Hilton,  of  the  Hilton 
Castle  family,  near  Sunderland.* 

There  was  another  gentleman,  whom  I  must  men- 

*  There  is  an  "Adam  de  Cardonnel"  known  as  the  author  of  a  work  on 
the  Scottish  Coinage,  and  of  Picturesque  Antiquities  of  Scotland,  containing 
etchings  of  many  of  the  ruined  ecclesiastical  and  baronial  buildings  of  Scot- 
lancL  The  editor  has  often  endeavoured,  without  success,  to  find  out  who 
it  was  that  took  so  much  interest  in  these  architectural  relics,  and  made  so 
meritorious  an  effort  to  represent  them  in  his  sketches.  From  his  peculiar 
name  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  he  was  a  member  of  the  family  referred 
to  by  the  author. — Ed. 


220  PERSONAL   SKETCHES. 

tion,  who  then  lived  at  Lorretto,  a  Mr  Hew  Forbes,  a 
Principal  Clerk  of  Session,  He  was  a  nephew  of  the 
celebrated  President  Duncan  Forbes,  and  had,  at  the 
request  of  his  uncle,  purchased  Lorretto  from  John 
Steel,  a  minion  of  the  President's,  who  had  been  a 
singer  in  the  concert,  but  had  lost  his  voice,  and  was 
patronised  by  his  lordship,  and  had  for  some  years 
kept  a  celebrated  tavern  in  that  house.  Hew  Forbes 
was  the  second  of  three  brothers,  whom  I  have  seen 
together,  and,  to  my  taste,  had  more  wit  and  was 
more  agreeable  than  either  of  them.  Arthur,  the 
eldest,  laird  of  Pittencrieff  and  a  colonel  in  the  Dutch 
service,  was  a  man  of  infinite  humour,  which  consisted 
much  in  his  instantaneous  and  lively  invention  of 
fictions  and  tales  to  illustrate  or  ridicule  the  conver- 
sation that  was  going  on  ;  and  as  his  tales  were  in- 
offensive, though  totally  void  of  truth,  they  afforded 
great  amusement  to  every  company.  The  third  bro- 
ther, John,  was  the  gentleman  w^ho  retrieved  our 
affairs  in  North  America,  after  Braddock's  defeat.  He 
was  an  accomplished,  agreeable  gentleman,  but  there 
appeared  to  me  to  be  more  effort  and  less  naivete  in 
his  conversation  than  in  that  of  Hew,  whose  humour 
was  genuine  and  natural. 

AVith  so  many  resident  families  of  distinction,  my 
situation  was  envied  as  superior  to  most  clergymen 
for  good  company  and  agreeable  society ;  and  so  it 
was  at  that  period  preferable  to  what  it  has  often 
been  since,  when  the  number  of  genteel  families  was 
doubled  or  tripled,  as  they  have  long  been.      But 


PERSONAL   SKETCHES.  221 

though  I  lived  very  well  with  the  upper  families,  and 
could  occasionally  consort  with  the  burgesses,  some 
of  whom,   though  unpolished,  were   sensible,  people ; 
yet  my  chief  society  was  with  John  Home,  and  Eo- 
bertson,  and  Bannatine,  and  George  Logan,  who  were 
clergymen  about  my  own  age,  and  very  accomplished. 
In  the  month  of  October  this  year  I  had  a  very 
agreeable  jaunt  toDimifriesshire  to  attend  the  marriage 
of  my  cousin,  Jean  Wight,  with  John  Hamilton,  the 
minister  of  Bolton.    She  was  very  handsome,  sprightly, 
and  agreeable — about  twenty ;  he  a  sensible,  knowing 
man.    .    .    .*    John  Home  was  his  "best  man;"  I  was 
the  lady's  attendant  of  the  same  occupation,  according 
to  the  fashion  of  the  times.     We  set  out  together  on 
horseback,  but  so  contrived  it  that  we  had  very  little 
of  the  bridegroom ;  for  being  in  a  greater  haste  to 
get  to  his  journey's  end  than  we  were,  he  was  always 
at  the  baiting- place  an  hour  before  us,  where,  after  our 
meal,  we  lingered  as  long  after  he  had  departed.    Our 
grandfather  Robison  wished  to   solemnise  this  first 
marriage   of  any  of  his  grandchildren  at   his  own 
house  at  Tinwald,  which,  though  an  ordinary  manse, 
had  thirty  people  to  sleep  in  it  for  two  or  three  nights. 
John  Home  and  I  had  been  one  day  in  Dumfries  with 
the  bridegroom,  where  we  met  with  George  Banna- 
tine,  our  friend  Hew's  brother,  at  that  time  minister 

*  The  rest  of  his  character  is  scored  out,  so  as  to  be  totally  ill^ble ; 
and  in  the  handwriting  in  which  the  original  MS.  is  altered  throughout,  the 
sentence  stands,  "  He  was  not  less  than  thirty-five ;  and  though  a  sensible, 
knowing  man,  was  in  other  respects  seemingly  unsuitable  for  a  young  and 
lively  woman." 


222  SCOTCH   HUMOUR. 

of  Craigie.  As  he  was  an  old  schoolfellow  of  Hamil- 
ton's, we  easily  induced  him.  to  ask  him  to  the  mar- 
riage ;  and  George,  having  a  great  deal  of  Falstaffian 
humour,  helped  much  to  enliven  the  company.  Home 
and  he  and  I,  with  Willie  Wight,  the  bride's  brother, 
then  a  fine  lad  of  eighteen,  had  to  ride  four  miles  into 
Dumfries  to  our  lodgings  at  Provost  Bell's,  another 
uncle  of  mine,  after  supper,  where  Bannatine's  vein  of 
humour  kept  us  in  perpetual  laughter. 

I  shall  take  this  opportunity  of  correcting  a  mistake 
into  which  the  English  authors  have  fallen,  in  which 
they  are  supported  by  many  of  the  Scotch  writers, 
particularly  by  those  of  the  Mirror, — which  is,  that  the 
people  of  Scotland  have  no  humour.  That  this  is  a 
gross  mistake,  could  be  proved  by  innumerable  songs, 
ballads,  and  stories  that  are  prevalent  in  the  south  of 
Scotland,  and  by  every  person  old  enough  to  remem- 
ber the  times  when  the  Scottish  dialect  was  spoken  in 
purity  in  the  low  country,  and  who  have  been  at  all 
conversant  with  the  common  people.  Since  we  began 
to  affect  speaking  a  foreign  language,  which  the  English 
dialect  is  to  us,  humour,  it  must  be  confessed,  is  less 
apparent  in  conversation.  The  ground  of  this  preten- 
sion in  the  English  to  the  monopoly  of  humour  is  their 
confounding  two  characters  together  that  are  quite 
different  —  the  humorist  and  the  man  of  humour. 
The  humorist  prevails  more  in  England  than  in  any 
country,  because  liberty  has  long  been  universal  there, 
and  wealth  very  general,  which  I  hold  to  be  the  father 
and  mother  of  the  humorist.     This  mistake  has  been 


JOHN   HOME.  223 

confirmed  by  the  abject  Iminour  of  the  Scotch,  who, 
till  of  late  years,  allowed  John  Bull,  out  of  flattery, 
to  possess  every  quality  to  which  he  pretended. 

John  Home  was  an  admirable  companion,  and  most 
acceptable  to  all  strangers  who  were  not  offended 
with  the  levities  of  a  young  clergyman,  for  he  was 
very  handsome  and  had  a  fine  person,  about  5  feet 
10 J  inches,  and  an  agreeable  catching  address ;  he 
had  not  much  wit,  and  still  less  humour,  but  he  had 
so  much  sprightliness  and  vivacity,  and  such  an  ex- 
pression of  benevolence  in  his  manner,  and  such  an 
unceasing  flattery  of  those  he  liked  (and  he  never 
kept  company  with  anybody  else) — the  kind  commen- 
dations of  a  lover,  not  the  adulation  of  a  sycophant — 
that  he  was  truly  irresistible,  and  his  entry  to  a  com- 
pany was  like  opening  a  window  and  letting  the  sun 
into  a  dark  room. 

After  passing  eight  days  at  Dumfries,  with  such  a 
variety  of  amusement  as  would  fill  half  a  volume  of  a 
novel,  we  returned  with  our  young  couple  home  to 
East  Lothian,  and  passed  two  or  three  days  with  them 
at  their  residence. 

There  was  an  assistant  preacher  at  Inveresk  when  I 
was  ordained,  whose  name  was  George  Anderson,  the 
son  of  a  clergjrman  in  Fife,  and,  by  his  mother,  grand- 
son of  a  Professor  Campbell  of  Edinburgh,  who  made 
a  figure  in  the  divinity  chair  towards  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  His  aunt  was  the  mother  of  Dr 
John  Gregory  of  Edinburgh ;  but  he  had  not  partaken 
of  the  smallest  spark  of  genius  fix)m  either  of  the 


224  THE   minister's   ASSISTANT. 

families.  He  was  good-natured  and  laborious  in  the 
parish,  however,  and  likely  to  fall  into  the  snare  of 
such  kind  of  people,  by  partaking  of  their  morning 
hospitality — viz.  a  dram,  very  usual  in  those  days. 
He  was  reckoned  an  excellent  preacher  by  the  com- 
mon people,  because  he  got  a  sermon  faithfully  by 
heart  (liis  father's,  I  suppose),  and  delivered  it  with  a 
loudness  and  impetuosity  surpassing  any  schoolboy, 
without  making  a  halt  or  stop  from  beginning  to 
end.  This  galloping  sort  of  preaching  pleased  the 
lairds  as  well  as  the  people,  for  Sir  David  Kinloch  was 
much  taken  with  him,  and  he  would  have  been  popu- 
lar in  all  respects  had  not  his  conversation  and  con- 
duct betrayed  his  folly.  With  a  very  small  income, 
he  ventured  [to  marry]  a  handsome  sempstress,  Peggy 
Derquier,  the  daughter  of  a  Swiss  ensign,  who  had 
got  into  the  British  army.  They  had  children,  and  a 
very  slender  subsistence,  not  above  £40  per  annum, 
so  that  I  was  obliged  to  look  about  for  some  better 
berth  for  them.  At  last,  in  1751,  a  place  cast  up  in 
South  Carolina,  to  which  he  and  his  family  were  with 
difficulty  sent  out,  as  a  sum  of  money  had  to  be  bor- 
rowed to  fit  out  him  and  his  wife  and  two  children 
for  the  voyage.  I  was  one  of  his  securities  for  the 
money,  and  lost  nothing  but  the  interest  of  £50  for 
two  years.  His  wife  was  mettlesome,  and  paid  up 
the  money  the  year  after  he  died,  which  was  not 
above  two  years ;  for  poor  George,  being  a  guzzling 
fellow,  could  not  remain  long  enough  from  Charles- 
town,  near  which  his  meeting-house  was,  till  he  re- 


THE    MINISTERS   ASSISTANT.  225 

covered  his  strength  after  a  severe  fever  :  the  nim- 
punch  got  the  better  of  him,  and  he  relapsed  and 
died.  His  widow,  being  still  handsome  and  broody, 
married  well  next  time,  and  got  her  children  well 
provided  for. 

In  a  ludicrous  poem  which  John  Home  wrote  on 
the  march  of  his  Volunteers  to  the  battle  of  Falkirk, 
he  gives  Anderson  his  character  under  the  nickname 
of  Lungs — for  the  wags  called  him  Carlyle's  Lungs 
on  account  of  his  loud  preaching — of  which  I  remem- 
ber one  line, — 

"  And  if  you  did  not  Wat  him.  Lungs  was  pleasetl." 

Like  other  gluttons,  Lungs  was  a  coward,  and  the 
first  man  at  Leith  after  the  battle — for  he  was  a 
Volunteer  in  the  company  of  which  Home  was  a  lieu- 
tenant— and  showed  his  activity  chiefly  in  providing 
the  company  with  victuals  and  drink,  in  begging  of 
which  he  had  no  shame. 


CHAPTEK   VI. 

1748-1753 :  AGE,  2f)-:il.. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  MATTEKS — THE  AFFAIR  OP  GEORGE  LOGAN SKETCHES 

OF  THE  CLERGY WEBSTER WALLACE CONTEMPORARY    HISTORY 

OF    THE    CHURCH THE   "MODERATES"   ANB    THE   "  WILD"    PARTY 

THE  PATRONAGE  QUESTION RIDING  COMMITTEES REVOLUTION 

IN    CHURCH   POLITY,    AND    CARLYLE's   SHARE  IN  IT SKETCHES    OF 

LEADERS   IN   THE   ASSEMBLY LORD   ISLAY,    MARCHMONT,   SIR   GIL- 
BERT   ELLIOT PRINCIPAL   TULLIDELPH.'"" 

In  winter  1748  I  remained  much  at  home  in  my 
own  parish,  performing  my  duties,  and  becoming 
acquainted  with  my  flock.  The  Cheaps  took  a  house 
in  Edinburgh  this  winter  to  entertain  Captain  Cheap, 
who,  being  a  man  past  fifty,  and  a  good  deal  worn 
out,  his  very  sensible  niece  thought  he  would  never 
marry,  and  therefore  brought  her  young  female  com- 
panions about  to  amuse  him.  Among  the  rest  she 
had  much  with  her  the  Widow  Bro-wn,  Anny  Clerk 
that  was,  whose  husband.  Major  Brown  [was  kiUed 
at  the  battle  of  Falkirkf].  She  was  a  handsome, 
lively  coquette  as  ever  was,  being  of  a  gay  temper 

*  For  further  information  on  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  the  time  discussetl 
in  this  chapter,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Annals  of  the  General  Aaseinhly  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  from  1739  to  1706,  known  as  "Morren's  Annals," 
and  to  The  Church  Hidory  of  Scotland,  by  the  Rev.  John  Cunningham, 
minister  of  Crieff,  1859. 

+  Left  blank  by  Carlyle,  and  tilled  uj)  in  another  hand. 


ECCLESIASTICAL   AFFAIRS.  227 

and  a  slight  understanding.  My  sagacious  friend  had 
taken  her  measures  ill  indeed,  for,  as  she  told  me 
afterwards,  she  never  dreamt  that  her  grave  respect- 
able uncle  would  be  catched  with  a  woman  of  Mrs 
Brown's  description.  But  he  was  so  captivated  at 
the  very  first  glance  that  he  very  soon  proposed  mar- 
riage; and  having  executed  his  design,  and  taken  the 
House  of  Preston  for  next  summer,  they  came  and 
lived  there  for  several  months,  where  I  saw  them  fre- 
quently, and  was  asked  to  marry  a  niece  of  hers  with 
a  gentleman  at  Dunbar,  which  I  accordingly  did. 
They  went  to  Bath  and  London,  where  his  niece  joined 
him  in  1749. 

It  was  in  the  General  Assembly  of  this  year  that 
some  zealous  west-couutry  clergymen  formed  the  plan 
of  applying  to  Parliament  for  a  general  augmentation 
of  stipends,  by  raising  the  minimum  from  800  merks 
to  10  chalders  of  grain,  or  its  value  in  money.  The 
clergy  having  shown  great  loyalty  and  zeal  during 
the  Kebeliion  in  1745,  which  was  acknowledged  by 
Government,  they  presumed  that  they  would  obtain 
favour  on  this  occasion  ;  but  they  had  not  consulted 
the  landed  interest,  nor  even  taken  the  leaders  among 
the  Whigs  along  with  them,  which  was  the  cause  of 
their  miscarriage.  The  committee  appointed  by  this 
Assembly  to  prepare  the  form  of  their  application, 
brought  it  into  next  Assembly,  and  by  a  very  great 
majority  agreed  to  send  commissioners  to  London  the 
session  thereafter  to  prosecute  their  claim,  which, 
when  it  failed,  raised  some  ill-humour,  for  they  had 


228  ECCLESIASTICAL   AFFAIRS. 

been  very  sanguine.  Dr  Patrick  Cuming,  who  was 
then  the  leader  of  the  Moderate  party,  lent  his  whole 
aid  to  this  scheme,  and  was  one  of  the  commissioners. 
This  gave  him  still  a  greater  lead  among  the  clergy. 
The  same  thing  happened  to  Lord  Drummore,  the 
judge,  who  espoused  their  cause  warmly.  On  the 
other  hand,  Principal  Wishart  and  his  brother  George 
followed  Dundas  of  Arniston,  the  first  President  of 
that  name,  and  lost  their  popularity.  Of  the  two 
brothers  AVilliam  and  George  Wishart,  sons  of  Princi- 
pal Wishart,  William  the  eldest,  and  Principal  of  the 
University  of  Edinburgh,  was  the  most  learned  and 
ingenuous,  but  he  had  been  for  seventeen  years  a 
dissenting  minister  in  London,  and  returned  with 
dissenting  principles.  He  had  said  some  things  rashly 
while  the  augmentation  scheme  was  going  on,  which 
betrayed  contempt  of  the  clergy  ;  and  as  he  was  rich, 
and  had  the  expectation  of  still  more — being  the  heir 
of  his  two  uncles.  Admiral  and  General  Wisharts,  of 
Queen  Anne's  reign — his  sayings  gave  still  greater 
ofi'ence,  George,  the  younger  brother,  was  milder  and 
more  temperate,  and  was  a  more  acceptable  preacher 
than  his  brother,  though  inferior  to  him  in  genius; 
but  his  understanding  was  sound,  and  his  benevolence 
unbounded,  so  that  he  had  many  friends.  When  his 
brother,  who  misled  him  about  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
died  in  1754,  he  came  back  to  the  Moderate  party,  and 
was  much  respected  among  us. 

About  this  period  it  was  that  John  Home  and  I, 
being   left   alone  with  Dr  Patrick  Cuming  after  a 


ECCLESIASTICAL    AFFAIRS.  229 

synod  supper,  lie  pressed  us  to  stay  with  him  a  little 
longer,  and  during  an  hour  or  twos  conversation, 
beiug  desirous  to  please  us,  who,  he  thought,  would  be 
of  some  consequence  in  church  courts,  he  threw  out 
all  his  lures  to  gain  us  to  be  his  implicit  followers; 
but  he  failed  in  his  purpose,  having  gone  too  far  in 
his  animosity  to  George  Wishart — for  we  gave  up  the 
Principal.  We  said  to  each  other  when  we  parted  that 
we  would  support  him  when  he  acted  right,  but  would 
never  be  intimate  with  him  as  a  friend. 

It  was  the  custom  at  this  time  for  the  patrons  of 
parishes,  when  they  had  litigations  about  settlements, 
which  sometimes  lasted  for  years,  to  open  public- 
houses  to  entertain  the  members  of  Assembly,  which 
was  a  very  gross  and  offensive  abuse.  The  Duke  of 
Douglas  had  a  cause  of  this  kind,  which  lasted  for 
three  Assemblies,  on  which  occasion  it  was  that  his 
commissioner.  White  of  Stockbridge,  opened  a  daily 
table  for  a  score  of  people,  which  vied  with  the  Lord 
Commissioner's  for  dinners,  and  surpassed  it  far  in 
wine.  White,  who  was  a  low  man,  was  delighted 
with  the  respect  which  these  dinners  procured  him. 
After  the  case  was  finished,  Stockbridge  kept  up  his 
table  while  he  lived,  for  the  honour  of  the  family, 
where  I  have  often  dined,  after  his  Grace's  suit  was 
at  an  end.  There  was  another  of  the  same  kind  that 
lasted  longer,  the  case  of  St  Ninian's,  of  which  Sir  Hew 
Paterson  was  patron. 

John  Home,  and   Robertson,  and  Logan,  and  I, 
entered  into  a  resolution  to  dine  with  none  of  them 


230  PERSONAL   SKETCHES. 

while  their  suits  were  in  dependence.  This  resolution 
we  kept  inviolably  when  we  were  members,  and  we 
were  followed  by  many  of  our  friends.  Dr  Patrick 
Cuming  did  not  like  this  resolution  of  ours,  as  it 
showed  us  to  be  a  little  untractable ;  but  it  added  to 
our  importance ;  and  after  that  no  man,  not  even 
Lord  Drummore,  to  whom  I  was  so  much  obliged, 
and  who  was  a  keen  party  man,  ever  solicited  my  vote 
in  any  judicial  case. 

The  Lord  President  Dundas,  who  led  the  opposition 
to  the  scheme  of  augmentation,  was  accounted  the 
first  lawyer  this  country  ever  had  bred.  He  was  a 
man  of  a  high  and  ardent  mind,  a  most  persuasive 
speaker,  and  to  me,  who  met  him  but  seldom  in 
private,  one  of  the  ablest  men  I  had  ever  seen.  He 
declined  soon  after  this,  and  was  for  two  or  three 
years  laid  aside  from  business  before  his  death. 

Hew,  Earl  of  Marchmont,  appeared  in  this  Assem- 
bly, who  had  been  very  ignorantly  extolled  by  Pope, 
whose  hemistichs  stamped  characters  in  those  days.'^' 

In  winter  1749  it  was  that  John  Home  went  to 
London   with  his  tragedy  of  Agis,  to  try  to    bring 

*  "  Lo,  th'  jEgerian  grot, 


Where  nobly  pensive  St  John  sat  and  tliought, 

Where  Britisli  sighs  from  dying  Wyndham  stole, 

And  the  bright  flame  was  shot  through  Marchmont's  soul." 

The  passage  cited  farther  on  (p.  152)  is  from  the  inverted  characters  in  the 
epilogue  to  the  "Satires  :  " — 

"Cobham's  a  coward,  Polwarth  is  a  sla^'e, 
And  Littleton  a  dark  designing  knave." 

About  Lord  Polwarth,  afterwards  Earl  of  Marchmont,  and  other  members 
of  his  family,  abundant  information  will  be  f oxmd  in  "  A  Selection  from  the 
Papers  of  the  Earls  of  Marchmont,"  .3  vols.,  18.31. — Ed. 


PERSONAL   SKETCHES.  231 

it  on  the  stage,  in  wliicli  he  failed ;  which  was  the 
cause  of  his  turning  his  thoughts  on  the  tragedy  of 
Douglas  after  his  return.  Pie  had  a  recommenda- 
tion to  Mr  Lyttleton,  afterwards  Lord  Lyttleton, 
whom  he  could  not  so  much  as  prevail  with  to  read 
his  tragedy ;  and  his  brother,  afterwards  a  bishop, 
would  not  so  much  as  look  at  it,  as  he  said  he  had 
turned  his  thoughts  to  natural  history.  Home  was 
enraged,  but  not  discouraged.  I  had  given  him  a 
letter  to  Smollett,  with  whom  he  contracted  a  sincere 
friendship,  and  he  consoled  himself  for  the  neglect  he 
met  with  by  the  warm  approbation  of  the  Doctor,  and 
of  John  Blair  and  his  friend  Barrow,  an  English  physi- 
cian, who  had  escaped  with  him  from  the  Castle  of 
Doune,  and  who  made  him  acquainted  with  CoUins 
the  poet,  with  whom  he  grew  very  intimate.  He 
extended  not  his  acquaintance  much  further  at  this 
time,  except  to  a  Governor  Melville,  a  native  of  Dun- 
bar, of  whom  he  was  fond  ;  and  passed  a  good  deal  of 
time  with  Captain  Cheap's  family,  which  was  then  in 
London. 

I  had  several  letters  from  him  at  that  time  which 
displayed  the  character  he  always  maintained,  which 
was  a  thorough  contempt  of  his  non-approvers,  and  a 
blind  admiration  of  those  who  approved  of  his  works, 
and  gave  him  a  good  reception,  whom  he  attached 
still  more  to  him  by  the  most  caressing  manners,  and 
the  sincere  and  fervent  flattery  of  a  lover.  In  all  the 
periods  of  his  long  life  his  opinions  of  men  and  things 
were  merely  prejudices. 


232  PERSONAL    SKETCHES. 

It  was  in  the  year  1750,  I  think,  that  he  gave  his 
manse  (for  he  boarded  himself  in  a  house  in  the  vil- 
lage) to  Mr  Hepburn  of  Keith,  and  his  family — a 
gentleman  of  pristine  faith  and  romantic  valour,  who 
had  been  in  both  the  Rebellions,  in  1715  and '45;  and 
had  there  been  a  third,  as  was  projected  at  this  time, 
would  have  joined  it  also.  Add  to  this,  that  Mr  Hep- 
burn was  an  accomplished  gentleman,  and  of  a  simple 
and  winning  elocution,  who  said  nothing  in  vain. 
His  wife,  and  his  daughters  by  a  former  lady,  resem- 
bled him  in  his  simplicity  of  mind,  but  propagated 
his  doctrines  with  more  openness  and  ardour,  and  a 
higher  admiration  of  implicit  loyalty  and  romantic 
heroism.  It  was  the  seductive  conversation  of  this 
family  that  gradually  softened  and  cooled  Mr  Home's 
aversion  to  the  Pretender  and  to  Jacobites  (for  he  had 
been  a  very  warm  AVhig  in  the  time  of  the  Rebellion), 
and  prepared  him  for  the  life  he  afterwards  led. 

Mr  Home,  in  his  History  of  the  Rebellion,  has 
praised  this  gentleman  for  an  act  of  gallant  behaviour 
in  becoming  Gentleman-Usher  to  Prince  Charles,  by 
ushering  him  into  the  Abbey  with  his  sword  drawn. 
This  has  been  on  false  information  ;  for  his  son,  Colo- 
nel Riccard  Hepburn,  denied  to  me  the  possibility  of 
it,  his  father  being  a  person  of  invincible  modesty, 
and  void  of  all  ostentation.  The  Colonel  added,  that 
it  \^as  his  father's  fortune  to  be  praised  for  qualities  he 
did  not  possess — for  learning,  for  instance,  of  which  he 
had  no  great  tincture,  but  in  mathematics — while  his 
prime  quality  was  omitted,  which  was  the  most  equal 


home's    "DOUGLAS."  233 

and  placid  temper  with  which  ever  mortal  was  en- 
dowed ;  for  in  his  whole  life  he  was  never  once  out  of 
temper,  nor  did  ever  a  muscle  of  his  face  alter  on  any 
occurrence.  One  instance  he  told  of  a  serving-boy  hav- 
ing raised  much  disturbance  one  day  in  the  kitchen  or 
hall.  When  his  father  rose  to  see  what  was  the  matter, 
he  found  the  boy  had  wantonly  run  a  spit  through 
the  cat,  which  lay  sprawling.  He  said  not  a  word, 
but  took  the  boy  by  the  shoulder,  led  him  out  of  the 
house  door,  and  locked  it  after  him,  and  returned 
in  silence  to  play  out  his  game  of  chess  with  his 
daughter. 

It  was  from  his  having  heard  Mrs  Janet  Denoon, 
Mr  Hepburn's  sister-in-law,  sing  the  old  ballad  of 
"Gd  Morrice,"  that  he  [Home]  first  took  his  idea 
of  the  tragedy  of  Douglas,  which,  five  years  after- 
wards, he  carried  to  London,  for  he  was  but  an  idle 
composer,  to  off"er  it  for  the  stage,  but  with  the  same 
bad  success  as  formerly.  The  length  of  time  he  took, 
however,  tended  to  bring  it  to  perfection  ;  for  want 
of  success,  added  to  his  natural  openness,  made  him 
communicate  his  compositions  to  his  friends,  whereof 
there  were  some  of  the  soundest  judgment,  and  of 
the  most  exquisite  taste.  Of  the  first  sort  there  were 
Drs  Blair  and  Eobertson,  and  Mr  Hew  Bannatine ; 
and  of  the  second,  Patrick  Lord  Elibank,  the  Hepburn 
family,  and  some  young  ladies  with  whom  he  and  I 
had  become  intimate — viz..  Miss  Hepburn  of  Monk- 
riggs.  Lord  Milton's  niece ;  Miss  Eliza  Fletcher,  after- 
wards Mrs  Wedderburn,  his  youngest  daughter  ;  and 


234  THE    CENSURED    SERMON. 

Miss  Campbell  of  Carrick,  at  that  time  their  great 
friend.  As  Home  himself  wrote  a  hand  that  was 
hardly  legible,  and  at  that  time  could  ill  afford  to 
hire  an  amanuensis,  I  copied  Douglas  several  times 
over  for  him — which,  by  means  of  the  corrections  of 
all  the  friends  I  have  mentioned,  and  the  fine  and 
decisive  criticisms  of  the  late  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  had 
attained  to  the  perfection  with  which  it  was  acted ; 
for  at  this  time  Home  was  tractable,  and  listened  to 
our  remarks. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  George  Logan,  the  son  of 
a  minister  in  Edinburgh  of  note,  was  presented  to 
the  church  of  Ormiston,  vacant  by  the  translation  of 
Mr  Hew  Bannatine  to  Dirleton.  Logan  was  a  man 
of  parts  and  genius,  and  of  a  particular  turn  to 
mathematical  and  metaphysical  studies,  but  he  was 
of  an  indolent  and  dilatory  disposition.  When  he 
passed  trials  before  the  Presbytery  of  Dalkeith,  he 
met  with  unexpected  opposition.  AYlien  he  came  to 
the  last  of  his  discourses,  which  was  the  popular 
sermon,  from  Heb.  ii.  10  was  appointed  to  him.  He 
came  home  with  me,  and  inquiring  if  my  popular 
sermon,  when  I  was  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of 
Haddington,  was  not  on  the  same  text,  which  was 
the  case,  he  pressed  me  to  lend  it  to  him,  as  it  would 
save  him  much  trouble,  to  which  I  with  reluctance 
consented.  He  copied  it  almost  verbatim,  and  deli- 
vered it   at    our   next    meeting.*      Being   averse  to 

*  Popular  Sermon.     The  sermon  preached  to  the  people  of  the  parish  by 
a  presentee,  as  distinguished  from  the  other  trials  of  his  fitness,  which  take 


THE   CENSURED    SERMON.  235 

Logan,  many  of  them  thought  there  was  heresy  in  it, 
and  insisted  on  an  inquiry,  and  that  a  copy  should  be 
deposited  with  the  Clerk.  This  inquiry  went  on  for 
several  meetings,  till  at  last  Logan,  being  impatient, 
as  he  had  a  young  lady  engaged  to  marry  him,  took 
the  first  opportunity  of  appealing  to  the  Synod. 
After  several  consnltations  with  our  ablest  divines, 
who  were  Drs  Wish  art  and  Wallace,  with  Professor 
Goldie,  and  Messrs  Dalgleish  of  Linlithgow,  Nassmith 
of  Dalmeny,  and  Stedman  of  Haddington,  it  was 
agreed  that  Logan's  sermon  was  perfectly  orthodox, 
and  that  the  Presbytery  in  their  zeal  had  run  into 
heretical  opinions,  insomuch  that  those  friends  were 
clear  in  their  judgment  that  the  panel  should  be 
assoilzied  and  the  Presbytery  taken  to  task.  But  the 
motive  I  have  already  mentioned  induced  young 
Logan  to  be  desirous  of  making  matters  up  without 
irritating  the  Presbytery,  and  therefore  it  was  agreed 
that  he  should  make  a  slight  apology  to  the  Presby- 
tery, and  that  they  should  be  ordained  to  proceed  in 
the  settlement.  Yet,  in  spite  of  this  sacrifice  to  peace, 
the  zealots  of  the  Presbytery  still  endeavoured  to 
delay  the  settlement  by  embarrassing  him  on  what  is 
called  the  extempore  trials  ;  but  as  he  was  an  able 
and  a  learned  young  man,  he  baffled  them  all  in  an 

pliice  in  the  presence  of  the  Presbytery.  The  Logan  here  mentioned  is  not 
the  poet ;  and  it  is  perhaps  still  more  necessary  to  distinguish  him  from  a 
contemporary,  (Jeorge  Logan,  also  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
and  eminent  in  his  day  for  a  long  and  bitter  political  controversy  with  Rud- 
diman  the  grammarian.  The  affair  of  the  censured  sermon  is  mentioned  in 
Mackenzie's  account  of  Home,  p.  12. — Ed. 


236  THE    CENSUEED    SEKMON. 

examination  of  three  hours,  four  or  five  times  longer 
than  usual,  when  he  answered  all  their  questions,  and 
refuted  all  their  cavils  in  such  a  masterly  manner,  as 
turned  the  chase  in  the  opinion  of  the  bystanders,  and 
made  the  Presbytery  appear  to  be  heretical,  instead 
of  the  person  accused. 

Amons  the  accusers  of  Loo-an,  the  most  violent 
were  Plenderleath  of  Dalkeith,  Primrose  at  Crichton, 
Smith  at  Cranston,  Watson  at  Newbottle,  and  Walker 
at  Temple.  The  first  had  been  a  minion  of  Dr  George 
Wishart's,  and  set  out  as  one  of  the  most  moral  preach- 
ers at  the  very  top  of  the  Moderate  interest,  giving 
offence  by  his  quotations  from  Shaftesbury ;  but  being 
very  weak,  both  in  body  and  mind,  he  thought  to 
compensate  for  his  disability  by  affecting  a  change  of 
sentiment,  and  coming  over  to  the  popular  side,  both 
in  his  sermons  and  his  votes  in  the  courts.  He  w^as 
truly  but  a  poor  soul,  and  might  have  been  pardoned, 
but  for  his  hypocrisy.  Primrose  was  a  shallow  pedant, 
who  was  puffed  up  by  the  flattery  of  his  brethren  to 
think  himself  an  eminent  scholar  because  he  was 
pretty  well  acquainted  with  the  system,  and  a  person 
of  a  high  independent  mind  because  he  was  rich  and 
could  speak  impertinently  to  his  heritors,  and  build  a 
manse  of  an  uncommon  size  and  pay  for  the  overplus. 
He  had  a  fluent  elocution  in  the  dialect  of  Moray- 
shire, embellished  with  English  of  his  own  invention  ; 
but  with  all  this  he  had  no  common  sense.  Smith 
was  a  sly  northern,  seemingly  very  temperate,  but  a 
great  counsellor  of  his  neighbour  and    countryman 


DR    BEATTTE.  237 

Primrose.  Watson  was  a  dark  inquisitor,  of  some 
parts.  AYalker  was  a  rank  enttiusiast,  with  nothing 
but  heat  without  light.  John  Bonar  at  Cockpen, 
though  of  the  High  party,  was  a  man  of  sense — an 
excellent  preacher  ;  he  was  temperate  in  his  opposi- 
tion. Robin  Paton,  though  gentlemanly,  was  feeble 
in  church  courts.  His  father  was  just  dead,  so  that  I 
had  no  zealous  supporter  but  Rab  Simson  and  David 
Gilchrist  at  Newton.  On  those  inferior  characters  I 
need  not  dwell. 

Losran  was  settled  at  Ormiston  and  married,  not 
three  years  after  which  he  died  of  a  high  brain  fever. 
John  Home  and  I  felt  our  loss.  A  strong  proof  of 
our  opinion  of  his  ability  was,  that  a  very  short  time 
before  his  death  we  had  prevailed  with  him  to  make 
David  Hume's  philosophical  works  his  particular  study, 
and  to  refute  the  dangerous  parts  of  them — a  task  for 
which  we  thought  him  fully  equal.  This  was  sixteen  or 
eighteen  years  before  Beattie  thought  of  it.  Dr  Wight 
and  I  saw  him  [Beattie]  frequently  at  Aberdeen  in  1 765 
or  1766,  when  he  opened  his  design  to  us,  from  which 
we  endeavoured  to  dissuade  him,  having  then  a  settled 
opinion  that  such  metaphysical  essays  and  treatises — 
as  they  were  seldom  read,  certainly  never  understood, 
but  by  the  few  whose  minds  were  nearly  on  a  level 
with  the  author — had  best  be  left  without  the  celebrity 
of  an  answer.  It  was  on  occasion  of  this  trial  of  Logan 
that  we  first  took  umbrage  at  Robert  Dundas,  junior, 
of  Arniston,  then  Solicitor-General,  who  could  easily 
have  drawn  oflf  the  Presbytery  of  Dalkeith  from  their 


238  UR   WEBSTER. 

illiberal  pursuit,  and  was  applied  to  for  that  purpose 
by  some  friends,  who  were  refused.  His  father,  the 
President,  was  by  this  time  laid  aside. 

It  was  in  the  year  1751  or  1752,  I  think,  that  a 
few  of  us  of  the  Moderate  party  were  for  two  or  three 
days  united  in  a  case  that  came  before  the  Synod  of 
Lothian  in  May,  with  Dr  Alexander  Webster,  the 
leader  of  the  high-flying  party.  Webster,  with  a  few 
more  of  his  brethren,  whereof  Drs  Jardine  and  Wal- 
lace were  two,  had  objected  to  Mr  John  Johnstone,  a 
new  chaplain  of  the  Castle,  being  admitted  to  a  seat 
in  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh.  They  were  defeated 
in  the  Presbytery  by  a  great  majority,  on  which  they 
appealed  to  the  Synod,  when  a  few  of  us,  taking  part 
with  the  minority,  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing 
Webster  very  closely. 

Our  conclusions  on  this  acquaintance  were  (and  we 
never  altered  them),  that  though  he  was  a  clever  fel- 
low, an  excellent  and  ready  speaker,  fertile  in  expe- 
dients, and  prompt  in  execution,  yet  he  had  by  no 
means  a  leading  or  decisive  mind,  and  consequently 
was  unfit  to  be  the  head  of  a  party.  He  had  no 
scruples ;  for,  with  a  little  temporary  heating,  he 
seemed  to  be  entirely  without  principle.  There  was 
at  this  time  a  Mr  John  Hepburn,  minister  in  the  Old 
Greyfriars,  who,  though  he  never  appeared  to  take 
any  share  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  but  by  his  vote,  was 
in  secret  Webster's  counsellor  and  director,  so  that 
while  he  lived,  Webster  did  well  as  the  ostensible  head 
of  his  party.     Mr  Hepburn  was  grandfather  of  the 


DR    WEBSTER.  239 

present  Earl  of  Hyndford,  and  the  son  of  a  celebi-ated 
mountaineer  in  Galloway,  the  Rev.  Mr  John  Hepburn, 
in  Queen  Anne's  time.*  But  when  he  [Hepburn]  died 
not  long  after,  he  [Webster]  fell  into  the  hands  of  Dr 
Jardine,  who  managed  him  with  great  dexterity,  for 
he  allowed  him  to  adhere  jto  his  party,  but  restrained 
him  from  soin»  too  far.  As  Jardine  was  son-in-law 
to  Provost  Drummond,  with  whom  Webster  wished 
to  be  well,  Jardine,  who  had  much  sagacity,  with 
great  versatility  of  genius,  and  a  talent  for  the  man- 
agement of  men,  had  not  such  a  difficult  task  as  one 
would  have  imagined.  Webster  had  published  a 
satirical  sermon  against  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  for  which 
he  had  been  taken  to  task  in  the  General  Assembly 
by  the  Earl  of  Islay,  by  this  time  Duke  of  Argyle,  and 
of  great  political  power  in  Scotland.  Webster,  in 
case  of  accidents,  wished  to  have  a  friendly  mediator 
between  him  and  the  Duke.  This  is  the  true  key  to 
all  his  political  disingenuity. 

Webster  had  justly  obtained  much  respect  amongst 
the  clergy,  and  all  ranks,  indeed,  for  having  estab- 
lished the  Widows'  Fund ;  for  though  Dr  Wallace,  who 
was  an  able  mathematician,  had  made  the  calcula- 
tions, Webster  had  the  merit  of  carr}'ing  the  scheme 
into  execution.  Having  married  a  lady  of  fashion, 
who  had  a  fortune  of  £4000  (an  estate  in  those  days), 
he  kept  better  company  than  most  of  the  clergy.    His 

*  Tbe  term  "mountaineer"  is  a  metonymy  for  hillman  or  Covenanter. 
Daniel  Carmichael  of  ilauldsley,  whose  son  Andrew  Ijecame  sixth  Earl  of 
Hyndford,  married  in  1742  Emilia,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Hepburn- — 
Wood's  Peerage^  L  759. — Ed. 


240  DR    WEBSTER. 

appearance  of  great  strictness  in  religion,  to  whicL  he 
was  bred  under  his  father,  who  was  a  very  popular  min- 
ister of  the  Tolbooth  Church,  not  acting  in  restraint  of 
his  convivial  humour,  he  was  held  to  be  excellent  com- 
pany, even  by  those  of  dissolute  manners ;  while,  being 
a  five-bottle  man,  he  could  lay  them  all  under  the  table. 
This  had  [brought]  on  him  the  nickname  of  Dr  Bonum 
Magnum  in  the  time  of  faction  ;  but  never  being  in- 
decently the  worse  of  liquor,  and  a  love  of  claret  to 
any  degree  not  being  reckoned  in  those  days  a  sin  in 
Scotland,  all  his  excesses  were  pardoned.* 

When  it  was  discovered  that  Jardine  led  him,  his 
party  became  jealous  ;  and  it  was  no  wonder,  for  he 
used  to  undermine  them  by  his  speeches,  and  vote 
mth  them  to  save  appearances.  But  the  truly  up- 
right and  honourable  men  among  them,  such  as  Drs 
Erskine  and  Hunter,  &c.,  could  not  think  of  part- 
ing with  his  abilities,  which,  both  in  the  pulpit  and 
the  Assembly,  gave  some  lustre  to  their  party.  He 
could  pass  at  once  from  the  most  unbounded  jol- 
lity to  the  most  fervent  devotion ;  yet  I  believe 
that  his  hypocrisy  was  no  more  than  habit  grounded 
merely  on  temper,  and  that  his  aptness  to  pray  was 


*  Dr  Alexander  Webster  and  Dr  Robert  Wallace  were  both  men  of  mucli 
celebrity  in  their  day  as  clergA'men  of  the  Chiu'ch  of  Scotland.  Of  Webster's 
very  peculiar  characteristics  there  is  jierhaps  a  fuller  account  in  this  work 
than  anywhere  else.  Wallace,  who  was  a  man  of  less  notal)le  peculiarities, 
wrote  several  books,  the  most  remarkable  of  which  is  A  Dlsserfcdion  on  the, 
Niimhers  of  Manhmd  in  Ancient  and  Modern  Times,  which,  along  with 
Hume's  Essay  on  the  populousness  of  ancient  nations,  contributed  some 
ideas  subsequently  brought  to  be.ar  on  the  great  discussion  on  populatifin 
inaiigurated  by  Malthus. — Ed. 


DR  WEBSl'ER.  241 

as  easy  and  natural  to  him  as  to  drink  a  convivial 
glass.  His  famOiar  saying,  however,  that  it  was  his 
lot  to  drink  with  gentlemen  and  to  vote  with  fools, 
made  too  full  a  discovery  of  the  laxity  of  his  mind. 
Indeed,  he  lived  too  long  to  preserve  any  respect; 
for  in  his  latter  years  his  sole  object  seemed  to  be 
where  to  find  means  of  inebriety,  which  he  at  last 
too  often  efiected,  for  his  constitution  ha'S'ing  lost 
its  vigour,  he  was  sent  home  almost  every  evening 
like  other  drunkards  who  could  not  boast  of  strength. 
Besides  the  £4000  he  got  with  his  lady,  he  spent 
£6000  more,  which  was  left  him  by  Miss  Hunter,  one 
of  his  pious  disciples,  which  legacy  did  not  raise  his 
character.  In  aid  of  his  fortune,  when  it  was  nearly 
draiued,  he  was  appointed  Collector  of  the  Widows' 
Fund  when  a  ^Ir  Stewart  died,  who  was  the  first,  and 
likewise  obtained  one  of  the  deaneries  from  the  Crown. 
When  the  New  Town  of  Edinburgh  came  to  be  planned 
out,  he  was  employed  by  the  magistrates,  which  grati- 
fied his  two  strongest  desires — his  love  of  business 
and  of  conviviality,  in  both  of  which  he  excelled. 
The  business  was  all  done  in  the  tavern,  where  there 
was  a  daily  dinner,  which  cost  the  town  in  the  course 
of  the  year  £500,  the  whole  of  an  additional  revenue 
which  had  been  discovered  a  httle  while  before  by 
Buchan,  the  Town's  Chamberlain.  He  had  done  many 
private  and  public  iQJuries  to  me  in  spite  of  the  sup- 
port I  and  my  friends  had  given  him  in  his  cause 
before  the  Synod  in  May  1752,  for  which  I  did  not 
spare  him  when  I  had  an  opportunity,  by  treating 

Q 


242  DR   WEBSTEE. 

him  with  that  rough  raillery  which  the  fashion  of 
the  times  authorised,  which  he  bore  with  inimitable 
patience  ;  and  when  I  rose  into  some  consideration,  he 
rather  courted  than  shunned  my  company,  with  the 
perfect  knowledge  of  what  I  thought  of  him. 

As  John  Home  and  I  had  made  speeches  in  his 
support  at  the  Synod,  he  thought  he  could  do  no  less 
than  invite  us  to  dinner  on  the  day  after  :  we  went 
accordingly,  and  were  well  enough  received  by  him, 
while  his  lady  treated  us  not  only  with  neglect,  but 
even  with  rudeness  ;  while  she  caressed  with  the 
utmost  kindness  Adams  of  Falkirk,  the  very  person 
who,  by  disobeying  the  Assembly  and  escaping  un- 
hurt in  1751,  drew  the  thunder  of  the  Church  on 
Gillespie  the  following  year. 

Another  instance  of  Webster's  hostility  to  me  hap- 
pened some  time  afterwards.  His  colleague,  Mr 
William  Gusthart,  who  was  a  very  old  man,  and 
lived  for  many  summers  in  my  parish,  and  at  last  the 
whole  year  round,  engaged  me  to  preach  for  him  in 
the  Tolbooth  Church  one  Sunday  afternoon.  I  was 
averse  to  this  service,  as  I  knew  I  would  not  be 
acceptable  in  that  congregation.  But  being  urged  by 
the  old  man  and  his  family,  I  agreed,  and  went  to 
town,  and  preached  to  a  very  thin  audience.  I  was 
afterwards  certainly  informed  that  Webster  had  sent 
round  to  many  of  his  principal  families,  warning  them 
that  I  was  to  do  duty  for  his  colleague,  and  hoping 
that  they  would  not  give  countenance  to  a  person 
who  had  attended  the  theatre.     This,  I  think,  was  in 


DR  WERSTER.  243 

1759,  two  years  after  I  had  foiled  the  High  party  in 
the  General  Assembly.  This  I  considered  as  most 
malicious  ;  and  with  this  I  frequently  taxed  him  in 
very  plain  terms  indeed.  There  were  a  few  of  us 
who,  besides  the  levity  of  youth  and  the  Datural  free- 
dom of  our  mauners,  had  an  express  design  to  throw 
contempt  on  that  vile  species  of  hypocrisy  which 
magnified  an  indecorum  into  a  crime,  and  gave  an 
air  of  false  sanctimony  and  Jesuitism  to  the  greatest 
part  of  the  clergy,  and  was  thereby  pernicious  to 
rational  religion.  In  this  plan  we  succeeded,  for  in 
the  midst  of  our  freedom  having  preserved  respect  and 
obtained  a  leading  in  the  Church,  we  freed  the  clergy 
from  many  unreasonable  and  h3rpocritical  restraints. 

I  have  dwelt  longer  on  Dr  Webster  than  on  any 
other  person,  because  such  characters  are  extremely 
pernicious,  as  they  hold  up  an  example  to  unprin- 
cipled youth  how  far  they  may  play  fast  and  loose 
with  professed  principles  without  being  entirely  un- 
done ;  and  how  far  they  may  proceed  in  dissipation 
of  manner  without  entirely  forfeiting  the  public  good 
opinion.  But  let  the  young  clergy  observe,  that  very 
few  indeed  are  capable  of  exhibiting  for  their  protec- 
tion such  useful  talents,  or  of  displaying  such  agree- 
able manners  as  Dr  Webster  did  in  compensation  for 
his  faults. 

In  1751  the  schoolmaster  of  Musselburgh  died,  a 
Mr  Munro,  who  had  only  seven  scholars  and  one 
boarder,  he  and  his  wife  had  become  so  impopular. 
As  the  magistrates  of  Musselburgh  came  in  place  of 


244  REVOLUTION   IN   CHURCH   POLITY. 

the  heritors  as  patrons  of  the  school,  by  a  transaction 
with  them  about  the  mortcloths,  the  emoluments  of 
which  the  heritors  gave  up  on  the  town's  agreeing  to 
pay  the  salary,  I  took  the  opportunity  that  this  gave 
me  as  joint  patron  to  persuade  them,  as  their  school 
had  fallen  so  low,  to  fill  it  up  by  a  comparative  trial 
before  a  committee  of  Presbytery,  with  Sir  David 
Dalrymple  and  Dr  Blair  as  assessors,  when  a  Mr  Jeffry, 
from  the  Merse,  showed  so  much  superiority  that  he 
was  unanimously  elected.  He  soon  raised  the  school 
to  some  eminence,  and  got  about  twenty-five  or  thirty 
boarders  the  second  year.  When  he  died,  eight  or  ten 
years  afterwards,  his  daughters,  by  my  advice,  took 
up  the  first  female  boarding-school  that  ever  was  there, 
which  has  been  kept  up  with  success  ever  since  ;  and 
such  has  been  the  encouragement  that  two  others  have 
been  well  supported  also.  On  Jefiiy's  death,  John  Mur- 
ray succeeded  him,  who  did  well  also.  When  he  grew 
old,  I  got  him  to  resign  on  a  pension,  and  had  John 
Taylor  to  succeed  him,  who  has  surpassed  them  all, 
having  got  as  far  as  seventy  boarders,  his  wife  being 
the  best  qualified  of  any  person  I  ever  knew  in  her 
station. 

It  was  in  this  year,  1751,  the  foundation  was  laid 
for  the  restoration  of  the  discipline  of  the  Church  the 
next  year,  in  which  Dr  Robertson,  John  Home,  and  I 
had  such  an  active  hand.  Mr  Adams,  at  Falkirk,  had 
disobeyed  a  sentence  of  the  General  Assembly,  ap- 
pointing the  Presbytery  of  Linlithgow  to  settle  Mr 
Watson,  minister  of  the  parish  of  Torphichen,  to  which 


REVOLUTION   IN   CHURCH   POLITY.  245 

he  had  been  presented,  and  for  which,  after  trial,  he 
was  found  fiiUy  qualified.  Mr  Adams  had  been  ap- 
pointed nominatim  by  the  Act  of  Assembly  to  preside 
at  this  ordination.  This  was  the  second  year  this 
Presbytery  had  disobeyed,  because  there  was  an  oppo- 
sition in  the  parish.  This  had  happened  before,  and 
the  plea  of  conscience  had  always  brought  off  the  dis- 
obedient. The  Assembly  had  fallen  on  a  wretched 
expedient  to  settle  presentees  who  were  in  this  state. 
They  appointed  a  committee  of  their  number,  who  had 
no  scruple  to  obey  the  sentence  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
to  go  to  the  parish  on  a  certain  day  and  ordain  the 
presentee.  This  had  been  done  in  several  instances 
with  the  very  worst  effect ;  for  the  presbyteries  hav- 
ing preserved  their  own  popularity  by  their  resistance, 
they  had  no  interest  in  reconciling  the  minds  of  the 
people  to  their  new  pastor  ;  and  accordingly,  for  most 
part,  cherished  their  prejudices,  and  left  the  unfor- 
tunate young  man  to  fight  his  way  without  help  in  the 
best  manner  he  could.  This  was  a  great  abuse,  and 
was  likely  to  destroy  the  subordination  of  church 
courts,  which  of  old  had  been  the  great  boast  of  our 
Presbyterian  form  of  government,  and  had  been  very 
complete  and  perfect  in  early  times.  The  departure 
from  that  strictness  of  discipline,  and  the  adoption  of 
expedients  iD  judicial  cases,  was  of  very  recent  growth, 
and  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  struggle  against  patron- 
ages after  their  restoration  in  the  10th  of  Queen  Anne ; 
so  that  the  Assembly  had  only  to  recur  to  her  first 
principles  and  practice  to  restore  her  lost  authority. 


246  REVOLUTION    IN   CHURCH    POLITY.    - 

So  far  was  it  from  being  true  that  Dr  Eobertson  was 
the  inventor  of  this  system,  as  was  afterwards  believed, 
and  as  the  strain  of  Dugald  Stewart's  Life  of  Robertson 
has  a  tendency  to  support. 

The  rise  of  the  attempt  to  revive  the  ancient  discip- 
line in  this  Assembly  was  as  follows  : — Some  friends 
and  companions  having  been  w^ell  informed  that  a 
great  majority  of  the  General  Assembly  1751  were 
certainly  to  let  Mr  Adams  of  Falkirk,  the  disobedient 
brother,  escape  with  a  very  slight  censure,  a  select 
company  of  fifteen  were  called  together  in  a  tavern,  a 
night  or  two  before  the  case  was  to  be  debated  in  the 
Assembly,  to  consult  what  was  to  be  done.  There  met 
accordingly  in  the  tavern  the  Right  Honourable  the 
Lord  Provost  Drummond ;  the  Honourable  William 
Master  of  Ross  ;  Mr  Gilbert  Elliot,  j  unior  of  Minto  ; 
Mr  Andrew  Pringle,  advocate  ;  Messrs  Jardine,  Blair, 
Robertson,  John  Home,  Adam  Dickson  of  Dunse, 
George  Logan  of  Ormiston,  Alexander  Carlyle  of 
Inveresk,  and  as  many  more  as  made  fifteen,  two  of 
whom — viz.  Logan  and  Carlyle— were  not  members  of 
Assembly.  The  business  was  talked  over,  and  having 
tlie  advice  of  those  two  able  lawyers,  Messrs  Elliot 
and  Pringle,  we  were  confirmed  in  our  opinion  that  it 
was  necessary  to  use  every  means  in  our  power  to 
restore  the  authority  of  the  Church,  otherwise  her 
government  would  be  degraded,  and  everything  de- 
pending on  her  authority  w^ould  fall  into  confusion; 
and  though  success  was  not  expected  at  this  Assembly, 
as  we  knew  that  the  judges,  and  many  other  respect- 


EEVOLUTIOX    IN    CHURCH    POLITY.  2^7 

able  elders,  besides  the  opposite  party  of  the  clergy, 
were  resolved  to  let  Mr  Adams  and  the  disobedient 
Presbytery  of  Linlithgow  escape  with  a  very  slight 
censure  (an  admonition  only),  yet  we  believed  that, 
by  keeping  the  object  in  view,  good  sense  would  pre- 
vail at  last,  and  order  be  restored.  We  did  not  pro- 
pose deposition,  but  only  suspension  for  six  months, 
which,  we  thought,  was  meeting  the  opposite  party 
half-way.  John  Home  agreed  to  make  the  motion, 
and  Eobertson  to  second  him.  Neither  of  them  had 
ever  spoken  in  the  Assembly  till  then,  and  it  was  till 
that  period  unusual  for  young  men  to  begin  a  debate. 
They  plucked  up  spirit,  however,  and  performed  their 
promise,  and  were  ably  supported  by  Messrs  Pringle 
and  Elliot,  and  one  or  two  more  of  those  who  had 
engaged  with  them.  When  they  came  to  vote, 
however,  two  of  the  eighteen  lost  heart,  and  could 
not  vote  in  opposition  to  all  the  great  men  in  the 
Assembly.  Those  two  were  Messrs  John  Jardine  and 
Hew  Blair,  who  soon  repented  of  their  cowardice, 
and  joined  heartily  in  the  dissent  from  a  sentence 
of  the  Commission  in  March  1752,  which  brought  on 
the  deposition  of  Gillespie,  and  re-established  the 
authority  of  the  Church.  Adam  Dickson  of  Dunse, 
who  had  been  ill  treated  by  John  Home's  friends  in 
that  Presbytery  when  he  was  presentee  to  that  parish, 
was  the  first  who  voted  on  our  side.  Home  made  a 
spirited  oration,  though  not  a  business  speech,  which 
talent  he  never  attained.  Eobertson  followed  him, 
and  not  only  gained  the  attention  of  the  Assembly, 


248  REVOLUTION    IN    CHUKCH   POLITY. 

but  drew  the  praise  of  the  best  judges,  particularly  of 
the  Lord  President  Dundas,  who  I  overheard  say  that 
Robertson  was  an  admirable  speaker,  and  would  soon 
become  a  leader  in  the  church  courts. 

Although  the  associated  members  lost  the  question 
by  a  very  great  majority,  yet  the  speeches  made  on 
that  occasion  had  thoroughly  convinced  many  of  the 
senior  members,  who,  though  they  persisted  in  their 
purpose  of  screening  Adams,  yet  laid  to  heart  what 
they  heard,  and  were  prepared  to  follow  a  very  dif- 
ferent course  with  the  next  offender.  Adams'  own 
speech,  and  those  of  his  apologists,  had  an  equal  effect 
with  those  on  the  other  side  in  bringing  about  this 
revolution  on  the  minds  of  sensible  men,  for  the  plea 
of  conscience  was  their  only  ground,  which  the  more 
it  was  urged  appeared  the  more  absurd  when  applied 
to  the  conduct  of  subordinate  judicatories  in  an 
Established  Church. 

This  occasional  union  of  some  of  the  young  clergy- 
men with  the  young  lawyers  and  other  elders  of  rank 
had  another  happy  effect,  for  it  made  them  well  ac- 
quainted with  each  other.  Besides  casual  meetings, 
they  had  two  nights  set  apart  during  every  Assembly, 
when  Messrs  Ross,  Elliot,  and  Pringle,  with  additional 
young  elders  as  they  came  up,  supped  together,  and 
conferred  about  the  business  with  their  friends  of  the 
Assembly  1752,  and  whoever  they  thought  were  fit 
associates.  Thus  was  anticipated  what  took  place  on 
a  larger  scale,  a  few  years  afterwards,  by  the  institu- 
tion of  the  Select  Society.     Till  this  period  the  clergy 


REVOLUTION   IN   CHURCH    POLITY.  249 

of  Scotland,  from  the  Revolution  downwards,  had  in 
general  been  little  thought  of,  and  seldom  admitted 
into  liberal  society,  one  cause  of  which  was,  that  in 
those  days  a  clergyman  was  thought  profane  who 
affected  the  manners  of  gentlemen,  or  was  much  seen 
in  their  company.  The  sudden  call  for  young  men 
to  fill  up  vacancies  at  the  Revolution,  obliged  the 
Church  to  take  their  entrants  from  the  lower  ranks, 
who  had  but  a  mean  education.  It  must  be  observed, 
too,  that  when  Presbytery  was  re-established  in  Scot- 
land at  the  Revolution,  after  the  reign  of  Episcopacy 
for  twenty-nine  years,  more  than  two -thirds  of  the 
people  of  the  country,  and  most  part  of  the  gentry, 
were  Episcopals ;  the  restoration  of  Presbytery  by  King 
William  being  chiefly  owing  to  the  Duke  of  Argj'le, 
Marchmont,  Stair,  and  other  leading  nobles  who  had 
suffered  under  Charles  and  James,  and  who  had  pro- 
moted the  Revolution  with  all  their  interest  and  power. 
As  it  was  about  this  period  that  the  General 
Assembly  became  a  theatre  for  young  lawyers  to 
display  their  eloquence  and  exercise  their  talents,  I 
shall  mention  the  impression  which  some  of  them 
made  on  me  in  my  early  days.  The  Lord  President 
Arniston — the  father  of  a  second  President  of  the  same 
name,  Robert  Dundas,  and  of  Lord  Viscount  Melville, 
by  different  wives — had  been  King's  Advocate  in  the 
year  1720,  which  he  had  lost  in  1725,  by  his  opposi- 
tion to  Sir  Robert  Walpole  and  Lord  Islay.  He  was 
one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  this  country  ever  produced, 
and  a  man  of  a  high  independent  spirit.     His  appear- 


250  ECCLESIASTICAL   LEADERS. 

ance  was  against  liim,  for  he  was  ill-looking,  with  a 
large  nose  and  small  ferret  eyes,  round  shoulders,  a 
harsh  croaking  voice,  and  altogether  unprepossessing; 
yet  by  the  time  he  had  uttered  three  sentences,  he 
raised  attention,  and  went  on  with  a  torrent  of  good 
sense  and  clear  reasoning  that  made  one  totally  forget 
the  first  impression.  At  this  Assembly  he  did  not 
speak,  and  soon  after  fell  into  a  debility  of  mind  and 
body,  which  continued  to  1754,  when  he  died.  I 
never  happened  to  be  in  company  with  this  Lord 
President  but  once,  which  was  at  a  meeting  of  Pres- 
bytery for  dividing  the  church  of  Newbottle.  The 
Presbytery  and  the  heritors  who  attended  were  quite 
puzzled  how  to  proceed  in  the  business,  and  Arniston, 
who  was  an  heritor,  was  late  in  coming.  But  he  had 
no  sooner  appeared  than  he  undid  all  that  we  had  been 
trying  to  do,  and  having  put  the  meeting  on  a  right 
plan,  extricated  and  settled  the  business  in  a  short  time. 
To  the  superiority  of  his  mind  he  added  experience  in 
that  sort  of  business.  There  was  a  dinner  provided 
for  us  in  the  Marquis  [of  Lothian's]  house,  where 
Sandy  M'Millan,  W.S.,  presided  in  the  absence  of  the 
Marquis,  when  I  was  quite  delighted  with  the  Presi- 
dent's brilliant  parts  and  fine  convivial  spirit.  I  was 
earnestly  invited  to  go  to  him  at  Arniston,  where  I 
should  probably  have  been  very  often,  had  not  this 
happened  a  very  short  while,  not  above  a  month  or 
two,  before  he  fell  into  debility  of  mind,  and  was  shut 
up.  Hew  Dalrymple,  Lord  Drummore,  who  was  much 
inferior  to  him  in  talents,  was  a  very  popular  speaker, 


ECCLESIASTICAL   LEADERS.  251 

thoiio^li  neither  an  orator  nor  an  acute  reasoner.  He 
was  the  lay  leader  of  the  Moderate  party  ;  and  A^nis- 
ton  was  inclined  to  favour  the  other  side,  though  he 
could  not  follow  them  in  their  settled  opposition  to 
the  law  of  patronage.  Drummore  devoted  himself 
during  the  Assembly  to  the  company  of  the  clergy, 
and  had  always  two  or  three  elders  who  followed  him 
to  the  tavern,  such  as  Sir  James  Colquhoun,  Colin 
Campbell  Commissioner  of  Customs,  &c.  Drummore's 
speaking  was  not  distinguished  for  anything  but  ease 
and  popularity,  and  he  was  so  deservedly  a  favourite 
with  the  clergy,  that,  taking  up  the  common-sense  of 
the  business,  or  judging  from  what  he  heard  in  con- 
versation the  day  before,  when  dining  with  the  clergy 
of  his  own  side,  he  usually  made  a  speech  in  every 
cause,  which  generally  seemed  to  sway  the  Assembly, 
though  there  was  not  much  aroatment.  He  used  to 
nod  to  Ai-niston  with  an  air  of  triumph  (for  they 
were  relations,  and  very  good  friends),  as  much  as  to 
say,  '■  Take  you  that,  Kobin." 

I  heard  Lord  Islay  once  speak  in  the  Assembly, 
which  was  to  correct  the  petulance  of  Alexander 
Webster,  which  he  did  with  dignity  and  force,  but 
was  in  the  wrong  to  commit  himself  with  a  light 
horseman  who  had  nothing  to  lose,  I  heard  Lord 
Marchmont  likewise  speak  on  the  motion  for  an  aug- 
mentation, which  he  did  with  much  elegance  and  a 
flowery  elocution,  but  entirely  without  sense  or  pro- 
priety, insomuch  that  he  by  his  speech  forfeited  the 
good  opinion  of  the  clergy,  who  had  been  prepossessed 


252  ECCLESIASTICAL   LEADERS. 

in  his  favour  by  Pope's  panegyrical  line  "  Polwartli  is 
a  sl^ve,"  Pope,  according  to  his  manner,  intended 
this  as  a  panegyric  on  his  patriotism  and  independ- 
ence ;  but  this  was  the  voice  of  party,  for  Marchmont 
was  in  reality  as  much  a  slave  of  the  Court  as  any 
man  of  his  time. 

Mr  Gilbert  Elliot  showed  himself  in  the  Assembly 
equal  to  the  station  to  which  he  afterwards  attained 
as  a  statesman,  when  Sir  Gilbert,  by  his  superior 
manner  of  speaking.  But  Andrew  Pringle,  Solicitor- 
General,  and  afterwards  Lord  Aylmer,  excelled  all  the 
laymen  of  that  period  for  genuine  argument  and  elo- 
quence ;  and  when  on  the  bench,  he  delivered  his 
opinion  with  more  dignity,  clearness,  and  precision 
than  any  judge  I  ever  heard  either  in  Scotland  or 
England.  It  was  a  great  loss  to  this  country  that  he 
did  not  live  to  fill  the  President's  chair,  and  indeed 
had  not  health  to  go  through  the  labour  of  it,  other- 
wise it  was  believed  that  he  would  have  set  an  ex- 
ample of  elegance  and  dignity  in  our  law  proceedings 
that  could  not  easily  have  been  forgotten.  In  those 
respects  the  bench  has  been  very  unlucky,  for  however 
great  lawyers  or  impartial  judges  the  succeeding 
Presidents  may  have  been,  in  the  qualities  I  have 
mentioned  they  have  all  been  inferior  even  to  the 
first  President  Arniston,  who  could  not  be  called  an 
elegant  speaker,  with  all  his  other  great  qualities.  In 
those  days  there  were  very  few  good  speakers  among 
the  clergy,  as  no  young  men  almost  ever  ventured  to 
speak  but  when  at  the  bar  till  after  1 752.    The  custom 


ECCLESIASTICAL   LEADERS.  253 

invariably  was  for  the  Moderator  to  call  for  the  opin- 
ion of  two  or  three  of  the  old  men  at  the  green  table 
who  were  nearest  him,  and  after  them  one  or  two  of  the 
judges,  or  the  King's  Advocate  and  Solicitor,  who  were 
generally  all  of  a  side,  and  were  very  seldom  opposed 
or  answered  but  by  James  Lindsay  and  one  or  two  of 
his  followers.  With  respect  to  Lindsay,  I  have  to  add 
that  he  was  a  fine  brisk  gentlemanlike  man,  who  had 
a  good  manner  of  speaking,  but,  being  ver}'  unlearned, 
could  only  pursue  a  single  track.  He  set  out  on  the 
popidar  side  in  opposition  to  patronage,  but  many  of 
his  private  friends  being  on  the  other  side,  and  Church 
preferment  running  chiefly  in  that  direction,  he  came 
for  two  or  three  years  over  to  them  ;  but  on  Drysdale's 
getting  the  deanery  during  the  Marquis  of  Eocking- 
ham's  administration,  he  took  pet  and  returned  to  his 
old  party.  The  ground  of  his  patriotism  was  thus 
unveiled,  and  he  was  no  longer  of  any  consequence, 
though  he  thought  he  could  sway  the  burgh  of  Loch- 
maben,  where  he  was  minister  at  that  time.  He  was 
a  very  pleasant  companion,  but  jealous  and  difficult, 
and  too  severe  a  rallier. 

The  clergyman  of  this  period  who  far  outshone 
the  rest  in  eloquence  was  Principal  Tidlidelph  of  St 
Andrews.  He  had  fallen  into  bad  health  or  low  spirits 
before  my  time,  and  seldom  appeared  in  the  Assembly ; 
but  when  he  did,  he  far  excelled  every  other  speaker. 
I  am  not  certain  if  even  Lord  Chatham  in  his  glory 
had  more  dignity  of  manner  or  more  command  of  his 
audience  than  he  had.     I  am  certain  he  had  not  so 


254  ECCLESIASTICAL   LEADEES. 

much  argument,  nor  such  a  convincing  force  of  rea- 
soning. Tullidelph  was  tall  and  thin  like  Pitt,  with 
a  manly  and  interesting  aspect ;  and  rising  slowly,  and 
beginniug  in  a  very  low  tone,  lie  soon  swelled  into  an 
irresistible  torrent  of  eloquence,  and,  in  my  opinion, 
was  the  most  powerful  speaker  ever  I  heard.  And 
yet  this  great  man  was  overcome  and  humbled  by  the 
buffoonery  of  a  man  much  his  inferior  in  everything 
but  learning.  This  was  John  Chalmers,  minister  of 
Elie.*  Tullidelph  soon  gained  the  leading  of  his  uni- 
versity, the  Presbytery  of  St  Andrews,  and  the  Synod 
of  Fife  ;  but  being  of  a  haughty  and  overbearing 
disposition  (like  Chatham),  he  soon  disgusted  his 
colleagues  both  in  the  University  and  Presbytery,  of 
which  the  younger  brethren  made  a  cabal  against  him, 
in  which  Chalmers  was  the  principal  agent.  Though 
he  was  far  behind  Tullidelph  in  eloquence,  he  was 
superior  to  him  in  some  things,  especially  in  ancient 
learning.  But  his  chief  mode  of  attack  was  by  a 
species  of  buffoonery,  which  totally  unhinged  the  Prin- 
cipal, who  was  very  proud,  and  indignant  of  opposi- 
tion. Chalmers  watched  his  arguments,  and  by  turning 
them  all  into  ridicule,  and  showing  that  they  proved 
the  very  reverse  of  Avhat  he  intended,  he  put  Tullidelph 
in  such  a  rage  as  totally  disabled  him,  and  made  him 
in  a  short  time  absent  himself  both  from  Presbytery 
and  Synod.  He  at  last  became  hypochondriac,  sat  up 
all  night  writing  a  dull  commentary  on  the  Gospels, 
and  lay  in  bed  all  day. 

*  The  grand-iincle  of  Dr  Thomas  Chiihners.     See  Hanxa's  Memmrs,  i.  2. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    LEADERS.  255 

After  this  period,  however,  when  the  young  clergy 
distinguished  themselves — and  particularly  after  the 
Assembly  1 753,  when,  Alexander  "Webster  being  Mo- 
derator, he  on  the  very  first  question  dropped  the  old 
mode  of  calling  upon  the  senior  members — the  young 
clergy  began  to  feel  their  own  importance  in  debate, 
and  have  ever  since  continued  to  distinguish  them- 
selves, and  have  swayed  the  decision  of  the  Assembly ; 
so  that  the  supreme  ecclesiastical  court  has  long  been  a 
school  of  eloquence  for  the  clergy,  as  well  as  a  theatre 
for  the  lawyers  to  display  their  talents. 

It  was  in  the  Assembly  1752  that  the  authority  of 
the  Church  was  restored  by  the  deposition  of  Gillespie. 
Robertson  and  John  Home,  having  been  dissenters, 
with  some  others,  from  a  sentence  of  the  Commission 
in  March  that  year  in  the  affair  of  the  settlement  of 
Inverkeithing,  similar  to  that  of  Torphichen  in  1751, 
had  entered  a  complaint  against  the  Commission,  which 
gave  them  an  opportunity  of  appearing  and  pleading 
at  the  bar  of  the  Assembly,  which  they  did  with  spirit 
and  eloquence.  The  minds  of  the  leaders  of  the  As- 
sembly having  been  now  totally  changed,  a  vigorous 
measure  was  adopted  by  a  great  majority.  The  Presby- 
tery of  Dunfermline  were  brought  before  the  Assembly, 
and  peremptorily  ordered  to  admit  the  candidate  three 
days  after,  and  report  to  the  Assembly  on  the  follow- 
ing Friday.  They  disobeyed,  and  Mr  Gillespie  was 
deposed.  I  was  for  the  first  time  a  member,  with  my 
friend  and  co-presbyter  George  Logan.  It  was  thought 
proper  that,  on  the  first  day's  debate,  the  speaking 


256  ECCLESIASTICAL  LEADERS. 

should  be  left  to  the  senior  clergy  and  the  lay  mem- 
bers. But  when,  at  a  general  meeting  of  the  party 
after  Gillespie  was  deposed,  it  was  moved  that  it 
would  be  proper  to  propose  next  day  that  the  As- 
sembly should  proceed  to  depose  one  or  two  more  of 
the  offending  brethren,  Mr  Alexander  Gordon  of  Kin- 
tore,  and  George  Logan  and  I,  were  pointed  out  as 
proper  persons  to  make  and  second  the  motion.  I 
accordingly  began,  and  was  seconded  by  Gordon  in 
very  vigorous  speeches,  which  occasioned  a  great  alarm 
on  the  other  side,  as  if  we  were  determined  to  get  rid 
of  the  whole  Presbytery;  but  this  was  only  in  terrorem, 
for  by  concert  one  of  our  senior  brethren,  wdth  much 
commendation  of  the  two  young  men,  calmly  pro- 
posed that  the  Assembly  for  this  time  should  rest 
contented  with  what  they  had  done,  aud  wait  the 
effects  of  the  example  that  had  been  set.  After  some 
debate  this  was  carried.  Logan  not  having  done  his 
part,  I  asked  him  why  he  had  been  silent ;  he  an- 
swered that  Gordon  and  I  had  spoken  in  such  a  supe- 
rior manner  that  he  thought  he  would  appear  inferior, 
and  had  not  the  courage  to  rise.  As  it  was  the  first 
time  I  had  ever  opened  my  mouth  in  the  Assembly- — 
for  I  was  not  a  member  till  that  year — I  was  encou- 
raged to  go  on  by  that  reply  from  my  friend.  At 
the  same  time,  I  must  observe  that  many  a  time,  as 
in  this  case,  the  better  man  is  dazzled  and  silenced 
for  life,  perhaps,  by  the  more  forward  temper  and 
brilliant  appearances  of  his  companions.  My  admira- 
tion of  Robertson  and  Hume,  with  whom  I  was  daily 


ECCLESIASTICAL   LEADERS.  257 

versant  at  that  time,  and  who  communicated  their 
writings  to  me,  made  me  imagine  that  I  was  incapable 
of  writing  anything  but  sermons,  insomuch  that  till 
the  year  1751  I  wrote  nothing  else  except  some  juve- 
nile poems.  Dr  Patrick  Cuming  was  at  this  time  at 
the  head  of  t^e  Moderate  interest ;  and  had  his  temper 
been  equal  to  his  talents,  might  have  kept  it  long ; 
for  he  had  both  learning  and  sagacity,  and  very 
agreeable  conversation,  with  a  constitution  able  to 
bear  the  convivialitv  of  the  times. 


K 


CHAPTER   VII. 

irSS-lT.W:  AGE,  31 -34. 

SKETCHES    OF    SOCIETY LORD    MILTOX LADY    HERVEY SMOLLETT'S 

VISIT CULLEN's   mimicries NOTICES    AND    ANECDOTES  OF  DAVID 

HUME,  ADAM    SMITH,   ADAM    FERGUSON,  DR  ROBERTSON,  DR    BLAIR, 

JOHN  HOME-^FOUNDATION  OF  THE  SELECT  SOCIETY COMPLETION 

OF   THE   TRAGEDY    OF    "DOUGLAS" ADVENTURES    OF   ITS   AUTHOR 

AND  HIS  FRIENDS    IN   CONVEYING    IT  TO    LONDON ADMIRAL    BYNQ 

THE    carriers'    INN. 

It  was  this  year  [1753]  that  the  1st  Regiment  of  dra- 
goons lay  at  Musselburgh,  with  some  of  the  officers  of 
which  I  was  very  intimate,  particularly  w^ith  Charles 
Lyon,  the  surgeon,  who  w^as  a  very  sensible,  handsome, 
and  agreeable  young  man.  He  afterwards  became  an 
officer,  and  rose  to  the  rank  of  a  lieutenant-general. 
He  w^as  at  York  when  Captain  Burton  and  AVind 
fought  a  duel,  in  which  the  first  w'as  run  through 
the  lungs,  and  recovered.  Lyon  wrote  to  me  twice 
a-week,  as  I  had  a  great  regard  for  Burton,  and  had 
foretold  the  duel.  He  was  afterwards  well  known  by 
the  name  of  General  Philipson.  The  celebrated  Major 
Johnstone,  so  much  admired  for  his  beauty  and  for 
his  many  duels,  w^as  of  this  regiment,  and  one  of  the 
best-natured  men   in  the  intercourse  of  friends  that 


PERSONAL   SKETCHES.  259 

ever  I  met  with.  George  11.  liad  put  a  cross  at  his 
name  on  his  behaving  very  insolently  at  one  of  the 
theatres  to  a  country  gentleman,  and  afterwards 
woundino-  him  in  a  duel.  In  Georo;e  III.'s  time  John 
Home  got  the  star  taken  off,  and  he  was  promoted. 
He  was  of  the  family  of  Hilton,  which  is  descended 
from  that  of  Westerhall ;  and  Hew  Bannatine  had 
been  his  travelling  tutor  when  abroad. 

The  parish  of  Inveresk  this  year  lost  a  very  agree- 
able member ;  for  the  estate  of  Carberry  being  sold  to 
a  Mr  Fullerton,  who  came  to  live  at  it,  Lord  Elchies 
left  the  place  and  went  to  Inch,  where  he  died  soon 
after.     His  place  was  in  some  respects  filled  by  his 
son,  Mr  John  Grant,  afterwards  Baron  Grant,  who 
bought  Castle  Steads.     Mr  Grant  was  a  worthy  good 
man,  of  considerable  parts,  but  of  a  weak,  whimsical 
mind.    He  was  at  this  time  chief  commissioner  for  the 
Duke  of  Buccleuch,  and  much  improved  the  family 
gallery  in  the  church,  where  he  attended  regularly. 
He  married  ^Nliss  Fletcher,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Lord 
Milton,  who  received  the  marriage  company  at  Car- 
berry.    I  was  frequently  asked  to  dine  while  she  stayed 
there,  and  by  that  means  became  weU  acquainted  with 
the  Fletchers,  whom  I  had  not  visited  before,  for  their 
house  was  not  in  my  parish,  and  I  was  not  forward 
in  pushing  myself  into  acquaintance  elsewhere  with- 
out some  proper  introduction.      From  this  period  I 
became  intimate   with  that    family,   of   which  Lord 
]\Iilton  himself  and  his  youngest  daughter  Betty,  after- 
wards Mrs  AVedderburn  of  Gosford,  were  my  much- 


260  PERSONAL   SKETCHES. 

valued  friends.  Lord  Milton  was  nephew  of  the  famous 
patriot,  Andrew  Fletcher  of  Saltoun,  and  the  successor 
to  his  estate.  He  had  been  Lord  Justice-Clerk  and 
political  manager  of  this  country  under  Lord  Islay  ; 
and  now  that  his  lordship  had  been  Duke  of  Argyle 
since  1744,  when  his  brother  John  died,  their  influ- 
ence was  completely  established.  The  Duke  had  early 
made  choice  of  Fletcher  for  his  coadjutor,  and  had 
proved  his  sagacity  by  making  so  good  a  choice  ;  for 
Lord  Milton  was  a  man  of  great  ability  in  business, 
a  man  of  good  sense,  and  of  excellent  talents  for  man- 
aging men  ;  and  though  his  conversation  was  on  a 
limited  scale,  because  his  knowledge  was  very  much 
so,  yet  being  possessed  of  indefeasible  power  at  that 
time  in  Scotland,  and  keeping  an  excellent  table,  his 
defects  were  overlooked,  and  he  was  held  to  be  as 
agreeable  as  he  was  able. 

His  talents  had  been  illustrated  by  the  incapacity 
of  the  Tweeddale  Ministry,  who  were  in  power  during 
the  Eebellion,  and  who  had  been  obliged  to  resort  to 
Milton  for  intelligence  and  advice.  When  the  Rebel- 
lion was  suppressed,  and  the  Duke  of  Argyle  brought 
again  into  power,  he  and  Fletcher  very  wisely  gained 
the  hearts  of  the  Jacobites,  who  were  still  very 
numerous,  by  adopting  the  most  lenient  measures, 
and  taking  the  distressed  families  under  their  pro- 
tection, while  the  Squadrone  party  continued  as  vio- 
lent against  them  as  ever.  This  made  them  almost 
universally  successful  in  the  parliamentary  election 
which  followed   the  Rebellion,  and  established  their 


PERSONAL    SKETCHES.  2G1 

power  till  the  death  of  the  Duke,  which  happened  in 
1761. 

His  [Lord  Milton's]  youngest  daughter,  afterwards 
Mrs  Wedderburn,  was  one  of  the  first  females  in  point 
of  understanding  as  well  as. heart  that  ever  fell  in  my 
way  to  be  intimately  acquainted  with.  As  there  was 
much  w^eakness  and  intrigue  in  the  mother  and  some 
other  branches  of  the  family,  she  had  a  difficult  part 
to  act,  but  she  performed  it  with  much  address  ;  for 
while  she  preserved  her  father's  predilection  and  con- 
fidence, she  remained  well  with  the  rest  of  the  family. 
The  eldest  brother,  Andrew,  lived  for  most  part  with 
the  Duke  of  Ai-gyle,  at  London,  as  his  private  secre- 
tary, and  was  M.P.  for  East  Lothian  ;  and  though  not 
a  man  who  produced  himself  in  public  life,  was  suffi- 
ciently knowing  and  accomplished  to  be  a  very  amiable 
member  of  society.  After  the  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Argyle  in  1761,  and  of  his  father  in  1767,  he  lived 
for  most  part  at  his  seat  at  Saltoun,  in  East  Lothian. 
He  was  succeeded  as  member  of  Parliament  for  that 
county  by  Sir  George  Suttie,  who  had  been  a  lieu- 
tenant-colonel in  the  army,  and  who,  with  many 
others,  left  the  service  in  disgust  with  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  who,  though  he  had  always  been  beat  in 
Flanders,  had  disobliged  sundry  officers  of  good  pro- 
mise. This  Sir  George,  however,  was  much  overrated. 
He  was  held  to  be  a  great  officer,  because  he  had  a 
way  of  thinking  of  his  own,  and  had  learned  from  his 
kinsman,  Marshal  Stair,  to  draw  the  plan  of  a  cam- 
paign.    He  was  held  to  be  a  great  patriot,  because  he 


262  PERSONAL   SKETCHES. 

wore  a  coarse  coat  and  unpowdered  hair,  wliile  lie 
was  looking  for  a  post  witli  the  utmost  anxiety.  He 
was  reckoned  a  man  of  much  sense  because  he  said 
so  himself,  and  had  such  an  embarrassed  stuttering 
elocution  that  one  was  not  sure  but  it  was  true. 
He  was  understood  to  be  a  great  improver  of  land, 
because  he  was  always  talking  of  farming,  and  had 
invented  a  cheap  method  of  fencing  his  fields  by  com- 
bining a  low  stone  wall  and  a  hedge  together,  which, 
on  experiment,  did  not  answer.  For  all  those  qualities 
he  got  credit  for  some  time  ;  but  nobody  ever  men- 
tioned the  real  strength  of  his  character,  which  was 
that  of  an  uncommonly  kind  and  indulgent  brother  to 
a  large  family  of  brothers  and  sisters,  whom  he  allowed, 
during  his  absence  in  a  five  years'  war,  to  dilapidate  his 
estate,  and  leave  him  less  than  half  his  income.  Lord 
Stair  had  been  caught  by  the  boldness  of  his  cousin  in 
attempting  to  make  the  plan  of  a  campaign,  which  had 
given  the  young  man  a  false  measure  of  his  own  ability. 
For  two  summers,  about  this  time,  I  went  for  some 
weeks  to  Dunse  Well,  which  was  in  high  vogue  at 
this  period,  when  I  was  often  at  Polwarth  Manse,  the 
dwelling  of  Mr  and  Mrs  Home,  the  last  of  wdiom  was 
aunt  of  Mary  Roddam,  the  young  lady  whom  I  after- 
wards married,  and  who  had  lived  there  since  the 
death  of  her  father  and  mother  in  the  years  1744  and 
1745.  John  Home  passed  half  his  time  in  this  house, 
Mr  William  Home,  a  brother  of  the  Laird  of  Bassen- 
dean,  being  his  cousin,  and  Mrs  Home  (Mary  Roddam) 
a  superior  woman.     By  frequenting  this  house  I  was 


PERSONAL   SKETCHES.  263 

introduced  to  the  Earl  of  Marchmont,  whose  seat  was 
hard  by.  His  second  lady,  who  was  young  and 
handsome,  but  a  simple  and  quiet  woman,  and  three 
daughters  he  had  by  his  former  lady,  were  all  under 
due  subjection,  for  his  lordship  kept  a  high  command 
at  home.  The  daughters  were  all  clever,  particularly 
Lady  Margaret,  and  stood  less  in  awe  than  the 
Countess,  who,  had  it  not  been  for  her  only  child, 
Lord  Polwarth,  then  an  infant,  would  have  led  but 
an  uncomfortable  life.  The  family  of  Marchmont — 
which  rose  to  tlie  peerage  at  the  Revolution,  and  to 
the  ascendant  in  the  country,  through  the  weakness 
and  Jacobitism  of  the  more  ancient  Earls  of  Home, 
from  whom  they  were  descended — to  preserve  their 
superiority,  paid  great  court  to  the  county,  and  par- 
ticularly to  the  clergy,  because  they  were  the  only 
stanch  friends  to  ,  Government.  ^larchmont  was 
lively  and  eloquent  in  conversation,  with  a  tincture 
of  classical  learning,  and  some  knowledge  of  the  con- 
stitution, especially  of  the  forms  of  the  House  of 
Peers ;  but  his  wit  appeared  to  me  to  be  petulant, 
and  his  understanding  shallow.  His  twin-brother, 
Hume  Campbell,  then  Lord-Register  for  Scotland, 
and  one  of  the  most  eloquent  lawyers  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  man  of  sounder 
judgment  than  his  brother  ;  his  want  of  manhood, 
however,  had  been  disclosed  by  his  receiving  an  insult 
from  William  Pitt,  the  father,  which  he  had  probably 
been  tempted  to  inflict  on  his  having  heard  what  had 
happened  to  him  in  Edinburgh  in  his  youthful  days. 


264  TOBIAS    SMOLLETT. 

In  one  of  the  summers  in  which  I  was  in  that  part 
of  the  country,  the  Lord-Eegister  gave  a  ball  and 
supper  in  the  town-hall  of  Greenlaw,  which  I  men- 
tion because  I  had  there  an  opportunity  of  conversing 
with  Lady  Murray  and  her  friend  Lady  Hervey,  who 
was  understood  to  be  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
and  witty  ladies  in  England.  There  were  in  this  neigh- 
bourhood several  very  agreeable  clergymen  :  Chatto 
was  very  acute  and  sensible — Eidpath  judicious  and 
learned — Dickson  an  able  ecclesiastic,  and  master  of 
agriculture. 

In  one  of  those  years  it  was,  when  Dunse  Well 
was  most  frequented,  that  the  Marchmont  family  for 
several  weeks  attended,  and  came  to  Dunse,  and 
breakfasted  at  a  small  tavern  by  the  bowling-green. 
We  generally  sat  down  twenty-four  or  twenty-five  to 
breakfast  in  a  very  small  room.  Marchmont  and  his 
brother  behaved  with  great  courtesy,  seldom  sitting 
down,  but  aiding  the  servants.  Francis  Garden  was 
there,  and  increased  the  mirth  of  the  company.  Most 
of  the  company  remained  all  the  forenoon  at  the 
bowling-green,  where  we  had  very  agreeable  parties. 

It  was  also  in  one  of  those  years  that  Smollett 
visited  Scotland  for  the  first  time,  after  having  left 
Glasgow  immediately  after  his  education  was  finished, 
and  his  engaging  as  a  surgeon's  mate  on  board  a  man- 
of-war,  which  gave  him  an  opportunity  of  witnessing 
the  siege  of  Carthagena,  which  he  has  so  minutely 
described  in  his  Roderich  Random.  He  came  out  to 
Musselburgh  and  passed  a  day  and  a  night  with  me. 


TOBIAS   SMOLLETT.  265 

and  went  to  church  and  heard  me  preach.  I  in- 
troduced liini  to  Cardonnel  the  Commissioner,  with 
whom  he  supped,  and  they  were  much  pleased  with 
each  other.  Smollett  has  reversed  this  in  his  Hum- 
phrey Clinker,  where  he  makes  the  Commissioner  his 
old  acquaintance."  He  went  next  to  Glasgow  and 
that  neighbourhood  to  visit  his  friends,  and  returned 
again  to  Edinburgh  in  October,  when  I  had  frequent 
meetings  with  him — one  .in  particular,  in  a  tavern, 
where  there  supped  with  him  Commissioner  Cardon- 
nel, Mr  Hepburn  of  Keith,  John  Home,  and  one  or 
two  more.  Hepburn  was  so  much  pleased  with  Car- 
donnel, that  he  said  that  if  he  went  into  rebellion 
again,  it  should  be  for  the  grandson  of  the  Duke  of 
Monmouth.  Cardonnel  and  I  went  with  Smollett  to 
Sir  David  Kinloch's,  and  passed  the  day,  when  John 
Home  and  Logan  and  I  conducted  him  to  Dunbar, 
where  we  stayed  together  all  night. 

Smollett  was  a  man  of  veiy  agreeable  conversation 
and  of  much  genuine  humour ;  and,  though  not  a 
profound  scholar,  possessed  a  philosophical  mind,  and 
was  capable  of  making  the  soundest  observations  on 
human  life,  and  of  discerning  the  excellence  or  seeing 
the  ridicule  of  every  character  he  met  with.  Fielding 
only  excelled  him  in  giving  a  dramatic  story  to  his 
novels,  but,  in  my  opinion,  was  inferior  to  him  in  the 
true  comic  vein.      He  was  one  of  the  many  very 

*  But  on  naming  the  far  more  Jistingiiished  men  seen  by  him  in  the 
"hotljeacl  of  genius,"  Bramble  says,  "These  acquaintances  I  owe  to  the 
friendship  of  Dr  Carlyle,  who  wants  nothing  but  inclination  to  figure  with 
the  rest  on  paper." — Ed. 


266  PERSONAL   SKETCHES. 

pleasant  men  with  whom  it  was  my  good  fortune  to 
be  intimately  acquainted.  Mr  Cardonnel,  whom  I 
have  mentioned,  was  another  who  excelled,  like  Smol- 
lett, in  a  great  variety  of  pleasant  stories.  Sir  Hew 
Dalrymple,  North  Berwick,  had  as  much  conversation 
and  wit  as  any  man  of  his  time,  having  been  long  an 
M.P,  David  Hume  and  Dr  John  Jardine  were  like- 
wise both  admirable,  and  had  the  peculiar  talent  of 
rallying  their  companions  on  their  good  qualities. 
Dr  William  Wight  and  Thomas  Hepburn  were  also 
remarkable  —  the  one  for  brilliancy,  vivacity,  and 
smartness  ;  the  other  for  the  shrewdness  of  his  re- 
marks and  irresistible  repartees.  The  Right  Honour- 
able Charles  Townshend  and  Patrick  Lord  Elibank 
were  likewise  admirable  ;  for  though  the  first  was 
inferior  in  knowledge  to  the  second,  yet  he  had  such 
flowing  eloquence,  so  fine  a  voice,  and  such  richness 
of  expression,  joined  to  brilliant  wit  and  a  fine  vein  of 
mimicry,  as  made  him  shine  in  every  company.  Eli- 
bank w^as  more  enlightened  and  more  profound,  and 
had  a  mind  that  embraced  the  greatest  variety  of 
topics,  and  produced  the  most  original  remarks.  He 
was  rather  a  humourist  than  a  man  of  humour ;  but 
that  bias  of  his  temper  led  him  to  defend  paradoxes 
and  uncommon  opinions  with  a  copiousness  and  in- 
genuity that  was  surprising.  He  had  been  a  lieu- 
tenant-colonel in  the  army,  and  was  at  the  siege  of 
Carthagena,  of  which  he  left  an  elegant  and  Xenophon- 
like  account  (which  I'm  afraid  is  lost).  He  was  a 
Jacobite,  and  a  member  of  the  famous  Cocoa-tree  Club, 


PERSONAL   SKETCHES.  2C7 

and  resigned  his  commission  on  some  disgust.  Soon 
after  the  Rebellion  of  1745  he  took  up  his  residence 
in  Scotland,  and  his  seat  being  between  Dr  Robert- 
son's church  and  John  Home's,  he  became  intimately 
acquainted  with  them,  who  cured  him  of  his  con- 
tempt for  the  Presbyterian  clergy,  made  him  change 
or  soften  down  many  of  his  original  opinions,  and  pre- 
pared him  for  becoming  a  most  agreeable  member  of 
the  Literary  Society  of  Edinburgh,  among  whom  he 
lived  during  the  remainder  of  his  life  admiring  and 
admired.  We  used  to  say  of  Elibank,  that  were  we 
to  plead  for  our  lives,  he  was  the  man  with  whom  we 
would  wish  to  converse  for  at  least  one  whole  day 
before  we  made  our  defence. 

Dr  M'Cormick,  who  died  Principal  of  St  Andrews, 
was  rather  a  merry-andrew  than  a  wit ;  but  he  left  as 
many  good  sapngs  behind  him,  which  are  remem- 
bered, as  any  man  of  his  time.  Andrew  Gray,  minis- 
ter of  Abernethy,  was  a  man  of  wit  and  humour, 
which  had  the  greater  effect  that  his  person  was 
diminutive,  and  his  voice  of  the  smallest  treble. 

Lindsay  was  a  hussar  in  raillery,  who  had  no  mercy, 
and  whose  object  was  to  display  himself  and  to  humble 
the  man  he  played  on.  Monteath  was  more  than  his 
match,  for  he  lay  by,  and  took  his  opportunity  of  giv- 
incr  him  such  southboards  as  silenced  him  for  the  whole 
evening.*  Happily  for  conversation,  this  horse-play 
raillery  has  been  left  off  for  more  than  thirty  years 

*  Liudsay  was  miniiter  of  the  parish  of  Kirkliston,  and  Monteath  of  the 
parish  of  Longfonnaciis. — Ed. 


268  CULLEN    MIMICRIES. 

among  the  clergy  and  other  liberals.  Drummore — of 
the  class  of  lawyers  who  got  the  epithet  of  Monk  from 
Quin,  at  Bath,  on  account  of  his  pleasing  countenance 
and  bland  manners — was  a  first-rate  at  the  science  of 
defence  in  raillery :  he  was  too  good-natured  to  attack. 
He  had  the  knack,  not  only  of  pleasing  fools  with 
themselves,  but  of  making  them  tolerable  to  the  com- 
pany. There  were  two  men,  however,  whose  coming 
into  a  convivial  company  pleased  more  than  anybody 
I  ever  knew  :  the  one  was  Dr  George  Kay,  a  minister 
of  Edinburgh,  who,  to  a  charming  vivacity  when  he 
was  in  good  spirits,  added  the  talent  of  ballad-singing 
better  than  anybody  ever  I  knew  ;  the  other  was 
John  Home. 

I  should  not  omit  Lord  CuUen  here,  though  he  was 
much  my  junior,  who  in  his  youth  possessed  the 
talent  of  mimicry  beyond  all  mankind ;  for  his  was 
not  merely  an  exact  imitation  of  voice  and  manner 
of  speaking,  but  a  perfect  exhibition  of  every  man's 
manner  of  thinking  on  every  subject.  I  shall  men- 
tion two  or  three  instances,  lest  his  wonderful  powers 
should  fall  into  oblivion. 

When  the  Honourable  James  Stuart  Wortley  lived 
with  Dr  Robertson,  the  Doctor  had  sometimes,  though 
rarely,  to  remonstrate  and  admonish  the  young  gen- 
tleman on  some  parts  of  his  conduct.  He  came  into 
the  room  between  ten  and  eleven  in  the  morning, 
when  Mr  Stuart  was  still  in  bed,  with  the  windows 
shut  and  the  curtains  drawn  close,  when  he  took  the 
opportunity,  in  his  mild  and  rational  manner  (for  he 


CULLEN   MIMICRIES.  269 

could  not  chide),  to  give  him  a  lecture  on  the  manner 
of  life  he  was  leading.  When  he  was  done,  "  This  is 
rather  too  much,  my  dear  Doctor,'  said  James  ;  " for 
you  told  me  all  this  not  above  an  hour  ago."  The 
case  was,  that  Cullen  had  been  beforehand  with  the 
Doctor,  and  seizing  the  opportunity,  read  his  friend 
such  a  lecture  as  he  thought  the  Doctor  might  pro- 
bably do  that  morning.  It  was  so  very  like  in  thought 
and  in  words,  that  Stuart  took  it  for  a  visitation 
from  the  Doctor. 

I  was  witness  to  another  exhibition  similar  to  this. 
It  was  one  day  in  the  General  Assembly  1 765,  when 
there  happened  to  be  a  student  of  physic  who  was 
seized  with  a  convulsion  fit,  which  occasioned  much 
commotion  in  the  house,  and  drew  a  score  of  other 
English  students  around  him.  When  the  Assembly 
adjourned,  about  a  dozen  of  us  went  to  dine  in  the 
Poker  club-room  at  Nicholson's,  when  Dr  Eobertson 
came  and  told  us  he  must  dine  with  the  Commis- 
sioner, but  would  join  us  soon.  Immediately  after 
we  dined,  somebody  wished  to  hear  from  Cullen  what 
Robertson  would  say  about  the  incident  that  had 
taken  place,  which  he  did  immediately,  lest  the  Prin- 
cipal should  come  in.  He  had  hardly  finished  when 
he  arrived.  After  the  company  had  drank  his  health, 
Jardine  said  slyly,  "Principal,  was  it  not  a  strange 
accident  that  happened  to-day  in  the  Assembly?" 
Eobertson's  answer  was  exactly  in  the  strain,  and 
almost  in  the  very  words,  of  CuUen.  This  raised  a 
very  loud  laugh  in  the  company,  when  the  Doctor, 


270  CULLEN   MIMICRIES. 

more  ruffled  than  I  ever  almost  saw  him,  said,  with  a 
severe  look  at  Cullen,  "  I  perceive  somebody  has  been 
ploughiug  with  my  heifer  before  I  came  in." 

On  another  occasion  he  was  asked  to  exhibit,  when 
he  answered  that  his  subjects  were  so  much  hackneyed 
that  he  could  not  go  over  them  with  spirit ;  but  if 
any  of  them  would  mention  a  new  subject,  he  would 
try  to  please  them.  One  of  the  company  mentioned 
the  wild  beast  in  the  Gevaudan,  w^hen,  after  laying 
his  head  on  the  table,  not  for  more  than  two  or  three 
minutes,  he  lifted  himself  up  and  said,  "Now  I  have 
it,"  and  immediately  gave  us  the  thoughts  of  tlie 
Judges  Auchinleck,  Kames,  and  Monboddo,  and  Dr 
Robertson,  with  a  characteristical  exactness  of  senti- 
ment, as  well  as  words,  tone,  and  manner,  as  aston- 
ished the  company.  This  happened  at  Dr  Blair's,  who 
then  lived  in  James's  Square.'" 

This  was  a  very  pleasing  but  dangerous  talent,  for 
it  led  to  dissipation.  When  he  had  left  off  his  usual 
mode  of  exhibition  when  called  upon,  yet  he  could 
not  restrain  himself  from  displaying  in  his  common 
conversation,  in  which  he  intermingled  specimens  of 
his  superlative  art  as  the  characters  came  in  his  way, 
whicli  to  me  w^as  much  more  agreeable  than  the  pro- 
fessed exhibition.  As  he  was  more  knowing  and 
accomplished  than  almost  any  judge  in  his  time, 
had  all  other  qualities  been  of  a  piece,  his  company 

*  The  sanguinary  feats  attributed  to  ' '  tlie  great  beast  of  the  Gevaudan  " 
excited  all  Europe  in  1704,  and  there  was  much  astonishment  when,  lieing 
at  last  killed,  it  was  found  to  be  only  a  large  wolf.  Horace  W^aljwle  saw 
it  j  carcass  in  the  Queen's  antechamber  at  Versailles,  —  Ed. 


THE    GENERAL   ASSEMBLY.  271 

would  very  long  have  been  courted.  In  giving  some 
account  of  those  very  pleasant  characters  which  it 
was  my  good  fortune  to  know,  I  have  anticipated 
several  years  ;  for  Mr  Eobert  Cullen,  for  instance,  did 
not  begin  to  be  known  till  after  1760.  But  I  shall 
now  return  to  my  narrative. 

It  was  in  the  General  Assembly  1753,  as  I  have 
before  mentioned,  that  Dr  Webster  being  ^Moderator, 
he  put  an  end  to  the  ancient  mode  of  calling  up  Prin- 
cipals, and  Professors,  and  Judges,  &c.,  to  give  their 
opinion  on  cases  which  came  before  the  Assembly,  by 
declaring  that  he  would  call  upon  no  person,  but 
would  expect  that  every  member  should  freely  deliver 
his  opinion  when  he  had  any  to  offer.  This  brought 
on  the  junior  members,  and  much  animated  and  im- 
proved the  debates.  The  old  gentlemen  at  first  were 
sulky  and  held  their  tongues,  but  in  two  or  three 
days  they  found  them  again,  lest  they  should  lose 
their  ascendant.  I  never  afterwards  saw  the  practice 
revived  of  calling  upon  members  to  speak,  except 
once  or  twice  when  Principal  TuUidelph  attended, 
whom  everybody  wished  to  hear,  but  who  would  not 
rise  without  having  that  piece  of  respect  paid  to  him. 

At  this  Assembly  it  was  that  an  attempt  was 
made  to  have  Gillespie,  the  deposed  minister,  restored ; 
but  as  he  had  not  taken  the  proper  steps  to  conciliate 
the  Church,  but,  on  the  contrary,  had  continued  to 
preach,  and  had  set  up  a  separate  congregation,  the 
application  by  his  friends  was  refused  by  a  great 
majority,  and  was  never  repeated. 


272  DAVID    HUME. 

At  this  time  David  Hume  was  living  in  Edinburgh 
and  composing  his  History  of  Great  Britain.  He 
was  a  man  of  great  knowledge,,  and  of  a  social  and 
benevolent  temper,  and  truly  the  best-natured  man 
in  the  world.  He  was  branded  with  the  title  of 
Atheist,  on  account  of  the  many  attacks  on  revealed 
religion  that  are  to  be  found  in  his  philosophical 
works,  and  in  many  places  of  his  History— the  last  of 
which  are  still  more  objectionable  than  the  first,  which 
a  friendly  critic  might  call  only  sceptical.  Apropos 
of  this,  when  Mr  Eobert  Adam,  the  celebrated  archi- 
tect, and  his  brother,  lived  in  Edinburgh  with  their 
mother,  an  aunt  of  Dr  Eobertson's,  and  a  very  re- 
spectable woman,  she  said  to  her  son,  "  I  shall  be  glad 
to  see  any  of  your  companions  to  dinner,  but  I  hope 
you  will  never  bring  the  Atheist  here  to  disturb  my 
peace."  But  Eobert  soon  fell  on  a  method  to  recon- 
cile her  to  him,  for  he  introduced  him  under  another 
name,  or  concealed  it  carefully  from  her.  When  the 
company  parted  she  said  to  her  son,  "  I  must  confess 
that  you  bring  very  agreeable  companions  about  you, 
but  the  large  jolly  man  who  sat  next  me  is  the  most 
agreeable  of  them  all."  "  This  was  the  very  Atheist," 
said  he,  "mother,  that  you  was  so  much  afraid  of." 
"  Well,"  says  she,  "  you  may  bring  him  here  as  much 
as  you  please,  for  he's  the  most  innocent,  agreeable, 
facetious  man  I  ever  met  with."  This  was  truly  the 
case  with  him;  for  though  he  had  much  learning  and 
a  fine  taste,  and  was  professedly  a  sceptic,  though  by 
no  means  an  atheist,  he  had  the  greatest  simplicity 


DAVID    HUME.  27^ 

of  mind  and  manners  with  the  utmost  facility  and 
benevolence  of  temper  of  any  man  I  ever  knew.  His 
conversation  was  truly  irresistible,  for  while  it  was 
enlightened,  it  was  naive  almost  to  puerility. 

I  was  one  of  those  who  never  believed  that  David 
Hume's  sceptical  principles  had  laid  fast  hold  on  his 
mind,  but  thought  that  his  books  proceeded  rather 
from  affectation  of  superiority  and  pride  of  under- 
standing and  love  of  vainglory.  I  was  confirmed  in 
this  opinion,  after  his  death,  by  what  the  Honourable 
Patrick  Boyle,  one  of  his  most  intimate  friends,  told 
me  many  years  ago  at  my  house  in  Musselburgh, 
where  he  used  to  come  and  dine  the  first  Sunday  of 
every  General  Assembly,  after  his  brother.  Lord  Glas- 
gow, ceased  to  be  Lord  High  Commissioner.  When 
we  were  talking  of  David,  Mrs  Carlyle  asked  Mr  Boyle 
if  he  thought  David  Hume  was  as  great  an  unbeliever 
as  the  world  took  him  to  be  ?  He  answered,  that  the 
world  judged  from  his  books,  as  they  had  a  right  to 
do ;  but  he  thought  otherwise,  who  had  known  him 
all  his  life,  and  mentioned  the  following  incident : 
AYhen  David  and  he  were  both  in  London,  at  the 
period  when  David's  mother  died,  Mr  Boyle,  hearing 
of  it,  soon  after  went  into  his  apartment — for  they 
lodged  in  the  same  house — when  he  found  him  in  the 
deepest  affliction  and  in  a  flood  of  tears.  After  the 
usual  topics  of  condolence,  Mr  Boyle  said  to  him, 
"  My  friend,  you  owe  this  uncommon  grief  to  your 
having  thrown  off  the  principles  of  religion ;  for  if 
you  had  not,  you  would  have  been  consoled  by  the 

s 


£74)  DAVID    HUME, 

firm  belief  that  tlie  good  lady,  who  was  not  only  the 
best  of  mothers,  but  the  most  pious  of  Christians,  was 
now  completely  happy  in  the  realms  of  the  just."  To 
which  David  replied,  "  Though  I  threw  out  my  specu- 
lations to  entertain  and  employ  the  learned  and  meta- 
physical world,  yet  in  other  things  I  do  not  think  so 
differently  from  the  rest  of  mankind  as  you  may 
imagine."  To  this  my  wife  was  a  witness.  This  con- 
versation took  place  the  year  after  David  died,  when 
Dr  Hill,  who  was  to  preach,  had  gone  to  a  room  to 
look  over  his  notes. 

At  this  period,  when  he  first  lived  in  Edinburgh, 
and  was  writing  his  History  of  England,  his  circum- 
stances were  narrow,  and  he  accepted  the  office  of 
Librarian  to  the  Faculty  of  Advocates,  worth  £40 
per  annum.  But  it  was  not  for  the  salary  that  he 
accepted  this  employment,  but  that  he  might  have 
easy  access  to  the  books  in  that  celebrated  library ; 
for,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  he  gave  every  farthing 
of  the  salary  to  families  in  distress.  Of  a  piece  with 
this  temper  was  his  curiosity  and  credulity,  which 
were  without  bounds,  a  specimen  of  which  shall  be 
afterwards  given  when  I  come  down  to  Militia  and 
the  Poker.  His  economy  was  strict,  as  he  loved  inde- 
pendency ;  and  yet  he  was  able  at  that  time  to  give 
suppers  to  his  friends  in  his  small  lodging  in  the 
Canongate.  He  took  much  to  the  company  of  the 
younger  clergy,  not  from  a  wish  to  bring  them  over 
to  his  opinions,  for  he  never  attempted  to  overturn 
any  man's  principles,  but  they  best  understood  his 


DAVID    HUME.  275 

notions,  and  could  furnish  him  with  literary  conver- 
sation. Kobertson  and  John  Home  and  Bannatine 
and  I  lived  all  in  the  country,  and  came  only  period- 
ically to  the  town.  Blair  and  Jardine  both  lived  in 
it,  and  suppers  being  the  only  fashionable  meal  at 
that  time,  we  dined  where  we  best  could,  and  by 
cadies  assembled  our  friends  to  meet  us  in  a  tavern 
by  nine  o'clock ;  and  a  fine  time  it  was  when  we  could 
collect  David  Hume,  Adam  Smith,  Adam  Ferguson, 
Lord  Elibank,  and  Drs  Blair  and  Jardine,  on  an  hour's 
warning.  I  remember  one  night  that  David  Hume, 
who,  having  dined  abroad,  came  rather  late  to  us,  and 
du-ectly  pulled  a  large  key  from  his  pocket,  which  he 
laid  on  the  table.  This  he  said  was  given  him  by 
his  maid  Peggy  (much  more  like  a  man  than  a  woman) 
that  she  might  not  sit  up  for  him,  for  she  said  when 
the  honest  fellaws  came  in  from  the  country,  he  never 
returned  home  till  after  one  o'clock.  This  intimacy 
of  the  young  clergy  with  David  Hume  enraged  the 
zealots  on  the  opposite  side,  who  little  knew  how  im- 
possible it  was  for  him,  had  he  been  willing,  to  shake 
their  principles. 

As  Mr  Hume's  circumstances  improved  he  enlarged 
his  mode  of  living,  and  instead  of  the  roasted  hen  and 
minced  collops,  and  a  bottle  of  punch,  he  gave  both 
elegant  dinners  and  suppers,  and  the  best  claret,  and, 
which  was  best  of  all,  he  furnished  the  entertainment 
with  the  most  instructive  and  pleasing  conversation, 
for  he  assembled  whosoever  were  most  knowing  and 
agreeable  among  either  the  laity  or  clergy.     This  he 


276  DAVID    HUME. 

always  did,  but  still  more  unsparingly  when  he  be- 
came what  he  called  rich.  For  innocent  mirth  and 
agreeable  raillery  I  never  knew  his  match.  Jardine, 
who  sometimes  bore  hard  upon  him — for  he  had  much 
drollery  and  wit,  though  but  little  learning — never 
could  overturn  his  temper.  Lord  Elibank  resembled 
David  in  his  talent  for  collecting  agreeable  com- 
panions together,  and  had  a  house  in  town  for  several 
winters  chiefly  for  that  purpose. 

David,  who  delighted  in  what  the  French  call 
'plaisanterie,  with  the  aid  of  Miss  Nancy  Ord,  one  of 
the  Chief  Baron's  daughters,  contrived  and  executed 
one  that  gave  him  very  great  delight.  As  the  New 
Town  was  making  its  progress  westward,  he  built  a 
house  in  the  south-west  corner  of  St  Andrew  Square. 
The  street  leading  south  to  Princes  Street  had  not 
yet  got  its  name  affixed,  but  they  got  a  workman 
early  one  morning  to  paint  on  the  corner-stone  of 
David's  house  "  St  David's  Street,"  where  it  remains 
to  this  day. 

He  was  at  first  quite  delighted  with  Ossian's  poems, 
and  gloried  in  them  ;  but  on  going  to  London  he  went 
over  to  the  other  side,  and  loudly  affirmed  them  to 
be  inventions  of  Macpherson.  I  happened  to  say  one 
day,  when  he  was  declaiming  against  Macpherson, 
that  I  had  met  with  nobody  of  his  opinion  but  Wil- 
liam Caddel  of  Cockenzie,  and  President  Dundas, 
which  he  took  ill,  and  was  some  time  of  forgetting. 
This  is  one  instance  of  what  Smellie  says  of  him,  that 
though  of  the  best  temper  in  the  world,  yet  he  could 


DAVID    HUME.  277 

be  touched  by  opposition  or  rudeness.  This  was  the 
only  time  I  had  ever  observed  David's  temper  change. 
I  can  call  to  mind  an  instance  or  two  of  his  sood- 
natured  pleasantry.  Being  at  Gilmerton,  where  David 
Hume  was  on  a  visit.  Sir  David  Kinloch  made  him  go 
to  Athlestaneford  Church,  where  I  preached  for  John 
Home.  AVhen  we  met  before  dinner,  "  What  did  you 
mean,"  says  he  to  me,  "  by  treating  John's  congrega- 
tion to-day  with  one  of  Cicero's  academics  ?  I  did  not 
think  that  such  heathen  morality  would  have  passed 
in  East  Lothian."  On  Monday,  when  we  were  assem- 
bling to  breakfast,  David  retired  to  the  end  of  the 
dining-room,  when  Sir  David  entered :  '*  \\Tiat  are  you 
doing  there,  Davy  1  come  to  your  breakfast."  "  Take 
away  the  enemy  first,"  says  David.  The  baronet, 
thinking  it  was  the  warm  fire  that  kept  David  in  the 
lower  end  of  the  room,  rung  the  bell  for  a  servant  to 
carry  some  of  it  oflf.  It  was  not  the  fire  that  scared 
David,  but  a  large  Bible  that  was  left  on  a  stand  at 
the  upper  end  of  the  room,  a  chapter  of  which  had 
been  read  at  the  family  prayers  the  night  before,  that 
good  custom  not  being  then  out  of  use  when  clergy- 
men were  in  the  house.  Add  to  this  John  Home 
saying  to  him  at  the  Poker  Club,  when  everj-body 
wondered  what  could  have  made  a  clerk  of  Sir  Wil- 
liam Forbes  run  away  with  £900  — "I  know  that 
very  well,"  says  John  Home  to  David ;  "  for  when 
he  was  taken,  there  was  found  in  his  pocket  your 
Philosophical  Works  and  Boston's  Fourfold  State 
of  Man." 


278  DAVID    HUME. 

David  Hume,  during  all  his  life,  had  written  the 
most  pleasing  and  agreeable  letters  to  his  friends.  I 
have  preserved  two  of  these.  But  I  lately  saw  two 
of  more  early  date  in  the  hands  of  Mr  Sandiland 
Dysart,  Esq.,  AV.S.,  to  his  mother,  who  was  a  friend 
of  David's,  and  a  very  accomplished  woman,  one  of 
them  dated  in  1751,  on  occasion  of  his  brother  Hume 
of  Ninewell's  marriage  ;  and  the  other  in  1754,  with 
a  present  of  the  first  volume  of  his  History,  both  of 
which  are  written  in  a  vein  of  pleasantry  and  playful- 
ness which  nothing  can  exceed,  and  which  makes  me 
think  that  a  collection  of  his  letters  would  be  a  valu- 
able present  to  the  world,  and  present  throughout  a 
very  pleasing  picture  of  his  mind.* 

I  have  heard  him  say  that  Baron  Montesquieu,  when 
he  asked  him  if  he  did  not  think  that  there  would 
soon  be  a  revolution  in  France  favourable  to  liberty, 
answered,  "No,  for  their  noblesse  had  all  become 
poltroons."  He  said  that  the  club  in  Paris  (Baron 
Holbach's)  to  which  he  belonged,  were  of  opinion  that 
Christianity  would  be  abolished  in  Europe  by  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century ;  and  that  they  laughed  at 
Andrew  Stuart  for  making  a  battle  in  favour  of  a 
future  state,  and  called  him  "  L'ame  Immortelle." 

David  Hume,  like  Smith,  had  no  discernment  at  all 
of  characters.  The  only  two  clergymen  whose  inter- 
ests he  espoused,  and  for  one  of  whom  he  provided, 
were  the  two  silliest  fellows  in  the  Church.     With 


*  They  will  be  found,  in  The  Life  and  Corre^ondence  of  David  Hume,  by 
the  Editor. 


ADAM   SMITH.  279 

every  opportunity,  he  was  ridiculously  shy  of  asking 
favours,  on  account  of  preserving  his  independence, 
which  always  appeared  to  me  to  be  a  very  foolish  kind 
of  pride.  .  His  friend  John  Home,  with  not  more  be- 
nevolence, but  with  no  scruples  from  a  wish  of  inde- 
pendence, for  which  he  was  not  born,  availed  himself 
of  his  influence  and  provided  for  hundreds,  and  yet 
he  never  asked  anything  for  himself, 

Adam  Smith,  though  perhaps  only  second  to  David 
in  learning  and  ingenuity,  was  far  inferior  to  him  in 
conversational  talents.     In  that  of  public  speaking 
they  were  equal — David  never  tried  it,  and  I  never 
heard  Adam  but  once,  which  was  at  the  first  meeting 
of  the  Select  Society,  when  he  opened  up  the  design 
of  the  meeting.     His  voice  was  harsh  and  enimciation 
thick,  approaching  to  stammering.     His  conversation 
was  not  colloquial,  but  like  lecturing,  in  which  I  have 
been  told  he  was  not  deficient,  especially  when  he 
grew  warm.     He  was  the  most  absent  man  in  com- 
pany that  I  ever  saw,  moving  his  lips,  and  talking  to 
himself,  and  smiling,  in  the  midst  of  large  companies. 
If  you  awaked  him  from  his  reverie  and  made  him 
attend  to  the  subject  of  conversation,  he  immediately 
began  a  harangue,  and  never  stopped  tiU  he  told  you 
all  he  knew  about  it,  with  the  utmost  philosophical 
ingenuity.     He  knew  nothing  of  characters,  and  yet 
was  ready  to  draw  them  on  the  slightest  invitation. 
But  when  you  checked  him  or  doubted,  he  retracted 
with  the  utmost  ease,  and  contradicted  aU  he  had 
been  saying.     His  journey  abroad  with  the  Duke  of 


280  ADAM    SMITH. 

Buccleuch  cured  him  in  part  of  those  foibles  ;  but  still 
he  appeared  very  unfit  for  the  intercourse  of  the  world 
as  a  travelling  tutor.  But  the  Duke  was  a  character, 
both  in  point  of  heart  and  understanding,  to  surmount 
all  disadvantages — he  could  learn  nothing  ill  from  a 
philosopher  of  the  utmost  probity  and  benevolence. 
If  he  [Smith]  had  been  more  a  man  of  address  and  of 
the  world,  he  might  perhaps  have  given  a  ply  to  the 
Duke's  fine  mind,  which  was  much  better  when  left 
to  its  own  energy.  Charles  Townshend  had  chosen 
Smith,  not  for  his  fitness  for  the  purpose,  but  for  his 
own  glory  in  having  sent  an  eminent  Scottish  philo- 
sopher to  travel  with  the  Duke. 

Smith  had  from  the  Duke  a  bond  for  a  life  annuity 
of  £300,  till  an  oflSce  of  equal  value  was  obtained  for 
him  in  Britain.  When  the  Duke  got  him  appointed 
a  Commissioner  of  the  Customs  in  Scotland,  he  went 
out  to  Dalkeith  with  the  bond  in  his  pocket,  and, 
offering  it  to  the  Duke,  told  him  that  he  thought  him- 
self bound  in  honour  to  surrender  the  bond,  as  his 
Grace  had  now  got  him  a  place  of  £500.  The  Duke 
answered  that  Mr  Smith  seemed  more  careful  of  his 
own  honour  than  of  his,  which  he  found  wounded  by 
the  proposal.  Thus  acted  that  good  Duke,  who,  being 
entirely  void  of  vanity,  did  not  value  himself  on 
splendid  generosities.  He  had  acted  in  much  the 
same  manner  to  Dr  Hallam,  w^ho  had  been  his  tutor 
at  Eton ;  for  when  Mr  Townshend  proposed  giving 
Hallam  an  annuity  of  £100  when  the  Duke  was  taken 
from  him,  "  No,"  says  he,  "  it  is  my  desire  that  Hallam 


ADAM    SMITH.  281 

may  have  as  much  as  Smith,  it  being  a  great  mortifi- 
cation to  him  that  he  is  not  to  travel  with  me."' 

Though  Smith  had  some  little  jealousy  in  his  tem- 
per, he  had  the  most  unbounded  benevolence.  His 
smile  of  approbation  was  truly  captivating.  His 
affectionate  temper  was  proved  by  his  dutiful  attend- 
ance on  his  mother.  One  instance  I  remember  which 
marked  his  character.  John  Home  and  he,  travelling 
down  from  London  together  [in  1776],  met  David 
Hume  going  to  Bath  for  the  recovery  of  his  health. 
He  anxiously  wished  them  both  to  return  with  him  : 
John  agreed,  but  Smith  excused  himself  on  account 
of  the  state  of  his  mother's  health,  whom  he  needs 
must  see.  Smith's  fine  writing  is  chiefly  displayed  in 
his  book  on  Moral  Sentiment,  which  is  the  pleasantest 
an.d  most  eloquent  book  on  the  subject.  His  Wealth 
of  Nations,  from  which  he  was  judged  to  be  an  in- 
ventive genius  of  the  first  order,  is  tedious  and  full  of 
repetition.  His  separate  essays  in  the  second  volume 
have  the  air  of  being  occasional  pamphlets,  without 
much  force  or  determination.  On  political  subjects 
his  opinions  were  not  very  sound. 

Dr  Adam  Ferguson  was  a  very  different  kind  of 
man.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Highland  clergyman,  w-ho 
was  much  respected,  and  had  good  connections.  He 
had  the  pride  and  high  spirit  of  his  countrymen.  He 
was  bred  at  St  Andrews  University,  and  had  gone 
early  into  the  world ;  for  being  a  favourite  of  a 
Duchess  Dowager  of  A  thole,  and  bred  to  the  Church, 
she  had  him  appointed  chaplain  to  the  42d  regiment. 


282  ADAM    FEEGUSON. 

then  commanded  by  Lord  John  Murray,  her  son,  when 
he  was  not  more  than  twenty-two.  The  Duchess  had 
imposed  a  very  difficult  task  upon  him,  which  was  to 
be  a  kind  of  tutor  or  guardian  to  Lord  John;  that  is 
to  say,  to  gain  his  confidence  and  keep  him  in  peace 
with  his  officers,  which  it  was  difficult  to  do.  This, 
however,  he  actually  accomplished,  by  adding  all  the 
decorum  belonging  to  the  clerical  character  to  the 
manners  of  a  gentleman ;  the  eflfect  of  which  was,  that 
he  was  highly  respected  by  all  the  officers,  and  adored 
by  his  countrymen,  the  common  soldiers.  He  re- 
mained chaplain  to  this  regiment,  and  went  about 
with  them,  till  1755,  when  they  went  to  America,  on 
which  occasion  he  resigned,  as  it  did  not  suit  his  views 
to  attend  them  there.  He  was  a  year  or  two  with 
them  in  Ireland,  and  likewise  attended  them  on  the 
expedition  to  Brittany  under  General  Sinclair,  where 
his  friends  David  Hume  and  Colonel  Edmonstone  also 
were.  This  turned  his  mind  to  the  study  of  war, 
which  appears  in  his  Roman  History,  where  many  of 
the  battles  are  better  described  than  by  any  historian 
but  Polybius,  who  was  an  eyewitness  to  so  many. 

He  had  the  manners  of  a  man  of  the  world,  and  the 
demeanour  of  a  high-bred  gentleman,  insomuch  that 
his  company  was  much  sought  after ;  for  though  he 
conversed  with  ease,  it  was  with  a  dignified  reserve. 
If  he  had  any  fault  in  conversation,  it  was  of  a  piece 
with  what  I  have  said  of  his  temper,  for  the  elevation 
of  his  mind  prompted  him  to  such  sudden  transitions 
and  dark  allusions  that  it  was  not  always  easy  to 


ADAM   FERGUSON.  283 

foUow  him,  though  he  was  a  very  good  speaker.  He 
had  another  talent,  unknown  to  any  but  his  intimates, 
which  was  a  boundless  vein  of  humour,  which  he 
indulged  when  there  were  none  others  present,  and 
which  flowed  from  his  pen  in  every  familiar  letter  he 
wrote.  He  had  the  faults,  however,  that  belonged  to 
that  character,  for  he  was  apt  to  be  jealous  of  his 
rivals,  and  indignant  against  assumed  superiority. 
His  wife  used  to  say  that  it  was  very  fortunate  that 
I  was  so  much  in  Edinburgh,  as  I  was  a  great  peace- 
maker among  them.  She  did  not  perceive  that  her 
own  husband  was  the  most  difficult  of  them  all.  But 
as  they  were  all  honourable  men  in  the  highest  degree, 
John  Home  and  I  together  kept  them  on  very  good 
terms :  I  mean  by  them.  Smith  and  Ferguson  and 
David  Hume  ;  for  Robertson  was  very  good-natured, 
and  soon  disarmed  the  failing  of  Ferguson,  of  whom 
he  was  afraid.  "With  respect  to  taste,  we  held  David 
Hume  and  Adam  Smith  inferior  to  the  rest,  for  they 
were  both  prejudiced  in  favour  of  the  French  trage- 
dies, and  did  not  sufficiently  appreciate  Shakespeare 
and  Milton.  Their  taste  was  a  rational  act,  rather 
than  the  instantaneous  efiect  of  fine  feeling.  David 
Hume  said  Ferguson  had  more  genius  than  any  of 
them,  as  he  had  made  himself  so  much  master  of 
a  difficult  science — viz..  Natural  Philosophy,  which 
he  had  never  studied  but  when  at  college — in  three 
months,  so  as  to  be  able  to  teach  it. 

The  time  came  when  those  who  were  overawed  by 
Ferguson  repaid  him  for  his  haughtiness ;  for  when 


SS-t  ADAM    FERGUSON. 

liis  Roman  History  was  published,  at  a  period  when 
he  had  lost  his  health,  and  had  not  been  able  to 
correct  it  diligently,  by  a  certain  propensity  they 
had,  unknown  to  themselves,  acquired,  to  disparage 
everything  that  came  from  Ferguson,  they  did  his 
book  more  hurt  than  they  could  have  done  by  open 
criticism.  It  was  provoking  to  hear  those  who  were 
so  ready  to  give  loud  praises  to  very  shallow  and 
imperfect  English  productions — to  curry  favour,  as  we 
supposed,  with  the  booksellers  and  authors  concerned 
— taking  every  opportunity  to  undermine  the  reputa- 
tion of  Ferguson's  book.  "  It  was  not  a  Eoman  his- 
tory," said  they  (which  it  did  not  say  it  was).  "This 
delineation  of  the  constitution  of  the  republic  is  well 
sketched  ;  but  for  the  rest,  it  is  anything  but  history, 
and  then  it  is  so  incorrect  that  it  is  a  perfect  shame." 
All  his  other  books  met  with  the  same  treatment, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  there  were  a  few  of  us  who 
could  not  refrain  from  saying  that  Ferguson's  was  the 
best  history  of  Eome  ;  that  what  he  had  omitted  was 
fabulous  or  insignificant,  and  what  he  had  wrote  was 
more  profound  in  research  into  characters,  and  gave 
a  more  just  delineation  of  them  than  any  book  now 
extant.  The  same  thing  we  said  of  his  book  on 
Moral  Philosophy,  which  we  held  to  be  the  book  that 
did  the  most  honour  of  any  to  the  Scotch  philoso- 
phers, because  it  gave  the  most  perfect  picture  of 
moral  virtues,  with  all  their  irresistible  attractions. 
His  book  on  Civil  Society  ought  only  to  be  considered 
as  a  college  exercise,  and  yet  there  is  in  it  a  turn  of 


DR    ROBERTSON.  285 

thouglit  and  a  species  of  eloquence  peculiar  to  Fergu- 
son. Smith  had  been  weak  enough  to  accuse  him 
of  having  borrowed  some  of  his  inventions  without 
owning  them.  This  Ferguson  denied,  but  owned  he 
derived  many  notions  from  a  French  author,  and  that 
Smith  had  been  there  before  him.  David  Hume  did 
not  live  to  see  Ferguson's  History,  otherwise  his 
candid  praise  would  have  prevented  all  the  subtle 
remarks  of  the  jealous  or  resentful. 

With  respect  to  Robertson  and  Blair,  their  lives  and 
characters  have  been  fully  laid  before  the  public — 
by  Professor  Dugald  Stewart  in  a  long  life  of  Robert- 
son, where,  though  the  picture  is  rather  in  disjointed 
members,  yet  there  is  hardly  anything  omitted  that 
tends  to  make  a  judicious  reader  master  of  the  char- 
acter. Dr  Blair's  character  is  more  obvious  in  a  short 
but  very  elegant  and  true  account  of  him,  drawn  up 
by  Dr  Finlayson.  John  Hill  is  writing  a  more  diffuse 
accoimt  of  the  latter,  which  may  not  be  so  like.  To 
the  character  of  Robertson  I  have  only  to  add  here, 
that  though  he  was  truly  a  very  great  master  of  con- 
versation, and  in  general  perfectly  agreeable,  yet  he 
appeared  sometimes  so  very  fond  of  talking,  even 
when  showing-off  was  out  of  the  question,  and  so 
much  addicted  to  the  translation  of  other  people's 
thoughts,  that  be  sometimes  appeared  tedious  to  his 
best  friends.'"'  Being  on  one  occasion  invited  to  dine 
with  Patrick  Robertson,  his  brother,  I  missed  my 
friend,  whom  I  had  met  there  on  all  former  occasions ; 

^  •  See  above,  i».  171. 


286  DR   ROBERTSON. 

"  I  have  not  invited  him  to-day,"  says  Peter,  "  for  I 
have  a  very  good  company,  and  he'll  let  nobody 
speak  but  himself."  Once  he  was  staying  with  me 
for  a  week,  and  I  carried  him  to  diae  with  our 
parish  club,  who  were  fully  assembled  to  see  and  hear 
Dr  Robertson,  but  Dr  Finlay  of  Drummore  took 
it  in  his  head  to  come  that  day,  where  he  had  not 
been  for  a  year  before,  who  took  the  lead,  being  then 
rich  and  self-sufficient,  though  a  great  babbler,  and 
entirely  disappointed  the  company,  and  gave  us  all 
the  headache.  He  [Robertson]  was  very  much  a  mas- 
ter of  conversation,  and  very  desirous  to  lead  it,  and 
to  make  dissertations  and  raise  theories  that  some- 
times provoked  the  laugh  against  him.  One  instance 
of  this  was  when  he  had  gone  a  jaunt  into  England 
with  some  of  Henry  Dundas's  (Lord  Melville's)  family. 
He  [Dundas]  and  Mr  Baron  Cockburn  and  Robert 
Sinclair  were  on  horseback,  and  seeing  a  gallows  on  a 
neighbouring  hillock,  they  rode  round  to  have  a  nearer 
view  of  the  felon  on  the  gallows.  When  they  met  in 
the  inn,  Robertson  immediately  began  a  dissertation 
on  the  character  of  nations,  and  how  much  the  Eng- 
lish, like  the  Romans,  were  hardened  by  their  cruel 
diversions  of  cock-fighting,  bull-baiting,  bruising,  &c. ; 
for  had  they  not  observed  three  Englishmen  on  horse- 
back do  what  no  Scotchman  or Here  Dundas, 

having  compassion,  interrupted  him,  and  said,  "  What! 
did  you  not  know,  Principal,  that  it  was  Cockburn 
and  Sinclair  and  me  V*     This  put  an  end  to  theories, 

*  Baron  Cockburn  was  the  father  of  the  late  Lord  Cockburn. — Ed. 


DR   ROBERTSON.  287 

&c.  for  that  day.  Robertson's  translations  and  para- 
phrases on  other  people's  thoughts  were  so  beautiful 
and  so  harmless  that  I  never  saw  anybody  lay  claim 
to  their  own  ;  but  it  was  not  so  when  he  forgot  him- 
self so  far  as  to  think  he  had  been  present  where  he 
had  not  been,  and  done  what  he  had  not  the  least 
hand  in — one  very  singular  instance  of  which  I  re- 
member. Hugh  Bannatine  and  some  clergymen  of 
Haddington  Presbytery  came  to  town  in  great  haste, 
on  their  being  threatened  with  having  their  goods 
distrained  for  payment  of  the  window-tax.  One 
of  them  called  on  me  as  he  passed ;  but  as  I  was 
abroad,  he  left  a  note  (or  told  JMrs  C),  to  come  to 
them  directly.  I  rode  instantly  to  town  and  met 
them,  and  it  was  agreed  on  to  send  immediately  to 
the  solicitor,  James  Montgomery.  A  cady  was  de- 
spatched, but  he  could  not  be  found,  till  I  at  last 
heard  his  voice  as  I  passed  the  door  of  a  neighbour- 
ing room.  He  came  to  us  on  being  sent  for.  and  he 
immediately  granted  the  alarmed  brethren  a  sist.  Not 
a  week  after,  three  or  four  of  the  same  clergymen, 
dining  at  the  Doctor's  house  where  I  was,  the  business 
was  talked  of,  when  he  said,  "  Was  not  I  rery  fortu- 
nate in  ferreting  out  the  solicitor  at  Walker's,  when 
no  cady  could  find  him  1 "  "  No,  no,"  says  I,  "  Prin- 
cipal ;  I  had  that  good-luck,  and  you  were  not  so 
much  as  at  the  meeting."  We  had  sent  to  him,  and 
he  could  not  come.  "  Well,  well,"  replied  he,  "  I  have 
heard  so  much  about  it  that  I  thought  I  had  been 
there."     He  was  the  best-tempered  man  in  the  world. 


288  DR   ROBERTSON. 

and  the  young  gentlemen  who  had  lived  for  many 
years  in  his  house  declared  they  never  saw  him  once 
ruffled.  His  table,  which  had  always  been  hospitable, 
even  when  his  income  was  small,  became  full  and 
elegant  when  his  situation  was  improved.  As  he 
loved  a  long  repast,  as  he  called  it,  he  was  as  ready 
to  give  it  at  home  as  to  receive  it  abroad.  The  soft- 
ness of  his  temper,  and  his  habits  at  the  head  of  a 
party,  led  him  to  seem  to  promise  what  he  was  not 
able  to  perform,  which  weakness  raised  up  to  him 
some  very  inveterate  enemies,  while  at  the  same  time 
his  true  friends  saw  that  those  weaknesses  were  rather 
amiable  than  provoking.  He  was  not  so  much  be- 
loved by  women  as  by  men,  which  we  laughingly 
used  to  say  was  owing  to  their  rivalship  as  talkers, 
but  was  much  more  owing  to  his  having  been  very 
little  in  company  with  ladies  in  his  youth.  He  was 
early  married,  though  his  wife  (a  very  good  one)  was 
not  his  first  choice,  as  Stewart  in  his  Life  would  make 
us  believe.  Though  not  very  complaisant  to  women, 
he  was  not  beyond  their  regimen  any  more  than  Dr 
George  Wishart,  for  instances  of  both  their  frailties 
on  that  side  could  be  quoted.  'Tis  as  well  to  mention 
them  here.  In  the  year  '78,  when  Drs  Eobertson  and 
Drysdale  had  with  much  pains  prepared  an  assembly 
to  elect  young  Mr  Robertson  into  the  Procurator's 
chair,  and  to  get  Dr  Drysdale  chosen  Principal  Clerk 
to  the  Assembly,  as  colleague  and  successor  to  Dr 
George  Wishart,  it  was  necessary  that  Dr  Wishart 
should  resign,  in  order  to  his  being  re-elected  with 


DR    ROBERTSON.  289 

Drysdale  ;  but  tliis,  when  first  applied  to,  lie  positively 
refused  to  do,  because  he  had  given  his  word  to  Dr 
Dick  that  he  would  give  him  a  year's  warning  before 
he  resigned.  In  spite  of  this  declaration  a  siege  was 
laid  to  the  honest  man  by  amazons.  After  several 
hearings,  in  which  female  eloquence  was  displayed  in 
all  its  forms,  and  after  many  days,  he  yielded,  as  he 
said  himself,  to  the  earnest  and  violent  solicitations  of 
Dr  Dr}^sdale's  family.  He  never  after  had  any  inter- 
course with  that  family,  nor  saw  them  more.  Mr 
James  Lindsay  told  me  this  anecdote. 

Dr  Robertson's  weakness  was  as  follows :  He  had 
engaged  heartily  with  me,  when  in  1788  I  stood 
candidate  for  the  clerkship,  Dr  Drysdale  having 
shown  evident  marks  of  decline.  In  the  year  1787  I 
had  a  long  evening's  walk  with  the  Procurator,  when, 
after  mentioning  every  candidate  for  that  office  we 
could  think  of,  the  Procurator  at  last  said  that  no- 
body had  such  a  good  chance  as  myself.  After  a 
long  discussion  I  yielded,  and  we  in  due  form  com- 
municated this  resolution  to  his  father,  who  consented 
with  all  his  heart,  and  gave  us  much  advice  and  some 
aid.  When  the  vacancy  happened,  in  1789,  Robert 
Adam  assisted  his  brother-in-law  with  all  his  interest, 
which  was  considerable.  In  the  mean  time  the  same 
influence  was  used  with  Dr  Robertson  as  had  been 
with  Dr  Wishart,  in  a  still  more  formidable  shape  ; 
for  Mrs  Drysdale  was  his  cousin-german,  and  threat- 
ened him  with  the  eternal  hate  of  all  the  family. 
He  also  yielded ;  and  Robert  Adam,  when  seriously 

T 


290  DR  ROBERTSON. 

pressed  with  a  view  to  drop  his  canvass  if  Eobertson 
advised  to — "  No,"  Robertson  said,  "  go  on ; "  as  he 
thought  he  had  the  best  chance.  Robert  Adam  told 
this  to  Professor  Ferguson  when  he  solicited  his  vote. 
Robertson's  conversation  was  not  always  so  prudent 
as  his  conduct,  one  instance  of  which  was  his  always 
asserting  that  any  minister  of  state  who  did  not  take 
care  of  himself  when  he  had  an  opportunity  was  no 
very  wise  man.  This  maxim  shocked  most  young 
people,  who  thought  the  Doctor's  standard  of  public 
virtue  was  not  very  high.  This  manner  of  talking 
likewise  seconded  a  notion  that  prevailed  that  he  was 
a  very  selfish  man.  With  all  those  defects,  his  domestic 
society  was  pleasing  beyond  measure ;  for  his  wife, 
though  not  a  woman  of  parts,  was  well  suited  to  him, 
wdio  was  more  fitted  to  lead  than  to  be  led  ;  and  his 
sons  and  daugliters  led  so  happy  a  life  that  his  guests, 
which  we  were  often  for  a  week  together,  met  with 
nothing  but  welcome,  and  peace,  and  joy.  This  inter- 
course was  not  much  diminished  by  his  having  not 
put  any  confidence  in  me  when  he  left  the  business  of 
the  Church,  further  than  saying  that  he  intended  to  do 
it.  Though  he  knew  that  I  was  much  resorted  to  for 
advice  when  he  retired,  he  never  talked  to  me  on  the 
subject,  at  which  I  was  somewhat  indignant.  His 
deviations  in  politics  lessened  the  freedom  of  our  con- 
versation, though  we  still  continued  in  good  habits ; 
but  ever  after  he  left  the  leading  in  Church  affairs,  he 
appeared  to  me  to  have  lost  his  spirits;  and  still  more, 
when  the  magistrates  resorted  to  Dr  Blair,  instead  of 


DR    BLAIR.  291 

him,  for  advice  about  their  choice  of  professors  and 
ministers.  I  had  discovered  his  having  sacrificed  me 
to  Mrs  Drysdale,  in  1 789,  but  was  long  acquainted  with 
liis  weaknesses,  and  forgave  him ;  nor  did  I  ever  up- 
braid him  with  it  but  in  general  terms,  such  as  that  I 
had  lost  the  clerksliip  by  the  keenness  of  my  opponents 
and  the  coldness  of  my  friends.  I  had  such  a  conscious 
superiority  over  him  in  that  affair  that  I  did  not  choose 
to  put  an  old  friend  to  the  trial  of  making  his  fault 
greater  by  a  lame  excuse. 

Dr  Blair  was  a  different  kind  of  man  from  Eobert- 
son,  and  his  character  is  very  justly  delineated  by  Dr 
Finlayson,  so  far  as  he  goes.  Robertson  was  most 
sagacious,  Blair  was  most  naif.  Neither  of  them  could 
be  said  to  have  either  wit  or  humour.  Of  the  latter 
Kobertson  had  a  small  tincture — Blair  had  hardly  a 
relish  for  it.  Robertson  had  a  bold  and  ambitious 
mind,  and  a  strong  desire  to  make  himself  considerable; 
Blair  was  timid  and  unambitious,  and  withheld  him- 
self from  public  business  of  every  kind,  and  seemed 
to  have  no  wish  but  to  be  admired  as  a  preacher, 
particularly  by  the  ladies.  His  conversation  was  so 
infantine  that  many  people  thought  it  impossible,  at 
first  sight,  that  he  could  be  a  man  of  sense  or  genius. 
He  was  as  eager  about  a  new  paper  to  his  wife's 
dra\^'ing-room,  or  his  own  new  wig,  as  about  a  new 
tragedy  or  a  new  epic  poem.  Xot  long  before  his 
death  I  called  upon  him,  when  I  found  him  restless 
and  fidgetty.  "  What  is  the  matter  with  you  to-day." 
says  I,  "  my  good  friend — are  you  welll"     "  0  yes,' 


292  DR    BLAIR. 

says  he,  "  but  I  must  dress  myself,  for  the  Duchess  of 
Leinster  has  ordered  her  granddaughters  not  to  leave 
Scotland  without  seeing  me."  "Go  and  dress  your- 
self, Doctor,  and  I  shall  read  this  novel ;  for  I  am  re- 
solved to  see  the  Ducliess  of  Leinster's  granddaughters, 
for  I  knew  their  father  and  grandfather."  This  being 
settled,  the  young  ladies,  with  their  governess,  arrived 
at  one,  and  turned  out  poor  little  girls  of  twelve  and 
thirteen,  who  could  hardly  be  supposed  to  carry  a 
well-turned  compliment  which  the  Doctor  gave  them 
in  charge  to  their  grandmother. 

Eobertson  had  so  great  a  desire  to  shine  himself, 
that  I  hardly  ever  saw  him  patiently  bear  anybody 
else's  showing-off  but  Dr  Johnson  and  Garrick.  Blair, 
on  the  contrary,  though  capable  of  the  most  profound 
conversation,  when  circumstances  led  to  it,  had  not 
the  least  desire  to  shine,  but  was  delighted  beyond 
measure  to  show  other  people  in  their  best  guise  to  his 
friends.  "  Did  not  I  show  you  the  lion  well  to-day?  " 
used  he  to  say  after  the  exhibition  of  a  remarkable 
stranger.  For  a  vain  man,  he  was  the  least  envious  I 
ever  knew.  He  had  truly  a  pure  mind,  in  which  there 
was  not  the  least  malignity ;  for  though  he  was  of  a 
quick  and  lively  temper,  and  apt  to  be  warm  and 
impatient  about  trifles,  his  wife,  who  was  a  superior 
woman,  only  laughed,  and  his  friends  joined  her. 
Thouo-h  Kobertson  was  never  ruffled,  he  had  more 
animosity  in  his  nature  than  Blair.  They  were  both 
reckoned  selfish  by  those  who  envied  their  prosperity, 
but  on  very  unequal  grounds ;  for  though  Blair  talked 


DR   BLAIR.  293 

selfisKly  enough  sometimes,  yet  he  never  failed  in 
generous  actions.  In  one  respect  they  were  quite  alike. 
Having  been  bred  at  a  time  when  the  common  people 
thought  to  play  with  cards  or  dice  was  a  sin,  and 
everybody  thought  it  an  indecorum  in  clergymen,  they 
could  neither  of  them  play  at  golf  or  bowls,  and  far 
less  at  cards  or  backcrammon,  and  on  that  account 
were  very  unhappy  when  from  home  in  friends'  houses 
in  the  country  in  rainy  weather.  As  I  had  set  the  firat 
example  of  playing  at  cards  at  home  with  unlocked 
doors,  and  so  relieved  the  clergy  from  ridicule  on  that 
side,  they  both  learned  to  play  at  whist  after  they  were 
sixty.  Robertson  did  very  well — Blair  never  shone. 
fle  had  his  country  quarters  for  two  summers  in  my 
parish,  where  he  and  his  wife  were  quite  happy. 
We  were  much  together.  Mrs  C,  who  had  wit  and 
humour  in  a  high  degree,  and  an  acuteness  and  extent 
of  mind  that  made  her  fit  to  converse  with  philosophers, 
and  indeed  a  great  favourite  with  them  all,  gained 
much  upon  Blair;  and,  as  Mrs  B.  alleged,  could  make 
him  believe  whatever  she  pleased.  They  took  delight 
in  raising  the  wonder  of  the  sage  Doctor.  "  Who  told 
you  that  story,  my  dear  Doctor  { "  "  No,"  says  he, 
"  don't  you  doubt  it,  for  it  was  Mrs  C.  who  told  me." 
On  my  laughing — "  and  so,  so,"  said  he,  "  I  must  here- 
after make  allowance  for  her  imagination." 

Blair  had  lain  under  obligation  to  Lord  Leven's 
family  for  his  first  church,  which  he  left  within  the 
year;  but  though  that  connection  was  so  soon  dis- 
solved, and  though  Blair  took  a  side  in  Church  politics 


29 1  DR   BLATR. 

wholly  opposite  to  Lord  Leven's,  the  Doctor  always 
behaved  to  the  family  with  great  respect,  and  kept  up 
a  visiting  correspondence  with  them  all  his  life.  Not 
so  Eobertson  with  the  Arniston  family,  who  had  got 
him  the  church  of  Gladsmuir.  The  first  President 
failed  and  died — not,  however,  till  he  had  marked  his 
approbation  of  Eobertson — in  1751.  His  manner  had 
not  been  pleasing  to  him,  so  that  he  was  alienated  till 
Harry  grew  up ;  but  him  he  deserted  also,  on  the 
change  in  1782,  being  dazzled  with  the  prospect  of 
his  son's  having  charge  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  as  his 
cousin  John  Adam  was  to  have  of  political,  during 
Eockingham's  new  ministry.  This  threw  a  cloud  on 
Eobertson  which  was  never  dispelled.  Blair  had  for  a 
year  been  tutor  to  Simon  Fraser,  Lord  Lovat's  eldest 
son,  whose  steady  friendship  he  preserved  to  the  last, 
though  the  General  was  not  remarkable  for  that  ami- 
able weakness ;  witness  the  saying  of  a  common  soldier 
whom  he  had  often  promised  to  make  a  sergeant,  but 
never  performed,  "  Oh  !  Simon,  Simon,  as  long  as  you 
continue  to  live.  Lord  Lovat  is  not  dead." 

Five  or  six  days  before  he  [Blair]  died,  finding  him 
well  and  in  good  spirits,  I  said  to  him,  "  Since  you  don't 
choose  to  dine  abroad  in  this  season  (December),  you 
may  at  least  let  a  friend  or  two  dine  with  you."  *'  Well, 
well,  come  you  and  dine  with  me  to-morrow,"  looking 
earnestly  at  Miss  Hunter,  his  niece.  "  I  am  engaged 
to-morrow,  but  I  can  return  at  four  to-day."  He  looked 
more  earnestly  at  his  niece.  "  What's  to  hinder  him  ^ " 
said   she,  meaning  to  answer   his   look,  which   said 


JOHN    HOME.  295 

"  Have  you  any  dinner  to-day,  Betty  1 "  I  returned, 
accordingly,  at  four,  and  never  passed  four  hours  more 
agreeably  with  him,  nor  had  more  enlightened  conver- 
sation. Xay  more,  three  days  before  his  death  he  sent 
to  John  Home  a  part  of  his  History,  with  two  or  tlireo 
pages  of  criticism  on  that  part  of  it  that  relates  to 
Provost  Drummond,  in  which  he  and  I  thought  John 
egregiously  wrong. 

It  was  long  before  Blair's  circumstances  were  full, 
yet  he  lived  handsomely,  and  had  literary  strangers  at 
his  house,  as  well  as  many  friends.  A  task  imposed 
on  both  Eobertson  and  Blair  was  reading  manuscript 
prepared  for  the  press,  of  which  Blair  had  the  greatest 
share  of  the  poetry,  and  Eobertson  of  the  other  writ- 
ings, and  they  were  both  kind  encouragers  of  young 
men  of  merit. 

In  John  Home's  younger  days  he  had  a  good  share  of 
wit,  much  sprightliness  and  vivacity,  so  that  he  infused 
joy  and  a  social  exhilaration  wherever  he  came.  His 
address  was  cordial  and  benevolent,  which  inspired  his 
companions  with  similar  sentiments.  Superior  know- 
ledge and  learning,  except  in  the  department  of  poetry, 
he  had  not,  but  such  was  the  charm  of  his  fine  spirits 
in  those  days,  that  when  he  left  the  room  prematurely, 
which  was  but  seldom  the  case,  the  company  grew 
duU,  and  soon  dissolved.  As  John  all  his  life  had  a 
thorough  contempt  for  such  as  neglected  or  disap- 
proved of  his  poetry,  he  treated  all  who  approved  of  his 
works  with  a  partiality  which  more  than  approached 
to  flatter}'.    The  effect  of  this  temper  was,  that  all  his 


296  JOHN   HOME. 

opinions  of  men  and  things  were  prejudices,  which, 
though  it  did  not  disqualify  him  for  writing  admirable 
poetry,  yet  made  him  unfit  for  writing  history  or  other 
prose  works.  He  was  in  no  respect  a  man  of  business, 
though  he  now  and  then  spoke  with  some  energy  and 
success  in  the  General  Assembly ;  but  he  had  no  turn 
for  debate,  which  made  me  glad  when  he  was  dis- 
appointed in  his  wish  of  obtaining  a  seat  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  which  was  owing  to  the  good  sense  of 
Sir  Gilbert  Elliot  and  Sir  William  Pulteney. 

This  has  been  a  long  digression  from  my  narration ; 
but  having  noted  down  one  character,  I  thought  it  best 
to  go  on  with  a  few  more,  lest  I  should  forget  some 
particulars  which  then  occurred  to  me. 

It  was  in  the  year  1754  that  my  cousin,  Captain 
Lyon,  died  at  London,  of  a  high  fever.  His  wife. 
Lady  Catherine  Bridges,  had  conducted  herself  so 
very  loosely  and  ill,  that  it  was  suspected  that  she 
wished  for  his  death  ;  but  it  was  a  brain  fever  of 
which  he  died  ;  and  as  his  wife  had  sent  for  Dr  Monro, 
the  physician  employed  about  the  insane,  his  mother, 
in  the  rage  of  her  grief,  alleged  that  his  wife  had 
occasioned  his  death.  Her  tM^o  children  died  not  long 
after.  Lady  Catherine  confirmed  all  her  mother-in- 
law's  suspicions  by  marrying  a  Mr  Stanhope,  one  of  her 
many  lovers.  By  this  time  a  large  fortune  had  fallen 
to  her.  She  was  truly  a  worthless  woman,  to  my  know- 
ledge. Lyon  and  his  children  were  buried  in  the  Duke 
of  Chandos's  vault  at  Canons,  by  His  Grace's  order. 

In  this  year,  1 754,  I  remember  nothing  remarkable 


THE    SELECT   SOCIETY.  297 

in  the  General  Assembly.  But  this  was  the  year  in 
which  the  Select  Society  was  established,  which  im- 
proved and  gave  a  name  to  the  literati  of  this  country, 
then  beoinnino;  to  distinsjuish  themselves.  I  gave  an 
account  of  this  institution,  and  a  list  of  the  members, 
to  Dugald  Stuart,  which  he  inserted  in  his  Life  of 
Robertson.  But  that  list  did  not  contain  the  whole 
of  the  members ;  some  had  died  before  the  list  was 
printed,  and  some  were  admitted  after  it  was  printed. 
Of  the  first  were  Lord  Dalmeny,  the  elder  brother  of  the 
present  Lord  Rosebery,  who  was  a  man  of  letters  and 
an  amateur,  and,  though  he  did  not  speak  himself, 
generally  carried  home  six  or  eight  of  those  who  did 
to  sup  with  him.  There  was  also  a  Peter  Duff,  a 
writer  to  the  signet,  who  was  a  shrewd,  sensible  fellow, 
and  pretending  to  be  unlearned,  surprised  us  with  his 
observations  in  strong  Buchan.*  The  Duke  of  Hamil- 
ton of  that  period,  a  man  of  letters,  could  he  have 
kept  himself  sober,  was  also  a  member,  and  spoke 
there  one  night.  Lord  Dalmeny  died  in  1755.  Mr 
Robert  Alexander,  wine  merchant,  a  very  worthy  man, 
but  a  bad  speaker,  entertained  us  all  with  warm  sup- 
pers and  excellent  claret,  as  a  recompense  for  the 
patient  hearing  of  his  ineffectual  attempts,  when  I 
often  thought  he  would  have  beat  out  his  brains  on 
account  of  their  constipation.  The  conversation  at 
those  convivial  meetings  frequently  improved  the 
members  more  by  free  conversation  than  the  speeches 

*  Viz. ,  Asith  the  accent  peculiar  to  the  district  of  Buchao,  in  Aberdeen- 
shire.— Ed. 


298  SKETCHES   AND  INCIDENTS. 

in  the  Society.  It  was  those  meetings  in  particular 
that  rubbed  off  all  corners,  as  we  call  it,  by  collision, 
and  made  the  literati  of  Edinburgh  less  captious  and 
pedantic  than  they  were  elsewhere. 

The  Earl  of  Hopetoun  was  Commissioner  of  the 
General  Assembly.  The  Earl  of  Dumfries  had  wished 
for  it ;  but  some  of  the  ministers,  thinking  that  it 
would  be  proper  to  disappoint  him,  by  a  little  intrigue 
contrived  to  get  the  King  to  nominate  Hopetoun,  who 
accepted  it  for  one  year,  and  entertained  his  company 
in  a  sumptuous  manner.  At  his  table  I  saw  the 
Duchess  of  Hamilton  (Mary  Gunning),  without  doubt 
the  most  beautiful  woman  of  her  time. 

In  the  end  of  summer.  Lady  Dalkeith,  the  Duke  of 
Buccleuch's  mother,  who  had  been  a  widow  since  the 
year  1750,  came  to  Dalkeith,  and  brought  with  her 
the  Honourable  Mr  Stuart  M'Kenzie  and  his  lady,  the 
Countess's  sister,  and  remained  there  for  two  months. 
They  had  public  days  twice  in  the  week,  and  I  fre- 
quently dined  there.  The  Countess  was  well-bred  and 
agreeable ;  and,  acting  plays  being  the  rage  at  the 
time  among  people  of  quality,  she  proposed  to  act  a 
tragedy  at  Dalkeith  House,  viz.  "  The  Fair  Penitent," 
in  which  her  ladyship  and  Mr  M'Kenzie  were  to  have 
principal  parts.  Mr  John  Grant,  advocate,  then  chief 
manager  of  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch's  estates,  and  living 
at  Castlesteads,  was  to  play  the  part  of  the  father,  and 
it  was  requested  of  me  to  assist  him  in  preparing  his 
part.  I  found  him  a  stiff,  bad  reader,  of  affected 
English,  which  we  call  napping,  and  tolerably  obsti- 


SKETCHES   AND    INCIDENTS.  299 

nate.  But  luckily  for  both  master  and  scholar,  the 
humour  was  soon  changed,  by  somebody  representing 
to  her  ladyship  that  her  acting  plays  would  give 
offence.  Mr  M'Kenzie  was  very  agreeable,  his  vanity 
having  carried  him  so  far  above  his  family  pride  as  to 
make  him  wish  to  please  his  inferiors.  I  was  simple 
enouo;h  then  to  think  that  my  conversation  and  man- 
ners  had  not  been  disagreeable  to  him,  so  that  when  I 
was  at  London  four  years  after,  I  attempted  to  avail 
myself  of  his  acquaintance  ;  but  it  would  not  do,  for  I 
was  chilled  to  death  on  my  first  approach,  so  that  all 
my  intimacy  vanished  in  a  few  jokes,  which  sometimes 
he  condescended  to  make  when  he  met  me  on  the 
streets,  and  which  I  received  with  the  coldness  they 
were  entitled  to. 

By  this  time  John  Home  had  almost  finished  his 
tragedy  of  Douglas  ;  for  on  one  of  the  days  that  I  was 
at  Dalkeith  House  I  met  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  who,  on 
my  telling  him  that  I  had  three  acts  of  it  written  in 
my  hand,  came  round  with  me  to  my  house  in  Mussel- 
burgh, where  I  read  them,  to  his  great  delight.  This 
was  in  July  or  August  1754.  I  do  not  remember 
whether  or  not  he  saw  the  two  last  acts  at  this  time — 
I  should  think  not  ;  for  I  remember  that  I  wrote  three 
acts  of  it  a  good  many  months  afterwards,  to  be  sent 
up  suddenly  to  Sir  Gilbert,  while  a  writer's  clerk  wrote 
out  fair  the  other  two  acts. 

In  February  of  this  year  Home  and  I  suffered 
severely  by  the  death  of  friends.  George  Logan,  min- 
ister of  Ormiston,  was  seized  with  a  brain  fever,  of 


300  SKETCHES   AND    INCIDENTS. 

which  he  died  in  a  few  days.  I  was  sent  for  by  his 
wife,  and  remained  by  his  bedside  from  five  in  the 
afternoon  till  one  in  the  morning,  when  he  expired. 
He  raved  the  whole  time,  except  during  the  few  min- 
utes in  which  I  prayed  with  him.  I  am  not  sure  that 
he  knew,  for  he  soon  relapsed  into  his  ravings  again, 
and  never  ceased  till  the  great  silencer  came.  I  have 
given  the  character  of  his  mind  before  (p.  234).  The 
grief  of  his  wife,  who  never  could  be  comforted,  though 
she  lived  to  an  advanced  age,  was  a  proof  of  his  kind 
and  affectionate  temper.     They  had  no  children. 

After  my  friend's  death  I  had  returned  home  on 
Sunday  morning  to  do  duty  in  Inveresk  church,  and 
in  the  evening  about  six,  John  Home,  to  whom  I  had 
sent  an  express,  arrived  from  Polwarth.  On  hearing 
the  bad  news,  he  had  almost  fainted,  and  threw  himself 
on  the  bed,  and  sobbed  and  wept.  After  a  while  I 
raised  him,  by  asking  if  he  could  think  of  no  misfor- 
tune greater  than  the  death  of  Logan  ?  He  started 
up,  and  cried,  "  Is  my  brother  David  gone  1"  I  had 
received  an  express  from  his  brother  George,  in  Leith, 
that  afternoon,  to  tell  me  of  their  brother  David's 
death  on  the  voyage.  He  was  John's  only  uterine 
brother  alive — had  been  at  home  the  autumn  before 
— and  was  truly  a  fine-spirited  promising  young  man. 
He  had  gone  out  that  fall  first  mate  of  an  Indiaman. 
After  another  short  paroxysm  of  grief — for  his  stock 
was  almost  spent  before — he  rose  and  took  his  supper, 
and,  insisting  on  my  making  a  good  bowl  of  punch,  we 
talked  over  the  perfections  of  the  deceased,  went  to 


CLERGYMEN    ON    A    EAMBLE.  301 

bed  and  slept  sound.  In  the  morning  he  was  taken 
up  with  the  suit  of  mourning  he  was  going  to  order, 
and  for  which  he  went  to  Edinburgh  on  purpose.  I 
mention  these  circumstances  to  show  that  there  are 
very  superior  minds  on  which  the  loss  of  friends  makes 
very  little  impression.  He  was  not  likely  to  feel  more 
on  any  future  occasion  than  on  this ;  for  as  people 
grow  older,  not  only  experience  hardens  them  to  such 
events,  but,  growing  daily  more  selfish,  they  feel  less 
for  other  people. 

In  the  month  of  February  1755,  John  Home's  tra- 
gedy of  Douglas  was  completely  prepared  for  the 
stage,  and  had  received  all  the  corrections  and  im- 
provements that  it  needed  by  many  excellent  critics, 
who  were  Mr  Home's  friends,  whom  I  have  mentioned 
before,  and  with  whom  he  daily  lived.  [He  accord- 
ingly set  out  for  London,  andj  were  I  to  relate  aU  the 
circumstances,  serious  and  ludicrous,  wliich  attended 
the  outset  of  this  journey,  I  am  persuaded  they  would 
not  be  exceeded  by  any  novelist  who  has  wrote  since 
the  days  of  the  inimitable  Don  Quixote.  Six  or  seven 
Merse  ministers — the  half  of  whom  had  slept  at  the 
manse  of  Polwarth,  bad  as  it  was,  the  night  before — 
set  out  for  Woolerhaughhead  in  a  snowy  morning  in 
February.  Before  we  had  gone  far  we  discovered  that 
our  bard  had  no  mode  of  carrying  his  precious  trea- 
sure, which  we  thought  enough  of,  but  hardly  foresaw 
that  it  was  to  be  pronounced  a  perfect  tragedy  by  the 
best  judges ;  for  when  David  Hume  gave  it  that 
praise,  he  spoke  only  the  sentiment  of  the  whole  re- 


302  CLERGYMEN    ON    A    RAMBLE. 

public  of  belles  lettres.  The  tragedy  in  one  pocket 
of  his  greatcoat,  and  his  clean  shirt  and  nightcap  in 
the  other,  though  they  balanced  each  other,  was 
thought  an  unsafe  mode  of  conveyance ;  and  our 
friend — who,  like  most  of  his  brother  poets,  was  unapt 
to  foresee  difficulties  and  provide  against  them — had 
neglected  to  buy  a  pair  of  leather  bags  as  he  passed 
through  Haddington.  We  bethought  us  that  possibly 
James  Landreth,  minister  of  Simprin,  and  clerk  of  the 
Synod,  would  be  provided  with  such  a  convenience 
for  the  carriage  of  his  Synod  records ;  and  having  no 
wife,  no  ati^a  cu7'a,  to  resist  our  request,  we  unani- 
mously turned  aside  half-a-mile  to  call  at  James's ;  and, 
concealing  our  intention  at  first,  we  easily  persuaded 
the  honest  man  to  join  us  in  this  convoy  to  his  friend 
Mr  Home,  and  then  observing  the  danger  the  manu- 
script might  run  in  a  greatcoat-pocket  on  a  journey 
of  400  miles,  we  inquired  if  he  could  lend  Mr  Home 
his  valise  only  as  far  as  Wooler,  where  he  would  pur- 
chase a  new  pair  for  himself.  This  he  very  cheerfully 
granted.  But  while  his  pony  was  preparing,  he  had 
another  trial  to  go  through  ;  for  Cupples,  who  never 
had  any  money,  though  he  was  a  bachelor  too,  and 
had  twice  the  stipend  of  Landreth,  took  the  latter 
into  another  room,  where  the  conference  lasted  longer 
•than  we  wished  for,  so  that  we  had  to  bawl  out  for 
them  to  come  away.  We  afterwards  understood  that 
Cupples,  having  only  four  shillings,  was  pressing  Land- 
reth to  lend  him  half-a-guinea,  that  he  might  be  able 
to  defray  the  expense  of  the  journey.     Honest  James, 


CLERGYMEN    ON    A    RAMBLE.  303 

who  knew  that  John  Home,  if  he  did  not  return  his 
own  valise,  which  was  very  improbable,  would  provide 
him  in  a  better  pair,  had  frankly  agreed  to  the  first 
request  ;  but  as  he  knew  Cupples  never  paid  anything, 
he  was  very  reluctant  to  part  with  his  half-guinea. 
However,  having  at  last  agreed,  we  at  last  set  out,  and 
I  think  gallant  troops,  but  so-and-so  accoutred,  to  make 
an  inroad  on  the  English  border.  By  good  luck  the 
river  Tweed  was  not  come  down,  and  we  crossed  it 
safely  at  the  ford  near  Xorham  Castle ;  and,  as  the  day 
mended,  we  got  to  Woolerhaughhead  by  four  o'clock, 
where  we  got  but  an  indifferent  dinner,  for  it  was  but  a 
miserable  house  in  those  days  ;*  but  a  happier  or  more 
jocose  and  merry  company  could  hardly  be  assembled. 

John  Home  and  I,  who  slept  in  one  room,  or  per- 
haps in  one  bed,  as  was  usual  in  those  days,  were  dis- 
turbed by  a  noise  in  the  night,  which  being  in  the 
next  room,  where  Laurie  and  Monteith  were,  we  found 
they  had  quarrelled  and  fought,  and  the  former  had 
pushed  the  latter  out  of  bed.  After  having  acted  as 
mediators  in  this  quarrel,  we  had  sound  sleep  till 
morninir.  Havino:  breakfasted  as  well  as  the  house 
could  afford,  Cupples  and  I,  who  had  agreed  to  go  two 
days'  journey  further  with  Mr  Home,  set  off  south- 
wards with  him,  and  the  rest  returned  by  the  way 
they  had  come  to  Berwickshire  again. 

Mr  Home  had  by  that  time  got  a  very  fine  gallo- 
way from  his  friend  Eobert  Adam  when  he  was  set- 
ting out  for  Italy.  John  had  called  this  horse  Piercy, 
who,  though  only  fourteen  and  a  half  hands  high,  was 


304.  CLERGYMEN    ON    A    RAMBLE. 

ODe  of  the  best  trotters  ever  seen,  and  having  a  good 
deal  of  blood  ia  him,  when  he  was  well  used,  was  in- 
defatigable. He  carried  our  bard  for  many  years  with 
much  classical  fame,  and  rose  in  reputation  with  his 
master,  but  at  last  made  an  inglorious  end.*  I  had  a 
fine  galloway  too,  though  not  more  than  thirteen  and 
a  half  hands,  which,  though  much  slower  than  Piercy, 
easily  went  at  the  rate  of  fifty  miles  a-day,  on  the 
turnpike  road,  without  being  at  all  tired. 

Cupples  and  I  attended  Home  as  far  as  Ferryhill, 
about  six  miles,  where,  after  remaining  all  night  with 
him,  we  parted  next  morning,  he  for  London,  and  we 
on  our  return  home.  Poor  Home  had  no  better  suc- 
cess on  this  occasion  than  before,  with  still  greater 
mortification  ;  for  Garrick,  after  reading  the  play,  re- 
turned it  with  an  opinion  that  it  was  totally  unfit  for 
the  stage.     On  this  occasion  Home  wrote  a  pathetic 

*  Piercifs  end. — Robert  Adam,  on  his  setting  out  for  London  to  go  to 
Italy,  and  some  of  liis  brothers,  with  John,  and  Commissioner  Cardonnel, 
had  dined  with  me  one  day.  Cardonnel,  while  their  horses  were  getting 
ready,  insisted  on  our  going  to  his  gai'den  to  drink  a  couple  of  bottles  of 
some  French  white  wine,  which  he  said  was  as  good  as  champagne.  We 
went  with  him,  but  when  we  sat  down  in  his  arbour  we  missed  Bob  Adam. 
We  soon  finished  our  wine,  which  we  drank  out  of  rummers,  and  returned 
to  the  manse,  where  we  found  Robert  galloping  round  the  green  on  Piercy 
like  a  madman,  which  he  repeated,  after  seeing  us,  for  at  least  ten  times. 
Home  stopped  him,  and  had  some  talk  with  him ;  so  the  brothers  at  last 
went  off  qiiietly  for  Edinburgh,  while  Home  remained  to  stay  all  night  or 
go  home.  He  told  me  what  put  Robert  into  such  trim.  He  had  been 
making  love  to  my  maid  Jenny,  who  was  a  handsome  lass,  and  had  even 
gone  the  length  of  offering  to  carry  her  to  London,  and  pension  her  there. 
All  his  offers  were  rejected,  which  had  put  him  in  a  flurry.  This  happened 
in  summer  1754.  Many  a  time  Piercy  carried  John  to  London,  and  once  in 
six  days.  He  sent  him  at  last  to  Sir  David  Kinloch,  that  he  might  end  his 
days  in  peace  and  ease  in  one  of  the  parks  of  Gilmerton.  Sir  David  tired 
of  him  in  a  few  weeks,  and  sold  him  to  an  egg-carrier  for  twenty  shillings  ! 


CLERGYMEN    OX   A    RAMBLE.  305 

copy  of  verses,  addressed  to  Shakespeare's  image  in 
Westminster  Abbey. 

Cupples  and  I  had  a  diverting  journey  back ;  for 
as  his  money  had  failed,  and  I  had  not  an  overflow, 
we  were  obliged  to  feed  our  horses  in  Newcastle  with- 
out dining,  and  to  make  the  best  of  our  way  to  Mot- 
peth,  where  we  got  an  excellent  hot  supper.  Next 
day,  staying  too  long  in  Alnwick  to  visit  the  castle, 
we  lost  our  way  in  the  night,  and  were  in  some  hazard, 
and  it  was  past  twelve  before  we  reached  Berwick ; 
but  in  those  days  nothing  came  wrong  to  us — youth 
and  good  spirits  made  us  convert  aU  maladventures 
into  fun.  The  Virgin's  Inn,  as  it  was  called,  being  at 
that  time  the  best,  and  on  the  south  side  of  the  bridge, 
made  us  forget  all  our  disasters. 

It  was  in  the  time  of  the  sitting  of  the  General 
Assembly  that  Lord  Drummore  died,  at  the  age  of 
sixt}''-three.  He  had  gone  the  Western  Circuit ;  and 
Hy  drying  up  an  issue  in  his  leg,  being  a  corpulent 
man  who  needed  such  a  drain,  he  contracted  a  gan- 
grene, of  which  he  died  in  a  few  weeks,  very  much 
regretted — more,  indeed,  than  any  man  I  ever  knew. 
His  having  got  a  legacy  from*  the  year 

before,  and  built  himself  a  comfortable  house  on  his 
small  estate,  where  he  only  had  a  cottage  before,  and 
where  he  had  slept  only  two  or  three  nights  for  his 
iQness,  was  a  circumstance  that  made  his  family  and 
friends  feel  it  the  more.  He  had  been  married  to  an 
advocate's  daughter  of  Aberdeenshire,  of  the  name  of 

•  Blank  in  MS. 

u 


306  POLITICS THE   WAR. 

Home,  by  whom  a  good  estate  came  into  his  family. 
By  her  he  had  five  sons  and  three  daughters.  Three 
of  the  sons  in  snccession  inherited  the  name  and  estate 
of  Home. 

After  Lord  Drummore  became  a  widower,  he  at- 
tached himself  to  a  mistress,  which,  to  do  so  openly  as 
he  did,  was  at  that  time  reckoned  a  great  indecorum, 
at  least  in  one  of  his  age  and  reverend  office.  This  was 
all  that  coCild  be  laid  to  his  charge,  which,  however, 
did  not  abate  the  universal  concern  of  the  city  and 
county  when  he  was  dying.  His  cousin,  Lord  Cath- 
cart,  was  Commissioner  that  year  for  the  first  time. 
His  eldest  son  at  his  death  was  Lieutenant-General 
Home  Dalrymple  ;  his  second,  David  Dalrj^mple, 
some  time  afterwards  Lord  Westhall ;  his  youngest, 
Campbell,  who  was  distinguished  afterwards  in  the 
AVest  Indies,  and  was  a  lieutenant-colonel  and  Gover- 
nor of  Guadaloupe. 

At  my  father's  desire,  who  was  minister  of  the  parish 
where  Drummore  resided,  I  wrote  a  character  of  him, 
which  he  delivered  from  his  pulpit  the  Sunday  after 
his  funeral.  This  was  printed  in  the  Scots  Magazine 
for  June  1755,  and  was  commended  by  the  publisher, 
and  well  received  by  the  public.  This  was  the  first 
time  I  had  seen  my  prose  in  print,  and  it  gave  me 
some  confidence  in  my  own  talent. 

In  the  year  1756  hostilities  were  begun  between 
the  French  and  British,  after  they  had  given  us  much 
provocation  in  America.  Braddock,  an  officer  of  the 
Guards — very  brave,  though  unfit  for  the  business  on 


ADMIRAL   BYNG.  307 

wliicli  he  was  sent — havino-  been  defeated  and  slain  at 

o 

Fort  Du  Quesne  (a  misfortune  afterwards  repaired  by 
General  John  Forbes),  reprisals  were  made  by  the 
capture  of  French  ships  A\dthout  a  declaration  of  war. 
The  French  laid  siege  to  Minorca,  and  Admiral  Byng 
was  sent  with  a  fleet  of  thirteen  ships  of  the  line 
to  throw  in  succours  and  raise  the  siege.  The  expec- 
tation of  the  country  was  raised  very  high  on  this 
occasion,  and  yet  was  disappointed. 

Concerning  this  I  remember  a  very  singular  anec- 
dote. Diuing  the  sitting  of  the  General  Assembly 
that  year,  by  desire  of  James  Lindsay,  a  company  of 
seven  or  eight,  all  clergymen,  supped  at  a  punch-house 
in  the  Bow,  kept  by  an  old  servant  of  his,  who  had 
also  been  with  George  Wishart.  In  that  time  of  san- 
guine hopes  of  a  complete  victory,  and  the  total  defeat 
of  the  French  fleet,  all  the  company  expressed  their 
full  behef  that  the  next  post  would  bring  us  great 
news,  except  John  Home  alone,  who  persisted  in  say- 
ing that  there  would  be  no  battle  at  all,  or,  at  the 
best,  if  there  was  a  battle,  it  would  be  a  drawn  one. 
John's  obstinacy  provoked  the  company,  in  so  much 
that  James  Landreth,  the  person  who  had  lent  him  the 
valise  the  year  before,  offered  to  lay  a  half-crown  bowl 
of  punch  that  the  first  mail  from  the  Mediterranean 
would  bring  us  the  news  of  a  complete  victory.  John 
took  this  bet ;  and  when  he  and  I  were  walking  to  our 
lodging  together,  I  asked  what  in  the  world  had  made 
him  so  positive.  He  answered  that  Byng  was  a  man 
who  would   shun  fighting  if  it  were  possible ;    and 


308  THE   CAKRIEES    INN. 

that  liis  ground  of  knowledge  was  from  Admiral  Smith, 
who,  a  few  years  back,  had  commanded  at  Leith,  who 
lodged  with  his  friend  Mr  Walter  Scott,  and  who, 
when  he  was  confined  with  the  gout,  used  to  have 
him  to  come  and  chat  with  him,  or  play  at  cards  when 
he  was  able ;  and  that,  talking  of  the  characters  of 
different  admirals,  he  had  told  him  that  Byng,  though 
a  much -admired  commander  and  manoeuvrer  of  a 
fleet,  would  shun  fighting  whenever  he  could.  The 
Gazette  soon  cleared  up  to  us  the  truth  of  this  asser- 
tion, though  the  first  accounts  made  it  be  believed 
that  the  French  were  defeated.  A  full  confirmation 
of  this  anecdote  I  heard  two  years  afterwards. 

It  was  during  this  Assembly  that  the  Carriers'  Inn, 
in  the  lower  end  of  the  West  Bow,  got  into  some 
credit,  and  was  called  the  Diversorium.  Thomas  Nicol- 
son  was  the  man's  name,  and  his  wife's  Nelly  Douglas. 
They  liad  been  servants  of  Lord  EUiock's,  and  had 
taken  up  this  small  inn,  in  which  there  were  three 
rooms,  and  a  stable  below  for  six  or  eight  horses. 
Thomas  was  a  confused,  ratthng,  coarse  fellow  ;  Nelly 
was  a  comely  woman,  a  person  of  good  sense,  and  very 
worthy.  Some  of  our  companions  frequented  the 
house,  and  Home  and  I  suspected  it  was  the  hand- 
some landlady  who  had  attracted  their  notice,  but  it 
was  not  so.  Nelly  was  an  honest  woman,  but  she  had 
prompted  her  husband  to  lend  them  two  or  three 
guineas  on  occasions,  and  did  not  suddenly  demand 
repayment.  Home  and  I  followed  Logan,  James 
Craig,  and  William  Gullen,  and  were  pleased  with  the 


THE    CAKEIEES    I^'N.  309 

house.  He  and  I  happening  to  dine  with  Dr  Robert- 
son at  his  uncle's,  who  lived  in  Pinkie  House,  a  week 
before  the  General  Assembly,  some  of  us  proposed  to 
order  Thomas  Nicolson  to  lay  in  twelve  dozen  of  the 
same  claret,  then  18s.  per  dozen,  from  Mr  Scott,  wine 
merchant  at  Leith — for  in  his  house  we  proposed  to 
make  our  Assembly  parties  ;  for,  being  out  of  the  way, 
we  proposed  to  have  snug  parties  of  our  own  friends. 
This  was  accordingly  executed,  but  we  could  not  be 
concealed  ;  for,  as  it  happens  in  such  cases,  the  out-of- 
the-way  place  and  mean  house,  and  the  attempt  to  be 
private,  made  it  the  more  frequented — and  no  wonder, 
when  the  company  consisted  of  Robertson,  Home, 
Ferguson,  Jardine,  and  Wilkie,  with  the  addition  of 
David  Hume  and  Lord  Elibank,  the  Master  of  Ross, 
and  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

1756-1758:  AGE,  34-36. 

PREPARATIONS    FOR    ACTING    THE    TRAGEDY     OP    "DOUGLAS"    IN    EDIN- 
BURGH  THE  REHEARSAL THE    SUCCESS — CARLYLE   ATTENDS 

A    WAR    OP    PAMPHLETS REMOVED     INTO     THE    CHURCH    COURTS 

THE    "libel"    against    CARLYLE THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    CON- 
FLICT  CHARACTERISTICS     OP     THE    COMBATANTS THE    CLERGY 

OF    SCOTLAND   AND   THE    STAGE CONDUCT    OF  DUNDAS    AND    WED- 

DERBURN HOME     AND     HIS     SUCCESS ARCHIBALD     DUKE     OF 

ARGYLE   AND    HIS    HABITS. 

In  October  1756,  John  Home  had  been  taken  by  Lord 
Milton's  family  to  Inverary,  to  be  introduced  to  the 
Duke,  who  was  much  taken  with  his  liveliness  and 
gentlemanlike  manners.  The  Duke's  good  opinion 
made  Milton  adhere  more  firmly  to  him,  and  assist  in 
bringing  on  his  play  in  the  end  of  that  season. 

It  was  in  the  end  of  this  year,  1756,  that  Douglas 
was  first  acted  in  Edinburgh.  Mr  Home  had  been 
unsuccessful  in  London  the  year  before,  but  he  was 
well  with  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  Mr  Oswald  of  Dunnikier, 
and  had  the  favour  and  friendship  of  Lord  Milton  and 
all  his  family  ;  and  it  was  at  last  agreed  among  them 
that,  since  Garrick  could  not  yet  be  prevailed  on  to 
get  Douglas  acted,  it  should  be  brought  on  here  ;  for 
if  it  succeeded  in  the  Edinburgh  theatre,  then  Garrick 
could  resist  no  longer. 


ACTING    OF    "DOUGLAS."  311 

There  happened  to  be  a  pretty  good  set  of  players; 
for  Digges,  whose  relations  had  got  him  debarred  from 
the  London  theatres,  had  come  down  here,  and  per- 
formed many  principal  parts  with  success.  He  was  a 
very  handsome  young  man  at  that  time,  with  a  genteel 
address.  He  had  drunk  tea  at  Mally  Campbell's,  in 
Glasgow  College,  when  he  was  an  ensign  in  the  year 
174.5.  I  was  there,  and  thought  him  very  agreeable. 
He  was,  however,  a  great  profligate  and  spendthrift ; 
and  poltroon,  I'm  afraid,  into  the  bargain.  He  had 
been  on  the  stage  for  some  time,  having  been  obliged 
to  leave  the  army.  Mrs  Ward  turned  out  an  exceed- 
ing good  Lady  Eandolph  ;  Lowe  performed  Glen- 
alvon  well ;  Mr  Haymen  the  Old  Shepherd,  and 
Digges  himself  young  Douglas.  I  attended  two  re- 
hearsals with  our  author,  and  Lord  Elibank,  and  Dr 
Ferguson,  and  David  Hume,  and  was  truly  astonished 
at  the  readiness  with  which  Mrs  Ward  conceived  the 
Lady's  character,  and  how  happily  she  delivered  it. 
To  be  near  Digges's  lodgings  in  the  Canongate,  where 
the  first  rehearsals  were  performed,  the  gentlemen 
mentioned,  with  two  or  three  more,  dined  together  at 
a  tavern  in  the  Abbey  two  or  three  times,  where  pork 
griskins  being  a  favourite  dish,  this  was  called  the 
Griskin  Club,  and  excited  much  curiosity,  as  every- 
thing did  in  which  certain  people  were  concerned. 

The  play  had  unbounded  success  for  a  great  many 
nights  in  Edinburgli,  and  was  attended  by  all  the 
literati  and  most  of  the  judges,  who,  except  one  or 
two,  had  not  been  in  use  to  attend  the  theatre.     The 


312  ACTING    OF   "DOUGLAS. 

town  in  general  was  in  an  uproar  of  exultation  that 
a  Scotchman  had  written  a  tragedy  of  the  first  rate, 
and  that  its  merit  was  first  submitted  to  their  judg- 
ment. There  were  a  few  opposers,  however,  among 
those  who  pretended  to  taste  and  literature,  who  en- 
deavoured to  cry  down  the  performance  in  libellous 
pamphlets  and  ballads  (for  they  durst  not  attempt  to 
oppose  it  in  the  theatre  itself),  and  were  openly  coun- 
tenanced by  Robert  Dundas  of  Arniston,  at  that  time 
Lord  Advocate,  and  all  his  minions  and  expectants. 
The  High-flying  set  were  unanimous  against  it,  as 
they  thought  it  a  sin  for  a  clergyman  to  write  any 
play,  let  it  be  ever  so  moral  in  its  tendency.  Several 
ballads  and  pamphlets  were  published  on  our  side  in 
answer  to  the  scurrilities  against  us,  one  of  which 
was  written  by  Adam  Ferguson,  and  another  by  my- 
self. Ferguson's  was  mild  and  temperate ;  and,  besides 
other  arguments,  supported  the  lawfulness  and  use  of 
dramatic  writing  from  the  example  of  Scripture,  which 
he  exhibited  in  the  story  of  Joseph  and  his  brethren, 
as  having  truly  the  efiect  of  a  dramatic  composition. 
This  was  much  read  among  the  grave  and  sober- 
minded,  and  converted  some,  and  confirmed  many  in 
their  belief  of  the  usefulness  of  the  stage.  Mine  was 
of  such  a  different  nature  that  many  people  read  it 
at  first  as  intended  to  ridicule  the  performance,  and 
bring  it  into  contempt,  for  it  was  entitled  "  An  Argu- 
ment to  prove  that  the  Tragedy  of  Douglas  ought  to 
be  publicly  burnt  by  the  Hands  of  the  Hangman." 
The  zeal  and  violence  of  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh, 


ACTING   OF   "DOUGLAS."  313 

who  had  made  enactments  and  declarations  to  be 
read  in  the  pulpit,  provoked  me  to  write  this  pam- 
phlet, which,  in  the  ironical  manner  of  Swift,  con- 
tained a  severe  satire  on  all  our  opponents.  This 
was  so  well  concealed,  however,  that  the  pamphlet 
being  published  when  I  was  at  Dumfries,  about  the 
end  of  January,  visiting  Provost  Bell,  who  was  on  his 
deathbed,  some  copies  arrived  there  by  the  carriers, 
which  being  opened  and  read  by  my  sister  and  aunt 
when  I  was  abroad,  they  conceived  it  to  be  serious, 
and  that  the  tragedy  would  be  quite  undone,  till  Mr 
Stewart,  the  Comptroller  of  the  Customs,  who  was  a 
man  of  sense  and  reading,  came  in,  and  who  soon 
undeceived  them,  and  convinced  them  that  Douglas 
was  triumphant.  This  pamphlet  had  a  great  effect 
by  elating  our  friends,  and  perhaps  more  in  exasperat- 
ing our  enemies ;  which  was  by  no  means  softened  by 
Lord  Elibank  and  David  Hume,  &c.,  running  about 
and  crying  it  up  as  the  first  performance  the  world 
had  seen  for  half  a  century. 

What  I  really  valued  myself  most  upon,  however, 
was  half  a  sheet,  which  I  penned  very  suddenly, 
Digges  rode  out  one  forenoon  to  me,  saying  that  he 
had  come  by  Mr  Home's  desire  to  inform  me  that 
all  the  town  had  seen  the  play,  and  that  it  would  run 
no  longer,  unless  some  contrivance  was  fallen  upon  to 
make  the  lower  orders  of  tradesmen  and  apprentices 
come  to  the  playhouse.  After  hearing  several  ways 
of  raising  the  curiosity  of  the  lower  orders,  I  desired 
him  to  take  a  walk  for  half  an  hour,  and  look  at  the 


314.  ACTING   OF   "DOUGLAS." 

view  from  Inveresk  churcliyard,  which  he  did ;  and, 
in  the  mean  time,  I  drew  up  what  I  entitled  "  A  full 
and  true  History  of  the  Bloody  Tragedy  of  Douglas^ 
as  it  is  now  to  be  seen  acting  in  the  Theatre  at  the 
Canongate."  This  was  cried  about  the  streets  next 
day,  and  filled  the  house  for  two  nights  more. 

I  had  attended  the  playhouse,  not  on  the  first  or 
second,  but  on  the  third  night  of  the  performance, 
being  well  aware  that  all  the  fanatics  and  some  other 
enemies  would  be  on  the  watch,  and  make  all  the 
advantage  they  possibly  could  against  me.  But  six 
or  seven  friends  of  the  author,  clergymen  from  the 
Merse,  having  attended,  reproached  me  for  my  cow- 
ardice ;  and  above  all,  the  author  himself  and  some 
female  friends  of  his  having  heated  me  by  their  up- 
braidings,  I  went  on  the  third  night,  and  having 
taken  charge  of  the  ladies,  I  drew  on  myself  all  the 
clamours  of  tongues  and  violence  of  prosecution 
which  I  afterwards  underwent.  I  believe  I  have 
already  mentioned  that  Dr  Patrick  Cuming  having 
become  jealous  of  WiUiam  -Kobertson  and  John  Home 
and  myself  on  account  of  our  intimacy  with  Lord 
Milton,  and  observing  his  active  zeal  about  the 
tragedy  oi  Douglas,  took  it  into  his  head  that  he 
could  blow  us  up  and  destroy  our  popularity,  and 
consequently  disgust  Lord  Milton  with  us.  Very 
warmly,  with  aU  the  friends  he  could  get  to  follow 
him — particularly  Hyndman  his  second — he  joined 
with  Webster  and  his  party  in  doing  everything 
they  could  to  depreciate  the  tragedy  of  Douglas,  and 


ACTING   OF    "DOUGLAS."  815 

disgrace  all  its  partisans.  With  this  view,  besides  the 
Act  of  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh,  which  was  read 
in  all  the  churches,  and  that  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Glasgow,  who  followed  them,  they  had  decoyed  ]\Ir 
Thomas  Whyte,  minister  of  Liberton,  an  honest  but  a 
quiet  man,  to  submit  to  a  six-weeks'  suspension  for 
his  having  attended  the  tragedy  of  Douglas,  which  he 
had  confessed  he  had  done.*  This  they  had  con- 
trived as  an  example  for  prosecuting  me,  and  at  least 
getting  a  similar  sentence  pronounced  against  me  by 
the  Presbytery  of  Dalkeith.  On  returning  from  Dum- 
fries, in  the  second  week  of  February  1757,  I  was 
surprised  not  only  to  find  the  amazing  hue  and  cry 
that  had  been  raised  against  Douglas,  but  all  the 
train  that  had  been  laid  against  me,  and  a  summons 
to  attend  the  Presbytery,  to  answer  for  my  conduct, 
on  the  1st  day  of  March. 

On  deliberating  about  this  affair,  with  all  the  know- 
ledge I  had  of  the  laws  of  the  Church  and  the  con- 
fidence I  had  in  the  good-will  of  my  parish,  I  took  a 
firm  resolution  not  to  submit  to  what  I  saw  the  Pres- 
bytery intended,  but  to  stand  my  groimd  on  a  firm 
opinion  that  my  offence  was  not  a  foundation  for  a 
libel,  but,  if  anything  at  all,  a  mere  impropriety  or 
offence  against  decorum,  which  ought  to  be  done  at 
privy  censures  by  an  admonition.  This  ground  I 
took,  and  never  departed  from  it ;  but  I,  at  the  same 
time,  resolved  to  mount  my  horse,  and  visit  every 

*  Whyte  owed  the  mitigated  sentence  to  his  plea,  that,  thongh  he  attended, 
he  concealed  himself  as  well  as  he  could  to  avoid  giving  offmce. — Ed. 


316  ACTING   OF    "DOUGLAS." 

member  of  Presbytery,  especially  my  opponents,  and, 
by  a  free  confession,  endeavour  to  bring  them  over  to 
my  opinion.  They  received  me  diflferently — some 
with  a  contemptible  dissimulation,  and  others  with  a 
provoking  reserve  and  haughtiness.  I  saw  that  they 
had  the  majority  of  the  Presbytery  on  their  side,  and 
that  the  cabal  was  firm,  and  that  no  submission  on 
my  part  would  turn  them  aside  from  their  purpose. 
This  confirmed  my  resolution  not  to  yield,  but  to  run 
every  risk  rather  than  furnish  an  example  of  tame 
submission,  not  merely  to  a  fanatical,  but  an  illegal 
exertion  of  power,  which  would  have  stamped  dis- 
grace on  the  Church  of  Scotland,  kept  the  younger 
clergy  for  half  a  century  longer  in  the  trammels  of 
bigotry  or  hypocrisy,  and  debarred  every  generous 
spirit  from  entering  into  orders.  The  sequel  of  the 
story  is  pretty  fully  and  correctly  stated  in  the  Scots 
Magazine  for  1757,  to  which  I  shall  only  add  a  few 
particulars,  which  were  less  known. 

Joseph  M'Cormick,  at  this  time  tutor  to  young  Mr 
Hepburn  of  Clarkington,  and  afterwards  Principal  of 
St  Andrews  United  Colleges,  had  entered  on  trials 
before  the  Presbytery  of  Dalkeith,  and  had  two  or 
three  times  attended  the  tragedy  of  Douglas.  This 
he  told  them  himself,  which  threw  them  into  a  di- 
lemma, out  of  which  they  did  not  know  how  to 
escape.  To  take  no  notice  of  his  having  attended 
the  theatre,  while  they  were  prosecuting  me,  was  a 
very  glaring  inconsistency.  On  the  other  hand,  to 
send  him  out  as  a  probationer,  with  the  slur  of  an 


ACTING   OF   "DOUGLAS."  317 

ecclesiastical  censure  on  his  character,  was  injustice 
to  the  young  man,  and  might  disoblige  his  friends. 
So  reasoned  the  Jesuits  of  Dalkeith  Presbytery. 
M'Cormick  himself  showed  them  the  way  out  of  this 
snare  into  which  their  zeal  and  hypocrisy  had  led 
them.  After  allowing  them  to  flounce  about  in  it  for 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  (as  he  told  them  afterwards 
with  infinite  humour),  he  represented  that  his  pupil 
and  he,  having  some  time  before  gone  into  their 
lodgings  in  Edinburgh  for  the  remainder  of  the  sea- 
son, he  would  be  much  obliged  to  the  Presbyter}'  of 
Dalkeith  if  they  would  transfer  him  to  the  Presby- 
tery of  Edinburgh  to  take  the  remainder  of  his  trials. 
With  this  proposal  they  very  cheerfully  closed,  whilst 
M'Cormick  inwardly  laughed  (for  he  was  a  laughing 
philosopher)  at  their  profligate  hypocrisy. 

It  is  proper  to  mention  here  that  during  the  course 
of  this  trial  I  received  several  anonymous  letters  from 
a  person  deservedly  high  in  reputation  in  the  Church 
for  learning,  and  ability,  and  liberality  of  sentiment — 
the  late  Dr  Robert  Wallace — which  supported  me  in 
my  resolution,  and  gave  me  the  soundest  advice  with 
respect  to  the  management  of  my  cause.  I  had  re- 
ceived two  of  those  letters  before  I  knew  from  whence 
they  came,  when,  on  showing  them  to  my  father,  he 
knew  the  hand,  as  the  Doctor  and  he  had  been  at 
college  together.  This  circumstance  prevented  my 
father  from  wavering,  to  which  he  was  liable,  and 
even  strengthened  my  own  mind. 

It  is  necessary,  likewise,  to  advert  here  to  the  con- 


318  ACTING    OF    "  DOUGLAS." 

duct  of  Robert  Dundas  of  Arniston,  at  that  time 
-King's  Advocate,  as  it  accounts  for  that  animosity 
which  arose  against  him  among  my  friends  of  the 
Moderate  party,  and  the  success  of  certain  satirical 
ballads  and  pamphlets  which  were  published  some 
years  after.  This  was  his  decided  opposition  to  the 
tragedy  of  Douglas,  which  was  perfectly  known  from 
his  own  manner  of  talking — though  more  cautious 
than  that  of  his  enemies,  who  opened  loud  upon 
Home  and  his  tragedy — and  likewise  from  this  cir- 
cumstance, that  Thomas  Turnbull,  his  friend,  who 
took  my  side  in  the  Presbytery,  being  influenced  by 
his  brother-in-law,  Dr  Wallace,  was  ever  after  out 
of  favour  at  Arniston  ;  and  what  was  more,  Dr  Wal- 
lace, who  was  of  the  Lord  Advocate's  political  party, 
incurred  his  displeasure  so  much,  that,  during  the 
remainder  of  his  own  life,  George  Wallace,  advocate, 
who  was  under  the  protection  of  the  family  of  Arnis- 
ton, was  totally  neglected.*  This  piece  of  injustice 
was  not  explained  till  after  his  death,  when  his  son 
Robert,  of  the  most  amiable  and  liberal  mind,  gave 
him  [Wallace]  a  judge's  place  in  the  commissariat 
of  Edinburgh.  It  was  farther  proved  by  the  unsea- 
sonable application  of  my  friend,  Mr  Baron  Grant, 
who  was  his  political  friend  and  companion,  to  allay 
the  heat  of  the  Presbytery  of  Dalkeith,  and  induce 
them  to    withdraw  their  prosecution,  when  a  word 

*  George  Wallace,  author  of  a  folio  volume — the  first  of  an  indefinite 
series  never  completed — called  A  System  of  the  Principles  of  the  Law  of  Scot- 
land, and  of  a  book  on  The  Nature  and  Descent  of  certain  Peerages  connected 
with  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland.     As  to  his  father,  see  above,  p.  240. — Ed. 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   LIBEL.  319 

from  him  woiild  liave  done.  This  conduct  of  Diindas 
might  in  part  be  imputed  to  his  want  of  taste  and 
discernment  in  what  related  to  the  belles  lettres,  and 
to  a  certain  violence  of  temper,  which  could  endure 
no  one  that  did  not  bend  to  him ;  or  to  his  jealousy 
of  Sir  G.  Elliot  and  Andrew  Pringle,  who  were  our 
zealous  friends ;  or  his  hatred  of  Lord  ^lilton,  who  so 
warmly  patronised  John  Home.  It  was  amusing  to 
observe,  during  the  course  of  the  summer,  when 
Wilkie's  Epigoniad  appeared,  how  loud  the  retainers 
of  the  house  of  Arniston  were  in  its  praise,  saying  they 
knew  how  to  distinguish  between  good  and  bad  poetry; 
and  now  they  had  got  something  to  commend. 

Cuming,  Webster,  and  Hyndman,  and  a  fiery  man 
at  Leith,  whose  name  I  forget,  were  the  committee 
who  drew  up  the  libel.  Webster,  who  had  no  bowels, 
and  who  could  do  mischief  with  the  joy  of  an  ape, 
suggested  all  the  circumstances  of  aggravation,  and 
was  quite  delighted  when  he  got  his  colleagues  of  the 
committee  to  insert  such  circumstances  as  my  eating 
and  drinking  with  Sarah  Ward,  and  taking  my  place 
in  the  playhouse  by  turning  some  gentlemen  out  of 
their  seats,  and  committing  a  riot,  &c.* 

•  "The  libel"  is  the  name  of  the  document  or  writ  by  which,  in  Scotland, 
a  clergyman,  charged  by  an  ecclesiastical  court  with  an  oflFence,  is  brought 
before  his  accusers  for  trial  and  judgment.  The  term  is  taken  from  the 
Roman  lihi>Ui  accusatori'i.  Of  the  libel  against  Carlyle,  which  is  long,  and 
well  supplied  with  the  usual  technicalities,  the  following  specimens  will 
perhaps  be  considered  sufficient :  "On  the  eighth  day  of  December,  in  the 
year  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty-six,  or  upon  one  or  other  of  the  days  of 
November  or  October  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty-six,  or  upon  one  or  other 
of  the  days  of  January  seventeen  himdred  and  fifty-seven  years,  he,  the  said 
Mr  Alexander  Carlyle,  did,  without  necessity,  keep  company,  familiarly 


820  THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   LIBEL. 

At  a  very  full  meeting  of  my  friends  in  Boyd's 
large  room,  in  the  Canongate,  the  night  before  the 
Synod  met,  I  proposed  Dr  Dick,  who  had  recently 
been  admitted  a  minister  in  Edinburgh,  for  the  Mo- 
derator's chair.  I  had  prepared  my  friends  before- 
hand for  this  proposal,  and  was  induced  to  do  it  for 
several  reasons.  One  was  to  exclude  Robertson, 
whose  speaking  would  be  of  more  consequence  if  not 
in  the  chair.  Another  was  to  show  my  friend  Dick 
to  the  rest,  and  to  make  them  confidential  with  him, 
and  to  fix  so  able  an  assistant  in  our  party.  He  was 
accordingly  elected  without  opposition,  and  performed 
his  duty  with  the  utmost  spirit  and  manhood ;  for, 
besides  preserving  general  good  order,  he,  with  un- 
common decision  and  readiness,  severely  rebuked 
Hyndman  when  he  was  very  ofi'ensive.      The  lachite 

converse,  and  eat  and  drink  with  West  Diggs  (one  of  the  actors  on  the  un- 
licensed stage  or  theatre  at  the  head  of  the  Canongate  of  Edinburgh,  com- 
monly called  the  Concert-hall),  in  the  house  of  Henry  Thomson,  vintner  in 
the  Abbey,  near  to  the  Palace  of  Holyrood  House,  or  in  some  other  house 
or  tavern  within  the  city  or  suburlts  of  Edinburgh,  or  Canongate,  or  said 
Abbey,  or  Leith  ;  at  least  he,  the  said  Mr  Alexander  Carlyle,  did,  without 
necessity,  at  the  time  or  times,  place  or  places  above  libelled,  converse  in  a 
familiar  manner  with  the  said  West  Diggs,  or  with  Miss  Sarah  Ward,  an 
actress  on  the  said  theatre,  or  with  some  other  of  the  persons  who  are  in 
the  course  of  acting  plays  in  the  said  theatre— persons  that  do  not  reside  in 
his  parish,  and  who,  by  their  profession,  and  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  are  of 
bad  fame,  and  who  cannot  obtain  from  any  minister  a  testimonial  of  their 
moral  character  .  .  .  and  he,  the  said  Mr  Alexander  Carlyle,  did  not 
only  appear  publicly  in  the  said  unlicensed  theatre,  but  took  possession 
of  a  box,  or  a  place  in  one  of  the  boxes,  of  the  said  house,  in  a  disortlerly 
way,  and  turned  some  gentlemen  out  of  it  in  a  forcible  manner,  and  did 
there  witness  the  acting  or  representation  of  the  foresaid  tragedy  called 
Douglas,  when  acted  for  hire  or  reward,  in  which  the  name  of  God  was 
profaned  or  taken  in  vain  by  mock  prayers  and  tremendous  oaths  or  ex- 
pressions, such  as — 'by  the  blood  of  the  cross,'  and  'the  wounds  of  Him 
who  died  for  \is  on  the  accursed  tree.' " — Ed. 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    LIBEL.  321 

of  Hyndmans  mind,  which  was  well  known  to  Dick 
and  me,  made  him  submit  to  this  rebuke  from  the 
chair,  though,  in  reality,  he  was  not  out  of  order. 
What  a  pity  it  was  that  Robertson  afterwards  lost 
this  man  in  the  manner  I  shall  afterwards  mention  ! 

It  was  remarked  that  there  were  only  three  of  a 
majority  in  the  Synod  for  the  sentence  which  my 
friends  had  devised,  assisted  by  the  very  good  sense 
of  Professor  Robert  Hamilton,  and  his  intricate  and 
embarrassed  expression,  which  concealed  while  it  pal- 
liated— and  that  two  of  those  three  were  John  Home, 
the  author,  and  my  father  ;  but  neither  of  their  votes 
could  have  been  rejected,  and  the  moderator's  casting- 
vote  would  have  been  with  us. 

My  speech  in  my  own  defence  in  the  Synod,  which 
I  drew  up  rather  in  the  form  of  a  remonstrance  than 
an  argument,  leaving  that  to  Robertson  and  my  other 
friends,  made  a  very  good  impression  on  the  audience. 
John  Dalrymple,  junior  of  Cranstoun,  was  my  advo- 
cate at  the  bar,  and  did  justice  to  the  cause  he  had 
voluntarily  undertaken,  which,  while  it  served  me 
effectually,  gave  him  the  first  opportunity  he  had  of 
displaying  his  talents  before  a  popular  assembly. 
Robertson's  was  a  speech  of  great  address,  and  had  a 
good  effect ;  but  none  was  better  than  that  of  Andrew 
Pringle,  Esq.,  the  Solicitor,  who,  I  think,  was  the  most 
eloquent  of  all  the  Scottish  bar  in  my  time.  The 
Presbytery  thought  fit  to  appeal.  When  it  came  to 
the  Assembly,  the  sentence  of  the  Synod  was  ably 
defended,  and  as  a  proof  that  the  heat  and  animosity 


322  THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   LIBEL. 

raised  against  tlie  tragedy  of  Douglas  and  its  sup- 
porters was  artificial  and  local,  the  sentence  of  the 
Synod  was  affirmed  by  117  to  39.  When  it  was 
over.  Primrose,  one  of  my  warmest  opposers,  turned 
to  me,  and,  shaking  hands,  "  I  wish  you  joy,"  said  he, 
"  of  this  sentence  in  your  favour ;  and  if  you  hereafter 
choose  to  go  to  every  play  that  is  acted,  I  shall  take 
no  notice." 

Next  day,  on  a  proposal  which  was  seconded  by 
George  Dempster,  my  firm  friend,  the  Assembly  passed 
an  Act  declaratory,  forbidding  the  clergy  to  counten- 
ance the  theatre.  But  Primrose  w^as  in  the  right,  for 
manners  are  stronger  than  law^s  ;  and  this  Act,  which 
was  made  on  recent  provocation,  was  the  only  Act  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  against  the  theatre — so  was  it 
totally  neglected.  Although  the  clergy  in  Edinburgh 
and  its  neighbourhood  had  abstained  from  the  theatre 
because  it  gave  ofi'ence,  yet  the  more  remote  clergymen, 
when  occasionally  in  town,  had  almost  universally  at- 
tended the  playhouse ;  and  now  that  the  subject  had 
been  solemnly  discussed,  and  all  men  were  convinced 
that  the  violent  proceedings  they  had  witnessed  were 
the  efi'ects  of  bigotry  or  jealousy,  mixed  with  party- 
spirit  and  cabal,  the  more  distant  clergy  returned  to 
their  usual  amusement  in  the  theatre  when  occasion- 
ally in  town.  It  is  remarkable,  that  in  the  year  1784, 
when  the  great  actress  Mrs  Siddons  first  appeared  in 
Edinburgh,  during  the  sitting  of  the  General  Assembly, 
that  court  was  obliged  to  fix  all  its  important  business 
for  the  alternate  days  w^hen  she  did  not  act,  as  all  the 


THE   ECCLESTASTICAL   LIBEL.  323 

younger  members,  clergy  as  well  as  laity,  took  their 
stations  in  the  theatre  on  those  days  by  three  in  the 
afternoon.  Drs  Robertson  and  Blair,  though  they 
both  visited  this  great  actress  in  private,  often  regret- 
ted to  me  that  they  had  not  seized  the  opportunity 
which  was  given  them,  by  her  superior  talents  and 
unexceptionable  character,  of  going  openly  to  the 
theatre,  wliich  would  have  put  an  end  to  all  future 
animadversions  on  the  subject.  This  conduct  of 
theirs  was  keeping  the  reserv^e  of  their  own  imaginary 
importance  to  the  last ;  and  their  regretting  it  was 
very  just,  for  by  that  time  they  got  no  credit  for  their 
abstinence,  and  the  struo-orle  between  the  liberal  and 
the  restrained  and  affected  manners  of  the  clergy  had 
been  long  at  an  end,  by  my  having  finally  stood  my 
ground,  and  been  so  well  supported  by  so  great  a 
majority  in  the  Church. 

Of  the  many  exertions  I  and  my  friends  have  made 
for  the  credit  and  interest  of  the  clergy  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  there  was  none  more  meritorious  or  of 
better  effects  than  this.  The  laws  of  the  Church  were 
sufficiently  strict  to  prevent  persons  of  conduct  really 
criminal  from  entering  into  it ;  and  it  was  of  great 
importance  to  discriminate  the  artificial  virtues  and 
vices,  formed  by  ignorance  and  superstition,  from 
those  that  are  real,  lest  the  continuance  of  such  a  bar 
should  have  given  check  to  the  rising  liberality  of  the 
young  scholars,  and  prevented  those  of  better  birth 
or  more  ingenious  minds  from  entering  into  the 
profession. 


324        THE  CLERGY  AND  THE  STAGE. 

One  of  the  chief  actors  in  this  farce  suffered  most 
for  the  duplicity  of  his  conduct,  for  he  who  was  at 
the  head  of  the  Moderate  party,  through  jealousy  or 
bad  temper,  having  with  some  of  his  friends  headed 
the  party  against  the  tragedy  of  Douglas,  his  fol- 
lowers in  the  Highlands  and  remoter  parts,  of  the 
Moderate  party,  were  so  much  offended  with  his 
hypocritical  conduct,  as  they  called  it,  that  they  left 
him  ever  after,  and  joined  with  those  whom  he  had 
taken  so  much  pains  to  disgrace,  whilst  he  and  the 
other  old  leaders  themselves  united  with  their  former 
opponents.* 

Mr  Alexander  Wedderburn,  afterwards  Lord  Chan- 
cellor and  Earl  of  Eoslyn,  not  having  come  down 
time  enough  to  speak  or  vote  in  the  cause  (by  design 
or  not  is  more  than  I  know),  but  appearing  on  the 
day  after,  took  an  opportunity  to  give  Peter  Cum- 
ing a  very  complete  dressing.  Peter  was  chaplain 
to  Lord  Grange  for  some  years  before  he  was  settled 
at  Kirknewton,  and  after  my  father  at  Lochmaben, 
from  whence  he  was  brought  to  Edinburgh. 

With  respect  to  Webster,  best  known  at  that  time 
by  the  designation  of  Dr  Bonum  Magnum,  his  Pro- 
teus-like character  seldom  lost  by  any  transaction, 
and  in  this  case  he  was  only  acting  his  natural  part, 
which  w^as  that  of  runnino;  down  all  indecencies  in 
clergymen  but  those  of  the  table,  and  doing  mischief, 
like  a  monkey,  for  its  own  satisfaction. 

*  Is  was  soon  after  this  that  the  leadership  of  the  Church  i)asse(l  from 
CiuninE'  to  Ko1>ertson. — Ed. 


THE    CLERGY    AND    THE    STAGE.  325 

One  event  was  curious  in  the  sequel.  Mr  John 
Home,  who  was  the  author  of  the  tragedy,  and  of  all 
the  mischief  consequent  upon  it — while  his  Presbytery 
of  Haddino;ton  had  been  from  time  to  time  obstructed 
in  their  designs  by  the  good  management  of  Stedman, 
Robertson,  and  Bannatine,  and  were  now  preparing 
in  earnest  to  carry  on  a  prosecution  against  him — on 
the  7th  of  June  that  year  gave  in  a  demission  of  his 
office,  and  withdrew  from  the  Church,  without  the 
least  animadversion  on  his  conduct,  which  threw  com- 
plete ridicule  on  the  opposite  party,  and  made  the 
flame  which  had  been  raised  against  me,  appear  hypo- 
critical and  odious  to  the  last  degree. 

Mr  Home,  after  the  great  success  of  his  tragedy  of 
Douglas  in  Edinburgh,  went  to  London  early  in  1757, 
and  had  his  tragedy  acted  in  Covent  Garden  (for 
Garrick,  though  now  his  friend,  could  not  possibly  let 
it  be  performed  in  his  theatre  after  having  pronounced 
it  unfit  for  the  stage),  where  it  had  great  succe-ss. 
This  tragedy  still  maintains  its  ground,  has  been  more 
frequently  acted,  and  is  more  popular,  than  any  tragedy 
in  the  Eno-lish  lano:uao:e. 

After  John  Home  resigned  his  charge,  he  and  Adam 
Ferguson  retired  to  a  lodging  at  Braid  for  three  months 
to  study,  where  they  were  very  busy.  During  that 
time  Mrs  Kinloch  of  Gilmerton  was  brought  to  bed 
of  her  eighth  child,  and  died  immediately  after.  This 
was  a  very  great  loss  to  her  family  of  five  sons  and 
three  daughters,  as  her  being  withdrawn  from  the  care 
of  their  education  accounts  better  for  the  misconduct 


326  A    DOMESTIC    TRAGEDY. 

and  misery  of  four  of  her  sons,  than  the  general  belief 
of  the  country  that  the  house  of  Gilmerton  could  never 
thrive  after  the  injustice  done  to  their  eldest  son  by 
Sir  Francis  and  his  wife  and  their  son  David,  who 
was  involved  in  their  guilt,  and  was  made  heir  to 
the  estate  instead  of  his  brother.  These  superstitious 
notions,  however  ill  founded,  may  sometimes,  perhaps, 
check  the  doing  of  atrocious  deeds.  Bat  what  shall 
we  say  when  Sir  Francis,  who  succeeded  his  father 
Sir  David,  survived  him  only  a  few  days,  though  he 
was  the  most  able,  the  most  ingenious,  the  most 
worthy  and  virtuous  young  man  of  the  whole  county 
to  which  he  belonged,  and  died  by  fratricide — a  crime 
rare  everywhere,  and  almost  unknown  in  this  country.* 
No  greater  misfortune  can  befall  any  family,  when 
children  are  in  their  infancy,  than  the  loss  of  a  mother 
of  good  sense  and  dignity  of  manners. 

Home  being  very  busy  with  some  of  his  dramatic 
works,  and  not  having  leisure  to  attend  Sir  David  in 
his  affliction,  which  was  sincere,  applied  to  me  to  make 
an  excursion  with  him  into  the  north  of  England  for  a 
week  or  two  to  amuse  him.  I  consented,  and  when  I 
went  to  Gilmerton  by  concert,  I  found  that  the  baronet 
had  conjoined  two  other  gentlemen  to  the  party — my 
friend  Mr  Baron  Grant,  and  Mr  Montgomery,  after- 
wards Chief-Baron  and  Sir  James,  who  was  my  friend 
ever  after.     Those  two  gentlemen  were  on  horseback, 

*  Sir  Archibald  Kiulocli  was  brouglit  to  trial  in  1795  for  the  murder  of 
his  elder  brother  Sii-  Francis,  whom  he  shot  with  a  pistol  in  the  family 
mansion  of  Gilmerton.  The  verdict  of  the  jury  sustained  a  plea  of  insanity. 
See  State  Trials,  xxv.  891.— Ed. 


DUKE    OF   ARGYLE.  327 

and  Sir  David  and  I  in  his  post-chaise,  a  vehicle  which 
had  but  recently  been  brought  into  Scotland,  as  our 
turnpike  roads  were  but  in  their  infancy.  We  went 
no  farther  than  Sir  John  Hall's,  at  Dunglass,  the  first 
day;  and  as  we  pretended  to  be  inquiring  into  the 
state  of  husbandry,  we  made  very  short  journeys, 
turning  aside  to  see  anything  curious  in  the  mode  of 
improvement  of  land  that  fell  in  our  way,  sometimes 
staying  all  night  in  inns,  and  sometimes  in  gentlemen's 
houses,  as  they  fell  in  our  way ;  for  Sir  David  was  well 
known  to  many  of  the  Northumbrians  for  his  hospi- 
tality and  skill  in  cattle.  We  went  no  farther  than 
Newcastle  and  its  environs,  and  returned  after  a  fort- 
night's very  agreeable  amusement.  On  this  expedition 
I  made  some  very  agreeable  acquaintance,  of  which  I 
afterwards  availed  myself, — Ealph  Carr,  an  eminent 
merchant,  still  alive  (August  IS 04),  and  his  brother- 
in-law  Mr  Withrington,  styled  "  the  honest  attorney  of 
the  north,"  and  his  son  John,  an  accomplished  young 
man,  who  died  a  few  years  ago,  and  was  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  ancient  family  of  that  name. 

Some  time  this  summer,  after  a  convivial  meetino-, 
Dr  Wight  and  I  were  left  alone  for  an  hour  or  two 
with  Alexander  Wedderburn,  who  opened  himself  to 
us  as  much  as  he  was  capable  of  doing  to  anybody, 
and  the  impression  he  left  corresponded  with  the  cha- 
racter he  had  among  his  intimates. 

It  was  in  the  end  of  this  year  that  I  was  introduced 
to  Archibald,  Duke  of  Argyle,  who  usually  passed 
some  days  at  Brunstane,  Lord  Milton's  seat,  as  hp 


328  DUKE    OF    ARGYLE. 

went  to  Inverary  and  returned.  It  was  on  his  way 
back  to  London  that  I  was  sent  for  one  Sunday  morn- 
ing to  come  to  Brunstane  to  dine  that  day  with  the 
Duke.  That  I  could  not  do,  as  I  had  to  do  duty  in 
my  own  church  in  the  afternoon,  and  dinner  in  those 
days  was  at  two  o'clock.  I  went  up  in  the  evening, 
when  the  Duke  was  taking  his  nap,  as  usual,  in  an 
elbow-chair,  with  a  black  silk  cap  over  his  eyes.  There 
was  no  company  but  Lord  and  Lady  Milton,  Mr 
Fletcher,  and  the  young  ladies,  with  William  Alstone, 
who  was  a  confidential  and  political  secretary  of 
Milton's. 

After  a  little,  I  observed  the  Duke  lift  up  his  cap, 
and  seeing  a  stranger  in  the  room,  he  pulled  it  over 
his  eyes  again,  and  beckoned  Miss  Fletcher  to  him, 
who  told  him  who  I  was.  Li  a  little  while  he  got 
up,  and  advancing  to  me,  and  taking  me  by  the  hand, 
said  he  "  was  glad  to  see  me,  but  that,  between  sleeping 
and  waking,  he  had  taken  me  for  his  cousin,  the  Earl 
of  Home,  who  I  still  think  you  resemble  ;  but  that 
could  not  be,  for  I  know  that  he  is  at  Gibraltar."  When 
we  returned  to  our  seats,  Mally  Fletcher  whispered 
me  that  my  bread  was  hahen,  for  that  Lord  Home 
was  one  of  his  greatest  favourites.  This  I  laughed  at, 
for  the  old  gentleman  had  said  that  as  an  apology  for 
his  having  done  what  he  might  think  not  quite  polite 
in  calling  Mally  Fletcher  to  him,  and  not  taking  any 
notice  of  me  for  a  minute  or  two  afterwards.  The 
good  opinion  of  that  family  was  enough  to  secure  me 
a  favourable  reception  at  first,  and  I  knew  he  would 


LORD   MILTON.  329 

not  Kke  me  worse  for  having  stood  a  battle  with, 
and  beat,  the   Highflyers  of  our  Church,  whom  he 
abhorred ;  for  he  was  not  so  accessible  to  Peter  Cum- 
iDg  as  Lord  Milton  was,  whom  he  tried  to  persuade 
that  his  having  joined  the  other  party  was  out  of 
tenderness   to  me,  for  it  was  the  intention  of  the 
Highflyers  to  depose  me  if  he  had  not  moderated  their 
counsels.      But  I  had  a  friend  behind  the  curtain  in 
his  daughter.  Miss  Betty,  whom  he  used  to  take  out 
in  the  coach  with  him  alone,  to  settle  his  mind  when 
he  was  in  any  doubt  or  perplexity ;  for,  like  all  other 
ministers,  he  was  surrounded  with  intrigue  and  deceit. 
Ferguson  was,  besides,  now  come  into  favour  with  him, 
for  his  dignified  and  sententious  manner  of  talking 
had  pleased  him  no  less  than  John  Home's  pleasantry 
and  unveiled  flattery.    Milton  had  a  mind  sufficiently 
acute  to  comprehend  Ferguson's  profound  speculations, 
though  his  own  forte  did  not  lie  in  any  kind  of  philo- 
sophy, but  the  knowledge  of  men,  and  the  management 
of  them,  while  Ferojuson  was  liis  admirino;  scholar  in 
those  articles.      He  had  been  much  teased  about  the 
tragedy  of  Douglas,  for  Cuming  had  still  access   to 
him  at  certain  hours  by  the  political  back-door  from 
Gray's  Close,  and  had  alarmed  him  much  ;  especially 
immediately  after  the  publication  of  my  pamphlet.  An 
Argument,  &c.,  which  had  irritated  the  wild  brethren 
so  much,  said  Peter,  that  he  could  not  answer  for  what 
mischief  might  follow.     When  he  had  been  by  such 
means  kept  in  a  very  fretful  humour,  he  came  up  into 
the  drawing-room,  where  David  Hume  was,  with  John 


330  LORD    MILTON    AND    DAVID    HUME. 

aucl Ferguson  and  myself;  on  David's  saying  some- 
thing, with  his  usual   good-humour,  to   smooth  his 
wrinkly  brow,  JNIilton  turned  to  him  with  great  asperity, 
and  said  that  he  had  better  hold  his  peace  on  the 
subject,  for  it  was  owing  to  him,  and  keeping  company 
with  him,  that  such  a  clamour  was  raised.    David  made 
no  reply,  but  soon  after  took  his  hat  and  cane,  and 
left  the  room,  never  more  to  enter  the  house,  which 
he  never  did,  though  much  pains  was  taken  after- 
wards, for  Milton  soon  repented,  and  David  would 
have  returned,  but  Betty  Fletcher  opposed  it,  rather 
foregoing  his  company  at  their  house  than  suffer  him 
to  degrade  himself — such  was  the  generous  spirit  of 
that  young  lady.     Had  it  not  been  for  Ferguson  and 
her,  John  Home  and  I  would  have  been  expelled  also. 
Early  in  the  year  1758  my  favourite  in  the  house  of 
Brunstane  changed  her  name,  for  on  the  6th  of  Feb- 
ruary she  was  married  to  Captain  John  Wedderburn  of 
Gosford,  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  Lord  Milton  and 
all  her  friends,  as  he  was  a  man  of  superior  character, 
had  then  a  good  fortune  and  the  prospect  of  a  better, 
which   was   fulfilled  not   long  afterwards    when   he 
succeeded  to  the  title  and  estate  of  Pitferran  by  the 
name  of  Sir  John  Halkett.     As  I  was  frequently  at 
Brunstane  about  this  time,  I  became  the  confidant  of 
both  the  parties,  and  the  bride  was  desirous  to  have 
me  to  tie  the  nuptial  knot.     But  this  failed  through 
Lord  Milton's  love  of  order,  which  made  him  employ 
the  parish  minister,   Bennet  of  Duddingston.     This 
she  wrote  me  with  much  regret  on  the  morning  of 


A    MARRIAGE    IN    LONDON.  331 

her  marriage ;  but  added,  that  as  on  that  day  she 
would  become  mistress  of  a  house  of  her  own,  she 
insisted  that  I  should  meet  her  there,  and  receive  her 
when  she  entered  the  house  of  Gosford. 

About  the  end  of  February  or  beginning  of  March 
this  year,  I  went  to  London  with  my  eldest  sister, 
Margaret,  to  get  her  married  with  Dr  Dickson,  M.D.* 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  we  could  get  no  four-wheeled 
chaise  till  we  came  to  Durham,  those  conveyances 
being  then  only  in  their  infancy, — the  two- wheeled 
close  chaise,  which  had  been  used  for  some  time,  and 
was  called  an  Italian  chaise,  having  been  found  very 
inconvenient.  Turnpike  roads  were  only  in  their 
commencement  in  the  north.  Dr  Dickson,  with  a 
friend,  met  us  at  Stilton.  We  arrived  safe  at  my 
aunt  Lyon's  in  New  Bond  Street,  she  being  then  alive, 
as  well  as  her  sister,  Mrs  Paterson.  To  the  proper 
celebration  of  the  marriage  there  were  three  things 
wanting — a  licence,  a  parson,  and  a  best  maid.  In 
the  last,  the  Honourable  Miss  Nelly  Murray,  Lord 
Elibank's  sister,  afterwards  Lady  Stewart,  and  still 
alive  in  September  1804,  offered  her  services,  which 
did  us  honour,  and  pleased  my  two  aunts  very  much, 
especially  Mrs  Lyon,  whose  head  was  constantly 
swimming  with  vanity,  which  even  her  uncommon 
misfortune,  after  having  fulfilled  the  utmost  wish  of 
ambition,  had  not  cured.  A  licence  was  easily  bought 
at  Doctors'  Commons,  and  Dr  John  Blair,  afterwards 
a  prebend  of  Westminster,  my  particular  friend,  was 

*  See  above,  p.  206. 


332  LONDON. 

easily  prevailed  with  to  secure  the  use  of  a  church 
and  perform  the  ceremony.  This  business  being  put 
successfully  over,  and  having  seen  my  sister  and  her 
husband  into  lodgings  in  the  city  till  their  house  was 
ready,  I  took  up  my  abode  at  my  aunts',  and  occa- 
sionally at  John  Home's  lodging  in  Soutli  Audley 
Street,  which  he  had  taken  to  be  near  Lord  Bute,  who 
had  become  his  great  friend  and  patron,  having  intro- 
duced him  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  had  settled 
on  him  a  pension  of  £100  per  annum. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

1758:    AGE,  36. 

FIXDS    ROBERTSON     FN'    LOKDOX    ABOUT    HIS    HISTORY HOME     JOIXS 

THEM THEIR     FRIEXDS    AXD    ADVENTURES CHATHAM JOHN 

BLAIR   THE    MATHEMATICIAN  —  BISHOP    DOUGLAS SMOLLETT    AND 

HIS    LEVEE   OF    AUTHORS A    DAY    WITH    GARRICK    AT    HIS    VILLA 

FEATS     AT     GOLF    THERE A      METHODIST     MEETING-HOUSE 

THE   CLERGY    OF   SCOTr..AND    AND    THE     WINDOW-TAX ADAM     THE 

ARCHITECT AN    EXPEDITION   TO    PORTSMOUTH ADVENTURES    BY 

LAND     AND     SEA MEETING     WITH     LORD     BUTE THE     JOURNEY 

HOME OXFORD WOODSTOCK BLENHEIM BIRMINGHAM LORD 

LITTLETON SHENSTONE    AT    THE    LEASOWEa 

Dr  Robertson  having  come  to  London  at  tliis  time 
to  offer  his  History  of  Scotland  for  sale,  where  he  had 
never  been  before,  we  went  to  see  the  lions  together, 
and  had  for  the  most  part  the  same  acquaintance. 
Dr  William  Pitcairn,  a  very  respectable  physician  in 
the  city,  and  a  great  friend  of  Dr  Dickson's,  was  a 
cousin  of  Dr  Robertson's,  whose  mother  was  a  Pit- 
cairn ;  we  became  very  intimate  with  him.  Drs 
Armstrong  and  Orme  were  also  of  their  society.  Pit- 
cairn was  a  very  handsome  man,  a  little  turned  of 
fifty,  of  a  very  gentlemanly  address.  When  he  settled 
first  in  London  he  was  patronised  by  an  Alderman 
Behn,  who,  being  a  Jacobite,  and  not  doubting  that 
Pitcairn  was  of  the  same  side,  as  he  had  travelled 
with  Duke  Hamilton,  he  set  him  up  as  a  candidate 


334  LONDON   SOCIETY  IN   1758. 

for  Bartholomew's  Hospital.  During  the  canvass 
the  Alderman  came  to  the  Doctor,  and  asked  him 
with  impatient  heat  if  it  was  true  that  he  was  the 
son  of  a  Presbyterian  minister  in  Scotland,  which 
Pitcairn  not  being  able  to  deny,  the  other  conjured 
him  to  conceal  that  circumstance  like  murder,  other- 
wise it  would  infallibly  blow  them  up.  He  was 
elected  physician  to  that  hospital,  and  soon  rose  to 
great  business  in  the  city. 

Dr  Pitcairn  was  a  bachelor,  and  lived  handsomely, 
but  chiefly  entertained  young  Scotch  physicians  who 
had  no  establishment.  Of  those,  Drs  Armstrong  and 
Dickson  were  much  with  him.  As  our  connections 
drew  Robertson  and  me  frequently  to  the  city  before 
my  sister's  house  was  ready,  by  earnest  invitation  we 
both  took  up  our  lodging  at  his  house.  We  never 
saw  our  landlord  in  the  morning,  for  he  went  to  the 
hospital  before  eight  o'clock ;  but  his  housekeeper  had 
orders  to  ask  us  at  breakfast  if  we  intended  to  dine 
there,  and  to  tell  us  when  her  master  was  expected. 
The  Doctor  always  returned  from  liis  round  of  visits 
before  three,  which  was  his  hour  of  dinner,  and  quite 
happy  if  he  found  us  there.  Exactly  at  five  his 
chariot  came  to  the  door  to  carry  him  out  on  his 
afternoon  visits.  We  sat  as  long  as  we  liked  at  table, 
and  drunk  excellent  claret.  He  returned  soon  after 
eight  o'clock  ;  if  he  found  his  company  still  together, 
which  was  sometimes  the  case,  he  was  highly  pleased. 
He  immediately  entered  into  our  humour,  ate  a  bit 
of  cold  meat,  drank  a  little  wine,  and  went  to  bed 


LONDON  SOCIETY    IN    1758.  335 

before  ten  o'clock.  This  was  a  very  uncommon  strain 
of  hospitality,  which,  I  am  glad  to  record,  on  repeated 
trials,  never  was  exhausted.  He  lived  on  in  the  same 
manner  till  1782,  when  he  was  past  eighty;  and 
when  I  was  in  London  for  the  last  time,  he  was  then 
perfectly  entire,  and  made  his  morning  tour  on  foot. 
1  dined  once  with  him  at  that  period  in  his  own 
house  with  a  large  company  of  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
and  at  Dr  Hamilton's,  his  cousin,  of  St  Martin's 
C'hurch,  on  both  of  which  occasions  he  was  remark- 
ably gay.  He  survived  for  a  year  or  two  longer.  Dr 
David  Pitcaim,  the  son  of  his  brother  the  major, 
who  was  killed  early  in  the  American  rebellion,  was 
heir  both  of  his  fortune  and  professional  merit. 

With  Eobertson  and  Home  in  London  I  passed 
the  time  very  agreeably ;  for  though  Home  was  now 
entirely  at  the  command  of  Lord  Bute,  whose  nod 
made  him  break  every  engagement — for  it  was  not 
given  above  an  hour  or  two  before  dinner — yet  as  he 
was  sometimes  at  hberty  when  the  noble  lord  was  to 
dine  abroad,  like  a  horse  loosened  from  his  stake,  he 
was  more  sportful  than  usual  We  had  Sir  David 
Kiuloch  likewise,  who  had  come  to  consult  physicians, 
and  Dr  Charles  Congalton,  who  was  his  attendant. 
With  them  we  met  often  at  the  British.  Charles 
was  my  old  companion,  and  a  more  naif  and  ingenu- 
ous soul  never  was  born.  I  said  to  him  one  day, 
"Charlie,  how  do  you  like  the  English,  now  that 
you  have  seen  them  twice  for  two  or  three  months  V 
"I  cannot  answer  your  question,"  replied  he,  "for  I 


336  LOED    CHATHAM. 

am  not  acquainted  with  any  of  them."  "  What !  not 
acquainted  ! "  said  I.  "  Yes,"  says  he,  "  I  have  seen 
half-a-dozen  of  them  calling  on  Sir  David,  but  I  never 
enter  into  conversation  with  the  John  Bulls,  for,  to 
tell  you  the  truth,  I  don't  yet  well  understand  what 
they  say." 

The  first  William  Pitt  had  at  this  time  risen  to  the 
zenith  of  his  glory,  when  Robertson  and  I,  after  fre- 
quent attempts  to  hear  him  speak,  when  there  was 
nothing  passing  in  the  House  that  called  him,  we  at 
last  heard  a  debate  on  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  which 
Pitt  had  new  modelled  in  order  to  throw  a  slur  on 
Lord  Mansfield,  who  had  taken  some  liberties,  it  was 
alleged,  with  that  law,  which  made  him  unpopular. 
We  accordingly  took  our  places  in  the  gallery,  and  for 
the  first  three  hours  were  much  disposed  to  sleep  by 
the  dull  tedious  speeches  of  two  or  three  lawyers,  till 
at  last  the  Attorney-General,  afterwards  Lord  Cam- 
den, rose  and  spoke  with  clearness,  argument,  and 
eloquence.  He  was  answered  ably  by  Mr  York, 
Solicitor-General.  Dr  Hay,  the  King's  Advocate  in 
Doctors'  Commons,  spoke  next,  with  a  clearness,  a 
force,  and  brevity,  which  pleased  us  much.  At  length 
Mr  Pitt  rose,  and  with  that  commanding  eloquence 
in  which  he  excelled,  he  spoke  for  half  an  hour,  with 
an  overpowering  force  of  persuasion  more  than  the 
clear  conviction  of  argument.  He  was  opposed  by 
several  speakers,  to  none  of  whom  he  vouchsafed  to 
make  an  answ^er,  but  to  James  Oswald  of  Dunikier, 
who  was  a  very  able  man,  though  not  an  eloquent 


LORD    CHATHAM.  337 

speaker.  With  all  our  admiration  of  Pitt's  eloquence, 
which  was  surely  of  the  highest  order,  Eobertson  and 
I  felt  the  same  sentiment,  which  was  the  desire  to 
resist  a  tyrant,  who,  like  a  domineering  schoolmaster, 
kept  his  boys  in  order  by  raising  their  fears  without 
wasting  argument  upon  them.  This  haughty  manner 
is  necessary,  perhaps,  in  every  leader  of  the  House  of 
Commons ;  for  when  he  is  civil  and  condescending, 
he  soon  loses  his  authority,  and  is  trampled  upon.  Is 
this  common  to  all  political  assemblies  1  or  is  it  only 
a  part  of  the  character  of  the  English  in  all  ordinary 
political  affairs,  till  they  are  heated  by  faction  or 
alarmed  by  danger,  to  yield  to  the  statesman  who  is 
most  assuminof  1  * 

Sir  Gilbert  Elliot  of  Minto  was  at  this  time  one  of 
the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty,  and  we  were  frequently 
with  him.  He  was  a  very  accomphshed  and  sensible 
man,  and  John  Home  had  not  found  him  a  cold  friend, 
as  he  was  supposed  to  be,  for  by  his  means  chiefly  he 
had  been  put  under  the  protection  of  Lord  Bute,  a 
favour  which  John  did  not  coldly  return  ;  for,  on  the 
accession  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  Home,  who  was  then 
in  full  confidence  with  his  lordship,  recommended  the 
baronet  most  effectually  to  him, — a  clear  proof  of 
which  I  saw  in  a  letter  from  Lord  Bute  to  Home. 

Dr  John  Blair,  who,  on  account  of  a  certain  petu- 
lant and  wrangling  humour,  was  disliked  by  many 
people,   particularly   by    Smollett,   in   spite   of  Bob 

*  James  Oswald.     See  "Memorials  of  the  PubEc  Life  and  Character  of 
the  Right  Hon.  James  Oswald,"  8to,  1825.— Ed. 


338  BLAIR — DOUGLAS. 

Smith's  intimacy  with  both,  had  been  put  about  the 
Duke  of  York  as  his  mathematical  teacher,  and  was 
afterwards  his  secretary;  he  also  had  been  recommended 
to  that  situation  by  Sir  Gilbert  EUiot  through  Home, 
and  was  not  ungrateful.  Blair  was  a  good-natured 
pleasant  fellow,  and  very  agreeable  to  everybody  who 
could  bear  his  flippancy  of  speech.  He  was,  indeed, 
one  of  the  most  friendly  men  in  the  world,  as  he 
showed  in  many  instances,  from,  purchasing  a  pair  of 
shoes  and  stockings  for  any  of  his  old  companions,  to 
providing  them  a  settlement  for  life.  He  got  to  be 
a  prebendary  in  Westminster  by  the  interest  of  the 
Duke  of  York ;  and,  had  his  Royal  Highness  lived, 
would  have  been  promoted  to  the  bench  of  bishops.  He 
was  senior  to  J.  Home  and  me,  but  we  were  well  ac- 
quainted at  college.  He  died  of  the  influenza  in  1 782.* 
John  Douglas,  who  has  for  some  time  been  Bishop 
of  Salisbury,  and  who  is  one  of  the  most  able  and 
learned  men  on  that  bench,  had  at  this  time  but 
small  preferment.  He  had  been  tutor  to  Lord  Pul- 
teney,  and  was  at  this  tinie  secretary  to  Lord  Bath, 
and  lived  with  him,  by  which  means  he  had  acquired 
a  very  exact  knowledge  of  the  Court,  as  well  as  of 
both  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  all  their  connec- 
tions. I  became  acquainted  with  him  at  this  time,  and 
preserved  my  connection  with  him,  which  I  valued 
much,  by  sundry  "meetings  and  frequent  correspond- 
ence. He  is  still  living,  though  two  years  older  than 
me,  and  much  weakened  by  the  gout.      His  sister, 

*  See  above,  p.  186. 


SMOLLETT.  339 

Mrs  Auderson,  who  at  this  time  kept  the  British 
Coffeehouse,  was,  like  her  brother,  a  person  of  superior 
character. 

Eobertson  had  never  seen  Smollett,  and  was  very- 
desirous  of  his  acquaintance.  By  this  time  the  Doc- 
tor had  retired  to  Chelsea,  and  came  seldom  to  towTi. 
Home  and  I,  however,  found  that  he  came  once 
a- week  to  Forrest's  Coffeehouse,  and  sometimes  dined 
there ;  so  we  managed  an  appointment  with  him  on 
his  day,  when  he  agreed  to  dine  with  us.  He  was 
now  become  a  great  man,  and  being  much  of  a  hu- 
morist, was  not  to  be  put  out  of  his  way.  Home  and 
Eobertson  and  Smith  and  I  met  him  there,  when  he 
had  several  of  his  minions  about  him,  to  whom  he 
prescribed  tasks  of  translation,  compilation,  or  abridg- 
ment, which,  after  he  had  seen,  he  recommended  to 
the  booksellers.  We  dined  together,  and  Smollett 
was  very  brilliant.  Ha^dng  to  stay  all  night,  that 
we  might  spend  the  evening  together,  he  only  begged 
leave  to  withdraw  for  an  hour,  that  he  might  give 
audience  to  his  myrmidons ;  we  insisted  that,  if  his 
business  [permitted],  it  should  be  in  the  room 
where  we  sat.  The  Doctor  agreed,  and  the  authors 
were  introduced,  to  the  number  of  five,  I  think,  most 
of  w^hom  were  soon  dismissed.  He  kept  two,  how- 
ever, to  supper,  whispering  to  us  that  he  believed 
they  would  amuse  us,  which  they  certainly  did,  for 
they  were  curious  characters. 

We  passed  a  very  pleasant  and  joyful  evening. 
When  we  broke  up,  Robertson  expressed  great  sur- 


310  SMOLLETT. 

prise  at  the  polislied  and  agreeable  manners  and  the 
great  urbanity  of  his  conversation.  He  had  imagined 
that  a  man's  manners  must  bear  a  likeness  to  his 
books,  and  as  Smollett  had  described  so  well  the 
characters  of  ruffians  and  profligates,  that  he  must, 
of  course,  resemble  them.  This  was  not  the  first  in- 
stance we  had  of  the  rawness,  in  respect  of  the  world, 
that  still  blunted  our  sagacious  friend's  observations. 

As  Ferguson  had  one  day  in  the  week  when  he  could 
be  in  town,  we  established  a  club  at  a  coffeehouse  in 
Saville  Row  or  Sackville  Street,  where  we  could  meet 
him  at  dinner,  which  we  did  every  Wednesday  at  three 
o'clock.  There  were  J.  Home,  and  Eobertson,  and 
Wedderburn,  and  Jack  Dalrymple,  and  Bob  Adam, 
Ferguson,  and  myself.  Wedderburn  brought  with 
him  an  attorney  of  the  name  of  Dagg,  a  little  odd- 
looking  silent  fellow  to  be  sure,  whom  none  of  us  had 
ever  seen  before,  and  about  whom  Wedderburn  had 
not  condescended  to  explain  himself.  Somebody  was 
appointed  to  talk  to  him,  and  to  express  the  uneasi- 
ness of  the  club  at  his  bringing  an  utter  stranger 
among  them.  His  answer  was,  that  Dagg  was  a  very 
important  friend  of  his,  who  was  extremely  desirous 
to  meet  that  company,  and  that  he  would  answer  for 
his  silence  and  discretion.  He  added  that  he  prayed 
the  club  to  admit  him,  for  he  learned  more  from  him  of 
the  forms  of  English  law,  in  his  walk  from  and  return 
to  the  Temple,  than  he  could  do  by  a  week's  reading. 
This  excuse  was  admitted,  though  some  of  us  thought 
it  a  lame    one,    and   that  it  smelt   of  an   assumed 


GARRICK    AND    JOHN    HOME.  341 

superiority  that  we  did  not  admit  of.  As  Ferguson 
rode  back  to  Harrow,  we  always  parted  between  five 
and  six  o'clock ;  and  it  will  hardly  be  now  believed 
that  our  reckoning  never  exceeded  5s.  a-piece.  We 
had  a  very  good  dinner,  and  plenty  of  punch,  &c., 
though  no  claret,  for  that  sum. 

Having  met,  we  generally  went  that  night  to  Drury 
Lane  Theatre,  Garrick  being  in  town.  I  had  frequent 
opportunities  of  being  in  company  with  this  cele- 
brated actor,  of  whom  Mr  Home  was  now  in  full  pos- 
session, though  he  had  rejected  his  tragedy  of  Douglas 
as  totally  unfit  for  the  stage.  I  am  afraid  it  was  not 
his  own  more  mature  judgment  that  brought  him 
round,  but  his  idolatry  to  the  rising  sun,  for  he  had 
observed  what  a  hold  Home  had  got  of  Lord  Bute, 
and,  by  his  means,  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  As  Gar- 
rick's  vanity  and  interestedness  had  made  him  digest 
the  mortification  of  seeing  Douglas  already  become 
the  most  popular  play  on  the  stage,  so  John  Home's 
facility,  and  the  hopes  of  getting  him  to  play  in  his 
future  tragedies,  made  him  forgive  Garrick's  former 
want  of  taste  and  judgment,  and  they  were  now  be- 
come the  greatest  friends  in  the  world.  If  anything 
had  been  wanting  to  complete  Garrick's  conquest  of 
Home,  it  was  making  choice  of  him  as  his  second  in 
a  quarrel  he  had  with  Calcraft  (for  John  was  very 
heroic),  which  never  came  to  a  duel,  as  well  as  several 
other  quarrels  of  the  same  kind,  and  with  the  same 
issue,  in  which  John  was  chosen  second. 

Garrick,  though  not  of  an  understanding  of  tlie 


S42  GAKRICK   AND   JOHN   HOME. 

first,  nor  of  the  highest  cultivated  mind,  had  great 
vivacity  and  quickness,  and  was  very  entertaining 
company.  Though  vanity  was  his  prominent  feature, 
and  a  troublesome  and  watchful  jealousy  the  constant 
visible  guard  of  his  reputation  to  a  ridiculous  degree, 
yet  his  desire  to  oblige,  his  want  of  arrogance,  and 
the  delicacy  of  his  mimicry,  made  him  very  agreeable. 
He  had  no  afi'ected  reserve,  but,  on  the  least  hint, 
would  start  up  at  any  time  and  give  the  company  one 
of  his  best  speeches.  As  Garrick  had  been  in  Dublin 
when  I  was  in  London  in  1746,  I  assiduously  at- 
tended him  at  this  time,  and  saw  him  in  all  his  prin- 
cipal parts,  both  in  tragedy  and  comedy.  He  used 
to  say  himself,  that  he  was  more  at  home  in  comedy 
than  in  tragedy,  and  I  was  of  his  opinion.  I  thought 
I  could  conceive  something  more  perfect  in  tragedy, 
but  in  comedy  he  completely  filled  up  my  ideas  of 
perfection.  There  may  be  a  deception  in  this,  for 
every  well-educated  person  has  formed  to  himself 
some  idea  of  the  characters,  both  in  ancient  and 
modern  tragedy,  and  if  the  actor  falls  short  of  that, 
he  is  thought  to  be  deficient  in  judgment  :  whereas 
comedy  being  an  imitation  of  living  manners,  as  they 
rise  in  succession  among  inferior  orders  of  men,  the 
spectator  can  have  formed  no  rule  or  standard  of  judg- 
ment previous  to  the  representation,  but  must  accept 
of  the  picture  the  actor  gives  him,  and  must  approve 
of  it,  if  it  is  lively,  though  it  should  not  be  true. 

Garrick  was  so  friendly  to  John  Home  that  he 
gave  a  dinner  to  his  friends  and  companions  at  his 


VISIT    TO    GAERICK.  343 

Iiouse  at  Hampton,  whicli  he  did  but  seldom.  He 
had  told  us  to  bring  golf  clubs  and  balls  that  we 
might  play  at  that  game  on  Molesly  Hurst.  We 
accordingly  set  out  in  good  time,  six  of  us  in  a  lan- 
dau. As  we  passed  through  Kensington,  the  Cold- 
stream regiment  were  changing  guard,  and,  on  seeing 
our  clubs,  they  gave  us  three  cheers  in  honour  of  a 
diversion  peculiar  to  Scotland ;  so  much  does  the 
remembrance  of  one's  native  country  dilate  the  heart, 
when  one  has  been  some  time  absent.  The  same 
sentiment  made  us  open  our  purses,  and  give  our 
countrymen  wherewithal  to  drink  the  "Land  o'  Cakes." 
Garrick  met  us  by  the  way,  so  impatient  he  seemed 
to  be  for  his  company.  There  were  John  Home,  and 
Robertson,  and  Wedderbum,  and  Eobert  and  James 
Adam,  and  Colonel  David  Wedderbum,  who  was 
killed  when  commander  of  the  army  in  Bombay,  in 
the  year  [1773].  He  was  held  by  his  companions  to 
be  in  every  respect  as  clever  and  able  a  man  as  his 
elder  brother  the  Chancellor,  with  a  much  more  gay, 
popular,  and  social  temper. 

Immediately  after  we  arrived,  we  crossed  the  river 
to  the  golfing-ground,  which  was  very  good.  None  of 
the  company  could  play  but  John  Home  and  myself, 
and  Parson  Black  from  Aberdeen,  who,  being  chaplain 
to  a  regiment  during  some  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland's 
campaigns,  had  been  pointed  out  to  his  Royal  Highness 
as  a  proper  person  to  teach  him  the  game  of  chess  :  the 
Duke  was  such  an  apt  scholar  that  he  never  lost  a 
game  after  the  first  day ;  and  he  recompensed  Black 


344  VISIT   TO   GAERICK. 

for  having  beat  him  so  cruelly,  by  procuring  for  him 
the  living  of  Hampton,  which  is  a  good  one.  We  re- 
turned and  dined  sumptuously,  Mrs  Garrick,  the  only 
lady,  now  grown  fat,  though  still  very  lively,  being  a 
woman  of  uncommon  good  sense,  and  now  mistress  of 
English,  was  in  all  respects  most  agreeably  company. 
She  did  not  seem  at  all  to  recognise  me,  which  was 
no  wonder,  at  the  end  of  twelve  years,  having  thrown 
away  my  bag-wig  and  sword,  and  appearing  in  my 
own  grisly  hairs,  and  in  parson's  clothes  ;  nor  was  I 
likely  to  remind  her  of  her  former  state.* 

Garrick  had  built  a  handsome  temple,  with  a 
statue  of  Shakespeare  in  it,  in  his  lower  garden,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Thames,  which  was  separated  from  the 
upper  one  by  a  high-road,  under  which  there  was  an 
archway  which  united  the  two  gardens.  Garrick,  in 
compliment  to  Home,  had  ordered  the  wine  to  be 
carried  to  this  temple,  where  we  were  to  drink  it 
under  the  shade  of  the  copy  of  that  statue  to  which 
Home  had  addressed  his  pathetic  verses  on  the  rejec- 
tion of  his  play.  The  poet  and  the  actor  were  equally 
gay,  and  well  pleased  with  each  other,  on  this  occa- 
sion, with  much  respect  qu  the  one  hand,  and  a  total 
oblivion  of  animosity  on  the  other ;  for  vanity  is  a 
passion  that  is  easy  to  be  entreated,  and  unites  freely 
with  all  the  best  affections.  Having  observed  a  green 
mount  in  the  garden,  opposite  the  archway,  I  said  to 
our  landlord,  that  while  the  servants  were  preparing 
the  collation  in  the  temple  I  would  surprise  him  with 

*  See  above,  p.  184. 


VISIT   TO    GAKRICK.  345 

a  stroke  at  the  golf,  as  I  should  drive  a  ball  through 
his  archway  into  the  Thames  once  in  three  strokes. 
I  had  measured  the  distance  with  my  eye  in  walking 
about  the  garden,  and  accordingly,  at  the  second 
stroke,  made  the  ball  alight  in  the  mouth  of  the  gate- 
way, and  roll  down  the  green  slope  into  the  river. 
This  was  so  dexterous  that  he  was  quite  surprised, 
and  begged  the  club  of  me  by  which  such  a  feat  had 
been  performed.  We  passed  a  very  agreeable  after- 
noon ;  and  it  is  hard  to  say  which  were  happier,  the 
landlord  and  landlady,  or  the  guests. 

There  was  a  club  in  London  where  Eobertson  and 
I  never  failed  to  attend,  as  we  were  adopted  members 
while  we  stayed  in  town.  It  was  held  once  a-week 
in  the  British  Coffeehouse,  at  eight  in  the  evening ; 
the  members  were  Scotch  physicians  from  the  city 
and  Court  end  of  the  town.  Of  the  first  set  were 
Pitcaim,  Armstrong,  Orme,  and  Dickson  ;  of  the 
second  were  William  Hunter,  Clephan,  Mr  Graham 
of  Pall  Mall,  &c. — all  of  them  very  agreeable  men  ; 
Clephan  especially  was  one  of  the  most  sensible, 
learned,  and  judicious  men  I  ever  knew — an  admir- 
able classical  scholar  and  a  fine  historian.  He  often 
led  the  conversation,  but  it  was  with  an  air  of  mo- 
desty and  deference  to  the  company,  which  added  to 
the  weight  of  all  he  said.  Hunter  was  gay  and  lively 
to  the  last  degree,  and  often  came  in  to  us  at  nine 
o'clock  fatigued  and  jaded.  He  had  had  no  dinner, 
but  supped  on  a  couple  of  eggs,  and  drank  his  glass 
of  claret ;    for   though   we  were  a  punch  club,  we 


846  SKETCHES   AND   INCIDENTS. 

allowed  him  a  bottle  of  what  lie  liked  best.  He 
repaid  us  with  the  brilliancy  of  his  conversation. 
His  toast  was,  "  May  no  English  nobleman  venture 
out  of  the  world  without  a  Scottish  physician,  as  I 
am  sure  there  are  none  who  venture  in."  He  was 
a  famous  lecturer  on  anatomy.  Robertson  and  I 
expressed  a  wish  to  be  admitted  one  day.  He 
appointed  us  a  day,  and  gave  us  one  of  the  most 
elegant,  clear,  and  brilliant  lectures  on  the  eye  that 
any  of  us  had  ever  heard.  One  instance  I  must  set 
down  of  the  fallacy  of  medical  prediction — it  was 
this  :  Dr  Hunter,  by  his  attendance  on  Lady  Esther 
Pitt,  had  frequent  opportunities  of  seeing  the  great 
orator  when  he  was  ill  of  the  gout,  and  thought  so 
ill  of  his  constitution  that  he  said  more  than  once  to 
us,  with  deep  regret,  that  he  did  not  think  the  great 
man's  life  worth  two  years'  purchase ;  and  yet  Mr  Pitt 
lived  for  twenty  years,  for  he  did  not  give  way  to 
fate  till  1778. 

As  soon  as  my  sister  got  into  her  house  in  a  court 
in  Aldermansbury,  Dr  Dickson  and  she  gave  a  dinner 
to  my  friends,  with  two  or  three  of  his.  There  were 
Doctors  Pitcairn,  Armstrong,  Smollett,  and  Orme, 
together  with  Dr  Robertson,  John  Blair,  Home,  and 
myself.  We  passed  an  exceedingly  pleasant  day, 
although  Smollett  had  given  Armstrong  a  staggering 
blow  at  the  beginning  of  dinner,  by  asking  him  some 
questions  about  his  nose,  which  was  still  patched,  on 
account  of  his  having  run  it  through  the  side-glass  of 
his  chariot  when  somebody  came  up  to  speak  to  him. 


SKETCHES   AND    INCIDENTS.  347 

Armstrong  was  naturally  glumpy,  and  tbis,  I  was 
afraid,  would  have  silenced  him  all  day,  which  it 
might,  had  not  Smollett  called  him  familiarly  John 
soon  after  his  joke  on  his  nose ;  but  he  knew  that 
Smollett  loved  and  respected  him,  and  soon  recovered 
his  good-humour,  and  became  brilliant.  My  sister, 
who  had  one  lady  with  her — one  of  Pitcairn's  nieces,  I 
believe — was  happy  and  agreeable,  and  highly  pleasing 
to  her  guests,  who  confessed  they  had  seldom  seen 
such  a  superior  woman. 

There  was  a  friend  of  Dickson's,  a  Mr  Jackson,  a 
Dumfries  man  and  an  Irish  factor,  as  they  are  called, 
who  was  a  great  humorist,  who,  though  he  had  no 
carriage,  kept  six  hunting-horses.  This  man  offered  to 
moimt  us  on  his  horses,  and  go  with  us  to  "Windsor. 
After  a  breakfast-dinner  at  his  partner's,  we  set  out 
on  the  16  th  day  of  April,  the  warmest  that  had  been 
that  season.  As  the  great  road  was  very  disagreeable, 
Jackson,  who  knew  the  environs  of  London  better  than 
most  people,  as  he  belonged  to  a  hunt,  took  us  through 
green  lanes  as  soon  as  he  could,  and,  gi^'ing  us  a  little, 
wine  and  water  when  he  pleased,  which  was,  he  said, 
whenever  he  came  to  good  port,  he  landed  us  at 
Staines  Bridge,  in  a  very  good  inn  across  the  bridge. 
His  servant,  who  rode  an  unruly  horse,  had  been  thrown 
from  him  half  an  hour  before  we  reached  Staines. 
He  was  very  much  hurt  about  the  head,  and  with 
difficulty  we  brought  him  along  at  a  slow  pace. 
When  we  arrived,  Jackson  sent  immediately  for  the 
nearest  surgeon,  who  was  a  Mr  Green.    This  man  ex- 


348  SKETCHES    AND    INCIDENTS. 

amined  the  servant,  and  found  he  was  not  dangerously- 
hurt,  and  Jackson  invited  him  to  stay  supper,  which 
he  did,  and  turned  out  a  very  sensible  conversible  man. 
He  spoke  English  so  well  that  we  could  not  have 
detected  him  to  be  a  Scotchman,  far  less  an  Aber- 
deensman,  which  he  was ;  but  he  had  gone  very  young 
into  the  navy  as  surgeon's-mate,  and  had  entirely  lost 
his  mother  tongue — almost  the  only  instance  I  ever 
knew  of  any  one  from  that  shire.  There  was  a  poor 
Scotch  Presbyterian,  who  had  a  very  small  living ; 
Jackson  had  a  small  present  of  two  guineas  to  give 
him,  for  the  humorist  was  not  ungenerous.  He  sent 
for  him  in  the  morning,  and  promised  him  a  sermon 
in  his  meeting-house,  for  it  was  Sunday,  and  kept  him 
to  breakfast.  I  had  been  prepared  to  do  this  duty, 
for  Jackson  and  I  slept  in  the  same  room,  and  he  had 
requested  it  as  a  favour,  as  he  said  the  meeting  and 
the  audience  were  very  poor  indeed.  I  was  dressed, 
and  went  down  to  breakfast,  and  was  introduced  to 
Mr  Coldstream.  Soon  afterwards  came  Robertson, 
undressed,  and  with  his  night-cap  on,  and,  being  in- 
troduced to  Coldstream,  took  no  further  notice  of  him 
(not  his  usual  manner),  and  breakfasted  in  silence. 
When  the  minister  took  his  leave,  he  called  Jackson 
aside,  and  said  he  hoped  he  remembered  he  never  em- 
ployed any  of  the  people  called  Methodists.  This  was 
resolute  in  a  man  who  had  a  wife  and  four  children, 
and  only  £20  a-year,  to  a  gentleman  who  had  just  made 
him  a  present  of  two  guineas.  Jackson  assured  him 
that  none  of  us  were  Methodists,  but  that  I  was  the 


SKETCHES   AND    INCIDENTS.  349 

person  lie  had  engaged  to  preach.  I  made  Robertson's 
being  taken  for  a  Methodist  a  lasting  joke  against  him. 
We  went  to  the  meeting-house  at  the  hour  of  eleven, 
the  entry  to  which  was  over  a  pretty  large  dunghill. 
Although  the  congregation  was  reinforced  by  two 
officers  of  the  Grey  dragoons,  and  by  a  corporal  and 
an  officer's  man,  with  Jackson's  man  with  his  head 
bound  up,  with  the  Doctor  and  Jackson  and  Coldstream 
and  his  wife,  they  amounted  only  to  twenty-three. 
There  were  two  brothers,  Scotchmen,  clothiers,  who 
were  there,  who  invited  us  to  dinner.  We  repaired  to 
them  at  one  o'clock,  and  after  vralking  round  their 
garden,  and  being  much  delighted  with  two  swans 
swimming  in  the  Thames,  whom  they  had  attached  to 
them  by  kindness,  we  sat  down  to  an  excellent  citi- 
zen-like dinner,  and  drank  some  excellent  port-wine. 
Robertson  and  I  bespoke  a  piece  of  parson's  grey  cloth 
of  their  making,  which  they  sent  to  Scotland  before 
us,  and  which  turned  out  the  best  we  ever  had.  We 
divided  it  among  our  friends.  Before  five  o'clock  we 
mounted  our  horses  by  order  of  our  conductor,  and 
rode  to  Windsor  Forest,  where,  in  spite  of  the  warm 
weather  before,  we  found  the  frost  hard  enough  to 
bear  our  horses.  We  returned  without  going  into 
Windsor.  Next  day  we  went  there  time  enough  to 
see  the  castle  and  all  its  curiosities,  and  to  go  down  to 
Eton,  after  which  we  dined  at  an  inn  and  rode  back 
to  Staines,  making  a  circuit  round  the  great  park. 
Much  to  our  satisfaction,  we  found  Dr  Green  waitinor 
us,  whom  Jackson  had  appointed  to  meet  us. 


350  SKETCHES   AND   INCIDENTS. 

Jackson  wished  us  to  take  a  circuitous  ride  and  see 
everything  down  the  Thames  to  London ;  but  as  we 
were  engaged  with  a  party  of  friends  to  dine  at  Bil- 
lingsgate on  fish  of  the  season,  we  took  leave  of  Mr 
Jackson,  and  left  him  to  come  at  his  leisure,  while  we 
made  the  best  of  our  way  down  the  Thames,  and 
halted  only  at  Eichmond,  where  Robertson  had  never 
been. 

We  arrived  in  time  to  meet  our  friends  at  the  Gun, 
where  Dr  Dickson  had  provided  a  choice  dinner  of  all 
the  varieties  of  fish  then  in  season,  at  the  moderate 
price  of  twenty-five  shillings,  one  crown  of  which  was 
paid  for  smelts.  We  were  a  company  of  fifteen  or 
sixteen,  whose  names  I  can't  exactly  remember,  but 
when  I  say  that  there  were  Sir  David  Kinloch,  James 
Veitch  (EUiock),  Sir  Robert  Keith,  then  only  a  captain 
in  the  Scotch  Dutch,  Robertson,  Home,  &c.,  I  need  not 
say  that  we  were  gay  and  jovial.  An  incident  con- 
tributed not  a  little  to  our  mirth.  Charles  Congalton, 
who  happened  to  sit  next  to  Sir  David,  our  preses, 
it  was  observed,  never  filled  above  a  thimbleful  in 
his  glass,  when  being  asked  the  reason,  he  said  he  could 
not  drink  any  of  their  London  port,  there  was  such  a 
drawing-togetherness  in  it.  "  Ring  the  bell,  Charlie," 
said  our  preses,  "  and  we  will  learn  if  we  can't  get  a 
bottle  of  claret  for  you."  The  bell  was  rung,  the  claret 
came,  and  was  pronounced  very  good  by  the  Baronet 
and  his  doctor.  The  whole  company  soon  joined  in 
that  liquor,  without  which  no  Scotch  gentleman  in 
those  days  could  be  exhilarated.     Bob  Keith  sung  all 


SKETCHES   AND    INCIDENTS.  351 

his  ludicrous  songs,  and  repeated  all  his  comic  verses, 
and  gave  us  a  foretaste  of  that  delightful  company 
which  he  continued  to  be  to  the  end  of  his  days.  His 
cousin,  Charles  Dalrymple,  was  only  behind  him  in 
humorous  description  and  naive  remark  —  as  much 
only  as  he  was  in  age  and  the  habits  of  company. 
Our  reckoning  by  this  means,  however,  turned  out, 
instead  of  five  shillings  and  sixpence,  as  Dickson  had 
supposed,  to  be  three  times  that  sum.  The  Baronet 
and  Doctor  were  to  set  out  in  a  few  days  to  France, 
on  their  way  to  Barege. 

I  shall  here  mention  an  anecdote  which  struck  me 
as  a  proof  of  the  wonderful  carelessness  of  physicians. 
Supping  one  night  with  Duncan  Forbes,  Sir  David, 
Lord  Elliock,  and  sundry  physicians,  while  four  of  us 
were  playing  at  whist.  Lord  Elliock  took  up  a  book, 
and  after  reading  a  while  called  out,  "  Sir  David,  here 
is  your  case,  and  a  perfect  cure  for  it,  that  I  find  in 
this  book."  He  then  read  an  account  of  the  great 
effect  of  the  waters  of  Barege,  in  the  south  of  France, 
for  such  complaints  as  the  Baronet  laboured  under. 
"  Have  you  heard  of  this  before.  Sir  David  1 "  "  No, 
never,"  answered  he.  "Is  it  new  to  the  Faculty  1" 
said  he  to  Armstrong,  who  was  sitting  near  him. 
"  No,"  replied  the  crusty  Doctor,  "  but  we  never 
thought  of  prescribing  it,  as  we  knew  that  he  was 
such  a  coward  that  he  would  rather  be  damned  by  a 
fistula  than  cross  the  Channel  in  a  packet-boat,  especi- 
ally in  time  of  a  French  war."  Sir  David,  having 
his  pride  irritated  by  this  attack,  did  go  to  Barege, 


352  CHARLES   TOWNSHEND. 

and  completed  a  cure  which  had  been  made  by  Dr 
Ward. 

As  I  had  been  introduced  to  the  Duke  of  Argyle  in 
the  autumn  before  in  Scotland,  I  went  sometimes  to 
his  evening  parties,  which  were  very  pleasant.  He 
let  in  certain  friends  every  night  about  seven  o'clock, 
when,  after  tea  and  coffee,  there  were  parties  at  six- 
penny whist,  his  Grace  never  playing  higher.  About 
nine  there  was  a  sideboard  of  cold  victuals  and  wine, 
to  which  everybody  resorted  in  his  turn.  There  was 
seldom  or  ever  any  drinking — never,  indeed,  but  when 
some  of  his  favourite  young  men  came  in,  such  as 
Alexander  Lord  Eglinton,  William  Lord  Home,  &c., 
when  the  old  gentleman  would  rouse  himself  and  call 
for  burgundy  and  champagne,  and  prolong  the  feast 
to  a  late  hour.  In  general  the  company  parted  at 
eleven.  There  could  not  be  a  more  rational  way  of 
passing  the  evening,  for  the  Duke  had  a  wide  range 
of  knowledge,  and  was  very  open  and  communicative. 

The  Right  Honourable  Charles  Townshend,  my  old 
friend,  had  married  Lady  Dalkeith,  the  Duke  of  Buc- 
cleuch's  mother.  Home,  who  was  become  intimate 
with  him,  took  me  there  one  morning,  after  having 
told  him  I  was  in  town,  and  intended  to  call.  He 
received  me  with  open  arms,  and  was  perfectly  fami- 
liar, but  not  a  hint  of  having  seen  me  before.  He 
held  the  same  demeanour  to  Jack  Campbell,  Lord 
Stonefield,  who  had  married  one  of  Lord  Bute's  sisters; 
and  in  spite  of  our  intimacy  afterwards  in  Scotland, 
he  never  made  the  most  distant  allusion  to  anything 


THE    BUCCLEUCH    FAMILY.  353 

that  had  happened  at  Leyden.  The  Duke  of  Biic- 
cleuch,  and  his  brother  Campbell  Scott,  were  in  town 
for  the  Easter  holidays.  Mr  Scott  was  much  hand- 
somer and  more  forward  than  the  Duke,  who  was  at 
a  table  in  the  room  where  there  were  some  books. 
The  young  Duke,  then  not  twelve  years  of  age,  was 
turning  over  the  leaves  of  a  book.  "  Come  along, 
Duke,"  says  Charles — "  I  see  what  you  would  be  at, 
silent  as  you  are ;  show  the  gentlemen  that  dedication 
you  are  so  fond  of."  The  Duke  slipt  down  the  book 
on  the  table,  and  blushed  to  the  eyes,  retiring  a  step 
or  two  from  it.  I  took  up  the  book,  and  soon  saw  it 
was  Barclay  the  schoolmaster's  Latin  Grammar,  which 
he  had  dedicated  to  his  patron.  "  The  Duke,"  says  I, 
"need  not  be  ashamed  of  this  dedication,  for  the 
author  of  it  is  one  of  the  best  schoolmasters  and 
grammarians  of  any  in  Scotland,  and  has  brought  the 
school  at  Dalkeith  to  its  former  name  and  lustre." 
This  reassured  the  young  man,  and  he  smiled  with 
some  satisfaction.  Little  did  I  think  at  that  time 
that  I  shoidd  live  to  see  his  grace  the  most  respected 
and  the  most  deservedly  popular  of  any  nobleman  in 
Scotland.  A  few  days  after  this  we  dined  with  Mr 
Townshend  and  the  Countess,  and  one  or  two  gentle- 
men, but  the  boys  had  returned  to  school. 

The  clergy  of  Scotland,  being  under  apprehensions 
that  the  window-tax  would  be  extended  to  them,  had 
given  me  in  charge  to  state  our  case  to  some  of  the  minis- 
ters, and  try  to  make  an  impression  in  our  favour.  Sir 
Gilbert  Elliot  listened  to  me,  and  was  friendly ;  March- 

z 


354  THE    BUCCLEUCH    FAMILV". 

mont  pretended  not  to  understand  ray  statement,  and 
was  dry.  But  the  only  man  who  really  understood 
the  business,  and  seemed  ready  to  enter  into  it  with 
zeal,  was  Jeremiah  Dyson,  who,  having  been  a  Dis- 
senter, and  two  years  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh, 
and  withal  very  acute,  perfectly  comprehended  my 
argument,  and  was  willing  to  assist  in  procuring  an 
exemption.  Without  Robert  Dundas,  then  Lord  Ad- 
vocate, nothing,  however,  could  be  done.  I  waited  on 
him,  and  was  received  in  his  usual  way,  with  frankness 
and  familiarity  enough ;  but  he  did  not  think  he  could 
do  anything,  but  deferred  saying  much  about  it  till 
some  future  day,  when  he  would  have  some  friends  with 
me  to  dinner,  and  talk  over  the  affair.  This  cold  or 
rather  haughty  reception,  added  to  some  very  slight- 
ing or  calumnious  sayings  of  his,  both  about  Robert- 
son and  me,  provoked  us  not  a  little,  and  revived  the 
resentment  we  felt  at  his  unhandsome  behaviour  about 
the  tragedy  of  Douglas. 

Our  time  drew  near  for  returning,  which  we  were 
to  do  on  horseback,  and  with  that  we  set  about  fur- 
nishing ourselves  with  horses.  Home  had  his  Piercy 
in  town,  and  James  Adam  (who  was  to  be  our  com- 
panion) had  one  also,  so  that  Robertson  and  I  only 
were  to  be  provided,  which  we  did  without  loss  of 
time.  We  had  some  inclination  to  be  introduced 
to  Lord  Bute,  which  John  promised  to  do ;  and  for 
Robert  Adam  also,  who  could  derive  more  benefit  from 
it  than  any  of  us.  Robert  had  been  three  years  in 
Italy,  and,  wnth  a  first-rate  genius  for  his  profession. 


THE    ADAMS.  355 

had  seen  and  studied  everything,  and  was  in  the  high- 
est esteem  anions  foreiorn  artists.  From  the  time  of 
his  return — viz.  in  February  or  March  1758 — may  be 
dated  a  very  remarkable  improvement  in  building  and 
furniture,  and  even  stoneware,  in  London  and  every 
part  of  England.*  As  John  put  off  the  time  of  our 
introduction  to  his  great  man,  we  yielded  to  a  request 
of  our  friend  Sir  David  Kinloch  to  accompany  him  on 
a  jaunt  he  wished  to  make  to  Portsmouth.  Home  had 
signified  his  design  to  Lord  Bute,  who  had  agreed  to 
his  absence  for  a  few  days ;  and  having  obtained  a 
letter  from  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  then  a  Lord  of  the  Ad- 
miralty, to  Lieutenant  Brett,  clerk  of  the  cheque  at 
Portsmouth,  we  set  out,  the  Baronet  and  his  doctor 
in  a  chaise,  and  we  three  on  horseback.  As  it  was 
towards  the  end  of  April,  and  the  weather  good,  we 
had  a  very  agreeable  journey.  We  were  much  pleased 
with  the  diversified  beauty  of  the  country,  though  not 
a  little  surprised  with  the  great  extent  of  uncultivated 
heath  which  we  went  through.  We  viewed  with  much 
pleasure  and  exultation  the  solid  foundation  of  the 
naval  glory  of  Great  Britain,  in  the  amazing  extent 
and  richness  of  the  dockyards  and  warehouses,  &c.,  and 
in  the  grandeur  of  her  tieet  in  the  harbour  and  in  the 
Downs.  It  appeared  a  new  world  to  us,  and  our 
wonder  had  not  ceased  during  all  the  four  days  we 
remained  there.   We  had  good  mutton  and  good  wine 

*  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  the  two  Aclams,  so  often  referred  to, 
were  the  architects  of  the  many  public  and  private  buildings,  of  some  of 
whicli  an  account  will  be  found  in  their  work,  called  77*e  Worts  in  ArchUtc- 
tnre  of  Robert  and  James  Adam. — Ed. 


356  MARITIME    ADVENTURES. 

(claret)  at  the  inn,  and,  above  all,  an  additional  com- 
panion, Mr  Richard  Oswald  (he  who  had  so  much 
hand  in  the  peace  of  Paris  long  after),  who  was  a  man 
of  great  knowledge  and  ready  conversation.  There 
was  a  fine  fleet  of  ten  ships  of  the  line  in  the  Downs, 
with  the  Royal  George  at  their  head,  all  ready  for  sea, 
and  one  of  our  great  objects  was  to  get  on  board  that 
ship,  which  was  always  kept  in  the  highest  order  for 
the  admittance  of  ^visitors.  This  short  voyage  was 
proposed  every  night,  but  was  put  ofl"  daily,  as  a  land- 
wind  came  on  soon  after  breakfast.  As  we  were  only 
to  stay  one  day  longer,  Congalton  and  1  in  despair 
went  in  the  evening  to  Lieutenant  Brett  and  stated 
our  case  to  him.  He  said  there  was  but  one  remedy, 
which  was  for  him  to  ask  Sir  David  and  us  all  to 
breakfast  next  morning  at  eight ;  that  his  dockyard 
sloop,  in  which  he  could  sail  to  America,  should  be  at 
hand  and  ready  at  nine,  and  that  we  might  get  to  the 
Royal  George,  not  above  three  miles  off,  before  the 
mackerel  breeze  sprung  up. 

This  plan  was  accordingly  put  in  execution,  but  it 
being  half-past  nine  before  we  got  on  board,  the  breeze 
got  up  before  we  reached  the  fleet ;  and  the  moment  it 
arose,  fear  and  sickness  began  to  operate  on  our  friends, 
their  countenances  grew  pale,  and  the  poet  grew  very 
vociferous  for  our  immediate  return.  Our  pilot,  how- 
ever, held  on  his  course,  and  assured  them  that  there 
was  not  the  smallest  danger,  and  that  the  moment 
they  set  their  feet  in  the  Royal  George,  their  sickness 
would  leave   them.     Congalton  and  I  were  quite  dis- 


MAKITIME   ADVENTURES.  357 

concerted,  and  did  not  know  what  to  do.  Brett  con- 
tinued to  assert  that  we  might  board  with  the  greatest 
•ease,  and  without  the  least  danger ;  but  as  we  ap- 
proached the  ship  their  fears  became  so  noisy  and  so 
unmanly  that  Brett  yielded,  and  said  it  would  be 
better  to  sail  round  the  ship  and  return,  lest  the  breeze 
should  increase.  Dr  Congalton  and  I  were  much  dis- 
appointed, as  this  was  probably  the  only  opportunity 
we  should  have  of  seeing  so  tine  a  ship  again. 

We  behoved  to  yield,  however,  and,  what  was  re- 
markable, the  moment  we  set  our  heads  towards  land 
their  sickness  entirely  abated,  and  they  got  into  spi- 
rits— Eobertson  was  the  only  one  of  them  who  had 
thrown  up  his  breakfast.  When  we  arrived  near  the 
harbour,  we  overtook  the  Ramilies,  a  ninety-gun  ship, 
just  entering  the  port.  Mr  Brett  proposed  that  we 
should  go  on  board  her,  when  we  should  see  her  rigging 
completely  manned,  a  sight  that  in  some  degree  would 
compensate  our  not  seeing  the  Royal  George.  Our 
friends  were  delighted  with  this  proposal,  and  John 
Home  exulted  provokingly  on  the  superiority  of  the 
sight  we  were  so  fortunately  going  to  have.  We  had 
no  sooner  set  foot  on  the  deck  than  an  officer  came  up 
to  us,  bawling,  "God  preserv^e  us!  what  has  brought  the 
Presbytery  of  Edinburgh  here  1  for,  damn  me,  if  there 
is  not  Willy  Robertson,  Sandie  Carlyle,  and  John  Home 
come  on  board."  This  turned  out  to  be  a  Lieutenant 
Neilson,  a  cousin  of  Robertson,  who  knew  us  all,  who 
gave  us  a  hearty  welcome,  and  carried  us  to  his  cabin, 
and  treated  us  to  white  wine  and  salt  beef. 


358  LORD    BUTE. 

The  remainder  of  this  day  we  passed  in  seeing  what 
we  had  omitted,  particularly  the  Point  after  it  was  dark, 
or  rather  towards  midnight — a  scene  of  wonder,  and  • 
even  horror,  to  the  civilised.  Next  day  we  took  our 
departure,  and  sleeping  a  night  by  the  way,  as  we  had 
done  going  down,  we  arrived  in  London,  and  prepared 
in  good  earnest  to  set  out  on  our  journey  north.  The 
day  was  at  last  appointed  for  our  being  introduced  to 
the  great  man,  and  we  resolved  among  ourselves,  that  if 
he  gave  us  an  invitation  to  dine  with  him  on  an  early 
day,  we  would  stay  for  it,  though  contrary  to  our  plan. 

John  Home's  tragedy  of  Agis  had  been  acted  this 
season  with  tolerably  good  success,  for  it  ran  the  nine 
nights,  and  the  author  made  some  hundreds  by  it.  Gar- 
rick  had  acted  the  part  of  Lysander,  as  he  did  a  year 
or  two  later  that  of  Emilius  in  the  Siege  of  Aquileia, 
which  I  think  superior  in  merit  to  Agis.  I  had  under- 
taken to  review  this  play  for  the  British  Magazine 
(Smollett's),  but  had  been  indolent ;  and  it  now  cost 
me  to  sit  up  all  night  to  write  it,  and  I  was  obliged  to 
give  it  to  the  press  blotted  and  interlined, — but  they 
are  accustomed  to  decypher  the  most  difficult  hands. 

The  day  came  when  we  were  presented  to  Lord 
Bute,  but  our  reception  was  so  dry  and  cold  that 
when  he  asked  when  we  were  to  go  north,  one  of  us 
said  to-morrow.  He  received  us  booted  and  spurred, 
which  in  those  days  was  a  certain  signal  for  going 
a-riding,  and  an  apology  for  not  desiring  us  to  sit 
down.  We  very  soon  took  our  leave,  and  no  sooner 
w^ere  we  out  of  hearing,  than  Robert  Adam,  who  was 


LORD    BUTE.  359 

with  us,  fell  a-cursino;  and  swearinoj.  "  AVhat !  had  he 
been  presented  to  all  the  princes  in  Italy  and  France, 
and  most  graciously  received,  to  come  and  be  treated 
with  such  distance  and  pride  by  the  youngest  earl 
but  one  in  all  Scotland  V  They  were  better  friends 
afterwards,  and  Robert  found  him  a  kind  patron, 
when  his  professional  merit  was  made  known  to  him. 
^Vhen  I  was  riding  with  Home  in  Hyde  Park  a  week 
before,  tr}'ing  the  horse  I  bought,  we  met  his  lordship, 
to  whom  Home  then  introduced  me,  and  we  rode  to- 
gether for  half  an  hour,  when  I  had  a  very  agreeable 
chat  with  his  lordship ;  but  he  was  a  different  man 
when  he  received  audience.  To  dismiss  the  subject, 
however,  I  believe  he  was  a  very  worthy  and  virtuous 
man — a  man  of  taste,  and  a  good  belles-lettres  scholar, 
and  that  he  trained  up  the  prince  in  true  patriotic 
principles  and  a  love  of  the  constitution,  though  his 
own  mind  was  of  the  Tory  cast,  with  a  partiality  to 
the  family  of  Stuart,  of  whom  he  believed  he  was 
descended.  But  he  proved  himself  unfit  for  the  sta- 
tion he  had  assumed,  being  not  versatile  enough  for 
a  prime  minister ;  and,  though  personally  brave,  yet 
void  of  that  political  firmness  which  is  necessary  to 
stand  the  storms  of  state.  The  nobility  and  gentry 
of  England  had  paid  court  to  him  with  such  abject 
sers'ility  when  the  accession  of  his  pupil  drew  near, 
and  immediately  after  it  took  place,  that  it  was  no 
wonder  he  should  behave  to  them  with  haughtiness 
and  disdain,  and  with  a  spirit  of  domination.  As  soon, 
however,  as  he  was  tried  and  known,  and  the  disap- 


300  LORD    BUTE. 

pointed  hopes  of  the  courtiers  had  restored  them  to 
the  exercise  of  their  manhood,  he  showed  a  wavering 
and  uncertain  disposition,  which  discovered  to  them 
that  he  could  be  overthrown.  The  misfortune  of  great 
men  in  such  circumstances  is,  that  they  have  few  or 
no  personal  friends  on  whose  counsels  they  can  rely. 
There  were  two  such  about  him,  who  enjoyed  his  con- 
fidence and  favour,  Sir  Harry  Erskine  and  John  Home. 
The  first,  I  believe,  was  a  truly  honest  man,  but  his 
views  were  not  extensive  nor  his  talents  great ;  the 
second  had  better  talents,  but  they  were  not  at  all 
adapted  to  business.  Besides  ambition  and  pride  to 
a  high  degree,  Lord  Bute  had  an  insatiable  vanity, 
which  nothing  could  allay  but  Home's  incessant  flat- 
tery, which  being  ardent  and  sincere,  and  blind  and 
incessant,  like  that  of  a  passionate  lover,  pleased  the 
jealous  and  supercilious  mind  of  the  Thane.  He  knew 
John  to  be  a  man  of  honour  and'  his  friend,  and 
though  his  discernment  pointed  out  the  excess  of 
John's  praises,  yet  his  ardour  and  sincerity  made  it 
all  take  place  on  a  temper  and  character  made  acces- 
sible by  vanity.  With  respect  to  John  himself,  his 
mind  and  manners  had  always  been  the  same.  He 
flattered  Lord  Milton,  and  even  Adam  Ferguson  and 
me,  as  much  as  he  did  Lord  Bute  in  the  zenith  of  his 
power.  What  demonstrates  the  artlessness  and  purity 
of  John's  mind  was,  that  he  never  asked  anything  for 
himself,  though  he  had  the  undisputed  ear  of  the  Prime 
Minister.  Even  those  who  envied  John  for  the  place 
of  favour  he  held,  exclaimed  against  the  chief  for  doing 


LORD    BUTE.  3G1 

SO  little  for  the  man  of  bis  right  hand  ;  and  John 
might  have  starved  on  a  scanty  pension  (for  he  was 
required  to  be  in  attendance  in  London  for  more  than 
half  the  year),  bad  not  Ferguson  and  I  taken  advan- 
tage of  a  vacancy  of  an  office  in  Scotland,  and  pressed 
Lord  Milton  to  procure  the  Lord  Consei-vator's  place 
for  him,  which  more  than  doubled  his  income.*  But 
though  Home  was  careless  of  himself,  he  was  warm 
and  active  at  all  times  for  the  interest  of  his  friends, 
and  served  a  greater  number  of  people  eft'ectually  than 
it  had  been  in  the  power  of  any  private  man  to  do 
before,  some  few  of  whom  proved  themselves  not 
worthy  of  his  friendship. 

AYe  now  were  to  leave  London,  and  made  all  suit- 
able preparations ;  and  finding  that  there  was  a  horse 
at  Donaldson's,  at  the  Orange  Tree  Inn,  which  the 
owner  wished  to  have  down  to  Edinburgh,  we  under- 
took to  take  him  with  us,  and  hired  a  man  to  ride  him 
and  carry  our  baggage.  As  there  were  four  of  us,  we 
found  one  servant  too  few,  to  our  great  inconveniency. 
As  the  Adams  were  a  wonderfully  loving  family,  and 
their  youngest  brother  James  was  going  down  witli 
us,  the  rest  of  the  sisters  and  brothers  would  accom- 
pany us  as  far  as  Uxbridge  (a  very  needless  ceremony, 
some  of  us  thought)  ;  but  since  we  were  to  be  so 
numerous,  my  sister  thought  of  joining  the  party. 
We  passed  a  very  cheerful  evening  in  spite  of  the 
melancholy  parting  we  had    in  view.      We  parted, 

*  The  then  sinecure  office  of  Conser\'ator  of  Scots  Privileges  at  Camp- 
vere. — Ed. 


362  EAMBLE    IN    ENGLAND. 

however,  next  morning,  and  we  made  the  best  of  our 
way  to  Oxford,  halting  for  an  hour  at  Bulstrode,  a 
seat  of  the  Duke  of  Portland's,  where  we  viewed  the 
park,  the  house,  and  the  chapel,  which  pleased  us 
much,  especially  the  last,  which  was  ornamented  in 
^true  taste  as  a  place  of  worship.  The  chapel,  which 
is  still  met  with  in  many  noblemen's  houses  in  Eng- 
land, was  a  mark  of  the  residence  of  a  great  family, 
which  was  striking  and  agreeable.  It  was  here  that 
we  discovered  the  truth  of  what  I  had  often  heard, 
that  most  of  the  head-gardeners  of  English  noblemen 
were  Scotch,  for  on  observing  to  this  man  that  his 
pease  seemed  late  on  the  4th  of  May,  not  being  then 
fully  in  bloom,  and  that  I  was  certain  there  were 
sundry  places  which  I  knew  in  Scotland  where  they 
were  further  advanced,  he  answered  that  he  was 
bred  in  a  place  that  I  perhaps  did  not  know  that 
answered  this  description.  This  was  Newhaills,  in 
my  own  parish  of  Inveresk.  This  man,  whose  name 
I  have  forgot,  if  it  was  not  Robertson,  was  not  only 
gardener  but  land-steward,  and  had  the  charge  of  the 
whole  park  and  of  the  estate  around  it ; — such  advan- 
tage was  there  in  having  been  taught  writing,  arith- 
metic, and  the  mensuration  of  land,  the  rudiments  of 
which  were  taught  in  many  of  the  country  schools  of 
Scotland.  This  man  gave  us  a  note  to  the  gardener 
at  Blenheim,  who,  he  told  us,  was  our  countryman, 
and  would  furnish  us  with  notes  to  the  head-gardeners 
all  the  way  down. 

We  arrived  at  Oxford  before  dinner,  and  put  up  at 


RAMBLE    IX    ENGLAND.  363 

the  ADgel  Inn.  Eobertsoii  and  Adam,  who  had  never 
been  there  before,  had  everything  to  see  :  Home  and 
I  had  been  there  before.  John  Douglas,  who  knew 
we  were  coming,  was  passing  trials  for  his  degree  of 
D.D.,  and  that  very  day  was  in  the  act  of  one  of  his 
wall-lectures,  as  they  are  called,  for  there  is  no  audi- 
ence. At  that  university,  it  seems,  the  trial  is  strict 
when  one  takes  a  Masters  or  Bachelor's,  but  slack 
when  you  come  to  the  Doctor's  Degree  ;  and  vice 
versa  at  Cambridge.  However  that  be,  we  found 
Douglas  sitting  in  a  pulpit,  in  one  of  their  chapels, 
with  not  a  soul  to  hear  him  but  three  old  beggar- 
women,  who  came  to  try  if  they  might  get  some 
charity.  On  seeing  us  four  enter  the  chapel,  he  talk- 
ed to  us  and  wished  us  away,  otherwise  he  would  be 
obliojed  to  lecture.  We  would  not  cro  awav,  we  an- 
swered,  as  we  wished  a  specimen  of  Oxford  learning  ; 
on  which  he  read  two  or  three  verses  out  of  the  Greek 
Testament,  and  began  to  expound  it  in  Latin.  We 
listened  for  five  minutes,  and  then,  tellinof  where  we 
were  to  dine,  we  left  him  to  walk  about.  Douglas 
came  to  dinner:  and  in  the  eveninor  Messrs  Foster  and 
Vivian,  of  Baliol  College,  came  to  us  to  ask  us  to  a  col- 
lation, to  be  given  us  by  that  society  next  day.  They 
were  well-informed  and  liberal-minded  men,  but  from 
them  and  their  conversation  we  learned  that  this  was 
far  from  applying  to  the  generality  of  the  university. 
We  stayed  all  next  day,  and  passed  a  very  agreeable 
evening  at  Baliol  College,  where  several  more  Fellows 
were  assembled. 


364  RAMBLE    IN    ENGLAND. 

Next  morning  we  set  out  early  for  AVoodstock, 
where  we  breakfasted,  and  Avent  to  see  Blenheim,  a 
most  magnificent  park  indeed.  We  narrowly  in- 
spected the  house  and  chapel,  which,  though  much 
cried  down  by  the  Tory  wits  of  Queen  Anne's  reign, 
appeared  to  us  very  magnificent,  and  worthy  of  the 
donors  and  of  the  occasion  on  which  it  was  given. 
Our  companion,  James  Adam,  had  seen  all  the  splen- 
did palaces  of  Italy,  and  though  he  did  not  say  that 
Sir  John  Vanburgh's  design  was  faultless,  yet  he  said 
it  ill  deserved  the  aspersions  laid  upon  it,  for  he  had 
seen  few  palaces  where  there  was  more  movement,  as 
he  called  it,  than  in  Blenheim.  The  extent  of  the 
park  and  the  beauty  of  the  water  (now  a  sea  almost, 
as  I  am  told)  struck  us  very  much. 

From  Blenheim  we  made  the  best  of  our  way  to 
Warwick,  where,  as  we  had  been  much  heated,  and 
were  very  dusty,  we  threw  off"  our  boots,  and  washed 
and  dressed  ourselves  before  we  walked  out.  John 
Home  would  not  put  on  his  boots  again  ;  but  in  clean 
stockings  and  shoes,  when  he  was  looking  at  himself 
in  tlie  glass,  and  prancing  about  the  room  in  a  truly 
poetical  style,  he  turned  short  upon  the  boot-catch  who 
had  brought  in  our  clean  boots,  and  finding  the  fellow 
staring  at  him  with  seeming  admiration,  "  And  am  not  I 
a  pretty  fellow "? "  said  John.  "Ay,"  says  he,  "  sir,"  with 
half  a  smile.  "  And  who  do  you  take  me  for  1 "  said 
John.  "  If  you  binna  Jamy  Dunlop  the  Scotch  ped- 
lar, I  dinna  ken  wha  ye  are  ;  but  your  ways  are  very 
like  his."    This  reply  confounded  our  friend  not  a  little. 


RAMBLE    IN   ENGLAND.  365 

and  he  looked  still  more  foolish  than  Eobertson,  when 
Jackson  told  at  Staines  that  the  Dissenting  minister 
took  him  for  a  Methodist. 

Warwick  we  found  to  be  a  very  pleasant  old  town, 
finely  situated,  with   a  handsome  old   church.     The 
Castle  of  Warwick,  the  seat  of  the  earl  of  that  name, 
with  the  park,  was  truly  magnificent,  and  the  priory 
on   the   way  to  it,  the    seat   of  ]Mr  Wise,  not  un- 
worthy of  being  viewed.     We  dined  here,  and  were 
rather  late  in  getting  to  Birmingham,  where  a  sers^ant 
of  Mr  Garbett's  lay  in  wait  for  us  at  the  inn,  and 
conducted  us  to  his  house,  without  letting  us  enter 
it.     This  man,  of  singular  worth  and  very  uncommon 
ability,  with  whom  Robertson  and  I  were  intimately 
acquainted  in  Scotland,  had  anxiously  wished  us  to 
come  his  way,  with  which  we  complied,  not  merely  to 
see  the  wonders  of  the  place,  but  to  gratify  him.     Six 
or  seven  years  before  this,  Dr  Roebuck  and  he  had 
established  a  vitriol  work  at  Prestonpans,  which  suc- 
ceeded well,  and  the  profits  of  which  encouraged  them 
to  undertake  the  grand  ironworks  at  Carron,  which 
had  commenced  not  long  before.     Garbett,  who  was 
a  man  of  sense  and  judgment,  was  much  against  that 
great  undertaking,  as,  independent  of  the  profits  of  the 
vitriol  works,  they  had  not  £3000  of  stock  between 
them.     But  the  ardent  mind  of  Roebuck  carried  Gar- 
bett away,  and  he  yielded — giving  up  to  his  superior 
genius  for  great  undertakings  the  dictates  of  prudence 
and  his  own  sober  judgment.     Roebuck,  having  been 
bred  in  the  medical  school  of  Edinburgh,  had  science, 


366     .  RAMBLE    IN   ENGLAND. 

and  particularly  the  skill  of  applying  chemistry  to  the 
useful  arts. 

Ironworks  were  but  recent  in  Scotland,  and  Roe- 
buck had  visited  them  all,  and  every  station  where 
they  could  be  erected,  and  had  found  that  Carron  was 
by  far  the  best,  which,  if  they  did  not  occupy  imme- 
diately, some  other  company  would,  and  they  must 
remain  in  the  background  for  ever.  This  idea  dazzled 
and  overpowered  the  judicious  mind  of  Garbett,  which 
had  been  contented  with  the  limited  project  of  avail- 
ing themselves  of  the  populations  of  Musselburgh  and 
Fisherrow,  and  with  the  aid  of  Lord  Milton,  to  whom 
I  had  introduced  him,  to  begin  an  ironwork  on  a 
small  scale  on  the  Magdalene  Burn,  and  introducing 
the  manufactures  of  Birmingham  at  Fisherrow.  This 
was  highly  gratifying  to  Milton,  who  would  have  lent 
his  credit,  and  given  the  labours  of  his  then  active 
-mind,  to  bring  it  to  perfection. 

Samuel  Garbett  was  truly  a  very  extraordinary 
man.  He  had  been  an  ordinary  worker  in  brass 
at  Birmingham,  and  had  no  education  farther  than 
writing  and  accounts  ;  but  he  was  a  man  of  great 
acuteness  of  genius  and  extent  of  understanding.  He 
had  been  at  first  distinguished  from  the  common 
workmen  by  inventing  some  stamp  for  shortening 
labour.  He  was  soon  taken  notice  of  by  a  Mr  Hollis, 
a  great  merchant  in  London,  who  employed  him  as 
his  agent  for  purchasing  Birmingham  goods.  This 
brought  him  into  notice  and  rank  among  his  towns- 
men ;   and  the  more  he  was  known,  the  more  he  was 


RAMBLE    IN    ENGLAND.  367 

esteemed.  Let  me  observe  once  for  all,  that  I  have 
known  no  person  but  one  more  of  such  strong  and 
lively  feelings,  of  such  a  fair,  candid,  and  honourable 
heart,  and  of  such  quick  and  ardent  conceptions,  who 
still  retained  the  power  of  cool  and  dehberate  judg- 
ment before  execution.  I  had  been  much  in  his  way 
when  he  came  first  to  Prestonpans  about  the  year 
'51  or  '52,  and  had  distinguished  him  and  attracted 
his  notice.  He  knew  all  the  wise  methods  of  manasc- 
ing  men,  and  was  sensible  that  he  could  not  expect 
to  have  the  most  faithful  workmen  unless  he  con- 
sulted the  minister.  To  obtain  this  aid  he  paid  all 
due  respect  to  my  father,  and,  though  of  the  Church 
of  England,  regularly  attended  the  church,  and  in- 
deed made  himself  agreeable  to  the  whole  parish,  high 
and  low.  Roebuck,  though  a  scholar  and  of  an  in- 
ventive genius,  was  vain  and  inconstant,  and  an  end- 
less projector,  so  that  the  real  executive  and  manag- 
ing power  lay  in  Garbett. 

He  received  us  with  open  hospitality,  and  we  were 
soon  convinced  we  were  welcome  by  the  cordiality  of 
his  wife  and  daughter  (afterwards  Mrs  Gascoign),  who 
lodged  the  whole  company  but  me,  who,  being  their 
oldest  acquaintance,  they  took  the  liberty  to  send  to 
a  friend's  house.  Hitherto  they  had  lived  in  a  very 
moderate  style,  but  for  his  Scotch  friends  Garbett  had 
provided  very  good  claret,  and  for  the  time  we  stayed 
his  table  was  excellent,  though  at  that  time  they 
had  only  one  maid  and  a  blind  lad  as  servants.  This 
last  was  a  wonder,  for  he  did  all  the  work  of  a  man. 


368  BASKERVILLE   THE    PRINTEr.. 

and  even  brewed  the  ale,  (but)  that  of  serving  at 
table ;  and  for  this,  Garbett  [provided]  according  to 
the  custom  of  the  place,  where  no  man  was  then 
ashamed  of  frugality.  He  made  Patrick  Downy,  who 
was  then  an  apprentice,  stand  at  our  backs.  Patrick 
afterwards  married  the  maid,  who  was  the  mistress's 
cousin  ;  was  sent  down  to  Prestonpans  as  an  overseer, 
and  was  at  last  taken  in  as  a  partner :  such  was  the 
primitive  state  of  Birmingham  and  other  manufactur- 
ing towns,  and  such  encouragement  did  they  then  give 
to  industry.  Sed  tandein  luxu^na  mcuhuit.  Few 
men  have  I  ever  known  who  united  ton;ether  more  of 
the  prime  qualities  of  head  and  heart. 

We  passed  the  next  day  after  our  arrival  in  visit- 
ing the  manufactures  at  Birmingham,  though  it  was 
with  difficulty  I  could  persuade  our  poet  to  stay,  by 
suggesting  to  him  how  uncivil  his  sudden  departure 
would  appear  to  our  kind  landlord.  I  got  him,  how- 
ever, to  go  through  the  tedious  detail,  till  at  last  he 
said  "  that  it  seemed  there  as  if  God  had  created  man 
only  for  making  buttons."  Next  morning,  after  break- 
fast, Home  set  out  for  Admiral  Smith's,  his  old  friend, 
who,  being  a  natural  son  of  Sir  Thomas  Littleton,  had 
built  himself  a  good  house  in  the  village  close  by 
Hagley,  the  seat  of  Lord  Littleton.  We  who  were  left, 
passed  the  day  in  seeing  what  remained  unseen  at  Bir- 
mingham, particularly  the  Baskerville  press,  and  Bas- 
kerville  himself,  who  was  a  great  curiosity.  His  house 
was  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  town,  and,  in  its  way, 
handsome  and  elegant.    What  struck  us  most  was  his 


LITTLETON   AND    SHEXSTONE.  369 

first  kitchen,  which  was  most  completely  furnished 
with  everything  that  could  be  wanted,  kept  as  clean 
and  bright  as  if  it  had  come  straight  from  the  shop, 
for  it  was  used,  and  the  fineness  of  the  kitchen  was 
a  great  point  in  the  family ;  for  they  received  their 
company,  and  there  were  we  entertained  with  cofiee 
and  chocolate.  Baske^^^lle  was  on  hands  with  his 
folio  Bible  at  this  time,  and  Garbett  insisted  on 
being  allowed  to  subscribe  for  Home  and  Eobertson. 
Home's  absence  afflicted  him,  for  he  had  seen  and 
heard  of  the  tragedy  of  Douglas.  Eobertson  hitherto 
had  no  name,  and  the  printer  said  bluntly  that  he 
would  rather  have  one  subscription  to  his  work  of  a 
man  like  ]\[r  Home,  than  an  hundred  ordinary  men.  He 
dined  with  us  that  day,  and  acquitted  himself  so  well 
that  Robertson  pronounced  him  a  man  of  genius,  while 
James  Adam  and  I  thought  him  but  a  prating  pedant. 
On  agreement  with  John  Home,  we  set  out  for 
Lord  Littleton's,  and  were  to  take  the  Leasowes, 
Shenstone's  place,  in  our  way.  Shenstone's  was  three 
or  four  miles  short  of  Littleton's.  We  called  in  there 
on  our  way,  and  walked  over  all  the  grounds,  which 
were  finely  laid  out,  and  which  it  is  needless  to 
describe.  The  want  of  water  was  obvious,  but  the 
ornaments  and  mottoes,  and  names  of  the  groves, 
were  appropriate.  Garbett  was  with  us,  and  we  had 
[seen]  most  of  the  place  before  Shenstone  was  dressed, 
who  was  going  to  dine  vdih.  Admiral  Smith.  We 
left  one  or  two  of  the  principal  walks  for  him  to 
show  us.     At  the  end  of  a  high  walk,  from  whence 

2  A 


370  LITTLETON   AND   SHENSTONE. 

we  saw  far  into  Gloster  and  Shrop  shires,  I  met  with 
what  struck  me  most, — that  was  an  emaciated  pale 
young  woman,  evidently  in  the  last  stage  of  a  con- 
sumption. She  had  a  most  interesting  appearance, 
with  a  little  girl  of  nine  or  ten  years  old,  who  had  led 
her  there.  Shenstone  went  up  and  stood  for  some 
time  conversing  with  her,  till  we  went  to  the  end  of 
the  walk  and  returned :  on  some  of  us  taking  an 
interest  in  her  appearance,  he  said  she  was  a  very 
sickly  neighbour,  to  whom  he  had  lent  a  key  to  his 
walks,  as  she  delighted  in  them,  though  now  not  able 
to  use  it  much.  The  most  beautiful  inscription  he 
afterwards  wrote  to  the  memory  of  Maria  Dolman  put 
me  in  mind  of  this  young  woman ;  but,  if  I  remember 
right,  she  was  not  the  person.  It  is  to  me  the  most 
elegant  and  interesting  of  all  Shenstone's  works. 

We  set  all  out  for  Admiral  Smith's,  and  had  Mr 
Shenstone  to  ride  with  us.  His  appearance  surprised 
me,  for  he  was  a  large  heavy  fat  man,  dressed  in  white 
clothes  and  silver  lace,  with  his  grey  hairs  tied  be- 
hind and  much  powdered,  which,  added  to  his  shyness 
and  reserve,  was  not  at  first  prepossessing.  His  reserve 
and  melancholy  (for  I  could  not  call  it  pride)  abated 
as  we  rode  along,  and  by  the  time  we  left  him  at  the 
Admiral's,  he  became  good  company, — Garbett,  who 
knew  him  well,  having  whispered  him,  that  though  we 
had  no  great  name,  he  would  find  us  not  common  men. 

Lord  Littleton's  we  found  superior  to  the  description 
we  had  heard  of  it,  and  the  day  being  favourable,  the 
prospect  from  the  high  ground,  of  more  than  thirty 


LITTLETON    AXD    SHENSTONE.  371 

miles  of  cultivated  countrv,  ending  in  the  celebrated 
hill,  the  Wrekin,  delighted  us  much.  On  our  return 
to  the  inn,  where  we  expected  but  an  ordinary  repast, 
we  found  a  pressing  invitation  from  the  Admiral  to  dine 
with  him,  which  we  could  not  resist.  Though  a  good 
deal  disabled  with  the  gout,  he  was  kind  and  hos- 
pitable, and  received  Garbett,  who  was  backward  to 
go,  very  civilly.  We  intended  to  have  rode  back 
to  Birmingham  in  the  evening,  but  in  the  afternoon 
there  came  on  such  a  dreadfid  storm  of  thunder,  ac- 
companied with  incessant  rain,  as  made  the  Admi- 
ral insist  on  our  lodorinoj  all  nicrht  with  him.  With 
this  we  complied ;  but  as  he  had  no  more  than  three 
spare  beds,  James  Adam  and  Garbett  were  to  go  to 
the  inn.  Finding  an  interval  of  fair  weather  by 
eight  o'clock,  they  rode  to  Birmingham,  as  Garbett 
was  obliored  to  be  home. 

After  supper,  the  Admiral  made  us  a  spacious  bowl 
of  punch  with  his  own  hand,  a  composition  on  which 
he  piqued  himself  not  a  little,  and  for  which  John 
Home  extolled  him  to  the  skies.  This  nectar  circu- 
lated fast,  and  with  the  usual  effect  of  opening  the 
hearts  of  the  company,  and  making  them  speak  out. 
It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Home  said  to  the  Ad- 
miral, that,  knowing  what  he  knew  by  conversing 
with  him  at  Leith,  he  was  very  much  surprised  when 
he  recommended  Byng  to  mercy.  "  You  shoidd  have 
known,  John,  that  I  could  never  aU  my  life  bear  the 
idea  of  being  accessory  to  blood,  and  therefore  I  joined 
in  this  recommendation,  though  I  knew  that  by  doing 


372  A    RIDE   TO    SCOTLAND. 

SO  I  should  run  the  risk  of  never  more  being  employed." 
This  was  a  full  confirmation  of  what  John  Home 
had  said  at  the  time  of  the  sea-fight  (p.  307).  This 
fine  punch  even  unlocked  Shenstone's  breast,  who  had 
hitherto  been  shy  and  reserved ;  for  besides  mixing 
freely  in  the  conversation,  he  told  Home  apart,  that 
it  was  not  so  ag-reeable  as  he  thought  to  live  in 
the  neighbourhood  and  intimacy  of  Lord  Littleton, 
for  he  had  defects  which  the  benevolence  of  his  gene- 
ral manners  concealed,  which  made  him  often  wish 
that  he  had  lived  at  an  hundred  miles'  distance.  When 
Home  told  me  this,  I  very  easily  conceived  that  the 
pride  of  a  patron,  joined  to  the  jealousy  of  a  rival 
poet,  must  often  produce  effects  that  might  prove 
intolerable.  We  returned  to  Birmingham  next  morn- 
ing, and,  with  the  most  affectionate  sense  of  the 
kindness  of  our  landlord  and  his  family,  we  set  out 
on  our  journey  north  next  morning.  I  have  forgot 
to  mention  that  we  supped  the  last  night  with  Dr 
Eoebuck,  who,  though  a  very  clever  and  ingenious 
man,  was  far  behind  our  friend  m  some  of  the  most 
respectable  qualities. 

We  kept  on  through  a  middle  road  by  Lichfield  and 
Burton-on-Trent,  where  we  could  get  no  drinkable 
ale,  though  we  threw  ourselves  there  on  purpose  ;  and 
next  day,  dining  at  Matlock,  we  were  delighted  with 
the  fine  ride  we  had  through  a  vale  similar  but  of 
more  amenity  than  any  we  had  seen  in  the  highlands. 
We  took  the  bath,  too,  which  pleased  and  refreshed 
us  much,  for  the  day  was  sultry.     We  went  at  night 


A   EIDE   TO    SCOTLAXD.  373 

to  Enclsor  Inn,  opposite  Chatsworth,  the  Duke  of  De- 
vonshire's fine  house,  -which  we  visited  in  the  morning, 
with  much  admiration  both  of  the  structure,  orna- 
ments, and  situation.  We  ascended  a  wild  moor,  and 
got  to  Sheffield  to  dinner,  where,  as  we  declined  visit- 
ing a  brother  of  Dr  Roebuck's,  on  whom  Garbett  had 
given  us  a  note  of  credit,  we  sent  his  letter  to  him 
and  went  on.  Next  day  we  saw  Rockingliam  or 
Wentworth  Castle  in  our  way,  and  became  satisfied 
with  sights,  so  that  we  turned  no  more  off  our  road 
till  we  came  to  Ripon,  where  we  could  not  resist  the 
desire  of  visiting  Studley  Park,  then  a  great  object  of 
curiosity  to  aU  people  from  our  country',  as  it  was 
then  the  nearest  fine  place.  Alnwick  Castle  had  not 
then  been  repaired  or  beautified.  After  we  had  left 
Sheffield,  where  we  might  have  got  money,  we  dis- 
covered that  we  were  like  to  run  short,  for  Dr  Robert- 
son, unlike  his  usual  prudence,  had  only  put  two 
guineas  in  his  pocket,  trusting  to  the  full  purse  of  his 
cousin,  James  Adam,  who  had  taken  no  more  than  he 
computed  would  pay  the  fourth  part  of  our  expense. 
Home  and  I  had  done  the  same.  I  was  treasurer,  and 
at  Leeds,  I  believe,  I  demanded  a  contribution,  when 
it  was  found  that,  by  Robertson's  deficiency  and  our 
purchasing  some  goods  at  Birmingham  with  the  com- 
mon stock,  I  was  sensible  we  would  run  out  before 
we  came  to  Newcastle.  This  led  us  to  inferior  inns, 
which  cost  us  as  dear  for  much  inferior  entertainment. 
We  held  out  till  we  passed  Durham,  which  we  did 
by  keeping  to  the  west  of  that  city,  and  saving  two 


374  A   HIDE   TO   SCOTLAND. 

miles,  having  made  our  meal  at  [  ],  which  Home 

knew  to  be  a  good  house.  From  thence  we  might 
have  got  early  into  Newcastle,  had  we  not  been 
seduced  by  a  horse-race  we  met  with  near  Chester- 
le-Street.  This  we  could  not  resist,  as  some  of  us 
had  never  seen  John  Bull  at  his  favourite  amusement. 
There  was  a  great  crowd,  and  the  Mrs  and  Misses 
Bull  made  a  favourite  part  of  the  scene,  their  equi- 
pages being  single  and  double  horses,  sometimes  triple, 
and  many  of  them  ill  mounted,  and  yet  all  of  them 
with  a  keenness,  eagerness,  violence  of  motion  and 
loudness  of  vociferation,  that  appeared  like  madness 
to  us,  for  we  thought  them  in  extreme  danger,  by  their 
crossing  and  justling  in  all  directions  at  the  full  gal- 
lop, and  yet  none  of  them  fell.  Having  tired  our 
horses  with  this  diversion,  we  were  obliged  to  halt  at 
an  inn  to  give  them  a  little  corn,  for  we  had  been  four 
hours  on  horseback,  and  we  had  nine  miles  to  New- 
castle. Besides  corn  to  five  horses,  and  a  bottle  of 
porter  to  our  man  Anthony,  I  had  just  two  shillings 
remaining  ;  but  I  could  only  spare  one  of  them,  for  w^e 
had  turnpikes  to  pay,  and  so  called  for  a  pint  of  port, 
which,  mixed  with  a  quart  of  water,  made  a  good 
drink  for  each  of  us.  Our  horses  and  their  riders 
being  both  jaded,  it  was  ten  o'clock  before  we  arrived 
at  Newcastle ;  there  we  got  an  excellent  supper,  &c., 
and  a  good  night's  sleep.  I  sent  for  Jack  Widdrington 
when  at  breakfast,  who  immediately  gave  us  what 
money  we  wanted  ;  and  we,  who  had  been  so  penurious 
for  three  days,  became  suddenly  extravagant.    Adam 


A   RIDE    TO    SCOTLAND.  375 

bought  a  £20  horse,  and  the  rest  of  us  what  trinkets 
we  thought  we  wanted — Eobertson  for  his  wife  and 
children  at  Gladsmuir,  and  Home  and  I  for  the  chil- 
dren at  Polwarth  manse.  As  we  drew  nearer  home, 
our  motion  became  accelerated  and  our  conversation 
duller :  we  had  been  in  two  parties,  which  were  formed 
about  five  or  six  miles  from  London  ;  for  having  met 
with  a  cow,  with  a  piece  of  old  flannel  tied  about  one 
of  her  horns,  pasturing  on  a  very  wide  lane  on  the 
road,  Home  and  Eobertson  made  a  sudden  tack  to  the 
left,  to  be  out  of  reach  of  this  furious  wild  beast : 
I  jeered  them,  and  asked  of  what  they  were  afraid. 
They  said  a  mad  cow — did  I  observe  the  warning 
given  by  cloth  upon  her  horn  "?  "  Yes,"  says  I,  "  but 
that  is  only  because  her  horn  was  hurt  ;  did  you  not  see 
how  quiet  she  was  when  I  passed  her  1 "  Adam  took 
my  part,  and  the  controversy  lasted  all  the  way  down, 
when  we  had  nothing  else  to  talk  of.  There  were  so 
many  diverting  scenes  occurred  in  the  course  of  our 
journey,  that  we  often  regretted  since  that  we  had  not 
drawn  a  journal  of  it.  Our  debates  about  trifles  were 
infinitely  amusing.  Our  man  Anthony  was  at  once 
a  source  of  much  jangUng  and  no  smaU  amusement. 
He  was  never  ready  when  we  mounted,  and  went 
slowly  on,  but  he  was  generally  half  a  mile  behind 
us,  and  we  had  to  halt  when  we  wanted  anything.  I 
had  got  a  hickory  stick  from  Jackson,  not  worth  Is.  6d., 
which  I  would  have  left  at  the  first  stage  had  not 
Home  and  Robertson  insisted  on  my  not  doing  it ;  but 
as  I  had  less  baggage,  and  an  equal  right  in  Anthony 


376  A    RIDE   TO    SCOTLAND. 

and  his  horse,  and  was  treasurer  withal,  which  they 
were  afraid  I  would  throw  up,  I  carried  mj  point ; 
and  this  stick  being  five  feet  long,  and  sometimes,  by 
lying  across  the  clothes-bag,  entangled  with  hedges, 
furnished  him  with  a  ready  excuse.  It  was  very 
warm  weather  in  May,  and  we  rode  in  the  hottest 
of  the  day  :  we  seldom  got  on  horseback  before  ten 
o'clock,  for  there  was  no  getting  Kobertson  and  Home 
to  bed,  and  Jamie  Adam  could  not  get  up,  and  had, 
besides,  a  very  tedious  toilet.  Our  two  friends 
wanted  sometimes  to  go  before  us,  but  I  would  not 
pay  the  bill  till  James  and  Anthony  were  both  ready, 
and  till  then  the  ostler  would  not  draw  or  lead  out 
the  horses  from  the  stable.  As  I  perceived  that 
Eobertson  and  Home  were  commentino;  on  all  mv 
actions,  I,  with  the  privacy  of  James  Adam,  did  odd 
things  on  purpose  to  astonish  them  :  as,  for  instance, 
at  the  inn  near  Studley,  where  we  breakfasted,  hav- 
ing felt  my  long  hair  intolerably  warm  about  my 
neck,  I  cut  ofif  five  or  six  inclies  of  a  bit  of  ragged 
green  galloon  that  was  hanging  down  from  a  chair- 
back  in  the  room,  with  which  I  tied  my  hair  behind. 
This  made  a  very  motley  appearance.  But  when  we 
came  to  take  horse,  in  spite  of  the  heat  I  appeared 
with  my  greatcoat,  and  had  fastened  the  cape  of  it 
round  my  head ;  and  in  this  guise  I  rode  through  the 
town  of  Ripon,  at  the  end  of  which  I  disengaged 
myself  from  my  greatcoat,  and  my  friends  saw  the 
reason  of  this  masquerade.  Another  day,  between 
twelve  and  one,  riding  through  very  close  hedges  near 


A   RIDE    TO    SCOTLAND.  377 

Comhill,  we  were  all  like  to  die  of  heat,  and  were  able 
only  to  walk  our  horses.  I  fell  behind,  pulled  my 
greatcoat  from  Anthony,  put  it  on,  and  came  up  with 
my  friends  at  a  hard  trot.  They  then  thought  that  I 
had  certainly  gone  mad,  but  they  did  not  advert  to 
it,  that  the  chief  oppression  of  heat  is  before  the  per- 
spiration. My  receipt  had  relieved  my  frenzy,  and  I 
reined  in  my  horse  till  they  came  up  to  me.  Soon  after 
we  left  Cornhill,  we  separated.  Home  and  I  stopped  at 
Polwarth  manse  for  a  night,  and  Eobertson  and  Adam 
went  on  by  Longformacus  to  Gladsmuir,  Kobertson's 
abode.  James  Adam,  though  not  so  bold  and  superior 
an  artist  as  his  brother  Kobert,  was  a  well-informed 
and  sensible  man,  and  furnished  me  with  excellent 
conversation,  as  we  generally  rode  together.  Thus 
ended  a  journey  of  eighteen  days,  which,  on  the  whole, 
had  proved  most  amusing  and  satisfactory. 

We  got  to  our  respective  abodes  by  the  22d  of  May, 
and  were  in  time  for  the  business  week  of  the  General 
Assembly,  of  which  Eobertson  and  I  were  membei-s, 
and  where  we  came  in  time  to  assist  in  sending  Dr 
Blair  to  the  New  Church,  to  which  he  had  a  right, 
and  of  which  a  sentence  of  the  Synod  of  Lothian  and 
Tweeddale  unjustly  deprived  him.  This  was  the  only 
occasion  on  which  he  ever  spoke  in  the  General  As- 
sembly, which  he  did  remarkably  well. 


CHAPTEK   X. 

1758-1759 :  AGE,  36-37. 

VISIT   TO    IXVERAEY PAMPHLET  IN  DEFENCE  OF  CHATHAM CHARLES 

TOWNSHEND    AND    THE    HOSPITALITIES    OP    DALKEITH A    STORY 

OF  A  HAUNCH    OF    VENISON WILKIE    OP   THE    "  EPIGONIAD" A 

CORPORATION    ROW    IN     DUMFRIES ANDREW    CROSBIE OSSIAN 

MACPHERSON THE   MILITIA   PAMPHLET. 

It  was  in  tlie  month  of  August  this  summer  that 
Eobertson  and  I  passed  two  days  at  Minto  with  Sir 
Gilbert  Elliot,  who  was  very  open  and  communicative. 
About  the  middle  of  October  I  rode  to  Inverary,  being 
invited  by  the  Milton  family,  who  always  were  with 
the  Duke  of  Argyle,  and  who  generally  remained 
there  till  near  the  end  of  the  year.  I  got  the  first 
night  to  my  friend  Eobin  Bogle's,  at  Shettleston,  near 
Glasgow,  where  I  found  him  very  happy  with  his  wife 
and  family.  He  was  an  honest,  gentlemanly  man,  but 
had  been  very  dissipated  before  his  marriage.  From 
Glasgow  I  went  all  night  to  Eoseneath,  where,  in  a 
small  house  near  the  castle,  lived  my  friend.  Miss  Jean 
Campbell  of  Carrick,  with  her  mother,  who  was  a 
sister  of  General  John  Campbell  of  Mamore,  after- 
wards Duke  of  Argyle,  and  father  of  the  present  Duke. 
Next  day,  after   passing   Loch  Long,  I   went  over 


VISIT   TO    IXYERARY.  379 

Argyle's  BowliDg-Green,  called  so  on  account  of  the 
roughness  of  the  road.  As  my  horses  were  not 
frosted,  and  the  ice  was  strong,  I  had  to  walk  about 
six  miles.  This  made  me  late  in  getting  to  St 
Catherine's,  directly  opposite  to  Inverary.  I  wished 
very  much  to  get  across  the  loch,  as  it  was  but  six  in 
the  evening;  but  the  mistress  of  the  house,  wishing  to 
detain  me  and  my  serv^ant  and  horses  all  night,  pre- 
tended that  the  boatmen  were  out  of  the  way  and  the 
oars  a-seeking,  and  that  I  could  not  get  across  that 
night.  This  vexed  me,  as  it  was  a  miserable  house  to 
sleep  in  ;  however,  I  called  for  a  mutchkin  of  whisky, 
and  prevailed  with  the  good  woman  to  taste  it  with- 
out water.  As  she  became  so  familiar  as  to  ask  where 
I  was  when  I  was  at  home,  I  told  her  I  was  a  school- 
fellow of  M'Callum  More,  and  was  much  disappointed 
at  not  crossing  the  lake,  as  I  had  letters  of  importance 
to  deliver  to  his  Grace.  She  stared,  and  said  I  was  a 
stalwart  carl  of  such  an  age  :  my  grisly  imdressed  hair 
favoured  this  deception.  I  added  that,  if  I  could 
cross  the  loch,  I  intended  to  leave  my  servant  and 
horses  all  night  to  her  care,  to  come  round  by  the 
head  of  the  loch  in  the  morning ;  but  if  I  coidd  not 
cross,  I  must  venture  to  ride  the  nine  miles  round, 
dark  as  it  was.  She  took  another  sip  of  the  whisky, 
and  then  left  the  room.  In  five  minutes  she  returned 
and  told  me  that  the  boatmen  had  appeared  and  were 
seeking  for  their  oars,  and  would  be  ready  in  a  few 
minutes.  This  was  good  news  to  me,  as  I  knew  the 
inn  at  Inverary  to  be  pretty  good,  as  I  had  been  there 


880  VISIT   TO    INVERARY. 

two  niglits  when  I  went  to  their  country,  in  1754, 
with  Jamie  Cheap  of  Sauchie.  I  was  very  soon  sum- 
moned to  the  boat,  and  after  recommending  my  man, 
John  M'Lachlan,  to  the  care  of  the  landlady,  I  bid 
her  farewell.  We  got  very  soon  over,  the  night  being 
calm,  and  the  distance  not  much  more  than  two 
miles. 

I  did  not  go  that  night  to  the  Duke's  house,  as  I 
knew  I  could  not  have  a  bed  there  (as  he  had  not  yet 
got  into  the  Castle),  but  I  went  in  the  morning,  and 
was  very  politely  received,  not  only  by  the  Milton 
family,  but  by  the  Duke  and  his  two  cousins,  the  pre- 
sent Duke,  and  his  brother  Lord  Frederick,  who  were 
there.  His  Grace  told  me  immediately  that  Miss 
Fletcher  had  made  him  expect  my  visit,  and  that  he 
was  sorry  he  could  not  offer  me  lodging,  but  that  he 
would  hope  to  see  me  every  day  to  breakfast,  dinner, 
and  supper. 

It  would  be  quite  superfluous  to  say  anything  here 
of  the  character  of  Archibald,  Duke  of  Argyle,  as  the 
character  of  that  illustrious  person,  both  as  a  states- 
man and  an  accomplished  gentleman  and  scholar,  is 
perfectly  known.  I  was  told  that  he  was  a  great 
humorist  at  Inverary,  and  that  you  could  neither 
drink  his  health  nor  ask  him  how  he  did  without  dis- 
obliging ;  but  this  was  exaggerated.  To  be  sure,  he 
waved  ceremony  very  much,  and  took  no  trouble  at 
table,  and  would  not  let  himself  be  waited  for,  and  came 
in  when  he  pleased,  and  sat  down  on  the  chair  that  was 
left,  which  was  neither  at  the  head  nor  foot  of  the 


VISIT   TO    I^'VERAEY.  381 

table.  But  he  cured  me  of  all  constraint  tlie  first 
day,  for  in  his  first  or  second  glass  of  wine  he  drank 
my  health  and  welcomed  me  to  Inverary,  and  hoped 
that  as  long  as  I  stayed,  which  he  wished  to  be  all 
the  week  at  least,  I  would  think  myself  at  home. 
Though  he  never  drank  to  me  again,  I  was  much  more 
gratified  by  his  directing  much  of  his  conversation  to 
me.  His  colloquial  talent  was  very  remarkable,  for 
he  never  harangued  or  was  tedious,  but  listened  to 
you  in  your  turn.  We  sat  down  every  day  fifteen 
or  sixteen  to  dinner ;  for  besides  his  two  cousins  and 
the  Fletcher  family,  there  were  always  seven  or  eight 
Argyleshire  gentlemen,  or  factors  on  the  estate,  at 
dinner.  The  Duke  had  the  talent  of  conversing  with 
his  guests  so  as  to  distinguish  men  of  knowledge  and 
talents  without  neglecting  those  who  valued  them- 
selves more  on  their  birth  and  their  rent-rolls  than  on 
personal  merit.  After  the  ladies  were  withdrawn  and 
he  had  drunk  his  bottle  of  claret,  he  retired  to  an  easy- 
chair  set  hard  by  the  fireplace  :  drawing  a  black  silk 
nightcap  over  his  eyes,  he  slept,  or  seemed  to  sleep, 
for  an  hour  and  a  half.  In  the  mean  time,  Sandie 
M'Millan,  who  was  toast-master,  pushed  about  the 
bottle,  and  a  more  noisy  or  regardless  company  could 
liardly  be.  Milton  retired  soon  after  the  ladies,  and 
about  six  o'clock  M'^Iillan  and  the  gentlemen  drew 
ofl"  (for  at  that  time  dinner  was  always  served  at  two 
o'clock),  when  the  ladies  returned,  and  his  Grace 
awoke  and  called  for  his  tea,  w^hich  he  made  himself 
at  a  little  table  apart  from  that  of  the  company.    Tea 


382  VISIT   TO    INVERARY. 

being  over,  lie  played  two  rubbers  at  sixpenny  wbist, 
as  he  did  in  London.  He  had  always  some  of  the 
ladies  of  his  party,  while  the  rest  amused  themselves 
at  another  table.  Supper  was  served  soon  after  nine, 
and  there  being  nobody  left  but  those  with  w^hom  he 
was  familiar,  he  drank  another  bottle  of  claret,  and 
could  not  be  got  to  go  to  bed  till  one  in  the  morning. 
Jack  Campbell  of  Stonefield,  who  had  lately  married 
his  niece,  Lady  Grace  Stuart,  came  to  us  on  the 
second  day.  I  may  add  that  the  provisions  for  the 
table  were  at  least  equal  to  the  conversation ;  for  w^e 
had  sea  and  river  fish  in  perfection,  the  best  beef  and 
mutton  and  fowls  and  wild  game  and  venison  of  both 
kinds  in  abundance.     The  wines,  too,  were  excellent. 

I  stayed  over  Sunday  and  preached  to  his  Grace, 
who  always  attended  the  church  at  Inverary.  The 
ladies  told  me  that  I  had  pleased  his  Grace,  which 
gratified  me  not  a  little,  as  without  him  no  preferment 
could  be  obtained  in  Scotland. 

The  Duke  had  a  great  collection  of  fine  stories,  which 
he  told  so  neatly,  and  so  frequently  repeated  them 
without  variation,  as  to  make  one  believe  that  he  had 
wrote  them  down.  He  had  been  in  the  battle  of  She- 
riifmuir,  and  was  slightly  wounded  in  his  foot,  which 
made  him  always  halt  a  little.  He  would  have  been 
an  admirable  soldier,  as  he  had  every  talent  and  quali- 
fication necessary  to  arrive  at  the  height  of  that  pro- 
fession ;  but  his  brother  John,  Duke  of  Argyle,  having 
gone  before  him  with  a  great  and  rising  reputation,  he 
was  advised  to  take  the  line  of  a  statesman.     I  may 


THE    PITT    PAMPHLET.  383 

add  here,  that  when  he  died  in  spring  1762,  it  was 
found  that  he  had  marked  my  name  down  in  his  pri- 
vate note-book  for  Principal  of  the  College  of  Glasgow, 
a  body  in  whose  prosperity  he  was  much  interested, 
as  he  had  been  educated  there,  and  had  said  to  Andrew 
Fletcher  junior,  to  whom  he  showed  the  note,  that  it 
would  be  very  hard  if  he  and  I  between  us  could  not 
manage  that  troublesome  society.  This  took  no  effect, 
for  the  Duke  died  a  year  or  two  before  Principal 
Campbell,  when  Lord  Bute  had  all  the  power;  so  that 
when  the  vacancy  happened  in  the  end  of  1761,  or 
beginning  of  '62,  Professor  Leechman  was  preferred 
to  it,  who  was  the  friend,  and  had  been  the  tutor,  of 
Mr  Baron  Mure. 

I  slept  all  night  at  Levenside,  as  I  had  promised  to 
Stonefield,  and  got  home  the  second  day  after. 

In  the  end  of  this  year,  1 758, 1  was  tempted,  by  the 
illiberal  outcry  that  was  raised  against  the  Minister, 
William  Pitt,  on  the  failure  of  General  Bligh,  on  the 
affair  of  St  Cas,  on  the  French  coast,  to  write  the 
pamphlet,  "Plain  Reasons  for  Removing  the  Right 
Honourable  William  Pitt  from  his  Majesty's  Councils 
for  ever,  by  0.  ]\I.  Haberdasher ; "  which  was  pub- 
lished in  London  in  the  beginning  of  1759,  and  had  a 
great  run.  I  had  wrote  it  in  the  ironical  style  of 
Dean  Swift,  like  that  about  burning  the  tragedy  of 
Douglas,  and  thought  I  had  succeeded  pretty  well. 
Besides  panegyric  on  that  great  man,  who  had  raised 
us  from  a  very  low  state  of  political  depression,  not 
only  in  the  eyes  of  all  Europe,  but  in  our  own  opinion, 


384  A    VARIED    YEAR. 

to  make  rapid  progress  to  the  highest  state  of  national 
glory  in  which  ever  we  had  been, — it  contained  like- 
wise much  satire  against  the  Minister  who  had  re- 
duced us  so  low. 

After  I  returned  from  Inverary,  I  visited  my  friend 
Mrs  Wedderburn,  whom,  to  my  great  grief,  I  found 
low  and  dejected.  The  Captain  had  been  obliged  to 
join  his  regiment  in  the  West  Indies  in  the  spring, 
Avhere  there  was  much  fighting,  and  she  had  not  heard 
of  him  for  some  time.  She  was  brought  to  bed  of  a 
daughter  early  in  December,  and  died  of  a  fever  at 
that  time,  universally  regretted,  and  never  to  be 
forgotten  by  those  who  were  intimately  acquainted 
with  her. 

Thus  ended  a  year  of  greater  variety  than  any  in 
my  life ;  for  though  I  had  been  in  London  before,  and 
had  rode  to  Edinburgh  likewise  on  horseback,  yet  I 
had  not  till  then  seen  such  a  variety  of  characters,  nor 
had  I  acquired  such  a  talent  for  observation,  nor  pos- 
sessed a  line  for  sounding  the  depths  of  the  human 
character  commensurate  to  that  purpose  as  I  now  had. 
On  this  tour  I  had  seen  great  variety  of  characters, 
wdth  many  of  wdiom  having  been  very  intimate,  the 
defect  was  in  myself  if  I  had  not  been  able  to  sound 
all  the  depths  and  shallows  through  which  I  passed. 

In  this  year,  1759,  in  the  beginning  of  which  I  en- 
joyed the  success  of  my  ironical  pamphlet  in  defence 
of  William  Pitt,  afterwards  Lord  Chatham,  I  was  en- 
couraged to  take  my  pen  again  occasionally,  when 
anything  should  occur  that  suited  it.     Two  or  three 


SKETCHES   OF    CHARACTER.  385 

years  after  this  period,  our  neighbourhood  was  en- 
riched by  the  residence  of  a  very  valuable  man,  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Robert  Campbell  of  Finab,  a  man  of 
the  first-rate  understanding  and  ability.  He  had  been 
in  the  Duke  of  Cumberland's  war,  and  was  captain  of 
grenadiers  in  the  42d  regiment,  but  had  been  much 
disgusted  with  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  and  not  hav- 
ing good  health,  he  left  the  army,  I  think,  with  major  s 
rank  ;  and  some  time  thereafter  ha^^ng  bought  the 
estate  of  Drumore,  he  came  to  live  there  with  his 
family.  As  he  had  been  at  college  with  me,  and  in 
the  same  class,  and  having  had  a  boyish  intimacy  to- 
gether, it  was  not  difficult  to  renew  my  acquaintance, 
and  to  make  it  more  intimate.  He  was  very  sociable, 
and  liked  golf,  the  sport  in  which  I  excelled  and  took 
much  pleasure.  The  Colonel  had  read  very  little,  but 
he  had  taken  a  more  comprehensive  view  of  men  and 
affairs  than  almost  any  person  I  ever  knew.  Adam 
Ferguson  and  he  had  been  very  intimate,  and  had  a 
mutual  regard  for  each  other.  This  gentleman  was 
truly  a  great  addition  to  our  society.  He  had  been 
member  of  Parliament  for  Argyleshire,  and  was  Re- 
ceiver-General of  the  Customs  for  many  years  before 
his  death.  He  left  no  son  but  Lieutenant-General 
Alexander  Campbell  of  Monzie,  the  heir  of  his  father's 
sagacity  and  talents,  with  more  experience  in  war. 

There  was  nothing  very  material  before  the  General 
Assembly  of  this  year,  unless  it  was  an  explanation 
■^d  extension  of  the  Act  against  simoniacal  practices, 
which  had  become  necessary  on  account  of  some  re- 

2  B 


386  SKETCHES    OF   CHARACTER. 

cent  transactions.  Dr  Robertson  had  been  translated 
to  Edinburgh  this  year,  but  did  not  yet  take  any  par- 
ticular charge  of  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  because, 
not  being  yet  Principal,  he  could  not  be  a  member  of 
Assembly  every  year,  as  he  afterwards  was. 

My  father  had  gone  to  London  in  the  month  of 
March,  to  visit  his  daughter,  Mrs  Dickson,  and  1 
had  rode  with  him  to  Berwick.  He  was  very  much 
pleased  and  amused  at  London,  where,  besides  his 
daughter  and  her  infant,  Jiis  first  grandchild,  he  had 
his  sisters,  Paterson  and  Lyon,  still  alive,  which  gave 
him  great  satisfaction.  As  he  had  never  been  in 
London  before,  he  enjoyed  it  very  much,  though  now 
in  his  seventieth  year.  But  being  fresh  and  vigorous, 
and  remarkably  cheerful,  he  was  a  very  great  favour- 
ite with  all  his  new  acquaintances.  But  as  he  would 
needs  ride  down  in  midsummer,  and  had  been  unlucky 
in  the  purchase  of  a  horse,  which  was  very  hard  set,  and 
still  more  so  in  his  choice  of  a  companion — one  of  his 
daughter's  disappointed  lovers,  who  paid  no  regard  to 
his  age  in  the  length  of  his  day's  journey — he  was  so 
much  overheated,  that,  as  my  mother  alleged,  the  fever 
never  afterwards  left  him,  which  concluded  his  life  in 
the  year  1765,  on  the  8th  of  March.  A  more  kind  and 
affectionate  parent  and  relation,  or  more  benevolent 
neighbour,  or  more  faithful  pastor,  never  existed. 

It  was  near  the  end  of  summer  this  year  that 
Charles  Townshend  and  Lady  Dalkeith,  with  her 
daughter,  Lady  Frances  Scott,  then  above  eight  years 
of  age  [came  to  Dalkeith],  and  remained  there  for  two 


CHARLES    TOWNSHEXD.  387 

months.  As  they  had  two  public  days  in  the  week, 
according  to  the  ancient  mode  of  the  family,  they 
drew  a  great  deal  of  company  to  the  house ;  and  as  I 
was  considered  as  chaplain  in  ordinary  to  the  family, 
the  minister  of  Dalkeith  for  the  time  not  being  much  in 
favour,  I  was  very  frequently  there.  Charles  Townshend 
was  a  rising  statesman,  who  aspired  at  the  highest  of- 
fices. A  project  he  conceived  after  he  came  here  much 
increased  our  intimacy  :  this  was  to  offer  himself  a 
candidate  for  the  seat  in  Parliament  for  the  city  of 
Edinburgh.  The  state  of  the  city  at  that  time  made 
it  not  improbable  that  he  might  succeed.  A  Mr  For- 
rester, a  counsellor-at-law,  of  Irish  birth,  and  quite  a 
stranger  here,  had  been  recommended  by  Baron  ^^laule 
to  the  Duke  of  Argyle,  to  whom  he  was  known,  and 
to  Lord  ^lilton.  Forrester  was  by  no  means  popular 
in  Edinburgh,  and  Charles  Townshend  had  bewitched 
Lord  Milton  with  his  seducing  tongue,  which  made 
him  more  sanguine  in  his  project.  He  discovered 
that  I  had  much  to  say  with  the  Baron  and  his  lady, 
whom  he  caj oiled  and  flattered  excessively. 

He  took  me  for  his  confidant  and  adviser  in  this 
business.  I  had  many  conferences  with  him  on  the 
subject,  and  endeavoured  to  convince  him  that  if  he 
was  not  master  of  his  wife's  uncle,  the  Duke  of 
Argyle,  as  he  pretended  to  have  his  own  uncle,  the 
Duke  of  Newcastle,  he  would  never  succeed ;  for 
though  Milton  seemed  to  govern  Argyle  in  most 
things,  which  was  necessary  for  the  support  of  his 
credit  as  well  as  for  the  Duke's  ease,  yet  there  were 


388  CHARLES    TOWNSHEND. 

points  in  which  Milton  could  not  stir  a  step  without 
the  Duke,  and  in  my  opinion  this  was  one  of  them. 
On  this  he  fell  into  a  passion,  and  exclaimed  that  I 
was  so  crusty  as  never  to  be  of  his  opinion,  and  to 
oppose  him  in  everything.     On  this  I  laughed  full  in 
his  face,  took  to  my  hat,  and  said  that  if  this  was  the 
way  in  which  he  chose  to  treat  his  friend  and  adviser, 
it  was  time  I  were  gone,  for  I  could  be  of  no  use  to 
him.      He  calmed  on  this,  and  asked  my  reason  for 
thinking  as  I  did.      I  answered  that  the  Member  of 
Parliament  for  the  city  of  Edinburgh  was  of  great 
consequence,  as  whoever  held  that  was  sure  of  the 
political  government  of  the  country,  and  without  it 
no  man  would  be  of  any  consequence ;  that  his  lady, 
being  the  Duke's  niece,  was  against  him  ;  for  as  in 
political  business  no  regard  was  paid  to  blood,  that 
very  circumstance  was  hostile  to  his  design  ;  for  it 
was  not   to  be   supposed  that  the  Duke  of  Argyle 
would  allow  a  young  nobleman  from  the  south,  who 
had  made  himself  a  man  of  importance  in  the  north 
by  having  obtained  the  guardianship  of  the  heir  of 
one  of  our  greatest  families  in  his  minority,  to  take 
the  capital  of  Scotland  by  a  coup -de-main,  and  thereby 
undermine  or  subvert  his  political  interest,  for  with- 
out his  viceroyalty  in  Scotland,.  His  Grace  was  of  no 
importance  in  the  State.     I  added  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  conceive  that  the  Duke  would  be  so  blind  as 
not  to  see  that  a  young  man  of  his  aspiring  temper 
and  superior  talents  would  [not]  think  of  making  him- 
self member  for  Edinburgh,  merely  to  show  his  address 


CHARLES    TOWXSHEXD.  389 

in  political  cauvassing,  to  lay  himself  at  the  feet  of  his 
wife's  uncle.  This,  with  much  more  that  I  repre- 
sented to  him,  seemed  to  open  his  eyes  ;  yet  he  still 
went  on,  for  he  could  not  desist  from  the  pleasure 
of  the  courtship,  though  he  had  little  prospect  of 
success. 

He  came  at  last  to  be  contented  with  the  glory  of 
driving  Forrester  off  the  field,  which  was  not  difficult 
to  do ;  for  when  Charles  had  the  freedom  of  the  city 
presented  to  him,  and  a  dinner  given  him  on  the 
occasion,  he  lessened  the  candidate  so  much  in  their 
eyes  by  his  fine  vein  of  ridicule,  that  the  dislike  of 
the  Town  Council  was  increased  to  aversion.  But 
Charles,  while  he  effected  one  part  of  his  purpose, 
failed  in  another  ;  for  though  he  drove  away  his  rival, 
he  gained  no  ground  for  himself.  He  was  imprudent 
and  loose-tongued  enough  to  ridicule  the  good  old 
King  George  II.,  which,  though  it  was  not  unusual 
among  young  noblemen,  and  indeed  wits  of  all  ranks, 
yet  could  not  be  endured  by  the  citizens  of  Edin- 
burgh, who,  seeing  their  King  far  off  and  darkly,  were 
shocked  with  the  freedoms  that  were  used  with  him. 
Besides  this,  Milton,  who  had  been  dazzled  at  first  by 
Charles's  shining  talents  and  elegant  flattery,  began  to 
grow  cold,  and  drew  off.  He  had  sounded  the  uncle, 
and  found  in  him  a  strong  jealousy  of  the  nephew, 
mixed  with  some  contempt,  the  effect  of  which  dis- 
covery was  the  gradual  alienation  of  Milton,  who 
had  really  been  enamoured  of  Charles,  and  perhaps 
secretly  thought  he  could  manage  him,  if  he  had  sue- 


390  CHARLES    TOWNSHEND. 

cess,  with  more  absolute  sway  tlaan  he  did  the  Duke 
of  Argyle. 

After  Charles  returned  to  England  he  did  not  for 
some  time  desist,  and  I  had  much  correspondence 
with  him  on  the  subject ;  some  of  his  letters  I  have 
still,  but  I  kept  no  copies  of  my  own,  which  I  have 
since  regretted,  as  they  were  wrote  with  anxiety  and 
exertion.  When  I  was  in  London  in  1770,  there  was 
a  gentleman  who  pressed  me  to  pay  a  visit  to  Lady 
Townshend,  his  mother,  who  having  many  letters  of 
mine  to  her  son,  was  desirous  to  see  me  ;  but  not 
choosing  to  be  introduced  anywhere  by  that  gentle- 
man, I  missed  the  opportunity  of  recovering  my 
letters,  which  I  have  since  understood  are  burnt,  with 
all  Charles's  correspondence.  The  end  of  all  w^as  that 
Forrester  having  retreated  from  the  field,  having  no 
friend  but  Baron  Maule,  and  a  caveat  being  entered 
against  Charles  Townshend,  the  good  town  of  Edin- 
burgh were  glad  to  take  an  insignificant  citizen  for 
their  member. 

AVhile  Mr  Townshend  was  here,  we  had  him  chosen 
a  member  of  the  Select  Society  in  one  sitting  (against 
the  rules),  that  we  might  hear  him  speak,  which  he 
accordingly  did  at  the  next  meeting,  and  was  answered 
by  Lord  Elibank  and  Dr  Dick,  w^ho  were  superior  to 
him  in  argument  and  knowledge  of  the  subject.  Like 
a  meteor,  Charles  dazzled  for  a  moment,  but  the  bril- 
liancy soon  faded  away,  and  left  no  very  strong  im- 
pression, so  that  when  he  returned  to  England  at  the 
end  of  two  months,  he  had  stayed  long  enough  here. 


CHAELES   TOWNSHEND.  391 

I  must  not  forget,  however,  to  mention  an  anecdote 
or  two  of  him,  which  will  explain  his  character  more. 
Nothing  could  excel  the  liveliness  of  his  parts,  nor 
the  facility  with  which  he  made  other  people's  thoughts 
his  own  in  a  moment. 

I  called  on  him  one  morning  at  Dalkeith,  when  he 
said  I  had  come  most  apropos,  if  not  engaged,  for 
that  he  was  going  to  ride  to  Edinburgh  to  make 
some  calls  :  and  his  wife  beinsj  ensjao-ed  to  dine  with 
the  Duchess  of  Gordon,  he  would  be  very  glad  of  a 
small  party  in  a  tavern.  I  agreed,  and  we  rode  to 
Edinburgh  together.  When  we  drew  near  that  city, 
he  begged  me  to  ride  on  and  bespeak  a  small  dinner 
at  a  tavern,  and  get  a  friend  or  two  if  I  could  to  join 
us,  as  he  must  turn  to  the  left  to  call  on  some  people 
who  lived  in  that  direction.  I  went  to  town  directly, 
and  luckily  found  Home  and  Ferguson  in  Kincaid's 
shop,  and  secured  them,  and  sent  a  cady  to  Eobertson 
to  ask  him  to  meet  us  at  the  Cross  Keys  soon  after 
two  o'clock,  who  likewise  came.  During  dinner,  and 
for  almost  an  hour  after,  Charles,  who  seemed  to  be 
fatigued  with  his  morning  visits,  spoke  not  a  single 
word,  and  we  four  went  on  with  our  kind  of  cou- 
vei^ation,  without  adverting  to  Mr  Townshend's  ab- 
sence. After  he  had  drunk  a  pint  of  claret,  he  seemed 
to  awaken  from  his  reverie,  and  then  silenced  us 
all  with  a  torrent  of  colloquial  eloquence,  which  was 
highly  entertaining,  for  he  gave  us  all  our  own  ideas 
over  again,  embodied  in  the  finest  language,  and  de- 
livered in  the  most  impressive  manner.     When  he 


392  A    HAUNCH    OF    VENISON. 

parted  from  us,  my  friends  remarked  upon  his  excel- 
lence in  this  talent,  in  which  Robertson  agreed  with 
them,  without,  perhaps,  being  conscious  that  he  was 
the  most  able  proficient  in  that  art. 

It  was  in  the  second  week  of  August  when  the  school 
at  Musselburgh  was  publicly  examined,  and  when  the 
magistrates  gave  what  was  called  the  Solan  Goose  Feast. 
I  took  this  opportunity  of  inviting  Mr  Townshend  to 
visit  the  school,  and  to  dine  with  the  magistrates,  as 
he  was  tutor  to  His  Grace  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch, 
the  lord  superior  of  the  town.  Mr  Townshend  sent 
them  a  fine  haunch  of  venison,  and  Mr  Cardonnel, 
who  was  magistrate  at  this  time,  took  care  to 
assemble  a  brilliant  company  of  men  of  letters  to 
meet  Mr  Townshend,  among  whom  were  Home, 
Robertson,  Ferguson,  and  William  Wilkie.*  There 
was  a  numerous  company,  and  the  best  dinner  they 
could  make.  Cardonnel,  in  his  anxiety  to  have  the 
venison  properly  roasted,  had  directed  the  cook  to 
put  a  paste  round  it ;  but  she  not  having  given  it 
time  enough,  it  came  up  to  the  table  half  raw,  to  the 
great  disappointment  of  the  company,  but  chiefly  of 
a  Colonel  Parr,  whose  serious  affliction  made  the  rest 
of  the  company  quite  easy  on  the  occasion,  for  he 
literally  w^ept  and  shed  bitter  tears,  and  whined  out 
what  an  unfortunate  fellow  he  was,  that  the  only 
haunch  of  venison  he  had  met  with  in  Scotland,  and 


*  As  to  Cardonnel,  see  above,  p.  219.  In  the  Wilkie  who  figures  in  the 
scene  the  reader  will  recognise  the  groat  Greek  scholar,  and  author  of  the 
EpUjoniad. — Ed. 


TOWNSHEXD    AND    WILKIE.  393 

the  only  one  lie  had  any  chance  of  seeing  while  here, 
should  be  served  up  raw !  This  set  the  whole  table  in 
a  roar  of  laughter,  and  reconciled  them  to  their  fate. 
After  a  little  time,  the  Colonel  recovered  from  his 
disaster  by  the  use  of  the  gridiron  to  the  venison, 
and  having  got  up  his  spirits  with  half-a-dozen  glasses 
of  good  claret,  began  to  talk  away  with  some  effect ; 
for  excepting  his  effeminacy  about  venison,  he  was 
not  a  bad  fellow. 

He  was  unlucky,  however,  in  one  of  his  topics ;  for, 
Wilkie  having  begun  to  open.  Parr,  addressing  himself 
to  him,  said  something  rude  about  the  professors 
of  St  Andrews  (of  which  university  AYilkie  had  very 
recently  been  chosen  a  member),  and  wished  they 
would  keep  their  students  and  professors  within  their 
waUs,  for  that  his  corps  had  lately  enlisted  one  of 
them,  who  was  not  only  the  most  awkward  beast,  but 
the  most  unruly  and  debauched  rascal  that  ever  wore 
a  red  coat.  Wilkie,  who  was  indignant  on  this  attack, 
and  a  very  great  master  of  horse-play  raillery,  and 
in  scolding  feared  neither  man  nor  woman,  replied 
with  witty  and  successful  tartness,  which,  however,  did 
not  silence  the  Colonel ;  when  the  company  took  sides, 
and  there  ensued  a  brawling  conversation,  which  lasted 
too  long.  Mr  Townshend  had  interposed,  with  an 
intention  to  support  Wilkie  against  his  countryman  ; 
but  Wilkie,  being  heated,  mistook  him,  and  after  two 
or  three  brushes  on  each  side,  silenced  him  as  he  had 
done  the  Colonel ;  and  the  report  afterwards  went  that 
Wilkie  had  completely  foiled  the  English  champion  at 


394  TOWNSHEND    AND    WILKIE. 

bis  own  weapons — wit  and  raillery.  But  this  was  a 
mistake,  for  Mr  Townshend  had  not  the  least  desire 
to  enter  the  lists  with  Wilkie,  but  whispered  to  me, 
who  sat  next  to  him,  that  as  Wilkie  grew  brutal,  he 
would  put  an  end  to  the  contest  by  making  no  answer. 
A  silence  ensued,  which  Cardonnel,  one  of  the  best 
toast-masters,  took  advantage  of  by  giving  us  three 
bumpers  in  less  than  two  minutes  ;  all  contest  for  vic- 
tory was  at  an  end,  and  the  company  united  again. 
Townshend  said  to  me  afterwards,  when  he  came  to 
take  his  carriage  at  my  house,  that  he  had  never  met 
with  a  man  who  approached  so  near  the  two  extremes 
of  a  god  and  a  brute  as  Wilkie  did. 

Soon  after  this,  Mr  Townshend,  and  the  Countess 
and  her  daughter  Lady  Frances  Scott,  set  out  for 
London.  This  was  a  very  clever  child,  whose  humour 
and  playfulness  Mr  Townshend's  good-nature  had 
to  encourage  and  protect  against  maternal  discipline 
carried  too  far.  He  continued  to  protect  and  instruct 
her,  and  frequently  employed  her  as  his  amanuensis, 
as  she  has  frequently  told  me  since  ;  and  added,  that 
if  he  had  not  died  when  she  was  only  sixteen,  he 
would  have  made  her  a  politician. 

In  the  middle  of  September  this  year  I  w^ent  to  Dum- 
fries to  meet  my  friends,  as  I  usually  did,  and  to  accom- 
pany my  friend  Dr  Wight,  who  had  come  from  Dublin 
to  Dumfries,  and  forward  to  Musselburgh  to  visit  me. 
While  Wight  was  here,  we  supped  one  night  in  Edin- 
burgh with  the  celebrated  Dr  Franklin  at  Dr  Eobert- 
son's  house,  then  at  the  head  of  the  Cowgate,  where 


FRANKLIN.  395 

he  had  come  at  Whitsunday,  after  his  being  translated 
to  Edinburorh.  Dr  Franklin  had  his  son  with  him; 
and  besides  Wight  and  me,  there  were  David  Hume, 
Dr  Cullen,  Adam  Smith,  and  two  or  three  more.  Wight 
and  Franklin  had  met  and  breakfasted  together  in  the 
inn  at  [  ]  without  learning  one  another's  names, 

but  they  were  more  than  half  acquainted  when  they 
met  here.  Wight,  who  could  talk  at  random  on  all 
sciences  without  being  very  deeply  skilled  in  any, 
took  it  into  his  head  to  be  very  eloquent  on  chemis- 
try, a  course  of  which  he  had  attended  in  Dublin ;  and 
perceiving  that  he  diverted  the  company,  particularly 
Franklin,  who  was  a  silent  man,  he  kept  it  up  with 
Cullen,  then  professor  of  that  science,  who  had  im- 
prudently committed  himself  with  him, for  the  greatest 
part  of  the  evening,  to  the  infinite  diversion  of  the 
company,  who  took  great  delight  in  seeing  the  great 
Professor  foiled  in  his  own  science  by  a  novice.  Frank- 
lin's son  was  open  and  communicative,  and  pleased 
the  company  better  than  his  father  ;  and  some  of  us 
observed  indications  of  that  decided  difference  of 
opinion  between  father  and  son  which,  in  the  American 
war,  alienated  them  altogether. 

On  our  journey  he  [Dr  Wight]  told  me  that  he  was 
heartily  tired  of  his  situation  as  a  dissenting  clergy- 
man, and  of  the  manner  of  life  in  Dublin,  which, 
though  social  and  convivial  to  the  last  degree,  yet  led 
to  nothing,  and  gave  him  no  heartfelt  satisfaction, 
there  being  but  a  very  few  indeed  with  whom  he  could 
unite  in  truly  confidential  friendship.    As  I  knew  that 


89G  A    MUNICIPAL    OUTBREAK. 

the  University  of  Glasgow  were  resolved  to  vacate 
Mr  Ruat's  professorship  if  he  remained  much  longer 
abroad,  and  as  I  happened  likewise  to  know  that  he 
would  not  return  during  the  life  of  Lord  Hope,  who 
was  in  a  slow  decline,  I  formed  the  plan  of  obtaining 
his  professorship,  which  was  that  of  History,  and  in 
the  gift  of  the  Crown,  for  Dr  Wight,  and  I  set  about 
to  secure  it  immediately.  This  was  easily  done,  for  I 
had  access  to  His  Grace  the  Duke  of  Queensberry,  not 
only  by  writing  to  him  myself,  but  by  interesting 
John  JVrKie  Ross  in  the  business,  with  whom  both 
Wight  and  I  were  related,  and  also  by  means  of  Sir 
Gilbert  Elliot  Ave  could  secure  Lord  Bute;  while  I, 
through  Lord  Milton,  could  gain  the  consent  of  the 
Duke  of  Argyle.  I  had  favourable  answers  from  every- 
body, and  had  no  doubt  of  getting  the  place  if  it  was 
vacated. 

Before  I  left  Dumfries,  I  was  witness  to  an  extra- 
ordinary riot  which  took  place  there  on  Michaelmas, 
the  day  of  the  election  of  their  magistrates.  Provost 
Bell  had  been  two  years  dead,  and  the  party  which  he 
had  established  in  power,  when  he  brought  them  over 
to  their  natural  protector,  the  good  Duke  of  Queens- 
berry,  being  desirous  to  preserve  their  influence,  did  not 
think  they  could  do  better  than  to  raise  John  Dickson, 
that  Provost's  nephew,  to  be  their  chief  magistrate.  As 
this  man  was  at  present  Convener  of  the  Trades,  who 
are  powerful  in  Dumfries,  and  was  popular  among 
them,  he  thought  his  ambition  would  be  easily  grati- 
fied.  But  there  were  sundry  objections  to  this  measure. 


A    MUNICIPAL   OUTBREAK.  o97 

Andrew  Crosbie,  advocate,  the  son  of  a  Provost  of 
that  name  who  had  been  a  private  supporter  of  Pro- 
vost Bell,  in  opposition  to  the  party  of  the  Tories, 
thought  this  a  proper  time  to  attempt  an  overturn  of 
the  present  magistrates  and  managers,  and  put   his 
own   friends   in   their   room,   who   would  either   be 
directed  by  Crosbie's  maternal  uncle,  Lord  Tinwald, 
then  Justice-Clerk,  and  far  advanced  in  years,  or  gain 
the  credit  and  advantage  of  governing  the  town  under 
the  Duke  of  Queensberry.     As  Crosbie  was  a  clever 
fellow,  and  young  and  adventurous,  and  a  good  in- 
flammatory speaker,  he  soon  raised  the  commons  of 
the  town  almost  to  a  pitch  of  madness  against  Dick- 
son."'    On  the  day  of  election,  which  happened  to  be 
on  Saturday,  they  rose  in  a  tumultuous  manner,  and 
took  possession  of  the  stair  leading  up  to  the  Town 
Hall,  and  would  not  allow  the  election  to   proceed. 
But,  supposing   no   election  could  take   place   after 
the    day  was    elapsed,   when   twelve   o'clock   struck 
they  allowed  the  magistrates  and  Council  to  depart. 
They  came  down  separately  and  by  backways  to  the 
George  Inn,  where  Dr  Wight  and  I  were  waiting  to 
see  the  issue  of  this  day's  riot.     Dickson  had  married 
a  sister  of  Wight's  for  his  second  wife.     We  waited 
in  an  adjacent  room  till  the  election  was  over,  and 
then  joined  them  for  half  an  hour,  to  drink  the  health 
of  the  new  Provost. 


*  Andrew  Crosbie  was  a  distingiiLshed  advocate,  in  great  practice ;  but 
little  is  now  known  of  him  except  a  few  convivial  anecdotes.  He  is  sup- 
jtosed  to  be  the  prototyi)e  of  Pleydel  in  Guy  Mannermg. — Ed. 


398  MACPHERSON    AND    OSSIAN. 

The  Deputy-Sheriff  Kirkpatrick  had  come  down  from 
his  house,  ten  or  twelve  miles  off,  with  several  country 
gentlemen,  but  there  being  no  soldiers  in  the  town, 
had  not  attempted  to  disperse  the  mob  by  any  other 
method  than  remonstrance.  This  affair  ended  in  a 
very  expensive  lawsuit,  and  Dickson's  right  to  be 
provost  w^as  established.  Wight  was  on  his  return  to 
Dublin,  and  I  on  mine  home ;  so  I  took  leave  of  my 
friends  on  Monday,  that  I  might  see  our  grandfather, 
w^ho  by  that  time  had  an  assistant. 

On  Tuesday  morning,  October  2,  on  my  return 
from  this  visit  to  Dumfries,  I  got  to  Moffat,  where  I 
knew  John  Home  was,  as  he  usually  passed  two  or 
three  weeks  every  season  there.  He  introduced  me 
to  M'Pherson  in  tl^e  bowling-green,  as  I  have  nar- 
rated in  a  letter  to  the  Highland  Society.  He  was 
good-looking,  of  a  large  size,  with  very  thick  legs,  to 
■  hide  which  he  generally  wore  boots,  though  not  then 
the  fashion.  He  appeared  to  me  proud  and  reserved, 
and  shunned  dining  with  us  on  some  pretence.  I 
knew  him  intimately  afterwards.'" 

The  Duke  of  Argyle  made  his  usual  visit  to  Argyle- 
shire  in  October,  and  stopped  for  a  week  or  two  at 
Brunstane,  Lord  Milton's,  as  he  now  seldom  occupied 
his  lodging  in  the  Abbey,  not  caring  to  be  troubled 

*  The  letter  referred  to  is  in  the  Report  of  the  Highland  Society  on  the 
authenticity  of  the  Poems  of  Osslan,  p.  66.  He  states  that  Macpherson 
showed  some  unfinished  fragments,  and  continues — ^"Mr  Home  had  been 
higlily  delighted  with  them  ;  and  when  he  showed  them  to  me,  I  was  per- 
fectly astonished  at  the  poetical  genius  displayed  in  them.  We  agreed  that 
it  was  a  precious  discovery,  and  that  as  soon  as  possible  it  shoidd  be  pub- 
lished to  the  world." — Ed. 


THE   MILITIA.  399 

with  too  many  visitors  from  the  city  of  Edinburgh. 
I  was  sent  for  to  him,  and  passed  a  very  agreeable 
day.  He  rallied  me  on  my  friend  Charles  Townshend's 
attempt  to  steal  the  city  of  Edinburgh,  and  said  he 
was  not  a  very  dutiful  nephew.  His  Grace  knew 
perfectly  my  intimacy  with  him,  and  so  did  not  push 
the  conversation. 

It  was  after  this  that  I  was  persuaded  by  William 
Johnstone,  advocate,  now  Sir  William  Pulteney,  and 
Adam  Ferguson,  to  write  what  was  called  the  Mihtia 
Pamphlet,  under  the  signature  of  "  A  Freeholder  of 
Ayrshire,"  which  I  chose,  because  that  was  said  to  be 
the  only  shire  in  Scotland  out  of  which  there  had  not 
issued  a  single  rebel  in  174.5.*  After  an  hour's  con- 
versation with  the  two  gentlemen  I  have  mentioned, 
I  undertook  to  virrite  the  pamphlet,  and  finished  it  in 
a  fortnight,  and  carried  it  to  Johnstone,  who  was 
highly  pleased  with  it,  and,  after  showing  it  to  Fer- 
guson, had  it  transcribed  by  his  own  clerk,  and  then 
shown  to  Robertson,  who  believed  it  to  be  of  John- 
stone's writing,  as  he  had  told  him  that  the  author's 
name  was   to   be   concealed.      Robertson   was   well 

•  The  pamphlet  here  referred  to  is  called  "The  Question  relating  to  a 
Scots  Militia  considered,  in  a  Letter  to  the  Lortls  and  Gentlemen  who  have 
concerted  the  form  of  law  for  that  establishment.  By  a  Freeholder."  The 
Act  which  placed  the  militia  of  England  nearly  in  its  present  position,  had 
been  jiassed  by  the  exertions  of  the  authors  friend,  Charles  Townshend,  in 
1757.  When  a  proposal  for  extending  the  system  to  Scotland  was  suggested, 
ministers  were  afraid  to  arm  the  people  among  whom  the  insurrection  of 
1745  had  occurred,  and  the  feud  between  Jacobite  and  Revolutionist  was 
still  fresh.  It  is  curious  that,  for  a  reason  almost  identical,  Ireland  has  been 
excepted  from  the  Volunteer  organisation  of  a  century  later.  It  was  not 
imtil  1793  that  the  Militia  Acts  were  extended  to  Scotland. — Ed. 


400  THE    MILITIA. 

pleased,  though  he  took  no  great  concern  about  tho?e 
kind  of  writings,  and  added  a  short  paragraph  in 
page  [  ],  which  he  laughingly  alleged  was  the  cause 
of  its  success,  for  great  and  unexpected  success  it 
certainly  had  ;  for  it  hit  the  tone  of  the  country  at 
that  time,  which  being  irritated  at  the  line  which  was 
drawn  between  Scotland  and  England  with  respect  to 
militia,  was  very  desirous  to  have  application  made 
for  it  in  the  approaching  session  of  Parliament.  Much 
honour  was  done  to  this  pamphlet,  for  the  Honourable 
George,  now  Marquis  Townshend,  had  it  republished 
at  London,  with  a  preface  of  his  own  writing,  as  a 
Provost  Ferguson  of  Ayr  had  done  here.  I  had  like- 
wise a  very  flattering  note  from  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot, 
who  moved  for  the  Scotch  militia  in  the  next  session 
of  Parliament,  for  he  wrote  me  that  he  had  only 
spoken  the  substance  of  my  pamphlet  in  the  House, 
and.  had  got  more  praise  for  it  from  friends  than  for 
any  speech  he  had  formerly  made ;  but  this  did  not 
happen  till  spring  1760„  when  a  bill  having  been 
ordered  and  brought  in,  was  rejected.  Robert  Dun- 
das,  then  Lord  Advocate,  opposed  it  keenly,  and  it 
was  said  in  party  publications  that  this  speech  was  the 
price  paid  for  his  being  made  President  immediately 
after.  But  my  belief  is,  that  as  political  principles 
w^ere  formed  in  the  school  of  the  disciples  and  fol- 
lowers of  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  whose  ostensible  motive, 
if  not  his  governing  one,  was  a  fear  of  the  family 
of  Stuart,  Dundas  sincerely  thought  that  arming 
Scotland  was  dangerous,  though  he  rested  his  argu- 


THE   MILITIA.  401 

ment  chiefly  on  a  less  unpopular  topic — viz.  that  a 
militia  would  ruin  our  rising  manufactures.  Fer- 
guson had  published  a  very  superior  militia  pamphlet 
in  London  a  year  or  two  before,  in  which  all  the 
genuine  principles  of  that  kind  of  national  defence 
were  clearly  unfolded.  The  parties  here  were  so 
warm  at  this  time  that  it  was  necessary  to  conceal 
the  names  of  authors,  to  which  I  had  an  additional 
motive,  from  a  hint  of  Dr  Cullen's ;  for,  supping  one 
night  with  him,  Dr  Wight  being  only  in  company, 
after  praising  the  pamphlet,  he  added  that  he  did 
not  know  the  author,  and  was  glad  of  it,  for  he  who 
occasionally  saw  so  many  of  the  superior  orders,  could 
assure  us  that  those  pamphlets,  which  were  ascribed 
to  clergymen,  had  raised  a  spirit  of  envy  and  jealousy 
of  the  clergy,  which  it  would  not  be  easy  to  stand. 
As,  since  the  days  of  the  faction  about  the  tragedy  of 
Douglas,  three  or  four  of  us  were  supposed  to  be  the 
authors  of  all  the  pamphlets  which  raised  public 
attention,  we  sheltered  ourselves  in  the  crowd ;  and  it 
was  a  good  while  before  the  real  writers  were  found 
out. 


2c 


CHAPTEE  XL 

1760-1763:  AGE,  88-41. 

HIS    MARRIAGE SENTIMENTAL   RETROSPECTS PRESENT   HAPPINESS 

ADAM    FERGUSON  AND    SISTER   PEG DEATH    OF   GEORGE    II.    AND 

THE   DUKE    OF  ARGYLE CHANGE    IN    THE    ADMINISTRATION    OP 

SCOTCH   AFFAIRS NEWCASTLE    AND    ITS    SOCIETY   IN   1760 THE 

EDINBURGH  POKER  CLUB LORD  ELIBANK's    SENTIMENTAL   ADVEN- 
TURES  DR    ROBERTSON    AND    THE    LEADERSHIP    OF    THE    CHURCH 

OP   SCOTLAND HARROGATE  AND   THE  COMPANY    THERE — ANDREW 

MILLAR   THE   BOOKSELLER BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN — LORD   CLIVE. 

This  year  [1760]  was  the  most  important  of  my  life, 
for  before  the  end  of  it  I  was  united  with  the  most 
valuable  friend  and  companion  that  any  mortal  ever 
possessed.  My  youth  had  been  spent  in  a  vain  pur- 
suit ;  for  my  first  love,  which  I  have  mentioned  as 
far  back  as  the  year  1735,  had  kept  entire  posses- 
sion till  1753,  by  means  of  her  coquetry  and  my 
irresolution.  She  was  of  superior  understanding  as 
well  as  beauty.  In  this  last  she  would  have  excelled 
most  women  of  her  time,  had  she  not  been  the  worst 
dancer  in  the  world,  which  she  could  not  be  prevailed 
on  to  leave  off,  though  her  envious  rivals  laughed  and 
rejoiced  at  her  persevering  folly.  Though  she  had  a 
bad  voice  and  a  bad  ear,  she  was  a  great  mistress  of 
conversation,  having  both  wit  and  humour,  and,  with 


BETEOSPECTS.  403 

an  air  of  haughty  prudery,  had  enough  of  coquetry 
both  to  attract  and  retain  her  lovers,  of  whom  she 
had  many. 

An  early  inclination  she  had  to  a  young  gentleman 
who  was  prevented  from  marrying  her,  and  was  soon 
after  killed  at  the  battle  of  Fontenoy,  made  her  diffi- 
cult to  please.  I  had  never  fairly  put  the  question 
to  her  till  about  the  year  1752,  when  she  expressly 
refused  me.  This  made  me  lessen  the  number  of  my 
visits,  and  made  her  restrain  her  coquetr}'.  Soon 
after  another  came  in  my  way,  whose  beauty  and 
attractions  made  me  forget  the  former,  to  whom, 
though  she  was  inferior  in  seuse  and  even  in  beauty, 
yet  being  ten  years  younger,  and  having  gaiety  of 
spirit,  I  became  deeply  enamoured,  and  was  in  full 
belief  that  I  had  gained  her  affections,  when  I  was 
informed  that  she  had  suddenly  given  her  hand  to  a 
young  man  in  every  respect,  except  in  birth  perhaps, 
beneath  her  notice.  In  both  those  ladies  I  believe 
their  vanity  prevailed  against  affection.  They  could 
not  think  of  being  wife  of  a  minister.  The  first 
attempted  after  this  to  ensnare  me  again,  but  I 
escaped.  To  have  done  with  her,  and  to  justify 
me — two  gentlemen  of  my  friends  addressed  her  ve- 
hemently, Adam  Ferguson,  and  Eobert  Keith  the 
ambassador.  The  first,  who  pleased  her  much,  was 
rejected  for  the  same  reason  I  was :  he  had  been  a 
clergyman,  and  though  in  a  more  lucrative  profession 
now,  it  was  not  higher.  Her  rejection  of  the  second, 
I  believe,  was  owing  chiefly  to  principle.     Though  he 


M)i  MARRIAGE. 

was  twenty-four  years  older  than  her,  his  rank  was 
an  attraction  which  balanced  that ;  but  she  could  not 
bear  the  idea  of  quarrelling  with  his  daughters,  some 
of  whom  were  her  companions,  and  not  much  younger 
than  herself  At  last,  after  having  rejected  rich  and 
poor,  young  and  old,  to  the  number  of  half  a  score, 
she  gave  her  hand,  at  forty-five,  to  the  worst-tempered 
and  most  foolish  of  all  her  lovers,  who  had  a  bare 
competency,  and  which,  added  to  her  fortune,  hardly 
made  them  independent.  They  led  a  miserable  life, 
and  parted ;  soon  after  which  he  died,  and  she  then 
lived  respectably  to  an  advanced  age. 

I  owed  my  good  fortune  to  the  friendship  of  John 
Home,  who  pointed  out  the  young  lady  to  me  as  a 
proper  object  of  suit,  without  which  I  should  never 
have  attempted  it,  on  account  of  the  inequality  of  her 
age  and  mine,  for  she  was  then  just  past  seventeen  when 
I  was  thirty-eight.  I  was  well  acquainted  with  her 
sister  and  her  as  children,  and  saw  that  they  were  very 
remarkable ;  the  eldest,  Sarah,  for  beauty  and  elegance, 
accompanied  with  good  sense  and  a  grave  and  reserved 
demeanour ;  the  second  for  an  expressive  and  lively 
countenance,  with  a  fine  bloom,  and  hair  of  a  dark  flaxen 
colour.  She  had  excellent  parts,  though  uncultivated 
and  uncommon,  and  a  striking  cheerfulness  and  viva- 
city of  manner.  After  nine  months'  courtship,  at  first 
by  silent  and  imperceptible  approaches,  and  for  three 
months  by  a  close  though  unwarhke  siege,  I  obtained 
her  heart  and  hand,  and  no  man  ever  made  a  happier 
conquest ;    for,   with  a  superior   understanding   and 


MARRIAGE.  405 

great  discernment  for  her  age,  she  had  an  ease  and 
propriety  of  manners  which  made  her  to  be  well  re- 
ceived, and  indeed  much  distinguished,  in  every  com- 
pany. Having  lost  her  father  and  mother  when  her 
sister  was  five  years  of  age  and  she  only  two — the 
father,  on  Christmas-day  1 744,  and  the  mother  on  the 
same  festival  in  1745,  of  the  smallpox — each  of  their 
trustees  (for  they  were  co-heiresses  of  Heathpool  in 
Northumberland,  Kirknewton  parish,  then  only  £180 
per  annum),  ]\Ir  Collingwood  of  Unthank,  cousin-ger- 
man  of  their  mother,  took  the  eldest  under  his  care ; 
and  Mr  William  Home,  minister  of  Polwarth,  who  had 
married  their  father's  sister,  Mary  Roddam,  had  the 
charge  of  the  youngest.  By  this  division,  Sarah,  the 
eldest,  had  seemingly  many  advantages  above  her 
sister,  for  she  lived  with  superior  people,  who  fre- 
quented, and  were  indeed  allied  to,  the  best  families  in 
their  county,  attended  the  best  schools  in  Newcastle, 
and  was  one  year  in  the  first  boarding-school  in  Edin- 
burgh ;  and  accordingly  turned  out  an  elegant  and 
well-bred  woman,  speaking  perfectly  good  English, 
without  the  roughness  peculiar  to  the  local  dialect, 
and  was  admired,  courted,  and  respected  wherever  she 
went.  Yet  Mary,  the  younger,  with  no  advantage 
but  that  of  living  with  an  aunt  of  superior  under- 
standing and  great  worth,  though  much  uneducated, 
and  having  only  one  year  of  the  Edinburgh  boarding- 
school,  soon  had  her  mind  enlaro;ed  and  her  talents 
improved  by  some  instruction,  and  the  conversation 
of  those  who  frequented  us,  insomuch  that  in  not 


406  MARRIAGE. 

more  than  one  year  after  our  marriage,  she  appeared 
not  only  without  any  seeming  defect  in  her  educa- 
tion, but  like  a  person  of  high  endowments.  In- 
deed, the  quickness  of  her  parts  and  the  extent  of 
her  understanding  were  surprising,  and  her  talent 
both  in  speaking  and  writing,  and  in  delicacy  of  taste, 
truly  as  admirable  as  any  woman  I  ever  knew.  Add 
to  this  that  she  was  noble  and  generous  in  the  highest 
degree,  compassionate  even  to  weakness,  and,  if  her 
friends  were  in  distress,  totally  forgetful  and  negligent 
of  herself.  I  do  not  think  it  is  possible  I  could  derive 
greater  satisfaction  from  any  circumstance  in  human 
life  than  I  did  from  the  high  approbation  which  was 
given  to  my  choice  by  the  very  superior  men  who 
were  my  closest  and  most  discerning  friends,  such  as 
Ferguson,  Eobertson,  Blair,  and  Bannatine,  not  merely 
by  words,  but  by  the  open,  respectful,  and  confidential 
manner  in  which  they  conversed  with  her. 

On  the  14th  of  October  was  made  the  important 
change  in  my  situation,  in  John  Home's  house,  in 
Alison's  Square,  when  he  was  absent  at  Lord  Eglin- 
toun's,  who  had  become  a  favourite  of  the  Earl  of 
Bute's,  very  much  by  John's  means.  He  was,  indeed, 
a  very  able  as  well  as  an  agreeable  man,  though  his 
education  had  been  sadly  neglected.  We  had  sundry 
visits  next  day,  and  among  the  foremost  came  Sir 
Harry  Erskine  and  Mr  Alexander  Wedderburn.  I 
was  not  then  much  acquainted  with  the  first,  but 
as  he  was  older  than  me  by  several  years,  and 
Fanny  Wedderburn,  of  whom  he  was  then  in  full 


MAEPJAGE.  407 

pursuit,  was  as  much  older  than  my  young  wife,  I 
guessed  that  the  real  motive  of  this  visit,  as  my  friend 
Wedderburn  seldom  did  anything  without  a  reason, 
was  to  see  how  such  an  unequal  couple  would  look  on 
the  day  after  their  marriage. 

We  remained  in  Edinburgh  till  Tuesday  the  21st 
of  October,  when  Baron  Grant's  lady  came  in  her 
coach  to  carry  us  to  Castlesteads,  some  necessary 
repairs  in  the  manse  not  being  yet  finished.  There  I 
had  the  pleasure  to  find  that  my  wife  could  acquit, 
herself  equally  well  in  all  companies,  and  had  nothing 
to  wish  for  in  the  article  of  behaviour.  We  went  home 
on  Saturday  morning,  and  the  Grants  followed  us  to 
dinner,  and  were  met  by  the  Cardonnels. 

While  I  was  busy  with  this  important  change  in 
my  domestic  state,  I  was  applied  to  by  a  friend  to 
write  a  satirical  pamphlet  in  my  ironical  style  against 
the  opposers  of  the  Scotch  JVIilitia  Bill,  which  had  been 
rejected  in  the  preceding  session.  Being  too  much 
engaged  to  attempt  anything  of  that  kind  at  the  time, 
I  proposed  that  it  should  be  intrusted  to  Adam  Fer- 
guson, then  living  at  Inveresk,  preparing  his  aca- 
demical lectures.  My  friend  answered  that  he  was 
excellent  at  serious  works,  but  could  turn  nothing 
into  ridicule,  as  he  had  no  humour :  I  answered,  that 
he  did  not  know  him  sufficiently,  but  advised  him  to 
go  and  try  him,  as  he  would  undertake  nothing  that 
he  was  not  able  to  execute.  This  happened  about  the 
month  of  August,  and  Ferguson  having  undertaken  it, 
executed  that  little  work  called  "  Sister  Peg,"  in  the 


408  FERGUSON    AND    "SISTER   PEG." 

style  of  Dr  Arbutlinot's  "  John  Bull/'  which  excited 
both  admiration  and  animosity.  The  real  author  was 
carefully  concealed,  though  it  was  generally  ascribed 
to  me,  as  I  had  written  two  small  pieces  in  the  same 
ironical  style.  The  public  had  no  doubt  but  that  it 
was  the  work  of  one  out  of  four  of  us,  if  not  the 
joint  work  of  us  all.  The  secret  was  well  kept  by  at 
least  ten  or  a  dozen  males  and  females.  This  pamph- 
let occasioned  a  very  ludicrous  scene  between  David 
.  Hume  and  Dr  Jardine,  who  was  in  the  secret.  David 
w^as  a  great  blab,  and  could  conceal  nothing  that  he 
thought  for  the  honour  of  his  friends,  and  therefore  it 
had  been  agreed  to  tell  him  of  none  of  our  produc- 
tions, except  such  as  might  have  been  published  at 
the  Cross.  He  sent  for  Jardine,  whom  he  first  sus- 
pected of  being  the  author,  who  denying  his  capacity 
for  such  a  work,  he  fixed  on  me  (never  dreaming  of 
Ferguson) ;  and  when  Jardine  pretended  ignorance,  or 
refused  to  gratify  him,  he  told  him  he  had  written  it 
himself  in  an  idle  hour,  and  desired  Jardine  to  men- 
tion him  as  the  author  everywhere,  that  it  might  not 
fall  on  some  of  us,  who  were  not  so  able  to  bear  it. 
This  I  could  not  have  believed,  had  not  David  himself 
written  me  a  letter  to  that  purpose,  which  I  shall 
transcribe  in  the  margin.'"' 

His  Majesty  George  H.  died  on  the  25th  of  Octo- 
ber, which  put  the  whole  nation  in  mourning.  John 
Home  came  to  town  for  a  night  or  two,  on  his  way  to 

*  The  letter  will  be  found  in  the  Life  and  Correspondence  of  David 
ilume,  ii.  88. — Ed. 


THE   WIFES    COXyECTIOXS.  409 

London,  with  Lord  Eglinton,  when  began  his  great- 
ness, for  he  might  really  have  been  said  to  have  been 
the  second  man  in  the  kinordom  while  Bute  remained 
in  power,  which  influence  he  used  not  to  his  own 
advancement  to  wealth  or  power — for  he  never  asked 
anything  for  himself,  and,  strange  to  t^U,  never  was 
offered  anything  by  his  patron — but  for  the  service  of 
his  friends,  or  of  those  who,  by  flattery  and  appli- 
cation, acquired  the  title  of  such,  for  he  was  easily 
deluded  by  pretences,  especially  to  those  of  romantic 
valour.  The  celebrated  Colonel  Johnston,  afterwards 
Governor  of  Minorca,  owed  to  him  his  being  restored 
to  the  line  of  preferment  of  which  the  late  King  had 
deprived  him,  for  his  insolent  behaviour  to  a  country 
gentleman  in  the  playhouse ;  and  George  Johnstone 
likewise* 

Towards  the  end  of  December  I  went  to  Pol  war  th 
with  Mr  Home,  my  wife's  uncle,  and  one  of  her 
guardians,  and  went  to  Unthank  to  visit  Mr  Colling- 
wood  the  other,  with  Forrester  the  attorney,  to  settle 
our  affairs — a  trusty  fellow,  who  had  already  made  a 
large  fortune,  and,  what  amused  me  much,  taken  the 
tone  of  a  discontented  patriot  so  strongly  against  the 
ministry  of  his  Grace,  that  they  were  obhged  in  a 
year  or  two  to  let  him  have  a  share  in  the  manage- 
ment. Alexander  Collingwood  of  Unthank,  Esq.,  the 
cousin-genuan  of  my  wife's  mother,  was    weak  and 

*  The  former,  James  Johnston,  became  subsequently  Governor  of  Quebec. 
George  Johnstone  was  CJovemor  of  West  Florida,  and  author  of  ThouyhU 
on  our  Acquigitiona  in  the  East  Indies. — £i>. 


410  THE   wife's    connections. 

vainglorious,  proud  of  his  family,  and  in  all,  and 
above  all,  of  his  wife,  whom  he  obliged  us  to  visit, 
and  whom  we  found  very  handsome  and  very  clever 
— too  much  so  for  the  squire. 

We  returned  by  Langton,  as  we  had  come,  where 
lived  Alexander  Davidson  and  his  wife — two  worthy 
people,  who  had  acquired  an  independent  estate  by 
farming,  which  had  not  been  frequently  done  at  that 
time.  [HeathpoolJ,  our  estate,  lies  three  miles  from 
Langton,  south-west,  up  Beumont  Water,  and  is  a 
beautiful  highland  place.  I  had  not  been  absent 
above  five  or  six  days,  and  found  my  wife  at  my 
father's,  where  she  was  the  joy  and  delight  of  the  old 
folks.  At  that  time,  indeed,  she  was  irresistible  ;  for 
to  youth  and  beauty  she  added  a  cheerful  frankness 
and  cordiality  in  her  manner,  which,  joined  with  an 
agreeable  elocution  and  lively  wit,  attracted  all  who 
saw  her,  which  was  not  relished  by  my  old  flame, 
who,  in  the  midst  of  forced  praise,  attempted  a  species 
of  detraction,  which  was  completely  foiled  by  the 
good-humoured  indiflference,  or  rather  contempt,  with 
which  it  was  received.  This  young  lady,  of  uncom- 
mon parts  and  understanding,  but  a  degree  of  vanity 
on  account  of  trifling  or  imaginary  qualities,  ended 
her  career  at  last  in  a  very  exemplary  manner,  as  I 
have  before  stated. 

Early  in  this  year  (1761)  my  wife's  elder  sister. 
Miss  Eoddam,  paid  us  a  visit,  and  remained  with  us 
till  she  was  married.  She  was  a  beautiful  and  elegant 
young  woman,  somewhat  taller  than  her  sister,  and 


THE   wife's    C'ON^'ECTIONS.  411 

was  a  finer  woman  ;  but  she  was  grave  and  reserved ; 
and  though  she  had  good  sense,  and  was  perfectly- 
hearty,  she  was  not  only  inferior  to  her  sister  in  point 
of  understanding,  but  in  that  lively  and  striking 
expression  of  feeling  and  sentiment  which  never  failed 
to  attract. 

They  were  knit  together  with  the  most  sisterly 
love,  in  which,  however,  the  younger  surpassed,  not 
having  one  selfish  corner  in  her  whole  soul,  and  being 
at  all  times  willing  to  sacrifice  her  life  for  those  she 
loved.  This  young  lady  soon  attracted  our  friend  Dr 
Adam  Ferguson's  warmest  addresses,  to  the  ardour  of 
which  she  put  an  end  as  soon  as  he  explained  himself, 
for,  \viih.  a  frankness  and  dignity  becoming  her  cha- 
racter, she  assured  him  that,  had  she  not  been  invio- 
lably engaged  to  another  gentleman,  she  would  not 
have  hastily  rejected  his  addresses,  as  his  character 
and  manner  were  very  agreeable  to  her,  and  therefore 
prayed  him  to  discontinue  his  suit  to  her,  as  she  could 
not  listen  to  him  on  this  subject,  but  would  be  happy 
in  his  friendship,  and  the  continuance  of  a  society  so 
pleasing  to  her.  With  this  he  reluctantly  complied, 
but  frequented  our  house  as  much  as  ever  till  she  was 
married. 

The  o;entleman  she  was  eno-ao-ed  to  was  John  Eras- 
mus  Blackett,  Esq.,  the  youngest  brother  of  Sir 
Edward  Blackett,  Bart.,  of  Malfen,  in  Northumber- 
land— a  man  of  large  fortune,  who  represented  the 
elder  branch  of  the  Blackett  family,  then  in  Sir 
Walter  Blackett  Coverley,  who  was  the  nephew  of 


412  THE   wife's    connections. 

the  late  Sir  AVilliam  Blackett  of  Newcastle.  John  E. 
Blackett  was  a  very  handsome  young  man,  of  about 
thirty,  who  had  been  bred  at  Liverpool  with  Sir  [  ] 
Cunliffe,  and  was  now  settled  partner  with  Mr  Alder- 
man Simson,  an  eminent  coal-dealer  in  Newcastle. 
John  Blackett  was  called  Erasmus  after  Erasmus  Lewis, 
who  was  secretary  to  Lord  Oxford  in  Queen  Anne's 
time,  and  an  intimate  friend  of  his  father's,  John 
Blackett,  Esq.  of  [  ],  in  Yorkshire,  who  never 

was  baronet,  having  died  before  his  uncle,  Sir  Edward 
Blackett.  John  Erasmus  was  at  this  time  a  captain 
and  paymaster  in  his  brother's  regiment  of  North- 
umberland Militia,  lately  raised,  and  quartered  at  Ber- 
wick since  March  or  April  1760.  As  Miss  Eoddam 
was  not  of  age  till  March,  the  marriage  was  delayed  till 
after  that  time,  when  she  could  dispose  of  her  moiety 
of  the  estate.  As  this  did  not  shake  Miss  Roddam, 
that  quieted  a  suspicion  which  some  of  her  friends  en- 
tertained that  he  meant  to  draw  off.  But  he  came  and 
visited  us  in  the  end  of  January,  when  every  shadow 
of  doubt  of  his  fulfilling  his  engagement  was  dissipated. 

I  was  only  afraid  that  a  man  so  imperfectly  edu- 
cated as  he  had  been,  and  of  ordinary  talents,  could 
not  long  predominate  in  the  breast  of  a  young  lady 
who  had  sense  and  sensibility  enough  to  relish  the 
conversation  of  the  high-minded  and  enlightened  phil- 
osopher, who  had  enough  of  the  world,  however,  to  be 
entitled  to  the  name  of  the  Polite  Philosopher. 

I  returned  with  Mr  Blackett  in  the  beginning  of 
February  to  Berwick  and  Wooler,  where  I  met  the 


THE   wife's    COXNECnONS.  413 

trustees,  where  the  estate  was  let  to  Kalph  Compton, 
the  second  son  of  our  former  tenant,  for  the  usual 
term,  and  rose  from  £180  per  annum  to  £283.  Before 
we  parted,  ^Ir  Blackett  settled  with  me  that  he  would 
come  to  us  in  April,  and  complete  his  engagement.  He 
went  on  from  Alnwick,  and  I  to  the  roup  at  Wooler. 

He  came,  accordingly,  at  the  time  appointed,  from 
Berwick,  attended  by  a  brother  captain,  Edward 
Adams,  whose  mother  was  a  ColHngwood,  a  grand- 
aunt  of  the  young  ladies.  They  came  first  to  my 
house  for  a  day,  and  went  to  Edinburgh,  where  we 
followed  them  two  days  after,  where  the  yoimg  couple 
were  married  by  j\Ir  Car  of  the  English  chapel,  as 
they  were  both  Episcopalians. 

The  day  after  the  marriage  Blackett  gave  us  a 
handsome  dinner  at  Fortune's,  for  which  he  only 
charged  half-a-crown  a-head,  and  said  he  then  never 
charged  more  for  the  best  dinner  of  two  courses  and 
a  dessert  which  he  could  set  down.  Mr  Ferguson 
dined  with  us.  Next  day  they  came  to  ^lusselburgh 
for  two  days,  and  then  departed  for  Newcastle  through 
Berwick,  where  the  regiment  still  was.  There  was 
one  thing  very  remarkable  of  that  regiment,  which, 
though  six  himdred  strong,  from  all  parts  of  the  county, 
yet  lost  not  one  man  for  one  year  and  four  months. 
So  much  for  the  healthiness  of  Berwick. 

My  youngest  sister,  Janet,  a  beautiful,  elegant,  and 
pleasing  young  woman,  was  married  at  London,  where 
she  had  gone  to  be  with  her  sister,  on  August  30th, 
1760,  with  Captain  Thomas  Bell,  a  nephew  of  Provost 


414  THE   wife's   connections. 

Bell's,  who  had  been  captain  of  a  trading  vessel  in  the 
Mediterranean,  and  having  been  attacked  by  a  Spanish 
privateer,  took  her  after  a  short  engagement,  and  got 
£1000  as  his  share  of  the  prize.  He  was  a  very  sen- 
sible, clever  man,  much  esteemed  by  his  companions, 
and  had  become  an  insurance  broker. 

On  the  first  of  July  this  year  my  wife  brought  me 
a  daughter,  and  my  sister  gave  a  son  to  Thomas  Bell 
on  the  6th  of  the  same  month.  He  was  the  first  of 
eight  sons  she  had,  seven  of  whom  were  running,  of 
whom  Carlyle,  whom  we  took  in  1782  at  two  years 
old,  is  the  youngest,  who  are  all  alive  in  1804,  and  eight 
daughters  all  well  married,  and  have  many  children. 

His  Grace  Archibald  Duke  of  Argyle  died  early  in 
spring,  as  suddenly  almost,  and  at  the  same  age  of 
seventy-seven,  as  His  Majesty,  George  H.,  had  done 
in  October  preceding.  On  this  occasion  Lord  Bute 
wrote  a  very  kind  letter  to  Lord  Milton,  the  friend 
and  sub-minister  of  Argyle,  lamenting  his  loss,  and 
assuring  him  that  there  should  be  no  change  in  respect 
to  him.  Adam  Ferguson  was  with  Milton  when  he 
received  this  letter,  to  whom  he  gave  it  after  reading 
it,  saying,  "Is  this  man  sincere'?''  to  which  Ferguson, 
on  perusal,  "I  have  no  doubt  that  he  was  so  when  he 
wrote  it."  Milton  declined  being  longer  employed ; 
and  it  was  well,  for  he  soon  fell  into  that  decline  of 
mental  powers  which  lasted  till  his  death  in  1766. 
Lord  Bute  tried  to  make  his  brother,  Stuart  M'Kenzie, 
succeed  Milton,  but  he  neither  had  talents  nor  incli- 
nation.    Baron  Mure,  who  was  a  man  of  business  and 


THE  wife's  coxnectioxs.  415 

of  sound  sense,  was  employed  while  Lord  Bute  was  in 
power. 

In  this  year  I  lost  my  grandfather  and  grandmother 
Robison,  truly  respectable  people  in  their  day.  He 
died  first,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six,  and  she,  who  was 
half  a  year  younger  than  him,  gave  way  to  fate  just 
six  months  after  him. 

When  my  wife  was  perfectly  recovered,  I  foimd 
myself  under  the  necessity  of-  carrying  her  to  New- 
castle to  visit  her  sister,  to  whom  she  was  most 
tenderly  attached.  Mr  Blackett  was  then  living  in 
Pilgrim  Street,  a  small  but  very  pleasant  house  near 
the  gate.  This  was  in  the  beginning  of  October,  when 
the  judges  were  in  town,  and  a  great  crowd  of  com- 
pany. Mr  Blackett's  brother  Henry,  the  clergyman, 
was  then  \s*ith  him,  who  was  an  Oxonian,  a  good 
scholar,  and  a  very  agreeable  man  of  the  world.  Wo 
were  visited  by  all  their  friends  in  Newcastle  and 
in  the  neighbourhood,  and  made  many  agreeable  ac- 
quaintance. Sir  Walter  Blackett  was  one  who  lived 
in  a  fine  old  house,  directly  opposite  to  Mr  Blackett. 
He  was  a  very  genteel,  fine-looking  man,  turned  of 
forty,  who  had  not  been  happy  with  his  lady,  the 
daughter  (natural)  of  his  uncle.  Sir  WiUiam  Blackett, 
who  had  left  him  and  her  heirs  of  his  estate,  provided 
they  intermarried.  He  fulfilled  the  will  most  cordi- 
ally, for  he  was  in  love  with  his  cousin ;  but  she 
reluctantly,  because  she  did  not  care  for  him.  By 
report  she  was  of  superior  understanding  to  him  ;  for 
he  was  not  a  man  of  remarkable  parts,  but  strong  in 


416  THE   wife's    connections. 

friendship,  liberality,  'and  public  spirit ;  and  lie  bad  a 
great  fortune,  not  less  than  £20,000,  with  which  he 
amply  gratified  his  own  disposition.  He  was  ostenta- 
tious, and  fond  of  popularity,  which  he  gained  by  his 
public  charities ;  but  lived  to  lose  it  entirely.  He 
was  long  member  from  the  town  of  Newcastle,  but 
never  would  ask  any  favours  of  Ministers,  while  in 
the  mean  time  he  brought  in  a  clever  colleague,  a  Mr 
Eidley,  who  got  all  the  favours  from  Ministers,  having 
both  Sir  Walter's  interest  and  his  own,  by  which  the 
credit  of  the  former  with  his  townsmen  was  much 
shaken. 

Our  sister,  Mrs  Blackett,  luckily  proved  a  great 
favourite  of  Sir  Walter's,  as  his  cousin,  John  Erasmus, 
had  been  before,  to  whom  he  gave  the  payment  of  his 
lead  mines,  which  being  very  productive,  was  a  place 
of  profit. 

Mr  Collingwood  of  Chirton  was  another  valuable 
acquaintance  :  he  was  Eecorder  of  the  town,  and  a 
law^yer  of  great  ability.  Though  but  the  second 
brother,  he  had  acquired  the  family  estate  in  conse- 
quence of  the  dissipation  of  the  elder,  who  was  repre- 
sentative of  an  ancient  family,  and  whose  son  is  Vice- 
Admiral  Collingwood,  the  husband  of  Mrs  Blackett's 
eldest  daughter.  The  Recorder  had  acquired  Chirton 
by  marriage ;  for  a  laird  of  Roddam,  one  of  the  five 
families  in  the  county  who  were  proprietors  before 
the  Conquest,  having  been  an  attorney  at  Newcastle, 
had  purchased  the  estate  of  Chirton,  which  he  left  to 
his  two  daughters,  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  one  of  wliom 


THE  wife's  connections.  417 

married  a  Mr  Hilton  Lawson,  and  the  other  Mr  Col- 
lino-wood,  while  the  ancient  manor  of  Eoddam  went 
by  entail  to  his  nephew,  Admiral  Roddam.  There 
were  two  houses  at  Chirton,  only  divided  from  each 
other  by  a  road ;  and  by  far  the  best  was  the  possession 
of  Mary,  the  eldest  sister,  and  her  husband  Lawson, 
which  had,  in  the  end  of  the  17th  century,  belonged 
to  Archibald,  the  first  Duke  of  Argyle,  who  had  built 
or  repaired  it  as  a  convenient  place  between  London 
and  Inverary  on  his  journey  to  and  from  the  capital. 
It  was  at  this  house  that  he  died,  on  one  of  those 
journeys.  This  house  is  now  the  possession  of  Adam 
de  Cardonnel  Lawson,  Esq.,  which  was  left  to  his 
mother,  Ann  Hilton,  by  her  cousin  Hilton  Lawson  ; 
because  if  her  brother,  a  Rev.  Mr  Hilton,  had  not 
died,  he  would  have  fallen  heir  to  that  and  several 
-other  estates  of  Mr  Lawson's.  This  gentleman  is  the 
son  and  heir  of  my  old  friend  Mansfield  de  Cardonnel, 
formerly  mentioned.* 

Those  families  adopted  our  two  wives  as  their  rela- 
tions, as  their  father  was  a  descendant  of  the  family 
of  Roddam,  and  their  mother  of  that  of  Collingwood 
of  Unthank,  who  was  related  to  both. 

At  this  period  there  were  not  many  conversible 
gentlemen  in  Newcastle,  which  made  one  value  Mr 
Collingwood  the  more ;  for  the  men  were  in  general 
very  ill  educated,  while  the  ladies,  who  were  bred  in 
the  south,  by  their  appearance  and  manners,  seemed 
to   be  very  unequally   yoked.      The   clergy  at    the 

*  See  above,  p.  219. 
2  D 


418  THE   DESPOT    OF    THE    NORTH. 

time  were  almost  all  underbred,  there  being  only- 
one  vicar  in  the  town,  and  the  rest  only  curates  or 
lecturers.  Sometimes  a  neighbouring  clergyman  of 
university  education  accepted  of  a  lectureship  for  the 
sake  of  living  in  town  in  the  winter,  though  the 
salaries  were  no  more  than  £100  ;  yet,  had  it  not 
been  for  the  ladies,  the  state  of  society  would  have 
then  been  disagreeable.  For  many  years  past  it  has 
been  totally  different. 

At  a  grand  dancing  assembly  our  ladies  were  gra- 
tij&ed  as  much  as  they  could  be,  for  Mrs  Blackett  had 
the  honour  of  dancing  with  the  Duke  of  Portland, 
and  her  sister  with  Viscount  Torrington,  and  had  the 
approbation  of  a  very  numerous  company  for  their 
genteel  appearance  and  good  looks. 

His  Grace  had  come  down  to  take  care  of  his  par- 
liamentary interest,  having  great  estates  in  the  north- 
ern counties.  He  was  opposed  in  Cumberland  by  Sir 
James  Lowther,  who,  after  a  ten  years'  war,  drove  the 
beaten  Duke,  with  infinite  loss  of  money,  out  of  the 
north.  Lowther  went  off  conqueror,  but  more  de- 
tested than  any  man  alive,  as  a  shameless  political 
sharper,  a  domestic  bashaw,  and  an  intolerable  tyrant 
over  his  tenants  and  dependents.  John  Home  cried 
him  up  as  the  bravest  and  most  generous  of  men  ; 
and  he  flattered  and  obliged  John  because  he  had  the 
ear  of  Lord  Bute,  whose  eldest  daughter,  an  amiable 
and  patient  woman,  he  had  married  and  abused.  Home 
prevailed  with  him  to  prefer  George  Johnstone,  the 
Governor  of  Florida,  to  Admiral  Elliot,  for  one  of  his 


THE   POKER    CLUB.  419 

seats  in  Parliament,  though  he  was  by  no  means  the 
best  man  of  the  two  ;  but  what  was  still  more  flatter- 
ing to  John,  in  two  duels  he  was  involved  in  (neither 
of  which,  however,  took  place),  he  took  him  for  his 
second.  John  cried  him  up  for  every  good  quality, 
while  Ferguson,  who  had  seen  him  often,  said  he 
thought  him  a  very  stupid  man.  Bob  Hume,  who 
lived  nine  months  in  his  house  in  London,  attending 
his  cousin.  Sir  Michael  Fleming,  with  whom  he  went 
to  Groningen,  thought  him  a  capricious,  and  some- 
times a  brutal,  head  of  a  family.  Robert  Adam  told 
me  many  stories  of  him,  which  made  me  conclude 
that  he  was  truly  a  madman,  though  too  rich  to  be 
confined. 

As  Mrs  C.  had  never  been  in  that  country  before, 
we  made  several  excursions  in  the  neighbourhood, 
such  as  to  Tynemouth  and  Durham;  and  on  our  return 
home  visited  the  Roddams,  though  there  were  only 
there  the  old  lady  and  her  two  daughters.  The  Ad- 
miral, who  succeeded  his  elder  brother  in  a  few  years, 
built  himself  a  handsome  house,  and  improved  the 
place.     He  had  three  wives,  but  no  children. 

In  the  beginning  of  1 762  was  instituted  the  famous 
club  called  "  The  Poker,"  which  lasted  in  great  vigour 
down  to  the  year  1784.  About  the  third  or  fourth 
meetinor,  -v^e  thouorht  of  givino;  it  a  name  that  would  be 
of  uncertain  meaning,  and  not  be  so  directly  offensive 
as  that  of  Militia  Club  to  the  enemies  of  that  insti- 
tution. Adam  Ferguson  fell  luckily  on  the  name  of 
"  Poker,"  which  we  perfectly  understood,  and  was  at 


420  THE    POKER   CLUB. 

the  same  time  an  enigma  to  the  public*  This  club 
consisted  of  all  the  literati  of  Edinburgh  and  its 
neighbourhood,  most  of  whom  had  been  members  of 
the  Select  Society,  except  very  few  indeed  who  ad- 
hered to  the  enemies  of  militia,  together  with  a  great 
many  country  gentlemen,  who,  though  not  always  re- 
sident in  town,  yet  were  zealous  friends  to  a  Scotch 
militia,  and  warm  in  their  resentment  on  its  being 
refused  to  us,  and  an  invidious  line  drawn  between 
Scotland  and  England.  The  establishment  was  frugal 
and  moderate,  as  that  of  all  clubs  for  a  public  purpose 
ought  to  be.  We  met  at  our  old  landlord's  of  the 
Diversorium,  now  near  the  Cross,  the  dinner  on  the 
table  soon  after  two  o'clock,  at  one  shilling  a-head, 
the  wine  to  be  confined  to  sherry  and  claret,  and  the 
reckoning  to  be  called  at  six  o'clock.  After  the  first 
fifteen,  who  were  chosen  by  nomination,  the  members 
were  to  be  chosen  by  ballot,  two  black  balls  to  exclude 
the  candidate.  There  was  to  be  a  new  preses  chosen 
at  every  meeting.  William  Johnstone,  Esq.,  now  Sir 
William  Pulteney,  was  chosen  secretary  of  the  club, 
with  a  charge  of  all  publications  that  might  be  thought 
necessary  by  him,  and  two  other  members  with  whom 
he  was  to  consult.  In  a  laughing  humour,  Andrew 
Crosbie  was  chosen  Assassin,  in  case  any  officer  of  that 
sort  should  be  needed  ;  but  David  Hume  was  added 
as  his  Assessor,  w^ithout  whose  assent  nothing  should 
be  done,  so  that  between  jplus  and  minus  there  was 
likely  to  be  no  bloodshed. 

*  An  instrument  for  stirring  up  the  militia  question. — Ed. 


THE   POKER   CLUB.  421 

This  club  continued  to  be  in  great  perfection  for 
six  or  seven  years,  because  the  expense  was  moderate, 
while  every  member  was  pleased  with  the  entertain- 
ment as  well  as  the  company.  During  these  seven 
years,  a  very  constant  attendant  told  me  that  he  never 
observed  even  an  approach  to  inebriety  in  any  of  the 
members.  At  the  end  of  that  period,  by  means  of  an 
unlucky  quarrel  between  one  or  two  of  the  members 
and  our  landlord,  who  was  an  absurd  fool,  the  club 
left  his  house  and  went  to  Fortune's,  the  most  fashion- 
able tavern  in  town,  where  the  dinners  were  more 
showy,  but  not  better,  and  the  wines  only  dearer ;  but 
the  day's  expense  soon  came  to  three  times  as  much 
as  the  ordinary  biU  at  Thomas  Nicholsons,  which 
made  many  of  the  members,  not  the  least  conversible, 
lessen  the  number  of  days  of  attendance ;  and  what 
was  worse,  as  the  club  had  long  drawn  the  attention 
of  the  public,  many  members  were  admitted  whose 
minds  were  not  congenial  with  the  old  members. 
When  this  chancre  seemed  to  be  in  danger  of  essen- 
tially  hurting  the  club,  a  few  of  us  had  recourse  to  a 
plan  for  keeping  the  old  members  together,  which  was 
that  of  establishinor  a  new  club,  to  be  called  the  "  Tues- 
day,"  to  meet  on  that  day,  and  dine  together,  without 
deserting  the  Poker.  This  lasted  for  two  years  at  Som- 
mer's  tavern ;  for  we  did  not  go  to  Nicholson's,  for 
fear  of  giving  offence.  In  the  mean  time,  the  Poker 
dwindled  away  by  the  death  or  desertion  of  many  of 
the  members  who  had  lately  been  brought  in,  and 
then  we  broke  up  the  Tuesday,  and  frequented  the 


422  THE    POKER   CLUB. 

Poker.  I  found  in  the  hands  of  Ferguson  a  list  of  this 
club,  taken  in  1 774,  and  wrote  by  Commissioner  James 
Edgar,  to  which,  in  other  hands,  were  added  the  new 
members  as  they  were  elected.  I  have  seen  no  list  pre- 
vious to  this;  but  from  1762  to  '84,  sundry  members 
must  have  died,  two  of  whom  I  remember — viz.,  Dr 
Jardine  and  Ambassador  Keith ;  Dr  Gregory,  too,  might 
be  added,  but  he  did  not  attend  above  once  or  twice. 
The  amount  of  the  whole  on  this  list  is  sixty-six.* 
When  James  Edgar  was  in  Paris  with  Sir  Laurence 
Dundas,  his  cousin,  during  the  flourishing  state  of  this 
club,  he  was  asked  by  D'Alembert  to  go  with  him  to 
their  club  of  literati  at  Paris;  to  which  he  answered 
that  he  had  no  curiosity  to  visit  them,  as  he  had  a 
club  at  Edinburgh,  with  whom  he  dined  weekly,  com- 
posed, he  believed,  of  the  ablest  men  in  Europe.  Simi- 
lar to  this  was  a  saying  of  Princess  Dashcoff,  when 
disputing  one  day  with  me  at  Buxton  about  the  supe- 
riority of  Edinburgh,  as  a  residence,  to  most  other 
cities  in  Europe,  when,  having  alleged  sundry  parti- 
culars in  which  I  thought  we  excelled,  none  of  which 
she  would  admit  of — "  No,"  says  she,  "  but  I  know  one 
article  which  you  have  not  mentioned,  in  which  I 
must  give  you  the  precedency ;  which  is,  that  of  all  the 
sensible  men  I  have  met  with  in  my  travels  through 
Europe,  yours  at  Edinburgh  are  the  most  sensible." 

*  The  list  has  been  already  printed  in  the  Sup])loment  to  Tytler's  Life  of 
Karnes,  with  some  inaccurate  extracts  from  Carlyle's  MS.  This  is  tlie 
best  extant  account  of  this  curious  institution,  and  nothing  of  value  could 
be  added  to  it  even  from  the  minutes  of  its  proceedings,  which  the  Editor 
saw  in  the  hands  of  the  late  Sii-  Adam  Ferguson. — Ed, 


THE    POKER    CLUB,  423 

Let  me  add  one  testimony  more,  that  of  the  Honourable 
General  James  Murray,  Lord  Elibank's  brother,  a  man 
of  fashion  and  of  the  world.  Being  at  the  Cross  (the 
'Change)  one  day,  just  before  the  hour  of  dinner,  which 
by  that  time  was  prolonged  to  three  o'clock,  he  came 
up  to  me,  and  asked  me  if  I  had  yet  met  with  his 
brother  Elibank.  I  answered,  "  No ;  was  he  expecting 
him  in  town  that  day  1"  "Yes,"  said  he  ;  "  he  promised 
to  come,  and  introduce  me  to  the  Poker."  "  If  that  is 
all  your  business,"  replied  I,  "  and  you  will  accept  of 
me  as  your  introductor,  I  shall  be  glad  of  the  honour ; 
and  perhaps  your  brother  may  come  late,  as  he  some- 
times does."  He  accepted,  and  the  club  happened  to 
be  very  well  attended.  When  we  broke  up,  between 
seven  and  eight  o'clock,  it  being  suijjmer,  and  I  was 
proceeding  down  street  to  take  my  horse  to  Mussel- 
burgh, he  came  up  with  me,  and  exclaimed, "  Ah,  Doc- 
tor! I  never  was  so  much  disappointed  in  all  my  life  as 
at  your  club,  for  I  expected  to  sit  silent  and  listen  to 
a  parcel  of  pedants  descanting  on  learned  subjects  out 
of  my  range  of  knowledge ;  but  instead  of  that,  I 
have  met  with  an  agreeable,  polite,  and  lively  com- 
pany of  gentlemen,  in  whose  conversation  I  have 
joined  and  partaken  with  the  greatest  delight."  As 
Murray  was  a  very  acute  and  sensible  man,  I  took  this 
as  a  very  high  compliment  to  the  manners  as  well  as 
the  parts  of  our  club. 

In  April  this  year  IVIrs  C.  went  to  Newcastle, 
to  attend  her  sister,  who  was  to  lie-in  of  her  first 
child.     I   went  with  her   to   Langton  in  Northum- 


424  LOED  elibank's  adventures. 

berland,  and  returned  home,  Mrs  B.  having  met  her 
there. 

I  attended  the  Assembly  of  which  I  was  a  member, 
for  the  first  time  out  of  my  course,  when  Dr  Trail  of 
Glasgow  was  Moderator.  He  put  upon  me  the  three 
addresses  which  were  sent  up  from  this  Assembly  to 
the  King,  the  Queen,  and  the  Princess-Dowager  of 
Wales,  on  the  marriage  of  their  Majesties,  which  were 
thought  to  be  well  composed,  especially  that  to  His 
Majesty.  This  even  met  with  the  approbation  of  the 
Commissioner,  though  not  pleased  with  me,  when  on 
one  of  the  preceding  years  I  had  helped  to  raise  bad 
humour  against  him  for  inviting  Whitefield  to  dine 
at  his  table,  and  another  year  he  had  entertained  [a 
design]  of  dissolving  the  Assembly  before  the  second 
Sunday.  To  be  sure,  the  business  before  us  was  but 
slack,  yet  had  we  allowed  the  precedent  to  take  place, 
we  should  never  have  recovered  that  Sunday  more. 

On  the  last  day  of  this  Assembly  I  learned,  to  my 
great  joy,  that  my  friend  Dr  William  Wight  was 
presented  by  the  King  to  the  vacant  chair  of  History 
at  Glasgow.  As  he  was  my  near  relation,  his  ad- 
vancement, in  which  I  had  a  chief  hand,  was  very 
pleasing ;  and  as  he  was  the  most  agreeable  of  all 
men,  his  coming  near  me  promised  much  enjoyment. 

Towards  the  end  of  June  I  was  earnestly  requested 
by  William  Johnstone,  Esq.,  now  Pulteney,  to  accom- 
pany his  uncle,  Lord  Elibank,  on  some  jaunt,  to  take 
him  from  home,  as  he  had  just  lost  his  lady,  and  was 
in  bad  spiiits.     I  agreed,  on  condition  that  he  would 


LORD   ELIBANKS   ADVENTURES.  425 

take  the  road  wliich  I  wLshecI  to  go,  wliich  was  to 
Newcastle,  to  bring  home  Mrs  Carlyle.  This  was 
agreed  to,  and  I  went  to  him  in  a  day  or  two,  and  we 
set  out  on  the  27th  of  June  ;  and  as  he  travelled 
with  his  own  horses,  we  did  not  arrive  there  till  the 
29th  to  dinner.  My  fellow-traveller  was  gloomy,  and 
lamented  his  wife  very  much,  who  had  been  a  beauty 
in  her  youth,  and  was  a  Dutch  lady  of  fortune,  the 
widow  of  Lord  North  and  Grey.  He  himself  was  now 
turned  sixty,  and  she  was  ten  years  older.  She  was 
a  weak  woman,  but  very  observant  of  him,  and  seemed 
proud  of  his  wit  and  fine  parts,  and  had  no  uneasi- 
ness about  his  infidelities,  except  as  they  affected  his 
prospects  in  a  future  w^orld.  She  had  a  large  jointure, 
which  he  lost,  which  added  to  his  affliction.  But  she 
had  brought  a  large  sum  besides,  and,  falling  in  with 
his  humour  of  saving,  from  being  a  very  poor  lord 
she  had  made  him  very  wealthy.  When  he  arrived 
at  Newcastle,  he  was  at  first  overcome  with  the  sight 
,of  my  wife,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  his  lady; 
but  her  sympathy,  and  the  gentle  manners  of  her  sister, 
attracted  his  notice.  He  had  by  nature  very  great 
sensibility ;  he  admired,  and  had  once  loved,  his  wife, 
whom  he  was  conscious  he  had  injured.  In  this 
tender  state  of  vexation,  mixed  with  grief  and  peni- 
tence, he  met  at  Newcastle  with  a  very  handsome 
young  lady.  Miss  Maria  Fielding,  a  niece  of  Sir  John 
Fielding,  whose  manners,  softened  by  his  recent  loss 
and  melancholy  appearance,  so  much  subdued  him, 
that  he  fell  suddenlv  in  love,  and  was  ashamed  and 


426  THE  ROMAN  WALL. 

afflicted  with  his  own  feelings,  falling  into  a  kind  of  a 
hysterical  fit.  Mrs  Carlyle  told  me  afterwards  that 
she  had  made  him  confess  this,  which  he  said  he  did 
because  he  saw  she  had  found  him  out.  Hearing 
that  some  of  his  friends  were  at  Harrogate,  he  left  us 
on  the  fourth  or  fifth  day,  and  went  there :  at  this 
place  there  was  plenty  of  gay  company,  and  play,  and 
every  sort  of  amusement  for  an  afflicted  widower,  so 
that  his  lordship  soon  forgot  his  lady  and  her  jointure, 
and  Maria  Fielding,  and  all  his  cares  and  sorrow,  and 
became  the  gayest  man  in  the  whole  house  before  the 
month  of  July  elapsed. 

As  we  were  to  go  round  by  Dumfries  to  visit  my 
sister  Dickson,  who  had  fallen  into  a  decline,  and  was 
drinking  goats'  whey  in  the  neighbourhood,  we  pro- 
posed to  take  the  road  to  Carlisle  from  Newcastle ; 
and  Mrs  Carlyle  not  being  very  strong,  we  got  Mr 
Blackett's  chaise  for  the  first  day's  journey.  After  you 
have  got  ten  or  twelve  miles  west  from  Newcastle,  the 
country  becomes  dreary  and  desolate,  without  a  single 
interesting  object  but  what  employs  the  curious  re- 
search of  the  antiquarian — the  remains  of  that  Roman 
wall  which  was  constructed  to  prevent  the  inroads  of 
the  barbarians  on  the  Eoman  provinces  or  the  de- 
fenceless natives.  The  wall  in  many  parts  is  wonder- 
fully entire ;  and  while  it  demonstrates  the  art  and 
industry  of  the  Romans,  brings  full  in  our  view  the 
peace  and  security  we  now  enjoy  under  a  government 
that  unites  the  interest  and  promotes  the  common 
prosperity  of  the  whole  island.    We  slept  at  Glenwhilt, 


VISITS.  427 

a  paltry  place,  and  got  to  Brampon  early  next  day, 
but  had  to  send  to  Carlisle  for  a  chaise,  as  I  did  not 
choose  to  carry  Mr  Blackett's  any  further.  This  place, 
as  is  noted  in  an  account  of  Dr  Wight,  is  remarkable 
for  the  birth  of  three  persons  in  the  same  year,  or 
nearly  so,  who  got  as  high  in  their  respective  profes- 
sions as  they  possibly  could  —  Dr  Thomas,  a  son  of 
the  rector  of  the  parish,  who  came  to  be  Bishop  of 
Eochester  ;  ^Ir  Wallace,  a  son  of  the  attorney,  who 
arrived  at  the  dignity  of  Attorney-General,  and  would 
have  been  Chancellor  had  he  lived  ;  and  Dr  William 
Wight,  the  son  of  the  dissenting  minister,  who  lived 
to  be  Professor  of  Divinity  in  Glasgow. 

It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  before  the  chaise  came 
from  Carlisle,  for  which  I  had  sent,  so  that  we  not 
only  breakfasted  but  dined  here,  when  the  cheapness, 
not  less  than  the  goodness,  of  our  fare  was  surprising, 
as  4s.  6d.  w^as  the  whole  expense  for  Mrs  Carlyle's 
dinner  and  mine,  and  Blackett's  servant,  and  two 
horses,  mine  having  gone  on  to  Carlisle.  The  en- 
virons of  Carlisle  are  beautiful,  and  Mrs  Carlyle  was 
much  pleased  with  them.  The  road  from  thence  to 
Dummies  is  through  a  level  country,  but  not  very 
interesting,  being  at  that  time  imimproved,  and  but 
thinly  inhabited.  The  approach  to  Dumfries  on  every 
side  is  pleasing. 

]My  sister  Dickson  was  down  at  Newabbey,  ten 
miles  below  Dumfries,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Nith,  for 
the  sake  of  goats'  whey.  We  went  down  next  day, 
but  found  her  far  gone  in  a  decline,  a  disorder  which 


428  CHURCH    POLITICS. 

had  been  so  fatal  to  our  family.  She  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  Mrs  Carlyle's  character  before  she  met 
her,  which  she  did  with  the  most  tender  and  cheerful 
affection.  Her  appearance,  she  told  me,  even  surpassed 
all  she  had  heard  ;  and  for  the  two  days  they  remained 
together,  there  never  was  a  closer  union  of  two  supe- 
rior minds,  softened  by  tenderness  and  adorned  with 
every  female  virtue.  It  w^as  difl&cult  to  part  them, 
as  they  were  sure  they  would  meet  no  more :  many 
confident  promises  were  made,  however,  to  lighten  as 
much  as  possible  the  melancholy  parting,  which  my 
sister  performed  with  such  angelic  gaiety  as  led  Mrs 
Carlyle  into  the  belief  that  she  thought  herself  in  little 
danger.  I  knew  the  contrary.  One  thing  she  did — 
which  was,  to  confirm  me  in  the  opinion  of  what  an  ex- 
cellent mind  it  was  to  which  I  was  united ;  but  this 
needed  no  confirmation.  After  this  scene,  Dumfries  and 
the  company  of  our  other  friends  was  irksome,  so  we 
made  haste  to  meet  my  mother,  who  had  taken  the  road 
home  from  Penrith,  bavins;  been  so  lono-  absent  from 
my  father.  We  found  our  little  girl  in  perfect  health. 
It  was  this  year,  in  September,  that  on  the  death 
of  Hyndman  I  succeeded  him  in  the  place  of  Almoner 
to  the  King,  an  office  of  no  great  emolument,  but  a 
mark  of  distinction,  and  very  convenient,  as  my  stipend 
was  small,  for  I  kept  my  resolution  to  defer  a  prosecu- 
tion for  an  augmentation  till  my  patron  was  of  age. 
I  had  reason  to  expect  this  office,  not  only  by  means 
of  John  Home,  now  having  much  of  Lord  Bute's 
ear,  but  from  the  friendship  of  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot  and 


CHURCH   POLITICS.  429 

Sir  Harry  Erskine,  who  were  friends  of  Lord  Bute. 
Charles  Townshend,  too,  had  made  application  at  this 
time,  though  he  failed  me  before. 

The  death  of  Hyndman  was  a  disappointment  to 
Robertson  in  the  management  of  the  Church,  which  he 
had  now  in  view.  By  his  preference  of  Hyndman, 
he  had  provoked  Dick,  who  was  a  far  better  man,  and 
proved  a  very  formidable  and  vigorous  opponent ; 
for  he  joined  the  Wild  or  High-flying  party,  and  by 
moderating  their  councils  and  defendinor  their  mea- 
sures  as  often  as  he  could,  made  them  more  embar- 
rassing than  if  they  had  been  allowed  to  follow  their 
own  measures.  Hyndman  was  a  clever  fellow,  a  good 
preacher,  and  a  good  debater  in  church  courts.  Cum- 
ing had  adopted  him  as  his  second,  and  had  helped 
to  bring  him  from  Colinton  to  the  West  Church. 
Being  unfortunate  in  his  family,  he  had  taken  to 
tippling  and  high  politics.  He  finished  his  constitu- 
tion, and  became  apoplectic.  Cuming  and  he  had 
quarrelled,  and  Eobertson,  without  adverting  to  his 
undone  constitution* 

It  was  in  about  the  end  of  this  year  that  my  sister 
Bell,  and  her  two  children  then  born — William  and 
Jessie — came  down  to  pay  my  father  and  mother  a 
visit,  and  stayed  between  their  houses  and  ours  till 
the  month  of  June  1763. 

*  The  sentence  is  left  unfinished :  the  intention  seems  to  have  been  to 
say,  that  Robertson  made  him  second  in  command  to  himself  as  leader  uf 
the  Church-  Hyndman  is  referred  to  in  Chap.  III.,  and  on  several  other 
occasions.  A  notice  of  him  will  be  found  in  Morren's  Annals  of  the  General 
Assembly,  ii.  402. — Ed. 


430  ADAM   SMITH    AND   FRANKLIN. 

1763. 

Thomas  Cheap,  consul  at  Madeira,  my  friend,  came 
to  Edinburgh  in  the  beginning  of  the  year,  to  visit  his 
friends  and  look  out  for  a  wife.  After  having  been 
plied  by  two  or  three,  he  at  last  fixed  on  Grace  Stuart, 
a  very  pretty  girl,  and  carried  her.  This  pleased  his 
sister  well,  who  was  always  looking  after  quality ;  for 
her  mother,  Lady  Ann,  was  a  sister  of  the  Earl  of 
Murray.  This  courtship  occasioned  several  pleasant 
meeting's  of  private  parties  at  Cbrystal's,  a  tavern  in 
the  parish,  where  Dr  Robert  Finlay,  now  possessor  of 
Drummore,  displayed  such  qualities  as  he  had;  for  he 
was  master  of  one  of  the  feasts,  having  lost  a  dinner 
and  a  ball  to  the  Consul's  sister.  Ann  CoUingwood 
made  a  good  figure  in  the  dance,  but  Grace  CoUing- 
wood surpassed  her. 

About  the  end  of  April,  my  sister,  and  my  wife,  and 
[I,  paid]  a  visit  to  our  friends  in  Glasgow,  where  we 
were  most  cordially  received  by  my  old  friends,  Mr 
Dreghorn  and  sundry  other  merchants,  who  were 
connected  with  Mr  Bell  in  Airdrie,  particularly  Eobin 
Boyle  and  the  Dunlops.  Dr  Adam  Smith  and  Dr 
Black,  as  well  as  Dr  Wight,  were  now  here,  though 
the  last  had  not  yet  got  into  his  house.  We  had 
many  agreeable  meetings  with  them,  as  well  as  with 
our  mercantile  friends.  It  was  there  that  I  saw  No. 
45,  when  just  published  by  Wilkes,  of  which  Smith 
said,  on  hearing  it  read,  "  Bravo !  this  fellow  will 
either  be  hanged  in  six  months,  or  he  will  get  Lord 


ADAM   SMITH    AND    FEANKLIN.  431 

Bute  impeached."  Supping  with  him  in  a  company  of 
twenty-two,  when  a  certain  yoimg  peer  was  present, 
after  a  little  while  I  whispered  him  that  I  wondered 
they  had  set  up  this  man  so  high,  as  I  thought  him 
mighty  foolish.  *'  We  know  that  perfectly,"  said  he ; 
"  but  he  is  the  only  lord  at  our  college."  To  this  day 
there  were  not  above  two  or  three  gentlemen's  chaises 
in  Glasgow,  nor  hackney-coaches,  nor  men-servants 
to  attend  at  table;  but  they  were  not  the  worse 
served. 

Soon  after  we  returned  home  in  the  beonnnino-  of 
May,  my  sister  and  her  children  returned  to  London, 
but  took  the  way  by  Dumfries  to  visit  their  friends 
there. 

Dr  Robertson  was  Moderator  of  the  Assembly  this 
year,  and  being  now  Principal  of  the  University  of 
Edinburgh,  had  it  in  his  power  to  be  member  of 
Assembly  every  year.  He  had  lost  Hyndman,  but  he 
had  now  adopted  Dr  John  Drysdale,  who  had  married 
his  cousin,  one  of  the  Adams,  a  far  better  man  in 
every  respect ;  for  he  had  good  talents  for  business, 
though  his  invincible  modesty  prevented  his  speak- 
ing in  public.  He  now  managed  the  Highland  corre- 
spondence, and  became  extremely  popular  in  that  divi- 
sion of  the  Church.  Robertson  had  now  Dr  Dick  as 
his  stated  opponent,  who  would  have  been  very  for- 
midable had  he  not  been  tied  up  by  his  own  principles, 
which  were  firm  in  support  of  presentations,  and  by 
his  not  having  it  in  his  power  to  be  a  member  of 
Assembly  more  than  once  in  four  or  five  years,  on 


432  KOBERTSON   AND    CHURCH    POLITICS. 

account  of  the  strict  rotation  observed  by  tlie  Presby- 
tery of  Edinburgh. 

Andrew  Crosbie,  the  advocate,  was  another  constant 
and  able  opponent  of  Dr  Robertson  and  his  friends, 
though  hampered  a  little  by  the  law  of  patronage. 
His  maternal  uncle.  Lord  Tinwald,  the  Justice-Clerk, 
who  was  his  patron,  being  dead,  he  wished  to  gain 
employment  by  pleasing  the  popular  side.  Fairbairn, 
the  minister  of  Dumbarton,  was  another  opponent — 
brisk  and  foul-mouthed,  who  stuck  at  nothing,  and 
was  endowed  with  a  rude  popular  eloquence  ;  but  he 
was  a  mere  hussar,  who  had  no  steady  views  to  direct 
him.  He  was  a  member  of  every  Assembly,  and  spoke 
in  every  cause,  but  chiefly  for  plunder — that  is,  ap- 
plause and  dinners — for  he  did  not  seem  to  care 
whether  he  lost  or  won.  Robertson's  soothing  man- 
ner prevented  his  being  hard-mouthed  with  him. 

Dr  Robertson  had  for  his  assistants  [not  only]  all  the 
Moderate  party  in  Edinburgh  and  the  neighbourhood, 
but  many  clergymen  annually  from  the  most  distant 
Synods  and  Presbyteries  ;  who,  now  that  the  debates 
of  the  Assembly  were  carried  on  with  freedom,  though 
still  with  great  order,  were  very  good  speakers  and  able 
debaters.  There  were  very  few  of  the  lay  elders  of 
much  consideration  who  opposed  him  ;  and  Henry 
Dundas  (Lord  Melville),  who  was  in  himself  a  host, 
coming  next  year  to  our  aid,  [added  greatly  to  our 
strength,  and  made  the  business  fashionable,  for  till 
then]  many  of  the  superior  elders  deserted  the  Assem- 
bly, insomuch  that  I  remember  one  year,  that  when  a 


HARROGATE  IN    1763.  433 

most  important  overture  was  debated  there  was  nei- 
ther  one  of  the  Judges  nor  of  the  Crown  lawyers  in 
the  Assembly.* 

In  May  this  year  we  had  a  visit  from  the  Elacketts, 
who  did  not  stay  long ;  and  having  an  appointment 
with  Dr  Wight  to  go  for  a  few  weeks  to  Harrogate, 
we  set  out  in  the  beginning  of  July,  and  on  our  way 
passed  some  days  in  Newcastle,  where  Wight,  who 
was  a  stranger,  made  his  usual  impression  as  one  of 
the  most  agreeable  men  they  had  ever  seen.  When 
we  arrived  at  the  Dragon,  in  Harrogate,  however, 
Wight's  vivacity  was  alarmed  at  the  shyness  of  the 
English,  who  are  backward  to  make  up  to  strangers 
till  they  have  reconnoitred  them  a  while.  Wight  was 
much  enraged  at  this,  and  threatened  either  to  leave 
the  place,  or  to  breakfast  in  a  private  room.  I  pre- 
vailed with  him  to  have  his  table  set  in  the  long  room, 
where  our  demeanour  being  observed  by  the  company, 
we  were  soon  relieved  from  our  awkward  situation  by 
an  invitation  from  two  ladies,  who  had  no  men  with 
them,  to  come  to  their  breakfast -table,  according  to 
the  custom  of  the  place  at  this  time.  We  found  them 
very  agreeable,  and  were  envied  for  our  good-luck. 
When  we  entered  the  dining-room  at  two  o'clock,  we 
were  no  longer  strangers,  and  took  our  places  accord- 
ing to  the  custom  of  the  house.  There  were  two 
tables  in  the  dining-room,  which  held  between  thirty 
and  forty  apiece,  and  our  places  were  at  the  bottom 
of  that  on  the  right  hand,  from  whence  we  were 

•  The  passage  in  brackets  is  in  the  MS.,  but  not  in  the  Author's  hand. 

2    E 


434  HARROGATE    IN    17G3. 

gradually  to  rise  to  the  top  of  the  room  as  the  com- 
pany changed,  which  was  daily. 

Harrogate  at  this  time  was  very  pleasant,  for  there 
was  a  constant  succession  of  good  company,  and  the 
best  entertainment  of  any  watering-place  in  Britain, 
at  the  least  expense.     The  house  we  were  at  was  not 
only  frequented  by  the  Scotch  at  this  time,  but  was 
the  favourite  house  of  the  English  nobility  and  gentry. 
Breakfast  cost  gentlemen  only  2d.  apiece  for  their  muf- 
fins, as  it  was  the  fashion  for  ladies  to  furnish  tea  and 
sugar  ;  dinner.  Is. ;  supper,  6d.  ;  chambers,  nothing  ; 
wine  and  other  extras  at  the  usual  price,  and  as  little 
as  you  please ;  horses  and  servants  at  a  reasonable  rate. 
We  had  two  haunches  of  venison  twice  a-week  during 
the  season.     The  ladies  gave  afternoon's  tea  and  coffee 
in  their  turns,  which,  coming  but  once  in  four  or  five 
weeks,  amounted  to  a  trifle.     The  estates  of  the  people 
at  our  table  did  not  amount  to  less  than  £50,000  or 
£60,000  per  annum,  among  whom  were  several  mem- 
bers of  Parliament ;   and  they  had  not  had  the  pre- 
caution  to    order   one   newspaper   among   them   all, 
though  the  time  was  critical  ;  but  Andrew  Millar,  the 
celebrated  bookseller,  supplied  that  defect,  for  he  had 
two  papers  sent  to  him  by  every  post,  so  that  all  the 
baronets  and  great  squires — your  Sir  Thomas  Cover- 
ings, and  Sir  Harry  Grays,  and  Drummond  of  Blair- 
drummond — depended  upon   and  paid  him  civility 
accordingly  ;  and  yet  when  he  appeared  in  the  morn- 
ing, in  his  old  well-worn  suit  of  clothes,  they  could  not 
help  calling  him  Peter  Pamphlet ;  for  the  generous 


HARROGATE   IN    1763.  435 

patron  of  Scotch  authors,  with  his  city  wife  and  her 
niece,  were  sufficiently  ridiculous  when  they  came  into 
good  company.  It  was  observed,  however,  that  she 
did  not  allow  him  to  go  down  to  the  well  with  her  in 
the  chariot  in  his  morning  dress,  though  she  owned  him 
at  dinner-time,  as  he  had  to  pay  the  extraordinaries. 

As  Wight  had  never  been  in  York,  we  went  down 
early  on  a  Sunday  morning,  when  we  heard  that  the 
Archbishop  and  the  Judges  were  to  be  in  the  Cathe- 
dral. We  had  Dr  Hunter,  M.D.,  who  at  that  time 
frequented  Harrogate,  for  our  guide  ;  but  he  was  kept 
in  such  close  conversation  that  he  mistook  the  road, 
and  led  us  two  miles  out  of  our  way,  so  that  we  had 
but  just  time  to  breakfast  before  we  went  to  church, 
when  the  service  being  begun,  we  entered  the  choir, 
where  it  was  crowded  to  the  door.  Our  eyes  were 
delighted  with  such  a  magnificent  show,  but  our  ears 
were  not  so  highly  pleased,  for  no  part  of  the  service 
seemed  to  us  to  suit  the  grandeur  of  the  scene.  We 
were  invited  to  dine  with  Mr  Scott  from  Madeira, 
Thomas  Cheap's  partner  ;  but  Wight  had  engaged 
to  dine  with  the  Honourable  Archdeacon  Hamilton, 
whose  education  he  had  superintended  for  a  year  at 
Glasgow,  and  w^ith  whom  he  was  well  acquainted  in 
Ireland,  where  his  preferment  lay.  His  beautiful  wife 
had  eloped  from  him  with  a  Sir  George  Warren,  and 
he  had  received  her  again,  and  was  living  privately  at 
York  till  the  story  became  stale.  Wight  extolled  her 
beauty  and  her  penitence — and,  if  I  remember  right, 
they  continued  to  live   together,  and  had   sons  and 


43G  BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN. 

daughters.  We  passed  the  evening  with  Mr  Scott,  who 
had  with  him  a  large  party  of  Americans — Mr  Allen, 
Justice-General  of  Pennsylvania,  and  his  two  sons  and 
daughters,  fine  young  people  indeed,  the  eldest  of 
them  not  yet  twenty  years  of  age  :  with  them  there  was 
also  a  Mr  Livingstone,  and,  I  think,  a  sister  of  his  also. 
Mr  Allen  was  a  man  very  open  and  communicative, 
and  as  he  was  of  Scottish  extraction,  his  grandfather 
having  fled  from  Stirlingshire  to  escape  the  cruel 
persecutions  of  the  Presbyterians  by  Lauderdale  and 
James  IL,  he  seemed  partial  to  us  as  clergymen  from 
Scotland.  He  said  he  intended  to  have  gone  as  far 
as  Edinburgh,  but  found  he  should  not  have  time 
at  present,  but  was  to  leave  his  sons  in  England  to 
complete  their  education.  He  wished  us  to  stay  all 
next  day,  and  come  an  hour  in  the  forenoon  to 
examine  his  lads,  to  judge  to  what  a  lengtli  young 
men  could  now  be  brought  in  America.  This  we 
declined,  but  agreed  to  dine  next  day,  and  bring  on 
such  conversation  as  would  enable  us  to  judge  better 
of  the  young  men  than  any  formal  examination. 

There  was  a  circumstance  that  I  shall  never  forget, 
which  passed  in  one  of  our  conversations.  Dr  Wight 
and  I  had  seen  Dr  Franklin  at  Edinburgh,  as  I  have 
formerly  related  :  we  mentioned  this  philosopher  to 
Mr  Allen  with  the  respect  we  thought  due,  and  he 
answered,  "Yes,  all  you  have  said  of  him  is  true,  and  I 
could  add  more  in  his  praise  ;  but  though  I  have  now 
got  the  better  of  him,  he  has  cost  me  more  trouble 
since  he  came  to  reside  in  our  State  than  all  mankind 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN.  437 

besides ;  and  I  can  assure  you  that  lie  is  a  man  so 
turbulent,  and  such  a  plotter,  as  to  be  able  to  embroil 
the  three  kingdoms,  if  he  ever  has  an  opportunity." 
Franklin  was  after  this  for  several  weeks  in  Edin- 
burgh with  David  Hume,  but  I  did  not  see  him, 
having  been  from  home  on  some  jaunt.  In  1769  or 
'70  I  met  him  at  an  invited  dinner  in  London,  at 
John  Stuart's,  the  Provost's  son  I  think  it  was,  where 
he  was  silent  and  inconversible,  but  this  was  after  he 
had  been  refused  the  office  of  Postmaster-General  of 
America,  and  had  got  a  severe  dressing  from  Wedder- 
bum,  then  Solicitor  or  Attorney-General.  We  returned 
to  Harrogate  in  the  evening,  where  Mr  Scott  and  his 
wife  joined  us  next  day. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  at  dinner  to  sit  next  Mr 
Ann,  a  Roman  Catholic  gentleman  of  Yorkshire,  who 
was  very  agreeable,  and  knew  the  whole  company ; 
but  it  was  our  misfortune  to  lose  our  new  friends 
very  fast,  for  at  the  end  of  a  fortnight  I  was  at  the 
head  of  a  table,  above  thirty,  and,  I  remember,  had  to 
divide  a  haunch  of  venison  amono-  fifteen  of  them  with- 
out  getting  any  portion  of  fat  for  myself — "  but  what 
signifies  that,  when  you  have  an  opportunity  of  oblig- 
ing your  friends  1 "  as  Sir  J.  Dalrymple  said  to  me 
one  day  when  we  had  a  haunch  at  the  Poker,  flatter- 
ing me  for  a  good  piece,  for  he  was  a  gourmand.  But 
it  was  wonderful  to  observe  how  easily  we  united 
with  our  new  friends  who  took  the  places  of  the 
deceased,  for  most  of  them  were  in  reality  so  to  us. 
We  fell  in  by  accident  with  a  very  agreeable  man,  a 


438  LORD    CLIVE. 

Colonel  Roberts,  who  was  lieutenant-colonel  of  the 
Eoyal  Irish,  and  had  been  in  that  country  for  three 
years,  and  had  so  completely  caught  the  brogue  that 
it  was  impossible  at  first  to  think  him  an  Englishman 
born  and  bred,  which  he  nevertheless  was,  and  nephew 
to  Lord  Egremont,  Secretary  of  State  at  the  time. 
This  gentleman,  by  ill-luck,  had  been  directed  to  the 
Salutation  Inn,  which  was  the  Quakers'  house,  of 
excellent  entertainment,  but  indifi'erent  compauy.  He 
took  much  to  Wight  and  me,  and  we  would  fain 
have  drawiQ  him  to  our  house,  but  he  would  not  for 
the  world  affront  the  good  people,  with  whom  he  had 
lived  a  week.  So  we  compromised  the  matter,  and 
went  sometimes  to  dine  at  his  house,  and  he  returned 
the  visit  and  came  to  ours.  He  was  truly  a  man  of 
sense,  and  of  much  reading,  and  a  great  master  of 
conversation  :  he  was  the  first  whom  I  met  with  who 
struck  out  an  idea  that  has  been  followed  since  ;  for, 
talking  much  of  Hume's  and  Robertson's  Histories,  he 
said  that  Hume  appeared  to  him  to  be  the  Homer 
and  Robertson  the  Virgil  of  British  historians, — a 
criticism  that  has  of  late  been  confirmed  by  Dugald 
Stewart's  quotation. 

Our  friend  Captain  Francis  Lindsay  was  at  the 
Granby,  who  sometimes  dined  with  us,  as  we  did  one 
day  with  him,  when  we  understood  that  Lord  Clive  and 
his  train  were  to  dine  there  ;  and  he  had  arrived  the 
evening  before,  of  which  Lindsay  informed  us,  and  we 
went  in  due  time  to  dinner.  Clive  was  an  ill-looking 
man,  with  the  two  sides  of  his  face  much  unlike,  one 


LORD    CLIVE.  439 

of  them  seem  Id  g  distorted  as  with  the  palsy.  When 
we  entered  the  long  room,  he  was  sitting  at  a  table 
in  a  window  with  a  great  many  papers  before  him, 
which  he  had  received  with  that  day's  post.  It  was 
by  those  despatches  that  he  had  learned  that  his 
jagire  was  taken  from  him.  Lindsay  had  watched  his 
countenance  from  the  moment  he  got  them,  but  could 
perceive  no  change  in  the  muscles  of  his  face,  which 
were  well  suited  to  bad  news.  But  he  must  have 
known  before  this  time  what  had  happened.  He  sat 
at  some  distance  from  me  on  the  opposite  side,  but  he 
seemed  to  converse  with  nobody  during  dinner,  and 
left  the  table  immediately  after.  There  were  half-a- 
dozen  people  with  him,  among  whom  were  hLs  favourite 
secretaries,  both  jolly  fellows,  who  loved  a  glass  of 
claret,  which  Lindsay  recommended  to  them,  and 
which  was  truly  good. 

Thomas  Cheap,  my  friend  from  Madeira,  who  had 
been  married  at  Inveresk  with  Grace  Stuart,  came  to 
Harrogate,  according  to  his  promise,  to  visit  Lind- 
say and  me.  He  came  to  the  Dragon,  and  remained 
four  days  with  us.  She  was  very  handsome  and 
spirited,  and  made  a  great  impression.  Eobert  Berry 
and  his  beautiful  wife  were  there  at  the  same  time, 
and  it  could  not  be  doubted  that  she  was  the  finer 
woman  of  the  two ;  yet  our  fair  Caledonian  had  so 
much  frankness  and  spirit,  and  danced  so  exquisitely, 
that  she  carried  off  all  hearts,  insomuch  that  there  was 
a  sensible  degree  of  regret  and  gloominess  in  the  com- 
pany for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  at  least  after  she  left  it. 


410  ENGLISH    WATERING-PLACES. 

Wight  and  I  rode  one  day  to  Hackfell,  a  place  of 
the  Aislabies,   a  few  miles   beyond   Ripon,   through 
a  most  delightful  country,  no  part  of  which  is  finer 
than   Ripley.      Hackfell    consists   of  a    few    wooded 
hills  on  both  sides  of  a  valley,  terminating  in  a  fine 
village  on   the  banks  of  a  small  river,   called   Ma- 
sham.     There  are  fine  walks  cut  through  the  woods, 
which  make  the  place  very  delightful.     Many  such 
are  now  in  Scotland,  since  our  great  proprietors  have 
found  the  way  to  lay  open  the  secret  beauties  of  their 
romantic  domains  to  strangers.     Not  being  able  to 
reach  Harrogate  to  dinner,  we  tried  to  get  something 
at  Grewelthorpe,  the  adjacent  village ;  but  there  was 
no  fire  in  the  house,  nor  anything  indeed,  but  very  bad 
oat  bread  and  some  ordinary  cheese.      Rummaging 
about  in  the  awmry,  however,  I  found  at  last  about  two 
pounds'  weight  of  cold  roast-veal,  which  was  a  great 
prize,  especially  now  that  two  gentlemen  had  joined 
us,  an  Hanoverian  nobleman,  and  a  Dr  Dod  from 
London — not  he  of  infamous  memory,  but  another  of 
perfect  good  character  and  very  agreeable  manners. 
We  visited  many  fine  places  in  the  neighbourhood, 
and  particularly  Harewood,  the  seat  of  Squire  Las- 
celles,  now  Lord  Harewood,  where  there  is  a  very  fine 
house  built  by  Robert  Adam,  and  then  not  inhabited. 
The  house  might  have  had  a  finer  site,  had  it  been  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  more  to  the  north,  where  there  is  a 
full  view  of  one  of  the  finest  vales  in  Yorkshire.    Next 
year  I  visited  this  place  again  with  my  wife  and  the 
Blacketts,  and   having   been  rebuked  by  Sir  David 


ENGLISH   WATERING-PLACES.  441 

Dalrymple  for  having  omitted  it  before  (because  I 
was  ignorant  of  its  curiosity),  I  went  into  the  \dllage 
church,  and  saw  the  monument  of  the  Chief-Justice 
Gascoigne,  a  native  here,  who  had  arrested  Henry  V., 
when  Prince  of  Wales,  for  a  riot. 

Harrogate  abounded  with  half -pay  officers  and 
clergymen.  The  first  are  much  the  same  at  all  times, 
ill  educated,  but  well  bred ;  and  when  you  now  and 
then  meet  with  a  scholar  such  as  Colonel  Roberts,  or 
my  old  friend  whom  I  knew  when  Lieutenant  Ward 
at  Musselburgh — a  little  stuttering  fellow,  about  the 
year  1749,  who  had  read  Poly  bins  and  Caesar  twice 
over,  and  who  rose  to  be  a  general  and  commander  of 
the  cavalry  in  Ireland — you  will  find  him  as  intelligent 
as  agreeable.  Of  the  clergy  I  had  never  seen  so  many 
together  before,  and  between  this  and  the  following 
year  I  was  able  to  form  a  true  judgment  of  them. 
They  are,  in  general — I  mean  the  lower  order — divided 
into  bucks  and  prigs ;  of  which  the  first,  though  in- 
conceivably ignorant,  and  sometimes  indecent  in  their 
morals,  yet  I  held  them  to  be  most  tolerable,  because 
they  were  unassuming,  and  had  no  other  afi"ectation 
but  that  of  behaving  themselves  like  gentlemen.  The 
other  division  of  them,  the  prigs,  are  truly  not  to  be 
endured,  for  they  are  but  half  learned,  are  ignorant  of 
the  world,  narrow-minded,  pedantic,  and  overbearing. 
And  now  and  then  you  meet  with  a  rara  avis  who  is 
accomplished  and  agreeable,  a  man  of  the  world  with- 
out licentiousness,  of  learning  without  pedantry,  and 
pious  without  sanctimony  ;  but  this  is  a  rara  avis. 


442  ENGLISH    WATERING-PLACES. 

This  was  the  first  time  I  had  seen  John  Bull  at  any 
of  his  watering-places,  and  I  thought  it  not  difficult 
to  account  for  his  resort  to  them.  John  is  an  honest 
and  worthy  person  as  any  in  the  world,  but  he  is  sel- 
dom happy  at  home.  He  has  in  his  temper  a  shyness 
that  approaches  to  timidity,  and  a  deference  for  the 
opinion  of  his  servant  that  overawes  him,  and  keeps 
him  in  constraint  at  home,  while  he  is  led  into  unrea- 
sonable expense.  At  his  watering-places  he  is  free 
from  these  shackles  ;  his  reserve  is  overcome  by  the 
frankness  of  those  he  meets ;  he  is  master  of  his 
servants,  for  he  carries  only  two  with  him  ;  and  the 
man  of  £10,000  per  annum  can  spend  no  more  than 
the  man  of  £500,  so  that  the  honest  man  finds  him- 
self quite  unfettered,  and  is  ready  to  show  his  kind 
and  sociable  disposition ;  he  descends  from  his  ima- 
ginary dignity  by  mixing  with  those  who  are  richer 
than  himself,  and  soon  shows  you  what  he  really  is, 
viz.  the  very  best  sort  of  man  in  the  world.  The  late 
wars  have  been  very  favourable  to  the  improving  and 
disclosing  his  character,  for  instead  of  going  into 
France,  where  he  was  fiattered,  laughed  at,  and  plun- 
dered, he  is  now  obliged  to  make  all  his  summer 
excursions  round  his  own  country,  where  his  heart 
expands ;  and,  being  treated  as  he  deserves,  returns 
home  for  the  winter  happy  and  much  improved. 

At  this  period  everything  was  cheap  and  good  at 
Harrogate,  except  wine,  which,  unless  it  was  their 
claret,  which  was  everywhere  good  and  reasonable, 
was  very  bad  indeed.     John  Bull,  however,  has  little 


ENGLISH    WATERING-PLACES.  ^iS 

taste,  and  does  not  much  care  ;  for  provided  he  goes  to 
bed  muzzy,  whether  it  be  with  his  own  native  drink, 
ale,  or  sophisticated  port,  he  is  perfectly  contented. 

As  I  designed  to  convey  Wight  to  Dumfries,  and 
Captain  Lindsay  was  going  by  Lochmaben  to  visit 
his  brother  James,  the  minister,  we  agreed  to  set  out 
together,  and  made  a  very  agreeable  journey.  Some 
part  of  the  road  was  dreary  after  we  passed  Sir 
Thomas  Robertson's,  which  is  a  fine  place,  and  where 
there  is  an  inscription  faiily  acknowledging  that  the 
family  took  its  rise  from  a  Scotch  pedlar.  "When  we 
approached  Appleby,  we  were  delighted  with  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  country,  which,  being  a  mixture  of 
hill  and  dale,  of  wood  and  water,  of  cultivated  and 
uncultivated,  is  far  more  pleasing  to  the  eye  and  the 
imagination  than  those  rich  plains  which  are  divided 
into  small  squares  or  parallelograms,  which  look  like 
bleach-fields  for  cotton,  on  the  banks  of  the  Clyde  or 
Leven.  At  Penrith  we  resolved  to  stop  a  day,  to  rest 
our  horses,  and  to  take  the  opportunity  of  going  to 
visit  the  lake  Keswick,  of  which  we  had  heard  so 
much.  Next  morning  we  took  a  post-chaise  and  four 
and  drove  thither,  over  a  rough  road,  through  a  bar- 
ren country,  to  the  village,  at  the  distance  of  eighteen 
miles.  We  were  unlucky,  for  it  proved  a  rainy  after- 
noon, so  that  we  could  not  sail  on  the  lake,  and  saw 
everything  to  great  disadvantage.  We  returned  to 
Penrith,  where  we  had  good  entertainment  and  ex- 
cellent claret. 

Next  morning  we  set  out  northwards,  and  separated 


441  ENGLISH   WATERING-PLACES. 

from  Captain  Lindsay  when  we  came  to  Longtown, 
for  he  went  to  Lochmaben,  and  we  took  the  road  to 
Dumfries,  where,  after  staying  a  few  days,  I  took  the 
road  home  by  Moffat,  and  Wight  went  over  to  Ire- 
land, once  more  to  visit  his  friends  there.  I  found 
my  wife  and  little  daughter  in  good  health,  with  a 
fair  prospect  of  another  ere  long.  My  wife  had  sup- 
posed that  I  had  some  scorbutic  symptoms,  which  had 
been  removed  by  Harrogate  waters. 

The  remainder  of  the  season  passed  on  as  usual, 
but  I  was  not  any  more  from  home,  except  now  and 
then  in  Edinburgh  at  the  Poker  Club,  which  ceased 
to  meet  by  the  12th  of  August,  and  reopened  on  the 
12th  of  November. 

Luke  Home,  our  aunt  Home's  youngest  son,  came 
to  us  to  be  at  the  school  a  year  or  two  before,  and 
remained  four  years.  Their  daughter,  Betty,  came 
after,  and  stayed  two  or  three  years.  On  the  first 
day  of  December  this  year  my  wife  brought  me  a 
second  daughter,  which,  after  trying  in  vain  to  nurse, 
she  gave  to  a  very  faithful  and  trusty  woman  in 
Fisherrow,  who,  after  remaining  one  quarter  with  us, 
we  allowed  to  take  the  child  to  her  own  house,  where 
she  continued  to  thrive  to  our  entire  satisfaction. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

1764-1766:  AGE,  42-44. 

DOMESTIC     AFFAIRS  HEXRT     DUNDAS HARROGATE     REVISITED 

ADVENTURES     WITH     A     REMARKABLE     BORE THE     AUTHOR     OF 

"  CRAZY     tales" AMBASSADOR     KEITH EDUCATION     OF    THE 

SCOTS    GEXTRT JOHX    GREGORY MRS     MONTAGUE    AXD     HER 

COTERIE DEATH    OF    THE    AUTHOR's   FATHER SUDDEN  DEATH  OF 

HIS    FRIEND    JARDINE CHURCH    POLITICS, 

It  was  in  February  this  year,  I  think,  that  Mrs  Car- 
lyle,  being  perfectly  recovered,  and  I  accompanied  her 
uncle  and  aunt,  Mr  and  Mrs  Home,  to  Glasgow,  to 
see  their  son  Walter,  who  was  in  quarters  there  with 
his  regiment,  the  7th  Foot.  Dr  Wight  had  by  that 
time  got  into  his  house  in  the  College,  and  had 
got  his  youngest  sister  to  keep  his  house,  who  was 
remarkably  handsome,  had  very  good  parts,  with  the 
frank  and  open  manner  of  the  Dumfriesians.  Her 
brother  did  not  disappoint  her  turn  for  social  enter- 
tainment, for  he  loved  company,  and  the  house  was 
not  without  them  almost  any  day.  Here  we  and  our 
friends  were  handsomely  entertained,  as  well  as  at 
Mrs  Dreghom's,  where  we  lodged;  and  at  her  brother's, 
Mr  Bogle's,  who  never  relaxed  in  his  attachment  to 
me.     Walter  Home,  then  only  a  lieutenant,  whose 


446  HENRY    DIJNDAS. 

chum  was  a  Mr  Mainwarring,  a  very  agreeable  man, 
liad  made  himself  very  respectable  in  Glasgow,  to 
which  he  was  well  entitled,  as  much  from  his  superior 
sense  and  knowledge  as  from  his  social  turn.  John 
Home,  by  one  of  his  benevolent  mistakes,  had  put 
him  about  James  Stuart,  Lord  Bute's  second  son, 
whom  he  was  engaged  to  attend  daily  while  he  lived 
with  Dr  Robertson  in  Edinburgh. 

At  this  time  Henry  Dundas,  the  most  strenuous 
advocate  for  the  law  of  the  land  respecting  presenta- 
tions, and  the  ablest  and  steadiest  friend  to  Dr  Robert- 
son and  his  party  that  ever  appeared  in  my  time,  be- 
came a  member  of  Assembly.  He  constantly  attended 
the  Assembly  before  and  after  he  was  Solicitor- General, 
though  when  he  rose  to  be  Lord  Advocate  and  mem- 
ber of  Parliament  he  was  sometimes  detained  in  Lon- 
don till  after  the  meeting  of  Assembly.  He  was  more 
than  a  match  for  the  few  lawyers  who  took  the  op- 
posite side,  and  even  for  Crosbie,  who  was  playing  a 
game,  and  Dr  Dick,  who  was  by  far  the  ablest  clergy- 
man in  opposition.  I  am  not  certain  whether  Henry 
Dundas  did  not  excel  more  as  a  barrister  than  he  did 
as  a  judge  in  a  popular  assembly — in  the  first,  by  his 
entering  so  warmly  into  the  interest  of  his  client  as 
totally  to  forget  himself,  and  to  adopt  all  the  feelings, 
sentiments,  and  interests  of  his  employer ;  in  the 
second,  by  a  fair  and  candid  statement  of  the  ques- 
tion, and  followed  it  by  strong  and  open  reasoning  in 
support^of  his  opinion.  For  a  few  years  at  this  period 
there  was  a  great  struggle  in  the  General  Assembly 


THE    RELIEF   CHURCH.  447 

against  the  measures  supported  and  carried  through 
by  Eobertson  and  his  friends,  and  we  had  to  combat 
the  last  exertions  of  the  party  who  had  supported 
popular  calls  ;  aud  it  must  be  confessed  that  their 
efforts  were  vigorous.  They  contrived  to  bring  in 
overtures  from  year  to  year,  in  which  they  proposed 
to  consult  the  country,  in  the  belief  that  the  result 
would  be  such  a  general  opinion  over  the  kingdom  as 
would  oblige  the  General  Assembly  to  renew  their 
application  for  the  abolition  of  patronage,  or  at  least 
for  some  more  lenient  exercise  of  it.  Those  endea- 
vours were  encouraged  by  a  new  schism  in  the 
Church,  which  was  laid  by  a  Mr  Baine,  minister  of 
Paisley,  which  in  a  few  years  produced  a  numerous 
body  of  new  seceders  called  the  Presbytery  of  Relief, 
who  had  no  fault  to  anything  but  presentations.  This 
faction  was  supported  for  several  years  by  a  strange 
adventurer,  a  ^Ir  William  Alexander,  the  second  son 
of  the  provost  of  that  name,  who  of  all  the  men  I  have 
known  had  the  strongest  propensity  to  plotting,  with 
the  finest  talents  for  such  a  business.  As  his  attempts 
to  speak  in  the  Assembly  were  unsuccessful,  and  drew 
nothing  on  him  but  ridicule,  he  actually  wrote  to  Dr 
Blair  (I  have  seen  the  letter),  offering  him  a  thousand 
pounds  if  he  could  teach  him  the  art  of  speaking  in 
public.  As  Blair  was  Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  Belles- 
Lettres,  he  thought  he  was  the  most  likely  person  to 
comply  with  his  request ;  but  he  had  not  observed 
that  Dr  Blair  never  spoke  in  public  himself,  but  from 
the  pulpit,  from  whence  he  might  have  gathered  that 


448  CONTROVERSIES. 

the  knowledge  of  rhetoric   was   different   from  the 
practice. 

It  was  in  this  year  that  Dr  Drysdale  was  translated 
from  Kirkliston  to  Edinburgh  after  a  long  struggle 
with  the  popular  body,  the  General  Session  of  Edin- 
burgh, who,  with  the  Town  Council,  had  for  many 
years  elected  all  the  ministers.  The  Magistrates  and 
Council  reassumed  their  right  of  presentation  in  this 
case,  and  after  much  litigation  established  it,  much 
for  the  peace  of  the  city.  During  the  contest,  which 
was  violent,  my  friend  Dr  Jardine  rode  out  to  me, 
and  requested  me  to  draw  up  a  paper  in  their  defence, 
which  I  did  on  his  furnishing  me  with  the  facts,  and 
published  under  the  title  of  Faction  Detected.  This  I 
mention,  because  Mr  Robertson,  the  Procurator,  asked 
me  once  if  it  was  not  of  his  father's  composing,  for  so 
it  had  been  said  to  him.  But  I  told  him  the  fact,  and 
at  the  same  time  gave  him  the  reasons  of  dissent  from 
a  sentence  of  the  Commission  in  1751  or '52,  which 
had  been  originally  drawn  by  Dr  Robertson,  though 
corrected  and  enlarged  by  a  committee.  This  pam- 
phlet had  so  much  effect  that  the  opposition  employed 
their  first  hand,  Dr  Dick,  to  write  an  answer  to  it  ; 
and  yet  neither  the  provost,  nor  any  of  the  magis- 
trates, nor  Drysdale  himself,  ever  thanked  me  for  it. 
Dr  Jardine  perhaps  never  told  his  father-in-law, 
Drummond,  and  I  never  asked  him  about  it.  Lind- 
say, who  was  restless,  for.  whom  John  Home  had  ob- 
tained Lochmaben,  now  got  Kirkliston,  and  Lord  Bute 
sent  Dicky  Brown  to  Lochmaben,  for  which  he  had 


CHANCELLOR   LOUGHBOROUGH.  449- 


no  thanks  from  the  neighbourliood,  for  though 
Lindsay's  temper  was  not  very  congruous  to  his 
brethren  and  neighbours,  yet  he  was  a  gentleman, 
whereas  the  other  was  the  contrary,  and  sometimes 
deranged. 

In  the  end  of  summer  I  went  asjain  with  !Mrs  Car- 
lyle  to  Harrogate,  as  her  health  was  not  good,  and  as 
the  [change],  if  not  the  waters,  might  be  good  for  her. 
I  got  an  open  chaise  with  two  horses— one  before  the 
other,  and  the  servant  on  the  first.  As  many  of  the 
roads  through  which  we  went  were  not  at  all  improved, 
we  found  this  an  excellent  way  of  travelling.  We 
visited  our  friends  in  the  Merse  and  in  the  north  of 
England  by  the  way,  and  stayed  some  days  at  New- 
castle. As  Mr  Blackett  and  his  lady  were  going  soon 
to  Eipon  to  visit  his  mother,  they  agreed  to  come  on 
for  a  week  to  Harrogate,  after  which  we  would  return 
with  them  by  York,  where  Mrs  Carlyle  had  never 
been. 

The  assizes  were  at  Newcastle  while  we  were  there, 
and  Alexander  Wedderburn  was  attending  as  a  coun- 
sellor.*    He  had  been  there  the  preceding  year,  but 

had  not  a  cause.     ]^Ir ,  an  old  coimsellor,  who 

had  left  London  and  settled  at  Leeds,  had  become  ac- 
quainted with  him,  and  had  discovered  the  superiority 
of  his  talents.  He  got  him  two  or  three  briefs  this 
circuit,  and  his  appearances  were  such  as  insured  him 
future  success.     This  very  gentleman  pointed  out  his 

*  The  reader  neetl  hardly  be  reminded  that  the  Alexander  Wedderburn 
so  fretinently  mentioned  became  Lord  Chancellor  Loughborough. — Ed. 

2  F 


450  A    CRIMINAL   TRIAL. 

first  lady  to  him,  with  whom  he  got  £10,000.  When 
the  assizes  were  over  he  dined  with  us  at  Mr  Blackett's, 
where  his  talent  for  conversation  not  being  equal  to 
that  at  the  bar,  being  stiff  and  pompons,  he  made  not 
such  an  impression  on  the  company  as  they  expected. 
The  appearance  of  self-conceit  always  disgusts  the 
ladies.  He  came  to  Harrogate  during  the  first  days  of 
our  residence  there,  and  stayed  two  nights,  when  Mrs 
Carlyle  had  some  difficulty  in  getting  him  a  partner. 

It  will  not  be  improper  here  to  state,  that  on  a 
future  occasion  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  save  a  man 
for  that  time  from  the  gallows.  There  was  a  man  of 
the  name  of  Robertson,  who  lived  near  Belford,  who 
was  accused  of  haviug  stolen  a  heifer,  and  killed  it  at 
his  own  house.  The  heifer  had  belonged  to  a  person 
several  miles  distant  from  Belford,  and  was  killed  and 
skinned  before  it  was  seen  by  anybody;  but  the  proof 
on  its  marks,  and  the  colour  of  its  skin,  made  it  very 
like  the  one  amissing.  .  The  man  had  no  advocate,  and 
being  put  on  the  boards,  w^as  asked  by  the  judge 
(Yates)  if  he  had  any  defence  to  make.  He  answered, 
that  he  was  in  use  of  going  annually  to  Dunse  fair, 
where  he  generally  bought  a  beast  or  two  for  his  own 
use,  and  this  was  one  he  had  got  there.  The  judge 
summed  up  the  evidence  and  charged  the  jury,  ob- 
serving in  his  conclusion,  that  the  only  defence  the 
man  made  was,  that  he  bought  the  heifer  at  Dunse 
fair.  Now  it  having  been  proved  that  this  heifer  was 
of  English  breed,  which  could  not  be  bought  at  Dunse, 
that  defence  would  go  for  nothing.     I  was  amazed  at 


A    CRIMINAL    TRIAL.  451 

the  ignorance  of  the  judge,  and  the  carelessness  of  the 
grand  jury,  and  said  to  Colonel  Dickson  of  Belford 
that  the  judge  had  gone  quite  wrong  in  his  charge. 
He  answered  that  Eobertson  was  a  great  rascal,  and 
deserved  to  be  hanged.  I  answered  that  might  be 
true,  but  that  he  ought  not  to  suffer  for  the  ignorance 
of  the  judge  or  jury,  for  he  knew  as  well  as  I  did 
that  cattle  of  Northumberland  were  to  be  bouorht  at 
Dunse  fair — ^nay,  that  half  the  cattle  in  Berwickshire 
were  of  that  breed,  so  that  if  he  would  not  explain 
this  to  the  judge,  I  would.  I  at  last  prevailed  with 
him  to  go  round  and  whisper  the  judge,  who,  calling 
in  the  jury,  retracted  what  he  had  said.  He  sent 
them  out  again,  and  in  a  few  minutes  they  returned 
and  gave  in  their  verdict,  "  Not  guilty. '  I  am  afraid 
such  mistakes  must  frequently  happen  in  England,  in 
spite  of  the  perfection  of  their  laws. 

When  we  arrived  at  Harroo-ate,  the  Dragon  was  not 
full,  and  the  first  person  we  saw  was  the  late  General 
Clerk,  whom,  though  younger  by  at  least  a  year  than 
me,  I  had  known  at  college,  and  had  sometimes  met 
when  I  was  last  in  London.  This  was  a  very  singular 
man,  of  a  very  ingenious  and  active  intellect,  though 
he  had  broke  short  in  his  education  by  entering  at  an 
early  age  into  the  army ;  and  having  by  nature  a 
copious  elocution,  he  threw  out  his  notions,  which  were 
often  new,  with  a  force  and  rapidity  which  stunned 
you  more  than  they  convinced.  He  applied  his  war- 
like ideas  to  colloquial  intercourse,  and  attacked  your 
opinions  as  he  would  do  a  redoubt  or  a  castle,  not  by 


452  A   GREAT    BORE. 

sap  and  mine,  but  by  open  storm.  I  must  confess, 
that  of  all  the  men  who  had  so  much  understanding, 
he  was  the  most  disagreeable  person  to  converse  with 
whom  I  ever  knew.  The  worst  of  him  was,  that  he 
was  not  contented  with  a  patient  hearing,  nor  even 
with  the  common  marks  of  assentation,  such  as  yes, 
or  certainly,  or  to  be  sure,  or  nodding  the  head,  as 
Charles  Townshend,  and  William  Eobertson,  and  other 
great  talkers  were ;  you  must  contradict  him,  and 
wrangle  with  him,  or  you  had  no  peace.  Elibank  had 
something  of  the  same  humour,  but  he  was  better 
bred.  Clerk  was  truly  the  greatest  siccatore  in  the 
world.  Like  some  of  the  locusts  that  blast  the  vege- 
table world,  and  shrivel  to  dust  everything  that  is 
green,  he  was  of  the  caterpillar  kind,  who  have  a  par- 
ticular species  of  food,  on  which  alone  they  fasten, 
and  leave  the  rest  untouched.  I  unluckily  happened 
to  be  the  only  person  of  that  species  at  this  time  in 
the  Dragon  whom  he  knew,  and  he  fastened  on  me 
like  a  leech.  JVIrs  Carlyle  and  I  breakfasted  at  a  table 
by  ourselves,  not  caring  to  join  with  anybody,  as  we 
expected  our  friends  from  Newcastle.  In  vain  I 
hinted  this  to  him  as  an  excuse  for  not  asking  him  to 
breakfast.  That,  he  said,  he  never  did,  as  he  wished 
to  be  independent.  On  the  third  day,  however,  after 
our  arrival,  having  been  much  taken  with  Mrs  Car- 
lyle's  manner  of  conversing,  and  her  not  being  alarmed 
at  his  paradoxes,  but  only  laughing  at  them,  he  or- 
dered his  tea-table  to  be  set  down  close  by  hers,  and 
kept  up  a  noisy  palaver  which  attracted  the  attention 


HALL    AND    SAVAGE    LEE.  45^ 

of  the  whole  room  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  lady's 
entire  possession  of  herself,  and  her  being  a  general 
favourite  of  the  company  who  were  there,  might  have 
let  loose  the  tongue  of  scandal.  He  told  me  that 
he  expected  Adam  Ferguson  from  Edinburgh  imme- 
diately, who  was  to  take  the  two  brothers  of  Lord 
Grenville,  who  were  with  Dr  Robertson  at  Edinburgh, 
under  his  care,  and  that  he  looked  every  day  for  his 
arrival.  Ferguson  had  told  me  this  before,  and  I  now 
ardently  wished  for  his  coming.  In  about  four  or 
five  days  Ferguson  came,  and  most  happily  relieved 
me  from  my  post  of  fatigue ;  for  when  everybody  went 
a  riding  or  walking  in  the  forenoon,  the  first  of  which 
he  could  not  do,  as  he  had  no  horse, — would  you  be- 
lieve it  t  he  patiently  walked  backwards  and  forwards 
within  sight  of  the  door,  so  that  I  could  not  possibly 
escape  him,  and  was  obliged  to  submit  to  my  destiny, 
which  was  to  walk  and  wrangle  Avith  him  for  three 
hours  together.  About  the  fourth  evening  I  had  a 
little  relief  by  the  arrival  of  two  gentlemen,  whom,  as 
we  met  driving  to  the  inn  in  such  a  carriage  as  mine, 
as  we  were  walking  on  the  heath.  Clerk,  having 
stopped  and  spoken  to  them,  returned  to  me  and  said 
that  we  were  now  lucky,  for  those  were  hands  of  the 
first  water.     They  were  Hall,  Esq.,  the  author 

of  Crazy  Tales;  and  the  famous  Colonel  Lee,  com- 
monly called  Savage  Lee.*     As  Clerk  expected  Fer- 

*  The  Crazy  Tales  were  jmblishecl  in  1762  anonymously.  They  aj)i)ear 
(1795)  in  the  collected  works  of  John  Hall  Stevenson,  who  died  in  1785. 
Charles  Lee  was  afterwanLs  celelirated  as  the  rival  of  Washington  for  the 
command  of  the  American  army.  He  was  one  of  the  repnted  authors  of 
Jimius. — El). 


454  FERGUSON  AND  THE  BORE. 

guson,  and  Charles,  and  Robert  Grenville,  we  had 
agreed  to  keep  at  the  foot  of  one  of  the  tables  that 
we  might  have  them  near  us  ;  and  he  requested  me  to 
remain  in  the  same  position,  as  the  two  newly-arrived 
would  be  glad  to  sit  by  us.  I  acquiesced,  and  found  the 
first  a  highly-accomplished  and  well-bred  gentleman  ; 
not  so  the  second,  but  he  might  have  been  endured 
had  it  not  been  for  the  perpetual  jarrings  between 
Clerk  and  him,  w^hich,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  mild 
and  courteous  manner  of  his  companion  Hall,  must 
have  ended  in  a  quarrel ;  for  the  moment  after  the 
ladies  rose  from  table,  which  was  very  soon,  the  two 
soldiers  fell  a  wrangling  and  fighting  like  pugilists, 
which  made  their  company  very  disagreeable. 

In  a  day  or  two  Ferguson  arrived,  which  effectually 
took  Clerk  off  me,  except  at  our  meal-time,  which  I 
could  now  endure,  as  his  fire  was  divided.  Before 
Ferguson  came,  the  house  began  to  be  crowded,  and 
he  was  put  into  a  very  bad  lodging-room,  near  where 
the  fiddlers  slept,  and  very  noisy.  On  the  third  day 
he  was  seized  with  a  fever,  of  which  he  was  very 
impatient,  and  said  it  was  entirely  owing  to  his  bad 
room.  I  brought  Mrs  Carlyle  to  him,  who  thought 
him  very  feverish,  I  went  to  the  landlady  to  procure 
him  a  better  room,  and  when  Kilrington,  the  M.D. 
from  Rippon,  who  attended  the  house  daily,  arrived 
before  dinner,  I  carried  him  to  him,  who  prescribed 
nothing  but  rest  and  sack  whey.  After  two  days 
more,  Kilrington,  who  saw  him  twice  a-day,  told  me 
to  go  to  him,  for  he  was  better.     I  sat  with  him  a 


M'LEOD    OF   THAT   ILK.  4o^ 

few  minutes,  and  as  the  dinner-bell  rang,  I  left  him, 
saj-ing  I  would  send  Clerk  after  dinner.  "  God  for- 
bid," said  he,  in  a  voice  of  despair,  "  as  you  regard  my 
life."  This  explosion  left  me  no  room  to  doubt  what 
was  the  true  cause  of  his  fever.  In  two  days  more 
he  was  able  to  join  us. 

Soon  after  this  there  was  a  party  made  out  which 
amused  us  much.  The  Laird  of  M'Leod,  with  his 
wife  and  daughter,  afterwards  Lady  Pringle,  arrived 
after  dinner  ;  and  as  we  were  their  only  acquaintance, 
and  they  had  arrived  after  dinner,  we  waited  on  them 
to  tea  in  their  parlour,  when  they  asked  us  [to  a  concert] 
they  were  to  have  there  an  hour  or  two  later,  which 
was  to  be  private,  but  we  might  bring  one  or  two  of 
our  friends.  We  attended  accordingly,  and  took 
Messrs  Hall  and  Lee  and  two  ladies  with  us.  Miss 
M'Leod  was  at  this  time  in  the  prime  of  her  beauty, 
and  a  few  months  past  sixteen.  She  was  truly  very 
striking  and  attractive.  When  the  Savage  saw  her,  he 
seemed  astonished  with  her  beauty ;  when  she  sang 
a  Scottish  song,  he  was  delighted ;  but  when  she 
finished  with  an  Italian  song  of  the  first  order,  he 
was  ravished,  and  fell  into  a  silly  amazement,  how  a 
young  lady  from  the  barbarous  coast  of  the  Isle  of 
Skye  could  possibly  be  such  a  mistress  of  the  Italian 
music  and  Italian  tongue.  He  spake  not  another 
word  all  that  night  or  the  next  momino-  when  he 
had  several  opportunities  of  drinking  deeper  in  the 
Cyprian  goblet ;  but  when  he  saw  them  preparing 
to  leave  us  after  dinner,  the  conquered  hero  could  not 


456       .  GAIETIES    AT    HARROGATE. 

stand  the  mortifying  event,  but  retired  from  the  com- 
pany, and  was  seen  no  more  that  night.  The  fit 
lasted  for  several  days,  and  he  bore  the  raillery  of 
Hall  and  Clerk  with  a  meekness  which  proved  the 
strength  of  his  passion.  M'Leod  had  only  looked  in 
at  Harrogate  to  observe  the  state  of  gaming  there  ; 
but  as  he  found  nothing  higher  than  a  guinea  whist- 
table,  he  thought  to  stay  would  be  losing  time,  and 
made  the  best  of  his  way  to  a  town  about  forty  miles 
off,  where  there  were  races  to  begin  next  day. 

Mrs  Carlyle  had  never  been  at  any  watering-place 
before,  and,  considering  that  she  was  only  twenty- 
four,  she  conducted  herself  with  surprising  propriety, 
many  proofs  of  which  I  had,  to  my  great  delight — one 
proof  was,  the  great  joy  that  appeared  when  she  won 
the  chief  prize  in  a  lottery  which  was  drawn  for  the 
amusement  of  the  company.  There  was  another  lady 
from  the  south,  of  popular  manners,  a  Mrs  Maxwell, 
who  had  the  good  wishes  of  a  few  of  the  ladies ;  but 
our  party  beat  hers  both  in  numbers  and  sincere  at- 
tachment. 

Our  friends,  the  Blacketts,  had  now  been  for  some 
days  at  Ripon  with  his  mother,  a  fine  hospitable  old 
lady,  the  daughter  of  Mr  Wise  of  the  Priory  at  War- 
wick. By  a  message  they  invited  us  to  dine  there 
next  day,  and  desired  us  to  bespeak  their  lodging,  as 
they  were  to  come  to  Harrogate  with  us.  This  we 
accordingly  did,  and  passed  a  very  agreeable  da}^  with 
the  old  lady  and  our  friends.  She  had  a  fine  haunch  of 
venison  for  us  from  Studley  Park,  besides  many  other 


GA.IETIES    AT    HARROGATE.  457 

good  things.  Eipon  is  a  deliglitful  village  to  live 
at,  not  merely  on  account  of  the  good  provisions  for 
the  table  and  a  plentiful  country,  hut  because  there 
is  a  dean  and  chapter,  and  generally  excellent  musi- 
cians. The  dean  and  prebendary  are  well  endowed, 
and  they  and  their  families  furnish  a  good  society. 
The  Blacketts  returned  with  us  to  Harrogate,  and  we 
passed  our  time  very  pleasantly.  On  the  last  night 
Clerk  and  Hall  asked  me  in  the  evening  to  go  to  the 
Queen's  Head  to  see  some  of  our  acquaintance  there, 
and  to  shun  our  own  ball.  We  went  accordingly, 
and  met  with  a  ball  there,  of  which  we  tired,  and, 
that  we  might  be  quiet,  went  to  the  Granby,  where 
there  was  no  ball,  and  where  there  was  excellent 
claret.  As  Lee  had  refused  to  come  abroad  that 
evening.  Hall  was  at  liberty,  and  so,  taking  Kilring- 
ton  the  doctor  with  us  as  a  fourth  hand,  we  went 
there  to  supper,  when  Hall  and  Clerk  fell  a-debating 
so  tediously  and  so  warmly  about  Lord  Bute's  char- 
acter and  fitness  for  the  place  of  minister,  that  we  did 
not  return  to  the  Dragon  till  six  in  the  morning.  I 
was  diverted  to  see  how  Clerk,  who  generally  took 
part  against  Lord  Bute,  that  night  became  his  zealous 
friend,  and  not  only  contended  that  his  being  a  Scotch- 
man was  no  bar,  but  that  his  talents  were  equal  to 
any  high  situation.  Hall  allowed  him  private  virtues, 
but  no  public  ability. 

This  conference  was  very  tiresome,  and  lasted  too 
late  for  me,  who  was  to  set  out  soon  next  morning. 
Ferguson's  young  gentlemen  were  not  yet  arrived, 


458  THE   LAIRDS    IN    1705. 

and  he  remained  a  week  longer  without  being  able  to 
shake  off  his  dear  friend  Clerk,  who  had  procured  for 
him  the  charge  of  those  boys,  and  who,  through  his 
friendship  to  Lady  Warwick,  took  a  fatherly  charge 
of  them. 

Our  company  got  to  York  before  dinner,  where  we 
stayed  most  part  of  next  day,  and  got  to  Newcastle 
in  two  days,  and  in  a  few  days  more  arrived  at  home. 
Blackett's  horse  was  very  heavy,  and  my  tandem  far 
outran  them.  When  we  came  home,  we  found  our 
children  in  perfect  health,  which  was  a  great  delight 
to  us,  and  proved  the  fidelity  of  Jenny's  nurse,  with 
whom  we  had  trusted  them  both. 

Ambassador  Keith  had  returned  home,  and  having 
a  handsome  pension  settled  on  him,  he  lived  hand- 
somely for  some  time  in  Edinburgh,  and  after  a  while 
at  Hermitage,  on  Leith  Links.  He  was  a  man,  though 
without  wit  and  humour,  yet  of  good  sense  and  much 
knowledge  of  the  world.  He  had  been  absent  from 
Scotland  for  twenty-two  years  as  private  secretary  to 
Mareschal  Lord  Stair,  Envoy  at  Holland,  and  Ambas- 
sador at  Vienna  and  Petersburg.  He  complained 
that  the  society  of  Edinburgh  was  altered  much  for 
the  worse.  Most  of  his  old  companions  were  dead. 
The  Scottish  lairds  did  not  now  make  it  a  part  of 
their  education  to  pass  two  years  at  least  abroad,  if 
they  had  but  £300  per  annum,  from  whence  they 
returned  polished  in  their  manners  ;  and  that  portion 
of  them  who  had  good  sense,  wdth  their  minds  en- 
larged and  their  manners  improved.       They  found 


THE   LAIRDS    IN    1765.  459 

themselves  now  better  employed  in  remaining  at  home, 
and  cultivating  their  fields  ;  but  they  were  less  quali- 
fied for  conversation,  and  could  talk  of  nothing  but 
of  dung  and  of  bullocks.  The  lawyers  had  contented, 
themselves  with  studying  law  at  home.  The  medical 
tribe  had  now  the  best  school  of  physic  in  Europe 
established  in  Edinburgh,  and  a  rising  infirmary, 
which  promised  the  students  an  ample  field  of  prac- 
tice, so  that  very  few  of  that  profession  went  now 
to  Leyden  or  Paris.  Keith  complained  of  the  dulness 
of  the  society,  in  which  he  was  confirmed  by  his  son, 
afterwards  Sir  Eobert  Murray  Keith,  who  had  come 
down  to  stay  for  three  months,  but  returned  by  the 
end  of  one,  not  finding  the  state  of  society  to  his 
mind.  The  Ambassador  had  recourse  to  our  order, 
who  had,  till  lately,  never  been  thought  good  com- 
pany ;  so  that  finding  Blair  and  Robertson  and  Jar- 
dine  and  myself,  to  whom  he  afterwards  added  Fer- 
guson, good  company  for  him,  he  appointed  us  am- 
bassador's chaplains,  and  required  an  attendance  at 
least  once  a-week  to  dinner  at  his  house,  and  was  to 
return  our  visits  when  we  asked  him.  He  was  soon 
chosen  a  member  of  the  Poker  Club,  which  was  en- 
tirely to  his  taste.  Baron  Mure  and  Lord  Elliock 
were  also  much  in  his  society,  especially  the  first,  who 
havinor  been  intimate  with  Lord  Bute  durinor  the  ten 
years  he  resided  in  Bute,  previous  to  1745,  was,  after 
serving  in  Parliament  for  some  years  for  Eenfrew- 
shire,  promoted  to  the  place  of  Baron  of  Exchequer. 
When  Milton's  infirmities  made  him  retire  from  busi- 


460  DR    GREGORY. 

ness,  Baron  Mure  was  the  man  who  was  thoug-ht  fit  to 
supply  his  place,  after  Lord  Bute's  brother,  who  tried 
it  for  one  season,  but  finding  his  being  sub-minister 
not  agreeable  to  the  country,  and  very  irksome  to 
himself,  he  prudently  declined  it,  when  Mure  became 
the  confidential  man  of  business,  for  which  he  was 
perfectly  well  qualified  ;  for  though  his  manner  was 
blunt  and  unattractive,  yet  as,  at  the  same  time,  he 
was  unassuming,  of  excellent  understanding  and  great 
ability  for  business,  he  continued  to  be  much  trusted 
and  advised  with  as  long  as  he  lived. ■^'''  Elliock  was 
an  excellent  scholar,  and  a  man  of  agreeable  conversa- 
tion, having  many  curious  anecdotes  in  his  store  ;  and 
to  his  other  fund,  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  well  ac- 
quainted with  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia,  when 
he  retired  into  Holland  from  his  father's  tyranny,  and 
visited  him  at  least  once  by  invitation,  after  he  came 
to  the  throne.t 

This  was  the  year,  too,  when  Dr  John  Gregory,  my 
Leyden  friend,  came  to  settle  in  Edinburgh,  a  widower, 
with  three  sons  and  three  daughters.;]:  He  soon  came 
to  be  perfectly  known  here,  and  got  into  very  good 
business.     Dr  Eutherford,  Professor  of  the  Practice  of 

*  William  Mure  of  Caldwell,  Baron  of  the  Exchequer,  held  a  high  social 
place  among  the  men  of  letters  of  that  day  in  Scotland  ;  he  was  the  intimate 
friend  and  the  correspondent  of  David  Hume.  His  corres])ondence  is  con- 
tained in  "  the  Caldwell  Pa])ers,"  edited  for  the  Bannatyne  Club  by  his 
descendant,  the  late  distinguished  scholar  and  author,  Colonel  Mvu-e. — Ed. 

+  James  Veitch,  advocate,  was  raised  to  the  bench  m  1760,  when  he  took 
the  title  of  Lord  EUiock.  He  enjoyed  a  reimtation  in  his  day,  from  the 
circiunstance,  alliided  to  in  the  text,  of  Frederic  the  Great  having  taken  a 
fancy  to  him,  and  conferred  on  him  the  rank  of  Corresjwudent. — Eu. 

:J:  See  above,  i).  179. 


MRS  MONTAGUE.  461 

Physic,  begiDniiig  to  fail,  and  being  afraid  of  Cullen 
becoming  his  successor,  whom  he  held  to  be  an  heretic, 
he  readily  entered  into  a  compact  with  Gregory,  whom 
he  esteemed  orthodox  in  the  medical  faith,  and  re- 
signed his  class  to  him.  In  a  year  or  two  that  doctor 
died,  when  Ciillen  and  Gregory,  agreeable  to  previous 
settlement,  taught  the  two  classes  the  theory  and 
practice  by  turns,  changing  every  session.  I  got  Gre- 
gory elected  into  the  Poker,  but  though  very  desirous 
at  first,  yet  he  did  not  avail  himself  of  it,  but  desisted 
after  twice  attending,  afraid,  I  suppose,  of  disgustina 
some  of  the  ladies  he  paid  court  to  by  falling  in  some- 
times there  with  David  Hume,  whom  they  did  not 
know  for  the  innocent  good  soul  which  he  really  was. 
Professor  Ferguson  told  me  not  long  ago  that  he  was 
present  the  second  time  Dr  Gregory-  attended  the 
Poker,  when,  enlarging  on  his  favourite  topic,  the 
superiority  of  the  female  sex,  he  was  so  laughed  at 
and  run  down  that  he  never  returned. 

Gregory  had  met  with  Old  Montague  at  the  Royal 
Society  in  London,  who  was  fond  of  all  mathemati- 
cians, and  had  made  himself  master  of  his  mind. 
Montague  introduced  him  to  his  wife,  a  fine  woman, 
who  was  a  candidate  for  glory  in  every  branch  of 
literature  but  that  of  her  husband,  and  its  connec- 
tions and  dependencies.  She  was  a  faded  beauty,  a 
wit,  a  critic,  an  author  of  some  fame,  and  a  friend 
and  coadjutor  of  Lord  Littleton.  She  had  some  parts 
and  knowledge,  and  might  have  been  admired  by  the 
first  order  of  minds,  had  she  not  been  greedy  of  more 


402  MRS   MONTAGUE — THOMAS  GRAY. 

praise  than  she  was  entitled  to.  She  came  here  for  a 
fortnight,  from  her  residence  near  Newcastle,  to  visit 
Gregory,  who  took  care  to  show  her  off;  but  she  did 
not  take  here,  for  she  despised  the  women,  and  dis- 
gusted the  men  with  her  affectation.  Old  Edinburgh 
was  not  a  climate  for  the  success  of  impostures.  Lord 
Kames,  who  was  at  first  catched  with  her  Parnassian 
coquetry,  said  at  last  that  he  believed  slie  had  as 
much  learning  as  a  well-educated  college  lad  here  of 
sixteen.  I  could  have  forgiven  her  for  her  pretensions 
to  literary  fame,  had  she  not  loudly  put  in  her  claim 
to  the  praise  and  true  devotion  of  the  heart,  which 
belongs  to  genuine  feelings  and  deeds,  in  which  she 
was  remarkably  deficient.  We  saw  her  often  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Newcastle,  and  in  that  town,  where 
there  was  no  audience  for  such  an  actress  as  she  was, 
her  natural  character  was  displayed,  which  was  that 
of  an  active  manager  of  her  affairs,  a  crafty  chaperon, 
and  a  keen  pursuer  of  her  interest,  not  to  be  outdone 
by  the  sharpest  coal-dealer  on  Tyne  ;  but  in  this  capa- 
city she  w^as  not  displeasing,  for  she  was  not  acting 
a  part.  Mrs  Montague  was  highly  delighted  with 
"  Sister  Peg,"  which  Ferguson  had  written,  and  con- 
gratulated Mrs  Carlyle  on  having  a  husband  whose 
conversation  must  be  a  constant  source  of  entertain- 
ment. She  did  not  advert  to  it,  that  in  domestic  life 
the  scene  did  not  always  lie  in  the  drawing-room. 

We  had  a  sight  of  the  celebrated  poet  Gray  at  Dr 
Gregory's,  who  passing  through  Edinburgh  to  the 
Highlands  with  my  friend  Major  Lyon  for  his  con- 


father's  death.  463 

ductor,  six  or  seven  of  us  assembled  to  meet  him,  and 
were  disappointed.  But  this  eminent  poet  had  not 
justice  done  him,  for  he  was  much  worn  out  with  his 
journey,  and,  by  retiring  soon  after  supper,  proved  that 
he  had  been  taken  at  a  time  when  he  was  not  fit  to 
be  shown  off. 

(1 765.) — Early  in  March  this  year  I  lost  my  worthy 
father,  at  seventy-five  years  of  age.  He  had  been  for 
some  years  declining,  and  of  late  had  strong  symp- 
toms of  dropsy,  a  disease  of  worn-out  constitutions  ; 
for  though  seemingly  robust  and  very  active,  he  had 
been  aflBicted  aU  his  life  with  sundry  disorders  of  an 
alarming  nature,  such  as  an  universal  rheumatism,  and 
spasms  in  his  stomach  at  regiUar  hours  every  night 
for  three  months  together.  He  died  with  the  utmost 
calmness  and  resignation,  and  ordered  all  his  affairs 
with  a  prudence  and  foresight  that  were  surprising, 
amidst  frequent  effiisions  of  the  most  fervent  piety. 
Though  long  expected,  I  felt  this  a  severe  blow,  as 
every  man  of  common  feeling-s  must  do — the  loss  of 
a  respectable  parent.  The  sincere  grief  of  his  parish, 
and  the  unaffected  regret  of  all  who  knew  him,  raised 
pleasing  sensations  in  the  minds  of  his  family.  I  had 
withdrawn  my  wife  from  this  afflicting  scene,  by  let- 
ting her  yield  to  the  importunity  of  her  sister,  and  go 
to  Newcastle  in  the  beginning  of  March.  This  as- 
cendance which  her  sister  had  on  her  affections  ac- 
coimted  perfectly  for  our  not  growing  rich,  as  some  of 
our  free-judging  neighbours  alleged  we  must  certainly 
be  doing ;  for  though  our  income  was  tolerable,  yet 


464  THE    PATRONAGE    QUESTION. 

these  frequent  visits  to  the  south  —  not  less  than 
twice  in  a  year — put  it  only  in  our  power  to  pay  our 
accounts  at  the  end  of  the  year.  I  went  to  New- 
castle before  the  end  of  April  to  bring  my  wife  home, 
on  which  or  some  such  occasion  we  brought  with 
us  Dr  Gregory's  two  daughters,  Dolly  and  Anne, 
very  fine  girls,  who  had  been  staying  with  Mrs  Mon- 
tague. As  there  were  none  of  my  father's  family  now 
alive  but  my  sister  Nell,  who  was  the  youngest,  and 
Sarah,  who  was  one  or  two  years  older,  and  unmar- 
ried, my  father  had  the  satisfaction  that  my  mother 
would  be  independent,  but  advised  her  to  come  close 
to  me,  which  she  did  at  the  Michaelmas  term. 

Lord  Prestongrange,  the  patron  of  the  parish,  who 
was  my  father's  friend  and  old  companion  at  college, 
was  generous  to  my  mother,  by  giving  her  a  grant  of 
the  glebe,  which  was  partly  sown,  and  a  considerable 
part  of  the  vacant  stipend,  to  which  she  was  not  en- 
titled. The  two  next  successors  to  my  father  died  in 
four  years,  so  that  his  place  was  not  well  filled  up,  nor 
the  regret  of  the  parishioners  lessened  for  his  loss,  till 
Dr  Joseph  M'Cormick  succeeded  in  1768  or  '69. 

In  the  General  Assembly  this  year  there  was  a 
strong  push  made  to  bring  in  an  overture  to  all  the 
presbyteries  of  the  Church  to  inquire  into  the  causes 
of  schism,  &c.,  from  whence  those  in  opposition  to 
patronages  believed  there  would  come  such  a  report 
as  would  found  and  justify  a  fresh  application  to  the 
Legislature  for  their  abolition.  It  was  thouojht  best 
on  our  side  not  directly  to  oppose  this  motion,  but  to 


A   TOUR.  465 

propose  a  committee  of  Assembly  rather  than  agree 
to  the  transmission,  which  was  agreed  to,  and  a  large 
committee  appointed,  who,  strange  to  tell,  in  spite  of  all 
their  zeal,  met  only  once,  and  did  nothing,  though  they 
had  full  power,  and  made  no  report  to  next  Assembly.* 

It  was  in  the  months  of  August  and  September 
this  year  that  Dr  Wight  and  I  made  our  tour  round 
the  north,  where  neither  of  us  had  ever  been,  from 
whence  we  derived  much  amusement  and  satisfac- 
tion. We  went  on  horseback  by  Queensferry,  Perth, 
Dundee,  Arbroath,  &c.  We  stayed  four  days  and 
nights  at  Aberdeen  on  account  of  Dr  Wight's  horse 
having  been  lamed  in  crossing  the  ferry  at  3iIontrose ; 
but  we  passed  our  time  very  agreeably  between  the 
houses  of  our  friends  Drs  Campbell  and  Gerard. 

When  I  returned — for  Wight  went  to  Dumfries 
from  Edinburgh — I  found  the  children  well,  but  their 
mother  suffering  from  a  very  severe  rheumatism  in 
her  teeth,  owing  to  their  being  cleaned  too  much. 
A  fresh  call  from  Newcastle  carried  Mrs  Carlyle  there 
aojain  in  the  beo-innincr  of  November.  I  did  not  tro 
with  her,  but  went  for  her  at  the  end  of  the  year,  and 

*  The  reader  will  recognise  in  these  and  subsequent  passages  some  inter- 
esting incidents  of  the  great  contest,  which,  beginning  with  the  Patronage 
Act  of  1710,  thi-ew  off  two  dissenting  bodies — the  Secession  and  the  ReUef — 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  endetl  in  the  construction  of  the  Free  Chiirch 
in  1843.  The  natme  of  the  proceetliugs  will  be  understood  by  keeping  in 
view  that  the  "overtiu^,"  or  opening  of  a  measure  (a  term  taken  by  the  Par- 
liament of  Scotland  from  French  practice),  required,  in  conformity  with  one 
of  the  fundamental  regulations  of  ecclesiastical  procedure  in  Scotland,  called 
the  "  Barrier  Act,  ■'  to  be  transmitted  to  the  local  presbyteries  for  ailoption 
by  a  majority  before  being  passed  and  carried  into  effect  by  the  Generr.l 
Assembly.  —  Ed. 

2  G 


466  THE    PATRONAGE    QUESTION. 

carried  a  Miss  Wilkie  with  me  from  Ingram's,  and  a  Eev^ 
Mr  Forbes,  wlio  married  a  grand-aunt  of  Mrs  Carlyle's. 

(1766.) — I  have  not  mentioned  some  visits  we  had 
from  our  friends  in  Newcastle,  nor  do  I  exactly  [remem- 
ber] the  dates  of  their  coming.  He  soon  tired,  and  had 
always  business  to  carry  him  back.  Not  so  his  lady,  who 
loved  our  society  better  than  that  of  Newcastle.  In 
April  I  made  a  tour  with  Mary  to  Berwick,  Langton, 
and  Fogo,  for  her  health,  and  to  visit  our  friends. 

John  Home  was  now  always  in  London  from  October 
till  May,  when  Lord  Bute  parted  with  him,  for  most 
part  to  come  to  the  General  Assembly,  as,  being  Lord 
Conservator,  he  was  now  a  constant  member,  and,  though 
no  great  debater,  gave  us  a  speech  now  and  then. 

In  the  Assembly  this  year  there  was  the  last  grand 
effort  of  our  opponents  to  carry  through  their  Schism 
Overture,  as  it  was  called,  as  it  proposed  to  make  an 
inquiry  into  the  causes  and  growth  of  schism.  On 
the  day  before  it  came  before  the  Assembly  we  had 
dined  at  Nicholson's.  Before  we  parted,  Jardine  told 
me  that  he  had  examined  the  list  of  the  Assembly 
with  care,  and  that  we  should  carry  the  question- — ■ 
that  it  would  be  nearly  at  par  till  we  came  as  far  on 
the  roll  as  Lochmaben,  but  that  after  that  we  should 
have  it  hollow.  I  have  mentioned  this  on  account  of 
what  happened  next  day,  which  was  Friday  the  29th. 

There  was  a  very  long  debate,  so  that  the  vote  was 
not  called  till  past  seven  o'clock.  Jardine,  who  had 
for  some  time  complained  of  breathlessness,  had  seated 
himself  on  a  high  bench  near  the  east  door  of  the  As- 


TFIE    PATRONAGE   QUESTION.  467 

sembly  House,  there  being  at  that  time  no  galleries 
erected.  He  had,  not  half  an  hour  before,  had  a  com- 
munication with  some  ladies  near  him  in  the  church 
gallery,  who  had  sent  him  a  bottle  of  wine,  of  which 
he  took  one  glass.  The  callinoj  of  the  roll  beorau,  and 
when  it  had  passed  the  presbytery  of  Lochmaben,  he 
gave  a  significant  look  with  his  eye  to  me,  who  was 
sitting  below  the  throne,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  Now  the 
day's  our  owu."  I  had  turned  to  the  left  to  whisper 
to  John  Home,  who  was  next  me,  the  sign  I  had  got ; 
before  I  could  look  round  ao;ain,  Jardine  had  tumbled 
from  his  seat,  and,  being  a  man  of  six  feet  two  inches, 
and  of  large  bones,  had  borne  down  all  those  on  the 
two  benches  below  him,  and  fallen  to  the  ground.  He 
was  immediately  carried  out  to  the  passage,  and  the 
roll-calling  stopped.  Various  reports  came  from  the 
door,  but,  anxious  to  know  the  truth,  I  stepped  behind 
the  Moderator's  chair  and  over  the  green  table,  and 
with  difficulty  made  the  door  through  a  very  crowded 
house.  When  I  came  there,  I  found  him  lying 
stretched  on  the  pavement  of  the  passage  with  many 
people  about  him,  among  the  rest  his  friend  and 
mine,  James  Eussel  the  surgeon.  With  some  diffi- 
culty I  got  near  him,  and  whispered  was  it  not  a 
faint  1  "  No,  no,"  replied  he,  "  it  is  all  over."  I  returned 
to  the  house,  and,  resuming  my  place,  gave  out  that 
there  were  hopes  of  his  recovery.  This  composed  the 
house,  and  the  calling  of  the  roll  went  on,  when  it 
was  carried  to  reject  the  overture  by  a  great  majority. 
This  was  a  deadly  blow  to  the  enemies  of  presenta- 


468  jardine's  death. 

tions,  for  tliey  had  mustered  all  their  strength,  and 
had  been  strenuous  in  debate.  Henry  Dundas,  how- 
ever, had  now  come  to  our  aid,  who  was  himself  a 
match  for  all  their  lay  forces,  as  Kobertson  and  a  few 
friends  were  for  all  the  bands  of  clergy.  I  was  not 
a  member.  A  party  of  us  had  been  engaged  to  dine 
with  Mr  Dundas,  but  could  not  now  go,  as  Dr  Jar- 
dine  was  a  near  relation  of  his  lady,  who  was  delivered 
of  her  first  child  that  nio-ht. 

Robertson  was  much  dejected,  as  he  had  good  rea- 
son. 1  immediately  proposed  to  him  and  J.  Home  to 
send  for  a  post-chaise  and  carry  them  out  to  Mussel- 
burgh, which  was  done  directly,  and  which  relieved 
us  from  all  troublesome  company.  This  death  of  Jar- 
dine  was  not  only  a  breach  in  our  society  which  we 
long  felt,  as  John  Jardine  was  one  of  the  pleasantest 
of  the  whole,  who  played  delightfully  on  the  un- 
bounded curiosity  and  dupish  simplicity  of  David 
Hume,  but  was  a  great  support  to  Robertson  and  our 
friends  in  the  management  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  as 
he  was  the  son-in-law  of  Provost  Drummond,  and 
kept  him  steady,  who  had  been  bred  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Highflyers.  And  having  had  the  management  of 
the  burgh  of  Lochmaben  for  Charles  Erskine  of  Tin- 
wald  at  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  he  acquired  early 
that  address  and  dexterity  in  managing  men  which 
could  easily  be  applied  to  Edinburgh  politics,  though 
they  were  on  a  much  greater  scale.  In  politics  he 
was  artful,  in  other  affairs  quite  trusty."' 

*  Dr  John  Jardine,  minister  of  the  Trou  Church  parish,  was  born  in 
Diunfriesshire  in  1716.     He  was  an  active  leader  in  the  church  courts,  and 


4G9 

As  Jardiue,  however,  had  one-third  of  the  deanery, 
Kobertson  availed  himself  of  the  vacancy  to  obtain  it 
for  Dr  Drysdale,  whose  wife  was  one  of  the  Adams' 
and  Eobertsous'  cousin-germau.  This  attached  Drys- 
dale more  to  him,  and  made  him  apply  assiduously 
to  the  correspondence  with  the  distant  clergy,  which 
opened  up  to  him  a  view  of  the  clerkship  of  the 
Church,  which  he  afterwards  obtained. 

I  said  that  the  Schism  Overture  which  we  defeated 
was  the  last  blow  that  was  aimed  at  patronage,  for 
whatever  attempts  were  afterwards  made  were  feeble 
and  ineffective.  There  still  remained,  however,  in  the 
Assembly's  instructions  to  their  Commission,  an  article 
which  was  a  constant  reproach  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly— viz..  That  they  should  watch  for  a  convenient 
opportunity  of  applying  to  the  King  and  Parliament 
for  redress  from  the  grievance  of  patronage.  This 
was  too  much,  at  a  time  when  almost  every  clerical 
member  of  Assembly  had  been  settled  by  a  presenta- 
tion. This,  however,  was  not  left  out  till  Dr  Eobert- 
son  had  retired  from  the  conduct  of  our  affairs,  when, 
in  the  Assembly  17S4,  I  got  it  proposed  by  some  of 
the  elders,  when,  after  some  debate,  it  was  carried  to 
leave  it  out  by  a  great  majority.  Next  year  there 
was  a  feeble  attempt  to  restore  the  article  in  the  In- 
structions, but  this  did  not  even  raise  a  debate,  and 
we  heard  no  more  of  it. 

intimate  with  the  great  literary  circle  of  Edinburgh ;  but  the  only  things 
he  is  known  to  have  wTitten  are  contributions  to  the  short-lived  Edinburgh 
Iterifir,  commenced  in  IToo. — Ed. 


CHAPTEK   XIII. 

1766-1768:   AGE,  44-40. 

VISIT   TO  LORD  GLASGOW    WITH   ROBERTSON CONVIVIALITIES SYNOD 

BUSINESS DR   ARMSTRONG AN    EXCURSION    TO    TWEEDDALE   AND 

ACROSS   THE   BORDER ADVENTURES   IN    CARLISLE THE   DUKE   OF 

BUCCLEUCH    AND    FESTIVITIES  AT  DALKEITH ADAM   SMITH   THERE 

PROFESSOR   MILLAR   OF   GLASGOW. 

It  was  this  year,  in  the  month  of  August,  that  Dr 
Robertson  having  solicited  me  strongly  to  be  of  a 
party  to  the  west  country  with  him  and  the  Honour- 
able James  Stewart  Montague,  who  was  then  attend- 
ing the  College  of  Edinburgh,  and  lived  in  his  house, 
I  could  not  set  out  on  the  same  day  with  them,  but 
followed  in  the  end  of  the  week,  and  got  to  Dr  AVight's, 
at  Glasgow  College,  on  Saturday,  where  I  remained  all 
next  day,  having  got  a  little  cold.  He  had  now  been 
for  some  time  in  the  house  allotted  to  his  office,  which, 
though  one  of  the  old  ones,  was  convenient,  and  had 
several  apartments,  so  that  he  could  have  room  for 
two  or  three  boarders.  His  youngest  sister  had  now 
been  with  him  for  more  than  a  year,  and  they  lived 
very  comfortably,  which  she,  though  but  just  turned 
of  twenty,  managed  very  well.  I  remained  with  them 
all  Tuesday,  and  next  day  got  to  Caldwell  (Baron 
Mure's)  before  dinner.     We  went  next  day  to  Lord 


LORD   GLASGOW.  471 

Glasgow's,  where  we  were  joined  by  Mr  Oliphant, 
afterwards  Postmaster,  who,  with  Baron  Mure  and 
Alexander  M'^Iillan,  Esq.,  W.S.,  were  Lord  Bute's 
commissioners  or  trustees  for  the  manaojement  of  his 
estate.  We  had  rode  through  a  very  hilly  part  of 
Renfrewshire  to  Kelburn,  Lord  Glasgow's  seat,  finely 
situated  on  the  Clyde,  almost  opposite  to  Bute,  about 
five  or  six  miles  distant,  where  the  expanse  of  water 
is  finely  broken  by  the  two  islands  of  Cumbray,  the 
first  of  which  is  not  more  than  a  mUe  distant,  while 
the  channel  for  ships  sailing  up  or  down  the  Clyde 
lies  between  that  island  and  the  shore  of  Cunningham. 
We  were  very  late  of  dining  for  that  period,  when  the 
usual  hour  was  two  o'clock,  but  we  sat  long  enough 
after  dinner  to  loosen  our  landlords  tongue,  who, 
being  in  general  a  reserved  and  silent  man,  partly 
through  modesty  and  partly  through  flat  spirits,  yet, 
after  a  long  repast,  became  not  only  open  and  free, 
but  truly  eloquent.  Baron  Mure,  though  a  very  sen- 
sible man,  was  yet  too  great  a  friend  of  Lord  Bute's 
to  hear  William  Pitt  extolled  to  the  skies,  which  Lord 
Glasgow  had  casually  done ;  on  which  Mure  made 
some  tart  remarks.  This  fired  his  lordship,  who  gave 
us  a  panegyric  at  last  on  Mr  Pitt's  character  and 
administration,  Avith  as  much  force,  energy,  and  elo- 
quence as  that  great  man  himself  could  have  done, 
had  he  dealt  in  panegyric.  His  lordship  was  begin- 
ning to  flag,  and  his  audience  to  tire,  when  luckily  we 
were  called  to  supper.  Eobertson  whispered  me,  in 
going  to  the  dining-room,  that  his  powers  had  per- 


472  LORD    GLASGOW. 

fectly  astonished  him.  The  presence  of  the  ladies  put 
an  end  to  our  political  debate.  We  passed  next  day 
with  his  lordship,  when  we  had  such  another  exhibi- 
tion in  the  evening.  We  agreed  among  ourselves, 
that  had  it  not  been  for  his  invincible  modesty,  which 
debarred  him  from  ever  entering  the  drawing-room  at 
St  James's,  where  he  was  sure  of  a  good  reception,  for 
he  had  been  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Fontenoy,  he 
might  have  made  a  very  conspicuous  appearance  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  He  was  now  the  Lord  High  Com- 
missioner to  the  Assembly,  and  was  a  great  favourite 
with  us,  not  merely  for  his  obliging  manners  and  im- 
proved entertainment  at  his  table,  but  for  his  attention 
to  the  business  of  the  house,  and  his  listening  to  and 
entering  into  the  spirit  of  every  debate.  His  lordship 
did  not  attend  us  to  Bute,  to  which  we  sailed  next  day.* 
We  remained  six  days  in  Bute,  and  passed  our  time 
veiy  agreeably.  Alexander  M'Millan  was  one  of  the 
best  landlords  for  a  large  company,  for  he  was  loud 
and  joyful,  and  made  the  wine  flow  like  Bacchus  him- 
self. We  passed  the  mornings  (which  were  not  so 
long  as  now,  for  they  extended  only  to  two  o'clock, 
when  dinner  was  on  the  table)  in  riding  about  the 
island,  which  we  found  very  beautiful,  though  but 
little  cultivated  ;  for  besides  a  plantation  around  the 
house  of  Mount  Stuart,  of  very  fine  trees,  of  a  square 
mile,  every  little  cottage  had  a  dozen  of  trees  around 
it.      A  Lady  Bute,  Avhile   a   widow,  had  got   them 

*  John  Boyle,   third  Earl  of  Glasgow,  of  wlioai  what  was  heretofore 
known  is  so  scanty  as  to  give  much  value  to  this  sketch.  — Ed. 


CONVIVIALITIES    IN    BUTE.  -tTS 

planted  in  every  kailyard,  as  their  little  gardens  are 
called,  and  tliey  make  a  pleasing  ornament.  There  is 
nothing  like  a  hill  but  on  Lord  Bannatyne's  estate  on 
the  north-east,  where  it  is  separated  by  a  narrow 
strait  called  the  Kyles  of  Bute.  Eothesay,  where  stand 
the  ruins  of  the  old  castle  which  gives  a  ducal  title 
to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  as  it  did  anciently  to  the 
Prince  of  Scotland,  is  a  finely-situated  port,  and  has 
thriven  amazingly  since  that  period.  We  had  to  take 
an  early  dinner  one  day,  and  ride  down  there  to  be 
made  free  of  the  burgh,  which  cost  us  a  hard  drink  of 
new  claret.  Mount  Stuart  is  truly  a  fine  place,  with 
a  charming  view  of  the  islands  and  opposite  coast. 
The  soil  everywhere  lies  on  sea-shells,  so  that  they 
have  the  means  of  improvement  at  hand  ;  and  being  in 
shape  like  the  convex  of  a  Eoman  shield,  where  the 
rain  cannot  lie,  seemed  everywhere  capable  of  tillage. 
What  was  done  about  Mount  Stuart  and  Eothesay 
gave  great  encouragement.  AVe  went  to  Kingarth 
Church  on  Sunday,  where  I  lectured  and  Robertson 
preached.  There  are  three  parishes  in  the  island, 
in  two  of  which  the  ministers  must  have  the  Erse 
language. 

Our  conversation  at  table  was  liberal  and  lively,  as 
might  be  expected  where  there  were  so  many  sensible 
men ;  for  besides  our  company  there  were  several 
other  very  able  men,  particularly  a  Mr  Dunlop,  a  son 
of  the  Greek  Professor's,  at  Glasgow,  who  was  remark- 
ably knowing  and  good-humoured.  The  wine  was 
excellent,   and   flowed  freely.      There  was  the  best 


4-74  CONVIVIALITIES    IN    BUTE. 

Cyprus  I  ever  saw,  which  had  lain  there  since  Lord 
Bute  had  left  the  island  in  1745.  The  claret  was  of 
the  same  age,  and  excellent. 

After  we  had  been  four  days  there,  Eobertson  took 
me  into  a  window  before  dinner,  and  with  some 
solemnity  proposed  to  make  a  motion  to  shorten  the 
drinking,  if  I  would  second  him — "Because,"  added  he, 
"  although  you  and  I  may  go  through  it,  I  am  averse 
to  it  on  James  Stuart's  account."  I  answered  that  I 
would  willingly  second  whatever  measure  of  that 
kind  he  should  propose,  but  added  that  I  was  afraid 
it  would  not  do,  as  our  toastm aster  was  very  despotic, 
and,  besides,  might  throw  ridicule  upon  us,  as  we 
were  to  leave  the  island  the  day  after  the  next,  and 
that  we  had  not  proposed  any  abridgment  to  the  re- 
past till  the  old  claret  was  all  done,  the  last  of  which 
we  had  drunk  yesterday.  "  Well,  well,"  replied  the 
Doctor,  "  be  it  so  then,  and  let  us  end  as  we  began." 

We  left  the  island  on  the  day  we  proposed,  I  in  a 
boat,  for  Port-Glasgow,  with  the  Postmaster,  Oli- 
phant,  as  we  could  not  join  the  rest  to  pass  two  days 
more  at  Lord  Glasgow's  (Kelburn)  on  their  return,  as 
they  had  promised.  We  got  very  rapidly  to  Port- 
Glasgow  in  the  customhouse  yacht,  and  to  Glasgow 
on  horseback  early  in  the  evening,  where  he  visited 
his  friends,  and  I  remained  with  mine  at  the  College 
that  night  and  all  next  day. 

I  was  Moderator  of  the  Synod  this  year.  Webster 
having  made  it  fashionable  for  even  the  Moderators 
of  that  court  to  give  handsome  suppers,  it  cost  me 


THE    SCOTTS — AKENSIDE   THE   POET.  4/5 

five  guineas ;  but  there  being  very  few  who  could 
afford  such  expensive  repasts,  after  having  gone 
throuoh  six  or  seven  of  us,  this  entertainment  ceased, 
and  the  Moderators  of  the  Synods  were  contented  with 
small  committees  and  meagre  suppers,  as  they  had  been 
heretofore,  and  Webster,  of  course,  absented  from  them. 
In  December  this  year  we  made  another  journey  to 
Newcastle,  Mrs  Carlyle  being  absolutely  necessary  to 
her  sister  when  she  lay  in,  or  was  at  all  ill.  Blackett 
was  but  a  dull  man,  and  his  cousin.  Sir  Walter  B., 
no  better,  though  rich,  magnificent,  and  generous. 
The  company  about  them  were  not  very  agreeable ; 
some  of  their  bucks  had  humour,  but  they  were 
illiterate  and  noisy.  Two  or  three  of  their  clergy 
could  be  endured,  for  they  played  well  at  cards,  and 
were  not  pedantic.  John  AVithrington  was  then 
almost  the  only  man  who  had  any  literature.  Mr 
Moyse,  a  clergyman,  was  now  master  of  the  grammar- 
school,  and  being  able  and  diligent  in  his  profession, 
soon  made  a  great  change  on  the  young  natives  of 
Newcastle ;  insomuch,  that  soon  after  there  issued 
from  it  several  distinguished  characters,  such  as  Mr 
Chambers,  a  judge,  I  think,  in  India,  or  a  professor 
of  law  at  Oxford ;  and  the  two  Scotts,  Sir  William 
and  his  younger  brother,  the  Chancellor  of  England.* 
Dr  Akenside  was  also  a  native  of  that  town,  and  had 
studied  physic  in  Edinburgh  in  the  years  1744-5. 
As  he  was  of  low  descent,  his  father  being  a  butcher, 
he  stole  through  his  native  town  incog,  as  often  as  he 

*  Viz.,  Lord  Stowell  and  Lord  Eldon. — Ed. 


476  TOUPv    ox    THE    BORDER. 

had  occasion  to  pass,  and  never  acknowledged  bis 
relation  to  it. 

(l  767.) — This  year  nothing  remarkable  happened  for 
several  months.  In  the  month  [of  August],  Mrs  Car- 
lyle  not  being  very  well,  we  went  in  our  open  chaise  to 
visit  our  friend  Mr  Alexander  Glen,  at  Galashiels,  with 
our  friend  Dr  Wight.  I  had  been  there  before,  but 
Mrs  Carlyle  never  had,  and  was  much  delighted  with 
the  amenity  of  the  place,  as  well  as  the  kindness  and 
hospitality  of  our  landlord,  who  was  not  yet  married. 
We  visited  Melrose  Abbey  to  gratify  Mrs  Carlyle. 
Tlie  fine  pastoral  stream  of  Gala  falls  into  the  Tweed 
a  mile  below  the  church  and  village,  from  whence 
four  miles  down  the  river  stands  the  famous  abbey 
of  Melrose,  the  exquisite  beauty  of  whose  ruins  is 
well  supported  by  the  romantic  scenery  around  it. 
About  a  week  before  we  arrived  here,  a  waterspout 
had  fallen  into  the  mountain  stream  Slitterick,  which 
joins  the  river  Teviot  at  Hawick,  which  occasioned  a 
great  alarm  there  ;  had  broken  down  a  bridge  which 
joined  the  town  to  a  street  where  the  church  stands  ; 
had  ruined  a  mill  on  the  rivulet,  and  drowned  one  of 
the  millers,  and  threatened  the  whole  town  with  inun- 
dation ;  but  as  it  had  come  down  in  the  night,  it  abated 
early  in  the  forenoon. 

This  phenomenon,  so  uncommon  in  this  country, 
excited  our  curiosity,  and  we  resolved  to  proceed  to 
Hawick  to  see  the  effects  of  it.  Mr  Glen  gladly  ac- 
companied us,  Wight  and  he  being  great  companions. 

We  set  out  in  the  morning,  after  an  early  breakfast. 


TOUR    ON    THE    BORDER.  -it  i 

tliat  we  mioht  reach  Hawick  some  time  before  dinner. 
We  had  given  notice  to  Laurie,  the  minister  there, 
that  we  would   dine  with  him  and  stay  all  night ; 
which  information  was  necessary,  as  there  were  so 
many  of  us,  although  the  fashion  of  men's  sleeping  in 
the  same  bed  together  was  not  yet  at  an  end.     After 
we  passed  the  Tweed,  near  Selkirk,  where  the  delight- 
ful streams  of  Ettrick  and  Yarrow  fall  into  it  from 
the  fine  pastoral  valleys  or  glens  which  run  parallel 
to  each  other   to  the   summit    of  the  country,   the 
scenery  was  by  no  means  interesting.     Selkirk  was 
then  a  very  paltry  town,  and  the  fields  around  it  very 
poorly  cultivated,  though  now  there  is  a  very  difierent 
face  on  both.     Hawick  is  beautifully  situated,  and, 
though  but  an  iU-budt  town,  very  much  resembles 
the  famous  city  of  Bath  in  its  situation,  being  a  close 
warm-lookinoj  nest  in  the  midst  of  surroundiuor  hills, 
all  but  the  openings  made  to  the  south  and  north  of 
the  town  by  the  beautiful  river  Teviot,  which  runs 
within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  it,  and  whose  clear  un- 
troubled stream,  except  when   great   rains  descend, 
glides  gently  by,  and  like  a  mirror  reflects  the  adjacent 
pastoral  scenery.    We  visited  the  devastations  made  by 
Slitterick,  which  falls  from  the  mountain  in  a  tremen- 
dous torrent  into  Teviot,  which  was  quite  unmoved, 
as  the  two  channels  lay  at  right  angles  from  each  other 
We  passed  the  day  very  pleasantly  with  Laurie  and 
his  wife,  who  was  an  old  acquaintance  of  Mrs  Carlyle's 
when  they  lived  at  Lanton,  the  next  parish  to  Pol- 
warth,  where  she  passed  her  infant  years.     Wight 


478  A    CHARACTER — ARMSTRONG   THE    POET. 

rallied  Laurie  not  a  little  for  his  having  delayed  call- 
ing the  people  to  prayers  on  the  morning  of  the  inun- 
dation, till  he  saw  from  his  garden  the  flood  a  little 
abating ;  and  then  continuing  so  long  in  prayer  (for 
a  full  hour),  when  it  had  fallen  so  much  that  a  man 
on  horseback  could  pass  below  the  mill,  which  the 
good  people  ascribed  to  the  fervency  of  their  pastor, 
and  would  have  continued  to  believe  in  the  efiicacy  of 
his  prayer,  had  not  the  surviving  miller  assured  them 
that  the  inundation  had  fallen  six  inches  before  the 
church-bell  rang.  Laurie  was  perfectly  pleased  with 
so  much  address  being  ascribed  to  him,  though  he  lost 
a  little  in  the  article  of  interest  in  heaven  which  was 
imputed  to  him. 

Laurie  was  an  uncommon  character.  Dr  John 
Armstrong  and  he  were  at  college  together,  and  one 
year,  during  the  vacation,  they  joined  a  band  of 
gypsies,  who  in  those  days  much  infested  the  Border. 
This  expedition,  which  really  took  place,  as  Armstrong 
informed  me  in  London,  furnished  Laurie  with  a  fine 
field  for  fiction  and  rhodomontade,  which  was  so 
closely  united  to  the  groundwork,  which  might  be 
true,  that  it  was  impossible  to  discompound  them. 
After  Armstrong  had  settled  in  London  for  some 
time,  Laurie  went  to  visit  him  about  1739  or  '40;  on 
that  he  founded  many  marvellous  stories  of  his  inti- 
macy with  secretaries  of  state  and  courtiers,  with  whom 
he  pretended  he  had  been  quite  familiar.  When  he 
alleged  that  he  had  been  quite  at  his  ease  with  the 
Chancellor  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons 


TOUR   ON   THE    BORDER.  479 

at  that  time,  and  could  call  on  them  at  any  hour,  and 
remain  to  dinner  or  supper  without  being  invited,  we 
used  to  call  to  him,  "  Halt  there,  Laurie  ;  if  you  don't 
know  the  boundary  between  truth  and  falsehood,  you 
should  draw  the  line  between  what  is  probable  and 
what  is  not  so."  As,  like  a  snowball,  we  gathered  as 
we  rolled  along,  he  fixed  himself  upon  us  for  the  rest 
of  the  journey. 

We  set  out  in  the  morning  after  breakfast,  that  we 
might  reach  Langholm,  twenty-two  miles  off,  in  time 
for  dinner,  and  travelled  over  a  beautiful  pastoral 
countr}%  eleven  miles  to  the  top  of  the  ridge  beyond 
which  the  waters  run  south,  whereas  before  their 
course  is  north  and  east.  The  road  had  been  finished 
some  time  before,  and  was  so  perfectly  good  and  well 
laid  out  that  irr  my  open  chaise  I  could  keep  at  the 
trot  both  down  and  up  the  whole  way.  The  first 
place  we  passed  was  the  seat  of  Dr  Langlands,  M.D., 
a  Yery  pleasing  place,  about  a  mile  above  Hawick  on 
the  Teviot ;  of  late  it  was  in  possession  of  Lord  Napier, 
and  much  improved  by  him,  and  is  now  bought  by 
James  Anderson,  Esq.,  a  younger  brother  of  St  Ger- 
mains.  In  a  mile  or  two  farther  we  reached  the  fine 
seat  of  the  family  of  Buccleuch,  the  Castle  of  Branx- 
holm,  which  an  ancestor  of  that  family  exchanged. 
When  we  got  to  the  top  of  the  ridge,  we  stopped  to 
feed  our  horses  at  a  rural  inn,  kept  by  a  curious  fellow 
called  Kob  Achison,  with  whom  we  had  not  conversed 
many  minutes  when  we  discovered  the  cause  of  his 
being  reduced  from  the  condition  of  an  opulent  far- 


480  TOUR    ON    THE    BORDER. 

mer  to  that  of  the  keeper  of  a  mere  halting-place  to 
divide  a  long  stage.  Kobert  had  been  a  Border  rake 
or  buck  of  the  first  head  in  his  younger  days,  and  to 
wit  and  humour,  of  which  he  had  abundance,  he  added 
a  sufficient  portion  of  address  and  impudence,  which 
he  carried  with  an  air  of  careless  indifference.  He 
had  eloquence  enough,  however,  to  make  us  both  eat 
and  drink  in  liis  house,  for  the  first  of  which  he  was 
but  ill  provided  ;  but  he  soon  made  us  understand, 
by  the  scurrility  which  he  poured  out  against  those 
who  had  passed  his  house  without  calling  for  some- 
thing besides  corn  for  their  horses,  how  we  should  be 
treated  for  the  entertainment  of  the  next  who  came, 
so  we  took  a  sorry  repast  with  Eobert,  and  drank  of 
his  liquors. 

The  slope  from  this  to  Langholm  is  just  eleven  miles, 
and  the  road  excellent  ;  the  country  was  exceedingly 
picturesque,  though  then  without  trees,  and  full  of 
sheep,  which,  as  the  young  Duke  of  Buccleuch  and  his 
Duchess  were  daily  expected,  had  been  taught  to  line 
the  road  daily  through  which  they  were  to  pass,  that 
they  might  see  wherein  the  riches  of  the  land  consisted. 
As  it  was  now  in  the  beginning  of  August,  the  fields 
had  a  fine  variegated  cloak  of  verdure ;  for  as  the  ferns, 
or  brackens,  as  they  are  called  here,  were  now  in  j^er- 
fection,  and  of  a  different  shade  from  tlie  grass,  they 
looked  like  a  large  curtain  or  mantle  of  green  silk 
damask. 

We  arrived  in  the  evening  at  Langholm,  where  the 
villaofe  is  situated  at  the  confluence  of  the  two  streams 

o 


TOUR    ON    THE    BORDER.  481 

of  Ewes  and  Wauchope  with  the  Esk,  which  from 
thence  flows,  after  being  almost  doubled  by  the  Lid- 
die,  through  delightful  scenery,  to  the  Solway  Firth, 
which  with  it  makes  the  western  boundary  between 
England  and  Scotland. 

It  was  too  late  to  attempt  to  see  the  castle,  so  we 
sent  immediately  for  John  Dickie  the  minister,  who 
was  an  old  bachelor,  and  who  had  such  a  mixture  of 
odd  qualities  in  his  composition,  such  as  priggism  and 
pedantry,  with  the  affectation  of  being  a  finished 
gentleman  ;  very  sanctimonious  in  his  manners,  with 
a  desire  of  being  thought  free  and  liberal  in  his  senti- 
ments ;  not  without  a  portion  of  knowledge,  but  more 
proud  of  it  than  Dr  Bentley,  or  Purdie  the  school- 
master. As  Mrs  Carlyle  had  never  seen  him  before, 
she  was  highly  diverted  with  him  ;  and  having  in  a 
moment  discovered  all  his  weaknesses,  she  met  them 
in  so  caressing  and  encouraging  a  manner  that  he 
would  have  leapt  over  the  house  to  serve  her ;  and 
before  he  left  us  at  twelve  to  go  home,  he  became  her 
sworn  knight-errant.  To  make  her  conquest  complete 
over  the  little  man,  she  would  not  let  him  go  till  a 
horse  was  got  ready  for  an  ostler  to  conduct  him 
through  the  water.  Laurie  and  Glen  thought  this 
carrying  her  coquetry  too  far,  but  Wight  and  I  knew 
better  ;  for  she  was  of  that  turn  of  mind,  that  if  any- 
thino;  had  befallen  the  little  man,  as  he  had  got 
enough  of  wine,  and  had  no  better  seat  than  a  clue  on 
a  horse,  she  would  never  have  forgiven  herself.  With 
all  his  imperfections  he  was  good-natured  and  social, 

2H 


482  TOUR   ON   THE   BORDER. 

which  after  a  banquet  never  failed  to  appear.  He  had 
a  young  mare  which  he  wished  to  sell,  and  was  going 
to  send  it  to  be  sold  at  Hawick  or  Jedburgh,  when, 
hearing  there  was  to  be  a  fair  at  Carlisle  next  day, 
and  that  we  were  deliberating  about  going  or  not, 
when  somebody  happened  to  say  that  Carlisle  w^as 
the  best  place,  and  that  we  would  all  go  there  ; — Mrs 
Carlyle  immediately  said,  "  I  will  consent  to  go  if  you 
will  be  so  good  as  accompany  us."  The  honest  soul 
instantly  yielded,  and  we  all  resolved  to  go,  now 
amounting  to  five  gentlemen  and  a  lady,  with  only 
one  servant. 

We  set  out  next  morning,  and  had  a  very  agree- 
able ride  down  the  river  Esk  for  seven  or  eight  miles, 
through  a  valley  finely  covered  with  young  planta- 
tions. We  stopped  at  Longtown,  where  there  is  a  fine 
bridge  over  the  Esk,  which  has  saved  many  a  life 
which  was  annually  lost  in  passing  very  dangerous 
fords  of  the  river  a  mile  or  two  lower  down  ;  and, 
crossing  some  sands  in  the  channel  of  the  Frith  of 
Sol  way,  where  the  traveller  was  frequently  overtaken 
by  the  rapidity  of  the  tide,  we  arrived  at  Carlisle 
before  dinner,  and  found  the  town  as  much  crowded 
as  curious  travellers  could  wish,  as  there  was  not 
only  a  great  fair  holding  on  this  day,  but  the  Judges 
were  in  town,  and  a  set  of  players  to  entertain  the 
company.  The  King's  Arms  w^as  so  much  crowded 
that  we  were  obliged  to  resort  to  the  large  dining- 
room,  which  was  crowded  like  a  cofieehouse.  But  as 
the  company,  consisting  chiefly  of  country  lads  and 


CHANCELLOR  WEDDERBUEN.  483 

lasses,  were  all  to  disperse  in  the  evening,  we  were  able 
to  secure  beds,  which  was  the  chief  point  in  view. 

After  strolling  about  the  town  a  while  I  attempted 
to  go  into  the  court -bouse,  which  was  so  much 
crowded  and  so  hot  that  I  only  remained  a  few 
minutes  in  the  outskirts,  where  I  heard  my  friend 
Wedderburn  pleading  as  well  as  he  could  under  a 
severe  hoarseness.  We  returned  to  the  inn,  where  we 
found  Governor  Johnstone,  and  John  Scotland,  min- 
ister of  Westerkirk,  with  our  friends.  Johnstone  was 
employed  in  canvassing  the  citizens,  and  Scotland 
had  come  with  a  Dunfermline  friend  on  purpose  to 
see  Mt  Wedderburn.  The  Governor  told  us  of  the 
players,  and  we  all  set  out  immediately  to  try  for 
places,  but  it  was  so  much  crowded  that  we  were  dis- 
appointed, and  obliged  to  return.  Laurie,  however, 
remained  after  the  rest,  when  he  had  a  quarrel  with  a 
very  drunken  squire  of  the  name  of  Dacres,  who  had 
insulted  him  with  foul  lancruaore.  which  Laurie  re- 
turned  with  a  blow,  forgetting  that  he  was  now  in  a 
country  where  a  breach  of  the  peace  is  much  more 
dangerous.  Dacres  attempted  to  have  him  committed, 
but  Laurie  made  his  escape,  and  Johnstone  having  in- 
terfered and  said  it  was  only  a  drunken  Scotch  parson 
who  had  been  riotous,  and  was  ignorant  of  English 
laws,  who  had  broken  the  peace,  he  got  Dacres  paci- 
fied, and  we  heard  no  more  of  it. 

The  Governor  had  promised  to  sup  with  us,  and  I 
proposed  sending  to  Mr  Wedderburn  ;  but  Scotland 
said  it  was  needless,  as  he  had  seen  him,  and  found 


484  CHANCELLOR   WEDDERBURN. 

him  preparing  to  go  to  bed,  as  he  was  very  hoarse.  I 
wrote  him  a  note,  however,  telling  him  that  Mrs  Car- 
lyle  and  Wight  and  I  were  there,  and  that  Governor 
Johnstone  had  promised  to  sup  with  us,  and  that  I 
would  infallibly  cure  his  hoarseness  before  to-morrow 
morning.  His  answer  was  that  he  would  be  with  us 
in  half  an  hour.  He  was  as  good  as  his  word,  but 
was  very  hoarse.  The  supper  was  good  enough,  but 
the  liquors  were  execrable — the  wine  and  porter  were 
not  drinkable.  AVe  then  made  a  bowl  of  the  worst 
punch  I  ever  tasted.  Wedderburn  said,  if  we  would 
mix  it  with  a  bottle  of  the  bad  porter,  it  would  be 
improved.  AVe  did  as  he  directed,  and  to  our  surprise 
it  became  drinkable,  and  we  were  a  jolly  company. 
The  counsellor  did  not  forget  the  receipt  to  cure  his 
hoarseness.  This  was  nothing  more  than  some  cas- 
tile  soap  shaven  into  a  spoon  and  mixed  with  some 
white  wine  or  water,  so  that  it  could  be  swallowed. 
This  he  took,  and  returned  to  us  at  nine  next  morn- 
ing perfectly  cured,  and  as  sound  as  a  bell. 

Dickie  having  sold  his  mare,  we  returned  by  the 
road  we  came,  and,  passing  one  night  at  Hawick,  and 
one  at  Galashiels,  arrived  at  home  with  AVight  next 
night,  and  found  all  well.  It  is  remarkable  that  I  re- 
member very  exactly  most  of  the  circumstances  on 
going  from  home  even  on  a  long  journey,  but  that 
on  returning  I  can  seldom  find  any  trace  of  them  on 
my  memory,  and  all  seems  a  blank.  Is  this  owing 
to  the  imagination  being  fully  occupied  with  the 
thoughts  of  home,  which  are  always  agreeable?    Or  is 


THE    BUCCLEUCH    FAMILY.  485 

it  owing  to  the  eagerness  and  curiosity  with  which 
one  begins  a  journey,  and  the  rising  hopes  of  new 
pleasures  and  amusements,  and  the  drowsy  and  in- 
active state  of  the  imagination  as  you  return  ? 

The  young  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Buccleuch  were 
expected  at  this  time  to  arrive  in  Scotland  to  take 
possession  of  their  fine  estate  in  the  south,  and  their 
palace  at  Dalkeith  as  their  chief  residence.  They 
were  eagerly  expected  over  all  the  country  where  we 
had  been,  great  part  of  which,  from  Tweedside  to  the 
borders  of  Cumberland,  was  the  property  of  that  noble 
family.  There  had  been  a  long  minority,  for  this 
duke's  grandfather  had  died  in  1752,  and  his  son, 
Lord  Dalkeith,  two  years  before  him.  The  family 
had  been  kind  to  their  tenants,  and  the  hopes  of  the 
country  were  high  that  this  new  possessor  of  so  large 
a  property  might  inherit  the  good  temper  and  bene- 
volence of  his  progenitors.  I  may  anticipate  what 
was  at  first  only  guessed,  but  came  soon  to  be  known, 
that  he  surpassed  them  all  as  much  in  justice  and 
humanity  as  he  did  in  superiority  of  understanding 
and  good  sense. 

The  Duke  and  Duchess,  with  Lady  Frances  Scott, 
the  Duke's  sister,  arrived  at  Dalkeith  in  the  beginninor 
of  September,  where  his  Grace  had  never  been  before, 
being  withheld  by  Charles  Townshend,  his  father-in- 
law,  lest  he  should  become  too  fond  of  Scotland.  This 
stratagem  was  defeated  by  the  Duke's  sagacity,  for  he 
discovered  on  his  journey  through  his  own  great 
estate,  from  the  marked  attention  of  the  people,  that 


486         GREGORY   AND    THE    BUCCLEUCH    FAMILY. 

he  would  be  a  mucli  greater  man  in  this  country,  and 
would  have  a  much  more  extensive  range  for  his 
benevolence  than  he  could  possibly  have  in  the  south, 
where  his  own  estates  were  small,  and  where  there 
was  such  a  number  of  more  opulent  lords,  his  rivals 
in  all  the  attributes  of  true  nobility. 

In  order  to  make  the  Duke  and  Duchess  feel  more 
impressively  the  attachment  of  their  vassals  and 
tenants  in  the  south,  I  wrote  a  copy  of  verses  on  the 
birthday  of  the  former,  which  I  had  copied  in  another 
hand,  and  sent  on  the  morning  of  that  day.  It  was 
some  time  before  they  could  guess  that  I  was  the 
author ;  and  one  of  their  tenants  had  for  a  while  the 
credit  of  it.  I  had  by  good-luck  truly  predicted,  by 
way  of  advice,  what  her  Grace  became,  but  no  pre- 
diction could  then  reach  the  extent  of  her  merit. 
The  verses  were  sent  to  the  Scots  Magazine,  where 
Dr  Gregory  read  them,  and  suspected  me  for  the 
author.  When  I  next  saw  him,  he  asked  me,  and  I 
owned  them,  when  he  said  they  were  very  good — too 
good  for  the  subject,  for  they  would  never  act  up  to 
the  strain  of  praise  in  that  poem.  "  Do  you  know 
them.  Doctor  1 "  "  No,"  answered  he, "  but  Mrs  Mon- 
tague does ;  and  she  says  that,  though  very  good 
young  people,  they  have  no  energy  of  character,  and 
will  remain  obscure  and  insignificant."  "Mrs  Mon- 
tague's line,  then,  is  too  short,  my  good  Doctor  :  you 
may  trust  me  to  measure  their  depth,  and  you  will 
live  to  see  that  her  discernment  on  this  occasion  has 
failed  her."     Gregory,  with  many  good  qualities,  had 


THE    BUCCLEUCH   FAMILY.  487 

SO  much  of  the  apothecary  about  him,  that  he  did  not 
tliink  much  of  anybody  who  was  not  likely  to  fre- 
quent his  shop.  He  knew  that  Smith  would  recom- 
mend both  Cullen  and  Black  to  be  their  physician  in 
ordinary  rather  than  him.* 

Between  their  arrival  at  Dalkeith  and  his  Grace's 
birthday,  the  13th  of  September,  the  Eight  Honour- 
able Charles  Townshend  died,  after  an  illness  of  a  few 
days,  of  an  inflammation  in  his  bowels.  This  event 
obliged  them  to  postpone  the  celebration  of  the  birth- 
day, when  they  were  to  have  had  an  entertainment 
for  all  their  friends.  This  sudden  death  affected  the 
Duke  and  his  sister  very  differently.  She,  who  had 
been  bred  up  under  him  from  the  fourth  or  fifth  year 
of  her  asje,  and  had  found  in  him  an  enlightened 
instructor  and  a  kind  protector,  felt  all  the  grief  which 
a  dutiful  child  feels  for  an  indulgent  parent ;  but  the 
Duke,  who  had  been  very  little  at  home  during  JMr 
Townshend's  marriage  with  his  mother,  and  whose 
more  ripened  discernment  had  probably  disclosed  to 
him  his  father-in-law's  defects  as  well  as  his  shining 
qualities,  was  much  less  afflicted  on  this  melancholy 
occasion^  and  was  heard  to  say,  a  few  days  after  the 
news,  that  though  he  sincerely  regretted  Mr  Town- 
shend's premature  death,  yet  to  him  it  was  attended 
with  the  consolation  that  it  left  him  at  liberty  to 
choose  his  own  line  of  life,  for  had  Mr  Townshend 

*  For  infonnation  about  Cxillen,  Black,  and  the  other  eminent  men  of  the 
medical  school  of  Scotland  often  nientionetl  in  these  pages,  it  is  fortimate 
that  the  Life  of  CuUeiiy  begun  by  Dr  Jehn  Thomson,  and  continued  by  big 
son,  has  now  been  completed  by  Dr  Craigie,  2  vols.  8vo,  1859. — Ed. 


tt88      ADAM  SMITH  AND  THE  BUCCLEUCH  FAMILY. 

survived,  he  miglit  have  been  drawn  into  the  vortex  of 
politics  much  against  his  will.  Such  was  the  sound- 
ness of  this  young  nobleman's  mind  at  an  early  age, 
from  whence  a  discerning  observer  might  predict  the 
excellence  of  that  character  which  gradually  evolved 
on  his  admiring  countrymen. 

In  two  or  three  weeks  the  day  came  when  they 
were  to  see  company,  and  when  they  assembled  by 
cards  about  fifty  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  their  friends 
and  the  neighbourhood,  of  whom  few  indeed  were 
ladies,  as  they  were  hardly  yet  acquainted  with  any- 
body. The  fare  was  sumptuous,  but  the  company  was 
formal  and  dull.  Adam  Smith,  their  only  familiar  at 
table,  was  but  ill  qualified  to  promote  the  jollity  of  a 
birthday,  and  their  Graces  were  quite  inexperienced. 
The  Duke,  indeed,  had  been  more  than  two  years  in 
France,  and  four  months  in  London  since  he  came 
home,  but  he  was  backward  at  that  time  to  set  him- 
self forward,  and  showed  a  coldness  and  reserve  which 
often  in  our  superiors  is  thought  to  be  pride.  Had  it 
not  been  for  Alexander  M'Millan,  W.S.,  and  myself, 
the  meeting  would  have  been  very  dull,  and  might 
have  been  dissolved  without  even  drinking  the  health 
of  the  day.  After  that  health  and  a  few  more  toasts 
had  gone  round,  and  the  ladies  had  moved,  and 
M'Millan  and  his  companions  at  a  by-table  had  got 
into  the  circle,  we  got  into  spirits  that  better  suited 
the  occasion.  The  Duchess  at  that  time  was  ex- 
tremely beautiful ;  her  features  were  regular,  her  com- 
plexion good,  her  black  eyes  of  an  impressive  lustre, 


ADAM  SMITH  AND  THE  BUCCLEUCH  FAMILY.        489 

and  her  mouth,  when  she  spoke,  uncommonly  grace- 
ful. The  expression  of  her  countenance  was  that  of 
good  sense  and  serenity ;  she  had  been  bred  in  too 
private  a  way,  which  made  her  shy  and  backward, 
and  it  was  some  time  before  she  acquired  ease  in  com- 
pany, which  at  last  enabled  her  to  display  that  supe- 
riority of  understanding  which  led  all  the  female 
virtues  in  its  train,  accompanied  with  the  love  of 
mii-th,  and  all  the  graces  of  colloquial  intercourse. 
Her  person  was  light,  though  above  the  common 
height,  but  active  and  elegant. 

Smith  remained  with  them  for  two  months,  and 
then  returned  to  Kirkcaldy  to  his  mother  and  his 
studies.  I  have  often  thought  since,  that  if  they  had 
brought  down  a  man  of  more  address  than  he  was, 
how  much  sooner  their  first  appearance  might  have 
been  ;  their  own  good  sense  and  discernment  enabled 
them  sooner  to  draw  round  them  as  familiars  a  better 
set  of  people  of  their  own  choosing,  than  could  have 
been  picked  out  for  them  by  the  assistance  of  an  aide- 
de-camp. 

By  means  of  an  established  custom  of  their  prede- 
cessors, they  had  two  public  days  in  the  week,  when 
everybody  who  pleased  came  to  dine  with  them.  But 
that  on  Thursday  was  soon  cut  o£P,  and  Saturday  was 
their  only  public  day.  But  it  would  have  been  far 
better  if  that  day  had  been  also  abolished,  and  if,  in 
place  of  that,  they  had  taken  to  invited  companies, 
which  might  have  been  well  assorted,  and  might  have 
prevented  all  that  dulness,  and  even  solemnity,  which 


490  THE    BUCCLEUCH    FAMILY. 

overclouded  large  companies  little  acquainted,  and  sel- 
dom capable  of  making  a  company  of  a  score  tolerably 
agreeable.  I  must  aver,  however,  without  pretending 
to  uncommon  discernment,  that  I  soon  discovered  in 
both  that  superior  understanding,  and  that  uncommon 
degree  of  humanity,  as  well  as  the  highest  sense  of 
probity  and  virtue,  which  have  made  them  a  blessing 
and  honour  to  their  country  for  many  years  past. 
For  the  Duke's  uncommon  abilities,  as  well  as  his 
piiblic  spirit,  became  ere  long  as  conspicuous  in  the 
exercise  of  more  honourable  offices  of  trust,  which  fell 
on  him  unsought,  as  his  unassuming  and  familiar 
manners  made  him  appear  a  complete  gentleman  in 
all  the  intercourse  of  private  life.  The  family,  though 
rich  and  great,  had  long  been  in  a  state  of  obscurity 
through  want  of  talents  and  long  minorities.  In  this 
Duke  was  revived  the  character  which  Sir  James  Mel- 
ville gave  his  renowned  predecessor  in  Queen  Mary's 
reign — "  Walter  Scot  of  Buccleugh,  wise  and  true, 
stout  and  modest."  * 

No  two  characters  I  ever  have  know^n  are  so  free 
of  defects  as  that  noble  pair,  while  each  in  their  de- 
partment displayed  such  talents  and  virtues  as  made 
their  numerous  descendants  not  only  happy  in  them- 
selves, but  also  trained  them  up  in  the  habitual  dispo- 
sition to  become  blessings  to  all  their  ow"n  connections 
to  the  latest  posterity. 

The  Duke's  sister,  I>ady  Frances,  though  far  from 

*  "Quliilk  Lard  of  Baclouch  was  a  man  of  rai-e  qualites,  \vyse,   trew, 
stout,  and  modest." — Melville's  Memoirs,  240. — Ed 


THE   BUCCLEUCH    FAMILY.  491 

handsome,  or  in  any  respect  attractive  in  her  person, 
though  then  only  seventeen,  showed  the  opening  of 
that  character  which  she  has  since  so  fully  displayed 
as  Lady  Douglas.  She  had  taste  and  knowledge  in 
the  belles-lettres,  a  pleasant  vein  of  ridicule,  without 
the  least  grain  of  malignity ;  for  she,  like  her  brother, 
was  the  very  milk  of  human-kindness. 

As  I  had  been  intimately  acquainted  with  Charles 
Townshend,  her  father-in-law,  who  protected  her  from 
domestic  tyranny,  and  had  even  opened  her  mind  by  his 
instructions,  she  took  readily  to  me,  and  I  soon  became 
intimate  with  her,  and  kept  up  a  correspondence  with 
her,  both  in  prose  and  verse,  which  conduced  to  our 
amusement.  The  prosperity  and  happiness  of  Lord 
Douglas's  family,  which  consisted  of  three  sons  and 
one  dauorhter,  demonstrated  the  excellence  of  her  do- 
mestic  character.  It  was  remarkable  that  she  was  the 
first  female  descendant  of  the  Duchess  of  Monmouth 
and  Buccleuch  who  was  married. 

I  had  been  Moderator  of  the  Synod  in  November 
1766,  and  opened  the  S}Tiod  in  May  1767  with  a 
sermon,  which  was  printed.  The  window-tax  was 
now  levied,  which  gave  a  serious  alarm  to  the  clergy  : 
there  was  a  standing  committee  of  Assembly,  which 
had  hitherto  done  nothing  effectual.  As  I  had  been 
the  champion  for  resisting  payment  of  the  tax,  I  was 
obliged  to  bestir  myself  very  much  about  it ;  and  as 
Dr  Robertson  was  of  opinion  we  ought  to  submit  to 
it,  I  had  uphni  work  with  it. 

(1 768.) — Towards  the  end  of  January  this  year  it  was 


432  PROFESSOR   MILLAR    OF   GLASGOW. 

that  Mrs  Carlisle  and  I  accompanied  her  aunt  and  uncle 
to  visit  their  son  Walter  Home,  then  a  lieutenant  in 
the  7th  Regiment,  and  lying  at  Glasgow.  AValter  had 
a  chum  of  the  name  of  Mainwaring,  a  very  agreeable 
young  man.  As  Dr  Wight  was  now  fully  established 
in  Glasgow,  and  had  one  of  his  sisters  for  his  house- 
keeper, he  was  very  hospitable  and  popular,  and  we 
met  daily  several  of  the  Professors,  who  were  able 
men,  and  had  agreeable  conversation, — such  as  Alex- 
ander Steyenson  and  John  Millar.  This  last  had 
even  begun  to  distinguish  himself  by  his  democratical 
principles,  and  that  sceptical  philosophy  which  young 
noblemen  and  gentlemen  of  legislative  rank  carried 
into  the  world  with  them  from  his  law -class,  and, 
many  years  afterwards,  particularly  at  the  period  of 
the  French  Revolution,  displayed  with  popular  zeal,  to 
the  no  small  danger  of  perversion  to  all  those  under 
their  influence.  I  had  a  hint  of  this  from  Dr  Wight 
before  1782,  when  he  died,  who  added,  that  though 
some  sound  heads  might  find  antidotes  to  this  poison 
before  they  went  into  the  world,  and  see  in  the  British 
constitution  all  that  is  valuable  in  a  democracy,  with- 
out its  defects  and  faults,  yet,  as  it  was  connected 
with  lax  principles  in  religion,  there  might  be  not  a 
few  of  such  a  contexture  of  understanding  as  could 
not  be  cured.  Millar  lived  to  the  end  of  the  century.* 
I  met  with  a  strong  proof  of  what  is  contained  in 
the  above  paragraph  respecting  Professor  Millar  a  long 

*  Author  of  the  once  very  celebrated  Historical   Vieiv  of  tlie  Enylish 
Oovernment,  and  of  Obseroatlons  Conceruinj  tfie  Distinction  of  Banks. — Ep. 


PROFESSOR   MILLAR   OF    GLASGOW.  493 

time  afterwards,  when  dining  with  Robert  Colt,  Esq., 
then  residing  at  Inveresk.  I  don't  exactly  remember 
the  year,  but  I  think  it  was  before  the  war  of  1798. 
There  was  nobody  with  Mr  Colt  but  a  brother-in-law 
of  his,  when  we  were  joined  by  the  late  Sir  Hew  Dal- 
rymple  of  North  Berwick,  who  had  dined  in  Edin- 
burgh. After  consenting  to  stay  all  night.  Sir  Hew 
said,  "Colt,  was  not  you  a  student  of  law  for  two 
years  with  Millar  at  Glasgow  \ ''  "  Yes,  I  was,"  an- 
swered :Mr  Colt.  "  Then,"  replied  Sir  Hew,  "  I  find  I 
am  right ;  and  as  my  Hew  has  been  four  years  at  St 
Andrews,  and  seems  now  desirous  of  following  the 
law,  I  have  been  advised  to  send  him  to  ^Miliar,  and 
have  come  to  consult  you  about  it."  "We'll  talk 
about  that  coolly  to-morrow  morning.  Sir  Hew;  in 
the  mean  time,  give  me  your  toast."  I  knew  well  the 
meaning  of  this  reserve ;  and  a  few  days  afterwards 
meeting  ^[r  Colt,  "  Well,"  said  I,  "  did  you  settle  your 
friend  Sir  Hew's  mind  about  sending  his  son  to  Glas- 
gow ?"  "  Yes,"  answered  he,  " and  youll  hear  no  more 
of  that  project."  This  Mr  Colt  was  an  able  and  a 
worthy  man,  but  he  was  shy  and  reserved,  and  died, 
unknown  but  to  a  few,  in  the  year  17.97.  He  had 
overcome  many  disadvantages  of  his  education,  for 
he  had  been  sent  to  a  Jacobite  seminary  of  one 
Elphinstone  at  Kensington,  where  his  body  was 
starved,  and  his  mind  also.  He  returned  to  Edin- 
burgh to  college.  He  had  hardly  a  word  of  Latin, 
and  was  obliged  to  work  hard  with  a  private  tutor. 
At  Glasgow,  to  be  sure,  he  learned  public  law,  but 


494  BLAIR    AND    ROBERTSON. 

took  in  poison  with  it,  which  he  had  strength  of  un- 
derstanding to  expel,  as  well  as  to  overcome  many 
other  disadvantages. 

Lieutenant  Walter  Home,  before  the  end  of  the 
American  war,  was  major  of  the  42d  Kegiment,  was 
an  able  man  and  an  excellent  officer  ;  he  was  the 
ablest  of  all  the  family,  except  Robert  the  clergyman, 
although  his  third  brother  Roddam,  the  admiral,  got 
to  a  higher  rank.  By  means  of  my  old  connections 
at  Glasgow  and  Dr  Wight's  friends,  we  were  feasted 
and  every  way  well  entertained  there.  Nothing  coidd 
surpass  the  satisfaction  Mr  and  Mrs  Home  had  in 
seeing  their  son  so  well  received  in  the  best  society 
in  Glasgow.  In  those  days  the  members  of  the  minis- 
try, excepting  a  very  few  indeed,  were  the  only  people 
of  liberal  conversation  in  that  city. 

Drs  Blair  and  Robertson  were  at  London  this  year 
during  the  time  of  the  Assembly — the  first  to  visit 
London  for  the  first  and  only  time  in  his  life  ;  the 
second  to  transact  with  his  bookseller  for  his  History 
of  Charles  V.,  Emperor  of  Germany  and  King  of  Spain, 
and  to  enjoy  the  fame  of  his  former  publication.  Dr 
Robertson  was  introduced  to  the  first  company  in  Lon- 
don, as  all  the  people  of  fashion,  both  male  and  female, 
were  eager  to  see  the  historian  of  Queen  Mary,  who 
had  given  them  so  much  pleasure.  He  did  not  dis- 
appoint their  expectation,  for  though  he  spoke  broad 
Scotch  in  point  of  pronunciation  and  accent  or  tone, 
his  was  the  language  of  literature  and  taste,  and  of  an 
enlightened  and  liberal  mind.     Dr  Blair  exhibited  in 


BLAIK    AXD   ROBERTSON.  495 

a  much  narrower  circle,  for  nothing  of  his  having  been 
yet  published  but  his  Dissertation  on  Ossian,  he  had 
raised  but  little  curiosity ;  and  excepting  the  family  of 
Northumberland,  a  son  of  which.  Lord  Algernon  Piercy, 
had  been  three  years  under  his  roof  at  the  university, 
he  hardly  was  known  to  any  of  the  English  nobility 
or  gentry,  and  depended  chiefly  for  his  entertainment 
there  on  such  literary  people  as  he  had  seen  at  Edin- 
burgh, or  was  introduced  to  by  Dr  Blair  of  Westmin- 
ster, or  James  M'Pherson,  the  translator  of  Ossicui* 

Blair  had  taken  charge  of  Lord  Glasgow,  the  King's 
Commissioner,  during  the  General  Assembly,  who, 
though  he  was  a  very  able  man,  had  so  much  distrust 
in  himself  that  he  could  not  compose  his  own  speeches. 
This  service  was  laid  upon  me,  and  I  had  much  plea- 
sure in  the  close  communication  which  this  gave  me 
with  his  lordship,  as  it  opened  to  me  a  near  view  of 
uncommon  talents  and  exalted  mind,  of  the  service  of 
which  the  world  was  in  great  measure  deprived  by  the 
most  insuperable  diffidence  and  modesty .f 

I  was  a  member  of  the  Assembly  this  year,  in  which 
there  was  little  business  of  any  consequence.  Henry 
Dundas,  who  was  now  well  known  there,  took  an 
attentive  charge  of  it,  and  leaned  on  me  as  his  best 
clerical  assistant. 

*  His  "  Lectures  on  Rhetoric,"  as  delirered  to  his  class,  though  not  then 
published,  had  obtained  considerable  colloquial  celebrity.  It  was  not  until 
1777  that  he  became  famous  by  the  publication  of  his  Sermons. —  Ed. 

t  See  above,  p.  472. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

1769-1770 :   AGE,  47-48. 

THE    CLERGY    OP    SCOTLAND    AND    THE    WINDOW-TAX CARLYLE    AP- 
POINTED   THEIR    CHAMPION SOJOURN    IN    LONDON THE    SCOTCH 

DANCING    ASSEMBLY THE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND'S    CLAIMS    TO 

CONSIDERATION NEGOTIATIONS     WITH    STATESMEN  DR    DODD 

PREACHING    TO    THE  MAGDALENS — THE  CAREER    OF    COLONEL    DOW 

ANECDOTES  OF  WOLFE  AND  QUEBEC — GARRICK  AND  JOHN  HOME's 

PLAYS DECISION    OF    THE    DOUGLAS    CAUSE — LORD    MANSFIELD 

THE  EXCITEMENT CON\'ERSATION  AT   MRS  MONTAGUE's THE  RE- 
TURN   HOME BACK     TO     LONDON     ABOUT     THE    WINDOW-TAX 

ANECDOTES     OF     THE     FORMATION     OF     THE    NORTH    MINISTRY 

CONCLUSION. 

1769. 

The  window-tax  alarmed  the  clergy  more  and  more, 
and  as  I  had  been  the  great  champion  in  maintaining 
on  every  occasion  that  the  Scottish  clergy  Ly  our  law 
ought  to  be  exempted  from  this  tax,  on  the  same 
grounds  on  which  they  are  exempted  from  paying  the 
land-tax  for  their  glebes,  while  one  of  our  meetings 
were  deliberating  what  was  to  be  done,  I  told  them 
that  as  I  intended  to  be  in  London  in  the  spring  on 
private  business,  I  would  very  gladly  accept  of  any 
commission  they  would  give  me,  to  state  our  claim  to 
the  King's  Ministers,  and  particularly  to  the  Lords  of 


JOUR>'EY    TO    LONDOX.  497 

the  Treasury  ;  and  at  least  to  prepare  the  way  for  an 
application  for  exemption  to  the  Parliament  in  the 
following  year,  in  case  it  should  be  found  expedient. 
Robertson,  who  had  thought  it  more  advisable  to  pay 
rather  than  resist  any  longer,  was  surprised  into  con- 
sent with  this  sudden  proposal  of  mine,  and  frankly 
agreed  to  it,  though  he  told  me  privately  that  it 
would  not  have  success.  The  truth  was,  that  Mrs 
Carlyle's  health  was  so  indifferent  that  I  became 
uneasy,  and  wished  to  try  Bath,  and  to  visit  London, 
where  she  never  had  been,  on  our  way.  The  clergy 
were  highly  pleased  with  my  offer  of  service  without 
any  expense,  and  I  was  accordingly  commissioned,  in 
due  form,  by  the  Committee  on  the  Window-Tax,  to 
carry  on  this  affair.  We  prepared  for  our  journey, 
and  set  out  about  the  middle  of  February.  We  had 
the  good  fortune  to  get  Martin,  the  portrait-painter, 
and  Bob  Scott,  a  young  physician,  as  our  companions 
on  our  journey.  This  made  it  very  pleasant,  as  Mar- 
tin was  a  man  of  uncommon  talents  for  conversation. 
We  stopped  for  two  days  with  the  Blacketts  at  New- 
castle, and  then  went  on  by  Huntingdon,  and  after 
that  to  Cambridge.  As  I  had  not  been  there  when  I 
was  formerly  in  London,  I  was  desirous  to  see  that 
famous  university;  and  besides,  had  got  a  warm 
exhortation  from  my  friend  Dr  Robertson,  to  diverge 
a  little  from  the  straight  line,  and  go  by  Hockwell, 
where  there  were  the  finest  eels  in  all  England .  We 
took  that  place  in  our  way,  and  arrived  long  enough 
before  dinner  to  have  our  eels  dressed  in  various  ways ; 

2  I 


498  THE   FAMILY    CIRCLE. 

but  though  the  spitch-cocked  had  been  so  highly  recom- 
mended by  our  friend,  we  thought  nothing  of  them,  and 
Mrs  Carlyle  could  not  taste  them,  so  that  we  had  all  to 
dine  on  some  very  indifferent  mutton-broth,  which  had 
been  ordered  for  her.  I  resolved  after  this  never  to 
turn  off  the  road  by  the  advice  of  epicures. 

We  got  to  Cambridge  in  the  dark,  but  remained 
all  next  forenoon,  and  saw  all  the  public  buildings, 
some  of  which  are  very  fine,  particularly  King's  Col- 
lege Chapel.  As  none  of  us  had  any  acquaintances 
there  that  we  knew  of,  we  were  not  induced  to  stay  any 
longer,  and  so  made  the  best  of  our  way  to  London. 

My  youngest  sister  Janet,  a  beautiful,  elegant,  and 
pleasing  young  woman,  having  gone  to  London  to 
visit  her  married  sister,  had  herself  married,  in  1760, 
a  gentleman  who  had  been  captain  of  a  trading  vessel 
in  the  Mediterranean,  and,  having  been  attacked  by  a 
French  or  Spanish  privateer,  took  her  after  a  short 
engagement  *  He  was  a  very  sensible  clever  man, 
much  esteemed  by  his  companions,  and  had  become 
insurance-broker.  On  our  arrival  in  London,  there- 
fore, which  was  on  the  11th  February,  we  took  up 
our  residence  at  their  house,  which  was  in  Alderman- 
bury.      They  had  also  a  country-house,  where  their 

*  See  Scots  Magazine,  December  1759  : — 

"captures  by  privateers,  etc. 

"  By  the  i?rrt(70«,  Bell,  and  tlie  Greyhound,  Dewar,  both  from  London, 
Le  Pendant,  Jos.  Geruliard,  from  St  Domingo  ;  earned  into  Gibraltar." 

See  also  the  Caledonian  Mercury,  15th  December  1759  : — 

"The  Dragon,  Bell,  and  the  Greyhound,  Dewar,  both  from  London,  are 
arrived  at  Gibraltar,  and  have  carried  a  French  prize  with  them." — Note 
apjiended  to  the  MS. 


THE    FAMILY    CIRCLE.  499 

children  resided  the  whole  year,  and  where  they  spent 
the  summer  months  ;  and  being  only  nine  miles  from 
London,  with  a  very  good  road,  my  brother-in-law 
could  easily  ride  every  day  to  attend  to  his  business, 
and  return  to  dinner.  Merton  was  a  very  agreeable 
place.  The  house  had  been  originally  built  by  Lord 
Eglinton,  and  soon  after  forsaken  and  sold.'  There 
was  a  large  garden  of  three  acres,  divided  into  three 
parts,  and  planted  with  the  best  fruit-trees,  on  which, 
when  I  afterwards  saw  it  in  the  season,  I  said  there 
were  more  peaches  and  apricots  than  grew  then  in 
Midlothian ;  for  I  well  remember  that  [there  were 
very  few]  till  we  had  hothouses  here,  which  had  then 
only  had  a  beginning,  by  Lord  Chief  Baron  Ord,  at  the 
Dean,  and  Baron  Stuart  Moncrieff,  and  were  not  in 
great  numbers  till  1780. 

About  the  third  night  after  we  came,  we  went  with 
the  Bells  to  the  Scotch  dancing  assembly,  which  then 
met  in  the  King's  Arms  Tavern,  in  Cheapside,  where 
we  met  many  of  our  acquaintance,  and  were  intro- 
duced to  several  others  with  whom  we  were  not  before 
acquainted.  I  was  glad  to  find  from  them  all  that 
my  brother-in-law  was  in  high  esteem  among  them  as 
a  man  of  business,  not  only  for  his  integrity,  but  his 
aptitude  for  business.  My  sister  was  much  admired 
as  a  fine  woman,  and  no  less  for  the  elegance  and  pro- 
priety of  her  manners  than  for  her  handsome  face 
and  fine  person.  He  had  the  good-luck  to  be  called 
Honest  Tom,  in  distinction  to  another  who  frequented 
Lloyd's  Coffeehouse,  who  was  not  in  so  much  favour, 


500  THE   WILKITES. 

and  was  besides  a  very  hot  Wilkite.  After  a  few  days 
more  we  were  invited  to  a  fine  subscription-dinner  in 
the  London  Tavern,  where  there  was  a  company  of 
about  fifty  ladies  and  gentlemen.  The  dinner  was 
sumptuous,  but  I  was  not  much  delighted  with  the 
conversation.  The  men,  especially,  were  vulgar  and 
uneducated ;  and  most  of  the  English  among  them 
violent  Wilkites,  and  gave  toasts  of  the  party  kind, 
which  showed  their  breeding  where  the  majority  were 
Scotch.  It  was  with  some  difficulty  that  I  could  get 
Honest  Tom  to  treat  their  bad  manners  with  ridicule 
and  contempt,  rather  than  with  rage  and  resentment. 
Having  now  been  near  a  week  in  London,  it  was 
proper  that  I  should  give  a  commencement  to  the 
business  which  I  had  undertaken;  I  therefore  applied 
myself  to  making  the  necessary  calls  on  Dr  Gordon  of 
the  Temple,  a  Scotch  solicitor-at-law,  and  the  Lord 
Advocate  for  Scotland,  and  whoever  else  I  thought 
might  be  of  use.  I  had  drawn  a  short  memorial  on 
the  business  which  Dr  Gordon  approved,  but  wished 
it  to  be  left  with  him  for  corrections  and  additions. 
This  I  did,  but  was  surprised  to  find,  when  he  returned 
it  several  weeks  after  as  fit  to  be  sent  to  the  press, 
that  there  was  hardly  any  change  on  it  at  all.  But  I 
was  still  more  surprised,  when  calling  on  the  Lord 
Advocate  (James  Montgomery,  Esq.),  and  opening 
the  affair  to  him,  to  hear  him  answer  that  he  wished 
me  success  with  all  his  heart,  but  could  give  me  no 
aid ;  for,  he  added,  that  when  the  clergy  were  lately 
in  four  years'  arrears,  thfe  payment  of  which  would 


THE    CHURCH    NEGLECTED.  501 

have  greatly  distressed  them,  Dr  Robertson  had  come 
to  him  in  Edinburgh,  and  had  strongly  interceded 
with  him  to  get  that  arrear  excused,  and  he  would 
answer  for  the  punctual  payment  by  the  clergy  in 
future.  He  had,  accordingly,  on  this  promise,  applied 
to  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  then  First  JMinister,  and  ob- 
tained what  the  Doctor  had  asked  on  the  condition 
promised.  In  this  state  of  things  it  was  impossible 
that  he  could  assist  me  as  Lord  Advocate,  but  that, 
as  a  private  gentleman,  he  would  do  all  he  could ;  that 
was,  to  introduce  me  to  the  Minister,  to  speak  of  me 
as  I  deserved,  and  to  say  that  he  thought  the  petition 
I  brought  very  reasonable,  and  agreeable  to  the  law  of 
Scotland.  All  this  he  punctually  fulfilled,  for  he  was 
an  honourable  man. 

The  Church  of  Scotland  had  been  at  all  times  very 
meanly  provided ;  and  even  when  they  were  serving 
their  country  with  the  utmost  fidelity  and  zeal  at  the 
time  of  the  Restoration,  and  ever  afterwards  support- 
ing that  part  of  the  aristocracy  which  resisted  the  en- 
croachments of  the  Crown  and  maintained  the  liberties 
of  the  people — even  then  their  most  moderate  requests 
to  be  raised  above  poverty  were  denied."'  After  the 
union  of  the  crowns,  and  even  after  that  of  the  leons- 
latures,  they  have,  on  every  application  for  redress, 
been  scurvily  treated.  The  history  of  our  country 
bears  the  strongest  testimony  of  their  loyalty  to  the 
king,  while  they  warmly  opposed  every  appearance  of 

*  \\Tiether  or  not  the  author  meant  to  say  Reformation,  the  word  Resto- 
ration must  have  been  a  slij*. — Ed. 


502  THE    CHUECH   NEGLECTED. 

arbitrary  power  even  to  persecution  and  death.  They 
were  cajoled  and  flattered  by  the  aristocracy  when 
they  wanted  their  aid,  but  never  relieved,  till  Crom- 
well considered  their  poverty,  and  relieved  them  for 
the  time.  Yet,  after  Presbytery  was  finally  settled  at 
the  Eevolution,  the  clergy  were  allowed  almost  to 
starve  till,  down  in  our  own  time,  in  the  year  1790, 
a  generous  and  wise  man  was  raised  to  the  President's 
chair,  who,  being  also  President  of  that  Court  when 
it  sits  as  a  committee  of  Parliament  for  the  aug- 
mentation of  ministers'  stipends,  with  the  concur- 
rence of  his  brethren  had  redressed  this  grievance, 
and  enabled  the  clergy  and  their  families  to  survive 
such  years  of  dearth  as  the  1799  and  1800,  which, 
but  for  that  relief,  must  have  reduced  them  to  ruin. 
This  happened  by  good-luck  while  the  land  estates 
in  Scotland  were  doubled  and  tripled  in  their  rents, 
otherwise  it  could  not  have  been  done  without  a 
clamorous  opposition.* 

It  is  observable  that  no  country  has  ever  been  more 
tranquil,  except  the  trifling  insurrections  of  1715  and 
'4.5,  than  Scotland  has  been  since  the  Eevolution  in 
1688 — a  period  of  117  years;  while,  at  the  same  time, 
the  country  has  been  prosperous,  with  an  increase  of 
agriculture,  trade,  and  manufactures,  as  well  as  all  the 
ornamental  arts  of  life,  to  a  degree  unexampled  in  any 
age  and  country.  How  far  the  steady  loyalty  to  the 
Crown,  and  attachment  to  the  constitution,  together 

*  The  Lord  President  of  the  Court  of  Session  here  referred  to  is  ISir  Hay 
Campbell.     This  matter  is  again  alhided  to,  p.  527. — Ed. 


DR   DODD.  503 

with  the  unwearied  diligence  of  the  clergy  in  teach- 
ing a  rational  religion,  may  have  contributed  to  this 
prosperity,  cannot  be  exactly  ascertained;  but  surely 
enough  appears  to  entitle  them  to  the  high  respect  of 
the  State,  and  to  justice  from  the  country,  in  a  decent 
support  to  them  and  to  their  families,  and,  if  possible, 
to  a  permanent  security  like  that  of  the  Church  of 
England,  by  giving  the  clergy  a  title  to  vote  on  their 
livings  for  the  member  of  Parliament  for  the  county, 
which  woidd  at  once  raise  their  respect,  and,  by  mak- 
ing them  members  of  the  State,  would  for  ever  secure 
their  interest  in  it,  and  firmly  cement  and  strengthen 
the  whole. 

Before  I  began  my  operations  relative  to  the  win- 
dow-tax, I  witnessed  somethinor  memorable.  It  beino; 
much  the  fashion  to  go  on  a  Sunday  evening  to  a 
chapel  of  the  Magdalen  Asylum,  we  went  there  on  the 
second  Sunday  we  were  in  London,  and  had  difficulty 
to  get  tolerable  seats  for  my  sister  and  wife,  the  crowd 
of  genteel  people  was  so  great.  The  preacher  was  Dr 
Dodd,  a  man  afterwards  too  well  known.  The  unfor- 
tunate young  women  were  in  a  latticed  gallery,  where 
you  could  only  see  those  who  chose  to  be  seen.  The 
preacher's  text  was,  *'  If  a  man  look  on  a  woman  to 
lust  after  her,"  &c.  The  text  itself  was  shocking,  and 
the  sermon  was  composed  with  the  least  possible  deli- 
cacy, and  was  a  shocking  insult  on  a  sincere  penitent, 
and  fuel  for  the  warm  passions  of  the  hypocrites.  The 
fellow  was  handsome,  and  delivered  his  discourse 
remarkablv  well  for  a  reader.     AVhen  lie  had  finished, 


504  SIR   FLETCHER   NORTON. 

there  were  unceasing  whispers  of  applause,  whicli  I 
could  not  help  contradicting  aloud,  and  condemning 
the  whole  institution,  as  well  as  the  exhibition  of  the 
preacher,  as  conty^a  honos  mores,  and  a  disgrace  to  a 
Christian  city. 

On  the  day  after  this  I  went  to  the  House  of  Peers, 
and  heard  Sir  Fletcher  Norton's  pleading  on  the 
Douglas  Cause,  on  the  side  of  Douglas,  but  in  a  man- 
ner inferior  to  what  I  expected  from  his  fame :  but 
this  was  not  a  question  of  law,  but  of  fact,  I  dined 
and  supped  next  day  with  Colonel  Dow,  who  had 
translated  well  the  History  of  Hindustan,  and  wrote 
tolerably  well  the  Tragedy  of  Zingis.  As  James 
M'Pherson,  the  translator  of  Ossian,  and  he  lived  to- 
gether, and  as  his  play,  in  point  of  diction  and  man- 
ners, had  some  resemblance  to  the  poems  of  Ossian, 
there  were  not  a  few  who  ascribed  the  tragedy  to 
M'Pherson  ;  but  such  people  did  not  know  that,  could 
M'Pherson  have  claimed  it,  he  was  not  the  man  to 
relinquish  either  the  credit  or  profits  which  might 
arise  from  it,  for  the  tragedy  ran  its  nine  nights. 

Dow  was  a  Scotch  adventurer  who  had  been  bred 
at  the  school  of  Dunbar,  his  father  being  in  the  Cus- 
toms there,  and  had  run  away  from  his  apprenticeship 
at  Eyemouth,  and  found  his  way  to  the  East  Indies, 
where,  having  a  turn  for  languages,  which  had  been 
fostered  by  his  education,  he  soon  became  such  a 
master  of  the  native  tongue  as  to  accelerate  his  pre- 
ferment in  the  army,  for  he  soon  had  the  command  of 
a  regiment  of  sepoys.     He  was  a  sensible  and  know- 


COLONEL   DOW.  505 

ing  man,  of  very  agreeable  manners,  and  of  a  mild 
and  gentle  disposition.  As  lie  was  telling  us  that 
niorht,  that,  when  he  had  the  charoje  of  the  Great 
Mogul,  with  two  regiments  under  his  command,  at 
Delhi,  he  was  tempted  to  dethrone  the  monarch,  and 
mount  the  throne  in  his  stead,  which  he  said  he  could 
easily  have  done  : — when  I  asked  him  what  prevented 
him  from  yielding  to  the  temptation,  he  gave  me  this 
memorable  answer,  that  it  was  reflecting  on  what  his 
old  schoolfellows  at  Dunbar  would  think  of  him  for 
being  guilty  of  such  an  action.  His  company  were 
Dr  John  Douglas  and  Garrick,  the  two  MThersons, 
John  Home,  and  David  Hume  who  joined  us  in  the 
evening.* 

I  have  before,  I  believe,  given  some  account  of 
them  all  but  Robert  ]?J'Pherson,  the  chaplain,  whom 
I  had  not  known  till  now.  Though  not  a  man  of 
genius,  he  was  a  man  of  good  sense,  of  a  firm  and 
manly  mind,  and  of  much  worth  and  honour.  He 
was  a  younger  brother  of  M'Pherson  of  Banchors,  a 
man  near  the  head  of  the  clan  in  point  of  birth,  but 
not  of  a  large  fortune.  He  had  been  bred  at  Aber- 
deen for  the  Church,  but  before  he  passed  trials  as  a 
probationer,  he  had  been  offered  a  company  in  his 
regiment  of  Highlanders  by  Simon  Fraser,  and  had 
accepted.     But  when  the  regiment  rendezvoused  at 

*  Colonel  Alexander  Dow  is  known  as  the  translator  and  continuer  of 
the  Persian  History  of  Hindoatan,  and  the  writer  of  Tales  from  the  Persian, 
and  of  another  tragedy  besides  hLs  Zingis,  called  Sethona.  The  editor  is 
not  aware,  however,  of  any  other  source  of  information  about  the  i)ersonal 
adventures  referred  to  in  the  text — EId. 


506  ANECDOTES. 

Greenock,  he  was  told,  with  many  fair  speeches,  that 
the  captains'  commissions  were  all  disposed  of,  much 
against  the  colonel's  will,  but  that  he  might  have  a 
lieutenancy,  or  the  chaplainry  if  he  liked  it  better. 
M'Pherson  chose  the  last,  and  took  orders  immedi- 
ately from  the  Presbytery  of  Lochcarron,  where  he 
returned  for  ten  days.  He  soon  made  himself  accept- 
able to  the  superiors  as  well  as  to  the  men,  and  after 
they  landed  in  Nova  Scotia,  in  every  skirmish  or 
battle  it  was  observed  that  he  always  put  himself  on 
a  line  with  the  officers  at  the  head  of  the  regiment. 
He  was  invited  to  the  mess  of  the  field  officers,  where 
he  continued.  On  hearing  this  from  General  Murray, 
I  asked  him  [M'Pherson]  if  it  was  true.  He  said  it 
was.  How  came  you  to  be  so  foolish  1  He  answered, 
that  being  a  grown  man,  while  many  of  the  lieutenants 
and  ensigns  were  but  boys,  as  well  as  some  of  the  pri- 
vates, and  that  they  looked  to  him  for  example  as  well 
as  precept,  he  had  thought  it  his  duty  to  advance  with 
them,  but  that  he  had  discontinued  the  practice  after 
the  third  time  of  danger,  as  he  found  they  were  per- 
fectly steady. 

Dining  with  him,  and  General  James  Murray  and 
one  or  two  more,  at  the  British  one  day,  I  put  him 
on  telling  the  story  of  the  mutiny  at  Quebec,  when 
he  had  the  command  after  the  death  of  Wolfe.  He  told 
us  that  the  first  thing  he  had  done  was  to  send  and 
inquire  if  Mac  had  taken  advantage  of  the  leave  he 
had  given  him  to  sail  for  Britain  the  day  before,  for  if 
he  had  not  sailed,  there  would  have  been  no  mutiny. 


ANECDOTES.  507 

But  he  was  gone,  and  I  had  to  do  the  best  I  could 
without  him  ;  and  so  he  went  on.  Not  being  certain 
if  this  anecdote  might  not  have  been  much  exag- 
gerated, according  to  the  usual  style  of  the  windy 
Murrays,  as  they  were  styled  by  Joch  at  the  Horn,  I 
asked  Mac,  when  the  company  parted,  how  much  of 
this  was  true  %  He  answered,  that  though  the  General 
had  exceeded  a  little  in  his  compliments  to  him,  that 
it  was  so  far  true,  that  he,  being  the  only  Highland 
chaplain  there — he  of  Fraser's  regiment  having  gone 
home — he  had  so  much  to  say  with  both  of  them 
that  he  could  have  persuaded  them  to  stand  by  their 
officers  and  the  General,  in  which,  if  those  two 
regiments  had  joined,  they  would  have  prevented  the 
mutiny. 

One  anecdote  more  of  this  worthy  man,  and  I  shall 
have  done  with  him.  In  one  of  the  winters  in  which 
he  was  at  Quebec  he  had  provided  himself  in  a 
w^ooden  house,  which  he  had  furnished  well,  and  in 
which  he  had  a  tolerable  soldier's  library.  While  he 
^vas  dining  one  day  with  the  mess,  his  house  took  fire 
and  was  burned  to  the  ground.  Next  morning  the 
two  serjeant-majors  of  the  two  Highland  regiments 
came  to  him,  and,  lamenting  the  great  loss  he  had 
sustained,  told  him  that  the  lads,  out  of  their  gTeat 
love  and  respect  for  him,  had  collected  a  purse  of  four 
hundred  guineas,  which  they  begged  him  to  accept  of. 
He  w^as  moved  by  their  generosity,  and  by-and-by 
anwered,  "  That  he  was  never  so  much  gratified  in  his 
life  as  by  their  offer,  as  a  mark  of  kindness  and  respect, 


508  '  ANECDOTES. 

of  which  he  would  think  himself  entirely  unworthy 
if  he  could  rob  them  of  the  fruits  of  their  wise  and 
prudent  frugality  ;"  and  added,  "  that,  by  good  fortune, 
he  had  no  need  of  the  exertions  of  their  generosity." 
The  annals  of  private  men  I  have  often  thought  as 
instructive  and  worthy  of  being  recorded  as  those  of 
their  superiors. 

Having  formerly  given  some  account  of  James 
M'Pherson  and  Garrick,  I  shall  say  nothing  more  of 
them  here,  but  that  in  their  several  ways  they  were 
very  good  company.  Garrick  was  always  playsome, 
good-humoured,  and  willing  to  display ;  James  was 
sensible,  shrewd,  and  sarcastic.  Dow  went  a  second 
time  out  to  India,  and  after  some  time  died  there. 

By  this  time  I  had  discovered  that  I  should  have 
no  need  to  go  to  Bath,  as  Mrs  C.  had  fallen  with 
child,  which  left  me  sufficient  time  to  wait  even 
for  the  very  slow  method  of  transacting  Treasury 
business,  which  made  me  sometimes  repent  that  I 
had  undertaken  it.  I  had  found  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot 
at  last,  who  both  encouraged  and  assisted  me.  I  had 
also  met  Mr  Wedderburn,  who  was  not  then  in  the 
line  of  doing  me  much  service.  Mr  Grey  Cooper, 
who  had  been  brought  forward  by  the  Honourable 
Charles  Townshend,  and  was  then  a  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  frankly  gave  me  his  services.  But  the  only 
person  (except  Sir  G.  Elliot)  who  understood  me 
perfectly  was  Mr  Jeremiah  Dyson.  He  had  been  two 
years  at  Edinburgh  University  at  the  same  time  as 
Akenside  and  Monckly,  and  had  a  perfect  idea  of  the 


GARRICK    AXD    HOME.  509 

constitution  of  the  Churcli  of  Scotland  and  the  nature 
and  state  of  the  livings  of  the  clergy.  Of  him  I  ex- 
pected and  obtained  much  aid.  Broderip,  secretary 
to  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  on  whom  I  frequently  called, 
gave  me  good  words  but  little  aid. 

On  the  23d  of  this  month  I  went  with  John  Home 
to  the  first  night  of  his  tragedy  of  the  Fatal  Discovery, 
which  went  off  better  than  we  expected.  This  was 
and  is  to  my  taste  the  second-best  of  Home's  tragedies. 
Garrick  had  been  justly  alarmed  at  the  jealousy  and 
dislike  which  prevailed  at  that  time  against  Lord 
Bute  and  the  Scotch,  and  had  advised  him  to  change 
the  title  of  Rivine  into  that  of  the  Fatal  Discovery, 
and  had  provided  a  student  of  Oxford,  who  had  ap- 
peared at  the  rehearsals  as  the  author,  and  wished 
Home  of  all  things  to  remain  concealed  till  the  play 
had  its  run.  But  John,  whose  vanity  was  too  san- 
guine to  admit  of  any  fear  or  caution,  and  whose 
appetite  for  praise  rebelled  against  the  counsel  that 
would  deprive  him  for  a  moment  of  his  fame,  too 
soon  discovered  the  secret,  an^  though  the  play  sur- 
vived its  nine  nights,  yet  the  house  evidently  slack- 
ened after  the  town  heard  that  John  was  the  author. 
Home,  however,  in  his  way,  ascribed  this  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  public,  and  especially  of  the  Scotch,  being 
drawn  off  by  the  Douglas  Cause,  which  was  decided  in 
the  House  of  Lords  on  the  27th,  forgettincr  that  this 
took  up  only  one  night,  and  that  any  slackness  de- 
rived from  that  cause  could  not  affect  other  nights. 

To  finish  my  account  of  this  play,  I  shall  add  here 


510  GARRICK   AND   HOME. 

that  Garrick  still  continued  to  perform  it  on  the  most 
convenient  terms.  Mrs  Carlyle,  John  Home,  and  I, 
dined  with  Mr  A.  Wedderburn  at  his  house  in  Lin- 
coln's-Inn  Fields,  and  went  to  the  Fatal  Discovery 
with  him  and  his  lady  and  his  brother,  Colonel  David 
Wedderburn,  when  we  were  all  perfectly  well  pleased. 
We  returned  with  them  to  supper,  Wedderburn  having 
continued  cordial  and  open  all  that  day ;  his  brother 
was  always  so. 

We  became  acquainted  with  my  wife's  uncle  and  aunt, 
Mr  Laurie  and  Miss  Mary  Eeed,  brother  and  sister  of 
her  mother  by  another  wife.  Mr  Reed  was  a  mahogany 
merchant  in  Hatton  Wall,  a  very  worthy  and  honour- 
able man ;  and  his  sister,  whom  I  had  seen  once  or 
twice  before  in  Berwick,  was  a  handsome  and  elegant 
woman,  though  now  turned  of  thirty,  with  as  much 
good  sense  and  breeding  as  any  person  we  met  with. 
Mr  Reed  was  not  rich,  but  between  an  estate  of  £250, 
which  he  had  near  Alnwick,  and  his  business,  he  lived 
in  a  very  respectable  manner.  Their  mode  of  living 
was  quite  regulated,  f(y  they  saw  company  only  two 
days  in  the  week  ; — on  Thursday,  to  dinner,  when  you 
met  a  few  friends,  chiefly  from  Northumberland;  and 
here,  if  you  pleased,  you  might  play  cards  and  stay 
the  evening.  On  Sunday  evening  they  likewise  saw 
their  friends  to  tea  and  supper,  but  they  were  too 
old-fashioned  to  play  cards,  which  was  very  convenient 
for  me.  The  uncle  and  aunt  were  proud  of  their  niece, 
as  they  found  her,  in  point  of  conversation  and  man- 
ners, at  least  equal  to  any  of  their  guests ;  and  the 


THE   DOUGLAS    CAUSE.  511 

niece  was  proud  of  her  uncle  and  aunt,  as  in  him  she 
found  as  honest  a  man  as  Mr  Bell,  and  in  her  a  woman 
who,  for  beauty  and  elegance,  could  cope  with  my 
sister,  who  was  not  surpassed  by  any  lady  in  the  city. 
Here  I  met  with  many  old  acquaintances,  and  made 
some  new  ones,  such  as  Sir  Evan  Nepean  and  his  lady, 
then  only  in  their  courtship,  and  A.  Collingwood,  a 
clever  attorney,  said  to  be  nearly  related  to  the  family 
of  Unthank — indeed,  a  natural  son  of  my  wife's  grand- 
father. To  this  very  agreeable  place  we  resorted  often  ; 
and  when  I  came  the  next  year  alone,  I  availed  my- 
self of  it,  especially  on  Sunday  nights. 

I  was  much  indebted  to  my  hospitable  friend,  Dr 
Blair  of  Westminster,  at  whose  house  also  I  met  with 
sundry  people  whose  acquaintance  I  cultivated.  On 
the  26th  of  this  month  I  met  him  at  Court,  after 
having  attended  service  in  the  Chapel  Eoyal  and  in 
.the  chaplain's  seat,  and  was  by  him  introduced  in  the 
drawing-room  to  Lord  Bathurst,  then  very  old,  but 
extremely  agreeable ;  Dr  Barton,  Dean  of  Bristol, 
Eector  of  St  Andrew,  Holborn,  &c.,  and  to  Dr  Tucker, 
Dean  of  Gloucester — very  excellent  people,  whose 
acquaintance  I  very  much  valued.* 

On  the  27th  I  attended  the  House  of  Peers  on  the 
Douglas  Cause.  The  Duke  of  B[uccleuch]  had  promised 
to  carry  me  down  to  the  House ;  but  as  I  was  going  into 
Grosvenor  Square  to  meet  him  at  ten  o'clock,  I  met 
the  Duke  of  Montague,  who  was  coming  from  his 

*  Josiah  Tucker,  whose  works  on  Trade  anticijiated  some  of  the  estab- 
lished doctrines  on  political  economy.  —  Ed. 


512  THE   DOUGLAS    CAUSE, 

house,  and  took  me  into  his  chariot,  saying  that  the 
Duke  of  B.  was  not  yet  ready.  He  put  me  in  by 
the  side  of  the  throne,  where  I  found  two  or  three  of  my 
friends,  among  them  Thomas  Bell.  The  business  did 
not  begin  till  eleven,  and  from  that  time  I  stood,  with 
now  and  then  a  lean  on  the  edge  of  a  deal  board,  till 
nine  in  the  evening,  without  any  refreshment  but  a 
small  roll  and  two  orano-es.  The  heat  of  the  house 
was  chiefly  oppressive,  and  Lord  Sandwich's  speech, 
which,  though  learned  and  able,  yet  being  three  hours 
long,  was  very  intolerable.  The  Duke  of  Bedford 
spoke  low,  but  not  half  an  hour.  The  Chancellor 
and  Lord  Mansfield  united  on  the  side  of  Douglas ; 
each  of  them  spoke  above  an  hour.  Andrew  Stuart, 
whom  I  saw  in  the  House,  sitting  on  the  left  side  of 
the  throne,  seemed  to  be  much  affected  at  a  part  of 
Lord  Camden's  speech,  in  which  he  reflected  on  him, 
and  immediately  left  the  House  ;  from  whence  I  con- 
cluded that  he  was  in  despair  of  success.  Lord  Mans- 
field, overcome  with  heat,  was  about  to  faint  in  the 
middle  of  his  speech,  and  was  obliged  to  stop.  The 
side-doors  were  immediately  thrown  open,  and  the 
Chancellor  rushing  out,  returned  soon  with  a  servant, 
who  followed  him  with  a  bottle  and  glasses.  Lord 
Mansfield  drank  two  glasses  of  the  wine,  and  after 
some  time  revived,  and  proceeded  in  his  speech.  We, 
who  had  no  wine,  were  nearly  as  much  recruited 
by  the  fresh  air  which  rushed  in  at  the  open  doors  as 
his  lordship  by  the  wine.  About  nine  the  business 
ended  in   favour  of  Douglas,  there  being  only  five 


THE   DOUGLAS   CAUSE.  5lS 

Peers  on  the  other  side.  I  was  well  pleased  with 
that  decisioji,  as  I  had  favoured  that  side  :  Professor 
Ferguson  and  I  being  the  only  two  of  our  set  of 
people  who  favoured  Douglas,  chiefly  on  the  opinion 
that,  if  the  proof  of  filiation  on  his  part  was  not  sus- 
tained, the  whole  system  of  e^'idence  in  such  cases 
would  be  overturned,  and  a  door  be  opened  for  end- 
less disputes  about  succession.  I  had  asked  the  Duke 
of  B.,  some  days  before  the  decision,  how  it  would 
go;  he  said  that  if  the  Law  Lords  disagreed,  there 
was  no  saying  how  it  woidd  go ;  because  the  Peers, 
however  imperfectly  prepared  to  judge,  would  follow 
the  Judge  they  most  respected.  But  if  they  united, 
the  case  would  be  determined  by  their  opinion ;  it 
being  [the  practice]  in  their  House  to  support  the 
Law  Lords  in  all  judicial  cases. 

After  the  decision,  I  persuaded  my  firiends,  as  there 
was  no  coach  to  be  had,  not  to  attempt  rushing  into 
any  of  the  neighbouring  taverns,  but  to  follow  me  to 
the  Qrown  and  Anchor  in  the  Strand,  where  we  arrived, 
Thos.  Bell,  Alderman  Crichton,  Robert  Bogle,  junior, 
and  I,  in  time  enough  to  get  into  a  snug  room,  where  we 
wrote  some  letters  for  Scotland,  the  post  then  not  de- 
parting till  twelve;  and  after  a  good  supper.  Bell  and 
I  got  home  to  Aldermanbury  about  one  o'clock,  where 
our  wives  were  waiting,  though  not  uninformed  of  the 
event,  as  I  had  despatched  a  porter  with  a  note  to 
them  immediately  on  our  arrival  in  the  tavern. 

The  rejoicings  in  Scotland  were  very  great  on  this 
occasion,  and  even  outrageous :  although  the  Douglas 

2  K 


514  BATH   HOUSE. 

family  had  been  long  in  obscurity,  yet  the  Hamiltons 
had  for  a  long  period  lost  their  popularity.  The  at- 
tachment which  all  their  acquaintances  had  to  Baron 
Mure,  who  was  the  original  author  of  this  suit,  and 
to  Andrew  Stuart,  who  carried  it  on,  swayed  their 
minds  very  much  their  way.  They  were  men  of  un- 
common good  sense  and  probity."^' 

Mrs  Pulteney  being  still  living,  we  had  a  fine  din- 
ner at  Bath  House,  after  which,  Mrs  Carlyle  and  I 
paid  an  evening  visit  to  Mrs  Montague.  Pulteney 
at  this  time  had  fallen  much  under  the  influence  of 
General  Robert  Clerk,  whom  I  have  mentioned  before. 
I  happened  to  ask  him  when  he  had  seen  Clerk  ;  he 
answered  he  saw  him  every  day,  and  as  he  had  not 
been  there  yet,  he  might  probably  pay  his  visit  before 
ten  o'clock,  and  then  enlarged  for  some  time  on  his 
great  ability.  Clerk  had  subdued  Pulteney  by  per- 
suading him  that  there  was  not  a  man  in  England  fit 
to  be  Chancellor  of  Exchequer  but  himself  Mrs  Pul- 
teney's  good  sense,  however,  defeated  the  effect  of  this 
influence.  Pulteney  was  unfortunate  in  not  taking 
for  his  private  secretary  and  confidential  friend  Dr 
John  Douglas,  who  had  stood  in  that  relation  to  the 
late  Lord  Bath,  and  was  one  of  the  ablest  men  in 
England.  But  on  Pulteney  s  succession  he  found 
himself  neglected,  and  drew  off.     Clerk  came  at  ten, 

*  Andrew  Stuart,  often  mentioned  by  Carlyle,  had  devoted  the  whole 
energies  and  prospects  of  his  life  to  the  Hamilton  side  of  the  cause.  He 
challenged  Thiirlow,  the  leading  counsel  on  the  opposite  side,  and  they 
fought.  His  bitter  "Letters  to  Lord  Mansfield"  have  often  been  read,  like 
those  of  Junius,  as  a  model  of  polished  vituperation.  — Ed. 


AXECDOTES.  5l5 

as  Pulteney  had  foretold,  and  I  saw  how  the  land 
lay. 

On  this  first  mission  to  London  I  was  much  obliged 
to  Sir  Alexander  Gilmour,  who  was  a  friend  of  the 
Duke  of  Grafton's.  He  knew  everybody,  and  intro- 
duced me  to  everybody.  One  day  he  carried  me  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (Cornwallis),  who  re- 
ceived me  graciously  ;  in  short,  I  called  on  all  the 
Scotch  noblemen  and  Members  of  Parliament,  many  of 
whom  I  saw,  and  left  memorials  at  every  house  where 
I  called.  Lord  Frederick  Campbell  was  particularly 
obliging.  At  this  time  I  dined  one  day  with  Sir  A, 
Gilmour  on  a  Sunday,  after  having  been  at  Court ; 
General  Graham  and  Pulteney,  and  Colonel  Eiccart 
Hepburn,  dined  there.  In  the  conversation  there,  to 
my  surprise  I  found  [Graham]  talking  strongly  against 
Administration  for  not  advising  the  King  to  yield  to 
the  popular  cry.  Gilmour  opposed  him  with  violence, 
and  I  drew  an  inference,  which  proved  true,  that  he 
had  been  tampering  with  her  Majesty,  and  using  politi- 
cal freedoms,  which  were  not,  long  afterwards,  the  cause 
of  his  disgrace.  Graham  was  a  shrewd  and  sensible 
man,  but  the  Queen's  favour  and  his  prosperity  had 
made  him  arrogant  and  presumptuous,  and  he  blew 
himself  up.*    Not  long  after  this  time  he  lost  his  oflBce 

•  This  is  probably  the  "Colonel  Graeme''  who,  according  to  Walpole 
(who  says  he  was  a  notorious  Jacobite,  and  out  in  the  '4.5),  negotiated  the 
marriage  of  George  III.,  having  been  "  despatched  in  the  most  private 
manner  as  a  traveller,  and  invested  with  no  character,  to  visit  various  little 
Protestant  courts,  and  make  re^wrt  of  the  qualifications  of  the  several  un- 
married princesses." — See  Menn.  of  Geo.  III.,  ch.  v.— Ed. 


516  LOUD    MANSFIELD. 

near  the  Queen,  and  retired  into  obscurity  in  Scotland 
for  the  rest  of  his  days. 

My  connection  with  physicians  made  me  a  member 
of  two  of  their  clubs,  which  I  seldom  missed.  One  of 
them  was  at  the  Horn  Tavern  in  Fleet  Street,  where 
they  had  laid  before  them  original  papers  relating  to 
their  own  science,  and  had  published  a  volume  or  two 
of  Essays,  which  were  well  received.  Armstrong, 
who  took  no  share  in  the  business  generally,  arrived 
when  I  did,  about  eight  o'clock ;  and  as  they  had  a 
great  deference  for  him,  and  as  he  was  whimsical,  they 
delayed  bespeaking  supper  till  he  came,  and  then  laid 
that  duty  on  him.  lie  in  complaisance  wished  to 
turn  it  over  on  me,  as  the  greatest,  or  rather  the  only 
stranger,  for  I  was  admitted  siDeciali  gratia;  but  I 
declined  the  office.  The  conversation  was  lively  and 
agreeable,  and  we  parted  always  at  twelve.  There 
was  another  club  held  on  the  alternate  Thursday  at 
the  Queen's  Head  in  St  Paul's  Churchyard,  which  w^as 
not  confined  to  physicians,  but  included  men  of  other 
professions.  Strange  the  engraver  was  one,  a  very 
sensible,  ingenious,  and  modest  man. 

In  the  course  of  my  operations  about  the  window- 
tax,  I  had  i'requently  short  interviews  with  Lord 
Mansfield.  One  day  he  sent  for  me  to  breakfast, 
when  I  had  a  long  conversation  with  him  on  various 
subjects.  Amongst  others,  he  talked  of  Hume  and 
Robertson's  Histories,  and  said  that  though  they  had 
pleased  and  instructed  him  much,  and  though  he  could 
point  out  few  or  no  faults  in  them,  yet,  when  he  was 


BISHOP   JERRICK.  517 

reading  their  books,  he  did  not  think  he  was  reading 
English :  could  I  account  to  him  how  that  happened  1 
I  answered  that  the  same  objection  had  not  occurred 
to  me,  who  was  a  Scotchman  bred  as  well  as  born ;  but 
that  I  had  a  solution  to  it,  which  I  would  submit  to 
his  lordship.  It  w^as,  that  to  every  man  bred  in  Scot- 
land the  English  language  was  in  some  respects  a 
foreign  tongue,  the  precise  value  and  force  of  whose 
words  and  phrases  he  did  not  understand,  and  there- 
fore was  continually  endeavouring  to  word  his  expres- 
sions by  additional  epithets  or  circumlocutions,  which 
made  his  writings  appear  both  stiff  and  redundant. 
With  this  solution  his  lordship  appeared  entirely 
satisfied.  By  this  time  his  lordship  perfectly  under- 
stood the  nature  of  our  claim  to  exemption  from  the 
window-tax,  and  promised  me  his  aid,  and  suggested 
some  new  arguments  in  our  favour. 

I  made  a  very  valuable  acquaintance  in  the  Bishop 
of  London,  R.  Jerrick,  having  been  introduced  to  him 
by  his  son-in-law,  Dr  Anthony  Hamilton,  whom  I  met 
at  Dr  Pitcaim's.  I  found  the  Bishop  to  be  a  truly 
excellent  man,  of  a  liberal  mind  and  excellent  good 
temper.  He  took  to  me,  and  was  very  cordial  in 
wishing  success  to  my  application,  and  was  very 
friendly  in  recommending  me  and  it  to  his  brethren 
on  the  bench.  He  never  refused  me  admittance,  and 
I  dined  frequently  with  him  this  year  and  the  next. 
He  was  then  considered  as  having  the  sole  episcopal 
jurisdiction  over  the  Church  of  England  in  America. 
He  was  so  obliging  to  my  requests  that  he  ordained. 


518  ANECDOTES   AND    CHARACTERS. 

at  my  desire,  two  Scotch  probationers,  who,  having 
little  chance  of  obtaining  settlements  here,  were  glad 
to  try  their  fortune  in  a  new  world.  As  I  was  unwill- 
ing to  forfeit  my  credit  with  this  good  man,  I  had  not 
recommended  them  but  with  perfect  assurance  of  their 
good  characters.  The  first,  Avhom  I  think  he  had  sent 
to  Bermudas,  he  gave  me  thanks  for  when  I  saw  him 
a  year  after,  as,  he  told  me,  he  had  fully  answered  the 
character  I  had  given  him.  He  [the  Bishop]  was  a 
famous  good  preacher,  and  the  best  reader  of  prayers 
I  ever  heard.  Being  Dean  of  the  Chapel-Eoyal,  he 
read  the  communion-service  every  Sunday.  Though 
our  residence  was  at  my  sister's  in  Aldermanbury,  as 
I  had  occasion  frequently  to  dine  late  in  the  west  end 
of  the  town,  I  then  lodged  in  New  Bond  Street  with 
my  aunt,  and  resorted  often  at  supper  to  Robert  Adam's, 
wdiose  sisters  were  very  agreeable,  and  where  we  had 
the  latest  news  from  the  House  of  Commons,  of  which 
he  was  a  member,  and  which  he  told  us  in  the  most 
agreeable  manner,  and  with  very  lively  comments. 

My  good  aunt  Paterson's  husband,  a  cousin  of  Sir 
Hew  Paterson,  took  care  to  have  us  visit  his  son's 
widow,  Mrs  Seton,  the  heiress  of  Touch,  whose  first 
husband  was  Sir  Hew's  son,  who  had  died  without 
issue.  There  we  dined  one  day  with  a  large  company, 
mostly  Scots,  among  whom  were  Mrs  Walkinshaw — 
wdio  had  a  place  at  court,  though  she  was  sister  of  the 
lady  who  was  said  to  be  mistress  to  Prince  Charles, 
the  Pretender's  son — and  David  Hume,  by  that  time 
Under-Secretary  of  State.    The  conversation  was  lively 


BISHOP   DOUGLAS.  519 

and  agreeable,  but  we  were  much  amused  with  ob- 
servmor  how  much  the  thouo;hts  and  conversation  of 
all  those  in  the  least  connected  were  taken  up  with 
every  trifling  circumstance  that  related  to  the  Court. 
This  kind  of  tittle-tattle  suited  Dr  John  Blair  of  all  . 
men,  who  had  been  a  tutor  to  the  King's  brother,  the 
Duke  of  York,  and  now  occasionally  assisted  Dr  Bar- 
ton as  Clerk  of  the  Closet  to  the  Princess  Dowager  of 
Wales.  It  was  truly  amusing  to  observe  how  much 
David  Hume's  strong  and  capacious  mind  was  filled 
with  infantine  anecdotes  of  nurses  and  children.  JVIr 
Seton  was  the  son  of  a  Mr  Smith,  who  had  been 
settled  at  Boulogne,  a  wine  merchant,  was  a  great 
Jacobite,  and  had  come  to  Scotland  in  the  time  of  the 
Rebellion,  1745.  Poor  Mrs  Seton,  whose  first  husband, 
Paterson,  was,  by  his  mother,  a  nephew  of  the  Earl  of 
Mar,  had  fallen  a  sacrifice  to  that  prejudice,  for  Seton 
possessed  no  other  chann.  I  call  her  a  sacrifice,  be- 
cause his  bad  usage  shortened  her  days.  She  was  a 
very  amiable  woman.  His  future  history  is  well 
known.* 

At  this  time  we  had  a  dinner  from  Dr  Gartshore, 
whose  wife,  the  heiress  of  Rusco,  in  Galloway,  was  my 
cousin,  t  Besides  Drs  Blair  and  Dickson,  there  were 
several  dissenting  parsons,  such  as  Drs  Price,  Kippis, 

*  Arcliibald  Seton  snccessively  filled  several  high  offices  in  the  Indian 
service,  and  died  in  1818.— Gentlemati's  Magazine,  vol.  Ixxxviii.  p.  IM.  The 
mansion  of  Touch,  long  the  abode  of  one  of  the  old  Seton  families,  is  a 
Venerable  square  tower,  with  later  adjuncts,  on  the  slope  of- the  Gargunnock 
HUls,  about  three  miles  from  Stirling. — Ed. 

+  Dr  Maxwell  Gartshore,  a  native  of  Kirkcudbrightshire,  died  after  a 
long  and  successfid  professional  career  in  London,  in  1812. — Ed. 


520  ENGLISH    DISSENTING    PARSONS. 

.and  Alexander,  who  were  very  bad  company  indeed, 
for  they  were  fiery  republicans  and  Wilkites,  and  very 
pedantic,  petulant,  and  peremptory.  Blair  and  I, 
however,  with  the  help  of  Dickson,  kept  them  very 
well  down.  Gartshore  himself  acted  the  part  of 
umpire,  with  a  leaning  to  their  side,  as  they  had  an 
ascendant  over  many  of  his  patients. 

John  Home,  who  was  very  obliging  to  us,  when  I 
was  at  liberty,  in  the  middle  of  April,  went  with  Mrs 
Carlyle  and  me  to  see  Hampton  Court  and  Windsor. 
After  we  had  seen  the  first,  we  went  and  showed  Mrs 
Carlyle  Garrick's  villa  in  Hampton  Town,  which  she 
was  highly  pleased  with.  The  family  had  not  yet 
returned  to  the  country.  We  went  all  night  to  Wind- 
sor. In  the  morning  we  called  on  Dr  Douglas  and 
his  lady,  a  granddaughter  of  Sir  George  Eooke,  of 
Queen  Anne's  reign,  then  in  residence.  He  engaged 
us  to  dine  with  him.  We  went  to  church  and  heard 
him  preach  an  excellent  sermon,  though  ill  delivered. 
His  conversation  was  always  instructive  and  agree- 
able. He  had  a  greater  number  of  anecdotes,  and 
told  them  more  correctly,  than  any  man  I  ever  knew. 
In  going  through  his  library,  which  was  pretty  full  of 
books,  he  selected  one  small  elegant  French  novel,  and 
gave  it  as  a  keepsake  to  Mrs  Carlyle,  which  she  and 
I  were  much  pleased  with,  as  a  token  of  regard. 

We  had  passed  one  day  with  Mrs  Montague  by  in- 
vitation, which  did  not  please  us  much,  as  the  conver- 
sation was  all  preconceived,  and  resembled  the  rehear- 
sal of  a  comedy  more  than  the  true  and  unaffected 


SITTING   FOR    PORTRAIT.  521 

dialogue  whicli  conveys  the  unaffected  and  unstudied 
sentiments  of  the  heart.  AVhat  a  pity  it  was  that  she 
could  not  help  acting ;  and  the  woman  would  have 
been  respectable  had  she  not  been  so  passionately 
desirous  of  respect,  for  she  had  good  parts,  and  must 
have  had  many  allurements  when  she  was  young  and 
beautiful."" 

John  Home  went  with  us  to  see  Sion  House,  the 
inside  of  which  had  been  most  beautifully  adorned 
by  Kobert  Adam.  We  dined  with  Mr  and  Mrs  Barry, 
who  had  been  old  friends  of  John's,  and  Barry  had  been 
his  military  companion  at  Falkirk,  and  escaped  with 
him  from  Doune  Castle.  John  was  much  attached  to 
him,  and  he  deserved  it.  His  wife  was  very  amiable. 
There  dined  ^v4th  us  M'Pherson  and  Blair,  besides 
Home.  Our  stay  in  London  drew  to  a  close,  and  hav- 
ing obtained  all  I  expected  from  the  Treasury,  which 
was  encouragement  to  apply  to  Parliament  next  year,  I 
made  haste  to  show  !Mrs  Carlyle  what  she  had  not  seen. 

We  went  to  Greenwich  in  the  mornino-,  and  the 
same  day  dined  again  "with  Mr  and  Mrs  Seton,  and 
supped  with  my  old  friend.  Lady  Lindores. 

I  sat  to  Martin  for  the  large  picture  that  went  next 
year  into  the  Exhibition  :  this  was  for  the  third  time. 
Another  sitting  in  January  thereafter  did  the  business. 
We  went  to  the  opera  with  my  sister.  We  stayed  for 
our  last  fortnight  at  my  aunt's,  as  my  business  at  the 
Treasury  made  it  more  convenient,  and  my  wife  had 
to  make  all  her  farewell  visits.      She  had  not  seen 

•  See  above,  p.  462. — Ed. 


522  JOURNEY    NORTHWARDS. 

Garrick,  who  was  at  last  to  play  for  three  nights. 
With  difficulty  and  bribery  we  got  places  ;  but  Mrs  C. 
felt  sick,  and  we  were  obliged  to  leave  it  in  the  middle. 
We  went  to  see  Westminster  Abbey,  and  dined  with 
our  kind  friends,  the  Blairs,  who  had  engaged  lis.  My 
sister  being  now  gone  to  Merton  with  her  children,  we 
took  aunt  and  passed  a  day  there.  On  the  last  day 
we  went  into  the  city,  and  took  leave,  and  dined  at 
uncle  Reed's. 

We  dined  on  the  25th  April  at  the  Brand's  Head 
with  some  friends,  and  set  out  on  our  journey  north- 
wards at  five  in  the  evening.  Mr  Home  had  got  a 
partner,  a  young  man  of  the  name  of  Douglas,  going 
to  Berwick.  This  lad  being  fantastic  and  vain,  be- 
cause he  had  an  uncle  who  was  under-doorkeeper  to 
the  House  of  Commons,  diverted  us  much.  To  enjoy 
him.  Home  and  I  took  him  stage  about.  My  wife  was 
delighted  with  him  in  the  inns,  but  she  did  not  choose 
him  to  go  in  the  chaise  with  her,  as  she  was  at  this 
time  apt  to  be  sick.  My  wife's  condition  made  me 
resolve  to  travel  slow,  though  we  were  to  halt  some 
time  at  Newcastle. 

We  had  agreed,  for  my  wife's  amusement  and  our 
own,  to  take  the  middle  road,  and  go  down  by  North- 
ampton and  Nottingham,  where  we  had  never  been  ; 
and  were  much  amused  with  the  beauty  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  variety  of  its  scenery.  When  we  came  to 
Nottingham,  however,  as  the  road  was  rough,  which  did 
not  suit  Mrs  Carlyle's  present  condition,  and  the  houses 
and  horses  inferior,  [we  thought]  it  would  be  better 


JOHN    HOME    AND    HIS    WIFE.  523 

to  turn  into  the  east  road  again,  and  make  the  best 
of  our  way  to  Doncaster.  When  we  drew  near  that 
place,  ^Irs  Carlyle  found  out  that  we  had  changed  our 
route,  and  was  well  pleased.  We  had  come  by  Mans- 
field and  Welbecks  (the  Duke  of  Portland's),  and  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk's,  places  well  worth  seeing.  The 
road  goes  through  the  trunk  of  a  famous  oak  tree. 
The  woods  in  that  part  of  the  forest  of  Willingham 
are  very  fine,  and  the  oaks  are  remarkably  large.  We 
arrived  at  WaUsend,  a  very  debghtfiil  village  about 
four  miles  below  Newcastle,  on  the  road  to  Shields, 
where  Mr  Blackett  had  a  very  agreeable  house  for  the 
summer.  There  were  other  two  gentlemen's  houses  of 
good  fortune  in  the  village,  with  a  church  and  a  par- 
sonage-house. Next  day,  the  1st  of  May,  was  so  very 
warm  that  I  with  difficulty  was  able  to  walk  down  to 
the  church  in  the  bottom  of  the  village,  not  more  than 
two  hundred  yards  distant. 

Mary  Home,  a  cousin-gemian  of  3Irs  Blackett  s  and 
my  wife's,  was  residing  here  at  this  time,  and  had. 
been  for  several  months  at  Newcastle.  This  was  the 
young  lady  whom  John  Home  married,  who  was  then 
a  pretty  lively  girl,  and  reckoned  very  like  Queen 
Charlotte.  She  unfortunately  had  bad  health,  which 
continued  even  to  this  day;  for  she  is  now  sixty- 
seven,  and  is  still  very  frail,  though  better  than  she 
has  been  for  several  years.  It  was  in  some  respects 
an  unlucky  marriage,  for  she  had  no  children.  Lord 
Haddington,  however,  said  she  was  a  very  good  wife 
for  a  poet ;  and  Lady  Milton  ha^dng  asked  me  what 


524.  AN   EQUESTRIAN   ACCIDENT. 

made  John  marry  such  a  sickly  girl,  I  answered  that 
I  supposed  it  was  because  he  was  in  love  with  her. 
She  replied,  "  No,  no  ;  it  was  because  she  was  in  love 
with  him." 

We  stayed  here  for  eight  or  ten  days,  and  visited 
all  the  neighbours,  who  were  all  very  agreeable,  even 
the  clergyman's  wife,  who  was  a  little  lightsome  ;  but 
as  her  head  ran  much  on  fine  clothes,  which  she  could 
not  purchase  to  please  her,  but  only  could  imitate  in 
the  most  tawdry  manner,  she  was  rather  amusing  to 
Mrs  B.,  who  had  a  good  deal  of  humour — more  than 
her  sister,  who  had  a  sharper  wit  and  more  discern- 
ment. The  husband  was  a  very  good  sort  of  man, 
and  very  worthy  of  his  office,  but  oppressed  with 
family  cares.     Mr  Potter,  I  think,  was  an  Oxonian. 

AVe  did  not  fail  to  visit  our  good  friend  Mr  Colliiig- 
wood  of  Chirton,  and  his  lady,  Mary  Roddam,  of  both 
of  whom  my  wife  was  a  favourite.  We  went  down 
together  to  Berwickshire  in  the  middle  of  May,  where 
we  remained  some  days  at  Fogo  Manse,  the  Rev.  Mr 
William  Home's,  where,  leaving  John  with  his  bride, 
we  came  on  to  Musselburgh  about  the  27th  of  May, 
near  the  end  of  the  General  Assembly. 

I  had  been  persuaded  to  buy  a  young  horse  from 
a  farmer  near  Mr  Home's,  an  awkward  enough  beast, 
but  only  four  years  old,  which,  if  he  did  not  do  for 
a  riding-horse,  might  be  trained  to  the  plough,  for  I 
had,  at  the  preceding  Martinmas,  entered  on  a  farm  of 
one  hundred  acres  of  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch's.  On 
the  Saturday  morning  after  I  came  home,  I  unfor- 


DOMESTIC    SORROWS.  525 

timately  mounted  tliis  beast,  who  ran  away  with  me 
in  my  green  before  the  door,  and  was  in  danger  of 
throwing  me  on  the  rading  that  was  put  up  to  defend 
a  young  hedge.  To  shun  this  I  threw  myself  off  on 
the  opposite  side,  in  sight  of  my  wife  and  children. 
I  was  much  stunned,  and  could  not  get  up  imme- 
diately, but  luckily,  before  she  could  reach  the  place, 
I  had  raised  myself  to  my  breech,  otherwise  I  did  not 
know  what  mio-ht  have  befallen  her  in  the  condition 
she  was  in.  No  harm,  however,  happened  to  her  ;  and 
the  new  surgeon  who  had  come  in  our  absence,  a  John 
Steward  or  Stewart,  a  Northumbrian,  an  apprentice 
of  Sandy  Wood's,  was  sent  for  to  bleed  me.  I  would 
not  be  bled,  however,  till  I  had  made  my  report  on 
the  window- lights  ready  for  the  General  Assembly, 
which  was  to  be  dissolved  on  Monday,  lest  I  should 
not  be  able  to  write  after  being  bled,  or  not  to  attend 
the  Assembly  on  Monday.  But  it  so  happened  that  I 
was  little  disabled  by  my  fall,  and  could  even  preach 
next  day. 

AVhen  we  returned  from  the  south,  we  were  happy 
to  find  our  two  fine  girls  in  such  good  health  ;  but  my 
mother,  and  unmarried  sister  Sarah,  had  lived  for 
some  time  close  by  us,  and  saw  them  twice  every  day. 
Sarah,  the  eldest,  was  now  eight  years  of  age,  and  had 
displayed  great  sweetness  of  temper,  with  an  uncom- 
mon degree  of  sagacity.  Jenny,  the  second,  was  now 
six,  and  was  gay  and  lively  and  engaging  to  the  last 
degree.  They  were  both  handsome  in  their  several 
kinds,  the  first  like  me  and  my  family,  the  second  like 


526  DOMESTIC    SORROWS. 

their  mother.  They  already  had  made  great  profi- 
ciency in  writing  and  arithmetic,  and.Avere  remarkably 
good  dancers.  At  this  time  they  betrayed  no  symp- 
toms of  that  fatal  disease  which  robbed  me  of  them, 
unless  it  might  have  been  predicted  from  their 
extreme  sensibilities  of  taste  and  affection  which 
they  already  displayed.  It  was  the  will  of  Heaven 
that  I  should  lose  them  too  soon.  But  to  reflect  on 
their  promising  qualities  ever  since  has  been  the  de- 
light of  many  a  watchful  night  and  melancholy  day. 
I  lost  them  before  they  had  given  me  any  emotions 
but  those  of  joy  and  hope. 

On  the  25th  of  September  this  year,  Mrs  Carlyle 
was  delivered  of  her  third  daughter,  Mary  Roddam, 
and  recovered  very  well.  But  the  child  was  un- 
healthy from  her  birth,  and  gave  her  mother  the 
greatest  anxiety.  She  continued  to  live  till  June 
1773,  when  she  was  relieved  from  a  life  of  constant 
pain.  In  November  11th  that  year  she  had  her  son 
William,  who  was  very  healthy  and  promising  till 
within  six  or  eight  weeks  of  his  death,  when  he  was 
seized  with  a  peripneumony,  which  left  such  a  weak- 
ness on  his  lungs  as  soon  closed  his  days. 

On  Monday  I  went  to  Edinburgh,  and  rendered  an 
account  of  my  mission  at  the  bar  of  the  General 
Assembly.  I  received  the  thanks  of  the  General 
Assembly  for  my  care  and  diligence  in  the  manage- 
ment of  this  business,  and  at  the  same  time  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  Assembly  their  commissioner,  with 
full  powers  to  apply  to  next  session  of  Parliament  for 


THE    ILL-rSED    CLEKGY.  527 

an  exemption  from  the  window-tax,  to  be  at  the  same 
time  under  the  direction  of  a  committee  of  Assembly, 
which  was  revived,  with  additions.  This  first  success 
made  me  very  popular  among  the  clergy,  of  whom 
one-half  at  least  looked  upon  me  with  an  ill  eye  after 
the  affair  of  the  tragedy  of  Douglas.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  exemption  from  that  tax  was  a  very  great 
object  to  the  clergy,  whose  stipends  were  in  general 
very  small,  and  besides,  was  opposing  in  the  beginning 
any  design  there  might  be  to  lay  still  heavier  burdens 
on  the  clergy,  who,  having  only  stipends  out  of  the 
tithes  allocated,  together  with  small  glebes  and  a 
suitable  manse  and  offices  free  of  all  taxes  and  public 
burdens,  would  have  been  quite  undone  had  they 
been  obliged  to  pay  all  that  has  since  been  laid  on 
houses  and  windows. 

For  as  much  use  as  the  clergy  were  at  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  for  as  much  as  they  contributed  to  the 
Revolution,  and  to  preserve  the  peace  and  promote 
the  prosperity  of  the  country  since  that  period,  the 
aristocracy  of  Scotland  have  always  been  backward 
to  mend  their  situation,  which,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
manly  system  of  the  President  (Islay  Campbell),  must 
have  fallen  into  distress  and  contempt.  As  it  is,  their 
stipends  keep  no  pace  ^vith  the  rising  prosperity  of 
the  country,  and  they  are  degraded  in  their  rank  by 
the  increasing  wealth  of  the  inferior  orders.  Had  the 
nobility  and  gentry  of  Scotland  enlargement  of  mind 
and  extensive  views,  they  would  now,  for  the  security 
of  the  constitution,  engraft  the  clergy  into  the  State, 


528  THE    ILL-USED    CLERGY. 

as  they  have  always  been  in  England,  and  by  impart- 
ing all  the  privileges  of  freeholders,  except  that  of 
being  members  of  Parliament,  on  their  livings,  they 
would  attach  them  still  more  than  ever  to  their  coun- 
try ;  they  would  widen  the  basis  of  the  constitution, 
which  is  far  too  narrow,  without  lessening  their  own 
importance  in  the  smallest  degree,  for  there  could  be 
no  combination  of  the  clergy  against  their  heritors  ; 
on  the  contrary,  they  would  be  universally  disposed 
to  unite  with  their  heritors,  if  they  behaved  well  to 
them  in  all  political  business;  but  I  know  very  few 
people  capable  of  thinking  in  this  train,  and  far  less 
of  acting  on  so  large  and  liberal  a  plan.  In  the 
mean  time,  on  account  of  many  unfortunate  circum- 
stances, one  of  which  is,  that  patrons,  now  that  by 
help  of  the  Moderate  interest,  as  it  is  called,  there  is 
no  opposition  to  their  presentations,  have  restored  to 
them  that  right  they  so  long  claimed,  and  for  most 
part  give  them  the  man  they  like  best ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  least  capable,  and  commonly  the  least  worthy,  of 
all  the  probationers  in  their  neighbourhood.*  The 
unfitness  of  one  of  the  professors  of  divinity,  and  the 
influence  he  has  in  providing  for  young  men  of  his 
own  fanatical  cast,  increases  this  evil  not  a  little,  and 
accelerates  the  degradation  of  the  clergy.  His  cousin, 
Sir  James  H.  Blair,  never  repented  so  much  of  any- 
thing as  the  placing  him  in  that  chair,  as  he  soon  dis- 
covered the  disadvantage  to  the  Church  that  might 
[arise]  from  his  being  put  in  that  situation.     It  is  a 

*  The  sentence  seems  incomi)lete,  but  sic  in  MS. — Ed. 


RETURN    TO    LOXDOX.  529 

pity  that  a  man  so  irreproachable  in  his  life  and  man- 
ner, and  even  distinoruished  for  his  candour  and  fair- 
ness,  should  be  so  weak  ;  but  he  does  more  harm  than 
if  he  were  an  intriguing  hypocrite. 

During  the  summer  1769,  after  I  had  given  the 
clergy  such  hopes  of  being  relieved  from  the  window- 
tax,  they  set  about  a  subscription  (the  funds  of  the 
Church  being  quite  inadequate  at  any  time,  and  then 
very  low)  for  defraying  the  expense  of  their  commis- 
sioner, and  of  procuring  an  Act  of  Parliament.  Nearly 
two-thirds  of  the  clergy  had  subscribed  to  this  fund, 
for  a  sum  of  about  £400  was  subscribed,  if  I  remem- 
ber right,  by  subscriptions  from  five  shillings  to  one 
guinea,  and  put  into  the  hands  of  Dr  George  Wishart, 
then  Principal  Clerk  of  the  Church, 

Mrs  C.  having  recovered  from  her  late  inlying,  I 
now  prepared  to  go  to  London  to  follow  out  the  object 
of  my  commission  ;  and  lest  I  should  be  too  late,  I 
set  out  in  such  time  as  to  arrive  in  London  on  the 
21st  of  December.  I  had  a  Major  Paul  as  my  com- 
panion in  the  chaise,  and  though  we  took  five  days 
to  it,  the  expense  in  those  days  was  no  more  than 
£10,  8s.  7d.  As  my  business  lay  entirely  in  the  west 
end  of  the  town,  I  took  up  my  lodging  in  New  Bond 
Street,  and  engaged  the  other  apartment  for  John 
Home,  who  was  to  be  there  in  a  fortnight.  But  I 
immediately  took  Neil  [  ],  a  trusty  serv^ant,  who 

had  been  with  him  last  year,  and  could  serve  us  both 
now,  as  I  required  but  very  little  personal  service. 
The  very  day  after  I  came  to  London,  I  had  wrote  a 

2  L 


5oO  MINISTERIAL    SECRETS. 

paper  signed  Nestor,  in  support  of  the  Duke  of  Graf- 
ton, who  was  then  in  a  tottering  state.  This  paper, 
which  appeared  on  the  23d  of  December,  drew  the 
attention  of  I^ord  Elibank  and  other  Scotch  gentle- 
men who  attended  the  British  Coffeehouse,  which  con- 
vinced me  that  I  might  continue  my  political  labours, 
as  they  were  acceptable  to  Administration.  At  this 
time  I  did  not  know  that  the  Duke  of  Grafton  was  so 
near  going  out,  but  soon  after  I  discovered  it  by  an 
accident.  On  one  of  the  mornings  which  I  passed 
with  Lord  Mansfield,  after  he  had  signified  his  entire 
approbation  of  my  measures  to  obtain  an  exemption 
for  the  clergy  of  Scotland,  I  took  the  liberty  of  say- 
ing to  him  in  going  down  stairs,  that  his  lordship's 
opinion  was  so  clear  in  our  favour,  that  I  had  nothing 
to  wish  but  that  he  would  be  so  good  as  to  say  so  to 
the  Duke  of  Grafton.  His  answer  surprised  me,  and 
opened  my  eyes.  It  was,  "  I  cannot  speak  with  the 
Duke  of  Grafton ;  I  am  not  acquainted  with  his 
Grace ;  I  never  conversed  with  him  but  once,  which 
was  when  he  came  a  short  while  ago  from  the  King  to 
ofi'er  me  the  seals.  I  can't  talk  with  the  Duke  of 
Grafton  ;  so  good  morning.  Doctor.  Let  me  see  you 
again  when  you  are  further  advanced."  I  went  in- 
stantly with  this  anecdote  to  my  friend  Mrs  Ander- 
son, at  the  British,  and  we  concluded  almost  instantly, 
without  plodding,  that  the  change  of  the  ministry  was 
nigh  at  hand.  When  I  saw  her  next  day,  she  told 
me  she  had  seen  her  brother,  Dr  Douglas,  who  was 
struck  with  my  anecdote,  and  combining  with  it  some 


BARRE   AXD    LORD    NORTH.  531 

things  he  had  observed,  concluded  that  the  fall  of  the 
Duke  of  Grafton  was  at  hand,  which  proved  true. 

This  accordingly  took  place  not  long  after,  when 
Charles  York,  the  second  son  of  the  Chancellor  Hard- 
wick,  having  been  wheedled  over  to  accept  the  seals, 
and  being  upbraided  severely  for  having  broken  his 
engagements  with  his  party,  put  himself  to  death 
that  very  night;  which  was  considered  a  public  loss, 
as  he  was  a  man  of  parts  and  probity.  Pratt  was 
appointed  Chancellor,  and  Lord  Korth  became  minis- 
ter. I  was  in  the  House  of  Commons  the  first  night 
that  he  took  his  place  as  Premier.  He  had  not  in- 
tended to  disclose  it  that  night ;  but  a  provoking 
speech  of  Colonel  Barre's  obliged  him  to  own  it,  which 
he  did  with  a  great  deal  of  wit  and  humour.  Barre 
was  a  clever  man  and  good  speaker,  but  very  hard- 
mouthed.*  I  was  the  first  person  at  the  British  after 
the  division  ;  and  telling  Mrs  Anderson  the  heads  of 
North's  speech,  and  the  firmness  and  wit  with  w^hich 
he  took  his  place  as  First  Minister,  she  concluded  with 
me  that  he  would  maintain  it  lono;.  Lord  Xorth  was 
very  agreeable,  and,  as  a  private  gentleman,  as  worthy 
as  he  was  witty  ;  but  having  unluckily  got  into  the 
American  war,  brought  the  nation  into  an  incredible 
sum  of  debt,  and  in  the  end  lost  the  whole  American 


*  See  the  debate  in  the  Pari.  Hist,  xvL  705  d  seq The  name  of  Colonel 

Isaac  Barrg,  so  conspicuous  in  its  day,  is  so  completely  excludetl  from  ordi- 
nary biographical  works  of  reference,  that  it  may  be  useful  to  refer  to  a 
curious  notice  of  him  by  Walpole  in  his  Memoirs  of  George  III.  (i.  109). 
Colonel  Barre  gives  an  account  of  his  own  services  in  a  speech  rej-orted  in 
Pari  Hist.,  xxiiL  156. — ^Ed. 


532  NOHTH   AND    FOX. 

colonies.  He  professed  himself  ignorant  of  war,  but 
said  he  would  appoint  the  most  respectable  generals 
and  admirals,  and  furnish  them  with  troops  and 
money  ;  but  he  was  weak  enough  to  send  the  Howes, 
though  of  a  party  opposite  to  him,  who  seemed  to  act 
rather  against  the  Ministers  than  the  Americans. 
They  were  changed  for  other  commanders ;  but  the 
feeble  conduct  of  the  Howes  had  given  the  Americans 
time  to  become  warlike,  and  they  finally  prevailed. 
North  maintained  his  ground  for  no  less  than  twelve 
years  through  this  disgraceful  war,  and  then  was 
obliged  to  give  way  that  a  peace  might  be  established. 
This  at  first  was  thought  necessary  to  Great  Britain  ; 
but  Lord  North's  attempt  to  make  a  coalition  with  his 
former  opponents  having  failed,  and  Charles  Fox's 
scheme  of  governing  the  nation  by  an  aristocracy, 
with  the  aid  of  his  India  Bill,  being  discovered  and  de- 
feated, made  way  for  Mr  Pitt's  first  Administration  in 
1783,  which  soon  restored  national  credit  and  promised 
the  greatest  prosperity  to  the  British  empire,  had  it 
not  been  interrupted  by  the  French  Ee volution  in 
1789,  and  the  subsequent  most  dangerous  war  of 
1798.  It  was  discovered  early  in  this  period  that  the 
revolt  and  final  disjunction  of  our  American  colonies 
was  no  loss  to  Great  Britain,  either  in  respect  of  com- 
merce or  war.  I  have  been  led  to  this  long  digression 
by  Lord  North's  having  become  Premier  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1770. 

Although  the  discharge  of  my  commission  required 
attention  and  activity,  yet  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury 


BATH  IN   1770.  533 

having  frequently  referred  me  for  an  answer  to  a  dis- 
tant day,  I  took  the  opportunity  of  making  frequent 
excursions  to  places  where  I  had  not  been. 

One  of  the  first  of  them  was  to  Bath  with  John 
Home,  to  pay  a  visit  to  his  betrothed,  Mary  Home, 
whom  he  married  in  the  end  of  summer.  He  had  sent 
her  to  Bath  to  improve  her  health,  for  she  was  very 
delicate.  We  set  out  together,  and  went  by  the  com- 
mon road,  and  arrived  on  the  second  day  to  dinner. 

Miss  Home  had  taken  a  small  house  at  Bath,  where 
she  lived  with  a  Miss  Pye,  a  companion  of  hers,  and 
a  friend  of  ^Irs  Blackett's.  They  lived  very  com- 
fortably, and  we  dined  with  them  that  day.  Bath  is 
beautifully  built,  and  situated  in  a  vale  surrounded 
with  small  hills  cultivated  to  the  top  ;  and  being  built 
of  fine  polished  stone,  in  warm  weather  is  intolerably 
hot ;  but  when  we  were  there  in  the  beginning  of 
March  it  was  excessively  cold.  The  only  thing  about 
it  not  agreeable  to  the  eye  is  the  dirty  ditch  of  a  river 
which  runs  through  it. 

On  the  morning  after  we  arrived,  we  met  Lord 
Galloway  in  the  pump-room,  who  having  had  a  family 
quarrel,  had  retired  to  Bath  with  one  of  his  daughters. 
The  first  question  he  asked  me  was,  if  I  had  yet  seen 
our  cousin,  Sandie  Goldie,  his  wife  being  a  sister  of 
Patrick  Heron's.  I  answered  no,  but  that  I  intended 
to  call  on  him  that  very  day.  "  Do,"  said  his  lordship, 
"  but  don't  tell  his  story  while  you  are  here,  for  he  is 
reckoned  one  of  the  cleverest  fellows  in  this  city,  for 
being  too   unreasonable  to  sign  receipts  for  above 


534  BRISTOL   IN    1770. 

£1000,  the  produce  of  the  reversion  of  his  estate. 
He  makes  a  very  good  livelihood  at  the  rooms  by 
betting  on  the  whist-players,  for  he  does  not  play." 
Lord  Galloway  engaged  ns  to  dine  with  him  next 
day.'"'  We  went  to  the  rooms  at  night,  and  to  a  ball, 
where  1  was  astonished  to  find  so  many  old  acquaint- 
ances. 

We  had  called  on  Goldie,  who  engaged  us  to  dine 
with  him.  The  day  after  we  were  to  dine  at  Lord 
Galloway's.  We  met  with  Dr  Gusthard,  M.D.,  who 
had  the  charge  of  Miss  Home's  health.  He  was  the 
son  of  Mr  Gusthard,  minister  of  Edinburgh,  and  being 
of  good  ability  and  a  winning  address,  had  come  into 
very  good  business.  Lord  Galloway,  though  quite 
illiterate  by  means  of  the  negligence  of  his  trustees  or 
tutors,  was  a  clever  man,  of  much  natural  ability,  and 
master  of  the  common  topics  of  conversation.  We 
dined  next  day  at  Alexander  Goldie's,  where  we  had 
the  pleasure  of  his  lordship's  company.  In  our  land- 
lord we  discovered  nothing  but  an  uncommon  rapidity 
of  speech  and  an  entertaining  flow  of  imagination, 
which  perhaps  we  would  not  have  observed  if  we  had 
not  known  that  he  had  been  cognosced  at  Edinburgh, 
and  deprived  of  the  management  of  his  estate. 

Next  day  we  made  a  party  to  Bristol  hot  wells,  and 
added  to  our  company  a  Miss  Scptt,  of  Newcastle,  a 
very  pleasing  young  woman,  who  afterwards  married 
an  eminent  lawyer  there;  and  another  lady,  whose 
name  I  have  forgot,  who  was  a  good  deal  older  than 

*  Alexander  Stewai-t,  sixth  Eaii  of  Galloway.     He  died  in  1773.— Ed, 


END    OF    THE   AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  535 

the  rest,  but  was  very  pleasant,  and  had  £30,000,  by 
which  means  she  became  the  wife  of  one  of  the  Ha- 
thorns.  This  place  appeared  to  me  dull  and  disagree- 
able, and  the  hot  wells  not  much  better.  Xext  day 
we  dined  at  Dr  Grusthard's,  and  the  day  after  set  out 
on  our  return  to  London.  We  resolved  to  go  by 
Salisbury  Plain  and  Stonehenge,  as  neither  of  us  had 
ever  been  there,  both  of  which  raised  our  wonder  and 
astonishment,  especially  Stonehenge,  but  as  we  were 
not  antiquarians,  we  could  not  form  any  coujecture 
about  it.     We  got  to  London  next  day  before  dinner. 


SUPPLEMENTARY    CHAPTER. 


HIS    CORRESPONDENCE    ON    CHURCH    MATTERS HIS    INFLUENCE HIS 

LIGHTER    CORRESPOXDENCE THE   GREAT  CONTEST   OF  THE  CLERK- 
SHIP  THE  AUGMENTATION   QUESTION POLITICS COLLINSS   ODE 

ON  THE  SUPERSTITION  OF  THE  HIGHLANDS CARLYLE   AND  POETRY 

DOMESTIC  HISTORY HIS    PERSONAL  APPEARANCE THE  COMPO- 
SITION OF   HIS  AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONDITION  AND  EDITING  OF   THE 

MANUSCRIPTS — HIS   LAST    DAYS — HIS   DEATH. 

At  this  point  the  Autobiography  stops,  the  pen  hav- 
ing literally  dropped  from  the  dying  Author's  hand. 
It  would  be  vain  and   presumptuous  to  attempt  to 
carry  out  his  purpose — the  intended  remainder  must 
be  counted  among  the  world's  literary  losses.     But  it 
may  be   considered   proper   that   the  Editor   should 
briefly  notify,  for  the  reader's  instruction,  the  subse- 
quent events  of  Carlyle's  life,  uttering  them,  as  far  as 
possible,  in  his  own  words,  by  enlivening  the  narrative 
with  such  passages  from  his  letters  and  other  writings 
as  make  the  nearest  approach  to  the  characteristics  of 
his  Autobiography.     The  project  he  had  undertaken 
for  the  relief  of  his  brethren  from  the  window-tax 
was  a  tedious  and  tortuous  affair,  and  cost  him  much 
travelling,  talking,  and  writing  before  it  was  effected. 
If  he  had  lived  to  tell  the  story  of  his  labours,  we 
would  have  had  vivid  sketches  of  many  a  little  scene 


DUNDAS   AND    THE   WIXDOW-TAX.  537 

and  character,  so  adorning  as  almost  to  conceal  the 
train  of  unimportant  and  uninteresting  transactions. 
But  no  one  would  be  thanked  in  the  present  day  for 
extractincr  the  tenor  of  the  narrative  out  of  the  official 
despatches,  committee  minutes,  and  other  like  docu- 
ments in  which  it  is  imbedded. 

It  is  not  until  the  year  1782  that  this  matter  is 
wound  up,  in  a  letter  to  Dundas,  thanking  him  for 
the  assistance,  "  without  which,"  he  says,  "  I'  could 
not  have  so  satisfactorily  concluded  my  little  affair  in 
London ; "  and  as  this  letter,  after  some  news  about 
the  General  Assembly  and  the  new  ]\[oderator,  breaks 
in  upon  some  larger  political  transactions,  a  passage 
from  it  may  not  be  unacceptable.  It  refers  to  a  pro- 
ject for  sending  Dundas  out  as  Govern  or- General  of 
India. 

"  I  don't  know  well  whether  to  be  glad  or  sorry,  to  hear  it  repeated 
again  and  again  that  you  are  going  out  supreme  governor  of  the  East 
Indies,  with  full  poweitt  1  am  soiTy  you  should  disappear  at  this  time 
from  our  hemisphere,  as  I  have  a  chance  of  being  set  myself  before 
your  return.  I  am  much  more  sorry  that  Britain  should  lose  the  ad- 
vantage of  your  virtue  and  abilities  at  so  critical  a  period.  At  the 
same  time,  I  must  own  that  this  is  but  a  partial  view  of  the  subject ; 
for  when  I  consider  how  many  millions  of  the  human  race  look  for  a 
guardian  angel  to  i-aise  and  perfect  them,  I  see  a  shining  path  in  the 
East  that  leads  to  a  pinnacle  of  glory  and  \-irtue.  Go,  then,  and  pursue 
the  way  that  Provideuce  points  out.  Your  health  may  be  in  danger, 
but,  with  a  principality,  who  thinks  of  health  ?  besides,  a  sore  throat 
or  a  collie  is  as  dangerous  in  obscurity." 

The  window -tax  discussion  does  not,  however, 
afford  many  extracts  so  good  as  this ;  and,  indeed,  the 
greater  portion  of  Carlyle's  existing  correspondence 
lies  under  a  like  disqualification  to  be  the  companion 


538  BUSINESS    CORRESPONDENCE. 

of  his  animated  Autobiography.  The  letters  which 
the  world  would  pick  out  from  the  correspondence  of 
a  man  of  rare  gifts  are  those  written  to  his  familiar 
friends  ;  but  he  himself  is  apt  to  preserve  as  the  more 
important  the  correspondence  upon  business  affairs 
affecting  public  or  private  interests  at  the  moment. 
Hence,  among  the  stores  placed  at  the  Editor's  dis- 
posal, by  far  the  larger  portion  refer  to  matters  of 
local  interest — literally  parochial  affairs,  which  called 
for  dutiful  and  laborious  attention  in  their  day,  but 
cannot  be  resuscitated  with  either  profit  or  pleasure 
at  the  present  time.  There  are,  for  instance,  the  pro- 
ceedings of  a  presbytery  or  a  synod  to  be  watched  and 
managed  :  Some  leading  man  in  the  Church  court  has 
got  into  bad  hands,  and  must  be  rightly  advised,  other- 
wise harm  will  come  of  it :  The  right  man  must  be 
thoroughly  backed  for  this  perferment — the  wrong 
man  will  get  that,  if  So-and-so  be  not  spoken  to,  and 
so  forth.  Such  affairs  had  their  little  world  of  living 
interest,  now  no  more. 

It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  Carlyle  had  a  great  voice 
in  the  selection  of  the  men  who  were  either  to  be 
brought  into  the  Church  by  ordination  to  charges,  or 
who  were  to  be  advanced  as  leaders  from  having 
proved  themselves  worthy  in  the  ranks.  No  one  will 
expect  an  inquiry  to  be  here  pursued  into  the  manner 
in  which  he  exercised  in  each  case  the  influence  he  pos- 
sessed. If  the  lighter  motives  had  some  effect  the 
heavier  would  have  a  greater  ;  and  it  would  be  wrong 
to  suppose  that  his  patronage  was  exercised  on  no  better 
ground  than  what  is  stated  in  the  following  little  cha- 


IXFLUEXCE    IN    PKOMOTION.  539 

racteristic  passage,  though  he  no  doubt  thought  thecon- 
siderations  stated  in  it  should  have  their  own  weight : — 

"Lord  Douglas  is  here  and  welL  A  church  of  his  in  the  Merse, 
called  Preston,  is  vacant  just  now.  The  incumbent  was  so  very  old 
that  it  is  more  than  px'obable  that  he  may  be  engaged,  otherwise  perhaps 
your  Grace  might  take  the  opportunity  of  providing  for  Mr  Young, 
the  handsome  young  man  and  fine  preacher,  who  is  a  native  of  Dalkeith. 
My  presentiment  in  his  favour  has  been  confirmed  by  iuquiiy.  If  Lord 
Douglas  should  be  engaged,  suppose  you  should  tiy  for  Bothwell,  which 
can't  be  long  of  being  vacant  ?  I  think  it  of  great  consequence  to  a  noble 
family,  especially  if  they  have  many.children,  to  have  a  sensible  and 
superior  clergyman  settled  in  their  parish.  Yotmg  is  of  that  stamp, 
and  might  be  greatly  improved  in  taste,  and  elegance  of  mind  and  man- 
ners, by  a  free  entree  to  Lady  Douglas.  The  late  Lord  Hopetoun,  who 
was  a  man  of  superior  sense,  was  very  unfortunate  in  his  first  lady's 
time.  By  some  accident  the  highflying  clergy  were  chiefly  admitted 
about  them.  Weak  heads  and  warm  imaginations  lie  open  to  the  zeal 
of  fanaticism  or  the  arts  of  hypocrites.  He  found  his  error  when  it  was 
too  late,  and  was  sorry  he  had  not  encouraged  the  Wisharts  and  Blairs 
to  come  about  him." 

Carlyle's  influence  in  ecclesiastical  promotion  ap- 
pears not  to  have  been  entirely  limited  to  Scotland. 
Occasionally  his  distinguished  friends  would  find  a 
place  for  a  student  who  could  not  get  on  with  the 
Presb}i;erian  system,  in  the  more  manageable  Church 
of  England  and  Ireland  ;  as,  for  instance  : — 

'•  There  is  an  old  assistant  of  mine,  J W by  name,  who, 

having  grown  impatient  at  not  obtaining  a  church  here,  took  orders  in 
the  Church  of  England— sold  a  little  patrimony  he  had,  and  bought  a 
chaplaincy  to  a  regiment.  Since  that  time  he  has  been  always  unhappy. 
He  was  for  some  years  in  Minorca,  where  he  lost  his  health.  He  fol- 
lowed the  regiment  to  Ireland,  where  he  lost  his  sight  He  came  to 
Bath  and  recovered  his  health  and  sight,  but  lost  his  substance.  He 
applied  to  me  for  God's  sake  to  get  him  a  curacy  anywhere,  that  he 
might  be  able  to  pay  for  a  deputy-chaplain.  I  recommended  him  to  a 
friend  of  mine  in  London,  who  procured  the  cui-acy  of  Hertford  for 
him.  Soon  after  he  wrot€  me  from  thence  that  he  was  so  much  despised 
in  that  town  that  he  was  in  danger  of  hanging  himself." 

He  was  to  have  got  this  hopeful  parsonage  on  the 
Chancellor's  list,  but  there  were  technical  obstacles ; 


510  YOUNG    ALISON. 

and  now  if  the  correspondent  would  obtain  for  "  my 
poor  despised  friend  a  small  living  of  £100  a-year  or 
so,"  it  would  be  "  to  serve  a  worthy  creature,  humble 
as  he  is." 

There  are  more  pleasing  associations  connected  with 
a  scrap  of  writing — undated,  but  of  course  belonging  to 
a  late  period  of  life.  Every  one  will  recognise  him  who 
is  its  object,  though  he  is  more  aptly  remembered  as 
the  venerable  pastor  and  philosopher  than  as  the  young 
Oxonian. 

"  Dr  Carlyle  begs  leave  to  recommend  Mr  Alison  to  Mr  Dundas's 
best  offices,  as  a  young  divine  bred  in  the  Church  of  England,  of  un- 
common merit  and  accomplishments.  After  the  usual  academical 
education  at  Edinburgh,  Mr  Alison  studied  two  years  at  Glasgow,  and 
from  thence  was  sent  as  an  exhibitioner  to  Baliol  College  in  Oxford, 
where  he  resided  for  nine  orten  years,  and  where  he  received  ordination." 

In  another  letter  we  find  him  thanking  Dundas  for 
taking  "  Archy"  by  the  hand,  and  explaining  that  it 
will  thus,  in  this  instance,  be  unnecessary  to  draw  upon 
the  patronage  of  Sir  AVilliam  Pulteney,  with  whom 
also  Carlyle  had  corresponded  about  his  young  friend.* 

*  It  has  been  said,  however,  on  good  authority,  that  it  was  to  Piolteney 
that  Alison  owed  his  promotion  in  England.  See  Memoir  of  Alison  in  the 
fragment  of  a  Biograiihical  Dictionary  by  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of 
Useful  Knowledge.  In  a  letter  by  Pulteney,  dated  22d  June  1784,  there 
is  this  pleasant  account  of  Ahsoii's  maiiiage  to  the  daughter  of  Dr  John 
Gregory: — "Andrew  Stuart  and  I  accompanied  Mr  AHson  to  Thrapston, 
and  the  marriage  took  place  on  the  19th  by  a  licence  from  the  Ai'chbishop  of 
Canterbury.  I  conducted  them  afterwards  to  their  residence,  and  we  left 
them  next  morning  after  breakfast  as  happy  as  it  is  possible  for  people  to 
be.  Mr  Alison  was  obliged  to  come  round  by  London  in  order  to  take  an 
oath  at  granting  the  licence,  and  I  was  glad  of  the  opportimity  which  the 
journey  afforded  me  of  making  an  acquaintance  with  him  ;  for  though  I  had 
little  doubt  that  Miss  G.  had  made  a  proper  choice,  yet  I  wished  to  be  per- 
fectly satisfied  ;  and  the  result  is,  that  I  think  neither  you  nor  Mr  Nairue 
have  said  a  word  too  much  in  his  favour." 


ADAM    FERGUSON;  oil 

In  the  same  letter  in  wliich  he  thus  holds  out  a 
hand  to  a  young  aspirant,  he  pleads  at  greater  length 
and  with  deeper  earnestness  the  cause  of  his  old  friend 
Adam  Ferguson,  whom  he  expected  to  die  before  he 
had  been  paid  the  debt  of  fame  and  fortune  which 
the  world  owed  to  him,  or  even  realised  the  means  of 
securing  his  family  from  destitution.  It  so  happened 
that  Ferguson,  though  attacked  with  hopeless  looking 
symptoms  in  middle  life,  wore  on  to  a  good  old  age ; 
and  that,  through  various  chances,  he  became  wealthy 
in  his  decUning  years.  That  the  world  had  done 
gross  injustice  to  The  Histonj  of  the  Rowan  Republic, 
was  a  fixed  opinion  with  Carlyle ;  and,  in  pleading 
for  its  author's  family,  he  says  : — 

"  I  do  not  know  by  what  fatality  it  is  that  the  best  and  most  manly 
history  (with  some  imperfections,  no  doubt)  of  modem  times,  has  been 
so  little  sought  after.  The  time  will  come  when  it  will  be  read  and 
admired.  That  time,  I  hope,  is  not  at  a  great  distance.  Germany  is 
the  country  where  it  will  receive  its  name ;  and  when  the  report  returns 
from  the  learned  there,  the  book  will  begin  to  be  prized.  But  Ferguson 
may  be  dead  by  that  time,  and  an  Irish  edition  may  glut  the  market. 
I  was  always  in  hopes  that  some  of  you  would  have  quoted  it  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  as  Charles  Fox  did  Principal  Watson's  Philip,  for 
some  of  his  purposes  in  the  time  of  the  American  War.  I  am  sui*e 
Ferguson's  contains  ten  times  more  instruction  for  the  statesman  and 
legislator  than  the  other  does ;  but  I  have  been  disappointed." 

By  far  the  greater  portion  of  Carlyle's  letters  which 
have  been  preserved  relate,  as  has  been  said,  to  matters 
of  business — such  as  those  dealt  with  in  the  preceding 
quotations,  or  even  affairs  of  still  less  interest.  Some 
bundles  of  epistles,  addressed  to  him,  show  that  he  had  a 
wide  correspondence  of  a  lighter  cast ;  and  he  is  re- 
ported to  have  been  famous  as  a  fashionable  letter- 


542  PARNASSIAN    CORRESPONDENCE. 

writer — a  highly-prized  accomplishment  in  his  day. 
Much  of  this  correspondence  was  with  the  female 
aristocracy,  including  members  of  the  two  great  Scot- 
tish ducal  families,  Argyle  and  Buccleuch.  He  was, 
indeed,  as  he  said  his  parishioners  hinted  against  him 
when  he  became  their  clergyman,  partial  to  the  com- 
pany of  his  superiors.  But  if  he  liked  the  aristocracy, 
the  aristocracy  liked  him ;  the  two  met  half-way,  and 
he  was  a  man  who  could  hold  his  own  with  them. 
Thus  he  occupied  the  happy  though  often  rather  pre- 
carious position,  of  one  who  is  alike  removed,  on  the 
one  hand,  from  the  tuft-hunter,  possessing  nothing 
but  sycophancy  to  give  for  the  countenance  he  seeks; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  from  the  surly  cynic,  who 
cannot  trust  that  his  independence  will  hold  good 
beyond  the  circuit  of  his  tub.  No  doubt,  whatever 
society  one  keeps,  one  must  give  a  deference  to  its 
laws  and  customs — which  is  a  different  thing  from 
paying  undue  deference  to  its  individual  members. 
There  was,  in  that  day,  among  the  enlightened  women 
of  rank  who  cultivated  men  of  genius,  a  propensity 
to  get  the  most  out  of  them,  by  drawing  upon  their 
talents,  in  conversation  and  correspondences  of  a 
peculiarly  allegorical,  or,  as  he  terms  it,  "  Parnassian  " 
character,  a  little  like  the  euphuism  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  though  not  so  absolutely  hard  and  unnatural. 
Moderate  as  it  w^as,  however,  it  is  difficult  to  suppose 
a  person  of  Carlyle's  acute  and  sarcastic  character 
well  adapted  to  it ;  and  we  can  suppose  him  as  little 
at  home  in  it,  as  his  friend  David  Hume,  when  he  had 


PARNASSIAN   CX)ERESPONDENCE.  543 

to  perform  the  Sultan  between  two  rival  beauties  in 
!Madame  de  Tesse's  salon.  Such  efforts  of  this  kind  as 
he  unbent  himself  to,  appear,  however,  to  have  been 
very  acceptable.  Here,  for  instance,  follows  a  letter  to 
his  amiable  friend,  Lady  Frances  Scott.  In  pursuance 
of  some  jocular  fiction,  of  which  the  point  is  not  now 
ver}"  obvious,  he  had  been  addressing  her  as  the  ghost 
of  Mrs  ^PCormick — an  elderly  female,  whose  death 
has  been  brought  about  by  the  neglect  and  cruelty  of 
the  lady — characteristics,  of  course,  entirely  the  re- 
verse of  her  true  qualities.  She  writes  back  "from  the 
Elysian  fields,"  where  "  we  have  never  ceased  gliding 
about  the  heavens  with  the  happy  spirits  our  com- 
panions ;  for  you  must  know  that  the  chief  source  of 
happiness  here  arises  from  the  power  which  our  wings 
give  us  of  never  being  two  minutes  in  a  place."  There 
is  a  certain  materiality,  however,  in  the  elysium,  for 
the  angels  or  goddesses  are  looking  after  affluent  gods 
with  broken  constitutions;  while  impoverished  deities 
of  the  male  sex  worship  where  there  is  neither  youth 
nor  beauty,  but  plenty  of  weajth,  to  attract.  Olympian 
Jove  is  but  a  master  of  the  ceremonies,  and  "  Juno  is 
neither  endowed  with  celestial  loveliness  nor  awe-in- 
spiring dignity."  This  is  the  way  of  stating  that  the 
family  are  at  the  Bath  waters,  then  in  their  pride, 
with  the  successor  of  Beau  Xash  playing  the  part  of 
Olympian  Jove.  Carlyle's  answer,  instead  of  aiding 
and  developing  the  allegory,  is  apt  rather  to  scatter 
its  filmy  texture  by  outbreaks  of  practical  sagacity 
and  homely  wit. 


544  PARNxVSSIAN    CORRESPONDENCE. 

"  At  my  return  from  the  south,  ten  days  ago,  I  fou,nd  your  ladyship's, 
dated  from  Elysium,  which  transported  me  so,  that  I  had  to  receive 
sundry  twinges  in  the  region  of  the  heart,  by  the  daily  decline  of  a  child 
and  the  grief  of  her  mother,  who  is  the  greatest  martyr  to  sensibility 
that  ever  was  born,  and  at  last  to  get  a  great  knock  on  the  pate  by  the 
sudden  death  of  Dr  Gregory,  who  was  our  chief  stay  and  support,  before 
I  could  recollect  that  I  was  still  in  the  body.  Were  I  to  wait  till  I 
could  answer  yours  from  the  abodes  of  the  happy  in  the  manner  it 
deserves,  millions  of  more  ghosts  might  have  time  to  pass  the  Stygian 
ferry.  But  why  should  I  be  mortified,  that  as  much  as  heaven  is  above 
hell,  your  ladyship's  description  should  surpass  mine  ?  Though  I  dare 
say  by  this  time  you  imagine  that  I  am  to  behave  to  you  as  an  old 
humourist,  a  friend  of  mine,  did  long  ago  to  me.  We  were  in  use  of 
corresponding  togethex',  and  many  a  diverting  letter  I  had  from  him. 
At  last  lie  took  a  panic  about  his  son,  who  was  at  school  here,  and 
wrote  me  a  long  letter,  complaining  of  what  he  was  well  informed — 
viz.,  that  the  schoolboys  had  got  gunpowder,  and  were  in  daily  use  of 
firing  pistols  and  cai-abines,  and  that  they  made  squibs  and  crackers, 
to  the  infinite  danger  of  their  own  lives  ;  and  then  he  quoted  me  an 
hundred  fatal  accidents  that  had  happened  by  means  of  gunpowdei-, 
and  prayed  my  interposition  to  save  the  life  of  his  son.  As  I  knew  it 
was  impossible  to  prevent  the  evil  of  which  he  complained,  as  three 
regiments  of  foot,  with  a  train  of  artillery,  were  encamped  in  the  Links, 
I  first  read  one  of  the  most  extravagant  chapters  in  all  Rabelais,  and 
then  wrote  him  a  letter  assuring  him  that  he  had  not  heard  the  hun- 
dred part  of  the  truth ;  for  that  the  boys  were  arrived  at  the  most 
dangerous  and  incorrigible  use  o'"  powder,  and  then  gave  him  instances 
— such  as  that  they  came  to  church  every  Sunday  with  swivel-gun's 
screwed  on  their  left  arms,  with  which  they  popped  down  everybody 
whom  they  disliked,  <fcc.  The  eflfect  of  this  letter  was  that  the  old 
gentleman  found  himself  so  far  outdone,  that  it  entirely  broke  up  our 
correspondence.  And  when  I  employed  somebody  to  ask  him  the  reason 
of  his  silence,  he  said  that  the  young  folks  nowadays  (this  was  fifteen 
years  ago)  went  such  lengths  in  fiction,  that  it  was  impossible  to 
answer  them. 

"  But  your  ladyship  shall  see  that  I  am  not  in  the  least  mortified  by 
your  letter,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  I  am  highly  delighted  with  it,  and 
value  it  more  than  I  would  do  a  new  volume  of  the  Arabian  Nights 
Entertainments.  Before  I  left  the  shades  below,  I  had  a  peep  into 
Elysium  myself;  and  though  I  did  not  find  things  exactly  in  the  same 
state  your  ladyship  did,  as  I  happened  not  to  be  in  the  same  region  of 
heaven,  that  can  be  no  objection  ;  for  surely  there  can  be  no  Elysium 
without  variety  ;  but  that  may  possibly  be  the  subject  of  another  letter. 


PAKNASSIAX   COEEESPONDENCE.  545 

In  the  mean  time,  I  may  give  your  ladyship  some  intelligence  of  what 
is  going  on  here. 

"  By  the  by,  though  I  have  no  great  taste  now  for  that  part  of  bliss, 
which  your  ladyship  says  consists  in  everlasting  fleeting  about  by  means 
of  the  wings  that  make  a  pai-t  of  the  celestial  body,  yet  I  remember  the 
time  when  I  should  have  thought  such  a  power  very  material  to  Jiappi- 
ness.  Bless  me  !  how  I  envied  the  happy  in  some  island  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean  —  not  Atlantic  —  whom  Peter  Wilkins  represented  as  having 
most  powerful  and  trusty  pinions.  But  in  those  days  I  used  to  be 
in  love,  and  thought  that  wings  would  make  me  everywhere  present 
with  my  mistress. 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that  Jupiter  is  henpecked,  since  he  suffers 
the  name  of  angel  to  be  prostituted  for  gold  in  his  dominions.  I  sup- 
pose he  draws  a  good  round  sum  by  way  of  tax  for  liberty  to  go  by 
that  name.  We  have  known  titles  of  honour  sold  upon  earth,  joa 
know,  and  why  not  the  privilege  of  being  angels  ?  When  they  have 
once  given  their  hands,  they'll  not  long  boast  of  their  angelic  appella- 
tion. 

"  No  ;  really  we  are  very  much  imposed  upon.  Happiness  does  not 
consist  in  the  place — it  resides  in  the  disposition  of  the  person,  and  the 
company.  The  material  difference  in  your  abode  and  mine  consisted 
in  the  long  stories  that  were  such  a  torment  to  me,  and  that  you  were 
free  of. 

"  But  to  return  to  sublunary  things.  First,  as  to  public  diversions  : 
I  have  neither  had  time  nor  inclination  to  mix  with  the  conversable 
world  in  the  capital,  near  which  I  reside  ;  so  that  I  can  entertain  your 
ladyship  with  very  few  pieces  of  news  of  any  kind.  You  would  hear, 
no  doubt,  of  the  mock  masquerade  they  had  some  time  in  January. 
That  piece  of  mummery  was  carried  on  so  ill,  that  I  daresay  they 
won't  attempt  another  in  haste.  The  two  Turks  met  with  rather  hard 
usage,  considering  the  natural  as  well  as  assumed  gravity  of  their  cha- 
racters. The  one  was  excluded  his  own  house  all  night  by  the  custom- 
house porter,  being  mistaken  for  a  vagrant  Turk  who  had  been  begging 
on  the  streets  all  winter  ;  and  the  other  got  a  sad  curtain-lecture  from 
his  wife  for  having  embraced  a  religion,  even  but  in  disguise,  that 
allows  no  souls  to  women,  and  allows  of  four  wives  and  innumerable 
concubines. 

"  The  playhouse  has  been  much  frequented  since  Mrs  Yates  arrived, 
who  receives  infinite  applause.  For  though  she  often  appears  on  the 
stage  more  than  half-seas-over,  she's  not  the  less  agreeable  to  all  the 
male  part  of  her  audience,  who  come  there  a  little  disguised  themselves ; 
and  in  this  land  of  obsequious  wives,  you  know,  there  is  no  disputing 
the  taste  of  the  men. 

2  M 


546  PAENASSIAN   CORRESPONDENCE. 

"  With  respect  to  the  fine  arts,  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  cookery 
is  still  the  favourite  ;  and  as  we  were  a  little  behind  iu  that  article,  it 
is  very  right  that  it  should  continue  to  be  progressive  for  some  time. 
The  roen  of  genius  and  taste  who  frequent  that  temple  of  pleasure 
that  goes  by  the  name  of  Fortune's,  have  subscribed  very  handsomely 
to  enable  the  chief  priest  there  to  hire  a  French  cook  of  the  first  ac- 
complishments. There  are  hundreds  of  people,  indeed,  on  the  point  of 
starving,  but  the  eminent  critics  have  observed  that  there  is  the  greatest 
race  of  genius,  and  that  the  fine  arts  thrive  best,  in  the  time  of  public 
calamities — such  as  civil  war,  pestilence,  or  famine. 

"  General  Scott,  who  is  here  this  winter  looking  out  for  another  wife 
to  make  him  uneasy,  gives  the  most  superb,  elegant,  and  refined  enter- 
tainments that  ever  were  in  this  northern  region.  Poor  Mr  Stuart 
Moncrief,  who  had  no  other  department  in  the  Temple  of  Fame  but 
that  which  is  allotted  to  the  makers  of  gi'eat  feasts,  after  witnessing  one 
of  the  General's  most  magnificent  repasts — for  you're  certain  he  could 
not  be  a  partaker — went  home  and  wept  for  two  hours  over  his  van- 
quished reputation,  sickened,  and  went  to  bed,  and  died,  for  anything 
I  know,  next  day.  Dead,  he  certainly  is,  to  glory  !  M'Queen  the 
lawyer,  who  felt  a  very  difi'erent  passion  from  envy,  after  having  de- 
voured of  twenty-seven  several  dishes,  attacked  at  last  ancient  pye 
with  so  much  vivacity,  that  he  had  nigh  perished  in  the  cause — at  least 
he  was  able  to  attend  no  other  cause  for  a  fortnight. 

"  We  are  to  propose  to  next  General  Assembly  that  a  certain  deadly 
sin,  for  which  both  men  and  women  used  to  do  penance  and  be  severely 
rebuked  in  the  Church,  shall  be  blotted  out  of  our  Statute-Book,  and 
the  sin  of  Gluttony  put  in  its  place. 

"  As  to  the  state  of  learning  this  winter,  I  am  told  there  are  many 
poorer  students  than  usual.  But  they  say  they  are  better  boys,  and 
mind  the  ladies  less  than  they  used  to  do.  The  English  of  that  is,  I 
fancy,  that  as  there  are  but  few  men  of  fortune  among  them,  the  aunts 
and  the  mothers  don't  mind  them.  The  misses,  dear  angels,  I  hope, 
are  above  valuing  any  man  but  for  his  personal  merit.  Lord  Mon- 
boddo,  one  of  the  most  learned  judges,  is  just  about  publishing  a  book, 
in  which  he  demonstrates  that  mankind  walked  originally  on  all-fours, 
like  other  animals,  and  had  tails  like  most  of  them  :  that  it  was  most 
likely  5000  years  before  they  learned  to  walk  in  an  erect  posture,  and 
5000  more  before  they  could  leai-n  the  use  of  speech.  The  females,  he 
thinks,  might  speak  two  or  three  centuries  sooner." 

Here  is  a  specimen  of  wliat  may  be  considered  the 
same  order  of  composition,  although  it  is  varied  to 


PARNASSIAN   CORRESPONDENCE.  547 

suit  the  taste  of  a  male  correspondent.     It  is  taken 
from  the 

"  Scroll  of  a  Letter  to  Sir  Johk  Macpherson,  Bart.  1797. 

"  Although  one's  correspondence  with  one's  friend  should  be  never 
so  much  interrupted  by  business  or  idleness,  there  are  certain  occa- 
sions when  they  must  not  be  neglected,  such  as  marriages  and  births, 
and  even  death  itself  As  the  last  has  lately  befallen  me,  though  I  am 
happily  restored  to  life,  I  think  it  is  proper  to  annoimce  to  you,  my 
very  good  friend,  my  return  to  this  world,  and  to  give  you  some  ac- 
count of  the  slight  peep  I  had  into  the  other.  About  a  month  ago  I 
was  suddenly  seized,  after  a  hearty  dinner,  with  a  dreadful  collie,  which 
lasted  for  fifty  hour.s,  which  threatened  immediate  dissolution,  and 
actually  sent  me  out  of  the  body  for  a  few  minutes.  During  that 
short  period  (like  Mahomet  in  his  dream)  I  had  a  view  of  Elysium, 
hanging,  as  I  thought,  on  the  brink  of  a  cloud,  and  every  moment 
ready  to  descend.  But,  as  I  saw  clearly  before  me,  the  first  group  I 
perceived  was  David  Hume,  and  Adam  Smith,  and  James  Macpherson, 
lounging  on  a  little  hillock,  with  Col.  James  Edmonstone  standing  be- 
fore them,  brandishing  a  cudgel,  and  William  Robertson  at  David's 
feet  in  a  listening  posture.  Edmonstone  was  rallying  David  and  Smith, 
not  without  a  mixture  of  anger,  for  having  contributed  their  share  to 
the  present  state  of  the  world ;  the  one,  by  doing  everything  in  his 
power  to  undermine  Christianity,  and  the  other  by  introducing  that 
unrestrained  and  universal  commerce,  which  propagates  opinions  as 
well  as  commodities.  The  two  philosophers,  conscious  of  their  follies, 
were  shrunk  into  a  nutshell,  when  James  the  bard,  in  the  act  of  rais- 
ing himself  to  insult  them,  perceiving  my  grey  hairs  hanging  over  them 
in  the  cloud,  exclaimed,  *  Damn  your  nonsensical  palaver ;  there  is 
Carlyle  just  coming  down,  and  John  Home  and  Ferguson  cannot  be 
far  behind,  when  I  shall  have  irresistible  evidence  for  the  authenticity 
of  Ossian.  Blair,  I  daresay,  is  likewise  on  the  road,  and  I  hope  he'll 
bring  his  dissertation  on  my  works  along  with  him,  which  is  worth  a 
thousand  of  his  mawkish  sermons,  which  are  only  calculated  to  catch 
milk-sops  and  silly  women.'  Upon  this  Robertson  rose  to  his  feet,  and 
seemed  to  be  in  act  to  speak  one  of  his  decisive  sentences  in  favour  of 
the  winning  side,  when  Joseph  Black,  and  Chai'ley  Congallon,  and 
Sandy  "Wood,  who  had  hold  of  the  skirts  of  my  coat,  fearing  I  should 
leap  down  at  the  sight  of  so  mafiy  of  my  friends,  and  carry  tliem  after 
me,  made  a  sudden  and  strong  pull  altogether,  and  jerked  me  back  into 
life  again,  not  without  regret  at  being  disai)pointed  in  meeting  with  so 
choice  a  company."' 


548  HIS    SOCIAL    HABITS. 

The  social  habits  of  Carlyle  were,  doubtless,  like 
other  men's,  much  influenced  by  his  domestic  position. 
It  was  his  lot  to  taste  of  more  than  the  average 
amount  of  human  sorrow,  for  he  lost  all  his  children 
at  an  early  period,  and  while  there  were  yet  above 
thirty  years  of  his  own  earthly  pilgrimage  to  be  per- 
formed. The  last,  his  son  William,  born  in  1773,  died 
in  1777.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  perhaps  his  memo- 
randa might  not  have  left  traces  of  so  continued  a  suc- 
cession of  visits  and  receptions  of  guests.  While  they 
show  him  to  have  been  much  in  the  world,  however, 
they  bear  no  trace  of  his  being  addicted  in  later  life  to 
the  social  convivialities  where  males  only  can  be  pre- 
sent ;  for  his  faithful  partner,  Mary,  is  his  almost  con- 
stant companion,  whether  his  visits  be  to  a  ducal  man- 
sion in  London,  or  to  the  quiet  manse  of  some  old 
companion.  How  it  continued  to  fare  with  him  and 
with  his  chosen  friends  may  best  be  told  in  one  or  two 
extracts  from  the  letters  in  which  he  communicates 
the  passing  news  to  his  correspondents.  One  of  his 
early  companions — a  John  Macpherson — had  been 
signally  fortunate  in  life.  Getting  into  the  service  of 
the  East  India  Company,  he  rose  by  stages,  though 
not  without  unpropitious  casualties,  until  he  became 
Sir  John  Macpherson,  and  tlie  successor  of  Warren 
Hastings  as  Governor  of  British  India.  To  him  Car- 
lyle thus  reports,  in  1796,  about  some  of  their  common 
friends  : — 

"  Now  for  an  account  of  your  old  friends,  which,  if  you  saw  Fer- 
guson as  he  passed,  which  T  think  you  did,  I  might  spare. 


SOCIAL    CORRESPOXDEXCE.  549 

"  To  begin  with  Eobertson,  -srhom  you  shall  see  no  more.  In  one 
word,  he  appeared  more  respectable  when  he  was  dying  than  ever  he 
did  even  when  living.  He  was  calm  and  collected,  and  even  placid, 
and  even  gay.  My  poor  wife  had  a  desire  to  see  him,  and  went  on  pur- 
pose, but  when  she  saw  him,  from  a  window,  leaning  on  his  daughter, 
witli  his  tottering  frame,  and  directing  the  gardener  how  to  di-ess  some 
flower-beds,  her  sensibility  threw  her  into  a  paroxysm  of  grief ;  she 
fled  up-stairs  to  Mrs  EusseU  and  could  not  see  him.  His  house,  for 
three  weeks  before  he  died,  was  really  an  anticipation  of  heaven. 

"  Dr  Blair  is  as  well  as  possible.  Preaching  every  Sunday  with  in- 
creasing applause,  and  frisking  more  with  the  whole  world  than  ever 
he  did  in  his  youngest  days,  no  symptom  of  frailty  about  him ;  and 
though  he  was  huffed  at  not  having  an  offer  of  the  Principality,  he  is 
happy  in  being  resorted  to  as  the  head  of  the  univei-sity. 

"  John  Home  is  in  very  good  health  and  spirits,  and  has  had  the 
comfort,  for  two  or  three  winters,  of  having  Major  Home,  his  brother- 
in-law,  a  very  sensible  man,  in  the  house  with  him,  which  makes  him 
less  dependent  on  stranger  company,  which,  in  advanced  years,  is  not 
so  easy  to  be  found,  nor  endured  when  it  is  found. 

"  With  respect  to  myself,  I  have  had  many  warnings  within  these 
three  years,  but,  on  the  whole,  as  I  have  only  fits  of  illness,  and  no 
disease,  T  am  sliding  softly  on  to  old  age,  without  any  remarkable  in- 
firmity or  failure,  and  can,  upon  occasions,  preach  like  a  son  of  thunder 
(I  wish  I  wei-e  the  Bold  Thunderer  for  a  week  or  two  against  the  vile 
levelling  Jacobins,  whom  I  abhor).  My  wife,  your  old  friend,  has  been 
better  than  usual  this  winter,  and  is  strong  in  metaphysics  and 
ethics,  and  (can)  almost  repeat  all  Ferguson's  last  book  of  Lectures, 
which  do  him  infinite  honour.  I  say  of  that  book,  that  if  Reid  is  the 
Aristotle,  Ferguson  is  the  Plato  of  Scotch  philosophers  ;  and  the 
Faculty  of  Arts  of  Edinburgh  have  adopted  my  phrase." 

The  following,  from  a  letter  to  Principal  Hill,  dated 
25th  September  1801,  gives  an  account  of  a  visit  to 
Lord  Melville  when  he  had  retired  with  Pitt  on  tlie 
formation  of  the  Addington  Administration  : — 

"  We  had  Jesse  Bell  and  her  husband,  Mr  Gregg,  and  their  son  from 
London,  for  ten  days,  in  the  middle  of  August,  which  gratified  and 
amused  us  :  and  about  the  end  of  it  John  Home  and  I  had  a  fine  jaunt 
to  Duneira.  We  set  out  on  the  2.5th  of  August,  and  returned  on  the 
1st  of  September,  and  were  much  pleased  with  our  reception  every- 
where, as  well  as  with  the  country,  which  was  then  in  the  highest 
beauty,  and  where  we  had  never  been  before. 


550  SOCIAL    CORRESPONDENCE. 

"  Our  great  object,  no  doubt,  was  the  retired  statesman,  wliom  it 
deliglited  us  to  see  so  well  and  so  happy,  and  as  easy  and  degage  as  he 
was  in  his  boyish  days. 

"  I  was  afraid  that,  like  most  of  ex-ministers,  his  gaiety  might  be  put 
on  to  save  appearances.  However,  as  his  was  not  a  fall,  but  a  voluntary 
and  long-projected  retreat,  and  as  he  is  conscious  that  his  great  exei'tions 
have  not  only  saved  his  own  country,  but  put  it  in  the  power  of  Europe 
to  save  themselves,  while  the  applauses  of  his  counti-y,  universal  and 
unreserved,  at  once  resound  his  uncorrupted  integrity,  as  well  as  his 
unbounded  capacity, — I  believe  him  genuine  and  sincere. 

"  I  compared  his  place  to  an  eagle's  nest,  which  pleased  him.  But 
I  did  not  add,  that  he  was  like  the  thunder-heai-ing  bird  of  Jove, 
w]\om  his  master  had  allowed  to  retire  awhile,  after  his  war  with  the 
giants,  to  recreate  himself  from  the  toils  of  war,  and  sport  with  his 
own  brood  ;  but  who,  in  the  midst  of  carelessness  and  ease,  still  throws 
his  eyes  around  him,  from  his  airy  height,  to  descry  if  the  regions  of 
tlie  air  are  again  disturbed,  and  to  watch  the  fii'st  nod  of  the  Imperial 
King,  to  take  wing  and  resume  his  jilace  in  the  Chai-iot  of  War. 

"  "We  passed  thi-ee  days  and  three  nights  with  him,  one  at  Ochter-. 
tyre  and  another  at  Monzie,  and  fain  would  I  have  gone  down  the 
country,  as  I  had  never  bee  a  farther  up  before  than  at  Lord  Kinnoul's. 
But  my  partner,  in  spite  of  all  his  heroic  tragedies,  was  too  much 
afraid  of  the  water  to  take  any  other  road  than  Stirling  Bridge.  The 
country  was  truly  rich  and  yellow  with  grain,  and  the  harvest  far  ad- 
vanced for  the  1st  of  September. 

"  Plenty,  thank  God,  has  returned,  but  I  am  afraid  peace  is  still  at 
a  distance. 

"  Buonaparte  is  entirely  governed  by  personal  considerations,  and 
he  has  still  the  chance  of  an  invasion  in  Ireland  to  establish  his  throne 
awhile.  I  can  hardly  think  he  will  venture  tc  invade  Britain.  Yet, 
if  Admiral  de  Winter  should  fight  an  obstinate  battle  off  our  coast,  and, 
in  the  mean  time,  a  few  transports  should  land  with  2000  men  any- 
where between  this  and  Newcastle,  it  might  prove  very  troublesome, 
while  their  niain  effoi-t  was  made  on  Ireland.  In  the  interval  left  lis, 
we  are  in  high  preparation  here,  and  our  camp,  with  the  force  in  Edin- 
burgh, are  put  in  condition  to  act  together  with  effect  on  the  shortest 
warning. 

"  There  was  a  fine  show  on  Tuesday,  as  you  would  see  in  the  papers, 
and  there  is  to  be  a  repetition  of  it  on  Braid  Hills  next  week. 

"  Major  Elliot,  of  the  Lanarkshire,  said  to  me  that  their  Tuesday's 
work  was  worth  all  they  had  been  taught  before,  and  he  is  a  soldier  of 
name." 


HIS    POLITICS.  551 

The  reader  will  have  noticed  the  keen  zest  with 
which  Carlyle  always  watched  the  politics  of  the  time, 
w^hether  home  or  foreign.  It  is  infinitely  to  be  re- 
gretted, therefore,  that  he  did  not  bring  down  his 
Autobiography  through  the  French  Eevolution  and 
the  Great  War.  He  would  have  spoken,  no  doubt, 
entirely  on  one  side,  but  with  that  breadth  and  fixity 
of  opinion  which  partakes  more  of  devotion  than  of 
mere  partiality  or  prejudice,  and  is  both  respectable 
and  interesting  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  think  other- 
wise. His  politics,  indeed,  were  a  political  faith  that 
never  swerved.  While  many  of  his  friends  were 
frightened  into  their  Conservative  opinions  by  the 
terrors  of  the  French  Eevolution,  he  took  and  kept 
his  position  calmly  in  the  very  front  of  his  party,  like 
a  soldier  at  his  post.  The  resoluteness  of  the  resist- 
ance offered  by  such  men,  not  only  to  innovation,  but 
to  the  mere  raising  of  the  faintest  question  of  the 
necessity  of  matters  being  as  they  are,  is  a  thing 
which  it  is  difficult  for  men  ot  any  party  to  realise 
in  the  year  1860. 

By  the  Test  Act,  the  members  of  the  Church  oi 
Scotland  were  in  England  placed  legally  in  the  same 
position  as  other  dissenters  from  the  Church.  Loving 
and  admiring  his  own  Church  as  he  did,  it  might  have 
been  anticipated  that  he  would  rather  further  than 
repress  a  remonstrance  by  the  General  Assembly  of 
1791,  in  which  they  represented  that  the  members  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  were  unequally  dealt  with, 
since  they  could  not  hold  any  office  in  England  with- 


652  HIS   POLITICS. 

out  taking  the  communion  according  to  the  Church 
of  England ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  no  similar  com- 
pliance was  required  of  Episcopalians  holding  office  in 
Scotland.  But  he  was  not  to  be  caught  by  this  bait, 
nor  was  he  to  remain  silent  while  it  was  held  out  to 
the  weak  and  inexperienced.  He  came  forth  not 
merely  in  favour  of  the  Test,  but  in  strong  champion- 
ship of  it.  It  was  to  be  supported  upon  grounds  of 
toleration  towards  the  Established  Church  of  England, 
which  well  merited  such  protection.  "  In  this  enlight- 
ened and  liberal  age,  when  toleration  has  softened  the 
minds  of  men  on  religious  opinions,  it  would  disgrace 
the  General  Assembly  to  do  anything  that  might  seem 
to  separate  the  two  Established  Churches  farther  from 
each  other.  Their  doctrines  are  nearly  the  same;  and 
he  must  be  but  a  very  narrow-minded  Presbyterian 
who,  in  the  various  circumstances  in  which  he  might 
be  placed,  could  not  join  in  the  religious  worship  of 
the  Church."  This  doctrine  must  have  been  a  little 
startling  to  those  brethren  who  inherited  even  but  a 
small  portion  of  the  doctrine  prevalent  in  his  youth — 
that  the  bare  toleration  of  Episcopacy  in  any  shape, 
and  in  any  portion  of  the  empire,  was  one  of  the  great 
national  sins  for  which  Divine  vengeance  might  be 
anticipated.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  realise  the  feelings 
with  which  the  representatives  of  the  Covenanters 
would  receive  this  climax  of  a  speech  delivered  in 
1791  :— 

"Nay,  Moderator,  had  I  tlie  talents  of,  &c.,  I  think  I  could  show  that 
the  Test  Act,  instead  of  au  evil,  is  a  blessing.     Tlie  Test  Act  lias  con- 


HIS   POLITICS.  553 

firmed  the  Union.  The  Test  Act  has  cured  Englishmen  of  their 
jealousy  of  Scotsmen,  not  very  ill-founded.  The  Test  Act  has  quieted 
the  feai-s  of  the  Church  of  England.  The  Test  Act  has  enlai-ged  and 
confirmed  the  principles  of  toleration  ;  so  far  is  it  from  being  a  rem- 
nant of  bigotry  and  fanaticism  as  the  memorial  would  represent.  The 
Act,  sir,  has  paved  the  road  to  office  and  preferment.  The  Test  Act, 
sir,  for  there  is  no  end  of  its  praises,  is  the  key  that  opens  all  the  trea- 
sures of  the  south  to  every  honest  Scotchman." 

But,  in  small  matters,  the  keenness  of  Hs  antipathy 
to  any  innovation  or  interference  with  established 
authorities  might  perhaps  be  even  more  distinctly 
exemplified.  For  instance,  in  1795,  a  Lady  Maxwell 
represented  to  him  that  certain  Highland  soldiers  at 
Musselburo;h  were  in  reliorious  destitution  from  want 
of  a  clergyman  speaking  Gaelic.  She  calls  them  "well- 
disposed  ofiicers,  sergeants,  and  privates,"  though  it 
is  difficult  to  suppose  that  there  could  then  be  com- 
missioned officers  unacquainted  with  the  general  lan- 
guage of  the  empire.  She  oflfers  the  services  of  an 
enthusiastic  youthful  missionary  for  the  occasion,  and 
this  suggested  interference  with  the  established  order 
of  things  in  his  Majesty's  army  and  the  parish  of 
Inveresk  calls  from  its  minister  the  following  severe 
rebuke  : — 

"  Dr  Carlyle  presents  respectful  compliments  to  Lady  MaxwelL 
He  received  her  ladyship's  card,  in  answer  to  which  he  has  to  observe, 
that  she  proceeds  on  misinformation.  The  officers  who  command  the 
sevei-al  regiments  encamped  are  too  conscientious,  and  understand 
their  duty  too  well,  to  let  their  soldiers  be  without  the  ordinances  of 
religion  in  a  tongue  they  understand.  Two  chaplains,  men  of  respect 
and  of  standing  in  the  Church,  have  performed  public  worship  in  the 
Gaelic  language  every  Lord's  day  in  camp  since  ever  it  was  estab- 
lished. 

"  With  respect  to  her  ladyship's  design,  of  the  purity  of  which  Dr 
Carlyle  has  not  the  smallest  doubt,  it  belongs  to  the  commandino- 
officers  to  approve  of  it  or  not,  and  not  to  him  ;  but  perhaps,  on  beinor 


054  HIS    POLITICS. 

better  informed,  Lady  Maxwell  may  not  think  it  necessary  to  employ 
her  student  in  theology,  however  well  qualified  she  may  hold  him  to  be, 
to  interfere  officiously  with  the  duty  of  the  two  clergymen  of  mature 
age  and  acknowledged  ability.  The  young  man,  at  least,  seemed  not 
to  abound  in  prudence,  when  he  pressed  so  earnestly  as  he  did  to  be 
allowed  to  visit  the  condemned  prisoners,  whom  two  clergymen  had 
been  anxiously  and  diligently  preparing  for  their  fate  for  the  whole 
preceding  week. 

"  Those  times  of  sedition  and  mutiny  seem  to  require  that  every  per- 
son in  office  should  be  left  to  do  his  own  duty,  and  that  strangers  should 
be  cautious  of  intermeddling  with  the  religious  tenets  or  principles  o 
any  set  of  people,  especially  those  of  the  army. 

"jWussb.,  July  17,  1795. 

"  To  Lady  Maxwell,  Dowager  of  Pollock, 
"  at  Eosemount,  near  Edinburgh." 

If  there  be  something  a  little  incongruous  to  the 
small  occasion  in  the  tone  of  this  rebuke,  it  will  per- 
haps be  admitted  that  there  is  something  sublime  in 
the  following  brief  testimony  to  his  principles,  de- 
livered to  the  General  Assembly  in  1804 — two  years 
after  he  had  passed  his  eightieth  year,  and  one  before 
his  death: — 

"  Note  of  what  I  said  (Assembly  1804),  when  an  address  to  his  Ma- 
jesty was  read,  in  which  was  an  expression,  the  avjful  state,  or  the  awful 
situation  of  this  country  : — 

"  Moderator, — I  was  so  unlucky  as  not  to  be  able  to  attend  the 
committee  who  drew  up  this  address,  and  consequently  have  heard  it 
now  for  the  first  time.  In  general  I  am  well  pleased  with  the  address. 
But  there  is  one  phrase  in  it,  which  has  just  now  been  read,  that  I 
do  not  like.  I  do  not  like  to  have  it  known  to  our  enemies,  by  a 
public  act  of  this  Assembly,  that  we  think  our  country  in  an  awful 
state,  which  implies  more  terror  and  dismay  than  I  am  willing  to 
own.  When  the  Almighty  wields  the  elements,  which  are  His  instru- 
ments of  vengeance  on  guilty  nations— when  heaven's  thundei*s  roll 
and  envelop  the  world  in  fire — when  the  furious  tempest  rages,  and 
whelms  triumphant  navies  in  the  deep — when  the  burning  mountain 
disgorges  its  fiery  entrails  and  lays  populous  cities  in  ashes  ; — then, 
indeed,  I  am  overawed  :  I  acknowledge  the  right  arm  of  the  Almighty : 


THE    CLERKSHIP    QUESTION.  555 

I  am  awed  into  reverence  and  fear :  I  am  still,  and  feel  that  He 
is  God :  I  am  dumb,  and  open  not  my  mouth.  But  when  a  puny 
mortal,  of  no  better  materials  than  myself,  struts  and  frets,  and 
fumes  and  menaces,  then  am  I  roused,  but  not  overawed  ;  I  put  my- 
self in  array  against  the  vain  boaster,  and  am  ready  to  say  with  the 
high-priest  of  the  poet,  I  fear  God,  and  have  no  other  fear." 

The  year  1789  became  disagreeably  memorable  to 
Carlyle,  from  bis  baviDg  then  been  defeated  in  an  ob- 
ject of  ambition,  which  was  near  his  heart,  and,  as  he 
thought,  fairly  within  his  reach.  This  was  the  ap- 
pointment to  the  office  of  Clerk  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly, become  vacant  by  the  death  of  Dr  Drysdale,  in 
whose  appointment  he  had  been  largely  instrumental. 
The  salary,  £80  a-year,  was  an  object  to  a  clergyman 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  but  the  position  and  influ- 
ence towards  which  the  office  mio-ht  be  rendered 
available  were  of  far  higher  moment.  To  understand 
this,  it  is  only  necessary  to  keep  in  view,  that  the 
constitution  of  that  Church  admits  of  no  hierarchy 
or  gradation  of  offices.  Every  body  of  men,  acting 
in  a  collective  or  corporate  capacity,  must,  however, 
have  some  person  presiding  over  them  to  regulate 
their  proceedings,  and  represent  them  in  their  com- 
munications with  the  rest  of  the  world.  For  the 
preservation  of  the  Presbyterian  polity  from  the  en- 
croachments of  any  such  officer,  however,  the  "  Mo- 
derator," who  presides  over  the  proceedings  of  each 
Church  Court,  is  elected  periodically,  or  for  the  occa- 
sion. Permanent  appointments  are  given  to  subordi- 
nate officers  only,  and  each  Church  Court,  from  the 
General  Assembly  downwards,  has  thus  its  clerk,  who 


55G  THE    CLERKSHIP   QUESTION. 

is  the  servant  of  the  collective  body.  It  will  naturally 
happen,  however,  under  such  arrangements,  however 
skilfully  devised,  that  where  one  kind  of  man  really 
is  what  he  professes  to  be,  a  servant,  another  kind  of 
man  becomes  a  master.  Hence,  it  is  often,  on  the 
occasion  of  such  appointments,  a  question  of  more 
consequence,  Who  can  be  kept  out"?  than.  Who  can 
be  put  inl 

Carlyle  not  unnaturally  concluded  that  he  had  done 
services  to  the  Church  at  large,  and  to  many  of  its 
ministers,  which  entitled  him  to  expect  this  small 
recompense  at  their  hands. 

On  the  other  hand,  for  reasons  which  the  tenor  of 
his  Autobiography  reveals  with  sufficient  distinctness, 
there  w^as  a  large  party  among  the  clergy  determined 
to  do  all  that  their  strength  enabled  them  to  do  to 
defeat  him.  The  public  eminence  and  extensive  social 
influence  on  which  his  claims  rested  were,  in  their 
eyes,  the  strongest  motives  for  resistance.  He  repre- 
sented what  to  them  were  hostile  interests.  These 
interests  were  as  yet  outside ;  by  endowing  him  with 
an  office  of  place  and  trust  among  them,  they  would 
be  bringing  the  enemy  within  the  gates.  The  taking 
of  the  vote  was  a  great  field-day,  for  which  the  forces 
had  been  long  mustered  and  disciplined  on  both  sides 
— the  friends  of  Government,  with  Dundas  at  their 
head,  taking  the  part  of  Carlyle;  while  the  cause  of 
his  competitor,  Dr  Dalzell,  was  led  by  Harry  Erskine, 
the  great  jester.  It  was,  however,  a  question,  not 
merely  of  ecclesiastical  politics,  but  of  soundness  in 


THE    CLERKSHIP   QUESTION.  557 

opinion  and  teaching,  and  on  this  matter  his  enemies 
occupied  the  strong  position  of  professing  to  be 
sounder  in  faith  and  stricter  in  conduct  than  his 
Mends.  When  such  an  element  as  this  affects  a 
contest,  it  is  sure  to  disturb  the  original  numerical 
strength  of  the  parties,  by  a  sort  of  intimidation. 
The  side  professing  greater  sanctity  frightens  its 
more  timid  opponents  into  a  compromise.  They  are 
afraid  of  bringing  on  themselves  the  suspicion  of 
heterodoxy; — they  are  often  conscious  of  something 
about  themselves  that  would  not  easily  endure  a  hos- 
tile scrutiny,  and  so  they  purchase  peace  by  compliance 
with  their  natural  opponents,  or  by  keeping  out  of 
the  way :  so  Carlyle  found  it. 

The  vote  stood  at  first  14.5  for  Carlyle,  and  142 
against  him,  so  that  he  was  elected  by  a  majority  of 
three.  He  took  his  place  as  clerk,  and  delivered  an 
address,  in  which  he  stated  that  it  had  ever  been  his 
object  in  ecclesiastical  courts  to  correct  and  abate  the 
fanatical  spirit  of  his  country, — an  allusion  by  no 
means  likely  to  mitigate  the  wrath  of  his  opponents. 
But  the  matter  was  by  no  means  decided.  It  had 
been  arranged  that  there  should  be  a  scrutiny  of  the 
foundation  of  each  voter's  right  of  membership,  and 
that  the  decision  of  the  Assembly  should  be  as  the 
relative  numbers  stood  after  the  bad  votes  were 
struck  out.  It  was  as  if  a  division  of  the  House  of 
Commons  at  the  beginning  of  a  session,  should  stand 
subject  to  the  deduction  of  the  votes  of  all  the  mem- 
bers who  may  be  afterwards  found  by  an  election 


558  THE    CLERKSHIP   QUESTION. 

committee  to  be  unduly  elected.  It  would  be  useless 
to  describe  the  technicalities  of  such  a  process;  but 
it  is  pretty  clear  that,  like  the  contemporary  con- 
troverted elections  in  the  House  of  Commons,  there 
was  no  rigid  law  to  govern  it,  and  much  of  it  w^as 
decided  rather  through  casual  victories  than  the  appli- 
cation of  fixed  general  principles.  The  contest  was 
long  and  keen,  and  apparently  not  quite  decorous, 
as  we  may  infer  from  the  following  short  account  of 
it,  in  a  very  moderately-toned  work — Dr  Cook's  Life 
of  Principal  Hill : — 

"  In  cauvassing  the  claims  on  the  Commissions  to  which  objections 
were  made,  there  was  displayed  ingenuity  that  would  have  done 
credit  to  a  more  important  cause ;  but  with  this  there  was  mingled 
a  degree  of  violence,  unworthy  of  the  venerable  court  in  which  it  was 
exhibited.  The  debates  were  protracted  to  a  most  unusual  length, 
and  upon  one  occasion,  after  all  regard  to  order  had  been  cast  aside, 
the  Moderator,  with  unshaken  firmness,  exercised  the  power  which  he 
conceived  to  be  vested  in  him.  He  turned  to  the  Commissioner,  and 
having  received  his  consent  that  the  Assembly  should  meet  at  a  cer- 
tain hour  next  day,  he  adjourned  the  house.  Amidst  the  loudness  of 
clamour,  this  step,  which  none  but  a  man  of  courage  and  nerve  would 
have  taken,  was  applauded  ;  and  it  probably  was  useful  in  putting 
some  restraint  on  the  angry  passions  which  had  before  been  so  inde- 
cently Tirged.  Previous  to  the  scrutiny,  the  Moderator,  having  been 
asked  to  declare  for  whom,  in  the  event  of  an  equality,  he  would  vote, 
he  replied  that  he  now  voted  for  Dr  Carlyle ;  thus  unequivocally 
showing  Avhom  he  was  eager  to  support,  although  he  might  have 
avoided  thus  explicitly  giving  his  voice  against  Mr  Dalzel,  for  whom 
he  had  a  high  esteem,  and  with  whom,  as  Professor  of  Greek,  he  had 
maintained  such  kindly  intercourse." 

Carlyle  found  his  opponent  gaining  so  surely,  that 
he  abandoned  the  contest.  The  result  irritated  him 
at  first,  and  his  anger  was  naturally  directed  less 
against  his  avowed  enemies  than  those  who,  though 


THE    AUGxMEKTATION    QUESTION.  559 

ranked  of  his  own  party,  had,  for  the  reasons  already 
explained,  voted  against  him  or  stayed  away.  But 
while  the  voice  of  his  friends  was  still  for  war,  to  be 
carried  on  in  a  new  Assembly  or  in  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion, he  wrote  to  the  all-influential  Dundas,  recom- 
mending peace.  "Although  the  court,"  he  says, 
*•  should  sustain  themselves  judges — and  I  suppose 
they  woidd — yet  the  suit  might  prove  so  very  tedious 
as  to  render  it  totally  unworthy  of  all  the  trouble, 
were  we  even  certain  of  being  victorious  in  the  end. 
Some  people  think  that  next  Assembly  may,  on  the 
ground  of  the  protest,  take  up  the  business  and  re- 
verse what  has  been  done  by  the  last ;  but,  God  knows, 
this  is  not  worth  while  ;  for  it  would  oblige  me  to 
exert  every  species  of  power  or  interest  we  have  to 
bring  up  an  Assembly  stronger  on  our  side  than  the 
last,  which  it  would  be  very  diflicult  to  do,  as  our 
opponents  would  exert  themselves  to  the  utmost." 
In  a  letter  to  Dr  Blair,  as  the  representative  of  the 
more  zealous  of  the  party,  Dundas,  while  explain- 
ing with  his  usual  practical  sagacity  the  impolicy 
of  continuing  the  contest,  says  —  "  If  Mr  C.  were 
a  young  man,  and  the  office  £500  a-year  instead  of 
£80, 1  would  undertake  the  cause,  and  would  certainly 
carry  it  ;  but  for  such  a  paltry  object  it  is  scarce 
worth  while  to  renew  such  a  disagreeable  contest." 

Two  years  later,  Carlyle  engaged  in  a  contest,  in 
which  the  clergy  as  a  body  were  on  his  side,  against 
the  landed  gentry  of  Scotland.  It  was  inaugurated, 
indeed,  in  1788,  by  Sir  Harry  Moncreiff  Wellwood, 


560  THE   AUGMENTATION   QUESTION. 

the  most  distinguished  member  of  the  opposite  party 
in  the  Church,  in  a  pamphlet  called  "  Sketch  of  a  Plan 
for  Augmenting  the  Livings  of  the  Ministers  of  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland."  Since  the  first 
deliberate  disposal,  after  the  Eeformation,  of  the  eccle- 
siastical property  of  Scotland,  there  existed  a  certain 
amount  of  revenue  or  rent  charge,  which  was  stamped 
with  the  leo-al  character  of  beins:  available  to  the 
Church,  while  it  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  land- 
owners, who  were  enabled  to  make  their  possession 
fully  nine-tenths  of  the  law.  Much  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical history  of  Scotland,  in  fact,  clusters  round  the 
efforts  made  on  one  side  to  keep,  and  on  the  other  to 
take,  this  fund.  From  the  beginning,  the  zealous 
protesting  barons  Avho  had  got  possession  of  the  pro- 
perty of  the  old  Church,  when  desired  to  give  it  up 
for  the  purposes  of  the  new,  said  that  such  an  idea 
was  a  fond  imagination  ;  and  in  the  same  spirit, 
modified  to  the  condition  of  the  times,  their  successors 
had  treated  all  eff'orts  to  enlarge  the  incomes  of  the 
clergy  out  of  the  "unexhausted  teinds,"  as  the  chief 
substance  of  the  fund  was  technically  termed. 

In  the  General  Assembly,  Carlyle  adopted  the  tone 
that  the  Church  was  entitled  to  what  it  demanded ; 
and  that  by  the  help  it  had  given — first,  in  establish- 
ing the  Hanover  succession,  and  next,  in  supporting 
law  and  order — it  had  well  earned  the  frank  assistance 
of  the  Government  and  the  aristocracy  in  securing 
its  rights.  The  following  passage  is  taken  from  one 
of  his  speeches  on  this  matter  : — 


THE   AUGMENTATION    QUESTION.  561 

"  I  must  confess  that  I  do  not  love  to  hear  this  Church  called  a  poor 
Church,  or  the  poorest  Church  in  Christendom.  I  douht  very  much 
that,  if  it  were  minutely  inquired  into,  this  is  really  the  ftict.  But, 
independent  of  that,  I  dislike  the  language  of  whining  and  com- 
plaint. We  are  rich  in  the  best  goods  a  Church  can  have— the  learn- 
ing, the  manners,  and  the  character  of  its  members.  There  are  few 
branches  of  literature  in  which  the  ministei-s  of  this  Church  have  not 
excelled.  There  are  few  subjects  of  fine  writing  in  which  they  do  not 
stand  foremost  in  the  rank  of  authors,  which  is  a  prouder  boast  than 
all  the  pomp  of  the  Hierarchy. 

"  We  have  men  who  have  successfully  enlightened  the  world  in 
almost  every  bi-anch,  not  to  mention  treatises  in  defence  of  Christi- 
anity, or  eloquent  illustrations  of  every  branch  of  Christian  doctrine 
and  morals.  Who  have  wrote  the  best  histories,  ancient  and  mo- 
dern ? — It  has  been  clergymen  of  this  Church.  Who  has  wrote  the 
clearest  delineation  of  the  human  undei-standing  and  all  its  powers  ? 
— A  clergyman  of  this  Church.  Who  has  written  the  best  system  of 
rhetoric,  and  exemplified  it  by  his  own  orations  1 — A  clergyman  of  this 
Church.  AVho  wrote  a  tragedy  that  has  been  deemed  perfect? — A 
clergyman  of  this  Church.  Who  was  the  most  profound  mathema- 
tician of  the  age  he  lived  in  1— A  clergyman  of  this  Church,  Who 
is  his  successor,  in  reputation  as  in  office  ?  Who  wrote  the  best 
treatise  on  agriculture  ?  Let  us  not  complain  of  poverty,  for  it  is  a 
splendid  poverty  indeed  !     It  is  paupertas  fecunda  virorum." 

The  Government  brought  in  a  bill  for  "  the  Aug- 
mentation of  Stipends,"  but  they  found  the  country 
gentlemen  of  Scotland  too  strong  for  them,  and  it  was 
abandoned.  In  the  General  Assembly  Carlyle  took 
the  opportunity  of  dropping  some  sharp  remarks  on 
the  ingratitude  thus  shown  to  the  Church,  and  did 
not  spare  his  friend  Dundas.  A  jocular  country 
clergyman  remarked  that  nothing  better  could  come  of 
sycophancy  to  the  aristocracy  ;  and  told  a  story  how 
a  poor  neighbour  of  his  own,  after  a  course  of  ser- 
vility, had  got  nothing  but  castigation  in  the  end, 
and  found  no  better  remonstrance  to  make  than  that 
which  had  been  addressed  to  Balaam —  "Am  not  I  thine 

2  N 


5^2  ,  OOLLINS'S    ODE. 

i^ss,  upon  which  thou  hast  ricldeu  ever  since  I  was  thine 
to  this  clay  \  "  The  alhision  took,  and  was  improved 
-by  Kay  the  caricaturist.  The  Government  promised 
still  to  do  justice  to  the  clergy,  but  they  had  to  wait 
for  it  until  the  year  1810,  when  the  Act  was  passed  for 
Ibringing  all  stipends  up  to  a  minimum  of  £150  a-year. 
On  the  establishment  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edin- 
burgh in  1783,  Carlyle  made,  through  its  Transac- 
tions, a  very  acceptable  gift  to  literature.  Johnson,  in 
his  Life  of  Collins,  referred  to  the  loss  of  an  ode  on 
the  Superstitions  of  the  Highlands,  which  Dr  Warton 
and  his  brother  had  seen,  and  "  thought  superior  to 
his  other  works,  but  which  no  search  has  yet  found." 
A  poem  so  wild  and  sweet — so  far  beyond  the  bounds 
of  the  conventionalities  of  the  day,  and  so  full  of 
imagery  drawn  direct  from  nature  in  her  highest  and 
most  wayward  flights — was  not  likely  to  be  quite  for- 
gotten by  any  one  who  had  seen  it.  Carlyle  remem- 
bered having  read  it  in  1749  with  Home,  to  whom  it 
was  addressed,  and  John  Barrow,  who  had  been  one  of 
•Home's  fellow-prisoners  in  Doune  Castle.*  After  a 
search,  Carlyle  found  the  actual  manuscript  of  the  ode 
in  an  imperfect  state.  He  and  Henry  Mackenzie  set 
themselves  to  filling  up  the  lacunce,  and  presented  it 
in  a  complete  shape  to  the  Royal  Society.  Soon  after- 
wards the  ode  was  published  from  what  was  said  to  be 

*  Barrow  was  "the  cordial  youth"  referred  to  in  the  concluding  stanza. 
One  might  suppose  that  he  was  the  same  "Barry"  whom  Carlyle  met  in 
London  in  J769,  also  one  of  the  fugitives  from  Doune  (page  521).  But 
Barrow,  according  to Carlyle's letter  in  the  "Transactions,"  died pa5rmaster 
of  the  forces  in  the  American  War  of  17>>fi. 


COLLINS  S   ODE.  563 

an  original  and  complete  copy,  which  of  course  devi- 
ated from  the  other  on  the  points  where  Carlyle  and 
Mackenzie  had  completed  it.  This  copy  was,  however, 
printed  anonymously,  and  its  accuracy  has  not  passed, 
unsuspected.  The  editor  of  Pickeriug's  edition  of 
Collins  (1858)  says:  "The  AVartons,  however,  had 
read,  and  remembered  the  poem,  and  the  anon}Tnous 
editor  dedicated  the  ode  to  them,  with  an  address. 
As  this  called  forth  no  protest  from  the  Wartons,  it  is 
to  be  presumed  that  they  acknowledged  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  more  perfect  copy ;  and  it  has  for  that 
reason,  though  not  without  some  hesitation,  been 
adopted  for  the  text  of  this  edition." 

The  Eoyal  Society  version  has,  however,  its  own  in- 
terest on  the  present  occasion,'  as  Carlyle's  interpola- 
tions afford  some  little  indication,  if  not  of  his  poeti- 
cal capacity,  at  least  of  his  taste.  Here,  for  instance, 
is  the  concluding  stanza,  with  the  words  supplied  by 
Carlyle  printed  between  commas  : — 

"  AH  hail,  ye  scenes  that  o'er  my  soul  prevail ; 

Ye  '  si)acious '  friths  and  lakes  which,  far  away. 
Are  by  smooth  Annan  filled,  or  pastoral  Tay, 

Or  Don's  romantic  springs,  at  distance  hail ! 
The  time  shall  come  when  I,  i)erhaps,  may  tread 

Your  lowly  glens,  o'erhung  with  spreading  broom. 
Or  o'er  your  stretching  heaths  by  fancy  led  : 

Then  will  I  dress  once  more  the  faded  bower, 
Where  Johnson  sat  in  Drummond's  '  social '  shade. 

Or  crop  from  TeWot's  dale  each  'classic  flower,' 
And  mourn  on  Yarrow's  banks  '  the  widowed  maid.* 
Meantime,  ye  powers  that  on  the  plains  which  bore 

The  cordial  youth  on  Lothian's  jilains,  attend ; 
Where'er  he  dwell,  on  hill  or  lonely  muir, 

To  him  I  love  your  kind  protection  lend. 
And,  touched  with  love  like  mine,  preserve  my  absent  friend." 


564        ON    THE    SUPERSTITIONS    OF   THE    HIGHLANDS. 

Here  is  aDother  specimen  of  the  interpolated  pas- 
sages : — 

"  'Tis  thine  to  sing  how,  framing  hideous  spells, 
In  Skye's  lone  isle  the  gifted  wizard  'sits,' 
'Waiting  in'  wintry  cave  'his  wayward  fits,' 
Or  in  the  depth  of  Uist's  dark  forest  dwells."  * 

Scott  said  of  Carlyle,  that  "  he  was  no  more  a  poet 
than  his  precentor,"  a  rather  hard  saying,  about  which 
it  is  curious  to  consider  that  Scott  must  certainly  have 
had  his  mind  under  the  influence  of  the  passage  just 
cited  when  he  drew  his  own  seer  Bryan  in  the  Lady 
of  the  Lake — 

'"Midst  gi-oan  of  wreck  and  roar  of  stream 
The  wizard  waits  prophetic  dream." 

It  is  observable  that  Carlyle's  interpolated  version 
has  considerably  more  resemblance  to  this  than  the 
other  has. 

We  find  Carlyle's  contemporary,  Smollett,  giv- 
ing him  credit  in  his  earlier  days  for  poetical  efforts 
which  cannot  be  traced  home  to  him.  Writing  in 
1747,  Smollett  says  : — 

"  I  would  have  been  more  punctual  had  it  not  been  for  Oswald  the 
musician,  who  promised  from  time  to  time  to  set  your  songs  to  music, 
that  I  might  have  it  in  my  power  to  gratify  the  author  in  you,  by 
sending  your  productions  so  improved.  Your  gay  catches  please  me 
much,  and  the  Lamentations  of  Fanny  Gardner  has  a  good  deal  of 
nature  in  it,  though,  in  my  opinion,  it  might  be  bettered.  Oswald  has 
set  it  to  an  excellent  tune,  in  the  Scotch  style ;  but  as  it  is  not  yet 
published,  I  cannot  regale  you  with  it  at  present." 

Whether  the  "  gay  catches"  were  of  Carlyle's  com- 

*  In  the  other  version  it  stands — 

"  'Tis  tliine  to  sing  how,  framing  hideous  S]iells, 
In  Skye's  lone  isle  the  gifted  wizard  seer, 
Lodged  in  the  wintry  cave  with  fatal  spear, 
Or  in  the  depth  of  Uist's  dark  forest  dwells." 


POETRY.  505 

position  or  not,  there  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  the 
ballad  of  "  Fanny  Gairdner  "  was  written  by  his  friend 
Sir  Gilbert  Elliot.  If  Carlyle  had  been  the  author,  it 
is  likely  that  some  trace  of  such  a  fact  would  have 
been  found  in  his  Autobiography,  and  so,  perhaps,  of 
the  "gay  catches."  There  is  a  small  heterogeneous 
bundle  of  manuscript  verses  among  Carlyle's  papers — 
some  of  them  in  his  own  handwriting  and  some  in 
others.  They  are  all,  so  far  as  the  editor  is  aware,  un- 
known to  fame,  and,  on  consideration,  he  thought  it 
the  better  policy  not  to  meddle  with  them,  since  at- 
tempts to  settle  the  authorship  of  manuscript  litera- 
ture of  this  kind  are  apt  to  be  unsatisfactory, — the 
conclusions  adopted  on  the  most  subtle  critical  induc- 
tion, being  often  upset  by  some  person  who  has  been 
pottering  among  old  magazines  and  newspapers. 

It  would  have  been  extremely  interesting  if  Carlyle 
had  brought  down  his  Autobiography,  to  have  had  his 
remarks  on  the  new  literary  dynasty  of  which  he  lived 
to  see  the  dawn.  The  letters  written  to  him  show 
that  he  interested  himself  in  the  Lay  of  the  Last 
Minstrel,  and  in  Southey's  early  poems,  but  we  have 
not  his  own  criticisms  on  them.  The  following  on 
Wordsworth,  however,  is  surely  interesting.  It  is  in 
a  letter  addressed  by  Carlyle  to  "Miss  MitchelsonV — 

"  I  must  tell  you,  who  I  know  will  sympathise  with  me,  that  I  was 
very  much  delighted  indeed,  on  the  first  sight  of  a  new  species  of 
poetry,  in  'The  Brothers,'  and  'The  Idiot  Boy,'  which  were  pointed 
out  to  me  by  Carlyle  Bell,  as  chiefly  worthy  of  admiration.  I  read 
them  with  attention  and  was  much  struck.  As  I  call  every  man  a 
philosopher,  who  has  sense  and  observation  enough  to  add  one  fact 
relating  either  to  mind  or  body,  to  the  mass  of  human  knowledge,  so 


566         THOUGHTS  ON  WORDSWORTH. 

I  call  every  man  a  poet,  whose  composition  pleases  at  once  the  imagina- 
tion and  affects  the  heart.  On  reading  'The  Brother?,'  I  was  sur- 
prised at  first  with  its  simplicity,  or  rather  flatness.  But  when  I  got 
a  little  on,  I  found  it  not  only  raised  my  curiosity,  but  moved  me  into 
sympathy,  and  at  last  into  a  tender  approbation  of  the  surviving. 
brother,  who  had  discovered  such  virtuous  feelings,  and  who,  by  his 
dignified  and  silent  departure,  approached  the  sublime.  After  being 
so  affected,  could  I  deny  that  this  was  poetry,  however  simply  ex- 
pressed ?  Nay,  I  go  farther,  and  aver  that,  if  the  narration  had  been 
dressed  in  a  more  artificial  style,  it  would  hardly  have  moved  me 
at  all. 

"  When  I  first  read  '  The  Idiot  Boy,'  I  must  confess  I  was  alarmed 
at  the  term  as  well  as  the  subject,  and  suspected  that  it  would  not 
please,  but  disgust.  But  when  I  read  on,  and  found  that  the  author 
had  so  finely  selected  every  circumstance  that  could  set  off  the  mother's 
feelings  and  character,  in  the  display  of  the  various  passions  of  joy  and 
ikuxiety,  and  suspense  and  despair,  and  revived  hope  and  returning  joy, 
through  all  their  changes,  I  lost  sight  of  the  term  Idiot,  and  offered 
my  thanks  to  the  God  of  Poets  for  having  inspired  one  of  his  sons 
with  a  new  species  of  poetry,  and  for  having  pointed  out  a  subject  on 
which  the  author  has  done  more  to  move  the  human  heart  to  tender- 
ness for  the  most  unfortunate  of  our  species,  than  has  ever  been  done 
before.  He  has  not  only  made  his  Tdiot  Boy  an  object  of  pity,  but 
even  of  love.  He  has  done  more,  for  he  has  restored  him  to  his  place 
among  the  household  gods  whom  the  ancients  worshipped." 

It  may  here  be  proper  to  say  a  few  words  on  a 
matter  not  likely  to  have  been  directly  alluded  to  by 
Carlyle  himself — his  personal  appearance  and  deport- 
ment. They  are  of  more  than  usually  important  ele- 
ments in  his  biography,  since,  according  to  the  tenor 
of  some  traditions  and  anecdotes,  his  remarkable  per- 
sonal advantages  exercised  a  great  influence  both  on 
himself  and  others.  The  portrait  after  Martin,  en- 
graved for .  this  volume,  represents  a  countenance 
eminently  endowed  with  masculine  beauty.  His  ap-, 
pearance  has  been  hitherto  chiefly  known  to  the  present 
generation  through  the  Edinburgh  Portraits  of  Kay. 


HIS    PERSONAL    APPEARANCE.  667 

This  limner  had  tLe  peculiar  faculty,  while  preserving 
a  recognisable  likeness,  of  entirely  divesting  it  of  everj^ 
vestige  of  grace  or  picturesqueness  which  nature  may 
have  bestowed  on  it.  In  this  instance  he  is  not,hbwT 
ever,  quite  successful ;  for  even  from  his  flat  etchings^ 
the  "  preserver  of  the  Church  from  fanaticism  "  cornea 
forth  a  comely  man  with  a  rather  commanding 
presence.  .:  i 

Sir  Walter  Scott  has  left  a  colloquial  sketch  of  hiiil, 
which,  though  of  the  briefest,  is  broad  and  colossal  as 
a  scrap  from  the  pencil  of  Michael  Angelo.  He  is 
discoursing  of  the  countenances  of  poets ;  some  tha| 
represented  the  divinity  of  genius,  and  others  that  sig- 
nally failed  in  that  respect.  "  Well,"  said  he,  "  the 
grandest  demigod  I  ever  saw  was  Dr  Carlyle,  minister 
of  Musselburgh,  commonly  called  Jupiter  Carlyle,  from 
having  sat  more  than  once  for  the  king  of  gods  and 
men  to  Gavin  Hamilton ;  and  a  shrewd  clever  old  carle 
was  he,  no  doubt,  but  no  more  a  poet  than  his  pre* 
centor."*  The  sitting  to  Gavin  Hamilton  is  impro- 
bable. Had  Carlyle  been  accustomed  to  meet  this 
great  painter,  something  woidd  certainly  have  beeu 
said  about  him  in  the  Autobiography.  In  what  is  pro- 
bably a  variation  of  the  same  tradition,  it,  is  said  that 
a  scidptor  accosted  him  on  the  streets  of  London  and 
requested  him  to  sit  for  Olympian  Jove.  The  late  Chief 
Commissioner  Adam,  in  a  few  anecdotes,  called  The 
Gift  of  a  Grandfather,  which  he  printed  at  a  press  of 
his  own  for  private  distribution,  says,  "  On  sortie  par-. 

*  Lockhart's  Life,  iv.  1461. 


568  HIS    PERSONAL   APPEARANCE. 

ticular  occasion,  I  don't  exactly  recollect  what,  he  was 
one  of  a  mission  upon  Church  affairs  to  London,  where 
they  had  to  attend  at  St  James's  in  the  costume  of 
their  profession.  His  portly  figure,  his  fine  expressive 
countenance,  with  an  aquiline  nose,  his  flowing  silver 
locks,  and  the  freshness  of  the  colour  of  his  face,  made 
a  prodigious  impression  upon  the  courtiers ;  but,"  adds 
the  Commissioner,  "  it  was  the  soundness  of  his  sense, 
his  honourable  principles,  and  his  social  qualities,  un- 
mixed with  anything  that  detracted  from,  or  unbe- 
coming, the  character  of  a  clergyman,  gave  him  his 
place  among  the  worthies." 

Besides  the  picture  engraved  for  this  work,  Martin 
painted  another  portrait  of  him,  far  more  ambitious, 
but  not  so  pleasing.  In  the  Autobiography  he  men- 
tions his  sitting  for  it,  much  as  Sheridan  spoke  of  his 
having  undergone  two  operations — the  one  sitting  for 
his  portrait,  the  other  getting  his  hair  cut  (p.  521).  Of 
the  completion  of  this  work  he  writes  to  his  wife,  on 
the  7th  of  April  1 770  :  "  My  picture  is  now  finished  for 
the  exhibition.  It  looks  like  a  cardinal,  it  is  so  gor- 
geously dressed.  It  is  in  a  pink  damask  night-gown, 
in  a  scarlet  chair.  Martin  thinks  it  will  do  him  more 
good  than  ajl  the  pictures  he  has  done."  Besides  the 
likenesses  by  Kay  and  Martin,  there  was  a  portrait  by 
Skirving,  of  which  an  engraving — not  of  much  merit 
— is  in  the  hands  of  some  collectors.  In  an  undated 
letter  Lord  Haddington  says :  "  I  am  much  obliged  to 
you  for  recollecting  your  promise  of  sitting  to  Eae- 
burn,  and  beg  that  it  may  be  a  head  done  on  canvass 
of  the  ordinary  size.     I  mean  it  to  hang  as  an  orna- 


HIS   PERSONAL   APPKAKANCE.  5691 

ment  in  my  new  library,  and  that  size  will  answer 
best."  Accordingly,  there  are  two  entries  in  the 
Diary  :  "1796,  Mcnj  19. — Began  to  sit  to  Raeburn  for 
Lord  Haddington."'  "  9th  June. — Sat  with  Eaeburn 
for  last  time/'  A  letter  from  Lady  Douglas  (his 
old  friend,  Lady  Frances  Scott),  written  in  Feb- 
ruary 1805,  a  short  time  before  his  death,  refers  to  a 
likeness  by  an  artist  who  was  living  within  the  past 
twelve  years.  "  I  have  received  your  bust  from  Hen- 
ning,  and  think  it  very  strikingly  like ;  but  I  do 
not  think  that  he  has  quite  done  justice  to  the  pic- 
turesque appearance  of  your  silver  locks,  which,  *in 
wanton  ringlets,  wave  as  the  vine  casts  her  tendrils.' 
If  I  have  time,  I  will  go  and  see  his  drawing  while  I 
am  at  Dalkeith." 

His  Autobiography  was  the  great  occupation,  and 
apparently  also  the  great  enjoyment,  of  the  concluding 
years  of  his  life.  He  began  it,  as  the  opening  an- 
nounces, in  the  year  1800,  when  he  was  entering  on 
his  seventy-ninth  year  ;  and  he  appears  to  have  added 
to  it  from  time  to  time,  until  within  a  few  weeks  of 
his  death.  The  last  words  written  in  his  own  hand- 
writing, which  became  very  tremulous,  are  about 
"  Lord  North's  having  become  Premier  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1770  "  (p.  532).  The  few  remaining 
paragraphs  have  been  written  to  dictation. 

It  will  naturally  have  surprised  the  reader  that,  at 
so  advanced  an  age,  a  man  who  had  not  done  much 
in  early  life  to  give  him  the  facilities  of  a  practised 
composer,  should  have  written  with  so  much  vigour, 
eloquence,  and  point.     At  the  same  time,  the  sort  of 


570  THE   AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

contemporary-like  freshness  with  which  he  realises 
scenes  over  which  long  years,  crowded  with  other  re- 
collections, had  passed,  looks  like  a  phenomenon  unex- 
ampled in  literature.  But  there  are  reasons  for  these 
characteristics.  The  editor  has  convinced  himself  that 
the  favourite  scenes  and  events  which  Carlyle  describes 
had  been  from  the  first  forming  themselves  in  his  mind, 
and  even  resolving  themselves  into  sentences,  which 
would  become  mellowed  in  their  structure  and  anti- 
thesis, by  the  more  than  obedience  to  the  nonumque 
prematur  in  annum.  The  habit  acquired  by  a  clergy- 
man of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  who  had  to  preach  ser- 
mons committed  to  memory,  w^ould  form  the  practice 
of  retaining  finished  pieces  of  composition  in  the  mind. 
This  view  of  the  literary  growth  of  the  work,  though 
Originating  in  a  general  impression  from  its  whole  tenor, 
can  be  supported  by  a  few  distinct  incidents  of  evi- 
dence. The  chief  of  these  is  the  repetition  at  consider- 
able intervals  of  the  same  scene  or  anecdote,  in  almost 
the  same  words,  and  with  the  more  characteristic  and 
emphatic  expressions  identical.  Farther ;  there'  is 
a  separate  manuscript  of  his  Autobiography,  down  to 
the  year  1735,  cited  in  the  notes  as  "Recollections." 
These  were  written  at  different  times,  and  partly,  it 
would  seem,  before  he  began  the  present  work.  They 
were  prepared  for  the  amusement  of  his  friend  Lady 
Frances  Douglas ;  and,  expanding  into  rhetorical  deco- 
rations and  jocular  allusions — probably  intended  to 
enhance  their  interest  in  the  special  eyes  for  which  they 
were  destined — they  are  far  inferior,  except  in  a  few 


THE   AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  oTl 

passages,  to  the  corresponding  portion  of  the  Auto- 
l)iography.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  they  are  sub- 
stantially the  same  material  inflated  for  the  occasion. 
In  fact,  the  amount  of  repetition  in  the  Autobio- 
graphy, and  the  absence  of  general  order  throughout, 
show  that  the  author  did  not  retain  the  full  faculty 
of  arranging  the  collection  of  finished  compositions 
stored  up  in  his  mind.  When  there  is  virtually  ver- 
batim repetition,  the  duplicate  of  the  passage  has  been 
omitted  in  the  printing.  But  it  was  impossible,  with- 
out depriving  the  work  of  its  racy  charms,  to,  obliter- 
ate every  second  going  over  of  the  same  ground,  or  even 
to  group  together  the  dispersed  passages  which  bear 
upon  the  same  matter,  and  which  might,  had  the  author 
written  at  an  earlier  and  more  active  time  of  life,  have 
been  fused  by  him  into  each  other.  For  the  precision 
with  which  he  notified  dates  and  places  he  seems  to 
have  been  indebted  to  a  series  of  accurate  diaries. 
There  exists  at  least  a  succession  of  diaries,  from  the 
sojourn  in  London  in  the  midst  of  which  the  Auto- 
biography stops,  down  to  the  time  when  he  could  no 
longer  write.  It  is  likely  enough  that  these  had  pre- 
decessors ;  they  may  have  been  lost  sight  of,  from  his 
having  taken  them  out  of  their  repository  for  the  pur- 
pose of  consulting  them  in  the  composition  of  his 
Autobiography.  The  diaries  which  exist  are  of  the 
very  briefest  kind,  intended  evidently  for  no  other 
eye  but  his  own,  and  containing  no  more  words  or 
even  letters  than  might  be  suflicient  to  recall  to  me- 
mory the  dates  and  sequence  of  the  events  of  his  life. . 


572  THE    MS.    OF    THE    AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

Among  the  manuscripts  put  at  the  editor's  disposal, 
there  is  evidence  that  more  than  once  the  Autobio- 
graphy had  been  prepared  for  the  press.  Apart  from 
changes  made  by  copyists,  the  author's  manuscript 
has  been  largely  tampered  with,  many  passages  are 
scored  out,  and  a  great  deal  has  been  done,  no  doubt 
with  the  best  intention,  to  substitute  properly-turned 
periods  and  balanced  sentences  for  such  less  scientific 
composition  as  Carlyle  was  capable  of  achieving.  It 
fortunately  happened,  however,  that  except  in  one 
trifling  instance  mentioned  in  a  note,  the  original 
text  was  recoverable,  and  its  purity  restorable.  In  con- 
sidering his  responsibilities  in  the  matter,  the  editor 
did  not  think  that  he  was  entitled  to  deprive  the  world 
of  what  the  author  had  thought  fit  to  communicate 
to  it ;  and  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  public 
would  prefer  Carlyle's  own  style  under  all  its  weight 
of  Scotticisms  and  obsolete  idioms,  to  the  best  modern 
improvements  that  might  be  made  on  it.  The  editor 
consequently  made  it  his  task  to  restore  the  suppressed 
passages,  and  obliterate  the  improvements. 

The  existence  of  this  Autobiography  has  been  well 
known,  and  there  have  been  many  expressions  of 
surprise  by  authors,  from  Sir  Walter  Scott  down- 
wards, why  it  had  not  been  made  public.  Perhaps 
it  is  better  that  it  should  have  waited.  It  is  easy 
to  sympathise  with  a  reluctance  to  have  published 
some  portions  of  it  half  a  century  ago.  When  a  man 
leaves  behind  him  his  experience  and  opinions  as  to 
his  contemporaries  in  an  outspoken  book — as  this  cer- 


DECLINING    YEAKS.  573 

tainly  is — the  manuscript  is  apt  to  be  dismantled  of 
one  ornament  after  another,  to  spare  the  feelings  of 
the  surviving  kindred.  In  this  way  records  of  indi- 
vidual conduct,  whicli  it  might  be  cruel  to  publish 
immediately,  are  lost  to  the  world ;  while,  if  they  were 
preserved  until  the  generation  liable  to  be  distressed 
by  their  publication  have  departed,  they  might  be  given 
forth  without  offence.  What  at  one  time  is  personal, 
irritating,  and  even  cruel,  becomes,  after  a  generation 
or  two  has  departed,  only  a  valuable  record  of  the 
social  and  moral  condition  of  a  past  period.  Though 
the  popular  expectation  about  such  records  is,  that  they 
only  exist  to  remind  the  later  generation  of  pristine 
times  and  departed  virtues,  yet  the  account  of  personal 
follies  and  vices  which  they  may  contain  have  their  own 
weight  and  value  as  part  of  the  history  of  the  period. 

While  he  was  struggling  through  increasing  years 
and  infirmities  with  his  too  long  postponed  task,  the 
last  and  greatest  of  his  domestic  calamities  overtook 
him  in  the  death  of  his  wife,  on  the  3 1  st  day  of  Janu- 
ary 1804.  For  once  the  hard  brevity  of  the  diary  is 
softened  by  a  touch  of  nature.  "  She  composed  her 
features  into  the  most  placid  appearance,  gave  me  her 
last  kiss,  and  then  gently  going  out,  like  a  taper  in 
the  socket,  at  7  breathed  her  last.  No  finer  spirit 
ever  took  flight  from  a  clay  tabernacle  to  be  united 
with  the  Father  of  all  and  the  spirits  of  the  just." 

All  was  done  to  brighten  his  few  remaining  days 
that  the  affectionate  solicitude  of  relations  and  dear 
friends  could  do.     His  nephew,  Mr  Carlyle  Bell,  was 


574  DECLINING    YEAKS. 

all  to  him  that  a  son  could  be,  and  held  that  place  in 
his  affection.  Besides  the  scanty  remnant  of  his  old 
contemporary  friends,  there  rose  around  him  a  cluster 
of  attached  followers  among  the  younger  clergy,  fore- 
most and  best  beloved  of  whom  w^as  John  Lee,  the  late 
learned  and  accomplished  head  of  the  University  of 
-Edinburgh,  who  has  himself  just  passed  from  among 
us,  well  stricken  in  years.  Addressing  his  good  friend 
Lady  Frances  at  this  time,  he  thus  alludes  to  his  ne- 
phew and  Lee :  "  I,  who  have  now  acquired  a  kind  of 
•pel'sonal  greatness,  by  means  of  the  infirmities  of  age, 
which  make  me  dependent,  have  by  that  very  means 
acquired  all  the  trappings  of  greatness.  For,  besides 
my  nephew,  who  is  my  governor,  nurse,  and  treasurer, 
I  have  got  likewise  a  trusty  friend  and  an  able  physi- 
■cian,  an  uncommonly  good  divine  and  an  eminent 
preacher — all  in  the  person  of  one  young  man,  whom 
I  have  taken  to  live  with  me."  He  then  touches  an 
a  matter  which  still  afforded  him  an  interest  in  the 
world — the  completion  of  the  new  church  for  his 
parish.  Its  slender  spire  is  a  conspicuous  object  for 
many  miles  around.  "  By  the  first  Sunday  of  August 
I  intend,  God  willing,  to  gratify  my  people  by  open- 
ing my  new  church,  if  it  were  only  with  a  short 
prayer  (for  Othello's  occupation's  gone),  when  I 
shall  have  been  57  years  complete  minister  of  this 
parish."  But  it  was  not  to  be.  Among  the  last  entries 
in  his  brief  diary  in  1805,  are,  "25th  July — John 
Home  and  Mrs  Home  ;  27th — George  Hill  called 
going  east."     Next  day,  the  entry  is  "very  ill;"  for 


DEATH.  57d 

some  days  afterwards,  "  no  change  ; "  and  the  last 
entry,  as  distinct  as  any,  is  "x\ugust  12th  and  13th, 
the  same."  He  died  on  the  25th.  So  departed  one 
who,  if  men  are  to  be  estimated,  not  by  the  rank 
which  external  fortune  has  given  them  or  the  happy 
chances  they  have  seized,  but  by  the  influence  they 
have  imparted  from  mere  personal  character  and 
ability,  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  remarkable  on 
record.  Born  in  a  simple  manse,  he  remained  all  his 
days  that  type  of  humble  respectability — a  village 
pastor ;  nor  does  he  seem  ever  to  have  desired  a 
higher  sphere.  His  lot  was  not  even  cast  on  any  of 
those  wild  revolutionary  periods  which  give  men  in 
his  position  a  place  in  history ;  nor  did  he  attempt 
any  of  those  great  ventures  for  literary  distinction  in 
which  many  of  his  comrades  were  so  successful.  It 
seems  to  have  been  his  one  and  peculiar  ambition 
that  he  should  dignify  his  calling  by  bringing  it 
forth  into  the  world,  and  making  for  it  a  place  along 
with  rank,  and  wealth,  and  distinction  of  every  kind. 
This  object  he  carried  through  with  a  high  hand  ; 
and  scarcely  a  primate  of  the  proud  Church  of  Eng- 
land could  overtop  in  social  position  and  influence  the 
Presbyterian  minister  of  Inveresk. 

He  was  laid  beside  his  long-departed  children  and 
the  faithful  partner  of  his  days,  in  his  own  churchyard, 
which  he  had  always  loved  for  the  beauty  of  the  pros- 
pect it  overlooks.  The  following  inscription,  composed 
by  his  friend  Adam  Ferguson,  was  engraved  upon  his 
tomb  : — 


576  EPITAPH. 


ALEXANDER    CARLYLE,   D.D., 

FIFTY-SEVEN     YEARS     MINISTER     OF     THIS 

PARISH  ; 

BORN  ON  THE  26TH  JANUARY  1722, 

DECEASED    ON    THE    25TH    AUGUST    1805  ; 

HAVING    THUS    LIVED 

IN  A  PERIOD  OF  GREAT  LUSTRE 

TO  THE  COUNTRY, 

IN   ARTS    AND    ARMS, 

IN    LITERATURE    AND    SCIENCE, 

IN    FREEDOM,    RELIGIOUS   AND    CIVIL: 

HE    TOO    WAS    WORTHY    OF    THE    TIMES  ; 

LEARNED    AND    ELOQUENT, 

LIBERAL    AND     EXEMPLARY     IN     HIS     MANNERS, 

FAITHFUL  TO  HIS  PASTORAL  CHARGE, 

NOT    AMBITIOUS    OF    POPULAR    APPLAUSE, 

BUT     TO     THE     PEOPLE     A     WILLING     GUIDE 

IN    THE    WAYS    OF    RIGHTEOUSNESS 

AND    TRUTH  : 

IN  HIS  PRIVATE  CONNECTIONS, 

A    KIND    RELATION, 

AN    ASSIDUOUS    FRIEND, 

AND  AN  AGREEABLE  COMPANION  ; 

NOT     IMMERSED     IN     SPECULATION, 

BUT    EARNEST    IN   ACTION, 

TO  PROMOTE  THE  MERIT  HE  ESTEEMED, 

OR     THE     PUBLIC     CAUSE     HE     ESPOUSED  ; 

AND,  WHEN  FULL  OF  YEARS, 

CALMLY      PREPARED 

TO  DIE  IN  PEACE. 


PRINTED  BY   WILLIAM     BLACKWOOD  AND  SONS,    EDINBUROH. 


lESSRS    BLACKWOOD   &   SOIS' 

FUBLICA  TIO^'S. 


■^ 


WORKS     IN     THE     PRESS. 

In  Two  Volumes  Octavo, 

LIVES    OF    LOED    CASTLEREAGH    AXD 
SIR    CHARLES    STEWART, 

SECOXD   AXD  THIRD  MABQUESSES  OF  LONDOSDERRT. 
FROM  THE  ORIGINAL  PAPERS  OF  THE  FAMILy,  AND  OTHER  SOURCES. 

By  SIR  ARCHIBALD  ALISON,  Bart.,  D.C.L. 

Author  of ' '  The  History  of  Europe." 
In  Two  Volumes  Octavo, 

THE    MOXKS    OF    THE    WEST. 

By  the  COUNT  DE  MONTALEMBEBT. 

An  Antborised  Translation, 
la  Crown  Octavo, 

ENGLISH  PURITAXISM  AXD  ITS  LEADERS. 

CROMWELL— MILTON— BAXTEKr-BUNY  AX. 
By  JOHN  TULLOCH,  D.D. 

Prindpal  and  Professor  of  Theology,  St  Mary's  College,  in  the  University  of  Sl  Andrews, 

and  one  of  Her  Majesty's  Chaplains  in  Ordinary  in  Scotland; 

Author  of  ' '  Leaders  of  the  Reformation, "  &c 


In  Two  Volomes,  Post  Octavo, 

THE  PUNJAB  AND  DELHI  IX  1857 

BEING  A   NARRATIVE  OF  THE  MEASURES  BY  WHICH  THE 

PUNJAB  WAS   SAVED  AND   DELHI    RECOVERED 

DURING  THE   INDIAN  MUTrST. 

By  the  Rev.  J.  CAVE-BROWNE, 

Chaplain  of  the  Punjab  Movable  Column. 
mtk  Plans  qf  the  Chief  Stations  and  of  the  differtntEHgagmatU. 


WORKS    IN    THE    PRESS  -  Continued. 

In  Two  Volumes  Octavo, 

HISTORY   OF   THE    GREEK   REVOLUTION. 

By  GEORGE  FINLAY,  LL.D.,  Athens, 

Autlior  of  the  "  History  of  Greece  under  Foreign  Domination." 
In  Crown  Octavo, 

THE    PAST   AND    PRESENT    LIFE    OF 
THE  GLOBE : 

BEING  A  SKETCH  IN  OUTLINE  OF  THE  WORLD'S  LIFE-SYSTEM. 

By    DAVID    PAGE,    F.G.S. 

Authoi-  of  "Ttxt-Bcoks  of  Geology." 
A  Cheap  Edition. 

THE  COURSE  OF  TIME  :  A  POEM. 

By  ROBERT  POLLOK,  A.M. 

With  a  Memoir  of  the  Author. 
In  Foolscap  Octavo. 

In  large  Octavo,  with  numerous  Engravings, 

THE   BOOK    OF    FARM   BUILDINGS: 

THEIR   ARRANGEMENT    AND    CONSTRUCTION. 

By  HENRY  STEPHENS,  F.R.S.E. 
And  R.  SCOTT  BURN. 

In  Crown  Octavo,  with  Engravinss, 

A   MANUAL   OF    PRACTICAL   AND 
VILLA    GARDENING. 

By  CHAS.  M'INTOSH, 

Autlior  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Garden,"  «S:c. 

PHYSIOLOGY   FOR  SCHOOLS. 

By  GEORGE  HENRY  LEWES, 

Author  of  the  "  Physiology  of  Common  Life,"  "  S2aside  Studies,"  &c. 


EECEXT   PUBLICATIONS. 


The  Past  and  Future  of  British  Relations 

in  China. 

By  Captain  Sherard  Osborx,  C.B.,  R.N. 
With  a  Map  of  China  and  Chart  of  the  Pciho  from  the  Entrance  to  Pekin. 
In  Crown  OctaTO,  price  Ss. 

Narrative  of  the  Earl  of  Elgin's  Mission 

to  China  and  Japan. 

By  LArRE.N"CE  Oliphant, 
Private  Secretary  to  Lord  Elgin. 

In  Two  Volumes  Octavo,  price  £2,  '2s.  Illustrated  with  numerous  Engravings  in 
Chromo- Lithography,  Maps,  and  Engravings  on  Wood,  from  Original  Drawings 
and  Photographs. 

A  Cruise  in  Japanese  Waters. 

Bj-  Captain  Sherard  Osborx,  (_'.B., 

Author  of  *•  Leaves  from  an  Arctic  Journal,"  '•Quedah,"  &c. 

A  New  Edition.     Crown  Octavo,  price  5b. 


Wellington's  Career. 

a  military  AST)  POLITICAL  SUMMARY. 

By  Edward  Bruce  Hamley, 

Captaiu  R.A.,  and  Lieut. -Colonel ;  Professor  of  MDitary  History  and  Art  at 
the  Staff  College  ;  author  of  "The  Campaign  of  Sebastopol." 

Foolscap  Octavo,  price  2s. 


Patriots  and  Filibusters;  or,  Incidents  of 

Political  and  Exploratory  Travel. 

By  LArRENCE  Olipha>t, 

Author  of  "  Lord  Elgin's  Mission  to  China  and  Japan,"  "  Minnesota  and  the 
Far  West,"  &c. 

In  Crown  Octavo,  price  5s. 

Conquest    and     Colonisation    in    North 

Africa. 

By  George  Wixgrove  Cookk, 
Author  of  "China  in  1857-1858. 

With  a  Map,  price  5a. 


MESSRS   BLACKWOOD   AND    SONS     PUBLICATIONS. 


Tales  from  "Blackwood." 

Complete  in  Twelve  Volumes.     The  Volumes  are  sold  separately,  price  Is.  6d.,  and  may 
be  had  of  most  Booksellers,  in  Six  Volumes,  handsomely  hall-bound  in  red  morocco, 

CONTENTS. 

Vol.  I.  The  Glenmutchkin  Railwny. — Vanderdeckeu's  Message  Home. — The  Floating  Beacon.— 
Culonna  the  Painter. — Napoleon. — A  Legend  of  Gibraltar. — The  Iron  Shroud. 

Vol.  II.  Lazaro's  Legacy.  —  A  Story  without  a  Tail.  —  Faiistus  and  Queen  Elizabeth. — How  I 
became  a  Yeoman. — Dovereiix  llall. — The  Metempsycliosis. — College  Theatricals. 

Vol.  III.  A  Reading  Party  in  the  Long  Vacation.  —  Father  Tom  and  the  Pope.  —  La  Petite 
Madelaine.  —  Bob  Burke's  Duel  with  Ensign  Brady.  —  The  Headsman:   A  Tale  of  Doom. — The 

Wearyful  Woman. 

Vol.  IV.  How  I  stood  for  the  Dreepdaily  Burghs. — First  and  Last. — The  Duke's  Dilemma:  A 
Chronicle  of  NIesenstein. — The  Old  Gentleman's  Teetotum. — "  Woe  to  us  when  we  lose  the  Watery 
Wall." — My  College  Friends:  Charles  Russell,  the  Gentleman  Commoner. — The  Magic  Lay  of  the 
One-Horse  Chay. 

Vol.  V.  Adventures  in  Texas.  —  How  we  got  Possession  of  the  Tuileries.  —  Captain  Paton's 
Lament. — The  Village  Doctor. — A  Singular  Letter  from  Southern  Africa. 

Vol.  VI.  My  Friend  the  Dutchman. — My  College  Friends — No.  II  :  Horace  Leicester. — The 
Emerald  Studs.— My  College  Friends— No.  III. :  Mr  W.  Wellington  Hurst.— Christine :  A  Dutch 
Story.— The  Man  in  the  Bell. 

Vol.  VII.  My  E?iglish  Acquaintance.  —  The  Murderer's  Last  Night.  —  Narration  of  Certain 
Uncommon  Things  that  did  formerly  happen  to  Me,  Herbert  Willis,  B.D. — The  Wags. — The  Wet 
Wooing:  A  Narrative  of '98. — Ben-na-Groich. 

Vol.  VIII.  The  Survej-or's  Tale.  By  Professor  Aytoun. — The  Forrest-Race  Romance. — Di 
Vasari :  A  Tale  of  Florence. — Sigismund  Fatello. — The  Bo.xes. 

Vol.  IX.  Rosaura :  A  Tale  of  Madrid. — Adventure  in  the  North-West  Territory. — Harry  Bolton's 
Curacy. — The  Florida  Pirate. — ^The  Pandour  and  his  Princess. — The  Beauty  Draught. 

Vol.  X.  Antonio  di  Carara. — The  Fatal  Repast.— The  Vision  of  Cagliostro.— The  First  and  Last 
Kiss. — The  Smuggler's  Leap. — The  Haunted  and  the  Haunters. — The  Duellists. 

Vol.  XI.  The  Natolian  Story-Teller.— The  First  and  Last  Crime.— John  Rintoul.— Major  Moss.— 
The  Premier  and  his  Wife. 

Vol.  XII.  Tickler  among  the  Thieves! — The  Bridegroom  of  Barna — The  Involuntary  Experi- 
mentalist.— Lebrun's  Lawsuit. — The  Snowiug-up  of  Strath  Lugas. — A  Pew  Words  on  Social  Philo- 
sophy. 


Cheap  Editions  of  Popular  Works. 

LtoRTs  AND  Shadows  of  Scottish  Like.    Foolscap  8vo,  3s.  cloth. 

The  Trials  of  Maroarkt  Li.vdsay.    By  the  Author  of  "  Lights  and  Shadows  of  Scottish  Life." 
Foolscap  8vo,  3s.  clotli. 

The  Foresters.    By  the  Author  of  "  Lights  and  Shadows  of  Scottish  Life."    Foolscap  8vo,  3s. 
clotli. 

Tom  Cringle's  Loo.     Complete  in  One  Volume,  Foolscap  8vo,  48.  cloth. 

The  Cruise  of  the  Midge.    By  the  Author  of  "  Tom  Cringle's  Log."    In  One  Volume,  Foolscap 
8vo,  4s.  cloth. 

The  Life  of  Mansie  Wauch,  Tailor  in  DAi.KErTH.     Foolscap  8vo,  3s.  cloth. 

The  Subaltern.     By  the  Author  of  "  The  Chelsea  Pensioners."    Foolscap  8vo,  3s.  cloth. 

Peninsular  Scenes  and  Sketches.    By  the  Author  of  "  The  Student  of  Salamanca."    Foolscap 

8vo,  3a.  cloth. 
Nights  at  Mess,   Sir  Frizzle  Pumpkin,  and  other  Tales.    Foolscap  8vo,  3s.  cloth. 
The  Youth  and  Manhood  of  Cvril  Thornton.      By  the  Author  of  "  Men  and  Mannei-s  in 

America."    Foolscap  8vo,  4s.  cloth. 
Valerius  :   A  Roman  Story.    Foolscap  8vo,  3s.  cloth. 

Reginald  Dalton.     By  the  Author  of  "  Valerius."    Foolscap  8vo,  4s.  cloth. 
Some  Passages  in  the  Life  of  Adam  Blair,  and  History  of  Matthew  Wald.   By  the  Author 

of  "  Valerius."    Foolscap  8 vo,  4s.  cloth. 
Annai.s  of  the  Parish,  and  Ayrshikf.  Legatees.     By  John  Gait.    Foolscap  8vo,  4s.  cloth. 
Sir  Andrew  Wylie.     By  John  Gait.    Foolscap  8vo,  4s.  cloth. 
The  Provost,  and  other  Tales.    By  Jolin  Gait.    Foolscap  8vo,  4s.  cloth. 
The  Entail.     By  John  Gait.    Foolscap  8vo,  4s.  cloth. 
Life  IN  THE  Far  West.    By  G.  F.  Ruxton.    A  New  Edition.     F.)Olscap  8vo,  4s.  cloth. 


MESSRS   BLxVCKWOOD   AND   80XS    PUBLICATIONS. 


Complete  Library  Edition  of  Sir  Edward 

Bulwer  Lytton  s  Novels. 

In  Vol'imes  of  a  convenient  and  handsome  form.     Printed  in  a  large  readable  type. 
Published  monthly,  price  os.     Thirteen  Volumes  are  published. 

"  It  is  of  t!ie  handiest  of  sizes ;  the  paper  is  good  ;  and  tlie  type,  which  seems  to  be  new,  is  rery 
clear  and  beautiful.  There  are  no  pictures.  The  whole  charoi  of  the  presentment  of  the  volume 
consists  in  its  liandiness,  and  the  temptiuz  clearness  and  beauty  of  tlie  tvpe,  which  almost  conrerts 
into  a  pleasure  the  mere  act  of  following  the  printer's  lines,  and  leaves  the  author's  mind  free  to  exert 
its  unobstructed  force  upon  the  reader." — Sjcaminer. 


The  Novels  of  George  Eliot. 

In  Six  Volumes,  uniformly  printed,  price  £1,  168. 

SCENES  OF  CLERICAL  LIFE.     Third  Edition.     2  vols,  price  12s. 

ADAJI  BEDE.     Eighth  Edition.     2  vols,  price  12s. 

THE  MILL  ON  THE  FLOSS.    A  new  Edition.    In  2  vols,  price  12s. 


St  Stephen's:  A  Poem. 


OR,  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  PARLIAJIENTARY  ORATORY. 

Co»prm«//—Pym— Vane— Strafford — Halifax— Shaftesbury — St  John— Sir  R.  WaIpol9 
— Chesterfield —Carteret — Chatham — Pitt — Fox — Burke  —  Sheridan — Wilberforce 
— Wyndham — Conway — Castlereagh — William  Lamb  (Lord  Melbourne) —Tiemey 
— Lord  Grey— O'Connell—Plunkett—Shiel—Follett—Macaulay— Peel, 

Second  Edition.     Crown  Octavo,  price  5s. 


Lady  Lee's  Widowhood. 

By  Lieut. -Colonel  R  B.  ELluley. 
With  Engranngs.    Third  Edition.    Crown  Octavo,  price  6s. 


Works  of  Samuel  Warren,  D.C.L. 

Uniform  Edition,  Five  Vols.,  price  24s. 
The  following  are  sold  separately : — 

DIARY  OF  A  PHYSICIAN.     5s.  6d. 
TEN  THOUSAND  A-YEAR     Two  vols.  9s. 
NOW  AND  THEN.     2s.  6d. 
MISCELLANIES.     5s. 


The  Luck  of  Ladysmede. 

In  Two  Volumes,  Post  Octavo,  price  21s. 

Originally  published  in  "Blackwood's  Magazine." 


MESSRS    BLACKWOOD    AND    SONS     PUBLICATIONS. 


The  Poetical  Works  of  D.  M.  Moir  (a) 

(OF    MUSSELBURGH). 
A  New  Edition,  with  a  Memoir  by  Thomas  Aiud,  and  Portrait.    In  Two  Vols.,  price  12s. 

Sketches   of  the   Poetical  Literature   of 

the  Past  HaK-Century. 

By  D.  M.  MoiE. 
Third  Edition,  Foolscai^  Octavo,  price  5s. 

The  Roman  Antiquities  of  Inveresk. 

By  D.  M.  Mom. 
Foolscap,  price  Is. 

The  Poetical  Works  of  Thomas  Aird. 

Complete  Edition.    Foolscap  Octavo,  price  6s. 

The   Sketcher. 

By  the  Rev.  John  Eagles,  A.M.,  Oxou. 

Originally  published  in  Blackwood! s  Magazine.  • 

In  Post  Octavo,  price  lOs.  6d. 

"  There  is  .in  earnest  aiKi  vi>,'orous  thouglit  about  tliera,  a  genial  and  liealtby  tone  of  feeling,  and 
a  flowing  and  frequently  eloquent  style  of  language,  that  make  thi.s  book  one  of  the  most  pleasant 
companions  that  you  can  take  with  you,  if  you  ai'e  bound  for  the  woodland  or  pastoral  scenery  of 
rural  England,  especially  if  you  go  to  study  the  picturesque,  whether  as  an  observer  or  as  an  artist." 

Essays. 

By  the  Rev.  John  Eagles,  A.  M.,"  Oxon. 

Originally  published  in  BlachwoodUs  Magazine. 
Post  Octavo,  10s.  6d. 

Contents:  Church  Music,  and  other  Parochials. — Medical  Attendance,  and  other  Parochials. — A 
few  Hours  at  Hampton  Court. — Grandfathers  and  Grandchildren. — Sitting  for  a  Portrait. — Are 
thei-e  not  great  Boasters  among  us  ?  —Temperance  and  Teetotal  Societies. — Thackeray's  Lectures : 
Swift. — The  Crystal  Palace.— Civilisation :  the  Census. — The  Beggar's  Legacy. 

Sea-side  Studies. 

By  George  Henry  Lewes, 
Author  of  "Physiology  of  Common  Life,"  &c. 
Crown  Octavo,  price  6s.  6d. 

The  Moor  and  the  Loch. 

CONTAIXIKG  MIN'UTE  INSTRUCTIONS   IN   ALL  HIGHLAND  SPORTS,   WITH 
WANDERINGS  OVER  CRAG   AND  CORREI,   FLOOD  AND  FELL. 

By  John  Colquhoun,  Esq. 
Third  Edition,  in  Octavo,  with  Illustrations,  price  12s.  6d. 

Salmon-Casts  and  Stray  Shots: 

BEING   FLY-LEAVES  FROM   THE  NOTE  BOOK  OF 

John  Colquhoun,  E.sq. 
Author  of  the  "  Moor  and  the  Loch,"  &c. 
A  New  Edition,  Foolscap  Octavo,  price  5s. 


MESSRS    BLACKWOOD   AXD    SONS     PCBLICATIOXS- 


Lays  of  the  Scottish  Cavaliers,  and  other 

Poems. 

By  W.  Edmondstouke  A^Torx,  D.C.L., 

Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  Belles-Lettres  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

Twelfth  Edition,  price  7s,  6d. 

"  >fr  Aytoun's  Lays  are  truly  benatifnl,  and  are  perfect  poems  of  their  class,  pregnant  with  fire, 
witii  patriotic  ardour,  with  loval  zeal,  with  exquisite  pathos,  with  noble  passion.  Who  can  bear  tlie 
openiue  lines  idescriptire  of  Edinburgh  after  the  great  battle  of  Fkxideo,  and  not  feel  that  the 
minstrel's  soul  has  caught  the  genuine  inspiratioa  ?  "— Morning  Pott. 


Bothwell :  A  Dramatic  Poem. 

By  the  same  Author. 
Third  Edition,  price  7s  6d. 


The  Ballads  of  Scotland. 

Elited  by  Pr''!' essor Aytovx. 

Second  Edition.    Two  Volumes,  price  12s. 

"  No  country  can  boast  of  aricfaer  collection  of  Ballads  than  Scotland,  and  no  Editor  for  these 
Ballads  could  be  found  more  mccnmplisbed  than  Professor  Aytoun.  He  has  stnt  forth  two  beautiful 
Volumes  which  range  with  Perej^s  Sdiques — which,  for  completeness  and  acctiracy,  leave  little  to  be 
desired — which  must  henceforth  be  coiuidered  as  tbe  standard  edition  of  the  Scottish  BcUIads,  and 
which  we  commend  as  a  modri  to  any  among  oartelTes  who  may  think  of  doing  like  service  to  the 
EugLUi  UaUada.*— rAe  Ttm^t. 


Firmilian;  or,  the  Student  of  Badajoz: 

A  SPASMODIC  TRAGEDY. 
Price  6s. 

"  Without  doabt,  whether  we  retard  it  as  a  satire  or  as  a  complete  drama,  f  imtliaa  is  one  of  the 
most  finished  poems  of  the  day.  Unity  is  preserved,  and  the  intensity  of  the  *spasmod:c'  enemr 
thrown  into  the  narrative  carries  the  reader  tlirough  every  page,  while  the  graces  of  poetic  iancy,  and 
^fhe  touches  of  deep  tbouglit  scattered  throughout,  challenge  comparison  with  selections  6\>m  the 
most  modem  ixjems." — Liverpool  AlbiOK. 


The  Book  of  Ballads. 

Edited  by  Box  Gaultler, 
Fifth  Edition,  with  niuneroos  Illtistrations  by  DoTLE,  Leech,  and  Crowqoill. 
Gilt  Eilges,  price  8s.  6d. 

Poems  and  Ballads  of  Goethe. 

Translated  by  Professor  Aytoux  and  Theodore  Maktdj. 

Second  £diti<Hi,  price  6s. 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  these  are  the  best  translations  of  Goethe's  marrelloiuly-cat  gems  which 
have  yet  been  published. " — The  Titus. 


MESSRS    BLACKWOOD   AND    SONS'    PUBLICATIONS. 


Diversities  of  Faults  in  Christian  Believers. 

By  the  Very  Rev,  E.  B.  Ramsay,  M.A.,  F.R.S.E., 
Dean  of  the  Diocese  of  Edinburgh. 
In  Foolscap  Octavo,  price  4s.  6d. 

Diversities  of  Christian  Character. 

Illustrated  in  the  Lives  of  the  Four  Great  Apostles. 
By  the  same  Author. 
Uniform  with  the  above,  price  43.  6d. 

Religion  in  Common  Life : 

A  Sermon  preached  in  Crathie  Church,  October  14,  1855,  before  Her  Majesty 
the  Queen  and  Prince  Albert.    Published  by  Her  Majesty's  Command. 

By  the  Rev.  John  Caird,  D.D. 
Bound  in  cloth,  8d.     Cheap  Edition,  3d. 

Sermons. 

By  the  Rev.  Johk  Caird,  D.D., 

Minister  of  West  Park  Church,  Glasgow. 

In  Post  Octavo,  price  7s.  6d.     Tenth  Thousand. 


Prayers  for  Social  and  Family  Worship. 

Prepared  by  a  Committee  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
and  specially  designed  for  the  use  of  Soldiers,  Sailors,  Colonists,  Sojourners 
in  India,  and  other  Persons,  at  Home  or  Abroad,  who  are  deprived  of  the 
Ordinary  Services  of  a  Christian  Ministry.  Published  by  Authority  of  the 
Committee. 

In  Crown  Octavo,  bound  in  cloth,  price  4s. 


Prayers  for  Social  and  Family  Worship. 

Being  a  Cheap  Edition  of  the  above. 
Price  Is.  6d. 


Theism : 


THE  WITNESS   OF    REASON  AND  NATURE  TO  AN  ALL-WISE  JlND  BENE- 
FICENT CREATOR.— (Burnett  Prize  Treatise.) 

By  the  Rev.  J.  Tulloch,  D.D., 

Principal,  and  Priniarius  Professor  of  Theology,  St  Mary's  College,  St  Andrews. 

Crown  Octavo,  10s.  6d. 


MESSRS   BLACKWOOD   AM)   SONS     PUBLICATIOSSL 


Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Church 

of  Scotland, 

FROM  THE   REFOR3IATIOX  TO   THE   REYOLUTIOX-SETTLEMEXT. 

By  the  late  Very  Rev.  Joas  Lee,  D.D.  L.L.D. 
Principal  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

With  Notes  and  Appendices  from  the  Author's  Papers. 

Edited  by  his  Son,  the  Rev.  "Wilxiam  Lee. 

In  Two  Volumes,  Octavo,  price  21s. 

"  Tbey  are  so  good,  so  tlioroaglily  academical  in  tone,  so  full  of  research  and  wisdom,  and  tmpar> 
tialjtjr,  while  Uie  stvle  is  so  remarkable  for  its  deguiee  and  simplicity,  that  we  are  taught  all  tlie 
more  deeply  to  r^ret  the  want  cf  that  elaborate  work  for  which  he  haucl  made  coUectiofis.  .  .  , 
We  feel  that  we  can  always  rely  on  the  acctiracy  of  bis  knowledge  and  the  sobriety  of  his  opinions." 
— Ttou*. 

"  Ue  wms  admowledged  to  be  one  of  the  most  learned  men  in  Scotland,  and  it  was  known  that  hit 
attention  had  long  been  turned  to  the  somewliat  intricate  subject  of  Scotch  ecclesiastical  history ; 
and  that  eoiuequently  be  might  be  expected  to  perform  his  work  welL  And  we  are  bound  to  admit 
that  he  has  done  it  well ;  ibat  be  has  faithfully  ronsalted  all  the  authorities  within  his  reaeii— • 
reach  which  his  magnificent  library  made  a  very  extensve  one ;  and  that  he  gives  us  the  restilt'of  k 
eareftil  examination  of  these  authorities  with  a  dispa»ouateneaB  which  is  supposed  t«  be  the  most 
nimsMiy  qualiflcatton  of  the  true  lustorian." — Critic 


Works  of  Thomas  M'Crie,  D.D. 

Edited  by  his  Son,  Professor  M ■Crie. 

Uniform  Edition,  in  Four  Vols.  Crown  Octavo,  price  243. 

The  following  are  sold  separately— viz. 

lilFE  OF  JOHN  KXOX     68. 

LIFE  OF  ANDREW  MELVILLE,     te. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  REFORMATION  IN  ITALY.     43. 

HISTORY  OF   THE  REFORMATION  IN  SPAIN.     38.  6d. 

REVIEW  OF   "  TALES  OF  MY   LANDLORD,"'  ANT)  SERMONa     6(i. 


Lives  of  the  Queens  of  Scotland. 

AND  ENGUSH  PRINCESSES  CONN'ECTED  WITH  THE  REGAL  SUCCESSION. 
By  Agnes  Strickland. 

Containing  the  Lives  of — 

VxBGARET  TcBOB,  Qoeen  of  James  IV. 
Magoaixke  or  Fbance,  First  Queen  of  James  V. 
Xabt  or  LoBKAiKK,  Second  Queen  of  James  T. 
Tbb  Last  MABOASKr  Douglas.  Mother  of  Daiuley. 
QmEX  Mjvbt  Stoakt. 
Elizabeth  Stuabt,  First  Princess  RoyaL 
SoPHi.4,  Electress  of  Hanover. 

With  Portraits  and  Historical  Vignettes.     Complete  in  Eight  Vols,  price  £4,  -ts. 


10  MESSRS   BLACKWOOD   ANB    SONs'    PUBLICATIONS. 

The  Eighteen  Christian  Centuries. 

By  the  Rev.  James  White. 

Third  Edition,  with  Analytical  Table  of  Contents,  and  a  Copious  Index.     Post  Octavo, 
f)rice  7s.  iSd. 

"  lie  goes  to  work  upon  the  only  true  principle,  and  produces  a  pictiu-e  that  at  nncc  satisfies 
liuth,  arrests  the  memory,  and  fills  the  imaginjiition.  When  they  (Index  and  Analytical  Contents) 
are  supplied,  it  will  be  ditficult  to  lay  hands  on  any  book  of  the  kind  more  useful  and  more  enter- 
taining."— Times,  Keview  of  first  edition. 

"  At  once  the  most  picturesque  and  the  most  informiug  volume  on  Modern  History  to  which  the 
general  reader  could  be  referred." — Nonconformist. 

"Ills  faculty  for  distinguishing  the  whe.at  from  the  chaff,  and  of  rejecting  the  useless  rubbish, 
while  leaving  no  stray  grain  unsifted,  mukes  the  'Eighteen  Christian  Centuries'  an  invaluable 
manual  alike  to  the  old  and  young  reader." — Giobe. 

"Mr  White  comes  to  the  assistance  of  those  who  would  know  something  of  tlie  Iiistory  of  the 
Eighteen  Christian  Centuries;  and  those  who  want  to  know  still  more  than  he  gives  them,  will  find 
that  he  has  perfected  a  plan  which  catclies  the  attention,  and  fixes  the  distinctive  feature  of  each 
jcentury  in  the  memory." — Weskpan  Timca, 


History  of  France. 


FROM  THE  EARLIEST  PERIOD  TO  THE  YEAR  1848. 

By  the  Rev.  James  White, 

Author  of  the  "  Eighteen  Christian  Centuries." 

Second  Edition,  Post  Octavo,  price  9s. 

"  Mr  White's  '  Iiistory  of  France,'  in  a  single  volume  of  some  600  pages,  contains  every  loading 
incident  worth  the  telling,  and  abounds  in  word-painting  whereof  a  paragraph  has  often  as  much 
active  life  in  it  as  one  of  those  inch-square  etchings  of  the  great  C:illot,  in  which  may  be  clearly  seen 
whole  armies  contending  in  bloody  arbitrdment,  and  as  many  incidents  of  battle  as  may  be  gazed  at 
in  the  miles  of  canvass  in  the  military  picture-galleries  at  Versailles." — Alkcnceum. 

"  An  excellent  and  comprehensive  compendium  of  French  history,  quite  above  the  standard  of 
a  school-book,  and  particularly  well  adapted  for  the  libraries  of  literary  institutions." — National 
Review. 

"  "We  have  in  this  volume  the  history  of  France  told  rapidly  and  distinctly  by  a  narrator  who  has 
fancy  and  judgment  to  assist  him  in  seizing  rightly  and  presenting  in  the  most  effective  manner  both 
the  main  incidents  of  his  tale  and  the  main  principles  involved  in  them.  Mr  White  is,  in  our  time, 
the  only  writer  of  short  histories,  or  sunmiaries  of  history,  that  may  be  read  for  pleasure  as  well  as  in- 
^tl  uction,  that  are  not  less  true  for  being  told  in  an  effective  way,  and  that  give  equal  pleasure  to  the 
cidtivated  and  to  the  uncultivated  reader." — Examiner. 


Leaders  of  the  Reformation: 

LUTHER,  CALVIN,  LATIMER,  AND  KNOX. 

By  the  Rev.  JoHX  TuLLOCH,  D.D., 

Principal,  and  Primarius  Professor  of  Theology,  St  Mary's  College,  St  Andrews.  - 

Second  Edition,  Crown  Octavo,  price  6s.  6c'. 

"  We  are  not  acquainted  with  any  work  in  which  so  much  solid  information  upon  the  leading 
aspects  of  the  great  Reformation  is  presented  in  so  well-packed  and  pleasing  a  form." — Witness. 

"  The  idea  was  excellent,  and  most  ably  has  it  been  executed.  Each  Essay  is  a  lesson  in  sound 
flunking  as  well  as  in  good  writing.  The  delibei-ate  peru.sal  of  the  volume  will  be  an  exercise  for 
which  all,  whetlier  young  or  old,  will  be  tlie  better.  The  bonk  is  erudite,  and  throughout  marked  by 
great  independence  of  thought.    We  very  highly  prize  the  publication." — British  Standard. 

"  We  cannot  but  congratulate  both  Dr  Tulloch  and  the  university  of  which  lie  is  so  prominent  a 
member  on  this  evidence  of  returning  life  in  Presbyterian  thought.  It  seems  as  though  the  cliains  of 
an  outgrown  Puritanism  were  at  hist  falling  from  the  limbs  of  Scotili  tlieology,  Tliere  is  a  width  of 
sympathy  and  a  power  of  writing  in  this  little  volume  which  fills  us  with  great  expectation.  We  trust 
that  Dr  Tulloch  will  consider  it  as  being  merely  the  basis  of  a  more  complete  and  erudite  inquiry." — 
Literary  Gazette. 

"  The  style  is  admirable  in  force  and  in  patlios,  .and  the  hook  one  to  be  altogether  recommended, 
both  for  tlie  merits  of  those  of  whom  it  treats,  and  for  that  which  the  writer  unconsciously  reveals  of 
bis  own  character." — Glotje. 


MESSRS   BLACKWOOD   AXD    SONS*    PUBUCATIOXS.  11 


History  of  Europe. 


FROM    THE    COMMEXCEMEXT    OF    THE    FREXCH    REVOLUTIOX    TO   THE 
BATTLE  OF  WATERLOO. 

By  Sir  Archibald  Alisox,  Bart.,  D.C.L. 

A  New  Library  Edition   (being  the  tenth)  including  a  copious    Index,  embellished 
with  authentic  Portraits.     14  vols.  Octavo,  price  £10,  10s. 

Crown  Octavo  Edition,  20  vols.,  price   £6. 

People's  Edition,  12  vols.,  doable  cols.,  £2,  8s. ;  and  Index  Vol.,  3s. 


Continuation  of  Alison's  History  of  Europe 

FROM  THE  FALL  OF  XAPOLEOX  TO  THE  ACCESSIOX  OF  LOUIS  XAPOLEOX. 

By  Sir  Abchibald  Alisox,  Bart.,  D.C.L. 

Complete  in  Nine  Vols.,  price  £6,  7s.  6d.  Uniform  with  the  Library  Edition  of  the 
Author's  "Histo)-yof  Europe,  from  the  Commeucement  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion." 

Atlas  to  Alison's  History  of  Europe. 

Containing  109  Maps  and  Plans  of  Countries,  Battles,  Sieges,  and  Sea-Fights.  Con- 
structed by  A.  Keith  Johnstox,  F.R.S.E.  With  Vocabulary  of  Military  and 
Marine  Terms. 

Library  Edition,  £3,  3s. ;  People's  Edition,  £1,  lis.  6d. 

Life  of  John,  Duke  of  Marlborough, 

WITH   SOME  ACCOUXT  OF   HIS   COXTEMPORARIES. 
By  Sir  Archibald  Alisox',  Bart.,  D.C.L. 
Third  Edition,  Two  Vols.  Octavo,  Portrait  and  Maps,  30s. 

History  of  Greece  under  Foreign  Dom- 
ination. 

By  George  Finlay,   LL.D.,  Athens. 
Five  Volumes  Octavo — viz.  : 

Greece  under  the  Somans.  b.c.  146  to  a.d.  717-  A  Historical  View  of  the  condition 
of  the  Greek  Nation,  from  its  Conquest  by  the  Romans  until  the  Extinction  of  the 
Roman  Power  in  the  East.     Second  Edition,  16s. 

History  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  ad.  716  to  1204 ;  and  of  the  Greek  Empire  of 
Nica?a  and  Constantinople,  a.D.  1204  to  1453.     Two  Volumes,  £1,  7s.  6d. 

Hediaeral  Greece  and  Trebizond.  The  Historj-  of  Greece,  from  its  Conquest  by  the 
Crusaders  to  its  Conquest  by  the  Turks,  ad.  1204  to  1566;  and  History  of  the 
Empire  of  Trebizond,  a.d.  1204  to  1461.     Price  12s. 

Greece  nnder  Othoman  and  Venetian  Domination.    a.d.  1453  to  1821.    Price  10s.  e<l. 

"  His  book  is  worthy  to  take  its  place  among  tlie  remarkable  works  on  Greek  history,  which 
fomi  one  of  the  chief  glories  of  English  scliolarship.  The  history  of  Greece  is  but  lialf  tolJ  with- 
out it." — London  Guardian. 

"  His  work  is  therefore  learned  and  profound.  It  throws  a  flood  of  light  upon  an  important 
though  obscure  portion  of  Grecian  history.  ...  In  the  essential  requisites  of  fidelity,  .nccuracy, 
and  leiming,  Mr  Finlay  bears  a  fiwourable  comparison  with  any  historical  writer  of  our  day." — 
Sorth  American  Rcsiac. 


12  MESSRS   BLACKWOOD   AND   SONS*    PUBLICATIONS. 

Sir    William     Hamilton's    Lectures     on 

Metaphysics  and  Logic. 

EtUted  by  the  Rev.  H.  L.  Mansel,  B.D.  LL.D., 

Wynflete  Professor  of  Moral  and  Metaphysical  Philosophy,  Oxford ; 

And  John  Veitch,  M.A., 

Professor  of  Logic,  Rhetoric,  and  Metaphysics,  St  Andrews. 

In  Four  Vols.  Octavo,  price  £2,  8s,    Each  Ck)urse  is  sold  separately— viz. 

LECTURES  ON  METAPHYSICS.    Two  Vols.,  price  £1,  4s. 
LECTURES  ON  LOGIC.    Two  Vols.,  price  £1,  4s. 


Thorndale ;  or,  the  Conflict  of  Opinions. 

By  William  Smith. 

Author  of  "  A  Discourse  on  Ethics,"  &c. 

A  New  Edition,  Crown  Octavo,  price  10s.  6d. 

"  More  literary  gems  could  be  picked  from  tliis  than  almost  any  recent  volume  we  know.  It  is 
a  repository  of  select  thoughts — the  fruit  of  much  reflection,  much  reading,  and  many  years."— 
Scotsman. 

"  It  is  long  since  wo  have  met  with  a  more  remarkable  or  worthy  book.  Mr  Smith  is  alwajs 
thouglitful  and  suggestive.  He  has  been  entirely  successful  in  carrying  out  his  wish  to  produce  a 
vohime,  in  reading  which,  a  thoughtful  man  will  often  pause  with  his  finger  between  the  leaves, 
and  muse  upon  what  he  has  read.  We  judge  that  the  book  must  have  been  written  slowly,  and  at 
intervals,  from  its  affluence  of  beautiful  thought.  No  mind  could  have  turned  oflf  such  material 
with  the  equable  flow  of  a  stream.  We  know  few  works  in  which  there  may  be  found  so  many 
fine  thoughts,  light-bringing  illustratioDS,  and  happy  turns  of  expression,  to  invite  the  reader's 
pencil." — Fraitr't  Magazine. 


Institutes  of  Metaphysics. 

THE  THEORY  OF   KNOWING  .VND   BEING. 

By  James  F.  Fkrrier,  A.B.,  Oxon. 

Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  and  Political  Economy',  St  Andrews. 

Second  Edition,  Crown  Octavo,  10s.  6d. 


Works  of  Professor  Wilson. 

Edited  by  his  Son-in-Law,  Professor  Ferrier. 
In  Twelve  Vols.  Crown  Octavo,  price  £3,  12s. 
'J'he  following  are  sold  separately  ; — 

NOCTES  AMBROSIAN^.    Four  Vols.  24s. 

ESSAYS,   CRITICAL  AND   IMAGINATIVE.     Four  Vols.  24s. 

HOMER  AND  HIS  TRANSLATORS.     One  Vol.  6.s. 

RECREATIONS  OF   CHRISTOPHER  NORTH.     Two  Vols.  12s. 

TAIiES.     One  Vol.  6s. 

POEMS.   OneVoL6s. 


MESSRS   BLACKWOOD   AND   SOXS*   PUBLICATIONS.  13 

NEW   GENERAL   ATLAS. 
To  be  completed  in,  Ten,  Paris  (Seven  FuUished),  price  10».  Qd  each. 

The  Royal  Atlas  of  Modem  Geography : 

In  a  Series  of  entirely  original  and  authentic  Maps,  with  a  special  Index  to  each  Map, 
arranged  so  as  to  obviate  the  former  inconvenient  method  of  reference  by  D^^rees 
and  Minutes  of  Longitude  and  Latitude. 

By  Alex.  Keith  Joblsstox,  F.R.S.E.,  F.R.G.S.,  &c. 

Geographer  in  Ordinary  to  Her  Majesty,  Author  of  the  "  Physical  Atlas,"  kc. 

Part  VIII.  trill  he  published  in  December,  and  the  Concluding  Parts  early  in  ISQl,  forming 
a  handsome  Volume  in  Royal  Folio. 

••  This  beautiful  Atlas  will,  I  have  no  doubt,  be  generally  approved ;  and  its  sale  will,  I  trust, 
reward  the  author  for  his  long  and  arduous  labours.'" — Address  of  the  President  of  the  Rogul 
Qeograpliical  Society. 

"  Mais  entre  les  grands  Atlas,  je  dois  vous  signaler  de  preference  I'Atlas  Royal  de  G^graphie 
Moderue,  public  par  le  savant  auteur  de  I'Atlas  Physique,  M.  Alexandre  Keith  Johnston." — Rapport 
par  M.  Alfred.  Maury,  a  la  SociA^  de  Geographie. 


The  Physical  Atlas  of  Natural  Phenomena. 

By  Alex.  Keith  Johnston,  F.E.S.E.,  &c. 
Geographer  to  the  Queen  for  Scotland. 

A  New  and  Enlarged  Edition,  consisting  of  35  Folio  Plates^?  smaller  ones,  printed  in 
Colours,  with  135  pages  of  Letterpress,  and  Index. 

Imperial  Folio,  half-bound  morocco,  £1%  12s. 


Atlas  of  Astronomy. 


A  complete  Series  of  Illustrations  of  the  Heavenly  Bodies,  drawn  with  the  greatest 
care  from  Original  and  Authentic  Documents,  and  printed  in  Colours  by  Alex. 
Keith  Johnston. 

Edited  by  J.  R.  Hind. 

Imperial  Quarto,  half-bound  morocco,  2l3. 


The  Chemistry  of  Common  Life. 

By  Professor  Johnston. 
A  New  Edition,  Eilited  by  G.  H.  Lewe.s. 
Illustrated  with  numerous  Engravings.     In  Two  Vols.  Foolscap,  price  lis.  6d. 

The  Physiology  of  Common  Life. 

By  George  H.  Lewes. 

lUnstrated  with  numerous  Engravings.     Two  Vols.  ^  12s. 

Contents :  Hunger  and  Thirst.— Food  and  Drink. — Digestion  and  Indigestion. — Tlie  Structure  and 
Uses  of  the  Blood. — T!ie  Circulation. — Respiration  and  Suffocation. — Wliy  we  are  Warm,  ai  d 
how  we  keep  so. — Feeling  and  Tliinliing. — The  Mind  and  the  Brain. — Our  Senses  aud  Sensa- 
tions.— Sleep  aud  Dreams. — The  Qualities  we  Inherit  from  our  Parents. — Life  and  Death. 


14"  MESSRS    BLACKWOOD    AND    SONs'    PUBLICATIONS. 


Works  of  Professor  J.  F.  W.  Johnston. 

A  Catechism  of  Agricultural  Chemistry  and  Geology. 

Fifty-Second  E  lition,  with  numerous  Engravings  on  Wood,  jirice  Is. 

Elements  of  Agricultural  Chemistry  and  Geology. 

Seventh  Edition,  Foolscap,  price  6s.  6d. 

Instructions  for  the  Analysis  of  Soils,  Minerals,  Manures,  &c. 

Fourth  Edition,  Foolscap,  price  3s. 

On  the  Use  of  Lime  in  Agriculture. 

Foolscap,  price  Gs. 

Experimental  Agriculture : 

BEIXG  THE  RESULTS  OF  PAST  AXD  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FUTURE  EXPERI- 
MENTS IN  SCIENTIFIC  AND  PRACTICAL  AGRICULTURE 
Octavo,  price  8s. 

Notes  on  North  America— 

AGRICULTURAL,  ECONOMICAL,  AND  SOCIAL. 
Two  volumes.  Post  Octavo,  price  21s. 

Rural  Economy  of  England,  Scotland,  and 

Ireland. 

By  Leoxce  de  Lavergne. 

Translated  from  tlie  French.     With  Notes  by  a  Scottish  Farmer. 
Octavo,  price  12s. 

The  Architecture  of  the  Farm: 

A  SERIES  OF  DESIGNS  FOR  FARMHOUSES,  FARM  -  STEADINGS,  FACTORS- 
HOUSES,  AND  COTTAGES. 

By  John  Starforth,  Architect. 
Sixty-two  Engravings.     Medium  Quarto,  price  £2,  2s. 

Catechism  of  Practical  Agriculture. 

By  Henry  Stephens,  F.R.S.E.,  Author  of  the  "Book  of  the  Farm.'' 
With  numerous  Engravings  on  Wood,  price  Is. 

The  Yester  Deep-Land  Culture: 

Being  a  detailed  Account  of  the  method  of  Cultivation  which  has  been  suc- 
cessfully practised  for  several  years  by  the  Manjuess  of  Tweeddale  at 
Yester. 

By  Henry  Stephens,  F.R.S.E.,  Aiitlior  of  tlie  "  Book  of  the  Farm." 
Foolscap,  price  4s.  6d. 

Stable  Economy: 

A  TREATISE  ON  THE  MANAGEMENT  OF  HORSES. 

By  John  Stewart,  V.S. 
Si.xth  Edition,  Foolscap,  price  Cs.  6d. 


MESSRS    BLACKWOOD    AXD    SONS*    PUBLICATIONS.  15 


The  Geology  of  Pennsylvania. 

A  Government  Survey  ;  with  a  General  View  of  the  GEOLOGY  OF  THE  UxiTED 
States,  Essays  on  the  Coal-Fonnation  and  its  Fossils,  and  a  Descriptioa 
of  the  Coal- Fields  of  North  America  and  Great  Britain. 

By  Professor  Henry  Darvtin  Rogers,  F.R.S.,  F.G.S., 
Professor  of  Natural  History  in  the  University  of  Glasgow. 

With  Seven  large  Maps,  and  numerous  Illustrations  engraved  on  Copper  and  on  Wood. 

In  Three  Volumes,  Royal  Quarto,  £8,  8s. 


Introductory  Text-Book  of  Geology. 

By  David  Page,  F.G.S. 

Fourth  Edition,  with  Engravings.     In  Crown  Octavo,  price  Is.  6d. 

"  It  has  not  been  often  our  good  fortune  to  examine  a  text-book  on  science  of  which  we  could 
express  an  opinion  so  entirely  favourable  as  we  are  enabled  to  do  of  Mr  Page's  little  work."  — 
Atkenomm. 


Advanced  Text-Book  of  Geology. 

DESCRIPTIVE  AND   INDUSTRIAL. 

By  David  Page,  F.G.S. 

Second  Edition,  enlai^ed,  with  numerous  Engravings,  6s. 

"  An  admirabH  book  on  Geology.  It  is  from  no  invidious  desire  to  underrate  other  works — it  is 
the  simple  expres -ion  of  justice — which  causes  u-t  to  assign  to  Mr  Page's  Advanced  Ttxt- Boot  the 
very  first  place  among  geological  works  addressed  to  students,  at  least  among  those  which  have  come 
before  us.  We  have  read  every  word  of  it,  with  care  and  with  delight,  never  hesitating  as  to  iis 
meaning,  never  detecting  the  omission  of  anything  needful  in  a  popular  and  succinct  exposition  of  a 
rich  and  varied  suhject." — Lrader. 

"  It  is  therefore  with  unfeigned  pleasure  that  we  record  our  appreciation  of  his  Adeaneed  Texi- 
Book  of  Geology.  We  have  carefully  read  this  truly  satisfactory  biok,  and  do  not  hesitate  to  ssiy 
that  it  is  an  excellent  compendium  of  the  great  facts  of  Geology,  and  written  in  a  truthful  and  philo- 
sophic spirit." — Ediiitmrgh  Pkiloiophical  JourdaL 

"We  know  of  no  introduction  containing  a  larger  amount  ef  information  in  the  same  space,  and 
which  we  could  more  cordially  recommend  to  the  geological  student." — Atheiiasum. 


Handbook     of    Geological     Terms     and 

Geology. 

By  David  Page,  F.G.S. 
In  Crown  Octavo,  price  6s. 

"  '  To  the  student,  miner,  engineer,  architect,  agriculturist,  and  others,  who  may  have  occasion  to 
deal  with  geological  facts,  and  yet  who  might  not  be  inclined  to  turn  up  half  a  dozen  volumes,  or  go 
through  a  course  of  geological  readings  for  an  explanation  of  the  term  in  question,'  Mr  Page  has  car- 
ried out  his  object  with  the  most  complete  success.  His  book  amply  fulfils  the  promise  contained  in 
its  title,  constituting  a  handbook  not  only  of  geological  terms  but  of  the  science  of  geology.  It  will 
not  only  be  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  student,  but  will  be  invaluable  as  a  complete  and  bandy 
book  of  reference  even  to  the  advanced  geologist." — LUerarii  Gazette. 

"There  is  no  more  earnest  living  practical  worker  in  geology  than  Mr  David  Page.  To  his  excel- 
lent Introductory  Text-Book  of  Geology  and  his  Advanced  Text-Book  of  Geology,  Descriptive  and 
InduHrial,  he  has  now  added  an  admirable  system  of  geological  terms,  with  ample  and  clearly  written 
explanatory  notices,  such  as  all  geological  observers,  whether  they  are  able  professors  and  distin- 
guished lecturers,  or  mere  inquirers  upon  the  thresliold  of  the  science,  must  find  to  be  of  the  liighest 
value." — Practical  Mechanics'  Journal. 

"  But  Mr  Page's  work  is  very  much  more  than  simply  a  translation  of  the  language  of  Geology 
into  plain  English  ;  it  is  a  Dictionary,  in  which  not  only  the  meaning  of  the  words  is  given,  but  also 
a  clear  and  concise  account  of  all  that  is  most  remarkable  and  worth  knowing  in  the  objects  which 
the  words  are  designed  to  express.  In  doing  this  he  has  chiefly  kept  in  view  the  requirements  of  the 
general  reader,  but  at  the  same  time  adding  such  details  as  will  render  the  volume  an  acceptable 
Handbook  to  the  student  and  professed  geologist." — The  Preu. 


16  MESSRS   BLACKWOOD   AXD   SONS'    PUBLICATIONS. 

The  Book  of  the  Farm. 

By  Henry  Stephens,  F.R.S.E. 

A  New  Edition.      In  Two  Volumes,  large  Octavo,  with  upwards  of  600  Engravings, 
price  £3,  half -bound. 

"  The  best  practical  book  I  have  ever  met  with." — Professor  Johnston. 

"  Oue  of  the  completest  works  on  agriculture  of  which  our  literature  can  boast." — Agricultural 
Gazette. 

Book  of  Farm  Implements  and  Machines. 

By  James  Slight  and  R.  Scott  Burn. 

Edited  by  Henry  Stephens,  F.R.S.E. 

Illustrated  with  876  Engravings.     One  large  Volume,  unifonn  with  the  "Book  of  the 
Farm,"  price  £2,  2s. 

"  The  author  has  omitted,  most  judiciously,  those  machines  not  now  used,  and  he  has  confined 
himself  to  those  in  actvial  oi)eratiou,  thereby  rendering  a  great  service  to  the  agricultural  mind, 
which  is  liable  to  confusion  in  cases  of  much  complication.  Some  of  the  machines  described  are 
commended,  and  deserve  the  commendation  ;  others,  on  the  contrary,  are  condemned,  and  it  would 

seem  with  equal  justice :  but  the  character  of  all  is  stated  distinctly Full,  complete,  and 

perfect  in  all  its  parts ;  honestly  compiled,  and  skilfully  illustrated  with  numerous  and  valuable 
engravings  and  diagrams,  it  is  not  saying  too  much  to  state  that  there  is  no  parallel  to  this  import- 
ant work  iu  any  country  of  Europe,  and  that  its  value  to  the  agriculturist  is  almost  incalculable." 
—Obsei-ver. 

The  Book  of  the  Garden. 

By  Charles  M'Intosh. 
In  Two  large  Volumes,  Royal  Octavo,  published  separately. 

Vol.  I. — On  the  Formation  of  Gardens — Construction,  Heating,  and  Ventilation  of  Fruit  and 
I'iant  Houses,  Pits,  Frames,  and  other  Garden  Structures,  with  Practical  Details,  illustrated  by  1073 
Kiigraviiigs,  pp.  77().    Price  £-2,  10s. 

Vol.  II  —PRACTICAL  GARDENING— Contains  :  Directions  for  the  Culture  of  the  Kitchen  G;tr- 
den,  the  Ilardy-Fruit  Garden,  the  Forcing  Garden,  and  Flower  Garden,  including  Fruit  and  Plant 
Houses,  with  select  Lists  of  Vegetables,  Fruits,  and  Plants.  Pp.  868,  with  279  Engravings.  Price 
£1,  17s.  6d, 

AXNUAL  PUBLICATION. 

The  Year-Book  of  Agricultural  Facts  for 

I860. 

Edited  by  R.  Scott  Burn. 
ii  Foolscap  Octavo,  price  5s. 
Copies  of  the  Volume  for  1859  may  be  had,  price  5s. 

A  Handy  Book  on  Property  Law. 

By  Lord  St  Leonards. 

^  New  Edition,  enlarged,  with  Index,  Crown  Octavo,  price  3s.  6d. 

■  "Less  than  200  pages  serve  to  ami  us  with  the  ordinary  precautions  to  which  wo  should  attend  in 
selling,  buying,  mortgaging,  leasing,  settling,  and  devising  estates.  We  are  informed  of  our  relations 
to  our  property,  to  our  wives  and  children,  and  of  our  liabiUties  as  trustees  or  executors,  in  a  little- 
book  for  the  million,  a  book  which  the  author  tenders  to  the  profanum  vulgus  as  even  capable  of 
*  beguiling  a  few  hours  iu  a  railway  carriage.' " — TUe  Times. 


The  Forester. 


A  Practical  Treatise  on  the  Formation  of  Plantations,  the  Planting,   Rearing,    and 
Management  of  Forest  Trees. 

By  JAME.S  Brown, 

Wood  Manager  to  the  Earl  of  Seafiekl,  and  Surveyor  of  Woods  in  general. 

^  Third  Edition,  Enlarged.     In  large  8vo,  with  numerous  Engravings  on  Wood,  price 
i'l,  10s. 


to 

h,  CO 
O 


u 

C 

<D 


.-I 


u 


p. 


o 


..•'Hi  "P"I  J^H..  •5M-«^on 


•J95(30J 


iavaan 
mmi  io  AiisaaAinn 


■i^' 


mm 


i 


i 


^ 


y&fs& 


* 


'')->o: