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SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY FOURTH SERIES VOLUME 3

Letters of John Ramsay

Letters of John Ramsay OF OCHTERTYRE I799—1812

edited by Barbara L. H. Horn

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EDINBURGH printed for the Scottish History Society by X. AND A. CONSTABLE LTD 1966 © Scottish History Society 1966

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Printed in Great Britain PREFACE I am grateful to the late Lt.-Col. James Colin Dundas ofOchter- tyre, d. s.o., for permission to publish these letters and for his interest in the task of editing them. I greatly regret that his death in August 1966 prevented him from seeing the letters in print. My thanks are also due to my father, Professor D. B. Horn, for his help and guidance. B. L.H.H. Edinburgh November, 1966 A generous contribution from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland towards the cost of producing this volume is gratefully acknowledged by the Council of the Society CONTENTS

Preface v Introduction xi LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY I Ramsay-Dundas Family Tree 305 Index 307

ILLUSTRATIONS Facsimile of letter of 5 August 1800 page 20 Facsimile of letter of 31 December 1805 page 174

Introduction

These letters are part of the Dundas of Ochtertyre muniments, deposited in the Scottish Record Office, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh.1 They were written by John Ramsay of Ochter- tyre to Elizabeth Graham, wife of James Dundas, an Edinburgh lawyer and Ramsay’s cousin. The estate of Ochtertyre is situated in southern Perthshire, although it is only four miles from the town of Stirling. The family of Ramsay first became lairds of it by a disposition granted to John Ramsay on i December 1697 by Robert Muschett, brother of the deceased David Muschett, portioner of Ochtertyre. The estate was held of James, earl of Perth, Lord Drummond and Stobhall, in terms of a charter by him dated 7 May 1698.2 John Ramsay, the first laird of Ochtertyre, was succeeded by his sonjames Ramsay, a Writer to the Signet, who was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates on 25 February 1723, and married Anne Dundas, daughter of Ralph Dundas of Manor, on 24 March 1734.3 James Ramsay had two sons. The elder, John Ramsay, the author of these letters, was born on 26 August 173 6,4 and the younger, Ralph, was born on 20 January 1739.5 Ralph was indentured as an apprentice to John Rattray, surgeon, apothecary, burgess of Edinburgh, in November 1754.6 There is a reference to Ralph in a letter of John Ramsay, his brother, to James Dundas: ‘As for my brother, poor man, if he ever returns, he never liked the place 1 a 3 SRO, GD 35/94/1-217. A copy survives in GD 35/9. Register of Marriages for parish of Edinburgh, 1701-1750, ed. Henry Paton (Scottish Record4 GD 35/236/7; Society, Scotland1908), p. and 444. Scotsmen in the eighteenth century, ed. A. Allardyce (2 vols., Edinburgh,5 1888), i, p.6 ix (hereafter cited as Scotland and Scotsmen). GD 35/236/7. GD 35/40. Xll LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY [ Ochtertyre] and still less would he now when matters are so sadly- changed. A place where he can have the company of some old guns and his bottle of wine and chat would be more to his taste’.1 The date of Ralph’s death is unknown. James Ramsay died of apoplexy on 2 November 17482 and thus at the age of twelve John Ramsay succeeded to the estate of Ochtertyre. John Ramsay attended the grammar school at Dalkeith and, ac- cording to the editor of his literary manuscripts, attended classes at the university of Edinburgh and passed as an advocate.3 There is no record of Ramsay’s graduation, though this is hardly surprising as actual graduation in Arts had almost ceased by this time. It is quite possible that he did attend classes without leaving any trace in the fragmentary records of the university.4 However, it is curious that his name does not appear in the standard list of Scots advocates.5 Little is known of Ramsay’s life. In 1787 he was visited by Robert Burns, and 1793 by Sir Walter Scott. A copy survives of a letter written by Ramsay to Burns on 22 October 1787, in which Ramsay gave his approval to Burns’s ‘plan of retiring from din and dissipation to a farm of very moderate size’,6 and advised him to keep clear of satire and to study the spirit of the dialogue in The Gentle Shepherd. In 1796 Scott sent Ramsay a copy of his translation, Ballads from Burger, which Ramsay acknowledged.7 In company with Andrew Drummond, a banker, he visited London several times, according to Allardyce, the first in 1758. He also visited Edinburgh frequently, presumably before he wrote this series of letters, and also, as appears from them, in 1799,1800,1803,1804,1806,1808 and 1809. According to his friend. Dr John Stuart, minister of Luss, ‘the report of those associated with his [Ramsay’s] more private life was, that being engaged to a young lady, who lost her life by the fall of the North Bridge, Edinburgh, on the third of August 1769, when four others lost their lives by the same accident, the memory of this early sorrow caused him to form no similar attachment’.8 From the accounts of 1 3 4GD 35/53/14. * F.J. Grant, op. cit, 293. Scotland and Scotsmen, i, p. xi. I am grateful to Mr C. P. Finlayson,5 Keeper of Manuscripts, Edinburgh8 University- 7Library, for this information. F.J. Grant, op. dt. GD 35/75. Ramsay’s letter is printed in J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott (Boston, 1907), i, 234. * Local Notes and Queries reprinted from the Stirling Observer, ed. W. B. Cook (Stirling, 1883), pp. 36-39. INTRODUCTION Xlll the accident given in the Edinburgh Evening Courant, 5-14 August 1769, it seems that the lady was Mary, daughter of Dr Thomas Dundas, Ramsay’s uncle. There is no independent proof of the truth of this story, and I am doubtful whether in fact an accident at the age of 33 could really be described as an ‘early’ sorrow, but Ramsay wrote an epitaph for her, in warm if hardly loverlike tones.1 Apart from his visits to Edinburgh and to his various maternal relations, Ramsay seems to have remained at home, looking after his small estate, reading, engaging in literary work and conducting a voluminous correspondence. With the exception of the series of letters to Elizabeth Dundas, now published, and some thirty letters to James Dundas, her husband,2 very few of Ramsay’s letters have survived. He certainly corresponded with Elizabeth Abercromby, widow of Major Alexander Joass, Mrs Stuart, wife of Dr Stuart of Luss, and Dr Hugh Macleod, professor of ecclesiastical history at Glasgow university.3 As frequent complaints in his correspondence with Mrs Dundas suggest, his ill-health was probably the reason why these letters ceased in 1812, two years before his death, which took place on 2 March 1814.4 According to Dr Stuart of Luss, Ramsay was buried in his family burying-place in the old parish church, Kincardine-in-Menteith. There is a monument erected to his memory i the new church, built in 1814-16, with a latin epitaph written by himself.5 Ramsay’s manuscripts, or ‘lucubrations’ as he called them, are deposited in the National Library of Scotland (mss. 1635-44). They consist of a series of essays on Scotland in the eighteenth century, along with brief biographies of his friends and relations no longer living. Although there are ten folio volumes, Ramsay repeated himself fre- quently when treating the same subject under different headings, and Allardyce, by compression, has got most of the substance into the two volumes produced under the title Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eight- eenth Century, although this work is badly jumbled, indifferently transcribed and infrequently footnoted. Apart from two quotations 1 1 3 GDA letter 35/44. from Ramsay, GD dated35/53 17(1-28). December 1787, to Dr Robert Henry, minister of New Greyfriars, Edinburgh, is in the possession of Lord Moncrieff of Tullibole. I owe my knowledge of this to my colleague Mr A. M. Broom, Secretary of the National 4Register of Archives, Scotland. 6 Sects Magazine, 1814, p. 397. Scotland and Scotsmen, i, pp. xxiii-iv. xiv LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY relating to Scottish poetry, in Currie’s edition of Burns’ works,1 Ramsay’s only published production appears to be an essay ‘On Scottish Songs’, signed ‘J. Runcole’, which appeared in 1791.2 An extensive search has been made for a portrait or drawing of Ramsay, but without success. Allardyce, however, was fortunately able to obtain a description of him from Dr G. R. Gleig, son of Ramsay’s friend the bishop of Brechin, who remembered Ramsay from his own youth. Dr Gleig wrote: ‘When I knew him he was an old man, and having lived as he did a bachelor, he had fallen, when alone, into slovenly habits of dress. When receiving company his appointments were those of a gentleman of the old school - a coat, usually blue, with bright metal buttons, a high collar, and lace frills at the wrist. I think he wore hair-powder, but I am not quite sure, though of his carefully tied queue or pigtail I have a clear remem- brance. Breeches and blue stockings, with silver buckles in his shoes, were also worn on those occasions. At other times his legs would be encased in worsted stockings, to which it appeared as if he sometimes forgot to append garters I think of him as a man of middle stature, well made, and with an intelligent expression of countenance. The mss. which you [Allardyce] are preparing for the press had been his recreation for years, and he never failed to read a portion of them to every visitor whom he could prevail upon to listen. More than once, when certainly not more than twelve or fourteen years of age, I was his audience.’3 Dr Gleig also wrote that Ramsay ‘stood with George Constable as the model from which the character of Monkbarns is painted’. In these letters there is little resemblance to Jonathan Oldbuck, the Antiquary, who as Scott himself wrote ‘was partly founded on that of an old friend of my youth [ George Constable ]... but I thought I had so completely disguised the likeness, that it could not be recognised by anyone now alive’.4 However, as Scott had certainly met Ramsay twenty years before The Antiquary was-written, it is possible that a few of Ramsay’s more eccentric antiquarian tastes were embodied in the material Scott took from Constable. Elizabeth (Betty) Graham was the wife ofjames Dundas, Clerk to 1 2 Works of Robert Bums, [ed. J. Currie] (London, 1806), i, 277-8, 280-3. The Bee, or, Literary Weekly Intelligencer, ed. J. Anderson (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1791), pp. 201-10; see W. Dauney, Ancient Scottish Melodies4 (Maitland Club, 1838), p. 4. * Scotland and Scotsmen, i, pp. xviii-ix. The Antiquary (London, 195 j), p. 2. INTRODUCTION XV the Signet, of 25 St Andrew Square. He was the fourth son of Ralph Dundas, merchant, burgess of Edinburgh, third son of Ralph Dundas of Manor (1674-1729), and was Ramsay’s cousin. Elizabeth Dundas was a younger daughter of William Graham of Airth (1730-90), great-grandson of James, first marquis of Montrose, and Anne Stirling, daughter of Sir Henry Stirling of Ardoch. Elizabeth and her twin sister Christian were born on 31 December 1764.1 Elizabeth married James Dundas on 16 October 1794,2 and was the mother of eleven children; Ramsay regularly congratulated her on their arrival. She died at Harrogate on 9 September i820.3Her husbandsucceeded to the estate of Ochtertyre in 1814, under the terms of Ramsay’s testa- ment. Mrs Dundas’s half of the correspondence has not survived, although Ramsay once referred to her letters being kept in a trunk and wrote that he intended to arrange them. One of Ramsay’s letters written to her husband contains a portion written by her while staying at Ochtertyre, relating to Ramsay’s difficulties in finding a suitable housekeeper, and there is another letter from her to her husband on the occasion of their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.4 From Ramsay’s letters, it appears that she spent most of her time supervising her nursery and churchgoing, with a dinner party or occasionally a ball for light relief. Ramsay’s letters have considerable significance for social history. He was unusual as a letterwriter in the wide range of his interests. Any one letter may contain politics, history, farming, scandal, family news, literature, the theatre and the weather. In his own lifetime, Ramsay was recognised as a noted correspondent. He himself knew that his letters were talked about, and was upset about an anonymous letter to his distant cousin Maria Dundas which referred to the ‘Ochtertyre Scandalous Weekly’, and he urged Mrs Dundas to get Maria to burn any more similar letters she received. But when the earl of Buchan attempted to acquire some of Ramsay’s letters to be included in a ‘Literary History’, Ramsay’s apprehension was almost comic. It was presumably only as a joke that Ramsay threatened that if Mrs Dundas gave Buchan any of his letters, he would retaliate by giving Buchan the other half of the correspondence, but he clearly felt strongly about Buchan’s suggestion. The same thing happened with 1 8 Scots Magazine, 1764, p. 687. * GD 35/79. 4 GD 35/128/16; Scots Magazine, 1820, p. 83. GD 35/110, 147. XVI LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Lord Woodhouselee and Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton. Ramsay at the request of Mr Drummond sent the former a hundred pages, and then complained that Woodhouselee had used only the most insigni- ficant sentence. Mrs Dundas was asked to refuse anything to Allanton, Ramsay adding ‘I look upon my lucubrations with the same parti- ality and affection that you do on your progeny’.1 It is perhaps a little unfair to compare Ramsay’s correspondence with that of Horace Walpole, who could be described as a professional letterwriter, but they do have a certain amount in common, especi- ally in Walpole’s letters written in his old age to Mary and Agnes Berry and the countess of Upper Ossory. Both have antiquarian tastes and a fondness for the same quotations; both indeed occasionally misquote the same ones. Both comment on books and gardening and enjoy giving avuncular advice. Ramsay’s enthusiasm for antiquities, which is evident in his literary manuscripts, does not appear in these letters, perhaps because he thought it an unsuitable subject for a lady. In politics Ramsay was a whig. When writing to Mrs Dundas about his sketch of the life of Sir Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn, a jacobite, he said that he and Sir Hugh coalesced better than he had expected. While writing of the ’Forty-five without rancour - he described the highland army as ‘one of the most innocent and orderly hosts ever seen, considering they had no discipline and not much pay ’2 - he was clearly of opinion that matters turned out for the best. However, when contrasting principles and manners since the ’Forty- five, he remarked that jacobitism was surely better than jacobinism grafted on infidelity.3 Ramsay’s views on the politicians of his own day were pessimistic and almost without exception unfavourable. On Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville, he commented that he was the nearest thing to a politician that Scotland had seen for a long time. He referred to the ministry of 1807 as a lutestring ministry, and added ‘I tremble for the meeting of parliament and for the madness of the outs and the imbecility of the inns’.4 Ramsay was not very flattering about George 111, apart from dutifully referring to him occasionally as ‘good’. He wrote of the King as having two unfortu- nate passions: ‘a disposition to quarrel with all the earth and a . . . 1 2 4 See below, p. 240. See below, p. 39. * See below, p. 185. See below, p. 193. Horace Walpole also used the phrase ‘a lutestring ministry’ (Memoirs of George III, 1845, i, 210). INTRODUCTION XVU rage for conquest’.1 Combined with this Ramsay had an unbounded admiration for Napoleon, mixed with considerable alarm. He re- ferred to Bonaparte variously as the bogle of the times, the modern Sennacherib, the modem Caesar and Charlemagne. When Mrs Dundas sent him a poem on Bonaparte, he very sensibly replied that it would be better to pull down his colossal power, and then it would be time to revile him as one of the scourges of the human race. Ramsay was not an anglophile. He was scornful when Anne Cameron sent her boys to an English school, and commented bitterly in 1807, ‘we [the Scots] are precisely in the state Edward wished when he courted us a little roughly to be [sic] 500 years ago, mere Englishes’.2 He lamented the adoption of English accents and lan- guage, and although he wrote of an Englishwoman in Scotland who had difficulty with the language, he clearly felt that matters were being carried too far to the other extreme when he remarked that ‘the tonish Edinburgh misses’ were ‘perhaps some steps above the standards’. He felt that the Doric was ‘neglected by a fastidious generation who forgot that it is the language of pastoral poetry superior to anything ancient or modern’.3 His own writing contained few obsolete words, although he accused himself of using ‘Patavinities’, and of speaking an antiquated dialect. Ramsay’s religious feelings were firmly orthodox. He never lost an opportunity of writing against ‘sentiment’ in sermons, and de- claimed against Methodism and ‘natural ’ religion. He distrusted all modern preachers and on one occasion wrote caustically: ‘If Christi- anity shall improve as much for the next fifty years as it has done for the last, it will be frittered to nothing’.4 He did not care for the preach- ing of Mrs Dundas’s episcopalian minister, Dr Archibald Alison. Of modern preachers he complained that they provided ‘spiritual blamange’ for the young ‘with whom nothing will go down but the ice cream of sentiment, heightened by the raspberry flavour of style pushed to extreme’.5 This new style of preaching he blamed on Hugh Blair, professor of Rhetoric at Edinburgh university, and minister of St Giles. Ramsay said that ‘as the original was a very sorry one, his [Blair’s] imitators deserved no applause’.6 While he was dubious about the value of Methodism, he frequently quoted 1 3 4 See below, p. 50. *5 See below, p. 204. 6 See below, p. 263. See below, p. 34. See below, p. 74. See below, p. 123. b xviii LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY with approval Whitfield’s phrase on the ministers of his day, ‘velvet- mouthed preachers’. Ramsay was sufficiently curious to make a visit to a party of Swedenborgians at Haldane’s Milne, near Balloch, and on ‘this mad sect’, as he called them, he wrote a lively but disapprov- ing paragraph to Mrs Dundas, commenting ‘such a liturgy, such a creed and such a catechism k1 He was equally distrustful of the merits of the Baptists. While he admitted James Haldane’s sincerity, he was doubtful about James’s brother Robert, of whom he wrote ‘none attends more to self than Robert’. This may be inaccurate in view of the statement in the Dictionary of National Biography that in twelve years Robert spent more than £70,000 of his own money on further- ing his views. Mrs Dundas was an episcopalian but on one occasion Ramsay wrote advising her strongly against taking a seat at the tabernacle (the Haldane church).2 The only mention in these letters of ecclesiastical activities other than churchgoing is a reference to his attendance at a presbytery meeting in 1799. Ramsay frequently visited other parish churches than his own, possibly because of strained relations with Christopher Tait, minister of Kincardine-in-Menteith. In his testament, Ramsay expressly debarred Tait from participating in the administration of his legacy to the poor children of the parish. The occasional references to Tait throughout the correspondence are far from cordial, and the only time Ramsay ever mentioned him with a faint hint of sympathy was on the occasion of the elopement of Mrs Tait’s niece with the brother of a footman of Lord Cullen’s. Ramsay commented, ”Tis a strange not a holy family’. There is only one reference to social contact with the Tait family: a visit by Mrs Tait and her niece, who called on Ramsay to request that his funeral would pass behind, not in front of, the manse. Ramsay had a hearty laugh and gave them tea. Ramsay referred to his own time as the silver age of literature. He blamed this not on want of knowledge, but on affectation. He was surprised when in 1800 a series of Shakespeare’s plays was acted in Edinburgh, and added that they were too antiquated for a modern audience who, in addition to pantomime, preferred ‘Germanised dramatists, most of whom seem to have as little connection with nature as with virtue’.3 His own reading was, on the evidence con- tained in these letters, confined mainly to literature, history, and 1 See below, p. 31. 2 See below, p. 16. 5 See below, p. 17. INTRODUCTION xix religious writing. He ranged from Ariosto and Shakespeare to Colley Cibber and Richard Cumberland. He also enjoyed the Tatler and the Spectator as well as the Mirror and the Lounger, Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison (though he protested that Clarissa was too harrow- ing to be re-read), Fielding, Smollett, Johnson, and, unexpectedly, The Arabian Nights. In contrast, his views on Walter Scott’s Min- strelsy of the Scottish Border were not really complimentary. Of the third volume Ramsay wrote that he was ‘fully as much entertained with his [Scott’s] disquisitions upon the borderers (who according to his own account were not the best of neighbours or the best of men, who were quite cut out for the horrid life they led) as I am with the poetry’. Ramsay went on to say that he thought that Scott should continue ‘to indite informations, representations and petitions in humble prose, that might have made the pot boil’.1 Writing of Ossian, whom he called the highland Homer, Ramsay very reason- ably commented that he was doubtful whether Mr Laing or any of his junto’ could write as well - ‘they may call it a translation from the ancient Gothic or modern Tartar’.2 Ramsay is less communicative about his reading of history. He mentioned Sir John Dalrymple’s Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, John Home’s History of the Rebellion of 1745, and an account of the sacking of Rome. The author of this last work is not mentioned and may be Gibbon. Elsewhere Ramsay warned Maria Dundas against Gibbon’s fascinating style which contained ‘a great deal of sugared poison nicely enamelled’.3 Ramsay’s religious reading was varied: he read sermons by clergy- men of both episcopalian and presbyterian persuasions including, among others, Edmund Gibson, bishop of London, William Bennet of Duddingston, and Thomas Hardie, minister of Ashkirk. Pro- vided the tone was orthodox and unsentimental he did not seem to be particular about the denomination. Apart from sermons, he read St Francois de Sales, Fenelon, and John Bunyan. Ramsay was very interested in his garden, but in these letters he appears largely preoccupied with its produce. He never mentions flowers (except for a great thistle which his gardener called after Ramsay’s friend Dr Gregory, rather to the Doctor’s annoyance). In order to reduce the bulk of the letters for the present volume, the 1 See below, p. 107. 2 See below, p. 107. 3 See below, p. 187. b* XX LETTERS O F JOHN RAMSAY editor has usually excised the frequent passages concerning dispatch of fruit and vegetables to Mrs Dundas. But as a contribution to the history of Scottish gardens, a full list is presented here of all fruits and vegetables mentioned in the manuscript letters. The varieties of fruit are as follows: apples (Callendar, Golden Pippen, July Flowers, Leadington, Nonpareil, Ochiltree, Rennet, Ribstone and Russet), apricots (Moor Park and Brussells), cherries (and geens), damsons, gooseberries (Royal Stewart), greengages, nectarines, nuts (and almonds), peaches, pears (Bergamot and Autumn Bergamot, Cras- sane, French pears, Jargonelle, Lammas pears, Long Thom, Muirfowl Egg, pears of the Yare, Swan Egg, William and winter pears), plums (damask), and strawberries. The vegetables are asparagus, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, leeks, lettuce, onions, peas, potatoes and spinach. All these varieties of fruit and vegetables (excepting lettuce, cherries and strawberries which were too perishable to travel, and potatoes which were possibly too heavy) were sent by Ramsay to Mrs Dundas. In return for these offerings, he thanked her for cake (twice), fish, unidentified (four times), cod (five times), halibut (four times), haddock (four times), and skate (once), as well as cabbage seed, called bowkail (once). Ochtertyre House, which still stands, faces the Water of Teith. A plan made in 1819 shows that the house lay surrounded by an estate of some 760 acres, and that the garden in which Ramsay liked to walk was situated beside the river.1 The house was not large; Ramsay himself referred to it as a ‘cottage’ without a drawingroom. There is also a rough plan in a letter of 1835 which shows only four rooms, plus kitchen and servants’ quarters.2 It is likely that this was the layout of the house in Ramsay’s time. This letter also reveals that the dining-room at least was panelled. A remark in one of Ramsay’s letters indicates that his books were kept in the dressing-closet off one of the bedrooms. It is not known when the house was built and no print or engraving of it has been discovered. In the inventory of Ramsay’s moveable goods, drawn up at his death, his furniture, linen and books were valued at ^147 19s. id., his cattle and horses at -£77 10s. iod., and the utensils of the farm, garden and stable at ^23 16s. nd.8 Ramsay always described him- 1 8 8 GD 35/148. GD 35/187. Scottish Record Office, Dunblane Testaments, vol. 27, fo. 365 ff. INTRODUCTION xxi self as a kind and possibly over-indulgent landlord, and from the fact that arrears of rent owing at his death amounted to ^148 os. 9d., it seems that this assessment was probably accurate. He was much interested in his estate and his attitude to his tenants was distinctly paternal. With his servants Ramsay seems to have been on unusually good terms. He retained them from youth to old age (remarking that when his old servants failed he should be a helpless animal),1 and left them legacies in his testament. His housekeepers, however, did not always conduct themselves as he wished. His first, Mrs Watson, to whom he had intended to leave an annuity of ^12, predeceased him, where- upon it was discovered that she had been cheating him over her management of the dairy, expecting to have outlived him and, as Ramsay wrote, to have walked off with her ill-gotten ‘pose’ (secret hoard of money). He commented indignantly that he should have been told of the money she had deposited in the bank, of which ^300 could not be accounted for honourably. His next housekeeper, Mrs Wilkie, gave parties to some of the more undesirable neighbours in Ramsay’s absence, and was dismissed as soon as possible. Mrs Metcalf, the last of the series, was regarded with approval, and was left a legacy of £5 and her mournings, later increased to £12 12s. Ramsay was permanently in a state of alarm and apprehension about his health and he described with loving care his symptoms and the medical advice he received. The main complaints related to his eyes and stomach, about which he consulted Dr Wingate and Dr Graham in Stirling, and, when matters seemed desperate. Dr Gregory in Edinburgh. The letters themselves show the effects of Ramsay’s increasing blindness. There is pathos in the jerky, dictated sentences of the last letters and in the fearful comment in a letter of 1812: ‘I verily believe that I shall lose my sight’.2 To a man who spent so much time reading and writing, loss of sight was a cruel blow. Family connections were the main feature of Ramsay’s social life and, as some of the relationships were rather complicated, it seems advisable to present here brief sketches of the families most frequently mentioned in the letters. Whenever possible, individuals have also been identified in the footnotes, usually on the first occurrence of each name, 1 See below, p. 147, 8 See below, p. 391, XXXI LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Ramsay’s mother, Anne Dundas, was the daughter of Ralph Dundas of Manor, and it is through this family that Ramsay acquired his cormections with most of the people mentioned throughout the correspondence. By the time Ramsay was writing these letters, the Dundases of Manor had lost their earlier importance in Scotland, and were represented by General Ralph Dundas of Manor, governor of Dungannon Fort in Ireland, who apparently spent most of his life in Ireland. He died in 1814, and was succeeded by his son, Ralph Peter Dundas of Manor. Ralph Peter married an Irishwoman, Mariarme La Touche, and was a commissioner of excise in Dublin, dying childless in 1828. He and his wife visited Ramsay at Ochtertyre. Ramsay’s favourable first impression of him was soon dispelled, and he commented disapprovingly on Ralph Peter’s habit of returning home drunk, adding that time ennobled or degraded the line. Ramsay was cormected with the Grahams of Airth, whose seat was near Larbert in Stirlingshire, through the marriage of his cousin James Dundas to Elizabeth Graham, one of the seven daughters of William Graham of Airth. Not all of her brothers and sisters appear in Ramsay’s letters, but those most frequently occurring are Mary, who marriedjohn Stirling of Kippendavie, Jane who died unmarried in 1851, Williamina who married Day Hort Macdowall of Walkin- shaw, and James who succeeded his father in 1790, was a senior merchant in the Honourable East India Company, and returned home in 1804, dying unmarried in the following year. His illness is frequently referred to by Ramsay, and his death occasioned one of Ramsay’s most serious and affecting letters.1 James Graham was succeeded by his only surviving brother Thomas, who married Caroline Mary Home, daughter of Colonel James Home, and took the name of Graham-Stirling on succeeding to the estate of his maternal uncle, General Sir Thomas Stirling of Strowan. The Stirlings of Keir and Cawder were near neighbours of Ramsay. He often walked over to visit James Stirling of Keir and his sisters Marion and Jean. Keir house lay south of Dunblane, and just over a mile from Ochtertyre. Ramsay often exclaimed alarmedly over Keir’s health, though in fact Keir survived Ramsay by nearly twenty years, dying in 1831. In 1801 Ramsay wrote that Keir was being sent on a wild goose chase for his health, and in 1806 his leg was suppurat- 1 See below, pp. 158-60, INTRODUCTION XX1U ing, though by 1809 he was better again and riding about. Charles Stirling (1771-1830), his brother, inherited a thirteenth share in the copartnery of Somerville, Gordon and Co., West Indian merchants, Glasgow, and spent most of his life in the business.1 In 1806 he bought the lands of Kenmure, adjoining the estate of Cawder, and in 1816 sold them to his brother Archibald Stirling, who later succeeded to Keir. Charles Stirling married in 1817, Christian Erskine, daughter of David Erskine, w. s., third son of John Erskine of Carnock. A branch of the family of Keir was the Stirlings of Kippendavie. The relationship dated back to Sir Archibald Stirling of Keir, who granted Kippendavie to his third son Archibald in 1594.2 John Stirling of Kippendavie married Mary Graham, Mrs Dundas’s sister, and they had seven sons and six daughters. She died in 1820. John Stirling bought the estate of Kippenross from William Pearson in 1778. Of their children, Ramsay mentioned Margaret Douglas, who married James Sandilands, later tenth Lord Torphichen; Mary, who married James Russell of Woodside; and Katherine who married Ramsay’s favourite, James Erskine of Linlathen. Ramsay’s relationship with the Edmonstones of Newton deterio- rates throughout the correspondence. As usual he is enthusiastic about the older generation whom he knew in his youth, especially Mary Abercromby, sister of Sir Ralph Abercromby, who married Colonel James Edmonstone of Newton; but on the subject of their son, John James Edmonstone of Newton, his tone becomes pro- gressively more querulous. In 1800 and 1801, Ramsay was receiving letters from him, and was solicitous about his health, but by 1802 Ramsay complained that he might as well live in Japan or Nova Zembla for all he heard from James. From Ramsay’s letters at least, it seems that Edmonstone failed as a farmer; he had disputes with his tenants, and in 1807 a day was fixed for a sale. Later, he set out for Buxton and Montrose, hoping for an improvement in his health. Ramsay sent him fruit and cauliflowers after this, but by 1808 was afraid to ask for news of him. Grizel Edmonstone, his sister, is mentioned less often by Ramsay, but in considerably more approving tones. In his testament of 1808, Ramsay left her the legacy he had previously left to her brother. The Drummonds of Blair Drummond were among Ramsay’s 1 Sir W. Fraser, The Stirlings of Keir (Edinburgh, 1858), p. 77. 2 Fraser, Keir. 103. xxiv LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY closest neighbours, and with them he lived on good terms. He was a friend of Henry Home, Lord Karnes, who married Agatha Drum- mond, daughter of James Drummond of Blair Drummond, who succeeded to the estate of Blair Drummond on the death of her nephew James Drummond in 1766. Their son George Home Drum- mond married, in 1782, Janet Jardine, a daughter of the Rev. John Jardine, d. d. ; Ramsay was at the wedding. They had three children, Henry Home Drummond (who succeeded to the estate in 1819, and married in 1812 Christian Moray, daughter of Colonel Charles Moray of Abercaimey), John George, and Agatha. The Erskines of Cardross were descended from the second Lord Cardross. John Erskine of Carnock, his great-grandson, who died in 1768, was professor of law at the university of Edinburgh, and pur- chased the estate of Cardross in 1746. By his first marriage he had one son, John Erskine of Carnock, d. d., who married the Hon. Christian MacKay, daughter of the third Lord Reay, and died on 19 January 1803, being succeeded in the estate of Carnock by his only son David. By his second marriage to Anne Stirling, daughter of James Stirling of Keir, Professor John Erskine had six children, including James Erskine of Cardross, who married in 1762, Lady Christian Bruce, daughter of the eighth earl of Kincardine, and died on 27 March 1802. He was succeeded in Cardross by his eldest surviving son David, who was in the service of the Honourable East India Company in Ceylon, and married in 1803 the Hon. Keith Elphinstone, daughter of John, eleventh Lord Elphinstone. David Erskine died in 1847, having had four sons. Lady Christian, who was a particular friend of Ramsay’s, died on 28 May 1810. Ramsay’s friend, David Erskine, w. s., brother of James Erskine of Cardross, who married Anne, daughter of James Graham of Airth, Mrs Dundas’s aunt, and died in 1791, was the father of James and Thomas Erskine, who visited Ramsay frequently in their youth. James upset Ramsay considerably by joining the army. He died in 1816, and was succeeded by Thomas in the estate of Linlathen. Thomas had trouble with his eyes, but succeeded in pas- sing as an advocate in 1811. He later retired from the bar to study theology. The family of Abercromby of Tullibody was related to Ramsay by the marriage of Mary Dundas, daughter of Ralph Dundas of Manor, Ramsay’s aunt, to George Abercromby of Tullibody. Their three INTRODUCTION XXV sons and two daughters were all childhood friends of Ramsay’s. General Sir Ralph Abercromby (1738-1801), the eldest, was killed in Egypt, and his widow, Mary Anne Menzies, was created Baroness Abercromby of Aboukir and Tullibody on 28 May 1801. She was succeeded in the barony by their son George Abercromby, who married Montagu, daughter of Henry Dundas, first Viscount Mel- ville, and had three children. Anne, George Abercromby’s sister, who married in 1795 Donald Cameron of Lochiel, was not a favourite of Ramsay’s. There are frequent references to her. Sir Robert Aber- cromby, k. b., governor of Edinburgh Castle, Sir Ralph’s brother, lived at Airthrey, a mile and a half from Bridge of Allan, in Logie parish, Stirlingshire, where he was visited by Ramsay. His sister Mary Abercromby married Colonel James Edmonstone of Newton, and his other sister, Elizabeth Abercromby, married Major Alexander Joass of Colleonard. Mrs Joass’ only daughter Mary married, as his first wife, James Alexander Haldane, second son of Captain James Haldane of Airthray. They had eight children. This connection caused great uneasiness to Mrs Joass on account of the conversion of her son-in-law to the tenets of the Baptists. Ramsay frequently lamented the change in Mrs Joass’s manner towards himself. He felt neglected and said so with considerable reiteration. In 1800 he com- plained that she had given up writing, and the next year when he sent her apples, the trunk was returned empty without any acknowledg- ment. By 1803 he was inflicting on Mrs Dundas long diatribes about the coldness of Mrs Joass, and professing his own inability to find a cause.1 Relations were a little better by 1806, when he received a letter and sent her a turkey, although in 1810 Ramsay marvelled at not getting a letter from Mrs Joass during his illness; and in 1812, when they met, he remarked that her spirits and vision were no better than his own. Maria Dundas, daughter of Admiral George Dundas, brother of Mr Dundas, and his wife Nancy Thompson, daughter of Thomas Thompson, merchant in Virginia, was a particular favourite of Ramsay’s. He first met her when she was on a visit to Scotland in 1805, and was immediately impressed by her abilities and charm. 1 and For repetitious editorial complaintsreasons (see about below, Mrs Joassp. xxvii), have not the been bulk printed of Ramsay’sin this edition querulous of the letters. XXVI LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY He prophesied a great literary future for her, which is interesting as she later wrote the well known children’s book Little Arthur’s History of England, first published in 1835 and still in print. Ramsay lived only long enough to hear of her first book, A Journal of a Residence in India, published in 1812, after a visit to India with her father for their health. When at Bombay, she married Captain Thomas Graham, son of Robert Graham of Fintry,1 in December 1809. Although she revisited Scotland with her husband in 1811, Ramsay did not see her again as her husband had to leave unexpectedly owing to the chance of a ship. In 1822, when on a voyage to South America, Captain Graham died off Cape Horn. Maria continued her journey and in Valparaiso became instructress to Donna Maria, daughter of Dom Pedro, emperor of Brazil. Maria returned to England in 1823, married Augustus Wall Callcott, later Sir Augustus Callcott, r. A., and published many other books, mostly for children, though it is with Little Arthur’s History of England that she has achieved lasting fame. She died in 1842.2 Very little is known of Ramsay’s paternal relations. Both his aunts married and had children. Margaret married a Mr Cowie, and Lilias married John Wingate of Charterhall, whose grand-daughter Ann Craig, wife of David McNair, officer of excise, is the only member of this side of Ramsay’s family to be mentioned. She appears in the correspondence only because Ramsay wished Mr Dundas to en- quire into her pecuniary circumstances in case she needed help. Ramsay gave her fio, and remarked that the rest of his relations would have to wait till he was dead. In a letter to Mr Dundas con- cerning his testament, Ramsay wrote: ‘In some of my bequests I have been guided more by situation and circumstances than by affection or hopes of gratitude’.3 The bulk of the manuscript letters made it impossible for them to be printed in full and the editor has therefore pruned them by about one-third. Considerable care has been given to the procedure of cutting them, since it is not the intention to present only selections chosen at random. Except for the first letter, which is printed in its 1 2 Scots Magazine, 1810, p. 637. In the Dundas of Ochtertyre muniments (GD 35/181), there is one letter from Maria 3Dundas, undated, written to Wilham Dundas, son of Mrs Elizabeth Dundas. GD 35/S3/H. INTRODUCTION XXV11 entirety, the beginning and the end of each letter have normally been cut, as these are usually stereotyped. Many of Ramsay’s repeated complaints about his health and accusations of neglect by neighbours and relatives have been omitted. As already explained, details about garden produce have also been cut. Factual references to particular individuals have normally been retained, although comments about a few people who recur frequently have been shortened considerably. For example, the complaints against Mrs Joass and the repeated apprehensions over the health of James Edmonstone have both been largely excised. It has been the editor’s intention to cut nothing of value to the social historian, but at the same time to make the material more tolerable to the modem reader. Omissions are indicated by dots. Ramsay’s spelling, capitalization and underlining (indicated in the printed text by italics) have been retained, and likewise his punctua- tion, although occasionally a comma or capital letter has been added for the sake of clarity. His habit of ending sentences with a dash has been kept, but a full stop has been added before the dash in accordance with the conventions of modern typography. As Ramsay seldom paused to begin a new paragraph, the paragraphing has been inserted by the editor. Some letters have no dates, either because Ramsay forgot to date them, or because the date has been torn away or the part of the letter with the date is missing. Where a date can be worked out the editor has added it in square brackets. Where no date is dis- coverable, the letter has been inserted in the chronological series at the point where the context suggests it to be most appropriate. Throughout, editorial matter has been placed in square brackets. With a few exceptions, the letters are written from Ochtertyre and this address has not been repeated in the letters as printed. Unless otherwise stated in footnotes, the letters are in Ramsay’s own hand. When a letter was sent by carrier, Mrs Dundas’s address was written on the back. The envelopes for the posted letters are missing. Identifications of individuals in the foomotes are based mainly on Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, ed. Hew Scott (vols. i-vii, Edinburgh, 1915-28), and Burke’s Peerage and Landed Gentry. When these are used, the source is not usually stated. Ramsay’s own writings, the Ochtertyre mss. in the National Library of Scotland, hereafter referred to as Ramsay Manuscripts, were also consulted, as well as xxvm LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Allardyce’s Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century based upon them. Explanations of unusual or obsolete words are usually taken from John Jamieson, Dictionary of the Scottish Language (London, 1885), Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (=DOST),or Scottish National Dictionary (=SND). ffi 1799

Dear Madam, On returning to my hermitage and unpacking my luggage I found I had unwittingly said the thing that was not when I told you the lock was in the fruit box. For William1 had put it up carefully with another small parcel which I never thought of opening. It is there- fore now sent herewith. I hope you spoke to Mrs Erskine2 about the three volumes of Wharton’s history of English poetry3 which I find will be of use to me in some of my enquiries. Dr Finlayson4 promised to lend me a book. If Mr Dundas has Andrew Stewart’s5 history of the Stewarts with the answer which is said to be written by Allanton6 with a good deal of tartness, it will be very obliging. Those and Harris’s philology,7 and three books of my own left in Mr Dundas’s room will hardly fill the box: but a little hay etc. may fill up the interstices. I am exceedingly sorry to give the trouble of packing, but the servant can do it by your instruction. This is but a sorry subject of a letter but I know how much you are disposed to oblige. 1 William Keay, Ramsay’s servant. * Hon. Christian Mackay, daughter of George, third Lord Reay, wife of John Erskine *of Thomas Camock, Warton, d.d. The history of English poetry from the close of the eleventh to the com- 4mencement of the eighteenth century, 3 vols. (London, 1774-81). James Finlayson, d.d., 1758-1808, professor of logic at Edinburgh University, and 6minister of St Giles, Edinburgh. 6 Andrew Stuart of Castlemilk, Genealogical History of the Stewarts (London, 1798). [Henry, later Sir Henry, Steuart of Allanton], The Genealogy of the Stewarts, refuted: In7 a letter to Andrew Stuart, M.P. (Edinburgh, 1799). James Harris of Malmesbury, M.P., Philological Enquiries, 2 vols. (London, 1781). A 2 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY I had a pleasant enough journey my companions if numerous being of very moderate volume. It was pleasant to find on coming home my own and my tenants’ crops better than I expected, better indeed than those five or six miles from Edinburgh. And what you are more interested in, there is a great prospect of peaches apricots and apples and a moderate one of pears cherries and plums, though the two or three days of severe drought since Sunday threaten much mischief both to crop and fruit; but if rain comes in a week things will do well. I hope however there will not only be food for man and beast but that the fruit box will travel oftner to Edinburgh than for some years past when the crops were scanty. In this untoward and precarious climate one must not be over confident in appear- ances.-I have been almost horn idle since I came home. One accus- tomed to Edinburgh idleness and Edinburgh cracks cannot all at once concenter his thoughts and resume his studies. Indeed I have been visiting and receiving visits: attending high roads, taking proofs etc., but I hope soon to resume my wonted course of life. It makes me however give great allowances to the triflers of Edinburgh male and female who can settle to nothing and therefore bestow their idleness upon people as idle and thoughtless as themselves. It requires an enormous effort in that state of mind to write a nugatory letter. On Saturday last I breakfasted with Sir Robert1 and walked with him before dinner in his garden and walks at Airthray2 of which he is much enamoured albeit he cannot behold their beauties; but he hopes to do it, and what is life [with]out the pleasure of hope? When I surveyed [my] cellar and its contents and many articles of apparatus I have no need for, I foresaw a plentiful swarm of summer flies who keep aloof from the hermitage whither none come but for the sake of the hermit except perhaps in the fruit season. I dined after a presbytery at Blair Drummond3 very pleasantly. It is time to conclude a letter which savours of my state of mind with best compli- ments to Mr Dundas and best wishes for the infantry who are fine 1 brother Sir Robert of Sir Abercromby, Ralph. Increasing 1740-1827, blindness son made of George it impossible Abercromby for him toof go Tullibody, on active service.2 Stirlingshire, Sir Robert inAbercromby 1798 from Roberthad purchased Haldane, the the lands founder of Airthrey,of Scottish in Congregation-Logie parish, alism3 Residence (see below, of George p. 29, Home n. 1). Drummond. 799 3 creatures. With many thanks for your hospitality and care I am dear Madam your most obedient humble servant Jo. Ramsay. Ochtertyre 25 Jun. 1799. I beg to be remembered to Mrs Erskine. [Address] Mrs James Dundas, St Andrews Square, Edinburgh. with a small parcell. 3 July 1799 I thank you for ... the minstrel1 which came in good time and for the three books which came all in good case albeit without the lock. I shall take especial care of Mrs Erskine’s 3 volumes of Wharton’s history of English po[etry]. Our carrier is a fine body but his porter who I suppose is a military man is naught, for the former assured me he had sent my letter with the lock affixed to it by him upon his arrival.... This comes with the box filled with green pease which I presume do not over abound as yet in your market. I intended you the first dish of them but Sir Robert Abercromby coming to dine with me t’other day they were produced to him as the fatted calf was to the prodigal son as being a very welcome guest .... If you have too many for a good dish you can divide with Mrs Erskine Tell Mr Dundas that the parcel he and I delivered in so carefully to Drysdales’2 people to be sent to Professor Ogilvie of Aberdeen3 was never delivered to Mr Macgibbon4 whom I saw at Stirling.-1 wrote John Muir5 to enquire about the books which are rare and curious, but without effect. They promised a second search and to let him know. I presume it will be a short process as the delivery can be easily proved. I therefore inclose a note for Mr Muir on the subject. This is a sorry subject but it is vexatious to lose by those 1 2 James Beattie, ll.d., author of The Minstrel (1799). The Royal Mail coach to Aberdeen left from Drysdale’s, Turf Coffeehouse and 3Robertson’s, head of Leith Walk (Edinburgh Almanac, 1799). 4 William Ogilvie, professor of humanity, King’s College, Aberdeen. John McGibbon of South Lodge, Stirling, town clerk and sheriff substitute, died 610 January 1820 (Scots Magazine). John Muir, bailie of Edinburgh (Edinburgh Almanac, 1803, 1808). 4 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY insolent confused people who are spoilt by consorting with bucks and Lords. I rejoice to hear your brother1 is on his wa[y] home and hope he shall have a prosperous voyage [and] bring home a competence which with the ridges2 may enable him to live more happily than the great nabobs who are seldom the most virtuous or respectable of mortals. Sir Robert speaks with very great respect both of him and Archibald Seton3 who has sent home ^8000 this year. I should like for his mother’s sake to hear of his being set down at Touch which I remember a very pleasant respectable family. I have been so deep in the history of Westley and his methodists that I have not had time to dip into poetry or its history. And it is so far well I have resumed my scribbling and musing, being so thrang as hardly to have time to pair my nails. I cannot say I write ten hours a day like Mr Dundas, but I write a great deal more than most idle men and all this without any view to profit or fame, merely for amusement. I am glad Mr Robertson4 is expected soon to take his post.... 11 November 1799 .... Before enumerating the contents of the box which accom- panies this let me answer a query in your last about a translation of the bible. In the first place I do not think it would be useful and in the next place I am convinced it would not be lucrative.-A funny translation like that renegade Geddes’s which is a profane traversty of the sacred oracles,5 might sell to the philosophers and semi- divines of the present times. But a plain heavy book, not better than the old one would fall stillborn from the press. Bishop Lowth6 a man of great erudition and greater genius published a new edition of Isaiah to which his poetical genius promised new graces; but it is 1 James Graham of Airth, senior merchant in the Honourable East India Company, 2died 13 March 1805, without legitimate issue. 3 Obsolete cant meaning gold coin (New English Dictionary). For an account of Archibald Seton of Touch, see his obituary in The Gentleman’s Magazine,4 vol. 88 (1818), 184-5. 6 Hugh Robertson, w.s. Alexander Geddes, ll.d., 1737-1802. The first volume of his translation of the 6Bible appeared in 1792, and the second in 1798. Robert Lowth, 1710-87, bishop of London. 1799 5 allowed he has hardly equalled the common one. All the learning and ingenuity of principal Campbell1 did not enable him to make a better translation of the gospels; for one hole he mended, like the bakers, he made two or three. Neither would it be a profitable concern, for it could not be a popular work. Such is the opinion of Dr Gleig2 a very competent judge who says it would cost 100 guin- eas to advertise it. Mr Dundas’s plan is therefore the best, if the household of faith will come forward in proportion to their valued rents, or rather to their decimation-tax which in that mode of sub- scription is the proper rule. .... To save com in this bad year I believe I must from motives of oeconomy send you again a turkey shortly in return: and as poor Lord Monboddo3 said people now a days keep Christmas all the year round .... I am glad good Mrs Edmondstoune is better.4 Heaven send us good tidings of our friends abroad. I mean if they be at home to go to Cardross this day senight. I am grieved to hear Lady Christian is not well5. . . .

26 November 1799 . . . .Tell Mr Dundas I drew yesterday on him to the order of Robert Banks6 for thirty pounds sterling three days after date with or without advice. My letter to him week before last requests [no] immediate answer, being neither Martinmas business nor a lawsuit. I am glad to hear matrimony is going on so briskly in these distracted times; but the world must be peopled and it is well to see that the young and the gay do not despair of the state. I rejoice to hear from second hand that the infection is likely to spread to my favourite family-but as it is only whispered by way of secret from Lady to Lady we must be mysterious, but I heard it first at Kennet in that way. I mean to go there end of this or beginning of next week when 1 2 George Campbell, 1719-96, principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen. 3 George Gleig, 1753-184.0, bishop of Brechin. 4 James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, 1714-99. Mary Abercromby, daughter of George Abercromby of Tullibody, married Colonel James5 Christian, Edmonstone daughter of ofNewton. eighth earl of Kincardine, married, 1762, James Erskine of 6Cardross, Robert Banks,died 28 sheriff May clerk1810. of Stirling and Clackmannan (Edinburgh Almanac, 1806). 6 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY I hope to find the whole family, mine enemy not excepted,1 bland and cheerful as all people are on the brink of matrimony.... I was a week at Kennet where I spent my time very pleasantly-no appearance of famine or straits there. When I wrote you I was really in very low spirits for Sir R. Abercromby2 and our countrymen being desperately afraid of their being dashed on the coast of Holland no hospitable one surely at any season. Thank God our fears have evanished. I did not see Sir Ralph having been at Airthrey on the Tuesday and thinking he would not have staid so long. I am happy to hear he is wondrous well-sweet is pleasure after pain! . . . Thursday 27th as poor Duncan has not made his appearance I conclude he is not well which I am very sorry for as he was both honest and steady .... Odds or evens whether you write his elegy or I his epitaph. Will you tell Mrs Edm[onstoune] I will send her her deal in good time ere the pears be rotten 1 2 Mainie (Marion) Erskine, daughter of James Erskine of Cardross, died unmarried. Lt. Gen. Sir Ralph Abercromby, k.b., 1738-1801. m 1800

7 January 1800 ....Ithankyou for your news particularly for the excommuni- cation story which makes me rejoice I am no Glassite. I have seen William Sandeman1 who was a great grandfather early in life. Young Ladies who are no [Gljassites ought to ponder well ere they reject a good offer [wh]ich in the Glassite style means a bonny young lad. .... I thank you for the [Rjumford receipt,2 which I shall try and endeavour to introduce among my tenants. Mrs Watson8 who is much better says she has no other rule than keeping an apple pye long in the [ov]en and baking it with a slow fire. I have heard her say the same to other Ladies .... I was for some days last week at Airthray when we had plentiful cheer and what was more a happy company. I rejoiced more in the conversation of the two knights (Sir Ralph I have seen little since 93) than in the wine of Sheraz or the eau de Noyau administered after coffee. In that company it was no penance to be storm-staid ....

21 January 1800 .... Please send back the box that it may carry books etc. parti- cularly Mrs Erskine’s books and Mr Stuart’s variety which last is 1 2 WilliamSir Benjamin Sandeman, Thompson, brother count of Robertvon Rumford, Sandeman, 1753-1814, 1718-71, whose the Scottish Essays sectary.(London, 1799) included (no. X, pt. 1) ‘On construction of kitchen fireplaces and kitchen 3utensils’. Janet McDougal, Ramsay’s housekeeper, relict of William Watson, late of Alloa. 8 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY among the best of the kind I have seen. Now that the heirs male of the family of Castlemilk1 are so near a close, it is doubly vanity as well as vexation of spirit to have a controversy with Afllanton].2 I am exceedingly uneasy about Agatha Drfummond]3 in whom both father and mother are wrapt: Heaven preserve her to be a comfort to them. The youngest boy4 likewise has the disease but mildly. I saw him today on his walk looking as well as the cold would let him. Dr Wingate5 says the fever won’t abate till the eleventh day. O it is a fine thing to be learned! Many many thanks for the receipt of soup which answers excel- lently. Soup without barley is naught I long thought; but now I see a proportion of pease is requisite to make up the mess which is not the worse that little beef etc. makes it. We are endeavouring to get potage and sowins for our poor; but woes is me for greed and hard- heartedness, to say nothing of wrongheadedness. Does the rage for matrimony abate in consequence of the hard frost ? for you know the fashionable beaux and belles are little actuated by nature, so that they marry either in the Dog star or in frost and snow according as the fates have ordained. What news? I hope Mr Dundas does not overtoil himself which is vanity and vexation of spirit in the extreme .... Any prospect of plenty from abroad, of wisdom at home, of a reformation in the fashionable dinner? If Mr H[enry Dundas]6 could affect that I would say he was good for something

18 February 1800 I desired Mr Dundas when I wrote on occasion of poor Hugh Robertson’s7 death to say that I wanted materials and spirits for 1 Sir John Stewart of Castlemilk, died 1797. The estate was enjoyed by Lady Stewart, 2his relict (Anne Stirling, his cousin, and elder heir female), till her death in 182T. 3 Sir Henry Steuart, bt., of Allanton, 1759-1836. Agatha Drummond of Abbotsgrange, daughter of George Home Drummond of 4Blair Drummond and Janet Jardine, died 1869. 6 John George Drummond, died 1848. Daniel Wingate, surgeon in Stirling (sro, Commissariot of Stirling, processes, 8 June6 1804). 7 Henry Dundas*, first Viscount Melville, 1742-1811. He died 21 January 1800. i8oo 9 answering your last letter and thanking you for the poetry it con- tained. The truth was I had mislaid it very carefully soon after it came to hand; nor was it two or three searches that discovered it; and you know that however easy it may be for some people to write upon nothing, it is difficult to answer what one does not know. I am very happy Mrs Edm[onstoune]’s ailment proved a false alarm, but we hold her (good Lady) by a brittle tenure, and what do we hold by anything else? ... I am very sorry to hear Mr Dundas has been complaining; the death of his partner and his friend, would not tend to make him much better. I shall not be easy till I hear of matters being adapted in a way that will lessen his toil which is too great to be home even for the recompense of reward. Next to a good wife is a good partner to him, who has too many and too rich clients. I hope however that matter will be ere long settled to his satisfaction I had a morning visit from Col. Erskine1 in a very large and happy party from Cardross in their way north. I would not have known him he is so changed since 94. I fear he is going acrusading; for it would seem we must wage dismal war without mercy and I fear without wisdom to bring us out of the scrape.-So it would seem Edinburgh will not learn wisdom or temperance even from deci- mation and famine, but goes on balling etc. I wish the young Ladies (for far be it from me to suspect the beaux of such weakness) would before going to their unreasonable or rather portentuous places of expensive mirth repeat some of the collects which good Saint Francis de Sales (a saint of whose piety and elegance and good sense Dr Erskine2 speaks high) prescribes to his favourite nymph Philothea before she went to a ball-Sour plums! say both the swains and the nymphs; Mrs Dundas has got her nursery to attend; and an old batchellor’s opinion is not to be heeded .... How is good Dr Erskine? I hope quite recovered of his late illness. I forgot to ask his niece Miss E[rskine]3 t’other day but there was little time for dis- course. Strange doing at Stirling! The seceders first chose Mr 1 Lt. Col. Charles Erskine of the 92nd regiment, son of James Erskine of Cardross, 2died in Egypt as result of wounds received 13 March 1801. minister John Erskine of New of Greyfriars, Camock, D.D.,Edinburgh, ?I72I-i8o3, 1758-67, eldest and son Old of Greyfriars, John Erskine from of 1767.Camock; * Not identified. 10 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Russell minister j1 see Bums’ poems,2 but his tongue is no scandal, so now they want to make Sir John Henderson m.p.3 The provest, a seceder,4 said to his honour he’d as soon vote for Buenaparte. I thank you for Mr Dunlop’s verses6 to which my only objection is that the subject is not worth commemoration; somebody compared a fine copy of a book with a finer dedication to a painted sepulchre gilded without and rottenness within .... Our nobility in general do not shine but let us not speak evil of dignities

12 May 1800 I thank you for your letter which however I cannot answer as fully as I could wish being on the eve of setting out for Ardoch with a cargo of spinnage sallad and the first fruits of my Asparagus, and a few pears not good for eating but Mr Graham6 wants not sugar to sweeten them. There I will meet the Cardross family who I am happy to hear are composed. I hear Mr and Lady Chfristian] are better in their health .... As the weather is now dry and steady I send in the books as per note at the end. The box may remain till I make my own appearance of which I can say nothing at present till I see more appearance of plenty among you and my neighbours. I must stay to guard my 1 John Russel, 1740-1817, known as ‘Black Russel’, minister of Stirling West Church, 21799. But now the Lord’s ain trumpet touts Till a’ the hills are rairin’ An’ echoes back return the shouts. Black Russel is na sparin! His piercing words like Highlan’ swords Divide the joints and marrow, His talk o’ Hell where devils dwell Our very ‘souls does harrow’ 3 Sirw’ John fright Henderson that day. of Fordell, fifth baronet,Robert Burns,1762-1817, Holy m.p. Fair. for Kirkcaldy burghs, 1780-4, and for Stirling burghs, 1802-3, 1806-7, married the daughter of General James1 Robertson of Newbigging, ?i720-88, governor of New York. 5 James Edmond, provost of Stirling (Edinburgh Almanac, 1800). 6 These do not appear to have been published. William Cunningham Cunningham Graham of Gartmore, son of Robert Graham Bonteinof Gartmore, of Ardoch, to whom his cousin the estate on his of mother’s Ardoch side, passed on conditionin 1770, on of usingdeath surnameof William and arms of Ardoch. 8oo ii gimel which as times go is well replenished, and will serve till Martinmas if the mob shall not interfere. At the same time I ought to escape their vengeance for my prices are none of the highest, the greater part being at 16s: cheap wages deserve cheap meal .... I believe I had better fill up the interstices with potatoes; but you have the luxury of fish and people who have money will not want. Lord help the virtuous poor and compose them! . . . I heard of his [Mr Dundas] being in the country and of his moving with the expedi- tion of a balloon. Let me congratulate you on the arrival of little Mary which put a stop to our correspondence.1 May she resemble her name-mother my good old friend with better fortune !2 She will be a rival to Anne3 in your affections.... 23 June 1800 .... My journey tho’ prosperous was solitary: for tho my com- panions set out two hours after me, they were first at Airthrey, owing to their Jehu driving and to my having stopped a while at Stirling. As for the hearse, undertaker and salies4 they kept a sort of middle course between quick and slow posting. The truth is I might have spared myself the trouble of attending (as I thought myself in duty bound) the corps of my excellent friend [Mr. Abercromby],5 in the midst of dust etc. See what it is to live out of the world, when one never hears of the change of fashions. I dare say the next revolu- tion will be for the he[a]rse and salies to post like Jehu, which may keep the company together. I am told that in England the near rela- tions commit the whole to the undertaker, and never think of follow- ing the remains of their friend to his long home. I do not however regret either my journey to or from Edinburgh, for in so doing I gratified my own feelings, which is to me a much greater luxury than following the fashions. And it is even some satisfaction to me that by delaying a few days, I did not miss an opportunity of seeing 1 2 Mary Dundas, born 24 February 1800. Mary, daughter of Ralph Dundas of Manor, married George Abercromby of Tullibody.3 4 Anne Stirling Dundas, bom 16 July 1797. A hired mourner who walks in procession before a funeral (John Jamieson, Dict- 5ionary George of the Abercromby Scottish Language, of Tullibody, London, died 1885, at Edinburgh,hereafter referred 8 June to1800. as Jamieson). 12 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Mr Aberfcromby] while he could have spoke. Every thing was conducted by George Aber[cromby]1 both before and after the burial with great propriety and decorum. The dinner was good but not overloaded; the wine excellent, but no intemperance, tho with a little industry one might have got a tolerable doze. In a word, here there was a proper mixture of old and new fashions; for relations and people at a distance were asked to dinner, but without any obligation to forget the rules of sobriety, in which the people of the last age put a great stress as being a libation to the memory of their friends, of which I have seen instances in the days of my youth, and heard a great deal more. I regretted nothing but its abridging my visit to Edinburgh and heaven only knows what may betide us or auld and new Reekie before I be there again .... Since my return I have been constantly at home; so have heard nothing even of poor Lord Perth2 who I hope is likely to recover, tho I am sorry to say his prospects of earthly comfort are not very great. I have not been more than well: I brought out the cold I carried in, and got a little but a little deafness which however has evanished. The stye on my eye begins to be troublesome and threa- tens to suppurate: I like no impediment near my only useful eye; it is so far well. Dr Gregory3 makes light of it and I can still read and write without inconvenience. But my spirits are not good which will make this a dull letter; for it requires spirits, if not genius, to write upon nothing; you can therefore expect no news from here but of the rural kind. I have seen no such crops ’twixt this and Edinburgh as my own and those of my tenants; were all the rest of Scotland as good and as early we should in good time have plenty once more. I wish I could say as much for the Garden but whoever wishes to par- take of my fruit must repair to my hermitage; for hardly any of it is portable, consisting chiefly of cherries and geens, gooseberries and strawberries, with a sprinkling of plums, 2 or 3 score of apricots and peaches. O what a sad thing is poverty! But what of that, if we and what is of infinitely greater consequence, the poor get porridge and potatoes.... The high school politics are to me more pleasant than 1 George Abercromby, afterwards Lord Abercromby, son of Lt. Gen. Sir Ralph Abercromby, K.B., grandson of the deceased George Abercromby, married Montagu, third2 daughter of Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville. 3 James Drummond, eleventh earl of Perth, attainted, died in 1800. Dr James Gregory, 1753-1821, professor of medicine at Edinburgh University. i8oo 13 national ones which are beginning to be worse than ippecacuana. You should pay court in time to the triumvirate I saw parading before your windows on Sunday senight. Wh[en] they come to bear sway, woe to my Lord Chief Justice etc. to speak the language of Falstaff1.... 8 July 1800 This week has been remarkable for a set of minor disappointments, more vexatious sometimes than more serious ones. Our blunderbuss of a carrier (careful as he commonly is) carried the packet in which your letter and the other inclosures were with him to Callander imagining it was for Dr Robertson.2 By that means I did not receive yours of the 25th June till last night on my return from Blair- drummond. And to make up for former blunders, he came a day sooner than usual when I was from home, so that I could not send the pears, though they are now falling from their altitudes. That is not all: I was not an hour gone on Sunday, before Mr Dundas popped in his head. Instead of dining at Cambusmay on Saturday with the volunteers etc. I chose to go up on Sunday, after going to church at Doun which is a luxury I cannot take either in wet or warm weather. As I am so little from home it was unlucky to miss a guest who is not likely to make me many visits in the beginning of July: nothing but death or marriage could have brought him to the country at that thrang season. . . . Let me in the first place thank you for your letter, and for your poetry, which last is more welcome that one would not in these times expect it from a Lady of St Andrew’s square who lives in the gay world and occasionally converses with the flatterers of fashion who seldom think of anything beyond their own precious persons and the tale of the day. I like it the better that your muse does not disdain to sing of sacred subjects when they sound antiquated and unfashion- able to those whose duty it is to enforce them upon topics drawn from their bibles and prayer books; for as long as you Episcopalians use the latter, you must offer up prayers and praises like Christians. Begging the great Dr Johnson’s pardon I cannot see why one may not 1 Shakespeare, King Henry IV, part 2, v, iii. * James Robertson, minister of Callander, ordained 1768, died 1812. 14 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY succeed in sacred poetry in English as well as in Hebrew or Latin. Once more let me thank you for your sacred pastoral written aloof from groves and purling streams-but on second reading I suspect it has been written in your pastoral days when at Kippenross. I am exceedingly scandalised by the homily you mention which seems rather calculated to inculcate the religion of nature than the gospel of his great master whose bread he eats. He seems to be one of our sentimental preachers whose homilies are a sort of syllabus fit only for queasy stomachs that cannot relish more wholesome and substantial food, namely the bread of life. I have no dislike to moral sermons when they are grafted on Christian motives and topics. The one you mention might have been preached at Paris in their Theophilanthropic meetings where revealed religion is regarded as a fable. Verily I would have you and the devout Ladies of your chapel present a remonstrance to the vestry complaining of lack of wholesome food and enjoining your new pastor on pain of your displeasure (which can be signified in a stanza) to give you a lecture on the gospel or epistle of the day. In this point of view, let me recommend to your serious perusal Bennet of Duddingston’s sermon1 before the Society upon the excellence of Christian Morality which is one of the best I have lately read. He treats the religion of sentiment with great asperity as a wretched sucadaneum for better things, nourished by the sickly dreams and delusive pictures of Romantic writers. It was published about ten weeks ago. Dr Erskine can furnish you with a reading of it, if you do not give it a place in your library which it well deserves as it will bear repeated readings. I am sorry to hear no better accounts of good Mrs Edm [ onstoune ] and her son.21 wish Dr Gregory had been consulted on her case, for he has genius and an intuition which might have enabled him to divine the cause. Headaches are a. generic name proceeding from very various causes indeed, and next to the aches of the heart and the aches of the troublesome thing called conscience one of the greatest torments frail mortals are liable to. I hope our Harrowgate friends 1 William Bennet, 1763-1805, minister of Duddingston, The Excellence of Christian Morality: a Sermon, preached before the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian 2knowledge . . .6June 1799 (Edinburgh, 1800). John James Edmonstone of Newton, advocate, eldest son of Colonel James Edmon- stone of Newton, married, 1796, Barbara, daughter of Sir Henry Seton, bt. He died 1840. i8oo 15 male and female shall receive benefit from the expedition. Keir1 must take care not to mix too much wine with his water. Who knows but he may bring down a helpmate with him. This is poor Lord Perth’s burial day: how little his great fortune and flattering pro- spects contributed to happiness or respectability? His affairs will I fancy be a very ravelled harp. Now they must be displayed and the blame fall where it ought.- In these times when peoples’ thoughts are gloomy and perplexed with famine and greed at home and indignant at the triumphs of our enemies it is as well to let them die in oblivion. . . . I am just now reading the sacking of Rome by the Goths etc. in the fifth century when dreadful judgments overtook the pampered dissipated inhabitants of that proud metropolis and its dependant provinces who would take no warning and never thought of a way to turn calamities into blessings. The picture drawn of the Roman nobility is a very frightful and disgusting one indeed. Heaven knows whether those of Britain be much better. Then the soldiers of Alaric and Genseric embraced the religion of the vanquished and after glutting themselves with blood and gold humbled themselves before the Bishops which is more than I doubt the French would do before Bishop Abemethy2.- You will say ‘all this is the effects of solitude: In good company no fears are entertained either for the public or for anything but a curtailing of pleasures.’- Our weather continues cold and droughty but let us hope better things. I rejoice to hear your little Dr is getting so easily over the small pox. Forgive this long scrawl which is enough to give one the vapours .... Who takes charge of your chapel? Not Dr Alison3 surely; else it would not be converted into a tabernacle; for I understand Simeonis in doctrine perfectly methodistical. Such was the doctrines [sic] of Whitfield, and not very different, though purified from the dross, are those of our excellent friend Dr Erskine who is great authority. The best caveat against methodism in its fairest form that I know of is Gibson, Bishop of London’s4 pastoral letter on luke- 1 2 James Stirling of Keir, 1766-1831. 3 William Abemethy Drummond, ?I7I9-i8o9, bishop of Edinburgh. 4 ArchibaldEdmund Gibson, Alison, 1669-1748,1752-1839, bishop minister of London.of episcopal chapel in Cowgate, Edinburgh. i6 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY warmness and enthusiasm. He warns his clergy against the first, saying the way to counteract these novelties is to live them down, preach them doivn. Enthusiasm, says the Bishop is a strong persuasion of the mind, that they are guided by immediate impulses and impressions of the holy spirit, not distinguishing ’twixt the ordinary and extra- ordinary operations. The extraordinary operations were those by which the apostles and other first propagators of the gospel were enabled to work miracles and speak with tongues etc. But these have long since ceased, and the ordinary gifts and influences of the spirit which still continue, are conveyed in a different manner, and for ends and uses of a more private nature, and however real and certain in themselves, are no otherwise discemable than by their fruits and effects on the lives of Christians.- Our saviour hath told us that we know no more of the workings of the spirit than we know of the wind whence it goeth; and we see that all pretences to that know- ledge, unless accompanied with the proper evidences of a divine inspiration, would open a door to endless enthusiasm and delusion.- Thus far Bishop Gibson who was none of the velvet-mouthed preachers branded by Whitfield, but a great Christian divine. I wanted some years ago some of our dominant clergy to republish his pastoral letter with notes, but they would not; disliking, I pre- sume, his homily against lukewarmness which is but too applicable to many both of your church and ours, whose homilies savour strong of natural religion tricked up in a gaudy dress. This much I have said, lest the next news I should hear was your taking a seat at the tabernacle; for that matter is contagious and nothing will surprise me on that head. I should think Dr Sandford’s1 views the happy medium: perhaps you may get a reading of the pastoral letter from some of your clerical friends, as for instance from Dr Erskine. I had last week an excellent letter from him of two pages, with some rare books, in a fine strain; but O ! it is ill to read! yet the pleasure overpays the trouble. ‘The soul’s dark cottage batter’d and decayed, lets in new light thro’ chinks much time has made’, says Waller,2 and it is a pity such a man should ever fail. 1 Daniel Sandford, 1766-1830, bishop of Edinburgh, 1806, in succession to bishop 2Abernethy Drummond. read Edmund ‘lets in Waller, new light 1606-87, thro’ chinks On the that foregoing time has Divine made’. Poems. The second line should i8oo 17 How sweet, how refreshing the beams of his setting sun! What wise man near the close of his course but must envy his retrospects and prospects! How different those of the poor man who has lately closed a very giddy idle course, shortened by his own folly l1 After reading the passage over a score of times, I at last discovered his bequest to Lord Murray2 was a horse Yeclepted Elios', I doubt the last letter should be r. See what it is to have bad eyes! I hope Mr J’s legacy will stand good, for he wants it. Time was when we were more squeamish about settlements; but after David Simpson’s interlineations,3 anything will do in these liberal-notioned times, when we are proud to take all the good and all the evil of the English modes. ... I presume your late host the judge is an impetuous improver. I would not like to be his grieve in a ticklish harvest, but it will amuse him and exercise his patience, besides keeping him from being too rich. . . . Have you got or read G. Wallace’s pros- pects?* If his poetry be as rough and obscure as his prose, it will not be a very toothsome piece. And it is extraordinary that a man near seventy should think of commencing landscape painter in verse - prospects of men and manners I have some notion of; prospects of scenery do best on canvas. . . .

A truce, good Madam with your compliments, else in a gloomy mood I shall be disposed to think you are laughing at me who am, it is well known to all my friends of figure and fashion, a fellow of no Mark or likelihood, to speak in Shakespeare’s phrase5.. . I con- fess I did not expect to see a series of Shakespeare’s plays represented on the Edinburgh theatre, for in the first place there are few players nowadays that can enact them, and secondly they are too antiquated for the polite audiences of modem times who prefer sing song and pantomime and the horse comedy, alias the circus - on week days, to the manly sense and impassioned sentiments of the poet of nature, 1 2 Lord Perth. Alexander Murray (in Jacobite peerage, fourth earl of Westminster), 1747-1820, who generally used the title of Earl (or Count) Murray (Marquis of Ruvigny and 2Raineval, Jacobite peerage, Edinburgh, 1904, pp. 126, 186). 4 Not identified. 6 GeorgeShakespeare, Wallace, King Prospects Henry IV, from part hills 2, inin, Fife, iv. second edn., 1800. B l8 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY who must now give place to Germanised dramatists, most of whom seem to have as little connection with nature as with virtue. Let me not however find fault with the taste of the times which, when it once arrives at the golden age of composition, generally goes down hill with more or less velocity, first assuming a silver hue, then a brazen one and last of all an iron hue. It is not want of knowledge that makes the writers of this our silver age write worse than their fathers, but affectation and the abuse of talents. Had I been in town I should have been tempted to have been of the party, though I had observed a strict neutrality with regard to the rest. Races I was never fond of in my youngest days, perhaps owing to my losing a bett on the head of one horse against the field. The Duke’s equipages are such as befit his princely rank and fortune. As for the other gentle- man it excites ridicule and indignation which no wise man in business ought ever to provoke. When Mr Dundas or Mrs Dundas sports away a chariot and four in crimson or pink liveries, I question much if the chents will have more confidence in him. The Dyvours habit (Mr Dundas will explain it to you) would set some families much better; albeit the dress viz. a brown and a yellow sleeve or, if thought more tasteful, an orange one, was in the opinion of good Lord Auchinleck1 a dress for a Beau that speculated deeply. I would propose for such a gentleman’s motto either the Cranston’s ‘Ye shall want ere I want’, or the Clan Alpin’s ‘E’en do and spare noght’2 which is surely the most heroic of the two. And would to God it were not likely ere long to become in modem cant ‘the order of the day’. Woes is me to live in the decline of a great people, whom self- apparent dangers seem not to alarm, and impending judgments do not make wiser or more provident. A truce, say you, with my rustic apprehensions and mora[li ]sing: sufficient to the day is the evil thereof- Be it so! I heard accidentally of D[avid] E[rskine]’s3 intention to relinquish the quill for the plough which I think he did wisely and honourably though it must have disturbed his excellent parents who are ever partial to their own. Tell Mr Dundas that my long and obstinate silence is somewhat 1 2 Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck, died 1782. 3 ‘E’en do and spare not’, the motto of Macgregor of Glengyle. David Erskine, later of Carnock, 1770-1838, youngest child of John Erskine of Carnock, d.d. 8oo 19 portentous-, but would he believe it? I am now as little fond of scribbling (unless when duty leads me to answer) as AdamRolland1 himself. ... Tell him [Mr Dundas] that I am become a victual and rice merchant, not for profit, but for sure loss to supply the little municipality with which I am connected. I am the active partner; and it furnishes an object to my walks, now that poor Sanders Thomson2 whom I used almost daily to visit in his decline (mindful of his better days) is no more, and I can only cast a wishful look to the place where a veritable Glaud or Simon, such as Allan Ramsay drew,3 had his abode. The people are pleased and grateful yet I question very much if the hoarders in your neighbourhood may not lose a vast deal more than I would care to hazard in hopes of exorbitant gain. Woes is me! among our other woes, for this killing drought. My own crop is better than common; had the year been moist it would have been laid. But they say dearth never came after drought except a Belten one.... I have not yet seen the Ladies of whom I heard from Falkirk, but our preachings now being past, I have sent over to ask for them. I hope Miss S. will get a good Place. I thought well courtships had been like well friendships, not very permanent, at least the latter among the Ladies are proverbial. But Duncan is impatient and so I must conclude with best compliments to Mr Dundas and wishes that I had your covy of younkers among my gooseberries. I am Dear Madam, your most obedient humble servant Jo. Ramsay Ochtertyre 5 August 1800 30 September 1800 .... As for this frail tabernacle, I have reason to be thankful that the shock or rather debility which was so alarming is almost entirely gone off and I can move my pen with wonted agility. And what is of no less importance my head is less confused. Nor have I had any more 1 Adam Holland of Cask, 1734-1819, advocate. For a description of Mr Holland, see 2[J. G. Lockhart], Peter’s letters to his kinsfolk (third edition, 1819), i, 164-5. Alexander Thomson, tenant in Muir of Ochtertyre (sro, Dundas of Ochtertyre, 8GD 35/92/2; Scotland and Scotsmen, ii, 366). Two characters, shepherds, from Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd, Glaud standing apparently for Claude or Claudius (Jamieson). 20 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSEY Facsimile of part letter dated 5 August 1800 (reduced) i8oo 21 of those nocturnal fits which as long as they kept in the fingers or hands I minded little but when they get beyond the outworks, it is time to one who knows he has the seeds of disease in him, to think of setting his house in order, without allowing his spirits to droop below much rain. In that temper of mind one looks to the friends that are left. ... It is now forty years since I came to live here; during which time what wonderful revolutions have taken place in nations, districts and families. At that period my country was great and glorious and prosperous beyond what was good for it. I had troops of friends and neighbours such as my heart could wish and certainly in those days my affections were so much wedded to this world that I should have felt a bitterer pang than at present to leave them for- ever. My last wishes shall be for my country and for those that are dear to me. . . . The revolutions in families that have passed within my own remembrance in this country are more edifying than such sermons as you and I heard not long ago; they show in various cases a circle of which virtuous poverty is the beginning; wealth and honour the reward of virtuous industry, succeeded by pride and vanity and extravagance which sooner or later end in vitious poverty and contempt. When you can reckon up sixty years and upwards (such a supposition say you to one in the prime of life!) you will assuredly see strange sights not alwise what one would wish or expect. I could here moralize, if it would not make you yawn, after the manner of Solomon, and say I have made me gardens and orch- yards and I planted in them of all kinds of fruits, and if I have not had servants bom in my house, my servants’ grandchildren are now my companions who flock about me in my walks. And the sight of their parents’ faces, weather beaten as some of them are become, are not the least of my cordials. Should it so happen, that your lot be ever cast on the banks of the Teith, sometimes think on him who preceded you in these walks, and bestow a sigh sacred to sweet remembrance and to one who assuredly meant well, and wished to make the very small community over which he presided happy; who though no squeezer or hoarder, never wanted what sufficed his moderate wishes, whose darling luxury was the sight and converse of an old and tried friend when he deigned to visit his hermitage. Somewhat too much of this; but there is a time for all things, a time for mirth, and a time for confessing the sentiments of one’s 22 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY heart when possibly standing on the brink of time (and who is it that is not somewhat in that predicament). I hope however to see you here again with your spouse and to chat and laugh as we were wont to do - soberly, as Lady Grace says.1 And as an inducement I have some damsons to preserve with Kippendavie’s sugar2 who has and to spare.- Mr Drummond3 has got a bad sprain which is likely to confine him for some time. I got in my crop in excellent order, thanks to the skill and sagacity of my people which are the gifts of years matured by good sense and experience. I ha[ve] not tasted animal food these three days, whereby I hope to beco[me] a greater favourite of Dr Gregory whose memorial is more en[live]ning than any comedy I ever read :4 Yet one may have too much wit as well as too little. Now must I go and take my exercise, for between that and my pen the greater part of my time is spent - comfortably. I would fain live to finish my problem; but what signifies wishing. . . . But this tune you will perhaps think with Sancho when he heard Basil talking with a sword sticking in him ‘This man has more of death in his tongue than in his heart’5 ....

28 October 1800 To pen a dedication to a turkey is seemingly a very easy though not a very copious theme. Imagining that it will taste as well off the stubble as in the end of December I think it as well to diminish my flock in this season of real or pretended scarcity which in the langu- age of our metre translation of the psalms, bids fair to be ‘another of the same’. Have you any thought of effecting a reform in prices by compulsive measures? I do not think you well qualified to head a mob but you could pen a philippic. Woes is me! for all our pro- spects of various kinds which are not likely to make men wiser, if 1 From Colley Cibber, The Provok’d Husband, m, i, Lady Grace: ‘ In Summer I could pass my leisure hours in Riding, in Reading, Walking by a Canal, or sitting at the End of it under a great Tree; in dressing, dining, chatting with an agreeable Friend, perhaps hearing2 a little Music, taking a Dish of Tea, or a Game of Cards, soberly’. 3 John Stirling of Kippendavie, 1742-1816. 4 George Home Drummond, sixth of Blair Drummond, married, 1782, Janet Jardine. For Dr Gregory’s quarrel with the Infirmary, see Lord Cockbum, Memorials of his 6time (Edinburgh, 1856), 104 (hereafter referred to as Cockburn). From Cervantes, Don Quixote (London, 1770), iii, 183. i8oo 23 one may judge by the Olympic exploits of Gartmore1 and Bonshaw2 who seemingly are running their race with unexampled velocity, and it is not difficult to fortel that they will at last be completely distanced. Methinks our neighbour (likePitmelly )3 hasno luck at chess; for except one pretty equal bet with Fletcher4 he seems uniformly to lose. I expect tidings of these heroes and of the heroines who figured at Hamilton among the fowls of fashion (do not pronounce in the Scotch way) from the Stirlings whom I saw, and was sorry to see poor Keir with his leg on a stool. He is an honest man and we can ill spare him. Mr Erskine is to be here on Friday and return with him to Cardross for a week or ten days where I have passed many days of joy. . . . Only let me reprove you for undervaluing your talents for letterwriting when in truth their only fault is the microscopic form of your letters which sometimes puzzle both me and my spectacles. You can not imagine how well you would appear in print; it would remove all your scruples and embolden you for greater things. Suppose I should send one of them to the Edinburgh magazine or to Dr Currie5 for the second edition of Bums where it would appear with fully as much propriety as some that are inserted. Who knows but it might be followed by a poem or an essay The mitches are troublesome but do not ascend. I may say as the stoic did to the gout ‘Thou are troublesome but I will allow thee to be an evil.’ 24 November 1800 On my return from Cardross Tuesday senight last I was favoured with yours of the 29th ult. with the towel environning 7 volumes of Johnson’s plays for which I am exceedingly obliged to Mrs Erskine and will take special care of. In the first place let me censure what shall I call it, your modesty or prudery, for considering what I said in my last upon your letters as ironical, for I look on ease and nature as the excellence of epistolary writing far superior to elaboration of 1 2 Robert Graham of Gartmore. 3 JohnLt. Col. Robert Alexander Irving ofMonnypenny Bonshaw, advocate, of Pitmellie, died 1839.died at Edinburgh, 22 December 41801 (Scots Magazine). 5 Not identified. James Currie, m.d., 1756-1805, buried in parish church of Sidmouth. 24 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY style. I told you the only fault I spied which woes is me! is rather the fault of my declining years than of your characters which are very opposite to my Runic ones; but some of my friends tell me I improve at least in magnitude. I wonder in how many lessons I should im- prove so far as to be reckoned among the legibles. You may well imagine I passed my time very pleasantly at Card- ross with a family very aimiable in itself reinforced with a trio of stranger nymphs. Two of them I need not pourtray to you: it is sufficient to say they were all agreeable parts in the intellectual concert. We had luckily but few visitors: yet among them I saw a wig and a gown which I shall not soon forget, a proof of my land- wartness and ignorance: but on those topics I will not dwell; only let me say with Shakespeare, ‘fashion is a deformed thief’.11 speak of the wig; for I rather think fashion had no share in adjusting the gown. . . . Though both Mr and Lady Christian were remarkably chearful, neither of them so well as their friends could wish them. He is at times breathless and she has a filthy stifling cough very like what her mother2 had (if I mistake not) for a number of years. . . . Since I came home Airs Watson was rather dangerously ill insomuch that I doubted I should receive Mr and Mrs Graham3 who were on a trading voyage. She at last grew so much better that they came and with them Rachel and David4 who had been on a tour of visits when I was at Cardross. I was glad to see Mrs Grfaham] well and fully more cheerful than in her maiden state. I was alledging on Rachel she was grown unusually grave, for which there may be reasons. David was in very good spirits and we talked of America etc. like pen guns.5 And I went over with them to Keir on invita- tion which finishes my travels for some time and leaves me to luxuries which you and your neighbours have little notion of; three or four morsels of flesh (I wish to convert Miss Jane6) and walks 1after dinner without which last I should fall asleep. . . . 2 I am unable to trace this quotation. 3 Janet Robertson, married William, eighth earl of Kincardine, 1726. She died 1772. John Graham of Gartur, died 1818, married, 1 January 1800, Matilda Erskine, daughter of James Erskine of Cardross (Scots Magazine). *5 David and Rachel Erskine, children of James Erskine of Cardross. A quill open at each end, used as a pop-gun by children; to crack like a pen-gun, to be very loquacious (Jamieson). John Galt also uses the word, Annals of the Parish 6chap. 2. Jean Graham, sister of Mrs Dundas, died unmarried 1850. i8oo 25 It gave me very great pleasure to receive a very kind and a very natural letter from Ja[mes] Edm[onstoune] from Bath. Though he says little of his health it is plain from his spirits he is much better. He draws a parallel twixt Edinburgh and Bath little to the advantage of the great dinners of the former which he says some- body compared to meetings of creditors. I hope he shall return home with a new lease of life for [he] is one of the few neighbours and relations much younger than myself from whom I expect comfort.... Well! who is to be Baron in place of Gordon1 my old class fellow? I think George Aber[cromby] should strike in and make hay while the sun shines. I will not defile my paper with politics which are to me worse than ippicacuana.... But to quit subjects apt to give people a sentimental headach what is to be done with the infirmary: it is said Dr Gregory’s eloquence will not be entirely lost. How goes Mr Alison on? feeding you with sentimental syllabubs rather than with the roast beef and plum pudding of Tillotson2 and Atterbury3 who were not ashamed of their great master and his doctrines. And finally what sort of playhouse have you got this winter? for that does not seem to improve in the present age more than the art of preaching. Our Edinburgh stage 45 years ago could boast of a very good set better I believe in general than the run of the London actors. If you have no other news give me the politics of the high school. Is James Erskine4 as temperate and just; Tom5 as ambi- tious as ever? In that point of view Ritson’s6 removal is perhaps no advantage. He will perhaps not believe me when I tell him that the famous Bushby made all his best scholars by flogging which was not 1 2 Cosmo Gordon of Clunie, baron of exchequer (Edinburgh Almanac, 1799). 3 John Tillotson, 1630-94, archbishop of Canterbury. 4 JamesFrancis Erskine, Atterbury, son 1662-1732,of David Erskine, bishop ofw.s., Rochester. and Ann Graham, captain in the 87th 5regiment, Thomas diedErskine 1816. of Linlathen, 1788-1870, advocate and theologian, youngest son of David and Ann Erskine. Owing to death of his parents, he was left to the care of his maternal grandmother, Mrs Graham of Airth, mother of Mrs Dundas. He 6succeeded This word to isLinlathen doubtful, on and death could of possiblyhis brother be Jamesa contraction, in 1816. perhaps for Robertson. thoughIf Ritson I cannot is correct, find anythe connectionreference may with be the to High Joseph School. Ritson, Alexander 1752-1803, Law, antiquary, ‘ Teachers in Edinburgh in the Eighteenth Century’ in Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, xxxii, does not give any names that resemble this. 26 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY confined to the underlings.1 Not being assured of Duncan’s going on the fair of Doun week (a great festival) I must keep within bounds to send this by post. . . .

9 December 1800 I... thank you for your news which are more interesting to me than the foreign mails or the debates in parliament which are too much for my nerves; and therefore not alwise perused with a true quid- nunc’s2 eagerness which delights nearly as much in bad news as in good. Woes me! Europe is now threatened with war and pestilence, bankruptcy and famine, four of the saddest evils which can befall the human race. Yet even now when any one of these might teach us wisdom and temperance and decorum do the people who inhabit your streets and squares of palaces indulge in ponderous dinners and more ponderous cracks; whilst the modish nymphs indulge their taste for the fooleries of dress, or to speak more properly no dress, in keen frost. There us nothing new under the sun: the Guardian lashes the misses of his time to some purpose for displaying their beauties to unhallowed eyes; there you will see an advertisement about a modesty piece lost.3 And I remember in the days of my youth, the petticoats passing short displaying to great advantage a fine turned ankle, Lord Karnes4 at one of his suppers gave, by way of toast or sentiment, Miss s legs. ‘My lord,’ said his Lady5 with dignified irony, ‘I thought you had never gone so low as the Ladies’ legs, contenting yourself with their heads and hearts. ’ I remember those same petticoats came in soon after the monstrous hoops were exploded. Have they got any of the French flesh coloured hose as yet? I think Sir John Henderson has got his hands full. As for his politics I presume he expects there will be a revolution before the cause can be decided in the last resort. As for his daughter61 pity her 1 2 Richard Busby, 1606-95, headmaster of Westminster school. 3 Quidnunc, a character from Arthur Murphy’s farce, The Upholsterer. 1 In The Guardian, vol. 2, no. 145 (London, 1714). 3 Henry Home, Lord Karnes, 1696-1782. Agatha, daughter of James Drummond of Blair Drummond, married Lord Karnes 6in 1741. Ann, daughter of Sir John Henderson, married Admiral Sir Philip Charles Durham, i8oo 27 for she is our cousin and no distant one neither. I remember her grandfather General Robertson1 a very sensible man till he grew follement amoureux in the winter of life. Fine diversion for the town! better than for her who is probably not much [better] treated than poor Sophia Western was by a brutish father. Mr Hope2 seems to undervalue the laws of honour more than suits the times. There is certainly a liberty of speech which flesh and blood cannot brook; but if this be the Dunfermline politics 97 the very recital of the facts was a libel.3 I think a little imprisonment would have been as well as an act of sederunt. I understood Sir J. B. Riddell4 to be a great marriage and of a family as old as Adam’s uncle. I should like a reading (no more) of the papers in their causes which make the blood of parties and counsel circulate with unusual rapidity. It grieves me to think that excellent Dr Erskine should be so near the end of his truly meritorious course, when I heard of his preaching lately I hoped we should have had him a while longer. His resigna- tion is like himself, but the object of our present rulers seems to be to thin not to fill their churches, losing thereby the benefit which the politicians of former times derived from religion when pastors and people were of one heart and one mind. I should have liked much to have heard James and Thomas E[rskine] their accounts of the high school politics which are probably rancorous enough. Dr A.5 is reputed to be a little democratic, yet he seems not to relish the liberty and equality of the masters. Miss Home6 told me yesterday at Blair that the good couple at Cardross had been ill but were much better. . . . Why were you not at Orchel’s7 concert in the Cowgate which I hope was relished by Mr Dundas and his Lady whose cares 1 2 See above, p. 10, n. 3. 3 Possibly Charles Hope, later Lord Granton. In the general election of 1796, the contest for Inverkeithing burghs was between Sir John Henderson of Fordell, bt., and the Hon. Andrew Cochrane Johnstone, after- wards governor of Dominica. The friends of the latter had a party of Dunfermline andcouncillors Joanna transportedBaxter (Lucky to Kinghorn, Skinner). as For had the been details done of in this 1789-90, story see by J. Mr Kay, John A Huttonseries of 4Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings, ii, 402-10 (hereafter referred to as Kay). Sir John Buchanan Riddell of Riddell, bt., 1768-1819, married, 17 August 1805, Francis,6 daughter of first earl of Romney. Dr Alexander Adam, rector of the High School of Edinburgh from 1766 to 1809. *7 Possibly Mary, daughter of George Home of Bassendean, died at Kelso, 1806. William Graeme of Orchill, advocate, was a friend of Niel Gow and accompanied him on the violin. He died in 1825. (L. G. Graeme, Or and Sable, Edinburgh, 1903.) 28 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY the music of Niel Gow1 was calculated to soothe. By the bye I thought Niel had turned missionary. Miss Baillie, Agatha’s gover- ness, reports the soliciter is to be Baron. George Aber[cromby] had better slip in while his friends are in power. Woes me! that family have at present a deep stake in Egypt which seems to me little better than moonstruck madness. But it is to be hoped ministers know what they are about. I am sure their power and their pelf are not to be envied at present. Still I wish them success, not knowing where we are to get better.... I am afraid this winter promises to be a very severe one which will add to the distresses of the poor; but I am sinking in my themes, and come at last to the weather, the dullest of themes. It is a hint to me to conclude. . . . What says the town to Bell’s answer to my friend’s memorial which was certainly not a very prudent though a very witty and able performance.2 Wit how- ever is a two edged weapon. . . . What is become of the public kitchen ? I live on your famine soup.

23 December 1800 .... I am much diverted with your account of the intoxicating Gas invented by our Edinburgh philosophers. They have had for a number of years a sort of intoxicating spirit called modem philo- sophy spoken of by Milton, which is infinitely worse for the soul than whisky or gin is to the bodies of confirmed dram-drinkers. It makes them play strange gambols in history essays and other light reading. Nor is it I am afraid totally excluded from the pulpit. By all accounts it rages like a pestilence among the medical men. Sorry I am my excellent friend Dr Gregory, whose truth and virtue and skill are great, has by his wit and satyr provoked a host of enemies which is a thing no wise man would wish. . . . Robert Haldane3 seems to have got a very tolerable doze of it, though the very reverse of what intoxicates the philosophical junto. They had better meet half way. I hear he is enjoined silence a recipe which would do 1 2 Niel Gow, 1727-1807, fiddler. 3 John Bell, 1763-1820, surgeon. Robert Haldane, 1764-1842, eldest son of Janies Haldane of Airthrey House, Stirling. He sold Airthrey in 1798. In the twelve years from 1798 to 1810 he expended over £20,000 on his schemes for advancement of religion in Scotland (DNB). x8oo 29 his brother no harm.1 As to the single loaf I hear of it, but as I like what is given me know no more of it. Kippendavie told me t’other day I was a most expensive guest as I eat beyond my proportion. Miss Stirling Keir2 told me it was introduced at Airthray when they had had a very plain dinner, i.e. no pastry but on enquiring there was a salmon of 26 lb. ... I acknowledge oeconomy to be an excellent thing but it must go beyond trifles. It reminds one of Lord Bute’s3 oeconomy which consisted in calling off the maids ofhonour’s suppers and some other fials4 of that kind. I am afraid a meeting of Sanchoes on the poor business may curtail this or at least evapourate that gas which is the quintessence, but the weight of a very trouble- some and nice business the maintenance of the poor will rest princi- pally on my shoulders for tho the other heritors are ready enough to pay they are not willing to labour.... I confess I like a good play, and I believe the generality of players to be very great objects; but at present I should hesitate going there. I am to Christmas at home. I was [invited] to one place which I declined because I thought the family had neglected me very much of late and out of delicacy do not go to Airthray castle till Saturday to be a spectator of modem oeconomy.- Now for the Sanchoes. . . . 1 James Alexander Haldane, 1768-1851, youngest son of James Haldane. In 1799, with his brother Robert, he founded a congregational church in Edinburgh. Robert built a tabernacle in Leith Walk to seat 3,000; he had previously preached in a circus. He embraced baptist beliefs in 1808. For an account of the Haldane movement, see George2 Yuille, History of the Baptists in Scotland (Glasgow, n.d.), 55-60. 3 Marion, 1774-1842, daughter of William Stirling of Keir. 4 John, third earl of Bute. Wages. i8oi

ii January 1801 . . . . I congratulate you most sincerely on the recovery of your six babes from a dangerous malady which however every mother wishes well over their head. The watching, the anxiety etc. are not good for the complection but I am clear they do less hurt than midnight suppers or the morning dances to fashionable belles. And there is a toil and a terror which end in pleasure because they accord with duty and the finest feeling of the heart and your stake was great. One of my servants children died last night of them attended with a bole hive.11 am not Doctor enough to make English of it but tis surely not Greek, tho it proved mortal. Our party was not numerous or mirthful; it consisted only of George Aber- [cromby] who was rather on the acid, his wife and Charles Dundas who went off goutish on Monday.2 James Edm[onstoune] was expected but sent no apology but had the Cambusmores on Christ- mas day. On Tuesday his wife came but he could not, tho he had been out with the hounds that forenoon. Some wicked wit says women are a riddle; so it would seem are some of the masculine gender. Mr and Mrs Watson3 came on Wednesday, Mr Aber- [cromby] and his Lady went home on Thursday. She is very deli- cate. We were much the better of the Watsons and I staid till Sunday when I went to church and so home. Our landlord was not in such 1good spirits as when I saw him in November. His sight however 2 A disease in children in which the groin is said to swell (Jamieson). Charles Dundas, m.p., later Baron Amesbury, 1751-1832, second son of Thomas sDundas of Fingask. Walter Watson of Southfield, late of India, married, 19 October 1792, Margaret Bruce, youngest daughter of late Lord Kennet (Scots Magazine). i8oi 3i improves, but with great propriety he does not use it much. We fared as sumptuously as Dives every day and what I like there was nothing cumbrous but all of the best and a better regulated family is not to be seen. ... Sir Robert was very kind: some of the Kennets were to succeed; Thomas Bruce and his wife, my old ward, are to be here tomorrow1 If Kippendavie wants a palace to feast and ball in, George Aber- [cromby] means to let his house in Charlotte Square and to rusti- cate at Tullibody but ’twixt the cup and the lip there come many many obstacles, and it is not clear where he may be this time twelvemonth! I was astonished to hear that Allanton had offered his house and library to Kippendavie who would hardly have room for a hop, tho there is no saying but he might be tempted to turn author or reviewer by getting the studying chair and conversing with the sybil or the muses, who are or ought to be fixtures. I am sorry for the Lady you mention whose father is no general favourite. It will entertain the town and find occupation for Mr A[ndrew] B[alfour]2 being at least better than a divorce, which one always connects with the idea of a sacking gown. I made a second visit to the miners and had much talk with them on their religion. I looked over their liturgy printed by the Prince of Wales’s printer. There is a loyal prayer for the royal family, that they may all become members of the new church. Such a liturgy, such a creed and such a catachism! They make the son the first person of the trinity or rather their trinity has no persons; they deny the resurrection of the body; and they believe the last judgment past I forget what year. They sent me a quarto volume in latin containing their theology, and a full account of their founder Baron Sweden- borg’s travels in heaven3 compared with which your cousin Kinnaird’s4 are but a walk. Some parts of them I have looked into are of a comic cast of which you shall have a specimen, being I trust in a fair way to become a Dutch angel. After discovering the Dutch towns in heaven, where the inhabitants wear clothes like those on 1 Thomas Bruce, son of Robert Bruce of Rennet, married Margaret, daughter of 2Robert Ramsey of Blackcraig. 3 Andrew Balfour, solicitor, commissary of Edinburgh (Edinburgh Almanac, 1801). 4 Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688-1772. James Bruce of Kinnaird, 1730-94. His mother, Marion Graham, was the daughter of James Graham of Airth, grandfather of Mrs Dundas. 32 LETTERS OFJOHN RAMSAY earth, only brighter and cleaner, he tells us the women who affect to rule their husbands live on one side of the town and never con- verse with their husbands but when invited. Then they are con- ducted to the houses where spouses dwell that usurp no dominion over one another and shown how neat and adorned their houses are and how happily they live. Such as make a proper improvement of this, desist from domineering, are taken home and called angels: the cause of true conjugal love is heavenly love, in which there is no domineering. He had long conversation with Luther and the duke of Saxony1 his protector who is one of the blessed. Poor John Calvin after the general judgment in 1757 was travelling towards the pit. Enough you will say of blasphemies and absurdity. O said Wright who was once the King’s watchmaker,2 Nobody denies the apostles were in heaven. Yes said I, the apostle Paul was there; but he could not utter what he heard or describe what he saw.-1 allowed him some credit for blacking his Laird Haldane and five ministers. This mad sect are numerous in Holland and London. I believe I told you before the Baron makes rewards and punishments to consist in smells good and bad. So much for Swedenborgians which will make you smile, perhaps frown! Fit subjects for the lash of the reviewer; only I will venture to fortel they would have the last word. Duncan is arrived so must conclude with best wishes 18 January 1801 I thank you kindly for your letter of the 13 th which found me almost entirely recovered, beginning to make up my lost time in scribbling and to skelp thro’ the dubs which old David Graeme (no pastoral man) said was one of the chief pleasures of the country.3 As usual I found a little deafishness, but that is also gone off, and it is of less consequence when there are so few to converse with; but one likes to hear what even simple swains have to say. I alledged at first William4 had learnt to speak low at Airthrey where the butler’s voice and tones are to me a comedy for softness and polish. I was 1diverted with the adherence to the quatem loaf, rice pastry and other 2 Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, died 1525. Presumably Thomas Wright, watchmaker to the king, though he died in 1792 3(Britten’s Clocks and Watches, ed. G. H. Baillie, London, 1951). 4 David Graham of Newton, advocate, died 1785. William Keay. i8oi 33 articles of courtly oeconomy, which reminded me of Sir James Dick’s necessity who was constrained to eat crust of pyes for want of bread.1 When there I made two excursions which pleased me; the first to Haldane’s Milne where we met with a set of Swedish burgers, a set of fanatics who discover the whole doctrines of the gospel in the first 17 or 18 chapters of Genesis with laudable perversity; whose heaven is characterised by sweet smells, and their hell full of the most unsavoury descriptions, enough to turn ones stomach I next visited Menstry where I spent much time in the summers 52 and 53 in my cheerful mom of youth when Mr Aber[cromby] and his excellent wife lived there in great credit and felicity: when the Knights of the Bath were lads and Mrs Edm[onstoune] and Mrs Joass2 nymphs. There the rooms where hospitality and kindness once abode, were waste or full of lumber and the staircase up to the drawing room ruinous and everything bore the marks of desolation - but Tullibody itself is not much better.... I am very sorry to hear Mr Dundas has had the influenza: he has no time to be sick, for the interruption of his scribbling is a public loss: but it is as well to be over with it. Though I had no fever myself, the two maids have had it successively. . . . I would fain hope the biographical sketch you mention is not the composition of the judge himself, but of some indiscreet friend or secret enemy who ridicules beyond an hundred foes. Though a good lawyer and a good judge, nature never intended him for an officer of state, or the associate of wits and geniuses. He is not deeply read in Scottish history; for he once asked me, whether Duke Murdoch was executed in the reign of James the 1st or 3rd.3 I was going to have referred him to good Lord Hailes.4 In my younger days there were two great men who filled that office with great dignity and great ability. Poor Blair !5 often have I heard him and alwise with pleasure 1in his prime both in Lady Yester’s and the new church. He was story Presumably to Sir William Sir James Dick, Dick his of father, Prestonfield, which c.would 1644-1728, make thoughbetter sense Chambers as he diedgives in the a 2London Elizabeth prison, Abercromby, bankrupt (R.daughter Chambers, of George Traditions Abercromby of Edinburgh, of Tullibody,1947 edn., 79).married, 21767, Major Alexander Joass. 4 Murdoch Stewart, second duke of Albany, executed 1425. 5 Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, died 1792. St Hugh Giles, Blair,Edinburgh. 1718-1800, minister of Lady Yester’s church, Edinburgh, and later of C 34 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY certainly one of the very best of his set. Nor must he be blamed for having been the cause of many wretched imitators who had his foibles, without his virtues: for though sufficiently enamoured of philosophers and philosophy, he never lost sight of Christianity. It is no compliment to the age to say that nothing would go down with it but what is called mild religion, which whatever it might be in him, is in many of his lickspittles something maukish and unedifying. In my judgment there were more nerves and more unction in some of his own side (as Wallace,1 Cumin2 and the two Wisharts3): and I think Dr Erskine and Walker 4 of the other side far before them in every thing but sentiment. How does the excellent Doctor? I suppose your preacher is a Theophilanthropist a sect which have sprung up in France since the abolition of Christianity, who preach a philan- thropic gibberish which is belied by their actions. It is an observa- tion of Dr Brown’s5 that vice is now a days become effeminate. What the worse would you be to take a quarter of some old fashioned divine? If Christianity shall improve as much for the next fifty years as it has done for the last, it will be frittered to nothing. Thanks for your news which I communicated to Mr Drummond in my walks who was much entertained with it. Lord K. you know intended him for the countess; but he would not bite and he has surely done well. It is a long time since we have had a diverting process. Lady Houston6 and Miss Cathcart’s7 letters and conduct were the universal talk for years, and none could say whether Sir John or my Lady were best. What is become of Sir John Henderson and his would-be son in law? . . . Any balls? any feasts? any follies among grey beards? 1 2 Dr Robert Wallace, 1696-1771, minister of West St Giles, Edinburgh. Dr Patrick Cumin, 1695-1776, professor of church history at Edinburgh University, 3minister of Old Kirk, Edinburgh. William Wishart, 1660-1729, principal of Edinburgh University, and George Wishart, his son, minister of Tron church, Edinburgh, principal clerk of the General 1Assembly, dean of Chapel Royal, died 1795. 6 Robert Walker, 1716-83, minister of St Giles, Edinburgh. Possibly James Brown, baptised 1724, died 1786, minister of West St Giles, collegiate 6charge, Edinburgh. Lord Sir JohnCathcart; Houston for this of Houston,process, see bt., sro, married, Edinburgh 1744, CommissaryEleanora, daughter Court, consistorialof Charles, 7decreets, vol. 10, and consistorial processes, 1750. Mary Anne Cathcart, 1727-74, married William, sixth Lord Napier. i8oi 35 ... The influenza I hope continued to deal favourably with you all. One day’s confinement for Mr Dundas is a bagatelle; it is much better to do that than to brave it, as good Mr David Erskine did in 1788 which it was supposed was the source of his fatal malady.1 From your complaining of sore bones, I should suppose you had been a little wilful in not going to bed and drinking lintseed tea or some other thin potation. You had been possibly playing the part of Martha, which you know may be overdone as well as other things. I hear nothing of the influenza in this country; but I see so few, that it may be raging at little distance. Well do I remember it in 82; it seized people like the shot of a gun and was for forty eight hours most severe.... ‘Return hameward my heart again for fiend a crum of thee she faws,’2 says an old Scottish poet of his mistress who had been cruel beyond measure. I must make the most of the few friends and comforts that are left me; and while my health and eyes con- tinue, I am more independent than most people; and tho’ none is better pleased to see their friends, I can lead the life of a hermit with chearfulness and a degree of dignity, so long as I retain my integrity. I would not change with my brother hermit Sir Robert who leads the life of Dives; but better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox without ease and kindness. The only account I hear of him is from Keir who breaks thro all his entrenchments of state. I am sorry to hear his eye is no better; I pity him sincerely, but he is very busy about elections, turnpikes, and manses, which would be tortures to me. I wish he could be persuaded to have a few easy friends about him, which would be the highest luxury he could have. He sent over two servants to enquire about me when I was recovering.- Keir told me t’other day George Abercromby and his 1 David Erskine, w.s., son of John Erskine of Carnock, married Ann, daughter of James2 Graham of Airth, and died 1791. Retume the hairt hamewart agane Thowand byd art quhair ane fule thow to sufferwas wont pane to be. for luve of hir that luvis not the. LuveMy hairt nane lat bot be as sic they fantesie mak the causs, And lat hir seik ane hairt for the For feindAlexander a crum Scott, of the in schoThe Bannatynefawis. Manuscript, iv, 8 (Scottish Text Society, new series, vol. 26). 36 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Lady go to Cheltenham and that James Edmonstoune is to be lieu- tenant colonel of the Argyleshire militia. We laughed heartily at the last, but these are times of wonder and rapid promotion. If it would mend his health, or his opinion of it, ’twere well, but I fear that it is too deeply rooted. Not even a great income would do more than brace him up for a season. He has my best wishes, tho my hopes of comfort from him are very faint; but he has parts and heart - not good counsellors! So you have had a dinner of Mr Rolland the friend of my youth and happiest years when we used to chide the fleeting hours for parting us. I will not say O! and is all forgot; for tho he is not like to be the companion of my age, we are good friends when we meet. I take from him what he calls a dinner of greens and get from him excellent cracks which I prize more than two courses. He might without much exertion have done much to sweeten my life; but tho it be the thing in which he excells, he told me he had rather be hanged as write a letter. I have a great mind to publish his. Will you subscribe ? and I believe he would almost as soon commit matrimony as spend some days here.- All I can say is my race is near run, what- ever his may be, for his is a sort of winter rose.-1 sometimes plume myself on the figure he, Sir Ralph Abercromby and Mr David E[rskine] made in life. It reflected a sort of borrowed light on me, their early companion tho a fellow of no mark or likelihood Of politics I will not say a word - but I fear our ministers are weak and foolhardy in not fulfilling treaties. That is not your affair or mine; but save my country is both our prayer. Il faut cultiver notre jardin says Candide1 after contemplating the varieties and misfortunes of life. . .. 1-2 February 1801 Once more, good Madam, a truce with your humility and your comparisons which in another person I should say savoured of pride. If you write with ease and spirit and fortitude in these evil times; and if you do not deal deep in the scandalous chronicle of Edinburgh it is because you have no ears to hear, being better employed. You will have a good adjunct when Miss Jane arrives.-1 mean in 1 Hero of the romance by Voltaire. i8oi 37 the nursery and at table; for far be it from me to suppose she would retail evil of her neighbours, unless in the spirit of that charity which thinketh no evil, and wishes to put a good construction even on things that are of dubious interpretation. But I hope she will see and but see some of those same balls you describe where the nymphs are dressed like their grandmother Eve in her state of innocence, and the swains want nothing but furs and beards to make them resemble the Russians when Czar Peter attempted to new model their beards and manners: for of late they have rather been over dressed. You know the rule of the Russian assembly ‘that no Lady shall get drunk on any pretence whatever, and no gentleman before 9 at night’. I hope the latter is never infringed with us, though there be nothing to hinder both nymphs and swains to drink deep draughts of love towards the small hours, provided alwise and nevertheless, that it does not pro- ceed from inebriating liquor or strong soups. Sour plums and envy! a fair neighbour of mine who assuredly does not come in to mortify would probably say. To which I answer there is a time to dance and mix with the world and a time for retirement and soberness of mind. Whether the present times do not require a degree of Regimen to speak the language of my excellent friend Gregory, I shall leave to the Ladies’ father confessors, provided alwise and nevertheless (to speak the language of the chamber in my youth) that they be not velvet-mouthed preachers, no safe guides in the day of prosperity, but more unseemly and unseasonable at present than dancing at a high- land lik wake where the widow took alwise the first reel and one of them called for a merrier tune, her heart being like to break. And I can say ‘Et Ego in Arcadia’ (James and Thomas Erskine will inter- pret for you), I have seen and witnessed balls and assemblies and plays and have seen successions of beaux and belles and fair flatterers, albeit they be now converted into grandfathers and grandmothers, many of them gone to the land of forgetfulness: how loved, how honoured once, avails them not.- But whither you will say am I running. The inscription I allude to is on one of Poussin’s1 landscapes of Arcadia, that happy pastoral country where all is pleasure and amusement! A company of swains and nymphs are struck aghast in the midst of a ball (no midnight one) on discovering the tomb of one of their companions who had been snatched away in his prime! 1 Nicholas Poussin, 1594-1665. 38 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY stuff, stuff, melancholy stuff! you will say immured as you are in your nursery John Stirling]1 hath taken a compendious way to settle his accounts. I am glad to find he did not take a still more compendious way of rushing into the presence of his maker. Your letter was the first account I had of the Cambusmore family their journey to London. I hope their fears shall be disappointed. Consumption was certainly the disease of the last generation. To a young man who never knew what contradiction was, I thought the guards a more dangerous service than the West Indies. The captain is fort myster- ieux: one would almost think he thought it sinful to taste the plea- sures of great cities when a smack of them becomes his age and fortune. There must be a reason for it. I rejoice at the recovery of good Mrs Erskine and at the effort of the excellent Doctor to make his flock wiser and better when assuredly he might rest from his labours. When you answer me ‘Why do the wicked prosper; why are a nation of atheists likely to bear sway on earth’; I will tell you why that excellent pair have not been fortunate in their heirs male. Poor David2 is at least innocent. One thing may console them, viz. their hope of a life where their fondest wishes shall no more be thwarted: when the film that obscured poor David’s intellects here below shall, we trust, be removed. . . . Surrounded with rivers and well nigh forgotten, I know nothing of what is passing in my neighbourhood: I go however end of next week to Kennet for eight days which is a very pleasant house, were they a little further from the coals; but they are mending in that respect and in the altitude of the beds. Apropos last time I was at Airthray, the ladder was taken away. How think you I recreate myself with light reading? In reading about giants and winged horses and maidens who think nothing of unhorsing three Kings before breakfast, and cutting off the wing of an army with their single arm. It was a while before I could be reconciled to events so little in nature; but I began to delight in them and am very much in love with that virago Bradamante who in a fit of jealousy challenged her jo to single combat in the field. Ariosto in his Orlando Furioso 1 John Stirling, merchant, Lawnmarket, sequestrated 25 February 1801 (Scots Magazine).2 David Erskine, later of Camock. i8oi 39 discovers wonderful powers of invention, much tenderness and much nonsense; yet now that I am begun to the fifth volume I wish I had such another.1 Have you Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered trans- cribed by the same hand with the other? I hear of a print of poor Lord Abercromby :2 is it to be sold? James Edmfonstoune] men- tions it. . . . Good Mr Erskine says not a word on public matters which is perhaps our wisdom. It is needless to die for fright as Wright, minister of Larbert,3 did in consequence of seeing the highland army pass in 45. The man would have been wiser to have home up and then he would have seen happier times. Sure was I afraid of them in those days and well do I remember a party of hussars who came one night and took arms, boots and horses, and of Glengyle’s4 requisitions under pain of military execution. It was perhaps one of the most innocent and orderly hosts ever seen, considering they had no discipline and not much pay. And though gloomy beyond expression it was the prelude to a happy period and to a train of prosperity which was too great to be home without intoxi- cation. To show you, however, that I do not altogether dispair of the public, and that I am not righteous over much, what suppose we make a party when these alarms shall be over past, to see a good play, Shakespeare’s or a comedy of the old school, an entertainment I liked much and should prefer to midnight dances and morning suppers - and next Sunday make a party to hear a good sermon when it can be had - but when that shall happen, one cannot tell, nor is it proper to be too inquisitive at present about the future. . . . 23 February 1801 .... I heard from Russell, one of Burn’s heroes in the holy fair, one of the best fast day sermons I have heard these 30 years, pious, 1 2 Lodovico Ariosto, 1474-1533. Alexander Abercromby, Lord Abercromby, 1745-95, fourth son of George Aber- 3cromby of Tullibody. Possibly either Hugh Whyt, minister of Larbert and Dunipace, died between 15 February and 14 March 1716, aged about 60, or James Smith, minister of Larbert from Dalziel’s1741 to 9 soldiers February marching 1746. A in similar triumph story into is Edinburgh,told of Mr Arthurafter suppressing Murray when the Pentland he saw Rising (R. Wodrow, History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, 41721, Col. i, Gregor 255). MacGregor of Glengyle. 40 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY rational and manly though it sounded somewhat like a hoarse trumpet ill calculated to please a well attuned Ear. I was much pleased with his reading the 20th Chapter of the second book of Chronicles where after a pious king had proclaimed a fast, his numerous enemies destroyed one another, and left his troops nothing to do but to strip the slain. Whether such will be the effects of our fast, time will show. I am afraid we have little reason to expect a miracle.- I must not omit that Lady Gascoign1 and the Guthries2 command in Stirling castle being in possession of Mrs Tytler’s house.3 As that place knows me no more I did not see her La[dyshi]p who I presume has returned there till the flavour of your good town has evaporated, to use the expression of a country neigh- bour in a case of scandal. I heard at Kennet the process was likely to drop which will prevent the town from being entertained with a tragic comedy similar to that of Sir John and Lady Houston which regaled the town of Edinburgh for years many years ago displaying the talents of our fair country women in a way not very pleasant to them and their friends. . . . 9 March 1801 .... You episcopalians have given over keeping lent: I remember some very good people very strict in that point, not even taking tobacco during that season. One of them however said ‘were I to keep lent, it should be on kain hens’ to which he had a prej'udice 4 The king’s illness affords a key to some late violent measures - but why harp on that thing and still less on taxes? when it is uncertain how long we shall be permitted to pay them in peace and comfort which thank God is still allowed us. . . . In order to divert your attention from subjects that come across one whether he wills it or not, let me tell a short tale by way of counterpart to the story of the unfortunate female who lived in 1 The only tided Gascoigne appears to be Sir Thomas Gascoigne of Partlington, kt., bt., 2who died in 1810, although his second wife predeceased him in 1786. According to the Edinburgh Almanac, the governor of Stirling Castle in 1801 was General James Grant, and the deputy governor Lt. Col. S. Graham. 1 cannot trace 3the Guthries. 4 Isabella, wife of Patrick Tyder, major of Stirling Castle {Edinburgh Almanac, 1806). Identified in Ramsay mss. vii, fo. 357r. as Commissary Campbell, i.e. Duncan Campbell, commissary of Stirling {Edinburgh Almanac, 1781). 8oi 41 solitude in the midst of a great city. I had it from Ardvorlich1 who examined the woman on oath in 93 or 94, upon a question of marches with regard to the Black Mount or Muir of Rannoch, a tract of moss and lochs bigger than Stirlingshire yet worth very little money. Her name was Catherine Cameron. In 1746 she was a young woman when her husband, one of Struan Robertson’s men,2 fell at Culloden, leaving her with four infants. The houses being burnt and the cattle driven away by the soldiers, she and her little ones with ten or twelve goats, betook themselves to that wilderness which lies between Perth and Argyllshires. There she lived for many years having little connection with the world, unless when she had occasion to buy a little meal, or to sell goats and kids or butter and cheese. When her children grew up, they left her to the company of her goats, which, as they never deserted her, multiplied till they exceeded sixty. She erected a hut in the form of a cone made of Moss fir, so low that one could hardly stand upright, and large enough to hold her bed which was made of heather, and not quite so high as the modem ones. Morning and evening she milked her goats and accompanied them through the day to their favourite haunts. When deep snow fell, she left them to shift for themselves, assured they would repair to the hut whenever they could. During this time she spun upon the distaff, as she did when she was tending her flock. Though there was not a town within a number of miles, yet in summer the people in the shealings of Perthshire or Argyll- shire found fault with her as an unlicenced interloper who paid no rent. On these occasions she retired with her brute companions to another part of the wilderness, where she found a new asylum till those invaders of her natural rights had withdrawn. In those dreary abodes she fared decently, feeding on goatsflesh, trouts and a little meal, and what was more, making money. Ardvorlich says she was a well looking old woman, decently dressed with a clean curch (a highland matron’s headdress the fashion of which never changes) on her head. She spoke Gaelic with great fluency, and seemed to have a good stock of natural sense and good temper with uncommon chearfulness. When the arbiters had heard her story, they recommended to the factors for the contending 1 2 William Stewart of Ardvorlich, 1754-1838. Alexander Robertson of Struan, died 1745. 42 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY potentates, not to give this poor woman or her goats disturbance, which made her as happy and grateful as if she had got a kingdom. She died in 98 aged 80 leaving 60 goats and -£60 which, I should suppose, would bring her children or relations about her, towards the close of life. ‘Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath will thou restrain’, says the Psalmist. In a situa- tion seemingly deplorable beyond measure, did this poor woman meet with an asylum from the wrath of man exercised on the innocent, one of the fruits of civil war which heaven avert! An account of her life and methods of passing time, and finding resources where few were to be had, written after the manner of Robinson Crusoe, would be interesting, the rather that the facts are unquestionably true. Ardvorlich heard much of her from people who fell in with her in the course of sport and says she was much esteemed, and more pitied than was probably necessary, for even in the wilds content can dwell not learned care for I doubt she could neither read or write. . . . What would you think of turning shep- herdess, taking your little ones with you and tending a flock of goats even in the muir of Orchel which is a paradise compared with the Black Mount? Tell Mr Dundas (who I presume would not attend you on that occasion) that the yearly value of the great tract in controversy was hardly ^35 a year. Yet did the arbiters, factors and a host of highland witnesses at meetings two several years contrive to eat and drink near -£300 without the intervention of lawyers, agents and clerks of session which last was at least prudent. I am glad to hear from Mrs Joass who is the only one of that generation now within my reach, that James Edm[onstoune] was a good deal better; his case is the more afflictive that the physicians seem not to understand his disease. Methinks a Brighton and Bath campaign is a very bad disease. And I do not think a month of Lord Bute’s house is good for a real invalid. . . . Poor Sandy Aber- [cromby]! He was one of the Tullibody lads with whom I was once so intimate in happy times and a happy respected family. I hope he shall recover, though he has been for some time very frail and I believe very unguarded in eating and drinking. I shall be glad if Mrs Watson brings an heir at last for they are good people. If she goes on like her sister in law who was late too of beginning, she may figure in that way. Four children the eldest of whom cannot arti- i8oi 43 culate a word, tho he runs about with great alacrity and under- stand[s] everything, is a phenomenon in a family. I am very sorry for Miss Jane’s being defrauded of her pastime by that same influenza. By this time I hope she is arrived in town, time enough to make up her lee way.- I hear the Cambusmores are arrived or expected to arrive. Miss Helen1 has got a Pisgah view of London a sight worth seeing. I hope she will bring down two or three wigs and as many complections 24 March 1801 .... It is great selfdenial to postpone my visit to Edinburgh till summer months and long days provided the political barometer be not then as the weather glass has been these last two days (woes me on various accounts) at stormy.... As it is said the plague is never out of Constantinople, so Edinburgh never wants in cold short days the influenza for me. As for the playhouse I shall not break my heart, tho I never cross its threshhold or see the meretricious face of Mrs Esten.2 When peace shall be restored, I will have no objection to accompanying you to a very good or a very bad play; the first would be a feast Dr Gregory would not condemn, the other a merry tragedy or a sad comedy which is better than insipid medio- crity. My neighbour Mr Drummond wrote me he too had taken a peep of the cockpit3 and was astonished at the mixture of peers and sharpers, lawyers and pickpockets. I believe I should have also looked in, to see a sad landscape of modem manners. Things would be just where they should, were the tonish Ladies to take to bull baiting or dog fighting, two delightful amusements. I remember at Dalkeith Miss Churchill, the General’s daughter,4 had a bull baited every 1 Probably one of four daughters of John Buchanan of Auchleshie and Cambusmore, 2all of whom died unmarried. Mrs Harriet Pye Esten, relict of Major John Scott Waring of Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, London (Court of Session Minute Book, 1821-2, xli, 492), actress on the Edinburgh stage, whose name was connected with that of the duke of Hamilton. * Cf. Scots Magazine for March 1801, ‘We are sorry to stain our report of the amuse- ments[cockfighting]. of this . . We. metropolis are informed by the that mention the Cock-pit of so vulgar was crowded and so cruelevery a daydiversion at 3s. 4a-head.’ Possibly a daughter of General Charles Churchill, 1656-1714, who left no legitimate 44 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY week for her recreation which she took from her window with the same delight some people behold an execution.-1 am surprised the heroes of the cockpit of the higher order should be so squeamish with regard to a poor young man of fashion, for taking a few loose notes which came seasonably for his needs. A number of the knowing ones feel no more compunction at picking the pockets of a young rich heir at cards or dyce, horse racing or cock fighting than a flesher does when he plays his knife upon a lamb. ‘Tis my vocation, Hall’, says that great moralist Falstaff when reproved for taking purses on the highway.1 And sure of all handicraft employments that of a gambler is the worst, if not the meanest. Stealing privately is nothing new among people of fashion in this country. I remember a noble Northern Lord 40 years ago who generally purloined something when he did his friends the honour of a visit: but at last they used to tell him ‘I suppose your Lordship has put a spoon etc. in your pocket by mistake’ and then he either produced it or it was found on him. That was disease. One must however tremble at the thoughts of the unprincipled half-educated style in which young men of fashion are bred at present. They are little less frivolous and licentious than the late French noblesse - heaven grant they be not visited with a similar scourge. There however the innocent and the useful would suffer as much as them, but the latter are, or ought to be, better prepared for judgment. No, says a modem philosopher, the com- pletely wicked man’s conscience is so seared and hardened, that he is quite at his ease. Be it so! - one had rather die the death of the right- eous, for all these black sages can say. . . . I should wish to have had Gyges’s invisible ring when a travelled Nymph gave her tonish companions an account of the wonders and charms of the metropolis which would be to her like a sight of the third heavens to a departed saint. How fine to see the tower and the lions, and the tonish young men as grim and fierce, if less generous and courageous, then the King of beasts. There is no trusting to appearances: ask Miss Jane (who I hope is happily arrived in the para- dise of Edinburgh?) whether the gentleman we saw at C. dressed or rather deformed in a wig that made him look like a smug faced lion, was not, when stripped of his disguise, a very harmless animal. No matter, she will say, for the appendages of gentlemen’s heads, 1 Shakespeare, King Henry IV, part i, 1, ii. i8oi 45 if their hearts be good, and their heads be a little under par, if their fortunes be good. Lax morahty! say you. I am now good Madam going to ask a favour of you: nay do not look grave neither: you have I presume something to say with Mr Ferguson of Raith :x could you be bold enough to ask a bursary from him for a fatherless and motherless orphan, the son of a deserving country writer who, though long in practice, was not wise enough to make friends of the Mamm[ons] of unrighteousness. His name is John, the son of Patrick Stirling, writer in Dumblane, well known and well esteemed i[n his] day by our gentry and by some of your friends. It is one of th[e] St Andrews bursaries vacant at Whitsunday 1802.... Why will anybody just now think of the church? say you. Why nobody nowadays thinks of possible hardly of probable dangers. - I wish you had been your brother’s solicitor; he might have had a better voyage; but that is sometimes a lottery, and it may turn out better than expectation. May he be preserved in these evil times when we are beset with Phillistines north and south east and west as greedy and hardhearted as gamblers or com merchants. . . .

6 April 1801 .... The trio you mention reminds me of the one in the provoked husband; I will not say you are quite a Lady Townly, but Miss Jane seems to have formed herself upon the model of Lady Grace. But however let her not be righteous overmuch even in times when we are threatened with judgments. Like her pattern Lady Grace, she should partake soberly of the innocent pleasures of the gay which are only condemned by rational moralists, when carried to excess; when night is turned into the business time of men and women in the height of the ton; or as it is expressed in one of your modern Comus’s cards to his route, ‘At home from 8 at night till 8 in the morning’. Verily I think such a person well deserves a solitary cell on the Calton, without the company of his wife, who should have one of her own if she cannot prove compulsion, for it is going against nature. 4 Well said of me and my dull drowsy eleven at night’, as 1 Robert Ferguson of Raith, M.P., died 1840. 46 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Lady Townly says of her husband’s hours.1 Let me in my turn con- gratulate you as a branch of the family of Airth on the prospect of having Mrs Esten for a neighbour at Polmont. But I fear the Ladies are too prudish to have any connection with this Ducal heroine. Pity that the gentlemen are not at home! . . . Col. Hope2 deserves high credit for his military ardours, in an age not more than remarkable for public spirit and military glory. He bids fair to be an honour to the peerage - but I trust he and our brave countrymen shall neither fall a prey to pestilence nor to the sword. The crusade to Bath astonished me, even in times when one ought not easily to be astonished. The nobility and gentry of England of late years spend at watering places that time which their forefathers did more rationally and pleasantly at their country seats. I wish the President of the privy council well married and the honest Laird in the same predicament. Mrs Joass will tell you what Dr Stirling3 said to her when going to Bath, for which and Bath female patients he had no favour. . . . But I forbear to prophecy, lest I should succeed no better than Lauchlan Taylor.4 This country affords no news except weather and the operations of husbandry. Part of last week was like May, the sun scorching and the blossoms expanding charmingly, while the husbandmen rejoiced on every hand; but on Saturday there came a frost, a nipping frost and a piercing cold. But I am too old a gardener ever to despair on occasions of this kind. It is the May frosts that are most fatal and I am more anxious at present about politics than peaches.- I am almost sorry I mentioned the bursary, for I did not wish to impose a penance upon you. I fear I have overrated your influence with Mr Ferguson, who certainly does not consider these things as matters of great moment, being generally given to the first decent person that asks them. I will not allow myself to think I have nothing to say with you. To Mr Dundas’s good offices was I endebted to Mr F[erguson] 1 From Colley Cibber, The Provok’d Husband, in, i, Lady Townley, addressing her husband: ‘You Complain of my later hours, and I of your early ones . . . but pray which of us Gives the best Figure in the Eye of the polite World? my active, spirited Three in the Morning, or your dull, drowsy eleven at Night’. Ramsay has put the 2characters the wrong way round. 3 Sir John Hope, 1765-1836, brigadier-general. Dr Walter Stirling, physician in Stirling (sro, Stirling Testaments, 30 June 1803, 1w. 34)- Minister of Larbert from 1748 to 1785. i8oi 47 for repeated favours of that kind; and I was romantic enough to expect that I might be beholden to you for this, in favours of one whose chief recommendation to me is his being poor and friendless. Suppose we take your husband into our councils: he will I am per- suaded do what is proper: only be assured I wish not to give you a moment’s uneasiness. At the same time the person who applies the earliest has the best chance, whoever be the applicant. By no very unnatural transition of ideas let me who am begging for one of the rising generation that may perhaps be a teacher when I shall rest with my fathers, let me I say, speak of a begger with whom I went on his progress for a forenoon. I had desired him to be sent here, being fond of conversing with living antiquity, as well as of exploring those that are past. He was a fine looking man with a good cheerful countenance, just 100 years, 4 months, 23 days old, bom in this parish. In the course of our walk his pace was often too quick for me and when he went where I did not chuse, he seemed to trot that he might come up to me According to his account, he married his second wife after 70 by whom he had 5 or 6 children, but on pozing him as to the battle of Sheriffmuir and the building of Blair drvnnmond in 1715 I found he knew nothing of the matter; and on comparing the time of his enlisting to be a soldier in 47 I beUeve the man not to be much above 80 at least not 90. Ever since Mr Rolland and I broke into a Mr Mouat’s at Langholm said to be 1301 am suspicious of tales of longevity. Said the poor old man... . ‘I am little past 90’ but what I admired in this man was his philo- sophy. After being disbanded he was for a number of years an eminent rag merchant by which he bought horses [? houses] etc. When asked by my folks what had come of them he laught and said ‘He lost them all by cautionry’. I am of opinion he is a happier man at present than our ministers of state, if like him they be not callous. By taking to himself 15 or 20 years he gets silver when other men- dicants get copper, but he refuses nothing. . . . 9 May 1801 .... The party on Friday was very pleasing; and what was more, the fish, the mellon and the apple pye were much applauded, and after dinner the health of the Donor of the Cod [Mrs Dundas] was 48 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY drunk. What I liked much was their coming an hour or more before dinner, and taking a walk in the policy, as we used to call it. It put me in mind of the manners of the last generation, whose conversation was never more spritely or instructive than when straying in the fields before dinner. Then people came cool and collected, and dis- posed to bear part in the intellectual concert, which was of a very different kind from that of eleven at night tea drinkings, or of morn- ing conversations in the small hours, when people are jaded for want of sleep. David Graeme the advocate said he would rather want his dinner and what he valued more his drink, than be taken to see the Policy. This very able man had a sovereign contempt for the amenities of rural scenes. Getting wet with a shower (when in quest of a dram) he called tasting of the pleasures of the country. O ! say you, it is so vulgar to come long before dinner! be it so; I like it. Mr and Mrs Aber[cromby] came that morning from Muiravonside, young Polmaise’s house.1 She was alwise a favourite; what he shall be when we next meet, I know not, but he was very easy and communi- cative, and talked of my coming to Tullibody. I told him, I had now a better title than formerly. He said there was a demur about John’s seat in council, but I am glad to see that is over.2 I suppose they will send him out in a frigate.- I wrote Mrs Joass a long letter per the Watsons. ... I kept aloof from wells, love-feasts and the kiss of charity; from boards etc. wishing her all comfort in her own house, where she could have good society without foregoing soberminded- ness or duties. It was with reluctance I began, but after setting about it doggedly, matters and topics were not wanting which served to amuse me. Poor woman! great have been her disappointments and vexations. Marriage is, they say, predestinated; she was too anxious to marry her daughter. Much strange company has she seen within the last 18 months! Her making the trial was meritorious. Strange that Mary should have stumbled on her mate !3 It was one of the first things that spoilt my society: no wit nor wisdom of mine could have averted some of them. . . . O ! I have had an excellent letter from Dr Gregory who is in high 1 William Murray of Touchadam and Polmaise, bom 1773, married, 1799, Anne, 2daughter of Sir William Maxwell of Monreith. General Sir John Abercromby, 1772-1817, second son of Sir Ralph. * James Alexander Haldane, married firstly in 1793, Mary Joass, only daughter of Major Alexander Joass and Elizabeth Abercromby. See also above, p. 29, n. 1. 8oi 49 glee though assuredly he does not sleep on beds of roses. He says I need be under no apprehensions about the issue of the medical war, promising me amusement from it, some poetical prose and some prosaic poetry with plenty of nonsense! - He acknowledges the first eight epigrams to be his, and says he has got many more. Will you come forward? I lament however that a man of his worth and talents should be so much embroiled and prevented from better studies. . . . Airs Hannah Alore is a woman of virtue and genius, but what her romance may be I know not.1 Coelebs, your boys will tell you, is a bachellor. ’Twill not apply to a maiden or even to the object of her choice. From some like specimens we seem fallen into the silver age of romance, so sentimental, so metaphysical, so unlike real life! Fielding, Smollet and Pompey the little2 for my money, though sometimes their strain is exceptionable.- O, I had a call fromJa[mes] Erskine who meant to have dined and was to be followed by Kippen- davie in our old style; but I was engaged at Airthray to meet the Watsons which I regreted much. If Air Watson does not get Duthie’s place,3 he may have B bum which his wife says is quite to her taste with old dykes, trees etc. like Kelly. You see wives have a taste, I will not say a will of their own. Have you pitched on a modish roomy villa? They would be an accession to this country.- To another argument as Logicians say. Last night Airs Drummond having sent me a salmon by her coachman Johnnie Tosh who is a fine creature but very glacked, almost poetical. While he was drink- ing a mug of porter, I asked him how he was employed on the night of the ball? he answered in taking down the names of the company on a slate, in two classes. Prefixed to the one was the letter B: show- ing those that bided i.e. staid, amounting to 126 and R, for those that ran, i.e. went off, amounting to 93. For the remainder of the night he acted as aid de camp to Airs Baxter, the warehouse woman and contractor. He took much credit to himself for getting supper drink etc. for a company in a room above, going to the great room and slipping away a ham, a turkey, and a hen. He surely saw through a multiplying glass, 100 turkeys and 100 hens. He said Airs Baxter 1 ! Hannah More, 1745-1833, Coelebs in search of a wife. Francis Coventry, History of Pompey the Little. * Not identified. D 50 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY made a great ado about the loss of an image of Moses in the desert which somebody carried off in fun and sent back next night. In short Johnnie seemed as much pleased with it as his master and mistress. I was much diverted with his account. The moral of the story is that this same salmon is herewith sent. Old Pitmillie, a great gowk, began a letter to Lord Leven1 ‘My Lord inclosed I send you a salmon’.... Mrs Drummond comes in [to Edinburgh] to change her ministry once more

18 May 1801 .... Let me in the first place congratulate you most cordially upon the birth of little Christian2 who I hope shall be all you could wish her, first a sweet prattler; then appear in all the relations of life such as you would have her; in her youth a prime ornament to you and at last the stay of your age; for I must be so ill bred as to tell you, even in your years of increase, that old age will come, and that the fashion of this world passeth away. Let me also congratulate you on your speedy recovery and return to the ordinary duties of this chequered world, where we are alternately called to rejoice with those that rejoice, and to weep with those that weep. The mis- forttmes which have befallen Colonels Erskine and Abercromby3 have struck a great knell to my heart. Nor am I perfectly satisfied with Sir Ralph’s situation or that of his army. I have seen no papers since Thursday’s; God grant us good tidings! Surely we have of late been highly favoured, if we could make a proper use of them, but it is sometimes more easy to vanquish our enemies than to moderate our passions. And our good King (whom heaven preserve) has two very unfortunate ones, a disposition to quarrel with all the earth, and what is not a wise one at any time, and in our circumstances a most de- structive one, a rage for conquest, when we have more than we can keep, the extent of our conquests being a cause of debility on our part, and of envy on that of our neighbours. ... I had an excellent letter from Mrs Erskine immediately after the news came, full of 1 2 David, sixth earl of Leven, fifth earl of Melville, 1722-1802. 3 Elizabeth Christian Dundas, born 24 April 1801. General Sir John Abercromby, who was with his father, Sir Ralph, in Egypt as deputy adjutant-general. i8oi 5i that sweet hope mingled with resignation which bespeaks a good mind, and which, if it cannot avert calamities, teaches how to bear them with dignity and submission to the will of him that is higher than the highest and who sometimes sees fit to chasten us. I also heard from Mrs Joass, but it was before poor John’s loss of a limb was announced. Lord Elgin’s1 dispatches are not more than clear: however let us hope the best: before I close this which is written on Sunday fresh light may come. The distance and want of means of conveying intelligence add much to distress people whose friends are there. No news today.- And so I will before proceeding further, walk off, if I can, that dullness which a newspaper never fails to inspire, especially our pretty conquests in the West Indies, which is adding fuel to the flames.- Returned from as pleasant a walk as one can have in this sombre day of cold rain. You must know then, that before the death of Paul etc. I made me a winter garden; that is I made a gravel walk without the garden, beside the river which meanders sweetly by, no bad emblem of eternity, seeing it appears to have no beginning and no end. It is adorned with hollies and other ever- greens, and sheltered with limes which exclude cold in winter, heat in summer, and this day I walked for near an hour in the rain, with- out feeling it or the baneful East wind which comes your way. I like this walk (which is sacred to contemplation and sweet remembrance on which alas! I nowadays feed) so well that I mean to extend it Your account of the new pilgrims’ progress excites my curiosity; and if you will trust me with it, it will secure Duncan from the clutches of the post office who are not just so sharp set as the harpies of the excise. The old Pilgrims progress is a fine piece of allegory which shows John Bunzyan to have had a happy genius for that species of composition. I have seen the Blair family in great health and spirits. My country affords no news, no scandal. Great towns are rich in both, a little spice of which is a great treat to us rustics when ‘refined thro’ some gentle sharpness’.- Talking of treats my stupid head had well nigh forgot to thank you for the halybut, a delicious sort of2 fish;1 but better here than omit it I hear Grizel [Edmonstoune] 2 Thomas Bruce, seventh earl of Elgin, eleventh earl of Kincardine, 1766-1841. Sister of John James Edmonstone of Newton. 52 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY is in town: perhaps to take off the wedding garment. . . . How is Keir, and how are his sisters? at Weymouth I hear. Perhaps he may be a Knight or Lord, and they maids of honour, if they do not like a husband better. I am sorry to hear Garturr’s complaints are more serious; the colonel’s wound would be a sad stroke on Mrs Graham and mine enemy. And now for college of justice news. The Dundases, in the wane of their power have made out the grand point of the chief Baron’s place. Still I hear of nothing for George Aber- [cromby ] - sheriff of Orkney would have been something, as non residence is allowed. I wish he be not the hare with many friends: but perhaps he is too ambitious.- How is the Lord Privy Seal,1 Mr Pitt and Lord Grenville2 who could not live on their great salaries to boil the pot? Time will show whether they were right or wrong: they certainly had the best parts of the junto: but the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong etc. And there has been a lack of wisdom somewhere. How is good Dr Erskine? May I venture to write him a letter? He was indignant I had been silent all winter. I hope I shall have another crack with him yet. Mr Dundas wrote me what past with Mr Ferguson and if not pre-engaged I doubt not of success. Let me thank you (as I have done him) for your kindness. Pray (no end say you of interrogations; but answer no more than you please) what were the combatants who went to Berwick incognito to fight a duel?3 Strange they could not find some solitude nearer home to blow out their brains! but from the issue of it we may conclude they were not bloody minded. Two highland gentlemen agreed once to fight with^Hrts; but were long of fixing on a proper spot. A country man who knew them asked what they wanted. They answered they wanted to fight but could not find a place to rest their guns on. ‘Come this way’ said the man ‘there is a fauld dyke, Mr Macgregor rest yours there, and Mr Macfarlane yours yonder: take a good tizzy and deil hae him that misses’. The gentlemen went home. I am sure it is not your spouse, but I will not say but it may be Dr Gregory and some of his antagonists, or perhaps some of the con- tending surgeons who should fight with squirts or urinals. 1 2 John Fane, tenth earl of Westmorland, keeper of privy seal from 1798 to 1806. 8 William Wyndham Grenville, baron Grenville, 1759-1834. Cf. Scots Magazine, 1801, p. 370. i8oi 53 Monday afternoon. ’Twas well I scrawled away yesterday, for tho’ the walk sacred to contemplation etc. did not admit the rain; my poor body admitted a good deal of cold or rather increased a slight one I had before. This day I lay mostly in bed, and am at present as doited as if I had been reading the newspapers, or convers- ing with leaden companions. But I do not regret either my walk yesterday or my lying in bed today, since it has given me an oppor- tunity of digesting two characters for my book, one of them Dr Erskine which you shall with some others have a Pisgah view of, if you come to the gooseberry convention. An historian of private life who is buried when no body observes, and taking heed when seem- ingly idle, can suck in whom he pleases into his lucubrations. So take care of yourself; but as I provide no feast for Malivolena, you will not disUke a nitch; but it is a receptable for the meritorious dead or for those apparently on the threashold of time, not for Ladies who pro- duce olive branches annually I fancy you will ere long say of my letters, as a colonel Forbes,1 a relation of yours, said of Moutray of Rescobie’s,2 ‘he would not read them for five hundred merks’.... I desired a person to enquire about paper fit to bear my hand. I can do without wine, but not without paper. Please to inclose it, if you deign to write. . . . Tuesday 2 afternoon. Woes is me for the news of our gallant friend.3 I was alwise afraid a slight wound and the fatigue might bring on a fever. God’s good will be done; he has fallen gloriously. I pity his family and shall write George and Mrs Joass when I can collect myself. I was so stunned with the news that grief could not vent itself...... To me who am now like an old tree stripped of its leaves and branches, exposed to every blast, the deaths of Sir R[alph] Aber- [cromby] and Charles Efrskine] are cruel blows. The former was the companion of my happiest years which were spent with those that were dear and near to him; and to him when peace should have been restored to a distracted world, I looked for society and support 1 Lt. Col. John Forbes of PitnacrifFe, son of John Forbes of Culloden, who married 2Elizabeth, sister of James Graham of Airth, grandfather of Mrs Dundas. 3 Moultray of Seafield and Rescobie. Sir Ralph Abercromby, died of wounds received near Alexandria, 21 March 1801. See also above, p. 50. 54 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY in the evening of life, believing that neither wealth nor titles would have spoilt his heart or head which were both very sound. The latter was long a great favourite of mine, and likely to have been a worthy representative of a most worthy family that is one of the few which can be compared with that of my excellent friends Mr and Mrs Abercromby; who were bright instances of rural happiness, in whom the social and sober virtues were happily blended; whose door I never entered without pleasure, or left without regret. To him I looked as to one who would not have forgot or neglected his father and his uncle’s friends, albeit they were ‘fellows of no mark or likelihood’. But what title have I to mention my own feelings or the blasting of my hopes and wishes, when I think of the widow and children of the former and the parents and sisters of the latter. I sent up a servant this day senight to Cardross with a letter of a few lines; for any attempt to adduce topics of comfort when the wound is fresh, would have been impertinent. Mr Erskine’s answer and account of his family breathes a blessed spirit, befitting him who knows that the joys, as well as the fashion of this world, pass away, and elude our grasp. I would almost have wished more vent had been given to those emotions which nature claims and religion does not forbid whilst it sets bounds to it. He seems to be of the mind of the old Duke of Ormond1 who said he would not exchange his dead son Ossory for any living one. . . . I have this day a very good and a very kind letter from George Abercromby, which bespeaks a proper frame of mind which I hope will mark his conduct through life, to be such as becomes his father and grandfather who were both heroes, or more useful and respect- able than heroes in their several lines. I am glad to find his mother behaves like a heroine, rather giving than requiring support to her children. . . . None will say that the family of him that is gone was not entitled to distinguished marks of royal and parliamentary munificence. And in point of ability George will be no discredit to the peerage, many of whom are blacklegs. I trust he shall not be tempted to run a race of ambition in these dark and evil times, when, by some incomprehensible mystery, his father in law has ceased to be in power, if yet in favour; and when ere long there may arise 1 James Butler, 1610-88, twelfth earl, first duke of Ormonde, father of Thomas Butler, 1634-80, earl of Ossory. 8oi 55 another King that knew not Joseph. But that is his affair: my wishing him to be a country gentleman of a piece with his grandfather and Cardross is like the cadger who being asked what he would do if he were to get a vast fortune answered he would keep two of the best horses that went the road. Yet I do in my conscience believe that those two gentlemen were happier and certainly more independent than three-quarters of the 16 peers and 45 commoners. I have a great mind to print lists of them since the union with short notes like Lord Hailes’s catalogue of the Lord[s] of Session.1 It would be a useful monitor for would-be statesmen, orators and bustlers I wrote poor Mrs Joass a few kind unconnected lines immediately on receiving the news. Poor woman! I pity her much! Twas only t’other day I could bring myself to write her rather a letter of enquiry than of condolence, such is the magnitude of the mis- fortune to a sister who has outlived a numerous family, all but one brother whose good fortune could not secure him from a grievous misfortune. . . I am glad to hear from Mr Bum2 today, that Sir Thomas Stirling3 is easier. . . . Woes me! What frail, what vulner- able creatures are we in ourselves as in our friends! All these things make one say who can look back many years, and has seen many changes T would not live alway’. This is really a gloomy letter: but that is the order of the day. I rejoice at John Aber[cromby]’s safety spight of his noble kinsman’s rash assertion: may it be the greatest of his diplomatic mistakes! It must have been comfortable to his father who could tell him his most secret thoughts. The deathbed of a heroic and affectionate parent is, or should be, a school that leads to heavenly wisdom. Poor Dr Efrskine] has not been more than for- tunate in some part of his family who seem to be a little loon in the head about religion, a metaphor taken from a horse that does not submit to the bridle. It is an additional argument for a state of retri- bution when such an excellent man is so unfortunate. His letter would be a most pathetic piece of eloquence which few of our velvet mouthed gentry who cannot raise the hope they never felt, could endite. . . . 1 2 Catalogue of the Lords of Session ([Edinburgh], 1767). 3 Edward Bum of Coldoch, writer in Stirling. Sir Thomas Stirling of Strowan, 1733-1808, succeeded to baronetcy of Ardoch, 1799- 56 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY When I come to Edinburgh I should like to see one of these immersions which must be a very edifying spectacle and I presume sufficient drapery is provided. I have not thought of the time of my visit to Edinburgh. There is a most momentous affair to be settled first viz. the form and colour of a wig. One would not like either to be antediluvian, or in the top of the fashion. . . . I had, my Dear Madam, as pleasant and propitious a journey as dusty roads and a company abundantly miscelaneous would admit. But my male companions were neither folios nor duodecimos; and the prospect of dropping one of them at Polmont was a comfortable circumstance, even where there was little grievance. We are how- ever alwise gratified with a change in our situation to the better, even in little matters. A poor highland gentleman in ’i6 who had attempted to escape, being put into one of the Newgate condemned cells, exclaimed on being admitted into that mansion of filth and misery Ts there any thing so wretched as to inhabit this place?’ ‘Yes’ said a hoarse voice. Ts there any place to sit down upon?’ ‘Nothing but a stone projecting from the wall; I am in possession which I will maintain till I be hanged, which will be in two days’. Money would not tempt him but he offered to box for it. And you may well imagine how happy he was to get possession of the stone. Were I to moralise I should compare the journey of life to a stage coach ill regulated, and cumbered with outside and inside passen- gers, where one would hardly recognise any where else, and of whom it is best to make the most. Among our fellow travellers we had a female cook of a highland chieftain who seems to be an indispensable part of his equipage, and is not much more fond of Lochaber than her Lady is reputed to be. She become towards the end of her journey loquacious and com- municative, and gave us an account of their modes of life, and of the hospitality of the family which though much more expensive than that of Sir Ewan Cameron,1 appears to be patriarchal, though they have little company but gentlemen tenants and their pages who think nothing of walking ten miles for their dinner. Pity their fare 1 Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, 1629-1719. His encounter at Inverlochy with the English was used by Walter Scott as a basis for his description of the fight between Roderick Dhu and Fitzjames in The Lady of the Lake (DNB). 18oi 57 were not seasoned with a little Erse which is to them ‘as sweet as ditties highly penned sung by a fair Queen*.1 But they are regaled with pipe music which rouses the native highlander like the trumpet’s sound. After telling us she had sixteen guineas of wages she contrived to display her watch which is perhaps the first orloge worn by one of her degree in that country. I have heard of one of the chief’s ances- tors who said the sweetest morsel he ever ate was the thrapple of an Englishman, one of Cromwell’s soldiers who had got him down in combat. What would he have said of the lowland damsel’s watch and ragouts and puffs. Verily one might make a Mirror or a Lounger out of his companions in a Stirling coach. . . . The Teith seems almost drunk up, but that is in some measure owing to one of our upper potentates who being ambitious to extend his dominions, has damned up its stream. But I trust we are not far from it: ‘ the Almighty will ere long make the earth soft with showers and bless the springing thereof’. Even your streets and plain stones will feel refreshed. ... I have been no where since I came home but to see Sir Robert which I did yesterday and finding him solus had a very interesting crack, and a dinner perfectly simple as I could wish. In my way I was at Stirling church and was told that all the Kippenross family had been in chapel but the Lady, who is still much distressed. There is no reasoning on these points; but what would she be if her husband or first bom were in Egypt.-1 will be at Kippenross how soon Dr Macleod2 whom I expect tomorrow leaves me. As he is no granter of propositions we shall not run out of dis- course, and he is a man of great learning and great benevolence, though a stranger would think him alwise in a passion. To be in favour with him there must be a little good humoured disputation. We mean to visit John Murray3 where I expect to see a palace and to see everything Asiatic. Vanity of vanities! and how many things do I see in the houses of Nabobs for which I have no desire or indeed occasion! Such however is not the opinion of the rising generation who pant after luxury and frivolity - but a truce with my reflections which are suited only to a literary hermit whose books and garden 1 2 Shakespeare, King Henry IV, part I, II, iv. 3 Hugh Macleod, 1730-1809, professor of ecclesiastical history, Glasgow. Sir John Murray of Lanrick, bt., 1745-1822, married, 1774, Anne, daughter of Roderick Macleod, w. s. 58 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY are his luxuries. In that point of view, I long for the return of Duncan with a cargo of literary food for the convent. . . . I was favoured with your kind letter per Duncan with the box of intellectual food, paper for composing one’s thoughts and the print of Lord Abercromby which came all perfectly safe and dry. Had they been a few days later they had been drenched to some purpose. No duck or goose rejoiced more than I did with the rains which promise to add a third or more to com and straw; and if the wrath, or rather the greed and vilainy, of man does not prevent it, promise to give us once more plenty. I doubt however some of the com gentry whose garners are full, and whose pride and rapacity are too great to be con- tented with reasonable profits which would wear well, will be saying as Colonel Patrick Ogilvy1 did in the end of the great dearth which ended in Queen Anne’s accession, upon seeing blessed weather when he had a thousand bolls of meal on hand: ‘This is judgment weather in faith’. And so it proved to him, and to most corn merchants in my remembrance. . . . My good friend Dr Macleod is this moment left me, after being here near a fortnight, which I believe both of us thought most pleasant. . . . His modes of life and mine differ not a little in smaller matters; and both he and I being old bachellors, are not much inclined to change our ways. He usually takes two hours to break- fast ; here it was dispatched in an hour. While he was cutting paralel- lograms of bread, and breaking his egg and jokes I could have written two pages of a letter or the comer of a character; and it was literally half an hour between the pouring out of his first and second cup. I believe William’s patience and discretion were much put to it at dinner, which, though not cumbered with dishes, lasted uniformly ten times longer than mine; which are indeed abundantly curt, though I cannot any [more] than him boast of good teeth. But between every [mouthful] he had something to say which diverted his [attend]on and made him forget all time. Being a great [acquaintance of Lady Macgregor Murray of Lan- rick I took [the] opportunity of paying my visit to that castle which is by all accounts more magnificent than convenient, and where our 1 Col. Patrick Ogilvy of Lonmay and Inchmartine, died 1737, son of third earl of Findlater. x8oi 59 entertainment was Asiatic very different from the plain plentiful meals of the Haldanes of Lanrick who were much respected and beloved in their day and generation. The good old laird a cavalier,1 engaged in 17x5 and in 45, whom I saw after his return from France where he lived for 19 years without knowing a word of French, had alwise nine loyal toasts after dinner before coming to particulars. Sir John is about to send his only son2 a lad of 17 to Germany under the same clergyman who had the charge of William Macdonald’s son,3 and to whom, had I a son, I would not entrust him. There I presume among a most corrupted people is the poor young lad to learn principle and to practice morality. I am truly sorry for my young neighbour who had better have continued at Edinburgh, where, spite of the morning balls and potations of the young bloods, he would have been in less hazard than at Dessau or any place in that country where vice is grafted with great success on atheism, and where ‘ not to be corrupted is the shame ’ I rej oice to hear likenesses of Dr Erskine are to be taken in different ways: his image has made an impression on my mind never to be effaced. And at whatever time he quits his mortal stage, in point of worth and ability he will leave few behind him of his brethem fit to tye the latchet of his shoe. I think of being a night soon at Cardross. . . . Lord Stonefield4 was not reputed a very deep lawyer; but his revocation was certainly valid, the law being alwise jealous of deeds executed during marriage when the presumption is, that the spouses love each other too well, and are apt to exceed in their donations.- Apropos, Gartincaber,5 a bachellor of good standing, is now the speech of the country, by going to your town to be married to his housekeeper, a namesake of his own and a cousin, being a tenant’s daughter hard by. His motives I will not divine; but there are secrets in all families which [tim]e sometimes discovers. Her connec- tions are the least [ valu]able part of the matter and the whole will be a nine days [wonder] in Menteith. He is an honest well meaning 1 1 Robert Macgregor, otherwise Murray of Glengarnock. 3 Sir Evan John Macgregor-Murray, afterwards Murray Macgregor, 1785-1841. William Macdonald of Ranathan and St Martins, bom 1732, succeeded by his son 4William in 1814. 3 John Campbell, Lord Stonefield, died 1801. William Murdoch of Gartincaber, married, 15 July 1801, Sally (Sarah), daughter of James Murdoch, Dulate, Perthshire (Scots Magazine). 6o LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY man [who] does not pride himself on his scutcheon, this will [add no]thing to it. What of that? I confess I should [like] to witness Lady Mfcgregor] M[urray]’s reception of her new neighbour.

23 July 1801 .... I am much entertained with your account of the races etc. and should have thought Mrs Esten’s carriage would have been better named the affable which is a few steps beyond a sociable and less prudish and disgusting than a sulky.11 see nothing to hinder any body from wearing pink or crimson livery; had she sported the Hamilton arms, the Lyon would have been entitled to seize her carriage. I am much entertained with the money lost and won on the tops and purses which is a tolerable proof of the frivolity if not profligacy of the times - You write latin as correctly, and quote more appositely than even Allanton himself whose flippant performance I have read with great indignation. His comparing poor Andrew Stuart who is now deaf to the calls of vanity and ambition, to the Trojan heroe, and good Lady Stuart2 to the Sibyl in the Eneid, is one of the receipts he has for being popular and esteemed. This same sibyl was an old frantic maid who ‘spake wondrous truths involved in riddles, and furious bellowed round her gloomy cave’3-very like a whale as Shakespear says :4 none but himself would have made the simili- tude. But Mr S[tewart] has given the anonymous writer such a dressing as would cover most other men with confusion. ... I re- member a Laird in the highlands, the first who ever celebrated me in poetry who was very prodigal of his latin and poetry. To me he quoted Galic poetry. The people of Rannoch were of opinion that Latin and learning were only good to make a man a fool, witness 1 Commissioner James Edgar had a carriage built with only one seat, which he called 2his sulky (Kay, i, 385). Anne Stuart, relict of Sir John Stuart of Castlemilk (see The Genealogy of the 3Stewarts Refuted, Edinburgh, 1799, p. 19). Thus from the dark Recess, the sibyl spoke, And the resisting Air the Thunder broke; The Cave rebellow’d; and the temple shook. 4 Aeneid Vi, 147-9, trans. Dryden. Shakespeare, Hamlet, in, ii. 8o: 61 Inverhaddon1.- I do not imagine our friend Kippendavie entered deep into the tops and purses which was too juvenile for him. Report which sometimes is not well founded, said he was meditating another conquest; for next to Buonaparte I know no greater con- queror and he is at least less bloody minded. I have been hitherto prevented from being there; and indeed I was told Mrs Stirling was little disposed to see company.2 What would she have said had she fallen to the lot of Fletcher who makes so light of living luggage? She ought to be grateful for her lot being more happily cast with a man who is buying not sporting away land, to say nothing of her fine family. I will venture to foretell without the gift of prophecy that all his winnings will be like water in a sieve. I rejoice to hear Mr Rolland has given a decision in favour of the ladies who certainly had an equitable if not legal claim to a share of their father’s money. Did you ever read Dr Charters’ sermon,3 or rather dissertation, on the duty of making a testament, a duty too often and preposterously neglected.4 Supposing we send a copy of it to your friend of whose recovery I am glad; being now it is to be hoped in a serious frame preachings are more likely to make a deep impression. Seriously there is often a degree of infatuation in people’s neglecting to do what they ought in proper time. I rejoice to hear of Miss Ross5 beside whom I sat at Dr Gregory’s being so well dis- posed. She seemed a pleasant natural Girl. Few young women find so much account in falling into the hands of the surgeons 1 Allan Stewart, who inherited lands of Inverhadden in 1739 on death of Rev. Duncan Stewart, his father (J. H. J. and D. Stewart, The Stewarts of Appin, Edinburgh, !1880, p. 177). Mary, second daughter of William Graham of Airth, married, 30 April 1781, John 8Stirling of Kippendavie. Samuel Charters of Luscar, 1772-1825, presented to church of Kincardine-in- Menteith, 1768, ordained 1769, transferred to Wilton (Hawick), 1772,0.0. (Glasgow) 1789, dechned chair of moral philosophy at Glasgow in succession to Adam Smith. 4Married, 1786, Margaret Scott. ‘I cannot leave this subject [testaments] without paying a just tribute of praise to a Wilton,most respectable who, from clergyman a regard toof thethe domesticChurch ofpeace Scotland, and happiness Mr Charters, of his parishioners,minister of has preached and published a sermon on the duty which every man owes to himself and to his relations of settling his affairs’ (R. Bell, Dictionary of the Law of Scotland, 6Edinburgh, 1815, ii, 752). Isabella Ross, daughter oflate Lt. Col. Ross of the 21st regiment, married, July 1801, George Bell, surgeon in Edinburgh. 62 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY io August 1801 .... I cannot forbear a few lines by Mrs Joass who goes to town on Wednesday with the Watsons. They and Sir Robert dine here today. I was at Airthray some days last week and returned last night after having been at the kirk of relief at Blair where I heard a minister whose overstrained voice and vulgarity of phrase were well suited to his audience.11 wished to have heard the minister of Logie2 a new man but he was gone to a sacrament. Verily I believe I could be reconciled to faring sumptously every day, for though one does not go very deep in animal food, there is no standing peaches, nectarines etc. It is a beautiful place and wants nothing but a moving river or a purling stream. I went on Saturday and paid a visit to David Erskine who lives with Mr Clawson the new minister at Gogar and found him much pleased with his situation which he quits in November. I asked him and his landlord to come here which he is the likelier to do that he has little chance to see Ladies or bucks and beaux. My visit to Cardross gave me very great satisfaction indeed. Never did sorrow assume a more placid a more edifying form. Yet none can put a higher value on what they have lost. I am truly sorry to see that worthy pair in more indifferent health than their friends could wish but they seem on the whole better, probably owing to this fine weather and to the hand of time, for assuredly their com- plaints were not improved by the stroke they met with.... Sir Robert who had got a severe cold yesterday has a swelled face and cannot come. 19 October 1801 .... I did exceedingly rejoice at the peace; even the prospect of it gave a revulsion to my spirits. Whether this country could have held out much longer against one half of Europe is doubtful; but the trade of the world could not much longer have supported our waste of treasure and spirit of cruzade. Let us however now the first ebullitions are over ‘rejoice with trembling’. Peace has its dangers as well as war. Our disarming and the winding up our finances may produce consequences we think not of. I know not whether we are 1 2 John Watt, minister at Relief church at Blair Logie from 1794 to 1809. Robert Clason, 1746-1831, admitted as minister of Logie, April 1801. i8oi 63 most to dread the exports from or the imports into the country. There will be shoals of wealthy unprincipled young people who will go to France to finish their education, and to be founded in their principles - but a truce with apprehensions to which there is no end!. . . Your account of my neighbours astonished and grieved me because I like them: I wish they do not land in Paris which woxAdfinish the whole. There are very various accounts of the laird’s health, some of which I will not repeat. But I hear his brother who travels with the speed of a comet says, he is in excellent health and spirits. Be it so -1 wish them all well home. I presume the West Indian will settle in this country and take to himself a rib. Has the good town disposed of him already without his own consent? -1 know none of the parties you mention but young Callander1 who, though of a bad breed, is well spoken of; his mother was an aimiable woman worthy of a better fate;2 upon hearing it was H[enry] Er[skine]’s daughter, 1 asked if it was Harriet the wild in the song and was answered. No I hear Lady Aberfcromby]3 goes to England for her health which I thought had been reestablished. Your Edinburgh physicians are most disinterested people in sending patients where they can get no fees; but it is a pity they should often send them on a wild goose chase or worse. . . . Good Lady Christian seems much in the situa- tion of her mother who had a hollow cough for a number of years. May their lives be spared! for they are excellent people. The Captain’s marriage4 has given their spirits a fillip and the peace will secure against his being a crusader. I am sorry the good Doctor’s picture does not please; how should mine ? If ever I be drawn it shall be for you, on condition you do not send me to the garret as useless lumber: but that is all badinage.... I am to have all the bairns hereabouts on Thursday in battle array to give them pears and apples in gratitude for there being none stollen, though as open as the road.. . . 1 George Callander of Craigforth, 1770-1824, married, 1801, Elizabeth Crompton, 2eldest daughter of Hon. Henry Erskine of Almondell. She died 1855. 3 Christian Forbes, first wife of James Callander of Craigforth. Mary Anne Menzies, widow of Sir Ralph Abercromby, created Baroness Aber- 4cromby of Aboukir and Tullibody, 28 May 1801. James Captain Erskine William of Cardross,Erskine of married, the 16th foot,15 September later major 1801, of the Elizabeth 71st foot, Myers, sixth son only of daughter of General Sir William Myers. 64 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY 30 November 1801 .... If you were precluded from writing by idlers, mark how I was kept from my sober dinner by an unexpected visitor. On Friday after I had peppered and salted my potatoe soup, and was going to swallow the first morsel, a carriage came driving Jehu-like; I went down and found George Abercromby whom I was glad to see even at the eleventh hour. He made many apologies and I spoke very kind and very plain. Dinner was ordered down; and we entered into a Chat which I doubt would interfere with the dinner at Airth- rey which is like the laws of the Medes and Persians. He announced to me, what I had not heard before, Sir Robert’s intention to stand for Stirlingshire which in the state of his eyes, and after having got almost all his heart could wish, is what I would not have thought of. Nor do I see how his correspondence is to be carried on. I wish him success in that and all his other enterprises, matrimony included which methinks would be the wisest thing he could do. Be that as it may, it is a bold thing to enter into a contest for one of the most venal counties in the kingdom (I must beg your pardon as a Stirling- shire woman, but you are no electioneering Lady) and into a new turnpike, one of the least desirable coparmeries that can be devized, and that within a month of each other. Verily it is searching for disquietudes as for hidden treasures; and the engaging in a turnpike business in these selfish jobbing times, is like wedding a shrew, for the sake of the courtship and the nuptial feast. For this I might appeal to Kippendavie, Dr Moir,1 John Ogilvy2 etc. Be that as it may, I offered my vote in Perthshire either to Sir Robert or to George, assuring them I should be a sure card. And so after many good resolutions if we shall live to see another year, I sent a basket of fruit to Mrs Aberfcromby] who is a favourite of mine, and so we parted.- 1 then sat down and swallowed my dinner with great chearfulness: for nothing is a better appetiser than seeing the descendants of revered friends paying some attention to those of their family. . . . The table cloath was not drawn when in popt an unceremonious guest who presumed I dined like other people. It was no difficult 1 Dr Robert Graham, m.d., succeeded George Moir of Leckie, 1792, and took name of 2Moir; died 1819. John Ogilvy of Inshewan. died 1813. i8oi 65 matter to provide him and so the cloth continued on the table till it was near sober Edinburgh hours - interrupted again by my friend Ardvorlich, a welcome guest, one of those that come to the hermi- tage for the sake of the hermit. He tells me the house of Comrie is fitting up for George Aber [cromby ]. It is a small place near Dunyra. And I learn from him Mr H. Dundas is ill pleased with the peace - be it so; you and I can do without Malta or the cape of Good Hope; these things are too high for me: all my ambition is to see peace and truth in my time. So much for the trifling events that chequer the winter life of a hermit. On Tuesday I go to Cardross for a week, which is now to me what Tullibody and Brucefield, Stirling Castle and Newton were in days of yore. ... I was a little alarmed this morning to have an express from Cardross bringing a letter from Lady Christian saying they expected Captain Ramsay1 on Tuesday and as their meeting with Charles’s most intimate friend would be a mournful one they wished my visit delayed till Wednesday or Thursday. However much they may be affected for a time, I trust it will conduce to their consolation afterwards, by adding to their stock of sweet remembrance. ... Have Lord Dundas2 and the Duke of Montrose3 declared? The latter, like old Pitmellie, has no luck at chess. . . . On my return from Cardross on Thursday I found yours which after three readings and the application of magnifying spectacles, I was able to decypher; I mean the characters, or rather sometimes the no characters; for in the sense criticism itself could spy no flaws. I have heard of dancing masters (not dancing schools) for grown gentlemen: why should there not be writing masters for grown ladies and gentlemen? At one time I myself would not have been the worse of a quarter’s instruction; but if my friends do not flatter me (and who would flatter a hermit?) I am less illegible than in days of yore. You are not the only one of my correspondents that sometimes puzzle me, but one does not dislike a little puzzling when information is to be had from old Reekie. I found the Cardross family as well as I expected - but still I came 1 John Ramsay, 1775-1842, fourth son of eighth earl of Dalhousie, captain and major 2in marquess of Huntly’s regiment. 3 James,Thomas third Dundas, duke Baronof Montrose, Dundas 1755-1836. of Aske, 1741-1820. B 66 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY a day too soon! No accounts of Captain Ramsay who, according to the new code of manners, did not appear at the time appointed. When lo ! a few minutes before dinner was dished, he arrived which put us all into a quandary and put off our meal near an hour. It was I doubt not both a painful and a pleasing meeting: much had he to tell which they wished to hear; and nothing had he to say which did not enhance their love for him that was gone. The ring was doubtless delivered to Miss Erskine which she will value as dearly as poor Isabella did her wedding ring;1 which she was forced by dire necessity to sell, that she might get bread to her infants. Captain Ramsay told Mrs Erskine and me that a golden locket was at his express desire buried with him in the peninsula of Aboukir, a savage burial place where holy men never tolled to church! This his father said was a collection of the hair of all those that were dearest to him. Dinner at length appeared; and though one, very observing, or apprized of the circumstances, might have concluded that they had been tasting of the luxury of grieff; everything went on with great ease, nay with that chearfulness, dashed a little by sweet remem- brance of an irreparable loss, which is the cordial and balm of virtue and sweet innocence; more pleasing sure than the feasts of pampered epicureans, or the morning dances and subsequent portentuous breakfasts of modem beaux and belles which never went on more briskly than in the late portentuous winter. My namesake is a very sensible, well behaved young man who in a short time has seen a great deal of service and much of life and death which will afford him ample matter for discourse many years hence. After tea they had another conference in the drawing room, while we staid in the dining room. Next morning he set out betimes to dine at Brechin castle only 70 miles distant! but if he arrived by 10 he would not be idle. The meeting twixt him and his brother and company would not be quite so tender or so well calculated to mend the heart, or to teach lessons how to comport ones self amidst the evils of life. But it would be abundantly social and more to the taste of a young soldier who is entitled to solace himself after the fatigues of war. Our next interlude was a visit of the two Rinds2 who came to dine 1 2 Heroine of Southeme’s tragedy The Fatal Marriage; see below, p. 88, n. 4. James Nathaniel Rind of Wester Livilands, died 30 March 1814 (sro, Stirling Sheriff Court Inventories, vol. 2, fo. 360), and his brother, Ramsay’s cousins. and returned that same night- As usual the Doctor and I were strangers and did not disturb the company with our disputes, while the brother and I chatted. What money he may have brought with him I know not. Here I fancy he will find a ravelled harp, and people very yaap1 for more; but they have wonderful address and may perhaps, as they did before, cast glamour in his een. This was there- fore a sort of tragic comedy compared with the other. . . . Bless me! how I have run on; I thought I should have compressed Cardross in a page.- Tell Mr Dundas (being his flapper)2 that I had a second letter from General Dundas3 which puts an end to all ideas of purchasing Powis. He knows not when he can leave Ireland with decency, having thousands to receive, and before seeing this country must take a trip to London which Mr C. Stirling4 will tell you is but a walk as the song says. He has not heard of a long time from Mr D[undas] who only writes the needful- I am sorry to hear good Mrs Erskine is unwell. Her evening of life, as that of the Doctor, is apt to be clouded; but though their sun must ere long set, they have every reason to hope for the blessed memory of a day which will last forever, and be clouded neither by disease nor weight of years. . . . 23 December 1801 I . . . condole with you on the death of good Mrs Campbell5 who was a very worthy, pleasant woman who acted her part in the drama of life to very good account. As she lived to a good old age she is like Lady Clackmannan and Tullibody6 rather to be regreted than lamented by her friends and relations who will venerate her memory and while they remember with respect and satisfaction incidents connected with her, it ought to teach them that as she is, ere many 1 Shout, bawl, cry aloud, whine (J. Wright, English Dialect Dictionary, London, 81898). are From attended Swift’s by Gulliver’spages with Travels, flaps to part arouse 3, A them voyage from to Laputa speculation. etc., where the Laputians * Ralph Dundas of Manor, son of John Dundas of Manor, made a general 1802, died 41814. 5 Charles Stirling of Kenmure, 1771-1830, fourth son of William Stirling of Keir. Not identified. *daughter Henry ofBruce, Alexander fifteenth Bruce baron of the of family Clackmannan, of Newton. died 1772, married Catherine, 68 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY more years elapse so must they be. It will give Miss Jane a part to play which she will do to good purpose. I should think the General may make a bargain with Miss Preston1 perhaps on easier terms than his grandmother would have done. Could he be restored to his youth when he was a favourite of the fair, he might have pleaded his own cause with the heiress. Meanwhile it is undoubtedly a severe stroke on him. Poor Miss Macgruther !2 No more shall I hear her redd up her cousins to some purpose or comment on the story of the day. I presume she has left her mother what she had; at least it does no[t] go to Cambusmore, her heir of line. Much may be said about the place of sepulture; philosophically speaking it matters little where we mingle with the dust; but one is not surprised to see people anxious to be laid besides those they loved and honoured. Miss Macgruther’s ancestors and relatives at Muthill or Comrie were in a great measure strangers to her in their lives; and really it is severe on the living to be crossing the Muir of Orchil in this dismal weather, but it is pious to obey the will of the dead.- Good Lady Hamilton3 is a venerable wreck - an excellent specimen of the old world. ... If Mr Dundas be not gone to Fleurs to his yule will you please say, I did expect to have heard from him as to the bursary. He I am certain was correct, whatever his friend may be, whose whole conduct this year is most unaccountable...... I was diverted with your complaint of the non arrival of the London mail, as if we were a couple of quid nuncs that gape with equal avidity for good and bad news. I love my country and wish it well; I long for peace and tranquillity; and if contrary to my hopes and expectations, the great consul shall again unsheath the sword, the news papers will proclaim it like ravens rejoicing over a tempest. - Major Stirling4 is my old acquaintance in the news paper way and it would seem he does not wish to let it drop. His first appearance in the papers was in 1776 in a letter from Serjeant S. of the 42nd giving an account of the country and expressing his hopes of getting a good plantation by forfeiture. Eve[ry] day almost exhibits a paragraph 1 Ann, daughter of Patrick Preston, son of Sir George Preston of Valleyfield, bt., 2married General Sir David Baird, 1757-1829. She died in 1847. 3 Not identified. 4 ForMargaret Major Stirling, Stirling relictof the of 42nd Sir Hugh regiment, Hamilton see Kay, of Rosehall, ii, 272. died November 1802. about him and his corps. If his father was more canny in his drink than most men, he was a very extraordinary personage who could have drunk eight days without rising, and who when put to bed could not rest. Yet by having a strong head he made alwise the best bargains in his drink. . . . And so the winter campaign is going to open with great eclat. May the result of it be a number of those happy conquests when both parties are pleased with the event! I know not if the return of the fencible corps will produce a number of beaux; but we are less nice or refined in that respect than the last generation who insisted on dress and good breeding as essential to gentlemen who conversed with the fair ones of birth and fashion in the old assembly room which, O horrible! is now converted into chambers for the worship- ful society of chimney sweeps; and stranger still since it was deserted the assembhes (the best maiden market this country ever saw) went [out] of fashion and were succeeded by private balls. When [are] you going to have yours?. . . I rejoice good Lady Hamilton still retains a portion of that life and spirit and courtesy which became the Lady of a Baron of the old stamp. Her adventure on the old dragoon was a tragic comic one and ended well. I hear the Keirs are to be down in April perfectly surfeited I suppose of the vanities of London and the watering places. So I was told by an old groom of Archibald Stirling1 who mourns their absence and has lost an inch or two of flesh since their departure. It came through Mr Charles. I wish they may not feel a blank at living soberly like Lady Grace under a great tree. And I understood Lady Aberfcromby] also returns in the spring to live like the Shunnamite woman among her own people-the wisest thing one can do, provided a little attention be paid to popularity founded on kindness and courtesy, and that beneficence of conduct which is perfectly consistent with good management, and produc- tive of that pleasing society which is the truest luxury, as it never palls or is affected with the breath of fashion or the smiling frowns of the great and mighty. Where, you will say, have I got these antediluvian notions? - from people that are now [no] more, on whom I often reflect with gratitude and delight. And the Card- ross family is a living sample of the manners and modes of life I was 1 Archibald Stirling, 1769-1847, third son of William Stirling of Keir. ?o LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY accustomed to in my youth and in my prime: I am sure it was the wisest policy. So much for digressions.-1 had yesterday a visit from Colonel Aber[cromby] in his way from Cardross, and I was much struck at the resemblance twixt him and his father in features and manners. We had a long and interesting chat for he is a very sensible well informed young man. Much did he tell me that I did not know as that the grand vizier can neither read nor write and that the plague is nothing in the hands of British Doctors. I was glad likewise to hear that Lord Hutchinson1 was not under scandal it being his brother.2 But I was sorry to hear there is no hopes of seeing his commentaries of the war of Egypt which, if as well written as his dispatches, would have been worthy of Caesar. I heard likewise something of Stirling- shire politics and of William Elph[ instone]3 wishing to stipulate that there might be no bribery. . . . 1 Richard Hely (Hely-Hutchinson), Baron Donoughmore of Knocklofty, later Viscount2 Hutchinson (U.K. peerage), 1756-1825. Baron Donoughmore’s brothers were John, later Lord Hutchinson, second earl of 3Donoughmore, Francis, Augustus Abraham, Christopher and Lorenzo. William, 1740-1834, son of tenth Lord Elphinstone. 1802

9 February 1802 .... My complaints are not evanished. The inflammation or weakness in one of my eyes returned eight days ago and disabled me from reading or writing, my chief amusements in this hermit state when - but let me [n]ot take up your time or disobey the Doctor in multiplying idle, melancholy words which produce no fruit. How- ever the symptoms are rather more favourable today and Doctor Graham1 seems to think I will soon be well. Meanwhile I am not idle. Besides two readers, I am redding up and shortening my own epitaph. Anything soft and tender, you say, will do; but any thing to concenter ones thoughts is allowable. ... I would have sent the box with your blamange-sort of books, but there is much snow and there may be rain. I hope you did not take umbrage at the cellery? .... Has Mr Dundas any hopes of being King’s writer in the new arrangement?. . . . 23 February 1802 .... Since Monday I have been very well, and as a proof of it, this, that I may pay my debt, is written by candlelight. My readers are dismist to their great satisfaction, I dare say: we almost finished Gil Bias, I fancy for the last time, the Lady’s travels etc. You may laugh, but I did find amusement in epitaphising when I could neither read nor sleep. Depend on it every topic of vanity is carefully avoided; it is an apostrophe to the feelings of my few surviving friends, and touching on characteristic circumstances. It is now after numberless changes well nigh settled; and ... if I come to Edinburgh you shall 1 Dr Charles Alexander Graham, younger of Leckie. 72 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY have a Pisgah view of the translation, for I must translate for the Ladies and country gentlemen. Colonel Masterton1 paid his servants their Legacy by anticipation by which means he saw them shed many a tear that would possibly not have been shed after his death. . . . I thank you for Johnson’s devotions which I read with admiration when first published and shall now re-read. Poor Johnson who had troops of friends and flatterers in his life was exceedingly ill used by a number of them when he was no more; and by none more than by Mr Strahen who ought to have supprest the ridiculous resolutions and notions which serve only to defeat the good purpose of the prayers which address his maker with a simplicity unlike the strain of the Rambler.2 It was making the poor Doctor a sport to the Philistines. I cannot decypher the notes on Strahen’s dissertation on apparitions which indeed required little comment being a fanciful thing, but before this be closed some body may call and do it. I agree with Addison, that to deny the existence of ghosts and their power to appear is to contradict all history ancient and modem. Indeed that does not say they are frequent: on the contrary, most of the stories we hear are connected with flesh and blood. But since we are on this head, I will tell you a story better voutched than most of them which I had from our uncle Doctor Dundas3 who was no enthusiast or visionary man. When a gay frolicsome fellow he chanced to lodge in the same house with a Sir Alexander Cuming who died in Carolina, a captain in the army.4 They had supped with a gay party of friends in the old Edinburgh style and after coming home chatted a while in the Doctor’s room after which Sir Alexander went to his own where he had hardly been a minute when he gave a scream. The Doctor went and found his friend like to faint. ‘What is the matter Sir Alexander?’ ‘On coming into the room’ answered he, T saw a woman all in white on the side of my bed: on approaching to my great astonishment she vanished’ - ‘Did you ever see her before’ said the Doctor - ‘Why, I think I have seen the 1face somewhere, but can not be certain, it being only a momentary 2 Colonel James Masterton, barrackmaster-general for Scotland. 4 Johnson’s Prayers and Meditations, edited by G. Strahan, published 1785. 4 Dr Thomas Dundas, bom 1705, son of Ralph Dundas of Manor. Possibly Sir Alexander Cuming, bt, c. l737-?93, a captain in the army, who died deranged in Whitechapel. 1802 73 glance I got’ - They parted; and in a week, Sir Alexander got intel- ligence of the death of a sister, much older than himself whom he had not seen since he was a boy, she having made a low and improper marriage. This ill fated woman breathed her last about the very time that this phantom appeared to her brother.- To what good purpose you will say? I know too little of the world of spirits to answer; but the story made a great noise. Certainly it did not make the Doctor more grave and thoughtful; what effect it had on the Knight I know not.- You will say no ghosts, except the skeletons of ancient virgins are to be seen nowadays, or to be heard of among the gay flatterers male and female of Edinburgh. Were any ghost idle enough to come, or even to disclose the secrets of his prison house, I doubt a deaf ear would be lent to the direful tale, so much are they engulpht in dissipation. I will not say but that the Methodists might treat it with more respect.- I commend you much for taking a peep of a modern ball which I hear is sometimes graced with a concert. John Muir should come and play his game in place of cards. . . . But when give you yours? for I hope you do not lose sight of oeconomy, to say nothing of saving time, a precious commodity for a good matron and housewife. Mr Dundas’s table must be swept, and the papers sent to the garret in proper order for a single day: it is but one very busy day and night to you and to him. Why should not the young and the gay trip it away in the mom of life? but it were as well not to take a surfeit of it. And I question much if being perpetually in the filly fair (to use another delicate methaphor) be the best way of making one’s market. . . . I am exceedingly sorry to hear that Mr Addington1 and Mr Dundas are going to quarrell; it does not bode a strong and durable administration, the only thing that can save this country.... I con- fess Buonaparte’s conduct is very mysterious, and I wish he does not cheat us. No matter, say the flatterers of fashion, there will be balls and concerts and spectacles then as well as now. True! But the scum of this country would treat them as the sans culottes of France did a giddy and frivolous or profligate noblesse. I hope however we shall (possibly before this be done) hear of peace; and may all our fears be disappointed! I do not know if it would make us more sober 1 Henry Addington, first Viscount Sidmouth, 1757-1844. 74 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY minded. I should think a number of people are driving post haste to the abbey, which, to be sure, is to old fashioned people a sombre sort of a place; but Mr Dundas will tell you there are ways of getting out of it, and soaring higher than ever, witness the fathers of a late married pair who once seemed to be at the bottom of the wheel of fortune, but are now dashing away on the top of it. A superstitious person would say, judgments await them; but who in this erdight- ened prosperous age thinks of judgments being abroad upon the Earth, hovering over either nations or individuals? but I encroach upon Dr Alison’s province who I presume continues to favour you with edifying evangelical homilies, not with spiritual blamange or kickshaws for gay giddy misses and masters that have forgot their catechism; with whom nothing will go down but the ice cream of sentiment, heightened by the raspberry flavour of style pushed to extreme. What an ignorant presumptuous fellow! say you. -1 wish you would, with or without absolution, go to hear Mr Ritchie of St Andrews who is the Doctor’s rival.11 hope he approaches some- what to vennison; for nowadays roast beef or mutton is reckoned vulgar. O for such ministers as Dr Erskine, equally sincere and zeal- ous who feeds his flock with plain wholesome aliment, cooked up in a way to please any palate that is not depraved! So much for spiritual cookery, of which you have great variety in your city.- How far it agrees with the constitution is another point. . . . Please receive Johnson’s devotions and as you seem to like it a truss of cellery of which there is store. I should like a reading of the papers in George Aber[cromby]’s election cause. It was hard to make him the first example but who expects heart in politicians. I see the two Abercrombies have been presented to the Queen. I expect to see the Stirlings in the same predicament. ... I see John Home’s history published :2 hear you what is said of it. Report says Prince Charles is his heroe. I long to read it but would first wish to know if it be worth buying. . . . The death of Mr Erskine3 so little expected is one of the severest blows I have experienced in the article of friendship, since the death 1 2 David Ritchie, 1763-1844, minister of St Andrew’s, Edinburgh, second charge. 3 John Home, History of the Rebellion in the year 174s (London, 1802). 27 March 1802. 1802 75 of his excellent brother who was a friend that stuck closer than a brother, being the pride and joy of my heart1 The excellent man whom we have lately lost was one of the most dignified and aimi- able men of this or any other country, the inheritance of his worthy father and mother’s virtues. I was not alwise of his opinions, but I never knew a man who acted his part in the drama of life to better purpose, making the finest steps in matters very delicate that I ever knew. He was in truth a second Alworthy who had no enemies and troops of friends, a rare secret! It remains for me to follow the friends I loved and honoured who contributed to sweeten my life. ... If we shall be of the number of those that shall be admitted into the mansions of the blessed with what joy shall we recognise those revered personages whose company solaced us and whose departure wrung our hearts? If this be melancholy, it is a pleasant one which mends, while it melts the heart, and reconciles it to those dispensations which have been hard on us. It tells us that they who see many days must expect to see many things to break their peace, and to wound their hearts. Meanwhile they teach us submission to the divine will and reconcile us to our departure, for they whose earthly comforts most abound are liable to the severest strokes.- If this be a digression it is not unsuitable to Sunday even, when I sit down to chat a little with you. . . . In that temper of mind I was much pleased with my young friend Tom Erskine’s letter and visit. ‘O Tom, said I to him, if you can write such letters at 13, what will you do at 21 ?’ I endeavoured to persuade him that the way to make him a great scholar, superior to Ritson, was to go to Eton or Westminster till 18, where he would be flogged into a good latin poet! In that way, strange to tell! the seeds of genius have often been elicited, which in the present hurried style of education are often smothered. Tom heard me with great patience, but said ‘I believe I should resist!’- He is a fine lad very different from James who has more mildness. It is a great comfort to me to see my friends’ offspring so promising. May heaven pre- serve them and direct their steps through the slippery paths of youth, beset on all hands with temptations not easily resisted; among which though not the least, though strewed with flowers, are modem balls. ... I am willing to believe the young Ladies that frequent 1 See above, p. 35, n. 1. 76 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY these orgies, are as pure and virtuous as those who were under the direction of Mrs Niccy Murray,1 and her predecessors Lady Panmure2 and Orbieston3 who used to hand down her peers to their chairs. This is owing to the gentle dignified manners of the young gentlemen whose minds are as well dressed as their bodies; but let me not speak of persons I do not know, or of things much too high for me. The death of Mr Oswald4 is an affecting tale, and reminds us of the young man whose fate is so beautifully deplored by Young5 in his night thoughts, who, if I forget not, was seized at a ball. . . . 20 April 1802 .... Having in the first place wrote a letter to my venerable friend Dr Erskine, I proceed now to finish yours. In the mysterious ways of providence he is permitted to survive his two brothers on whose life for many years beyond his one would have counted - but let me quit that theme and beg you to have it put into the post office.-1 am very sorry for good Lady Hamilton’s disease; it is perhaps what awaits us. I am glad the good Lady retains her faculties in her present enfeebled state. She is the last of a most respectable genera- tion, but to everything in this world there must be an end and she will quit this mortal scene with applause, to be regretted rather than lamented, being like a stock of ripe com ready to be gathered. . . . 0 ! I had another call from George who comes to Cambuswallace. With all my cousins I will live as they chuse; but there goes always two to a match, and when affection and esteem seem to be made little of on one side, it naturally produces a coolness on the other. James E[dmonstone] might live in Japan; he never comes here and is so killing cold when we do meet that I expect6 little from him. .. 7. 1Who is Jar dine that is to marry Miss Bruce? Not the professor’s 2 NicholasMargaret, Helen, daughter daughter of William, of fifth duke Viscount of Hamilton, Stormont, married died 1777. James, fourth earl of 3Panmure, died 1731. Henrietta, daughter of second viscount of Oxfuird, married James Hamilton of 4Orbiston, died 1758. 5 James Oswald, younger of Dunnikier, advocate, died 17 November 1802. 6 Edward Young, 1683-1765. John, only son of Professor George Jardine, married, 1802, only daughter of deceased James7 Bruce of Kinnaird. He died 1850 (Kay, ii, 466). George Jardine, professor of logic at Glasgow. 1802 77 son, that would be no great marriage, what Lucky Murray of Crieff used to call a bear meal marriage. . . . 3 June 1802 Mr Bruce of Kennet and his Lady1 dined with me today in their way from Cardross and as he goes to Edinburgh beginning of next week, write this to say I arrived safe on Tuesday night and my cold is on the whole better. . . . Meanwhile if Cunninghame the gold- smith2 has not sent the mourning ring for Mr Erskine will you please send for it and put it in some book in the box which you can specify. If there be room (which I doubt) I would be oblidged to Mrs Erskine for Wallace’s ancient peerage3 but it can be had from another quarter. I go to a wedding feast tomorrow when I shall survey the rural nymphs and beaux with a critical eye and state the difference twixt 1782 and 02...... A carrier’s horse is a miserable animal for he is generally over- loaded and underfed even in times of most plenty. If there was any foundation for the doctrine of transmigration, I should conclude Duncan’s horse to have been some highland Laird or Lord, who oppressed an affectionate people. . . . And for what is all this? for ottomans and gewgaws? for equipages and dress, in some cases for no dress or dress that neither keeps warm nor setts off female beauty to most advantage; for a short Jacket, though bedaubed with gold and pearls will not keep one warm! A female swindler, her husband or keeper was related to some noble families, tricked some of the Stirling shopkeepers out of much money; one of them, Miss Baird, said ‘Filthy Cuttie !4 I suspected she was no great things, for her coats were short and few’. It is a fashion repugnant to decency and common sense, and what is mortifying defeats its own purpose. What have I to do with female dress which has been a subject to 1 Alexander Bruce of Kennet, 1755-1808, married Hugh Blackburn, 1768-1851 *daughter Roll of ofEdinburgh Hugh Blackburn, Burgesses, 1761-1841,of Glasgow. ed. C. B. Boog Watson (Scottish Record 8Soc., 1933) gives five Cunninghams who were goldsmiths between 1761 and 1802. George Wallace, Thoughts on the origin of feudal tenures and the descent of ancient peerages4 In Scotland in Scotland and Scotsmen, (Edinburgh, ii, 135, 1783 this ). is given as ‘cattle’, though here ‘cuttie’ seems quite clear. 78 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY wits and moralists for ages who no sooner beat down one mode, but up there start others not more laudable. I remember within these twenty years heads of three stories high, which astonished the country matrons at a wedding who called those strange superin- ductions a set on roof.1 In that respect the modem misses are much reformed. . . . Our country people have now reduced their weddings to a very narrow compass. I looked into a young tenant’s t’other day which did not consist of a dozen and what was new, little or no dancing. I reprimanded them and said there was a time for everything under the sun, especially, a time to dance. But I wish you had seen the Bride’s paraphernelia. Her Ottoman to be sure was not covered with Morocco leather, but not without cost and finery. Three of my people have got parlours or drawing rooms within this twelvemonth, with a view to a change of state; for the remaining bachellor is twenty and his mother set him to the dancing school two years ago to learn him confidence, a virtue which I presume your young gentle- men leam at the elegant and well assorted morning dances, by which time the ice of ceremony is thawed, and they can speak their mind to their young female friends. Sure I am of one thing, the modish clergy are wise in letting them alone. Few of them have the grace of persuasion; and the principle of contradiction is strong in human nature. Yet the old clergy seventy years ago who had everything to say with their people, found it labour lost to declaim against the assemblies which were admirably conducted. Even the antiburgher seceders have given over their invectives against promiscuous dancing, while they prescribed nauseous succedeneums which would not go down with their young hearers. ... As long as innocence and virtue adorn the female character, all is well, whether the dance concludes at midnight or at sunrise. The last however is bad for the complec- tion and spirits, and makes beauty fade faster than the flowers of the field, preparing the features for paint which, though sanctioned by high authority, is one of the abominations of fashion which I trust shall be confined to nymphs verging on forty, to whose plans of 1 ‘In the year 1781, being at a country wedding, a pretty girl made her appearance in the bam, with a head dress exorbitantly high and the more ridiculous that by that time heads had fallen. The matrons pronounced it abomination, and said it resembled a set on roof’ (Ramsay MSS., vii, fo. 229V). 1802 79 conquest then ought to be at an end. More than forty years ago, some of the then crop of beauties were accused of using pearl powder to make them transcendantly white which was much in favour of the brunettes who escaped suspicion. I thank you for the account of the ball you were at, and approve of your prudence. Pray do give me some account of the dresses. I heard much of Lady Charlotte’s wit and sprightliness in Fife.1 Of her dress I heard nothing; but I dare say it was original, becoming one who had consorted with Princes and Princesses.- I am exceed- ingly sorry to hear of Mrs Haldane’s distress and danger, and sym- pathise exceedingly with Mrs Joass who has, like her coevals, met with many afflictions and disappointments. I was in hopes of having heard favourable accounts of poor Mrs Haldane, who has been thrown away. To him I could not write, and it would be troubling her mother. . . . 11-13 June 1802 .... I shall first speak to my fellow travellers in the Stirling Crack- sckull, who if neither fashionable nor enlightened, were at least good humoured and less numerous both without and within than usual, and less voluminous than certain females of enormous bottoms with whom when very ill I had once the misfortune to travel. They had another merit of dropping off one by one, first a quondam coach- man of Major Joass’s, a good man who used often to give me a cart in days of yore, and of course reminded me of times of pleasantness. On him James Haldane waited when he was sick which none of the established clergy would have thought worth their while. After him the minister of Cumbernauld2 whom I took at first for a Baptist or Methodist minister, deserted us at Falkirk with a spruce youth whom I could make nothing of for his talk was anomalous. There remained a man, a native of Caithness, who with the other merchants (outside passengers) came to buy goods in the south for their countrymen. He was a sharp shrewd man, insomuch that I recom- mended to him when parting at Bannockburn to buy serges etc., not to take too much advantage of the simple men of the South. He 1 Charlotte Susan Maria, 1775-1861, daughter of John, fifth duke of Argyll, member *of David household Davidson, of princess minister of Walesof Cumbernauld (1812). from 1801 to 1814. 8o LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY told me he had changed his merchant at that place in respect that the present one did not tread in his father’s footsteps who had given him lodging and as much meat and drink as he could take; for you must know a Caithness man does not love to pay for either, and in his country every door and every heart seems open to a stranger, it being unpardonable to pass a door without calling in and partaking of the hospitality of rich and poor. And if this man had been rich enough to have had a great Edinburgh writer, I doubt not but he would have counted it incumbent on the latter to have treated him with as much of his best liquor as he could carry repeating the doze as often as it suited him. We talked of the Orthodox clergy of former times whom he contrasted with the present ones, among whom he said Arminianism and Covetousness were making rapid strides. I suspect he is near akin to the missionaries. On the whole I made out the journey well, remembering the inscription on my excellent friend Dr Henry’s1 Bath library: ‘Be easily pleased’ which he told me had stood him in good stead in the journey of life. I question if it would suit some libraries which shall be nameless though I am not likely to forget them. How much would libraries (perfect antipodes to each other) marvel were they to meet half way or to examine the decorations of the one and the cobwebs and confusion of the other? We were too late to meet with a murderer carrying to prison who had most wantonly stabbed a man rather than pay zd. He is one of our disbanded heroes: I dined with Dr Graham who is not so well as I could wish him and I came home time enough to the wedding of one of my tenants who I once thought would have thought of no other help mate than his mother; but the striking out of new doors and windows made me think he was going to shake off the yoke or at least to exchange it for a more gentle sway. Having not been (except for a start) at a country wedding for twenty years it became me as an attentive spectator of manners to mark the changes. It is now the mode to marry privately, a day or two before the feast - no public bedding! no throwing the stocking! as in days of yore! all is privacy; love locks the door and keeps the key. I was too late to witness the arrival of the cavalcade which 1 Edinburgh. Robert Henry, Bequeathed d.d., 1718-90, his library minister to town at Berwick-on-Tweed, council and presbytery and of New Linlithgow. Greyfriars, 1802 8i compared with former times was grand. The nymphs on their side saddles, the beaux in their boots and spurs, mounted on sightly horses were all properly arranged. No riding for the brose, one of the feats of former times l1 When I arrived I found the misses all as white as swans, and not very distinguishable from the Edinburgh ones, save that they did not wear a man’s shirt or aprons over all. They had moreover a greater proportion of linen about their necks than suits the fashion, though some of them were making approaches to it; and as one of the company expressed it, after the King’s birth- day, the fashions will travel west; and our country nymphs are very apt scholars. The men were less fine nearly in the same proportion with the Edinburgh bucks who scorn elegance of attire as vulgar and unbeseeming. Their heads too were uncovered very nearly in the ton, saving that they had not a tuft purposely set on end. I was then introduced to the bride a decent sensible well looking woman of good people from Bandeath. We had a glass of port wine and then tea very good made by the bride’s elder sister, who from her inordinate activity I denominated Martha; in the course of this we had to borrow and lend spoons to steer the cups. The swains and nymphs were intermixed and tho little was said, glances were inter- changed, with a little jogging at times. We then adjourned to the bam, the tenants’ drawing room, which was damp and darkish. While I continued there they had no country dances which some- times breed schisms between the taught and untaught. Here too taste and delicacy are displayed in barns as much as in your balls. The complaint of Scotland tells us that in 1549 every dance began with tua beiks and ane kiss2 and so it was in my younger days; but thanks to the dancing schools, those academies of modesty and virtue in the country, it is exploded among our misses and masters. I did not think it proper to stay supper or the after dance which lasted till broad day, a thing the more necessary that the moon denied her light, and there were no lamps or flambeaux to guide the steps of the misses and their joes. I cannot therefore describe the pro- gression of rural cooking since ’82. Even then it was less nauseous 1 ‘ An old custom at a country wedding was that the wadding fowk mounted on horseback attended the bridegroom to the bride’s house, and the one who arrived first2 won a cog of brose or of good fat broth made for the occasion’ (Jamieson). dance The ‘beganComplaynt witht of tuaScotland, bekkis ed. and J. withtLeyden a kysse’.(Edinburgh, 1801), 102: the shepherds’ 82 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY than the blacksboils and the birstled1 roasts which almost turned ones stomach 20 or 30 years before. What marriages this one may give rise to I know not; but it is likely as many in proportion will follow as after the great Edinburgh ones. I must observe that this was what is called a private wedding: certain it is they had not their next neighbours not even a young batcheller tenant whom I wished to couple with the bride’s younger sister. Such is the progress of fasti- dious manners!! And now for the moral of the whole: I have been present at the wedding and burial of all my tenants and of some seen the third generation. All this is a hint to me that the time approaches when I must make way for others, being now the eldest of my family for six generations. ... I must ere long be missed from my customed walks, and my favourite trees where I have often strayed; and these will be the haunts of others ‘ Haply some hoary headed swain ’ etc. you know the passage in Gray’s beautiful elegy.- This you will say is worse than mirth at a funeral, which by the bye was very common at our old dregies2.- I dined with the Blair family who are vastly well; there I heard a piece of news which I confess astonished me, namely that Mr Charles Stirling is about to go to the continent. I thought he had too much to do at home for that Yesterday I was favoured with yours of Thursday the 10th with the ring in which Mr Erskine is said to be 79. No matter! his loved image shall be ever cherished by me. I go to Cardross on Monday the 21st and am sorry to miss a sight of the Captain and his little wife. He will be a young Major, but this is a period of rapid promotion.- Well do I remember Jo[ck? Fjorbes as we called him at Dalkeith school.3 He was a good humoured funny boy save that he was a little addicted to take the pet. We have not met since he left school he being my senior. . . . I received an intimation of Catherine Haldane’s death,4 and as she 1has probably made a happy change, so I made a fashionable preacher 2 Scorched. 3 The compotation of the funeral company after the interment (Jamieson). Possibly John Forbes, son of George Forbes of Bellabeg, merchant at Bombay, Aberdeen,bought Newe, 1937), bom alive c. 18111743 {View (A. andof the H. political Tayler, state House of Scotland of Forbes, at Michaelmas Spalding Club,1811: 4Aberdeenshire, Edinburgh, 1812). 1795, Catherine died 5 Haldane,June 1802 second (Sir J. child A. L. of Haldane, James Haldane The Haldanes and Mary of Joass, Gleneagles, born 3Edinburgh, December 1929). 802 83 stare, when I committed my card of condolence to James Haldane to him, in which I said I would not pretend to mention any topics of consolation to them; only I prayed the Almighty to bless and pre- serve their remaining little ones. I did not know Lord Leven1 but I respected his character and a pious nobleman was a rare but edifying spectacle in thfese pr]esent times. I dare say good Dr Erskine will feel his loss; [in all?] probability however they will not be parted long and the latter will leave few equals behind him. . . . 27 July 1802 .... It is an ill wind that blows nobody good; your friend did not make his appearance at Stirling when as far as the book of numbers went, all went hollow for Elphinstone; our friend must trust to the back game in which his friends are very sanguine. Poor man! I am sorry to hear his eyes are very bad indeed owing to some remnants of the fibres that float across his sight: I fancy the oculist will have to come to Airthray castle. It will be a most cruel tantalising thing if the cure be not completed. I would not intrude till the election was over, but as soon as Dr Macleod leaves this, I will see him and poor Charles Graham for whom and for his family my heart bleeds: he is rather better but the symptoms of that dreadful disease are infinitely varied. I wish he would go abroad but his father is not for it. . . . I have of late been consorting with the great and the mighty who dispose of shires and boroughs at their pleasure because they are supposed to have the disposal of the loaves and fishes. George Aber- [cromby] dined here en famille with the Newtons and asked me to dine at Cambuswallace next day with Mr Dundas my old school fellow. We recognised one another and talked over old stories when he was a very little gentleman and I at the head of the school, a great man in my own opinion. We talked of Andrew Balfour, another great man at school, and of our other companions many of whom have gone the way of all flesh, and agreed that the school close (of which I have taken a final leave) appeared to be on a much less scale than it did in days of yore in our chearful mom of youth. He is truly a pleasant natural man who puts on no airs of mystery or greatness though he rides in the political hurricane and directs the storm.21 do 1 He died 9 June 1802. * Addison, The Campaign, 1. 292. 84 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY not envy him his power rejoicing that I hear and but hear the human tempest roar... not even visiting an election to hear who plays the fiddle of discord most skillfully and most shrilly. I had a flying visit from Balgowan1 and Fintry2 who have been both bustlers in their several ways, the latter little to his profit. I would rather have had my sweet inheritance on the banks of Dighty (had I been he) than the favours and countenance of all the Dukes and of all the ministers of state in Europe. By the former I was excused from being at Perth tomorrow. I told him it must be a sign of perilous times when I appear in a Perth meeting. I have had my good friend Dr Macleod here these ten days which is a great treat to me. Great is his learning and greater his worth and piety: yet our converse seems to approximate to warfare: for he is no granter of propositions himself and to be a placebo is not the way to be in favour with him: and as his notes are shrill, so he is easily affected as a man without a skin. But much is to be learned from him, amidst his little effervescences of spirit, for great are his stores of knowledge. Nothing provokes him worse than to talk of his cousins the Irish or his brethren of Edinburgh. Tho comparativelyidle, yet I do not consider it as lost time, getting a number of hints and corrections. This place affords no news; only we have another marriage among my tenants which was a kind of tragic comedy. This day fortnight miss and her mother being left at home, the former beat her daugh- ter black and blue, because she was going to make a match for her- self. This disgraceful exertion of parental authority but accelerated the ma[tch] for miss eloped at midnight and was pursued without eff[ect]. Her grandfather a wise old man on a similar occasion find- ing the eldest daughter determined, said to his son, ‘James put her off like an honest man’s daughter: lambs flesh and lasses flesh will not take salt. As well may one think of herding a parkful of maulkins3 as a lass that has set her heart on a man’. Well do I remember Raith in the days of my youth, when R. Berry4 and I used to visit our grandaunt Lady Bogie, a good old woman.5 The town is now vastly enlarged and the garden made at Abbotshill half a mile off.... Good 1 2 Thomas Graham of Balgowan, later Lord Lynedoch,3 1748-1843. 4 Robert Graham of Fintry, 1749-1815. Hares. 5 AnneRobert Lockhart, Berry, 1730-1820, died 1766, advocate,relict of Sir son John of WemyssDavid Berry, of Bogie. merchant, Edinburgh. 802 85 news, the wasps and cleggs have made their appearance which is an indication of good warm weather yet this cold east wind is no con- firmation of their sagacity. We are looking out our eyes for the Keirs and D. Erskine.1 The lady you mention is perhaps become more natural from having been long at court the finest place to learn sincerity.- Keir is arrived: his man told William he had eat more since he came to Keir than in triple the time at London. . .. 22-24 August 1802 .... I thank you for your account of the peers which is evidently taken from the life. From their affecting a dishabille when common sense would require them to be dressed, I suppose they wish to practice beforehandlessons of humiliation when the time shall come that their titles and honours shall be laid in the dust. The schemes of the great consul look that way, and now that we are disarmed, how little able are we to withstand his mandates? I should not be sur- prized to see a manifesto against Monsieur and his inmates at the abbey2 - but truce with politics and apprehensions! Tis well their Lordships can array their faces in smiles and dimples which bespeak courtesy and benignity whatever may be within: I question much if Lord S. ever becomes an Angus man. One accustomed to the roast beef and frivolity of the English grandees at present is not likely to take up with the convention of the Lairds with whose predecessors his forbears used to consort, when if not so rich they were at least no less respectable. I sympathise with you very much upon the improvements below your windows, which will mangle your beautiful prospect: where or when will this building frenzy end? Whence comes the money or rather credit upon which they are to be reared? And whence the people that are to inhabit these streets of palaces and walks of state? These are questions of some consequence about which the persons most concerned give themselves no concern, and why should you or I? It must depopulate the country which is already thinly inhabited; but what is no less to be depreciated, it will contribute to diffuse 1 David Erskine of Cardross, died 1844, third son of James Erskine of Cardross, in h.e.i.c.s.2 Comte ind’Artois, Ceylon. later Charles x, 1757-1830 (A. Francis Steuart, The Exiled Bourbons in Scotland, Edinburgh, 1908). 86 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY luxury to a great extent among the few families that reside at their family seats.- For everything however there is a remedy: while south sea prices continue, sell your house and buy one in some of the new streets, where if you will have a less elevated view, there is little chance of having it extinguished or contracted. If possible get a house in Duke’s street and avail yourself of the genius and virtue of the gentleman we visited, who might I think set up as an upholsterer of libraries; only as there are various orders in architecture so there ought to be some diversity in these same seats of literature and the muses. I would recommend something nearer Tuscan simplicity than the Corinthian splendours which we saw and admired. I should like to see him take in hand the arranging, simplifying and adorning of your spouse’s table, covered as it is with processes, title deeds and other necessities. It would be a much easier task than the redding up a certain gentleman’s bedroom in Argyll Square which was richly decorated with law papers, books, bottles etc. He has not been here, nor to say the truth shall I break my heart if he does not: if I am little to his taste he is not much to mine. We dined together at a third place, but our conversation was not very interesting or parti- cular : and tho there was no want of learned men he fell fast asleep after dinner, his spirits like those of Prince Prettyman in the Rehear- sal being exhaled.1! am told it is a thing not uncommon with him at his most learned conversationies, all the effects of hard study and getting up very early to endite his lucubrations! I understand he is one of the writers in the anti-jacobin review; so if you have any view of being an author, make friends in time. At parting he said nothing to me and I as little to him about any further intercourse, and I believe it is as well, his anglicisms and my Scotticisms would never piece together. I had a visit of Dr Sandford whom I like all very well but the look of his eyes, which it is not easy for one to be reconciled: but that as well as his anglicisms is the work of nature, not of art or affectation. He is a learned pleasant unassuming man and I only regreted his visit was so short; he went from me to Touch where he would probably only find the ladies, it being the day of opening the muirs, but he said he was tmder promise. I do not wonder he should be so much 1 ‘His spirits exhale with the heat of his passion, and all that, and swop falls asleep as you see’ (Buckingham, The Rehearsal, u, iii.). 1802 87 followed, for tho’ he speaks English his divinity is of the old stamp I have not been at Keir yet, but I shook hands with the Laird who seemed in good plight but thinner and Miss Jean gave me a call with Mr M. Walkingshaw.1 I advised her to print her travels which would be interesting. The Laird is become now my next neighbour having bought Craigarnal at a swinging price from Dr Robertson Barclay.2 These are times of wonder! I have a great mind to sell and to get a house in some of your new streets - but I’ve sit my time and know not if I should be richer in mind by increasing my income... . I shall be glad to see Mrs Joass while in the country. Mr Bum told me yesterday the occulist entertained good hopes. The whole family Mrs Joass excepted are now in England - for their health.- How does good Dr Erskine? I beUeve I must write him next time the carrier comes with some books.... What the eclipse or a Satur- days change on the 28th may do I will not say; but having a little of the second sight I would have you lay in a provision of the last year’s meal for your childrens’ favourite meal which will probably be as cheap and as good as what is on the ground. But it may prob- ably fare with me as it did with Cassandra of old and the highlanders of late to have my predictions and councils slighted.- What think you of a Stirling supper lately given by a rich Bourgeois where the company did not sit down till midnight: till that time the young folks had a hop; but the best of it was that the entertainer went to bed at his ordinary time, leaving a deputy to do the honours. It was a mother’s compliment to an only Daughter whom she cannot for- bear spoiling, and who runs great risk as she will have a great tocher. The best of it is that they are seceders who are no friends to pro- miscuous dancing, but luxury and the love of imitation break through principle and silence common sense. . . . 21 September 1802 lam very sorry to hear such bad accounts of Conde3 with whom I was little acquainted; but he was a pleasant man very different from 1 2 DrDay James Hort Robertson MacDowall Barclay, of Walkinshaw, m.d., London, 1753-1809. was infeft, 22 March 1800, as heir ofhis brother Henry Robertson Barclay, in lands of Craigarnhall in parish of Lecropt 3(sro, Particular Register of Sasines, Perthshire, 8 April 1800). Ebenezer Oliphant of Condie, died 1807, married Mary, third daughter of Sir William Stirling of Ardoch, who died 1847. LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY his father who was a coarse common-sense man1. And Mrs Oliphant was my particular favourite. All good betide them and their party. ... I think the marriage between the Baronet and the Lady that goes lightly clothed a very proper one, for I do not presume she lays claim to much wisdom - but that part of your letter is involved in darkness from the sinking of the ink into the paper which leaves room for various readings and of course admits of some doubt - well flatten of me! you will say. Indeed had I proceeded with the pen I began with your patience might have been exercised. I know not what legal measures can be taken to warrant Mr P. Dundas’s marriage2 that falls within Mr Andrew Balfour’s province. I should think it prudent to wait till Dalrymple takes the title of Baronet.3 Should this first lady make her appearance it will be ‘the fatal marriage or innocent adultery’, a plot of which Southeme4 has made such admirable use. I am diverted with my good friend Mrs H. teaching mechanics Greek words. It reminds one of the mechanics in the Midsummer night’s dream enacting a play. Tho I neither accuse her nor her disciples of evil intentions, I doubt some of her eleves will be equipped with asses’ heads. ’Tis a strange frenzy.- I hear the brother has been figuring away at the watering places; but do not find he has attempted to raise the dead or to cure a scolding woman of rage or folly; which last the popish biographer of St Malachy accounts a greater miracle by far than raising the dead.5 As for the splendid hammer cloth you mention it is a frenzy of another kind, worthy of being punished by the majesty of the people’s pelting it with dirt rotten eggs etc. as it passes in triumph thro your streets. It excites one’s spleen to see fellows making splendid fortunes by speculation - but however such is the spirit of 1 2 Laurence Oliphant of Condie. Philip, son of Robert Dundas of Amiston, governor of Prince of Wales Island, off the coast of Alaska, married, 1803, Margaret, sister of Sir David Wedderbum, bt. He is stated to have previously married a Mrs Lindsay at Dublin in 1790 (Scots Magazine).3 He died in 1807 (Burke, Landed Gentry). Not identified. None of the Dalrymple baronets appear to have any connection with 4this Thomas story. Southerne, 1660-1746, author of The Fatal Marriage, or. The Innocent 6Adultery (1694). St Malachy, bishop of Armagh, papal legate for Ireland, c. 1094-1148. St Bernard wrote his life. (D. Attwater, Penguin Dictionary of Saints, 1965.) 1802 89 the times! Heard you of old Bushby’s1 dream the penult night of his life ? when he thought he had fallen into a deep pit and after many efforts, got thro a gate which precipitated him lower and lower, till he awakened and behold it was a hideous Phantasma; and after eat- ing a Dives dinner he breathed his last, ‘unhouselld, unanointed, unaneeled’,2not more than well prepared for his great change. He was one of the few men who could lead counties by the nose without the mask of honesty; to him bankruptcy proved the road to wealth and luxury.- On Tuesday poor Dr Graham and his father called to take leave; he sets out this week. I was much affected tho he was very chearful, and I said nothing to damp him. I have however bid him a solemn a tender adieu by a letter; for one can write what it is too much to be said. You may easily guess I put the best face on it, trusting that our separation shall only be for a season; and as selfish- ness enters into all we do or wish, I trust that he shall once more resume the charge of my tabernacle, to which indeed he was most attentive. He is a fine young man of good parts and aimiable dis- positions ; and tho I wish to cherish hope, his languour reminds me too much of good Mr Erskine in 90. I am just returned from taking leave of Harry Drummond who I trust shall return unspoiled from Oxford. Tho he has much steadi- ness, it is a place not without its dangers to a young [man?] of his years and prospects. There is however much good company there as well as bad and I hope he will escape the snares that will be spread for him. His father and mother accompany him and will be in town sooner than these presents. Our friend Keir is by all accounts getting into prodigious high spirits, in the ratio of his low, a thing to be regreted. And I am told his humour at Perth and yesterday at Blair and Cambuswallace was truly Falstaffian; but it would make me grieve. He has gained eleven pounds since his return, a proof that he no longer dines on the wing of a chicken His brother is to be two years, they say, in France and Italy! - but I presume he will not set out till he sees David Erskine whose arrival was announced yesterday to my great joy, because it will make his good mother and his sisters 1 poem John On Bushby, John Bushby, sheriff Esq.,clerk Tinwaldof Dumfries Downs: {Edinburgh ‘Here lies Almanac, John Bushby—honest 1799). See Bums’man, Cheat him. Devil - if you can! ’ * Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1, v, a misquotation of‘unhousel’d, disappointed, unaneal’d’. 90 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY happy. Miss Erskine wrote me Mrs Joass and Miss Dundas were arrived and that they were all bearing up wonderfully Poor Bob Sinclair I1 where be all his gibes and flashes of merriment horribly noisy!) that used to set the table in a roar. I had a note from Mrs Edmonstoune yesterday: he is not well and her man said was some- times poorly on Bute, the weather being wretched. . . . 23 December 1802 In the first place let me congratulate you most cordially on the birth of your youngest son2 and on your speedy recovery and reconvale- scence. This however is a chequered world; high health is sometimes the forerunner of sickness in the same way that riches make to them- selves wrongs, or to speak more properly, the richer we are in these times of speculation, high living and imaginary wants, more bane- ful are they often in their consequences than pimples or even the confluent small pox to a Lady when her roses and lilies are in full bloom, and when her wit is greater than her wisdom - whither am I going with my unsavoury similitudes? there is however a scurvy coincidence of circumstances: Mr Drummond told me t’other day that the meazles had got in among your little ones, the poor judgie3 being sick and sore. I thought of writing to procure intelligence but delayed it till I should be at Kippenross where I knew the latest tidings would be had. On Tuesday therefore I set out after breakfast to pay two ceremon- ious visits one to Mrs Abercromby a great favourite of mine, the other to Mrs Edmondstoune; the former had sent a kind note and message when I was not well, and the other had made a fashionable call, as her Lord and husband confines his visits to his very friends of whom I am none. By the way I met George Aber[cromby] and Sandy Buchanan4 going to Newton to settle the articles of the Down hunt with James E[dmonstone] who has health and spirits for that robust pastime. They told me Mrs Aber[cromby] was on 1 Robert Sindair, advocate, third son of Sir Robert Sindair of Stevenson, died 9 2September 1802. 3 GeorgePresumably Dundas, a pet born name 19 for November one of the 1802. Dundas children. 1 Alexander Buchanan of Amprior, son of John Buchanan of Auchleshie and Cam- busmore, major, Forfarshire Militia, died 1845. 1802 91 the way to Blair and to me. I went on and met her and we chatted - then I came to Newton where I paid my visit to the Lady and bevy of dames and hearing that Kippendavie (another of the hunt I pre- sume as proxy for Patrick )1 was there I told him I meant to make an unceremonious visit to Mr Stirling and Mrs Erskine to whom I was fully more indebted [than?] to anybody. There I agreed to stay two nights, the rather that the next [day] was the Laird’s birthday, little knowing what I was stumbling in upon. Meanwhile we got a chearful dinner on tables of little size, for the ordinary ones were gone to be enlarged like Dives’s bams - Then I heard that no less than six of your chickens were laid up; but yesterday there arrived accounts that four of them were doing very well, and the rest in a good way. I trust therefore the next account will be of their reconvalesence, and that the dregs have not been serious. ... I have no notion there was any body to be there but Keir and his sister; when one after another there dropt in a number of Ladies and one Beau Rohaldy,2 for the Canary beaux were detained at Stirling on the militia. After the grandest and greatest dinner and desert I have seen these many a day which did not make me indulge one jot, the ball begun about ten and towards one I begged leave to go to my nest, want of sleep being to me worse than want of food. I got however by the help of my porridge and ale a comfortable night’s rest and called at Keir when I found them up and nought the worse for their feast. He is at present much better than he was: just what his friends could wish, for he is an honest man. He is to have two Polignacs3 at Christmas, company not to my liking.-1 called at Sir Robert’s whom I found in good spirits and exceedingly kind just before going to Cardross. He asked me to Christmas with a small party to which I agreed. .. . Cardross is to be at the head of the hunt: were he and the rest to consult lawyers how to be unpopular and give umbrage, they would prescribe a pack of hounds and to ride the first horse in a tumpike.- Keir will not boat, having found he says this is no country for it.- Kipp[endavie] says he was offered Allanton’s house 1 Patrick Stirling, 1782-1816, eldest son of John Stirling of Kippendavie. 3* Not identified. ISme The resided, Comte andde Polignacwas at the returned Perthshire in 1802hunt tothat Holyrood autumn where(A. F. Steuart,the Due Thed’Angou- Exiled Bourbons in Scotland). 1803

28 March 1803 .... I rejoice to hear of Mrs Haldane’s recovery and that of her infants which will be a great comfort to Mrs Joass.... I do not think the new code of manners adds anything to society, or makes the new rents go half as far as the old, in making people happy and respect- able. But that and the modes and oeconomies we import from your streets of palaces and walks of state, and you from London have introduced a luxury, a splendour and folly which no ordinary indeed no extraordinary income can support. I have lived to see a great proportion of the gentry of this neighbourhood passing, some of them from virtuous straits to mediocrity first, and after- wards to what their fathers would have esteemed opulence. You may live to see some of them tracing back their steps from plenty to straits of a less meritorious kind then the former. The strange part of it is, the last generation’s hospitality was somewhat primeval, a folly which few modish people nowadays can be with justice re- proached. They are perfectly satisfied with their own modes of life, and shocked at the thoughts of the former style of visiting; and why then should I meddle with their ways? The extravagant price of land and the facility of credit are indeed great temptations to folly, though not sufficient to produce ease and sociability. A slight reverse in our national affairs or a temporary shock to credit, would produce strange convulsions both in town and country; for a great proportion of those who dwell in palaces, and lead the life of Dives, are not one whit more wise then the people whose pot boils and whose chariot wheels run upon something not much more sub- stantial than Sir Francis Wronghead’s pension, which tempted his 1803 93 good Lady to deal deep in laces as fine as cobwebsL-Why should I, who have outlived much of the greater part of the friends and con- nections whom I loved most; who seem to be almost forgotten and neglected as if I were in Botany Bay, give myself any concern as to what is going on among the gay and the fashionable who have started up within my own remembrance, and are now fretting and strutting their hour upon the stage. . . . I am just now re-reading the Tatler at breakfast, a delightful paper; and am much entertained with the news articles which en- grossed the attention of the Quid nuncs of those days, who lived in an age of glory and great felicity, had they known their mercies; Mrs Erskine has the new edition: read it again at your leisure. There was much duelling at that time; and plenty of sharpers and Dupes. Addison’s papers are equal to any he afterwards wrote, and the whole is so easy and speaks so home to the heart! - So! you consort with a literary Aristarchus2 at fashionable meals where you were keeping lent together. I hear he has sold his house, and of course, his library; and it would not hurt him or the republic of letters, if he were to get a little of the spavin in his work arm. He can be both agreeable or disagreeable, as suits him; but he is much too great for me. I wish the Tatler had got hold of him and made him into a sceleton, for he is certainly an original character, in which there is somewhat to praise and to censure. Why should not ladies write sermons and preach as well as the home missionaries who are but Cardours?3 I remember Mrs Meg Drummond4 sermonising: what- ever might be her homilies, she was a pleasing, well bred woman of very agreeable conversation. Suppose Miss Bowdler5 should come down and take Mr Haldane’s church in Portsburgh; suppose we made a party to hear her, for I think it is not predestinated we should go to a play together.- I am very sorry that the president of the ParHament of D -n should have made himself so conspicious in the assembly. Perhaps you do not know that it is in a great measure owing to poetry to which he has taken violently, I am afraid 1 A character in Cibber’s adaptation of Vanburgh’s The Provok’d Husband. *3 Aristarchus of Samothrace, jfl. 150 B.C., a celebrated grammarian and critic. 4 SisterA tailor of orGeorge sempstress Drummond, who goes lord from provost house of to Edinburgh, house to mend who old ‘ gained clothes considerable (SND). 6notoriety Henrietta as Mariaa quaker Bowdler, preacheress’ 1754-1830, (DNB). religious essay writer. 94 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY incorrigibly. That and liquor operating in conjunction produce strange metamorphoses in an upper story not more than well furnished. I am told he denies the stories flatt of which the King’s cook making a grouse pye with his name on the paste is the richest and least credible. . . . Make my baise mains to your spouse and tell him I hope to hear from him when the spirit moves him. . . 24 May 1803 I was favoured with your letter by post about a week ago when my eyes were weak and very unfit to play the part of a microscope. The inflammation was never very alarming but it was teazing and troublesome and in conjunction with other things depressed my spirits and prevented me from taking my usual pastime in the way of scribbling which has long kept me up under various pressures. I have not, as the political barber says in the play, made a wig the Lord knows when.1 And even in letter writing which I used to write faster than most people could read, I have of late procrastinated so much, that some of my friends take note of it as a phenomenon in my history. I wish I could bring my mind to write an inscription, or a life, suppose of Mr Rolland, to piece in with Maclaurin2 or poor Crosbie,3 his and my own companions in our chearful mom of youth. I should engage to make it an interesting piece because it would become me to handle his foibles and shortcomings with a delicate hand so as to serve by way of shade to his better qualities. Suppose I try my hand on your spouse for in taking landscapes of men and manners, the living may (a little awkwardly) be intro- duced.- But within these two days my eyes are wonderfully better, the excoriation is mostly gone and I can read and write by candle- light without spying fairlies in the candle which is a sign of debility. Could I once bring myself to my ten or twelve pages be the subject what it would, I should expect the mercury to rise by degrees steadily, and then there need be no want of subject; for one may moralise on a broomstick as well as on a great Lawyer or con- veyancer. But hitherto this has been an idle unproductive year, which, joined to 1our prospects public and private, has not tended to 8 Not identified. 3 John Maclaurin, Lord Dreghom, 1734-96. Andrew Crosbie, died 1785. 1803 95 invigorate or brighten up my mind. ... We have of late years experienced such wonderful deliverances that we ought not utterly to despair. Edward the Sixth’s Bishops added a prayer to the liturgy when Charles the fifth the scourge of his day was destroying the protestants with equal insolence and injustice without any to check him. ‘Give peace in our time; for there is none other that fighteth for us, save thou O Lord’. ... In a short time the pride of Charles the fifth was tumbled and his ambitious plans baffled by means very improbable. The hand of the Almighty is not shortened and he can scatter those that delight in war. . . . I had a visit of Dr Stuart Luss1 and Dr Smith2 both learned and good men, but the state of my eyes and health was against our doing as much as I wished and the very exertion was against me. But Mr Dundas will tell you it is a great matter to be getting on in business, and every person has business such as it is which ought to be done.- I am truly sorry to hear that my good humoured sonsy young friend Christy Erskine is threatened with a fever. By this time I trust she is better; her resemblence to her good father attaches me to her.- The influenza still prevails among our rustics and burgers but I pre- sume will soon abate. My man William who swam for his life in a distemper new to me, is fortunately getting stout which is a great comfort to me. He is in truth an antipode to the modish laqueys, the very sight of which provokes one’s spleen and indignation.- I fancy the reports of the learned Lord’s leave of absence is apocryphal not devised by his very friends. He had better work hard in his proper province which is more than sufficient to occupy any man’s time and attention. There should be an act of sederunt against judges being bookmakers or politicians. I am glad to hear of Lady Aber[cromby]’s arrival. All good betide her and hers for the sake of those that are gone. Is Colonel Aber[cromby] returned? I fear Charles Stirling will attract the notice of the great consul as a man likely to make counter revolutions. . .. I see a new species of musical entertainment, tickets to be had at John Muir’s music shop, but the man is not concerned in it.- Noth- ing will surprise me nowadays. 1 Susan John McIntyre. Stuart, 174.3-1821, minister of Luss, 1777, d.d. (Glasgow) 1795, married, 1792, * John Smith, 1747-1807, minister of Campbeltown, d.d. (Edinburgh) 1787. 96 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY 2i June 1803 .... Twixt eight and nine I arrived here and found all in good order and in peace; the banking washing1 commenced auspiciously . . . the ballot for the militia drawn and all my people have escaped, but the idea of the seventh man has reached them. I told William McEwan my coeval that he and I would march together. And what I once would not have accepted, four of my servants’ children inno- culated with the cow pox and likely to come athwart me in my walks, if to walk here it shall be permitted me. ... I am going to meet a set of Sanchoes about the militia, that plaguy complicated business! This day’s news is less terrible than I dreaded for which I am thankful.- Do you read the Moniteur? I do not. . . . Tell Mr Dundas his prognostics are not alwise more to be depended on than Charles Lindsay the Alloa carrier’s Jacobite news in 1745-6. . . . Quite reconciled to taxes provided I be ensured from Buonaparte the boggle of the times. Read Habukkuk and apply it.

12 July 1803 I... am glad you have been so much better of a sight of Dr Gregory. Apropos, has he published his pamphlet which I presume will be a tickler? I don’t wish to quarrel with him; for in point of wit and argument, he is a Drawcansir2 which bears all before it. Whether he would not have been as wise to have rested satisfied with the victory he had gained over the Knights of the amputation knife, I will not say; but war is the order of the day, and I hope he has good cause for what he does, since gratitude and affection constrain me to wish success to a man to whom I owe so much. . . . I went up on Wednesday to pay a visit to Mr and Mrs Graham at Ardoch where I found my venerable friend Lady Christian Erskine and her Daughter-in-law and daughters, pretty girls! I was glad to find Lady Christian in very good health and spirits, free from her cough which has no affinity to a cold though perhaps influenced by 1 2 The great annual purification of the family linen by means of lie (Jamieson). Drawcansir: ‘a fierce Hero, that frights his Mistriss, snubs up Kings, baffles Armies, and does what he will, without regard to good manners, justice or numbers’ (Buckingham, Rehearsal, iv, i). 1803 97 weather at times. Her mother had it for ten years. She seems quite happy at the prospect of David’s marriage.1 Heard you that after Leishman2 and the Glasgow and Stirling Doctors had done their best to set the bones right, the cure was reserved for a Blair, a bonesetter of Gartmore,3 who came to Cardross in a tartan kilt and a blue bonnet. After his patient was stript, he said ‘ Mr Erskine, have you a great stock of patience? I am going to put it to the test’. He then twisted his arm in such a way as to put him into a perfect agony. Seeing White the butler much concerned and the drops of sweat running down his brow, ‘Mr White what ails you? your bones are whole I hope’. But strange to tell ere long the bones resumed their place and this illiterate ignorant man did what graduates and sur- geons could not do with all their science. Tell it not in the infirmary or to the royal college of physicians or surgeons, else they will hold you and your informer very cheap. It is however proper to humble the pride of medical men who can call every muscle sinew and artery by their name. Dr Blair had some jokes on his patient’s approaching change of state and exhorted him to give his arm some rest. . . . I had last post a very pleasing letter from Dr Graham dated Rome 21 st of May. Hitherto he says he has not received any very decided benefit from the change of cUmate, except that is seems to have arrested the progress of his disorder. He adds he has certainly lost nothing since he left England and he thinks he has gained a little. He was better than when he wrote one of his sisters eight days before. He gives me a very entertaining account of Scylla and Charybdis which tho represented to Homer as horrific scenes, he considers as little terrible in these latter times, as he passed them twice in a fort- night without seeing more than a curl on the surface of the water. So much for the imagination of a poet! Yet storms can blow in those seas; for in his way back they lost a top mast and were driven a great way out of their course. He visited the Elysian fields which the 1 John, David eleventh Erskine, Lord married, Elphinstone, j September and died 1803, 1847, Hon. having Keith succeededElphinstone, to daughterCardross ofin 21802. Not identified. He does not appear to be a graduate of any of the Scottish univer- 2 Possibly Dr James Blair, medical practitioner at Kirkintilloch (Edinburgh Almanac, 1803). G 98 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY late Abercairney1 called stinking fields, when Archibald Menzies2 was haranguing on classical scenes; but on the banks of Acheron and Avernus, he (Dr Graham) met with no shades nor did the sybil tell him aught of his future destiny. He writes with great chearfulness and in an enviable frame of mind. I hope he shall be restored to his family and friends; but when shall a British invalid find rest in these rancorous times when war is declared against invalids and fishing boats. He was going to Florence in a few days. I am exceed- ingly interested in the fate of this aimiable able young man who writes as he speaks. . . . 26 July 1803 .... As old Mrs Clerk3 said there is more good company in town in September than in the country at any time. Be it so and you have races and plays and the congress of pipers to entertain you. I have been pretty well since I wrote you save that the sultriness of the weather and our public prospects are like to exhaust me; but I trust our political horizon shall at least not grow worse. The best thing I see is the crop looks in general charmingly unless in thin ground. I believe I must literally set up a stand i.e. sell my gooseberries and reserve more than I and my friends if more numerous could destroy. The heat is too violent to last and I wish it does not break in thunder lightening and in rain. I am sorry to hear David Erskine’s arm is not well, of his change of state I hear nothing. . . . 30 August 1803 I congratulate you most sincerely on the arrival of your brother Airth, an event which will give unfeigned j'oy to his good mother, to whom he is under infinite obligation, for the part she has acted in his absence. I trust he shall be a great acquisition to the country which is rather thin of gentlemen at present. He will have a great deal to do; but I hope he will go hooly and fairly which, though an antiquated phrase, carries good sense with it. All good things befal 1 Either James Moray of Abercairny, succeeded 1735, or Alexander Moray of Aber- 8cairny, his son. 8 NotPossibly identified. Archibald Menzies of Chesthill. 1803 99 him, among the rest may he get a good help-mate! Of these you will say there is good store; the great matter is to make a good choice. He need not want for councillors, male or female; and if Dr Gregory will not allow that in the number of counsellers there is wisdom, he will hardly dispute that in them there is safety. ... I hear you had the honour of Allanton’s company at Kippenross where he sported some of his theories as to genius being derived from the mother. Ergall, as the clown says in Shakespear,1 the folly must come from the male side of the house. That would lead into a dis- cussion more curious then edifying or pleasing. In some cases folly may be hereditary, a species of original sin; but much more fre- quently it is a dual transgression for I believe few men were ever bom pedants or coxcombs. It is education forms the vulgar mind. I must conclude, being to set out tomorrow bytimes for my good friend Dr Stuart’s Luss. . . .You shall have the politics of Luss and Lochlomondside. Whether I shall at this time visit the island where bad Wives were confined I know not; but I once saw one of those ill-fated Ladies who did not seem to relish her situation, for she said the Forrester’s wife did not like it, albeit she had her husband with her. . . . 13 September 1803 .... My expedition to Lochlomond side proved very pleasant, though not marked with anything striking. In Drymen churchyard I saw a tombstone of great size bearing to be the tombstone of Robert Buchanan of Drummakiln’s children, a very wicked man who seduced two of his own nieces etc. It bears to be his burial place, though it be not said whether he continueth to rot there or not. The stone it is said was erected by Mary Blane his housekeeper, over four of his natural children. Beneath the names is an inscription with more Christianity than would serve a velvet mouthed preacher of these times for ten sermons. More want of sense and want of pro- priety was never seen on a tombstone. And that is a bold word. Mr Dundas can tell you whether 2this woman be the mother of the 1present heiress of Drummakiln. > JeanShakespeare, Buchanan, Hamlet, natural v, i. daughter of Captain Robert Buchanan of Drumakill, married, 1793, Hector MacDonald, who assumed name of Buchanan. 100 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY I found Luss in great beauty and the good Doctor, his wife and three fine prattling children1 in much health and spirits. Next day we went to see the fine landscape from Carmichaell hill of Loch Lomond and its islands on the one hand, and the Firth of Clyde, Gairloch etc. on the other, both very picturesque. At Dinner we had Harry Drummond’s tutor, a Mr Thomas,2 a fellow of Corpus Christi, a pleasant sensible man who eat a sheepshead seemingly with some relish. It will perhaps make part of his diary when he comes to tell of the nakedness of the land. He had been tasting one of the pleasures of the highlands, having been plentifully drenched with rain, when we had not a drop. These Englishers have a curious way of travelling; for whether on foot or horseback or in a carriage, they make great speed. The yew island swarms this season with spirituous-inclined ladies who have a gentleman to guard them from profane eyes. One day Dr Stewart says he gave something like a challenge to a gentleman who presumed to take a peep of their belle assemblies. His name is MacTurk, once an officer, a great lover of whisky. . . . Instead of retreading the way I had come, or revisiting a succession of dirty changehouses, I thought it my duty to visit Dr Macleod of Glasgow who was not able to make out his annual visit this year, a thing very mortifying to me. At one time he was so ill that he wrote me a kind of pious valedictory letter. On my way I fell in with a strange character whose equipage and mode of travelling were truly singular in a man of enormous wealth continually increasing. He had been to visit some purchases in Argyllshire, and performed great part of the journey in a covered cart in which was a bed and blankets, two dozen of wine, plenty of cold meat, and pease and oats for his horses; for he had a pad which he occasionally rode. Of him by all accounts it cannot be said when the eye saw him it blessed him. He and his two men ate and drank very liberally in their cart when the spirit moved them.- I arrived at the college before dinner and was glad to find my friend better than expectation, much emaciated, and at times in some pain. I took leave of him at 1 2 Elizabeth, bom 1793, Joseph, bom 1798, and Christian, bom 1800. Vaughan Thomas, son of John Thomas, Kingston, Surrey, fellow of Corpus Christi till 1812 (matriculated 1792), died 1858 (J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, Oxford, 1891-2). 1803 101 night and set out betimes and reached Larbert to breakfast. There I met Mrs and Miss Russell whom I accompanied to Dunipace church and from thence to Woodside where a happier pleasanter landlord than Mr Rfussell j1 is not to be seen. Next day who should pop in to Wingates when I was there but David Erskine... . His Lady having gone upstairs I shook hands with gratulations and enquired about his family. He then drove off with his wife in a splendid brimstone- coloured carriage. William he says is better but I do not love fox- glove, read Dr Gregory on clinical lectures as to that. . . . Is your brother arrived? I hear Miss Jane said she could not sleep, feeling as if she were going to be married. . . . 5 October 1803 — I met with Allanton, his wife and daughter and they came to the house. Instead of carrying them to the library I carried them to my garden which put him into an extasy which made him rap out some latin verses the purpose of which was he could stay there forever.-1 beg his pardon for that I presume Mr Ferguson has said nothing as to the bursary. . . . 11 October 1803 .... Who can be unmoved at the present awful juncture? .... You had as well be rubbing up your French, to stand inter- preter if need be, to those cutthroats, I beg their pardon, honest gentlemen and heroes in their way. I have just re-read Sir John Dalrymple’s memoirs, one of the most pleasing pieces of history I know.2 Wonderful were the escapes these nations made at and after the revolution, and one wonders how they escaped becoming pro- vinces to France, or what is nearly the same thing, a subordinate dependent kingdom. William however was a heroe who, though not alwise victorious was ever more terrible after a defeat. And ere long he made the great monarch, the great consul of those times, tremble, and crouch for peace. But he was supported by great states- men and great commanders, fit to cooperate with a heroe, and he was at the head of the great alhance. I know not your political 1 2 David Russell of Woodside, merchant in Glasgow. solution Sir John of the Dalrymple, last Parliament bt., ofauthor Charles of IIMemoirs (Edinburgh, of Great 1771-88). Britain and Ireland from the dis- 102 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY creed: Mrs Dundas of Blair1 whose father suffered in 1746,2 one day told Lady Rachel Drummond,3 that if she had been a man, she would have been for the revolution. ‘Madam’, said the other con- temptuously, ‘you were not alwise of that opinion’ - ‘Very true, Lady Rachel, but in those days I had not read history’.- I presume however you have to good purpose. That of the present reign is become a great chaos, and shows that the decline of a great empire which, in the Greek era took hundreds of years may be atchieved in one by perverse industry and the grossest abuse of peace and liberty and folly such as the world had never seen before. Woes me! these topics are as dull and unwelcome as talking of the weather among wits I have almost secured a great crop of fruit, and though some of it was quite open, and though the breaking of orchyards is much in fashion in the neighbourhood, not a particle was taken, much less robbed. It does no discredit to my servants and neighbours... . 25 October 1803 That you may comply with the requisitions or rather request of your rulers to have a supply of provisions in your fortress, I send you a cargo of fruit as per invoice, for though it will not supply the place of porridge to the infantry or of beef and mutton to yourselves, it is a good succedaneum and will make things go further and put the former in good spirits in these times when terror seems to be the language of office. ... I was diverted with the texts of your clergy on the fast day and think Mr Alison’s very apposite: ‘In patience possess your souls’. An excellent counsel where there is no respon- sibility and where the prospects even of the sanguine cannot be more than flattering This place experienced early on Thursday morning something of the blessings of invasion and anarchy. About three or four in the morning some rascals broke into the gardener’s store through a hole in the rafters and with great difficulty and much risk of discovery carried offby handing to one another near 5 pecks of fruit. Kennet’s servant who lay in the other end heard a whispering but imagined 1 Margaret, daughter of Sir John Wedderburn, married Richard Dundas of Blair, 2(Douglas, Baronage, p. 182). 3 Sir John Wedderburn, bt., of Blackness, attainted, executed 1746. Daughter ofjames Drummond of Lundin, died unmarried 1798. 1803 103 it had been the Gardiner and was very sleepy-headed. They next proceeded to rob a sour apple tree of a great crop of wretched apples and carried off the stamp which had long been the terror of evil doers. It is plain the theives were no strangers but hitherto no dis- covery has been made but murder will out. It was very daring and shows that I gave my neighbours more credit than they deserved, for no man ever lost less than I have done Do give me something to elevate and surprise, suppose a little scandal if not of ladies at least of ministers of state tho that be a sorry theme. . . .

7 November 1803 .... Were you or the infantry at the grand review; it must have been a fine sight. I was very sorry my father did not send me to see the Prince and the highland army when it passed here in September 1745, that is within two miles, but I was sent to see the Hessians and the Duke of Cumberland whom I will never forget. Those were not good times either; but the highlanders were innocent baddies, perfect novices in their trade of King-making when no neutrals should be allowed. . . . Poor Lady Christian Erskine! My heart bleeds for her. The well- Doctors are to be condemned for tormenting dying patients by experiments, of which they themselves have no opinion. I presume Cardross comes soon down; he has many irons in the fire. It is odds but some of them either do not cool or bum his fingers. I must write her a kind letter soon. James Buchanan I1 surely the guards are not coming down; perhaps he is promoted. . . . Now for a hue and cry after your spouse who for ten days past I thought would have popt in from Buchanan. Perhaps he may yet pop in for if my plan holds I go to Leckie only on Friday. In these cases there is nothing like a post letter, though none likes a chance visitant better. Caesar, says Shakespear, never did wrong but with just cause.2 If he has passed by on the other side, he will explain it; but the want of an annual visit is something in these times when the 1 James, son of John Buchanan of Auchleshie and Cambusmore, captain in third foot2 guards, killed in action at Talavera, 1809. peare, ‘Know, Jul/ws Caesar Caesar, doth in, not i). wrong; nor without cause will he be satisfied’ (Shakes- 104 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY shadows lengthen more than one wishes.- Mr Keith’s death1 would be a great blow to him; but he is out of reach of invasion. I did not think to have held out so long, but when once fairly my pen is in motion it ambles away at her usual pace. . . . 6 December 1803 By a letter from Mr Dundas yesterday, I am glad to find you are still going about your garrison, to give orders and to see that your infantry be well disciplined. I had applied to him after coming back from Clackmannanshire, to have tidings of you and I also wished to see an epistle endited with his own hand. With this he complied like a good man, but he is too modest and self-denied when he dis- claims all talents for letterwriting, for his epistles whether business or of a lighter cast are very good. Indeed, considering how much he must epistolize people who assuredly are neither sentimental nor judges of composition, it is not surprising he should have a sort of scunner at writing letters to idle men who have little to do but to scribble. Mine was not cumbered with business, but gave some account of my late trip to Clackmanshire [sic]. I should have men- tioned that Mr Bruce and I called on Robert Dundas at Blair castle when I saw many things that reminded me of the days of other times. Everything within or without doors remains almost in its original state, except the Laird and the Lady.2 Of the former I need say nothing, only he was intent on raising the troops of Culross, which I doubt not will be as good as many others we see in the gazette.... I was agreeably disappointed in the Lady, whose appear- ance and cracks were better than I expected. The young Laird, a second Richard,3 had been almost hanged in sport by his sisters some days before. These undisciplined misses had got a rope which they tied about his neck a little too short.- Apropos, you surely heard of the means taken by Dr Gregory to cure his brats (as he calls them first and third) of the scarlet fever, by means of ejffusions of cold water.4 If not the discoverer of that mode of cure, which 1 s WiUiam Keith, accountant in Edinburgh, died 22 October 1803. Elizabeth Spital of Blairlogie, married, 1796, Robert Bruce Dundas of Blair (Scots Magazine). 4’ Son of Robert Bruce Dundas, grandson of Richard Dundas of Blair. For this, see ‘Extracts from the journal of Jessy Allan’, Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, xxx, 96-7. 1803 105 sounds so harsh in this cold weather, he had the merit of trying it first on his own children, and with great success. By this time I presume the medicine is general. . . . From Dumbartonshire I heard strange tidings that precognitions were taking about Lady Colquhoun1 and Dr Kemp’s2 tetes a tete. That I consider as apocryphal or visionary. An intrigue with a Lady that has been near 30 years married was never I suppose heard of in the commissary court. The love of the suitors for Penelope whose husband had been away for twenty years, appears incredible to us modems. It would seem however they courted her for power and pelf, of which she had the disposal. One would not however be surprised if a separation should take place between the Knight and his Lady who as well as the daughter appears to have been sadly taken in by an artful interested man. For the sake of religion, one would hope the last story a little exaggerated; but father confessors were better suited to popery than to presbytery or semi-methodism.- I am just now rereading Boswell’s Life of Johnson in which arc many excellent things and many eccentricities. Volume fourth [p.] 169 is a prayer of Dr Johnson’s on quitting Streatham where he had [? passed] many delightful days. It accorded exactly with my feelings when I lately made a visit to Tullibody, one of the loved haunts of my youth. If you have not that book, I know you have Johnson’s prayers and meditations where you will find it page 214.3 It is in a beautiful strain, and must have been composed with great emotion. So I see the citizens of Edinburgh are to have soldiers quartered on them. I wish we have not more of them than we can manage. Necessity knows no law and military men must not be exposed to the weather.- It is surely not pleasant. I have heard that a John Taylor4 who in 1746 had some soldiers quartered on was in great dudgeon when a serjeant took possession of his armed chair in which 1 Sir James Colquhoun, 24th of Colquhoun, 26th of Luss, married Mary Falconer of DavidMonkton. Kemp Their of Balsusney,daughter, Jane Dr Kemp’sFalconer son. Colquhoun, (W. Fraser, married, Chiefs of8 Colquhoun,September Edin-1803, 2burgh, 1869, i, 393.) 2 John Kemp, 1745-1805, d.d., minister of Tolbooth, Edinburgh. Dated 6 October 1782 {Diaries, Prayers and Annals, ed. E. L. McAdam, New Haven, 41958, Not p. identified. 338). 106 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY he used in the evening to solace himself. May no evil approach your dwelling? ... I am going to dine at Blair Drummond with Lord Melville and the Abercaimies. . . . I . . . trust by this time your toute1 is evanished. It was, I presume, some qualm of conscience that seized you after hearing a set of homilies which spoke from and to the heart. Be the cause of it what it may, I trust you are now returned to your ordinary pursuits and pastimes among which last I account your conversation with the little prattlers in the nursery which is at least as natural as the conver- sations which take place at some ponderous dinner which are re- garded as the payment of one’s debts and an encouragement to contract more. If you have time and inclination to roam abroad to hear the tale of the day, you may afterwards betake yourself to St Bernards Well or the purling streams of Leith water and endite pastorals or satyres, according as you are disposed. Or what is to hinder you to write antiques for my friend Walter Scott’s third volume of Scottish Minstrellsy?- By the bye, I have got into the heart of that performance, and am fully as much entertained with his disquisitions upon the borderers (who according to his own account were not the best of neighbours or the best of men, who were quite cut out for the horrid life they led), as I am with the poetry which is not quite equal to Chevy Chace as given by Addison,2 or Hardiknute, one of the first of tales had it been com- pleted ; for Pinkerton,3 that puppy, has marred that beauteous tale by continuing it. Some of the tales are however perfectly in character, and display a code of morality very different from Dougal Stewart’s4 lectures or your minister’s homilies. I expected the voice of nature would now and then have broken into a strain of poetry; but with a few exceptions, setting aside the numbers and rhymes, they are rather prosaic. How different the strains of Ossian where, among a people not more polished than the Armstrongs, we meet with a delicacy of sentiment, strains of tenderness and effusions of passion that bespeak that genius which does not often appear in the world. O ! but these are forgeries, says the great drawcansir MrLaing:5 be it 1 2 An ailment of a transient kind (Jamieson).3 4 Joseph Addison. 6 John Pinkerton, 1758-1826. Dugald Stewart, 1753-1828. Malcolm Laing, 1762-1818. 1803 io7 so, say I. To him and his junto I make this offer: They have poets among them who write better than Macpherson1 ever did anything else. If any one of them or all of them together, shall, in double the time, write any such thing in verse or measured prose, they may call it a translation from the ancient Gothic or modem Tartar, without any questions, but I stipulate they must speak as home to my heart as Ossian does; must describe scenes of nature and the events that befel the heroes and heroines with as warm and faithful a pencil. How there came to arise a Homer in the highlands and none on the border I cannot say; but I am sure neither the editor nor his friend Leyden2 are equal to either the Grecian or the highland Homer, nor fit to unloose the latchet of Lady Wardlaw’s3 shoe (the reputed author of Hardiknute). But still I give my friend Walter praise for his performance which tells me much I should otherwise not know. I should rather have wished him to indite informations, representa- tions and petitions in humble prose, that might have made the pot boil.- O what a digression! you will say: I assure you I meant it not when I took up my pen: but to you who have consorted with the muses, it is more excusable, only showing how much this poor pen of mine is apt to run astray.- How much your wit and mine accord! I am perfectly of your mind as to Home’s history which is exceed- ingly below par, and shows only that whatever principles he had 57 years ago, whatever affection for church or state, he has now dropped them, and whether he has taken up anything else does not appear.- I understand Mrs Erskine was not at Kippenross, but was to be at Cardross today. I shall enquire after her when she comes this way. I wish J. Stirling all success in the war office, and hope he will get good companions. Does it not remind you of Gil Bias and his companions in the closet of the Duke of Lerma?4 Profit and ambition are in this case out of the question so he will have no occasion to study the language of Birds which furnished Gil with a pat apologue.- I re- joice to hear there is a great many marriages in the bud-, but blossoms formed (to speak in the gardiners’ phrase) in the pineapple heat of a modem ball, are liable to many accidents in expanding and setting. They are nothing so hardy as those that were formed by purling 1 3 James Macpherson, 1736-96. * John Leyden, 1775-1811. 4 Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw, 1677-1727. Cf. A. R. Le Sage, Adventures of Gil Bias, chapter 76. io8 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY streams and amidst rural scenes - be that as it may, if it ends in marriage all is well. I am grieved to find my honest neighbour Keir’s spirits are very ill. Heard you he has been dealing with a Dr Broddam?1 who after administering some of his quack nostrums, told him at last, that nothing ailed him, and that to give him more, would be to discredit his medicines, for that he was in rude health. Hearing poor Mr Edmon- stone was worse than usual, I called there yesterday in my way to church and afterwards dined. I had a long conversation with his Lady who gave me such a picture of his ailments as made my heart sore, for I doubt they admit of no cure: it is well they rather stupify than depress his spirits which I found very good. He can neither ride nor go in a carriage, but he can walk, and accordingly the Ladies, he and Adam Ferguson2 are to dine here today, the men walking. It is a thousand pities, for he is much above the run of country lairds, and would be a good and kind neighbour was he less nervous but as somebody says, sickness (no matter whether real or imaginary) is a great disguiser. . . . 1 Not identified, unless possibly connected with Dr Brodum’s Botanical Syrup (M. 2Plant, The Domestic Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century, Edinburgh, 1952, p. 228). Sir Adam Ferguson, 1771-1855, son of Professor Adam Ferguson. 1804

7 February 1804 .... When public matters seem'to be going elsewhere at sixes and sevens, it is pleasant to have a commander in chief that under- stands his business, and keeps some discipline in your great town which requires it. I am diverted with the account of his dinner, and wished our friend John Muir the great, for so he will be, if to be there be not an end to Provosts, Baillies etc. I wish he had got a dish of ill singed giblets dressed with assafoetida, in the manner of the banquets of the ancients. It would not surprise me if he (Muir) were recalled for being too popular. I am sorry to hear there were so many heady patriots at Fox’s birthday; it bodes no good, when, as one of the Premier’s journeymen that writes ‘the cursory remarks’, says, the nation at present governs itself. Woes me for such government!- A constitution to the mind of Fox’s 70 disciples would be a precious, perhaps a portentuous one; but from what you say of your friend over the water, his constitution is not likely to improve by his new modes of life. I though he had been one of us; but extremes are ever bad, for I and my Doctor have no objection to a little wine for the stomach’s sake. We have a pretty good guess who would be vice- president of Scotland.- Prefect of Fife would be at least equal to vice Lieutenant. Mr Drummond who has got deafness and rheum in his ears, sent me the cursory remarks and a plain or rather cutting answer to it, which did not raise my spirits or opinion of the combatants, who as Peacham says to Lockit in the play might say, ‘Brother, Brother, we are both in the wrong’.1 One may say with Hamlet ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ for from the strains of these performances it may be concluded; they had almost rather 1 From John Gay, Beggar's Opera, u, x. IIO LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY see the triple cockade triumphant, than the other should steer the helm. Pitt has the best of the argument, but not most to say in the closet.... Let me apologise for writing politics to a fair Lady who is much better employed. .... Charles Hay a judge l1- Ay! in these latter times, when perhaps our judicatures are on their last legs and the laws of the land shall be done away, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, which though said to be unalterable, we know have passed away, as if they had never been. Tell Mr Dundas I set down that promotion among the scandals of the day, one half of which till they come before Mr Andrew Balfour and company, are not to be credited. So poor Lady C[olquhoun]’s story is out of doors. Her case is not very different from that of the poor Lady who is to part for the third time.- There are, said Lord Karnes (that the late Craigforth2 had left him in a great fuss) two kinds of ebriety the one natural, the other artificial; and indeed the latter is the most harmless of the two. Lady C[olquhoun] might have made religion her darling luxury, without trusting too much to a protestant father confessor, whose son, under that guise, stole the heart of her fair aimiable daughter! The popish ones had no sons bred websters to spread their nets - Apropos what are J. and T. Erskines doing? I wish a letter of college politics which are at least less irksome than state ones. It may be a joint business, paragraph about, to mark the style and strain of each.... Of the rest of the country I know little; of some of your connections I know nothing. O yes! we met at a burial and were cordial. My epitaph for poor John Morison3 is engraved, without a word or letter set down by the unlettered muse. I have given up these things as toys and vanities: but I wished it intelligible to rustics, for luckily critics or gentles come not that way. . . . I had from Mr Blakader today a most laughable account of a more than civil war twixt the scholars of two rival dancing masters at Thornhill, Mr Drummond’s borough,4 which govemeth itself. 1 2 Charles Hay, took his seat as Lord Newton, 7 November 1806. He died 1811. 3 John Callander of Craigforth, died 1789. 4 John Morison, Ramsay’s servant, spouse of Naomi Campbell. Thornhill or New Dalgarno was erected into a burgh of regality in 1664 (G. S. Pryde, The Burghs of Scotland, London, 1965, p. 366). 1804 Ill The Friday after the sacrament, one of them gave his ball which was numerously attended by both sets. The gentlemen quarrelled about their partners, and bad words and lugging1 occasioned blows which ended in a battle wherein six fellows were knocked down, or in the Irish phrase, kilt. And, O horrible! no such thing happens in your great giddy city! one of them fell by the [hand?] of a miss who wished to avenge her sweetheart. It see [ms] the country fellows had the worst of it which made them assemble next night to take venge- ance; the people shut their doors and shops. I doubt besides love, whisky negus or whether unadulterated whisky, was the cause of this affray. So you see the fine arts are getting in among our rustics. The tickets were I hear 2/6. Some of them, with the knocking down miss, and the two dancing masters would be better of a month of the correction house to be fed on bread and water and to have a few stripes occasionally. Where does soberness of mind dwell? Not I am afraid in courts and senates; not in London or Edinburgh and not in the borough of Thornhill or among the neighbouring farmers 21 February 1804 .... The style of the Ladies’ dress reminds one of the state of inno- cence ; the gentlemen’s boots and spurs are out of time and place and connected with the present code of modern manners which has fri- volity and want of decorum for its basis. I see not why a gentleman properly dressed for a dance, may not fight as bravely in white stockings as when attired like a groom. The alarm must be very sudden, if he has not time to put on his military attire; and I am afraid he can run as easily in boots as in pumps. There is doubtless much call for a warlike spirit, but the state of this country at the present moment resembles nothing that was ever seen before. An infinite body of men in arms; the great part of whom in country places at least have no stomach for their trade, strangely officered, many of them without clothes I mean red ones; for they are not as fond of nudity as the modish nymphs who it is to be presumed, consider it as their armour and weapons wherewith they hope to kill and captivate fat rich bucks. But the most extraordinary circum- stance is, that men who have no pay, should be subjected to martial 1 To tug, to pull a person’s hair {DOST). 112 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY law. The trifling mutiny in the Strathem corps about place and pre- cedence among people that had taken a dram extra, and the putting two of them into a prison in the castle too bad for felons, bids fair to produce a bad spirit. And I hear the Clackmannanshire officers are not at one, my friend Rennet’s resignation and a letter to the vice lieutenant supposed to proceed from the Lady, having given much offence. I am sorry for it. He should either not have accepted or gone on. Every man is not bom a soldier or able to undergo the fatigues of a military life; but a precipitate retreat and flight are nearly of kin. Keir had it from Sir Robert. The news of the King’s illness etc. strikes a knell into my heart, for I cannot look forward to a new reign without horror and yet for some time past things have been in a strange state, feeble and violent.- People that now want offices must look to Lord Lauderdale1 etc. And your friend over the water will be a great man, at least his word may go far.. . . Did you ever read Dryden’s Virgil: the taking of Troy and the scenes of woe there described would be examplified if your streets of palaces were to fall into the hands of the triple cockaded gentry.- Such nonsense say the nymphs, and say the judges, with the whole train of dinner-eaters and dinner givers who are a great people and may be believed like the oracle of Delphi.- Everyone now is an oracle to himself. . . . Apropos in one of their rencounters after the Thornhill ball, Miss Faimey, a masson’s daughter, and three or four of her town co-mates routed fourteen or fifteen country Johnnies. She made notable use of her father’s irons having knocked down her man, some say two or three.- OI hear a Mr Miller is prosecuting Ladyjohn for scandal.2 I think she ought to be warranted to challenge him to single combat, either with cold iron or sharp pointed shoes. One kick behind hurts honour more than twenty hundred hurts before. So poor Sir James C[olquhoun] has got a process of aliment to defend.31 cannot par- don the son for his attack on his mother. I must write Dr Stewart Luss about it. Dr K[emp] it is said is to prosecute Telemachus4.... 1 2 James, eighth earl of Lauderdale, 1759-1839. This does not seem to have been undertaken. There is nothing in the Edinburgh 3Commissary Court records relative to such a prosecution. Mr Miller is unidentified. Sir James, jealous of his wife and Dr Kemp, started divorce proceedings, but both he and Dr Kemp died within a few days of each other in April 1805, during the litiga- 4tion. Sir James Colquhoun, 25th of Colquhoun, 27th of Luss, succeeded 1805. 1804 113 Mr Drummond is little better of the running on traces which his father had. ... I am glad the King is better. 5 March 1804 .... When I called at Blair last week to see Mr Drummond who is better, Mrs Drummond told me a piece of news that gave me great concern, namely that my young friend James Erskine was going into the army. At no time should I have thought it an eligible vocation for him; but this is a strange time for it, when in fact we have no army, when our regiments are mere skeletons, when dis- cipline is relaxed; when frivolity, dissipation, and vice stripped of manliness, prevail among a great proportion of young officers, few of whom study their profession as a science. If he will venture his life for his country, let him go over and head his Strathdighty men, and he will find promotion more rapid and less costly than in the regulars; and even at his time of life he is likely to have as much sense and discretion as some of his seniors. I trust he will think better of it and apply to those studies that ennoble the soul, and will prepare him for acting a part in the drama of life not unworthy of his father and grandfather who, if conscious of what passes here below, would I doubt not be of my opinion. At any rate I would wish him to do like Sir Ralph Abercromby, who did not become a soldier till he was a man, yet he got above all the swordy laddies and rose as high as ambition itself could desire. But he laid in a stock of useful and ornamental knowledge which assuredly did not make him the worse soldier or general. When old Charles Dundas was told by Robert Smith the surgeon,1 that he had bought a commission for his son, he said ‘you had better have bought a bass fiddle for him, and sent him thro the country with it on his back’ - far be it from me to depreciate the army; but what is fit and reasonable for one, may be most improper and unreasonable for another.- There must be some private history in this: one generally sees the cleverest and best dis- posed lads led away by companions not equal to themselves. I own this news mortified me exceedingly. Amidst all my dis- appointments and mortifications in life, it gave me unfeigned joy to see my dearest and best friend likely to be so well represented in both 1 Robert Smith, surgeon in Edinburgh (sro, Edinburgh Testaments, 29 March 1776). H 114 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY James and Tom. And shall the former at his time of life, be con- signed to the nonsense, the noise, the worse than nonsense of a regimental mess, constituted as it generally is in these latter times, when knowledge, heroism and ambition to excel are seemingly out of date.-1 have said perhaps too much but my heart is very sore and some people are apt to speak their mind freely when counsel unasked does no good.- Well, Charles Stirling has escaped; it would seem the consular gentry are not superior to corruption. I wish he were on this side the water. He will come and make a hurly burly.- I condole with you on the departure of Lord Moira.11 confess I have some confidence in him. Are you not all looking to a new reign ? ... 19 March 1804 .... In your account of the two balls you are curt, not having staid till the sport and mirth began. I think it a little indecorous for the Lady Ch[ief] Baron to be at balls, if her husband be in the situation that is represented.21 heard he was much better which I was glad of, he being a valuable sweet-blooded man who conducted himself in a most tempestuous season with rare temper, and without missing a step. His death would be a severe blow to his family and a proof of this world’s vanity, if we wanted additional proofs of it. Lord Melville was the only thing like a statesman we have had in this country for a great while. He was candid, dignified and able. To a new reign, and to new men and measures I dare not look. If the present one has not been a wise and fortunate one, we had a virtuous King who meant well when he mistook the means. At present, it is not easy to say what will be our next form of government.- I will not say with Cato ‘The world is made for the modem Caesar’3 who wants the humanity and mercy of the ancient one. But he has the ball at his foot [? more] than any since Charlemagne. . . . The judgment in Lady C[olquhoun]’s case I do not know aught of. I would like to hear Mr Andrew Balfour’s opinion which is alwise epigrammatic and never hacknied. In cases of that kind (for there are foreign wars and domestic wars) the best thing for parties 1 2 Francis, second earl of Moira. Elizabeth Dundas, daughter of first Viscount Melville, married Robert Dundas of 8Arniston, chief baron of exchequer in Scotland, 1758-1819. She died 1852. From Addison, Cato, v, i. 1804 115 is a contract of separation, which any conveyancer could have drawn. Perhaps the blessed times may come when husbands (not wives, good Madam) may give a bill of divorcement. If protestants do not hold it a sacrament, it is esteemed a sacred and indissoluble tye. Poor Leckie1 was almost ruined in a process of that kind, by the judges of 1749, taking the law too literally. She and her ghostly father have been undoubtedly imprudent if not guilty. I know no business Ladies or confessors have with fellowship meetings out- with the company of their husbands. Evangelical devotion is to be practised in the closet, with shut doors, and reprobates long prayers: and tho balls are intended to promote marriage, I did not think that the purpose of the meetings of devout and honourable Ladies who would have been as well entertaining a portion of the world, or in combing their children’s head. Such was the opinion of Sir Duncan Dou [Dhu],2 ancestor to Lord Breadalbane, and who statutes in one of his very curious laws, that if any woman on his estate should be found in a brewster’s house, outwith the company of her husband, drinking, she shall sit 24 hours joined to the langgad, a rod of iron, and moreover pay the Laird 10 scots for every chopin she shall drink.- Revenue was never out of Sir Duncan’s view. . . . I hear Telemachus’s conduct in endeavouring to disgrace his mother makes him to be looked down upon by high and low and he looks very ill or ignominiously as a country man once termed it.- Madam, I am sorry to see you blind to the virtues of the tonish belles of the present day. In curtailing or simpl[if?]ying their dress, thrift, thrift, as Hamlet says is their true motive, and a most laudable one it is at present. Their milliners, mantua makers and haberdashers accounts must be mere trifles. Let us not even insinuate they are undressing at the men.-1 hope you shall have a crop of fat contracts, towards the close of the campaign, and may they be propitious! I believe we had as well drop our plans of reform till your daughters come upon the stage, or till we get another Mirror or Lounger 1 For this, see SRO, Edinburgh Commissary Court, Consistorial processes, Extracted process of separation and aliment at instance of Mrs Ann Montgomery, spouse of 2George It was Moirstatuted, of Leckie, 20 February against 1617, her spouse,by the laird1750, of no. Breadalbane, 2. that any wife found drinking£10 and outwithfor every the chopin company of aleof herthey husband drank shouldin a brewster sit twenty-four house, should hours be in fined the langgadd (Ramsay MSS., vii, fo. 373r). n6 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY where you and I may write papers on that head. I fear we would have little to say that was not said by Queen Anne’s wits -1 believe the reform must begin with the beaux. . . . I hear there was something serio-comic at the inspection of the Monteith volunteers. Stirling of Dunblane1 having failed to attend to consecrate the colours. Sir J[ohn] MfacGregor] M[urray] asked in vain Murray2 who was mad at missing the preferment. He fell into a great passion, and, as the wags say, consecrated them by a sort of inverse prayer not very edifying. It and the bad day preventing his Lady from giving them a screed of a speech, as Craigbarnet3 phrased it. At length the chaplain appeared malapropos, when it is said the colonel either consecrated or devoted him, as he had done the colours. Where could the poor creature have been? Were I to have chaplains he should be none of them. Remember my account was from second or third hand; ere I finish I may hear more.- The fact is there were no prayers and Murray would not lend his brother and left, saying he was not paid for it.... They at last got too much whisky, drinking it out of bickers which produced rioting etc. A barrel of good soup would have [been] better. Let me wish them well, but they are very raw; in their rudiments, not much worse than many others. . . . Pray, my Dear Madam, do not surrender without a valuable consideration, at least more than they are worth, my desultory letters written generally post haste, to the Earl of Buchan,4 to be published in his ‘literary history’, into which he is to introduce (heaven knows how) the letters good and bad written to him or his friends.-1 had from this head of the wrongheads, a letter two posts ago, requesting my co-operation, a pretty modest request to one that had hardly the honour to be known to his peership. He adds that he sees some of my letters to him, Mr Dempster,5 and others will come foreward as meritorious and even necessary to the per- fection of the work. I remember writing the man a letter in 1782 requesting his support to the highland music, mairbetaken,6 he did 1 2 Robert Stirling, 1765-1817, minister of Dunblane and Kilbride. 3 Patrick Murray, minister of Kilmadock, ordained 1791, died 1837. 4 Alexander Gartshore Stirling of Craigbarnet. 5 David Steuart Erskine, eleventh earl of Buchan, 1742-1829. George Dempster of Dunnichen, 1732-1818. • Especially. 1804 117 not answer it. I only wrote Mr Dempster once about the horse tax. How he got it I know not, but it has as much connection with Boswell’s life of Johnson. I gave his lordship a civil but Jirm refusal, telling him I esteemed the publishing private, perhaps unadvised letters, without people’s consent to be almost high treason against society. I therefore entered a strong protest against publishing aught of my writing, and beseeched him not to disturb the peace of a recluse who had never injured him. The only person who I think could furnish him with any of my letters is a bookmaker a friend of his. To him I have written expostulating on such a conduct. This man with whom I met at the house of the only poet we ever had in this country, has stuck by me like a burr, overwhelming me with literary intelligence etc. to which one could not but make some answer which one would not wish this odd preposterous man to give to the world. It is a miserable thing for a peer to copy Curl,1 or even Boswell who got nothing by it but hatred and contempt. Verily should you indulge him I must give him the counterpart of the correspondence.- There are waar sots than idle sots, says the Scots proverb. He had better reform the state, than plague me: however a few days will settle it one way or the other.- This episode has lengthened out my letter beyond bounds; but as you are a wit, a letter writer and a poet, it was necessary to put you on your guard; for he may write a poem on you equal to what he did for the Dutchess of Gordon2 which defied all criticism. Good night.- O I am to have a visit from Kippen Davie and Mr Graham to- morrow, it is well some people’s consciences smite them at last; but with great address he takes the first word of flyting. I am almost tired, and so will you ere you read this scrawl. There were two lines that beat me to read, but your ink, not your gall, had flowed a little too fast. O, Lord Buchan would decypher all illegibilities perhaps give his own readings.- I offered a visit last week to Cardross, but David advised me to postpone it till his mother came home which I took kind, and accepted of. She is expected about the term, being now in London, figuring away.- Were you not at the cockpit? Strange! I would propose for the sake of squeamish matrons and 1 2 Jane,Edmund wife Curll, of Alexander, bookseller, fourth 1675-1747. duke of Gordon, daughter of Sir William Maxwell of Monreith, died 1812. n8 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY misses, that there should be a gallery with latices for them, after the manner of the Jewish synagogue, prohibiting however all converse ’twixt them and bloods and cockers.-1 am sorry to hear Mr Dundas has had a bairnly disease which is neither dangerous or painful. Suppose I give Lord Buchan a few of his letters wherein he committed himself a little. I suppose he is very busy and hastening to be rich You did well to elope when your husband went to bid the good Duke a last farewell.1 Hard was his grace’s fate to want creditable relations. And ’twas well he had kind and friendly neighbours. There is a friend, says the wise man, that sticketh closer than a brother. ... I think he did right in not leaving the disposal of the principal to his sisters,2 for I do not find that Ladies advanced in life make alwise the wisest of testaments. And the same observation will hold as to heiresses who sometimes throw themselves and their estates away. I saw a gentleman from Edinburgh t’other day who says Lord B[ellenden] now Duke of R[oxburghe]8is tint. I presume he is one of those that will not easily tine. And there arose another King that knew not Joseph.- A strange reign the new one will pro- bably be to tenants and neighbours, who cannot help making com- parisons and quoting the good Duke. I condole with Mr Dundas on the demise of so excellent a client and friend. I hear the Duke of Argyll,4 whose mother was a Ballenden,5 is next in the entail to Lord Bfellenden]. It was supposed at one time Logie Almond6 would have got a great deal, the Duke’s grandfather and his being brothers and Drummonds - but there are secrets in all families7 and ’tis not alwise the most strong blossoms produce the most exquisite fruit.- I was yesterday informed by one that should know, that Robert Haldane is going to give his daughter to a Mr Gordon, a w. s., a 1 2 Third duke of Roxburghe, died 19 March 1804. Essex, 1744-1819, and Mary, 1746-18x8, the duke of Roxburghe’s sisters, both of 3whom died intestate. William Bellenden, Lord Bellenden of Broughton, succeeded as fourth duke of 4Roxburghe, 19 March 1804. 6 John, fourth duke of Argyll, baptised 1723, died 25 May 1806. Hon. Mary Bellenden, daughter of John, second Lord Bellenden, died 1736, married 6fourth duke of Argyll. 7 Sir William Drummond of Logiealmond. From George Farquhar, The Beaux' Stratagem, ill, iii. 1804 H9 widower, and one of the saints.1 There is still a great fortune in his person, and surely he does not waste it in riotous living; but as one of Lady Glenorchy’s2 friends said, the company of saints is of all others the most expensive. He is still, it would seem, as wild and absurd as ever; no less ready to combat religious establishments, popery, prelacy, and presbytery, than Don Quixotte was to attack the windmills. According to him religion in France is very near where it should be, for if there be an established clergy, the great consul does not pay their salaries. It is alleged he has already laid out £20,000 sterling in his crusade against the Kirk of Scotland; but in this I presume the collections are included which were very consider- able both in Scotland and England, but I suspect there would be others as ready to take charge of it as himself. He has no manservant, but four maids. Two such brothers in one family are not to be found in 500 years! There is however less scandal in their proceedings than in those of the Tolbooth Kirk worthies who are shortly to appear at the bar of the commissary court.- ’Tis a miserable story for both sides and will not make high pretences to religion appear more lovely or less suspicious. I set down him as a ruined man, in whatever way the story shall end: yet I execrate the conduct of the son who wishes to disgrace his mother.- You ask my opinion about keeping a journal. Believe me, it seldom or ever turns to account. I once in my life thought of some such thing, but some of my companions getting a sight of one of the pages, I was laughed out of it. The best of the kind I know is Edward the Sixth’s kept when he was a boy.3 And therefore I hope my friend Ralph will content himself with being a good Greek and Latin scholar which is the best introduction to active and useful life. It was accounted a bull in General Strode when giving an account of Thurot’s landing in Ireland4 to say, that he had no papers but his 1 James Farquhar Gordon of Balmoor, w.s., died 1843, married, 1805, Margaret, only 2child of Robert Haldane of Airthrey and Auchengray. She died 1849. * Edward’sWillielma journal, Maxwell, from relict his ofaccession John, Lordto 1552, Glenorchy, was first died printed 1786. by Bishop Gilbert 4Burnet, Captain in FrancoisIds History Thurot of the captured Reformation. Carrickfergus but was defeated in Irish Channel. He was killed and] his squadron captured, 28 Feb. 1760. The author of the remark RamsayStrode’s regimentattributes (Horaceto Maj.-Gen. Walpole’s William Correspondence Strode was with Benjamin Sir Horace Hall, Mann, lieutenant ed. W. inS. Lewis, London, i960, v, 377). 120 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY memory. It shows however a laudable thirst for knowledge, which for a number of years must be confined to grammatical rules and quiddities. Dr Franklyn1 was a great man but a black sight to this country; yet his strong mother wit proved too much for Wedder- burn’s eloquence of invective.2- As it seems good Mrs Pringle3 has at length paid the debt to nature, I expect my Blairdrummond friends will soon retreat homewards, that being the most eligible quarters in season of alarm. I presume she has left her half o( the land to Air D[rummond] H[ome] burdened with legacies. She was the last of a generation of very respectable and aimiable People whose memory I shall alwise revere, some of them being my assured friends. She may now defy Buenaparte and his myrmidons, as she is now at rest. . . . 16 April 1804 .... I should be glad you would define logically a plunge. We have heard of routes, hurricanes, drums and latterly squeezes; but a plunge is perfectly new. I have heard of a horses plunging, i.e. kicking up his head and heels, to the great terror of the rider and spectators. An old Galloway minister, afterwards dispised for preaching nonsense, gave a ludicrous account of the way in which the Devil courts an Annan- dale Laird. ‘My bonny man’, says the arch fiend, ‘Go with me, and you shall have a bottle of brandy, and also a Dog and gun’. Seeing him still backward, he said, ‘Laird, you shall likewise get your fill of promiscuous dancing’. ‘ On which’ said the preacher ‘the Laird made no more words, but plunged into the bottomless pit’.- It is time some people were giving up promiscuous dancing; and a latter spring is not much better than a January one which presages a second winter.- I wrote you David Erskine had advised me to put off my visit till Lady Christian’s arrival which I took kind. I am going there today and will probably be near a week there. ... I had a letter from a bookmaker one of Lord Buchan’s cronies which sets me at ease as to that matter. The man is crazed to a certain extent.. .. 1 May 1804 .... I staid at Cardross from Monday to Saturday, and was very 1happy to see the females of that good family reassembled for a 2 For this story, see Encyclopaedia Britannica, nth edn., xi, 26, and Kay, i, 379. 3 Alexander Wedderburn, first Baron Loughborough, first earl of Rosslyn, 1733-1805. Mrs Mary Drummond, died 9 April 1804, widow of John Pringle, w.s. 1804 121 season, in good health and spirits. Mrs Erskine is a pleasant well- bred woman, rather shy in her manners but she and I were strangers, and could not coalesce like the Ladies whom I knew from their childhood. When Lord Karnes invited a gentleman to visit him at Blair, soon after his accession to that fortune, he said he would show him sights that would make all his een reel again. In fact, everything without doors is going on upon a very great scale in office houses, cultivation, planting, roads etc. I had only to wonder, and wish success to the plans going on, without making any remarks, or obtruding hints which alwise imply officiousness or a display of wisdom.- The fever of improvements, so common and malignant between 30 and 40 years ago, does not alwise appear in the same form, or produce precisely the same effects. Your friend Lord Herman’soever is by all accounts abundantly high, yet very different from that of some of my neighbours, each of whom has his own system, or rather his own crotchets. . . . There I saw Mr Menzies2 who among other news told us of the attack made by Lady Colquhoun on her recreant husband and son, who had fled to the garret or cellar for shelter from an incensed dame who knew the weakness of the garrison. Whether she is dislodged as yet I know not, but the plot seems to thicken, and promises to entertain the world as much [as] the process ’twixt Sir John Houston and his Lady and her sister did people in the days of my youth, when volumes of their letters, with very able commentaries were to be seen on every parlour table. . . . On Saturday Sir Robert and Burnet Bruce called in the forenoon, and we walked about and chatted chearfully more than an hour, talking of the wonderful debate in that day’s paper. He brought some curious lettuce and I gave him no less curious cabbage, of great size and fine flavour. As a proof of my spirits I only glanced at the speeches which gave me a sentimental headach. ... By last carrier I had letters from Tom Erskine and a print of excellent Dr Erskine from Miss Chrysty Erskine,3 to whom is enclosd a letter of thanks. . . . 15 May 1804 .... One would not care to avow himself the author of the town 1 2 George Fergusson, Lord Hermand, died 1827. 3 Stewart Menzies of Culdares, died 1827. Christian, daughter of James Erskine of Cardross, died unmarried, 1805. 122 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY eclogues -,1 yet that cannot be a secret long for it is printed for him. Few satyrists are famed for judgment or discretion; but they ought never to interpose when the culprits are under prosecution. Nor ought they to bring forward charges either not known or not true, for that is to act the part of an assassin not a reformer. Had this same writer of pastorals for squares and closes and chapels confined him- self to Maskall’s2 intrigues in an ill fated family which have broke its peace and not raised his fame; the world would have been well diverted if not instructed. The part least unexceptionable is what relates to my noble correspondent3 who is surely lawful prey, and is depicted in colours as motely and glaring as the dyvour s habit, which has a red and an orange sleeve; yet one may recognise the prominent features a little magnified in which are vanity, selfishness and meanness, not improved by meddling in every literary pursuit. I was sorry to see my friend Dr Gregory4 in such bad company, but he comes off very easily. As for your mellifluous sentimental preacher,5 I will leave him to be either dissected or white-washed by sober minded matrons of his own congregation, to whom as a jury he cannot except. Supposing the satyrist’s account of the strain and tendency of his sermons to be true or only a little heightened; it is very questionable whether he is either a safe or eligible teacher of young giddy pampered nymphs 1 Rev. George William Auriol Hay Drummond, author of A Town Eclogue (Edin- 2burgh, 1804), born 1761, died 1807, brother of tenth earl of Kinnoull. Pent in a close, stampt with religious name. Vile Maskall skulks in everlasting shame . . . Seduce a daughter from her driv’ling sire Doom to a w[eave]r’s arms the well born miss, Then greet the mother with a holy kiss. A Town Eclogue, pp. 13, 14. Maskall refers to Dr Kemp, Secretary of the Society in Scotland for Propagating 3Christian Knowledge. A reference to the Earl of Buchan: His brain with ill-assorted fancies stor’d, LikeWomen, shreds and and whigs, patches and on poetry a tailor’s and board, pelf 4 And ev’ry corner stuffed with mighty self. A Town Eclogue, p. 22. Let G[regory], in pond’rous quartos, tell The curious secrets of the patients’ cell. . . Some style this jumble of satyric strokes ‘An hospital for invalided jokes’ And others, in a higher rank to class ’em 5 ‘The classic surgeon’s Gradus ad Parnassum.’ A Town Eclogue, p. 19. Dr Archibald Alison. 1804 123 and swains who prefer gilded honied cates and frothed syllabubs to that solid and wholesome aliment which was administered by 99 out of 100 ministers of the gospel, presbyterian and episcopal. We hear much of mild religion; but religion may be so refined as to be vapid. In a word Semi-Christianity which seems to be ashamed of, at least to keep aloof from, the doctrines and language of its great master and his apostles, is nearly akin, and little less unseemly and reprehensible than the semi-dress or quarter-dress so much in request of late among fashionable belles. If religion shall change as much in the next 50 years, as it has done in the last, it is hard to say what form it will assume or what will be its influence on individuals, society or the state. It is well there are many that do their duty and speak the words of soberness and truth, not those of affectation or heterodoxy. Dr Sandford’s strain is much to be praised, if not in the highest form of eloquence. Meanwhile, your drowsy or honied homilies are happily prefaced by prayers which fortunately cannot be varied or enlarged. Supposing the charge true, it is lawful game for satyr, which is levelled against abuses which the law does not meddle with.- You will perhaps think me over severe; but such were my sentiments of the man that introduced this new style of sermonising, while in the zenith of his popularity and fame. And as the original was a very sorry one, his imitators deserve no applause.- Mr Drummond gave me two letters to a noble Lord in a very able strain, being in truth satyres in prose, exhibiting in no very flattering colours a picture of Edinburgh and Glasgow modes and manners. After which he pays his respects to the Lords and Lairds and distillers, of whom he says as little good as of the Edinburgh swaggering misses or their mum- mified effeminate beaux.- Will you tell me whether the poet be in jest or earnest about the court of S[ession] ? certain it is he and the prose satyrist spare the faults and peccadilloes of the men of law, on which a splenetic man might have enlarged, as well as on Maskall or the feasts of the haberdashers etc. I presume therefore they are appendages to the law.- I am sorry to hear the Roxburgh business is likely to give Mr Dundas vexation which will more than compensate for the grist which litigation brings to the mill. Pity the good Duke had not settled anything while mind and body were entire! . . . I had lately a very excellent letter from Dr Graham dated Palermo 124 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY 8 March giving more favourable accounts of his health than we had hitherto, and saying it is not improbable he may be yet pieced up. And he gives a most laughable account of the Campieri so much boasted of by Brydone1 whose accounts smell strong of poetry. I wish he himself would publish his travels. Poor fellow! when or how he is to get home is questionable. . . . Since finishing my letter I have seen a Lady from Edinburgh, who says Mr Hay Drummond, a brother of Kinnoul’s at present resident in the abbey, is the author of the Eclogue. The proverb says he had need to have a clean pow that calls his neighbours nicky now.2 She says Dr Gregory’s answer was printed and sold rapidly, I should like to see it. It is short and I fancy gives the lie direct. Woes me to see his father’s son in that way but time ennobles and degrades each line is a truth too frequently exemplified 1 understand the caterpillars have appeared in force, but we are prepared [to] resist them.3 Would all invasions were as easily repelled. . . . 19 May 1804 .... I would like to be ensured from the Dutch fleet, the sight of which will not enliven the prospect. Of that nobody seems to have the least dread. The best news we can hear is their having got a check; but now that Lord Melville is at the head of the admiralty and Lord Moira at his post, who need be afraid? And should that take place, the banks of the Teith will not be one whit safer than your squares and streets of palaces. Be that as it may, I hope to see you all in peace and joy; for I trust auld Reekie, and its gorgeously appareled daughter, the new town, shall escape unhurt. Nobody say you but recluses who have alwise a little of hypochondriack about them, ever bestows a thought on things of that nature. . . . Forgive this dull stupid letter which savours of solitude and the blue devils. ... I gave you my opinion of the eclogue which is a vile performance in various points. Tho he has pourtrayed my noble correspondent, I would not for any consideration have been the 1 2 Patrick Brydone, 1736-1818. ‘He sould have a haill pow cals his [nybour nikkie now]’ (The James Carmichaell 8collection of proverbs in Scots, ed. M. L. Anderson, Edinburgh, 1957, p. 74). The Scots Magazine, March 1800, gives a receipt for suffocating caterpillars by strew- ing hot lime beneath the gooseberry bushes, covering them, and then using bellows filled with tobacco, sulphur and charcoal. 1804 125 executioner. No man who has entered so deep into the history of private life, has given less scope to malevolence than I have done; yet I deal not in fulsome panegyric - My friend Ardvorlich told me t’other day of a case similar to James E[rskine]’s, Stragath’s son1 of the same age would be an ingineer and soldier, without knowing his own mind. It went so far that Lord Melville got him into the academy at Woolwich; but after he had been there for a short time, it ended in a journey back to Queen Street no. 52 which will do the lad no good. He is a very good scholar and sweet blooded, but this was stumbling in the threshold. In [short] an over early passion for military glory, is nearly a [kin] to calflove which Doctors and casuits say is never dangerous, unless when it is too much indulged, or repulsed with great violence. I am glad my friend James applies to his books, but doubt much if young Strageth will be the harder student. I trust however neither the one nor the other will turn puppies and coxcombs, of which I have seen, not 50 miles off, a succession, after giving a fair show of blossoms. ... 29 May 1804 .... Yesterday I went over and dined at Airthray castle where I found Lochiel and the Tullibodies with the Collector.2 Our host was very pleasing but the rest were killing cold. ... I had a very good letter from Mrs Erskine from Airth house. She will be the better of a short excursion. Duncan’s horn: approacheth, so I must be brief.- I fear he is taking too much to Edinburgh whisky which makes him sometimes top heavy, but he is on the whole a good carrier. . . . 24 June 1804 I hope you were not the worse of your morning walk, than which nothing could be more dusty or unpleasant: it contained nothing of what Milton calls vernal delight, of which however there is a great deal towards the water of Leith etc. where you take your evening strolls while the beaux and belles perambulate Queen’s Street. Albeit our vehicle was full, it was not crowded; and if there was 1 in John the second Drummond, battalion, son thirdof John regiment, Drummond of the of Native Strageath, Infantry, who laterCawnpore. became an ensign 126 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY nothing very interesting in our discourse, it had the negative merit of not being disagreeably silent or loquacious. The only adventure that befel me by the way was the meeting with Miss Graham and your little boys. I embraced my godson1 who is of great volume for his months and days: what will he not be, if he increases in the same ratio? All good betide him. Nothing was to be seen in the towns but exhibitions of soldiers. At Linlithgow the highland Glasgow volun- teers, and, I think sharpshooters. And we had almost seen the caval- cade of riding the marches by the burgesses and tradespeople of Linlithgow, mounted on Rozinantes, and decked with flowers and cockades which I mistook for triple ones. At Falkirk I saw your brother in law Mr Macdowal,2 at the head of a fine corps of his country neighbours; and Stirling was chock full of the same military masquerade. Certainly was there a soul to animate these military bodies, they might turn to great account; but they are surely over- multiplied, and three weeks of permanent duty will not make either officers or men military machines, - but one dares hardly look for- ward at the present alarming crisis. Let us be thankful the triple cockaded gentry have not visited us before now. . . . I dined at Stirling with Mr Bum very comfortably, and got home quietly in the evening to my retreat where I found things going on as well as I could expect. . . . And though there will not be that superabundance which the blossoms promised, there will be much good fruit, apricots, peaches, plums and pears, though there will be great chasms even of the best kinds. And I understand others who have gardens and orchyards and hot walls have not fared better than myself. The heavy rains have hurt the trees as well as the fruit; and the quantity of vermin, gnats, caterpillars, insects equal the monsters collected at Boulogne, Holland etc. But hitherto the gardener has bid them Defiance and preserved the bushes from being robbed of the fruit and leaves. Of gooseberries there will be great store. . . . So much for my rural gazette which contains almost as much interesting intelligence as the London one, which seems to be as dumb as a fish, having only the negative merit of being silent and modest.... To me it matters not who distributes the loaves and the 1 John Dundas, bom 1803, Mrs Dundas’s eighth child. * Day Hort Macdowall of Walkinshaw. 1804 127 fishes of an empire tottering to its fall.- The debates so full of laughs and gibes are little better than the meeting in the fleet some years ago.- Aiblens good may come out of evil, as was then the case; but really some of the orators and would be gentlemen deserve to be tied up to the yards arm, and to receive a good flogging. And some of your Edinburgh politicians who expect a share of the spoil, and croak like vultures, in hopes of a convulsion, would be nothing the worse of a flagellation of one kind or another. A poetical one would not break their skin, though it might hurt their pride and dispel the illusions which they have conjured up- Yesterday, I went over and dined at Keir where I found the Provost and field officers of the Glasgow volunteers in garrison with the Kippenross family: your sister1 is in great health and beauty. Today I was at Lecropt church, having refused to dine with Sir Robert etc. having no passion for a second great dinner, tho indeed after yours of Monday I needed not have been afraid, having the grace of forbearance where temptations most abound in varied forms.- Yet after ten days of Edinburgh where one meets with better cracks, and more interesting objects than in the country, it takes time to reconcile oneself to blissful solitude, as Milton calls it. As yet I have not been able to take myself to my usual avocations and pursuits, finding alwise some reason for postponing it till to- morrow : but I must set about it doggedly: and if intense thought and application be not pleasing in the outset, ere long they absorb every- thing else and supply the place of luxury and the conversation of idlers. . . . I am glad to have made out my visit to your great and increasing city, while it and I enjoyed peace and tranquillity. I saw some people whom it was luxury to see, and if the number of my old friends does not increase, that is owing to circumstances which can neither be foreseen nor prevented, in the dechne of life when the shadows begin to lengthen. My spirits were surely the better for shifting the scene, and for revisiting the place where I spent the days of my youth, to which, amidst all the changes and chances of life, one cannot help looking back with complacency, even when the houses and places where he sojourned in days of yore exist no more, or are tenanted 1 Mary Graham, sister of Mrs Dundas, wife of John Stirling of Kippendavie. See also above, p. 61, n. 2. 128 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY by the canaille, or by people whom nobody knows I leave these matters to be handled by that great moralist Mr Creech,1 when contrasting Edinburgh in 1783 and 1803. . . . 10 July 1804 I was favoured . . . with the books which arrived in good plight: and for some days I have been in my desultory hours immersed in Sir Charles Grandison which exclusive of its overabundance of senti- ment and heroic flights in private life, is a wonderful work - but as it is near half a century since I first read it and I have only finished the first volume I shall be laconic; yet compared with modern romances it may be regarded as an Iliad or Odyssey and after it and Clarissa nothing else will go down. But as long as my valuable friend Dr Macleod is with me not even a romance will relish, his conversation being lively and instructive albeit a stranger world sometimes think he overabounded in the acid, but none is more kind hearted and he can tell me many things which few else can to better purpose. His fleshly tabernacle is much the worse of the wearing and he has a set of crotchets about it which do not exactly meet Dr Gregory’s ideas or those of other graduates. His infirmities have mellowed the loud- ness and shrillness of his voice, and tho tenacious of his point, he is less tyrannical in argument than in his prime. But his sterling in- tegrity and sound principles render him a valuable member of society, and his erudition is wonderful. Sometimes our confabula- tions look a little stormy for he would give not a pin for one who shouldall his propositions. He says this is his last visit; but I tell him there will be two words to that, but none can tell what a little time may produce. Meanwhile his company is a great treat to me.- I confess Captain Hamilton2 has not been more than fortunate in his honeymoon.- Margaret Stirling3 told me t’other day that the contract of marriage was burnt with the shawls etc. I advised her to have two copies, one of which should be in the custody of her father who will be no bad hand to settle the contract.- Woes me! after all 1 William Creech, 1745-1815, Letters addressed to Sir John Sinclair . . . respecting the mode of living, arts, commerce, literature, manners, etc., of Edinburgh at different periods 2(Edinburgh, 1793). Captain John Hamilton, younger, of Sundrum, married, 5 June 1804, Christian 3Dundas, bom 1785, eldest daughter of late George Dundas of Dundas. Margaret Douglas Stirhng, daughter of John Stirhng of Kippendavie. 1804 129 the balls etc. how few marriages have taken place in consequence of the late winter and spring campaign in which every nymph appeared arrayed in robes as splendid and loose as those of Juno’s and begirt with ornaments more charmingly attractive than Venus’s caestus which none could behold with safety. Have you heard any more mellifluous homihes? It is to be hoped they will produce a happy reformation upon his fair auditors in point of habilliments and the manner of wielding their weapons of offence. But come let me beg you to finish your account, to which I believe my learned guest can find no parallel in the annals of Greece and Rome when luxury was carried to a wonderful pitch and female vanity had full scope.- So I see you side with opposition] in certain points. I think our Lord Advocate]1 rash in h[is] letter though perhaps not so very far wrong as one patriotic brewer would make him. His speech is in some points bombast and in others vainglorious. I am sorry for it; but for all that have no desire to see J. Clerk,2 Gillies3 etc. in office or on the bench, for I reprobate their principles. His ancestor Sir Thomas Hope [of Craighall], Lord A[dvocate]4 to Charles the first, was no spotless character, but a great orator and lawyer. It is generally thought he betrayed his royal master. . . . 24 July 1804 .... I was. . . greatly alarmed with my good friend Dr Macleod’s being seized with what he apprehended to be the gout in his stomach, attended with violent pain. But after applying some remedies, the fit abated and his health and chearfulness returned; for, for some hours, his argumentative, and even his colloquial powers seemed to be suspended. Poor man! he is at best a wreck of what he was; that is his bodily strength and flesh are much exten- uated, but his better part continues unimpaired, save that he com- plains that his memory is not what it has been. Lord Monboddo used to say, he had forgot more than most others knew. Be that as it may, my friend the Doctor is one of the most learned of his frater- 1 Charles Hope of Granton, lord advocate, was accused by Whitbread of abuse of 2power (Kay, ii, 247; Cockbum, 184). 2 John Clerk of Eldin, later Lord Eldin, died 1832. 4 DiedAdam 1646. Gillies, later Lord Gilbes, 1760-1842. 130 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY nity, and what is more consequence, his integrity and kindness are great and uniform. The keenness and vivacity of his discourse add a degree of poignancy to it, though a stranger would sometimes think him in a passion when he means nothing less. And you may well imagine he is no granter of propositions, and what is more, is not more than fond of those that assent too readily. I sometimes rally him on his being of too accomodating a spirit. His slowness in eating is very great, for I would engage to go from St Andrews square to the West Church and back again from the infusion of the tea to his third cup. And I would engage to fill a sheet of paper in the time he takes to read the newspapers; which at present are to me a sad penance. O man (said Lord Karnes to a gentleman who asked him if he had read the papers) do you feed on the news? ... But though my worthy friend be much superior to the race of quidnuncs, no greater mortification could befal him than the being deprived of those precious intelligences for a week: and their not being diurnal, was I believe his chief grievance here and an inducement to return to his cloysters where he may not only feed but feast, not only feast but banquet on stars and suns, on couriers and chronicles which I account no better than garbage when considered as intellectual aliment. . . . Yesterday I accompanied him to Stirling where we dined together on invitation at a friend’s house and parted in the evening. . . . Stirling at present is the scene of military masquerades which I trust shall answer expectation. Three troops of horse, besides volun- teers and the army en masse or in mash, as the people call it. The wetness of the day prevented my going to see the troopers perform their sword exercise.- There was like to be a scuffle at Kennets ’twixt the Culross volunteers and the Clackmannan horse, which last fixed their pistols in the faces of the foot. Bob Dundas’s1 men, not accustomed to it, resented their Captain’s face being blacked with the wadding; some of the horses were cut, but little is said of this mock fight! Tis a new way of making raw troops stand fire. . . . This is your race week which I see has begun auspiciously.2 And 1 Robert Bruce Dundas of Blair. See also above, p. 104, n. 2. * The Edinburgh races, 23-28 July: ‘on the whole the week afforded little sport’ (Scots Magazine, August 1804). 1804 131 I suppose you will be able to give some account of them, at least from second hand. I hear of a boy Garrick ;x never could he come more opportunely, for the trade of a player was never in lower repute. Were I an attendant on public places I should feel a sad blank. There will be a fine blow2 of officers but they must put off their boots and spurs when they mix with the fair. . . . 14 August [1804] .... I passed a very pleasant day yesterday at Lamick with Lord Bannatyne3 and Principal Macleod of Aberdeen,4 the oldest pro- fessor in Europe, having been 55 years in the capacity. He is a fine chearful old man. ... I must conclude to be in time for Lecropt church and dine at Keir so you see I am a gadder. . .. 21 August 1804 .... I am glad to hear the three boys are getting better of the chin cough which is a most distressful ailment and I hope my friend Anne will soon be better. It is one of those diseases which one wishes children to get well over, but one would wish the younger part of your flock to be a little older before they take it.- You would have fresh muirland air at the judge’s5 very different indeed from that of St Andrews’ square. I hear much of his Lordship’s rage for improve- ments and only regret that all his industry and ambition to excel should be bestowed upon an untoward soil and over elevated situa- tion. This weeping climate of ours is also fine for trying the temper and checking presumptuous hopes and erroneous calculations of produce and profit, which gentlemen farmers are apt to build too much upon, none being more addicted to castle building than gentlemen farmers who as they pay no rent think themselves super- ior to ordinary rules. Some of them go a step further and keep no books or accounts which is no commendable course.- If there be a species of self delusion in it, sweeter than quaffing of Gas, it is at 1 Probably William H. W. Betty, 1791-1874, known as the Young Roscius (Scots 2Magazine, December 1804, pp. 969-71). 3 Display of anything brilliant (New English Dictionary). 4 RoderickSir William Macleod, Macleod 1727-1815, Bannatyne, principal elevated of to King’s the bench College, as Lord Aberdeen, Bannatyne, appointed 1799. 5professor of philosophy there in 1749. Lord Hermand. 132 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY least more innocent, for if it maketh not rich or independent, it feedeth the poor and ornaments the country I am much diverted with your enumeration of the various carriages which the children of folly and fashion sport in these dark and portentuous times, when loud complaints are making of exor- bitant taxes which now extend to the husbandman and cottager who formerly escaped the paws of financiers. Woes me for the degeneracy of families and the abusure of enormous wealth! What would excellent Andrew Drummond1 or his son John whom I knew well have said, had they seen their heir2 taking the field ten days ago to crusade against the muirfowl? A gentleman from Stirling told me he had 35 horses in his train, the vanguard of which contained a pack of dogs and a covey of puppies in a carriage, going to be broke in or educated. He could not tell me the names of the carriages, or the number of their companions male or female; but so numerous was the cavalcade that they could not be taken in at Stirling, but went towards Dumblane or Crieff. Indeed they would require a castle to accomodate them. I presume the young man may plead as Adam did ‘The woman thou gavest to be with me etc.’ Some diseases cure themselves: these same 3 5 horses should be put under the charge of Sir Brook Watson3 and his deputies. I fancy she is what may be called a hallucate* Lady. It is however a proof [of] original genius in giddy, profuse times, when one takes a flight much above the sons and daughters of folly. How vain the gratification of our fondest, most rational wishes! Mr Andrew Drummond who told me his patrimony at reaching London and after selling his horse was ten guineas, thought he had done a great deal in planting a colony of Drummonds round Charing Cross, and putting them in a way of making great fortunes. Could he witness the puerile extravagances now going on, he would exclaim ‘All is vanity!’ Meteors soon evanish and are succeeded by foul weather, sometimes by tempests. I was endited to dine at Blairdrummond with the Airth family and 1 2 Son of Sir John Drummond of Machany, c. 1681-1769; John, his son, 1723-74. George Harley Drummond of Stanmore, 1783-1853, married, 1801, Margaret, 2daughter of Alexander Munro. Sir Brook Watson, 1735-1807, first baronet, lord mayor of London, took leading 4part in formation of corps of light horse volunteers in 1779. Crazy, hare-brained (Jamieson). 1804 133 part of the Kippenrosses and I was once doubtful whether I should go, but I made it out and was much the better for it. Jean was in great spirits and we chatted a good deal.- You seem doubtful as to being in this county, but when Anne amends and the younger ones escape untouched by that sore malady I hope you will come out and if the gooseberries be in the wane, apricots and peaches succed.- Why should I trouble you with criticisms on Sir Charles Grandison or on his book of miracles, as it may be called. There are however many fine things in it. Emily and Lady G. are great favourites of mine. My excellent old friend, Mr Abercromby, no sentimental man, used to speak of that fool Sir Charles and certainly he and Clementina were abundantly romantic and out of common life.- I am almost afraid of adventuring upon Clarissa; it is so wise drawn, so distress- ing : Mr Abercromby said it had done great harm to his Ladies by discomposing their stomachs. . . .

3 September 1804 .... I am diverted with your notion that people in the country are more masters of their time than you inhabitants of squares. The truth is the cares of a large family are sufficient to engage attention either in town or country and both are liable to interruption though in different ways. All depends on the apportioning of time to say nothing of health. ... I read t’other day a sermon by a seceding minister at Selkrig,1 occasioned by the false alarm in spring of an invasion, on a very striking text, Jeremiah 4.19. from which he deduced some good practical inferences of the temper and conduct people should hold at present. The style though plain and perspi- cuous was not toothsome or mellifluous, and too little sentimental for St Andrews church or your chapel. So you had a mystical sermon from Dr Dalgleish,2 to whose character I am a stranger. That may be carried too far; but a Christian preacher cannot well avoid touch- ing on mysteries which are to be found in the book of nature, as well as in the book of God. However much some modish preachers may wish to simplify or avoid them, the liturgy is full of them, expressed 1 George Lawson, d.d., minister of burgher church of Selkirk, ordained 1771, died 21820. William Dalgleish, d.d., 1733-1807, minister of Peebles. 134 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY in a fine glow of devotion. Mysticism is sometimes applied to a very different thing, namely to spiritual love, which gave occasion to rapturous effusions. St Francis de Sales, Fenelon, and in latter times Dr Charters carried that sufficiently far, though aimiable firstrate men. Such I presume was not the strain of the parson of Peebles’s homily which I presume was more orthodox than toothsome.- I thank you for the account of your expedition. It is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting. I sincerely sympathise with Mrs Erskine in her distress. Strange that there should be somewhat wrong in the configuration of the brothers and sisters of that generation! Of their comparative merits I need say nothing. It is many years since I was at Peebles and that only once. Though a sweet pastoral country I do not like it so well as Teviot- dale. The Duke of Queensberry’s1 waging war with his trees, or rather with his heirs of entail, is an evil which calls for a remedy, were proper attention paid to the police of the country. An English heir of entail is not permitted to commit waste, i.e. to cut down the trees wantonly. After he had commenced his devastations at Drum- lanrich, he was one day caught in a bitter blast of wind and rain. This gave occasion to a bitter epigram which I have forgot only it said, nature had saluted him with a blast in revenge for his having most barbarously laid her bare. It concludes, ‘thou scourge of a Duke! ’ David Erskine announced to me the birth of his son,2 an event, in which, as a friend to the family of Cardross for generations I re- joiced. Woes me for William Erskine3 and for his good mother and sisters! I was all along afraid they were flattering themselves with delusive hopes, and surely he had better have wintered at St Helena. One of the worst things attending that dreadful disease is restlessness which is too much encouraged by the medical tribe. ... All out of sorts; not just ill enough to consult Dr Gregory, should my com- plaints prove obstinate and refuse to listen to reason, I must get my friend Wingate to draw up a case as little learned as possible to be submitted to the good Doctor. I past two pleasant days at Kippenross last week. The Lady being 1 2 William, fourth duke of Queensberry, 1725-1810. 3 Born at Cardross, 17 August 1804 (Scots Magazine). William Erskine died without issue, in April 1805. See also above, p. 63, n. 4. 1804 135 in great health and spirits, the Laird in great glee and his sarcasms nowise pointed; the nymphs in full blow. Anne1 rides, tho she does not walk stoutly. There I saw Captain Sandelands a genteel man.2- From thence I went to Keir being fond of very short and easy jour- neys ; there I found the Laird and his sisters3 by themselves. Miss Mainie disclaims all reports of a change of state which I told her would almost persuade me that the wedding garment was making. She spoke of the long man whom I saw in her train; but I should be doubtful if it takes place. . . . 19 September 1804 .... I thought to have entertained you with some account of a trial wherein Dr Rind was prosecutor, against a silly creature not be- holden to fame. The quarrel began at a ball where the Doctor directed, this flory* lad having come in boots and spurs which I believe is the mode at Edinburgh was denied admittance and treated with some indignity. He immediately got a post chaise and drove to his father’s house half a mile off, where he arrayed himself in white silk stockings, and then drove back like Jehu, but was treated with greater indignity by the director and his associates. This produced a challenge, and it not being accepted, he posted the Doctor but both parties being bound to the peace, the Colonel went to Edinburgh and after an audience of the Lord A[dvocate],5 a criminal prosecu- tion was resolved on, very rashly and unadvisedly. The voice of the public was, I am told, decidedly against the brothers, who are not liked the more for their maneuvres about the volunteers. H. Erskine was brought out to defend the culprit; and it was expected enough would have been brought out to make the prosecuter ridiculous, if not odious, for by all accounts he had laid himself very open. Fortun- ately for him the matter was compromised, on what terms I know not. Much entertainment did the public lose by this compromise. 1 2 Anne, daughter of John Stirling of Kippendavie, bom 1783. James Sandilands, in early life captain of an East Indiaman, succeeded as tenth Lord Torphichen in 1815. He married, 3 November 1806, Margaret Douglas, second daughter of John Stirling of Kippendavie. * Marion, 1774-1842, and Jane, 1775-1835, second and third daughters of William 4Stirling of Keir. Vain, volatile (Jamieson). 5 Henry Erskine, 1746-1817, lord advocate. 136 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY When the boys were afraid that a Jew condemned to be burnt for heresy would recant and spoil their sport, they clapped him on the back, saying ‘Stand firm, Moses’. I know nothing of the merits of the cause, but it was a bad business. Of the Colonel’s wife,1 her fortune, connections etc. I have heard nothing but she had need to bring a good fortune, for it is a most expensive family in all its branches; but as I have no connection with them I can only wish them well, and less in the mouths of the world, and there is none more foulmouthed than the good town of Stirling, which is like other country towns a microcosm, in which people’s faults and fail- ings are surveyed with a microscopic eye which magnifies and multi- plies as suits the purposes of malice; and some people have a knack at giving offence, and others are addicted to what old Mayne of Powes2 called in his strong language, ‘the damnable sin of lying’.-1 understand the courtship was carried on by letter, she being a sister of one of his Indian friends. It has a romantic look all circumstances considered, for he is 50 and upwards; Vive la jeunesse !- Dr Sandford will do no dishonour to the episcopacy, and certainly the English qualified ministers are a set ofindependents, subject to no controul when they go wrong in morals or doctrine. But I question very much if it will tend much to his own peace and comfort. His brethren have been so long left to themselves, that it is very question- able, whether they would submit to wholesome discipline. But his great difficulty would be the nonjuring presbyters, some of whom are sufficiently self-willed. In truth, they are not much more at one than the old and new light seceders, who hate one another worse than the Catholics do the presbyterians. Nor is that all: it would be Bishop against Bishop. I know one of them who has fine talents for contention. In short, I am afraid good Dr Sandford’s mitre would [be?] twined with thorns. But I cannot think it is likely to take place; it shows there are busy heads.- I am sorry for Mr Alison; though not a preacher to my mind. . . . I expected to have seen the two Erskines ere now. Very long walks are dangerous things and so I told James, but young men will have 1 Ann Evans, daughter of the late Morris Evans, London, married, i September 1804, James Nathaniel Rind of Wester Livilands (SRO, Stirling Sheriff Court, Reg. Deeds, avol. 4, fo. 102, 8 April 1814). William Mayne of Powis, died 1740. 1804 137 their own way.- I have not seen H[arry] Drummond this month; he has been at the muirs and is now I presume waging war with the partridges. He will soon return to Oxford. I entertain great hopes of him; but he must shortly mix with the world else he will be caught by some English Blousilinda1. . . . 7 October 1804 .... Let me give you some acquaintance with a relation’s Lady whom I never saw till yesterday. On Friday night I had a note from Mr Dundas,2 the general’s son, saying that he and Mrs Dundas would pay their respects to me.-1 asked them to dine at three and to come early, meaning if the day had been good, to have shown them the moss. I was a little afraid I should be at a loss to entertain a high bred Irish Lady ;3 I who have no drawing room, who dwell in a cottage. But I was most agreeably disappointed; she is a well-bred easy woman, without airs or forbidding pride. And we chatted all three very well, though as she speaks very low, as does her husband, I did not alwise follow her, and I dare say my tongue was still more unintelligible to her. They fell in with Keir on their arrival at Stirling and thither they went last night, after making a hearty meal, and being seemingly well pleased with their entertainment. Indeed I liked her better than some of our home bred fantastic dames, who have seen less good company. She does not seem to relish barley broth, for which I pitied her, and she eats no bread and butter and drinks no tea in the afternoon, though I told her I estimated people’s understanding by the bread they eat then.- Nothing would please her but she must see the garden and the Teith which she prefers to Liffy’s limpid stream, which laves her father’s country seat. ... I asked Mr Dundas his plans, and regreted their not having come in fine weather. It is rather too late to make the highland tour. I told him Keir was the proper person to make him and his Lady known to some of their relations, for the Laird breaks through all restraints, and I dare say will make a hecatomb for them at Sir Robert’s.-1 presume 1 2 A character from John Gay’s Shepherd’s Week. Ralph Peter Dundas, son of General Ralph Dundas of Manor, died 1828. ably* Marianne daughter La of Touche Rt Hon. (sro, David General La Touche Register of Bellevue,of Sasines, although vol. 1041, not fo. mentioned jj); prob- in Burke’s Landed Gentry. 138 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY they will stay at Keir till the family goes to Ayr. He tells me they mean to be at Edinburgh for some time, and I think he said he would write Mr Dundas. Her family is in a great way, four brothers members of the imperial parliament, vastly rich and powerful. Want you a place, or Mr Dundas a clerkship of session? Irish influence is not to be set at nought.- Mrs Drummond has got a filthy cold for which I reprimanded her: she has been seriously ill and has she said lost a stone of beef which she could ill afford. I dined there on Thursday. . . . Harry goes in ten days to Oxford. I asked him why he had not sailed for Perth under convoy of Admiral Sandilands, with his female frigates who I hope have captured first rate beaux, or rather fat Lords or Lairds. But I know not how it is, the nymphs of the present day do less execution with their eyes and with their charms unveiled to each profane eye, than their grand- mothers and mothers whose dress was comparatively cheap and simple less spangled than the modish which is at least akin to the Spartan one which if I may rely on the authority of your spouse discovers more than was once thought decent to be shown at kirk and market Mrs Drummond had one of those aprons on her back but on the whole if that be fantastic, that is less her fault than that of the times which are as unintelligible as the politics or military opera- tions which are confined to mock fights etc.- I hope your brother Airth will not be the worse of consulting Dr Gregory whose heart is at least equal to his head or skill.- Is the gout actual or original sin? I know not the Falkirk medical men, but have some idea of the Stirling ones who are not better than the former ones. I hope by this time the medicine has operated a cure. . . . ’Tis not often that our parish affords tales of wonder, but our minister’s wife, Mrs Tait,1 a strange character, has lost her angel, a natural niece of his whom she spoilt and idolized. She, the young woman, has been for some years little better than a sinner, riding the minister’s horses all night in quest of paramours, raising bogles to the terror of the servants which she attired in the minister’s clothes, the head decked with horns and rattling chains.- You woud see a most fantastic address announcing her elopment? in the courant of Thurs- day, talking of impropriety and perfidy, when the poor mad girl was 1 Elizabeth, daughter of William Home, minister at Fogo, married Christopher Tait, minister at Kincardine-in-Menteith, presented 1772, died 1812. She died in 1807. 1804 139 perfidious to herself.1- The accounts are too confused to be de- pended on, but a farmer’s servant hard by, who was long her favourite paramour, his likewise eloped, and surely he has the worst of it, for, if he has got an angel, she is wicked and madder he. . . . Woes me this parish should be plagued with such people. I remem- ber that manse the abode of piety, peace and love...... I go tomorrow for some days to Woodside which is a very pleasant family. Mrs Russell thought proper to mistake my Tuesday for Monday, and so I go there tomorrow. See you any resemblance twixt the words? ... I am not sure whether I shall call at Levilands to see English Mrs Rind and her sisters. When I was difficulted what to do about her husband whom I first saw at Cardross, excel- lent Mr Erskine who seldom misjudged said, you may call upon him. I did so, and after a reciprocation there it rested, nor do I desire much connection with that set of people, who are running a race of folly and unpopularity and are I should suppose near the goal.- If I do, you shall have a portrait, but I wish no more intercourse than a call. After outliving the neighbours and relations I loved most, or experiencing what is very grating the neglect and alienation of others, it is irksome to take up with secondary or ternary people.- On Thursday I dined at Blairdrummond with Mr and Mrs Graham Ardoch, with their protegee Miss Wedderburn,2 a strap- ping plant, one of the Perth frigates. Lady Christian was to be there yesterday to stay till after Christmas I rejoiced to hear Airth was greatly better by a note Mrs Stirling has sent to Mrs Drummond. I hope he is careful; for it is not enough to have a good Doctor unless one be a good and obedient patient, tenacious of regimen.- In order to fill up my paper, I must say a little of the story men- tioned in my last, that you may see this sequestered spot does not want for geniuses of a certain kind. Miss and her lover having met on the street, she accosted him with great joy, saying ‘Now or never 1 In the Edinburgh Evening Com ant, 4 October 1804, is a paragraph headed ‘Sudden Elopement’on 1 October in whichat 3 p.m., ‘ a very ‘leaving young her lady’.is Aunt stated in the to greatest have eloped astonishment from the Newand deepest Town, affliction’.2 Anne Wedderbum, youngest daughter of the late Sir John Wedderburn of Ballen- dean, bt., married, 17 june 1805, Sir John Hope of Craighall (Scots Magazine). 140 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY John’. They went away to his brother’s, Lord Cullen’s1 footman, and concerted their plan of operations. She put on his pantaloons and short coats, and he got clothes from his brother, in which attire they got on the top of the diligence for Greenock where the knot was tied; he has an uncle there in a good way. This being notified to the Aunt, she on her return home set out in her caravan, accompanied by a girl whom she habited fantastically in a hat and feather and ribbands; the minister would not go, or let his man go. In that equippage they arrived at Greenock where they met the happy pair and an immediate reconciliation took place; in proof of which Mrs Tait and the young man walked arm in arm, or cleekit, from the one end of Greenock to the other. She then told her niece that she had done very well; but said she, you are no longer to call him John, but Mr Macbeath. After ample promises of what she would do, and make her husband do, she set her face homewards. There she told her husband and cronies, that her new ally was a fine fellow wanting only a few pounds to make him an accomplished gentleman. To all which Tait made the proper answer, a surly grumph and silence. The latter part of it, was the farce after the play.- More folly on the part of the aunt, and more sheer vice on that of her natural niece, are seldom to be seen. And every day brings more of it to light.- ’Tis a sorry story but somewhat of a romantic cast. Some people seem bom to be themes for the drama. ’Tis hard they should have fallen to the lot of this parish.- Mr Macbeath has the worst of it. It is said she fed her flame with spirits.- Match me the story in your great town, where vice and folly appear sometimes in masquerade, and wisdom and decorum are not alwise the curricarristics (as Mrs Slip- slop2 calls it) of young or old.- All good betide James Stirling,3 your nephew, who is a great favourite of mine, honest and kind hearted. I had a visit of Tom Erskine and John Stirling who will soon be setting their faces Edin- burgh ways. If the former do not make a figure I have not the gift of prophecy which is a very troublesome one in these latter times.- What no news of any kind in your great town? Kemp and Lady 1 Robert Cullen, Lord Cullen, died 1810. *3 Lady Booby’s waiting-woman in Fielding’s Joseph Andrews. Fourth son, born 1789, of John Stirling of Kippendavie and his wife Mary Graham, sister of Mrs Dundas. 1804 141 C[olquhoun] are I presume battling pretty points at the tribunal of Andrew Balfour and company who are second Daniels. Any matches gone back because the misses have too much modesty and discretion or were too strictly educated?-1 saw Mr Dundas Manour on friday forenoon: he and his wife were going to dine at Airthray. I cautioned him against being too late; he said five was the hour; from thence to Tullibody, farther I know not - He told me the King was ill again a thing too likely, but being Irish news it may not be correct, but the Irish m.p.s are ordered over. God help us. ... I be- think me of sending you a fowl as per invoice not being fond of sitting down like old Buchlyvie1 a great gourmand, to a Turkey or goose by himself. . . . 15 October 1804 .... Let me congratulate you most sincerely upon the safe arrival of your brother the Captain, in times when enemies superabound, and he in wait for our India Galleons. Gloomy as our prospects are, every man would wish to stand or fall with his country. Meanwhile, it is a great matter to have escaped the horrors or tender mercies of our Galic foes, whose cruelty can only be equalled by their implac- ability, and desire to ruin these still happy nations I shall be glad to hear how your brother Airth is. I hope the medicine has had the desired effect; ’tis not pleasant but that must be endured. . . . Monboddo had his crotchets about the diminution of the human species. If I may trust report, no safe guide, neither bench nor bar is more gigantic than in his Lordship’s better days. . . . Who is to be justice clerk and advocate? These offices well filled might do a great deal and add to the dignity and efficiency of our criminal court. Apropos, your Edinburgh hangman or prevot came out in his post chaise and kept up his dignity to the full; for after giving the first ten stripes to a man that deserved the gallows, he reassumed his carriage and surrounded by his guards, drove to Falkirk to complete his task.- The story I mentioned in my last ended like most comedies in a runaway wedding. The poor man has made the worst of it, and if the heroine should not be happy, she is not entitled to much sympathy. 1 General William Graham, became possessed of family estates at Buchlyvie in 1753, died in 1767 (Graeme, Or and Sable, 428). 142 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY But her aunt’s setting out in her caravan in quest of her lost sheep, after its being notified that she was lawfully married, is the farce after the play. A more wild-goose chase was never attempted by Knight or Lady errant. I never saw Miss except when she accompanied her aunt in a visit here to request that I would allow my burial to pass behind not before the house: I took a hearty laugh and gave them tea. ’Tis a strange, not a holy family. . . . Now that the fruit is secured with very little loss, I must assemble the bairns and give them their annual treat and let them run races. I have a sort of levee in my walks, and like most other levee hunters, they grow remiss when the apples grow scarce. They have it would seem a little of the Yahoo in their composition I understand from Mrs Edmonstoune who called on Saturday Mr Dundas and his Lady went to Edinburgh and mean to [go?] from thence to Ayr which will show her our quality etc. . . . 5 November 1804 I.. . am just recovering of a most severe cold.... To use the words of my facetious friend Gilbert Edmonstoune1 who had heart and common sense, who said of the cough that killed him, ’twas enough to rive a craig. Sufficient to say, I did not dare my cough or sacrifice to Bachchus as he did, and Mr Wingate as usual did his duty with sagacity and effect. The attention of William and my other servants by night and day, deserves thanks and gratitude. And among the gardiner’s prentices I discovered a very good reader from the wilds of Moydart. ’Twas well my pulse kept sound. Thank God the cough is now entirely gone and my sleep returned. These are summonses of removal which though not peremptory, claim attention, even when a dilator may be proponed. Mr Dundas will explain the import of these hard words. I hope to get up stairs tomorrow which is a great matter to a reconvalescent. I should not however have thought of intruding upon you, had it not been for what you say of your brother Airth which shocked me the more, that I understood he was completely recovered. I trust his complaints shall take a favourable turn; but as some diseases are 1 Not identified. None of the Edmonstones of Duntreath, Broich or Spittal seems to have been christened Gilbert (J. Guthrie Smith, The parish of Strathblane, Glasgow, 1886). 1804 143 very alarming, the medicines are not unattended with danger to which valetudinarians are not alwise disposed to pay proper heed. I sympathise with you very seriously in this state of suspence and apprehension; but my heart bleeds for your excellent mother1 who had every reason to expect scenes of a very different kind after the return of a son that has been so long absent. I trust however that the present alarm shall ere long be succeeded by better symptoms and her eldest hope be spared to be the solace of her declining years. . . . Remember me kindly to her, your brother and sisters and assure them of my best wishes.- Nobody will blame Mr Abercromby for accepting an offer that is equally honourable and flattering. The consequences for himself and family are more doubtful; they present to an ambitious mind like Lord Melville’s prospects which it may or may not be in his power to realize. .. . I am truly sorry for my old companion Lord Balmutto2 who was then a pleasant honest fellow - whether increasing wealth and honour have made him happy I know not. I suspect his son like ma[ny] others does not know his own mind or bent.- We have [at] present no army save on paper; officers without men and men without officers. No fields where glory is to be obtained unless in climates where pestilence and death are on every side. Every man who wishes to display his valour may ere long have an opportunity of contributing to save his country in the militia etc. The great field for heroism is a naval battle; we much want a victory at sea but when or where or how is involved in darkness impenetrable. . . . ix November 1804 .... I called with Mr Russell at Airth-house and found good Mrs Graham and Miss Jane who told us Mr Graham was better; but on Thursday Mr Bum told me Mr Dundas had wrote him Airth was [? not] much better. I fear a military life does not agree with him Be that as it may, even sickness is to be preferred to volunteer captains spitting at one another and prevented from cudgelling each other in public. ’Tis a pretty commentary on the speech at delivering the colours.- In my way to Woodside I called at Livilands, but 1 Anne Stirling, daughter of Sir Henry Stirling, third baronet of Ardoch, married, 21760, Claud William Irvine GrahamBoswell of Airth.Balmuto, died 1824. 144 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY missed the Colonel and his Lady. This however begat a visit from them on horseback, I was glad it was not in a chaise, on Thursday. She is rather well looking and pleasant than young or handsome. We chatted and walked, and talked of the Teith and of the Dee which borders on Wales, her native country, and she seems to have a taste for flowers and shrubs. I pity her; for by all accounts there has been a sad miff’twixt her and Miss,1 to whom it was necessary to administer a ghostly counsell.- There the connection will probably rest till summer; one would wish to be civil to a poor stranger whose prospects are not more than flattering. It was, every thing considered, rather a rash step in a man past fifty and not rich, to enter a love marriage. Of these people it is not pleasing to speak when no good can be said, and much connection is not expedient.- I found my beautiful friend Miss Russell2 preparing for the ball, and had a Pisgah view of her silks and her laces, but I told her, that when un- adorned, she was adorned the most. I trust she will not spoil.-1 hear and but hear of peers smitten with our beauties: I trust it is some- thing more than calflove which seldom comes the length of a con- tract but changes like the moon, th’inconstant moon. I talk however like an ignoramus. I dined t’other day at Meiklewood with Allanton, his Lady and daughter and I take some credit for having contrived to keep up the intellectual ball, by starting topics. He was neither pedantick nor overbearing. He scampered off at 8 at night, in his two wheeled chaise graced with supporters, which reminded me of the Earl’s coronet upon a gouty peer’s crutches. His wife and daughter staid all night very wisely. The former is a pleasant natural woman reminding me of her excellent mother. If Mr and Mrs Abercromby are to be at home, I have offered a visit the middle of this week.- Apropos the Woodstock Drummonds came in state to Stirling with seven carriages. Madam walked the streets with her children very plainly dressed, her Bairnswoman clad in spangled stuffs gold and silver; tell it not at K. All good betide our fair misses, whether spangled or not, over or under adorned. They are to be matrons and 1 Probably either Agnes, J. N. Rind’s sister, or Sarah Agnes, Helen, or Jean Agnes, !his Sarah, natural eldest daughters. daughter of David Russell of Woodside, merchant in Glasgow, married, 27 June 1806, James Crawford, younger, merchant. Port Glasgow. 1804 H5 mothers when we shall sleep with our fathers. We seem to be going on like the Antediluvians who ate and drank and made merry untill Noah entered into the Ark. Whither shall we fly, if fly we must: to Norway or Russia or where ?- A Lady from Dunfermline ball told me of a process at Lady Kennet’s instance against Mr Colvill, a minister,1 and his son, about no less than a boat at the ferry about which they had a violent miff. It was to come as last week before the Dunfermline justices as Admirals, and if they go wrong, none can say where it may go. I am sorry for it for I like the family and am sorry the Laird is implicated. It will put Dr Kemp out of head and make sport for the Philistines. . . . 26 November 1804 .... I was told a circumstance at once tragic and comic for the poor Knight,2 whom I confess I commiserate. It seems he and his Lady have retained all the lights of the bar, who are ill paid, if not feed, by Sir James, a species of persecution he will feel very severely, which is indeed little better than purgatory to one who prized money fully more than it was worth. ... I never heard of Captain Dundas’s return,3 not knowing the name of his ship, but surely it cannot be difficult to get tidings o/him, if not from him. He will be busied in buckling on his armour, to help to keep the battle away from the gate; for let us not imagine our implacable, triumphant, increasing enemies have relinquished their purpose to reduce this still happy country to a state little less deplorable than the finest parts of the Greek and Roman empires when, for the sins of a guilty effeminate people, these became the prey of the Goths and Vandals, the Saracens and the Turks; but as Falstaff says of Doll’s admonition, I will not speak like a Death’s head4. . . . From all I can hear, great was the blow of beauty of fashion and of elegance at Stirling, and never was there more finery. All love and peace! no pets, no quarrels such as sometimes took place but it would seem the female world is grown 1 Presumably Rev. Alexander Colville of Hillside, who appears in the Fife Freeholders 2rolls, 1802 (sro). He was minister of Ormiston. 3 Sir James Colquhoun of Luss. See also above, p. 105, n. i. 4 Captain Ralph Dundas, son of Ralph, fourth son of Ralph Dundas of Manor. From Shakespeare, King Henry IV, part 2, II, iv. K 146 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY wiser.- Exceptions, say the grammarians, confirm a rule; and so in some cases they are still so unwise as to make sport for the Phillis- tines, and all for a blaze! anything is better than to fall into the hands of Andrew Balfour and company, or rather into those of the lights of the bar who can make the worse appear the better reason - Mr Bruce Kennet past Thursday here in very good spirits with his brother Laurence.1 Not a word of processes, volunteers, or other combustible matter from him or from me! Yet we talked of ferries in England and Scotland: I know not the issue: I wish the thing well over. I past two days at Tullibody very pleasantly, revisiting all the places which had been the loved haunts of my youth and afford me now ample scope for sweet remembrance, which alwise indicates a want or vacuity, which imagination cannot supply. I was glad to see the house so much improved, yet so much like what it was in my chearful morn of youth. There I met Charles Dundas2 who has a delicate part to act; yet contrives to eat and drink with his contend- ing allies. If Ralph Peter [Dundas] would pitch his tent at Powis, that would be another dining house for him. I had rather be shot than love good eating as well as some people.- General Dundas is one of the ablest men I know, a little sarcastic I confess at times. I fancy his son and his Lady are on their way to Ireland, probably at Glasgow. He has not the sense of his father, the innocence, the worth, the knowledge of his excellent grandfather who, as a country man said one day, had no fault, save that he was much too fond of epis- copacy. She has a good deal of Irish brogue and when she wishes to be understood, rises to a treble tenor.- I met them at Keir.- Poor Mrs Watson was ill for a fortnight or nearly of a cold. Being alwise afraid of her systems Mr Wingate attended her, and brought her round. Her spirits being depressed, I prescribed, with her approbation, a diverting book which she said one of the maids could read very well. Gulliver’s travels was pitched on, and ’tis difficult to say whether the reader or hearer laughed most; but the former declared she believed not a word of it. Once in days of yore, one of my readers threw down the book in great indignation, on reading that a man could thread a needle -1 am happy to think the 1 2 Laurence Dundas, son of Robert Bruce, Lord Kennet. Charles Dundas, later Baron Amesbury. See also above, p. 30, n. 2. 1804 147 poor woman and I are like to go on again. I confess her life is not a good one; but she knows her business well, having been bred with old Mrs Abercromby, an elegant oeconomist. When my old servants fail as others of them are likely to do from the weight of years, I shall be a helpless animal. . . . 27 November [1804] .... I saw Mr Drummond about a fortnight ago when he and his family were all well. Harry was tint for ten days, but he had gone to the country with Mr Ward a Corpus man and m. p.1 where he some- times speechifies.- How are the promotions in the law relished? Were I the King or Scotch minister, I would cashier the solicitor. Perhaps he looks for the chief Baron’s place who I am sorry to hear is far from well.- I hope there is less echo in the new court room than in June. It would be more expedient if it could compress speeches, and prevent the effusion of idle words. You remember the congealment of words in Nova Zembla in cruel frost and how they were unloosed by the thaw 21 am to Christmas at Airthray with a very small party it seems, to give evidence of my temperance at a Dives’s table. He was when I saw him last, more easy and more agreeable than usual which is to me better than faring sumptuously every day.-1 like very well the position of your young men in the class; neither the highest nor lowest is expedient, but steadiness, and rather gaining than loosing. Tom Erskine will declaim on Ritson. I presume James and he are at college, sucking in criticism from Dr Finlayson3 who is less comic than Dr Hill.4- Who is this Dr Gawler or Gouler5 who was gazetted lately? I smell a rat: I want to know nothing that is not generally known, but in kingdoms and empires there are convulsions, and so there must be in Dukedoms. . . . 1 John William Ward, 1781-1833, son of William, Viscount Dudley and Ward, matriculated,1802-23 (G.E.C., Oriel Complete College, Peerage). 1799, b.a. 1802, m.a. 1813, later earl of Dudley ; m.p. * From The Taller, vol. 6, no. 254, giving an extract from Sir John Mandeville’s journal.5 4 James Finlayson, professor of logic at Edinburgh. 0 John BellendenHill, professor Ker, ofI765?-i842, humanity eldestat Edinburgh. son of John Gawler and Caroline, daughter of third Baron Bellenden, to whom the duke of Roxburghe, believing the entail terminated in his own person, disponed his estates. 148 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY 24 December 1804 Iwas reading today a fine sermon of Porteus, bishop of London,1 on the text, ‘Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God’; though preached at St James’s it may suit the latitude of Edinburgh and those that carry their passion for innocent pleasure sufficiently far, making them a weary toil. . . . ’Tis well the clergy of the present day are more liberal minded than their predecessors. Let not them however defeat their own purpose by over doing and over indulgence.-1 con- gratulate you on William’s exalted station, which is very flattering to him and to his parents, and I presume Ralph is not devoid of ambition.21 hope it is the effects of their own industry, not of private teachers - but I believe you hear them their lessons which will rub up your grammatical knowledge. It is best in these cases to let nature work, for extra efforts do not answer. I fancy Anne is Empress of her class.-1 passed a very pleasant day at Blairdrummond on Saturday; they are preparing for your great city where they are not likely to ride the first horse among the sons and daughters of dissipation. . . . Miss Stirling told me t’other day that our Irish cousin having got mortal at Kippenross - he is alwise industrious in that way, fell thrice twixt that and their house weltering in the mud and Keir kept him from wandering and ordered him in at the back door. His Lady a good wife washed her husband with warm or tepid water. There is a hint for Scots wives: he is a silly lad; but time ennobles or degrades the line I go to Airthray to live sparingly and not even burgundy, champaign or Shiraz wine shall confiscate my understanding. . . . 1 2 Beilby Porteus, 1731-1808, bishop of London. Ralph James, bom 1795, eldest son of Mr and Mrs Dundas, and William, born 1796, their second son. ® 1805

. . . . OnTuesdayI had an excellent letter from Dr Gregory, telling me Ralph was entirely out of danger which gave me a very great satisfaction. And from not hearing from any of you, these two last posts (as you intimated) I presume all is well with the other infantry, of whom doubtless all due care would be taken. Dr Gregory says it is the same contagion that attacked his brats ten months ago in another form. I understand at Dunfermline the schools in November were shut up some weeks on account of it. This cannot be the effects of innoculation. Meanwhile the dread of losing so promising a boy at an interesting period of life must have borne very hard on you and Mr Dundas who have only experienced the sweets of a large family. But there is no passing through life without dangers; it is well however when the good providence of God which cooperates with medical skill, dispels the cloud. I hope the next letter from St Andrews Square will bring a bill of health. . . . Were I in a playful humour and perfectly well I could have given a pleasant account of our Xmas party which in point of society rather exceeded expectation. And never did our host appear more easy, kind and communicative. Our fare was indeed much too sumptuous for me in point of food and liquors, but I rose superior to tempta- tion. Mr and Mrs Watson, Mr and Mrs Abercromby, Burnet Bruce,1 Mr Mayne2 and his daughter were the party. The latter told me she had been at the Kippenross birthday which was more splendid than joyous, owing to the approach of Sunday and a sad want of 1 2 Advocate, son of Robert Bruce of Kennet, died 1813. James Mayne of Powis and Helen Elphinstone, his only daughter, who was born in 1783 and died in 1863. 150 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY beaus to dance with the misses, the bachelors present being little to their taste, and young Carden,1 the only marriagable man of the troop, refusing to trip it on the light fantastic toe.- Poor Miss Mayne was nought the better of galloping home on Sunday morning.- Much is she to be pitied. On some of our company, the feast was not thrown away, eating con amore and quaffing wines (in single Glasses) little known, even to the epicureans of Edinburgh. I alleged on B[urnet] B[ruce] that he submitted to the penance of quaffing a bottle with a good grace. The Collector was not able to come, which was nought against him. He was to be at Kennet on Newyears day. 1805 has not set out more than well for me. I had fatigued myself on Monday, by walking with Mrs Watson much beyond my pace or strength; for she walks like a grenadier; I got the better of the lassi- tude, but on Tuesday, the excessive fires of the drawing room, too near which I had seated myself, brought on rheumatic twitches which soon evanished; but the sudden check given to the perspira- tion (the source of many disea[ses]) produced what Mr Wingate calls a peripas se[-]fetre.2 It is in plain language a very severe and angry eruption on the sides of my right thigh, which is teazing not dangerous. . . . Mr Abercromby and his Lady were to set out on Thursday for Edinburgh. Whether the death of the receiver general occasioned it I know not. I could moralize and say all is vanity and vexation of spirit. As to mirth and conversation that is out of the question among the young people at present. I would prescribe them nettle kail, together with fasting and prayer 8 January 1805 .... I heard at Airthray of Elizabeth Dundas’s marriage to a Mr Alexander,3 a good and rich man, a near relation of the Earl of Caledon’s, an Irish peer ;4 as for the mother I take little interest in her, she being a foolish woman who did much to ruin her imprudent husband. . . . 1 2 Stirling of Carden. 8 This phrase is very doubtful. See also below, p. 252, n. 1. James Alexander of Somerhill, Kent, son of Robert Alexander of Broom Hall, Londonderry, who was a brother of the earl of Caledon, married, firstly, Elizabeth, daughter1 of Captain Dundas of Manor (Burke, Peerage and Baronetage). James Alexander, created earl of Caledon, 1800. i8c>5 151 Dr Gregory’s account of his aimiable wife1 was not a flattering one, but he did not speak despairingly. I feel sincerely for him and her. Perhaps the thing is to amuse her by listening to the boys’ lessons. Her life is of infinite consequence to her family and to the public. I expect every hour a letter from Mr Drummond to whom I sent a letter in which he was interested. I hear the journey to Edin- burgh is postponed. . . . 21 January 1805 .... I do not envy the possessors of your streets of palaces for any- thing so much as for the excellent medical help that can be had upon the shortest notice, whilst we must take up with secondary men much inferior to your junior surgeons whom Dr Gregory would not suffer to play their knives, whilst their seniors, men inured to hewing off limbs and rich in experience, might be had. Yet people of no great name may be successful and sagacious, for zeal is somewhat of the nature of charity which covereth a multitude of sins. We feel it the more, that few country towns was better provided in physicians than Stirling for near half a century. Yet to show the wisdom of our aristocrats, my young friend Dr Graham, rich in medical lore, sagacity and common sense was neglected! . . . 5 February 1805 John Stewart2 in his letter per last carrier said something of some of your young folks not being well. I wish he had either said more or less, for it gave me much uneasiness. The easiest way of getting intelligence was to apply to Mr Dundas, having occasion to write him about seeing Dr Gregory as to my case. . . . As to myself I know not well what to say. Though the dregs of this plaguy disease as Dr Gregory calls it, diminish, I have had for ten days a good deal of teazing pain through the day and restlessness through the night. After paying Mr Wingate some compliments on 1 Isabella McLeod, daughter of Donald MacLeod of Geanies, married Dr Gregory in 1796, as his second wife, by whom he had eleven children. * Mr John Stewart, took oaths of allegiance and abjuration, 8 August 1805, to enable Perth,him to Certificates accept a presentation of qualifications, to parish vol. of 3). Little He Dunkeld was presented (sro, 20Perth July Sheriff 1805, but Court is not at recorded in Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae. 152 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY his skill in managing the disease, he prescribed a solution of bark etc., and, what I less expected, five or six glasses of wine a day. Now you know he says, wine is no more necessary to a man than to a horse. Ay but sometimes antimonial wine may be proper for a poor steed, and of that I have had a taste. . . . What title have I to complain when many others are in a much worse state? In a word, a smoaky house or its appurtenances, a scolding wife or an all powerful sister are more teazing and intolerable than my late malady which was more teazing than grievous. Dr Gregory tells Mr Wingate that it was well it was not more extensive or in the mouth, throat etc. Be these things as they may you do not regard it as connected with the banqueting at Airthray castle. But people are much disposed to assign reasons and form theories. ... I think I am rather stronger in consequence of the bark etc. and naught the worse of the wine which is the pleasantest of the boluses. Mr Wingate is arrived and says things are doing as well as could be expected and if the weather would grow milder the seige would be raised. . . . Poor Naomi1 has fallen and put her elbow out of joint. Fortunately the Doctor was here. 18 February 1805 I . . . rejoiced to find that my comely young friend David had re- covered of that same fever. It is well the rest have escaped this visit- ation which I hope is now near over. The Blair younkers do not go; but Mr and Mrs D. Home go in for some weeks in March, to see the town and the wonders thereof- Your joint letter never made its appearance, at which I wonder. But miscarriages of that kind some- times take place. The post house gentry used to send my letters to Crieff considering me as one of Sir P. Murray’s inmates.21 however judged in the spirit of Charity, knowing how much your mind must have been kept on the stretch. ... I long to see little John running about. With regard to myself, I am now recovering fast.... And by Dr Gregory’s counsel I take a little jelly in the forenoon, lest I should make too full a Dinner. Sunday last I had an excellent letter from him which lets me a little more behind the scenes. The liberal allow- 1 Naomi Campbell, relict of John Morison, who was Ramsay’s servant. See also 2above, p. no and n. 3 Sir Patrick Murray of Ochtertyre, bt., 1771-1837. 1805 153 ance of wine was given partly to obviate Debility, partly to prevent any tendency to gangrene or mortification. . . . ’Tis very comfortable to have able medical help within reach, and a sagacious, zealous man at hand. . . . So the campaign is fairly begun as hot as ever. The Dutchess, or Lady Rumpus1 as the Mirror called her, is a fine hand. Who is Mrs Duff?2 one of the Fifes31 should suppose.-1 have no objection to my chief’s carrying off the prize; ’twould have been more generous to have taken Charles Stewart Blantyre4 who is a glaiket fellow.- I understand our friend Dr Gregory has two publications on hand, the one a pastoral letter to his brethren; the other an attack upon certain modish atheists or materialists. I am much afraid the former will not pay more deference to his admonitions than the Jacobites did to Bishop Abemethy Drummond when he testified his indignation at their attendance on the qualified chapels which he seemed to regard as synagogues of Satan concluding ‘God will not alwise have patience; no more will I’.- I am grieved the honest Doctor should unnecessarily make himself enemies. It is, I am told a very lively performance.-Be that as it may, neither you nor I have any title to endite him a pastoral letter; the zeal he has shown me for eight or nine years is wonderful considering the nonchallance of his brethren and his other advocations.-1 understand George Abercromby gets not the office which goes to Maclean5 and who shall say that Lady Melville’s allies are neglected? I wish our friend had had a slice of this fat cow; otherwise his seat in parliament may prove a loss and unsettle his plans of life. He as representative of an excellent family shall alwise have my best wishes. The Dundases seem to aim at a monopoly which is not very wise. They are determined to make hay while the sun shines. I wish they do not lose their little boy, the hope of the family, by rambling him about. I wish there had been more of them. 1 There seems to be no Lady Rumpus in the Mirror, though Lady [——— ] in the letters in this periodical signed ‘John Homespun’, written by Henry Mackenzie, seems 2suitable. Possibly Anne, daughter of Wilham, first earl of Fife, who married Alexander 8Duff of Hatton, and died in June 1805. James Duff, Earl Fife, 1729-1809, married Dorothea Sinclair, daughter of ninth earl 4of Caithness. 6 AlexanderCharles Stewart, Maclean 1780-1858, of Ardgour barrister-at-law, appointed receiver son of generaltenth Lord of landrentsBlantyre. and pay- master of the civil establishment (Scots Magazine, June 1805). 154 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY I have just now a letter from Mr Dundas covering a letter from Henry to his mother, giving her an account of the ceremonies that are to take place in May 1806 when he is to take his degree of batch- ellor of civil law. It is wonderful in these latter times, when frivolity, dissipation and vice bear sway among our young men, to see one so staid, so serious, so desirous of improving his mind. I hope he shall turn out excellently well. To rub off the air of the Cloysters, suppose him put under the tuition of Lady Rumpus or Mrs Duff and a small committee of your tonish females, married and unmarried - they would stare at him; and he at them. He has had a Pisgah view of Bath; but Edinburgh beats it hollow.- Quite antediluvian!- I will not however endite them a pastoral letter or a minatory; but St Francis de Sales, a very gentlemanly Saint, recommends to young women to say a few collects privately in the ballroom.- Miss Jane could furnish some of her juvenile friends with proper ones.-1 hear Mr H. Erskine1 is a changed man, in consequence of his connection with the Monroes, that douce family. What will you say if Mr Rolland should give a ball and allow her grace and Mrs Duff to turn everything topsy turvy, and to make evening and morning meet in frolick. I thank you for the poem on Buonaparte which says no good of him. ’Twere better if we could pull down his colossal power; when that is done by whatever means, it will be time enough to revile him as one of the scourges of the human race. Observe that ministers do not use the same harsh language of him as formerly. I think the Commissioner2 might be dropping his poetic or pindaric flights. He is Alanton’s neighbour.- What are the Erskines doing; busy I hope.-1 fancy Sir James and Lady Colquhoun or their lawyers and judges are fast asleep. . . . Of Mrs Haldane etc. I know nothing. I sent her a turkey and letter at Christmas, of which she took no notice. I find no fault, only tell her how I have been, and the strong impression I have that we shall not often meet in this world; for she comes not this way and I am seldom in Edinburgh. . . 1 Henry Erskine, lord advocate, married, secondly, 7 January 1805, Erskine Monro, daughter of Alexander Monro, merchant in Glasgow, relict of James Turnbull, 8advocate. Not identified. 1805 155 Let me only add that I have been under great obligations to my man during my late illness, late and early. You and Mr Dundas will I hope not forget him, if I should go before you. I have taken care of him and jointured poor Naomi who is better, and chattering at no allowance. . . . 3 March [1805] Observe that I have treated myself with a new pen which, let me tell you, is a great help to composition, to say nothing of correctness and legibility, circumstances of some importance. Without that or some collateral help I do not beheve I should put pen to paper today, the mercury being somewhat low, I cannot tell why or wherefore. It is only in the course of last week that I have been altogether free from pain and debility in my right limb. But still I am not able to walk as far as Keir or Blairdrummond.... The best thing is, that I have got into my scribbling again which amuses me greatly; for I am at present engaged in paying tribute to the memory of friends and neighbours that have departed within these twenty years, leaving me poor and almost desolate Meanwhile, can I... be em- ployed to better purpose than in speaking of the friends and com- panions of my youth and prime in the language of truth and candour, and telling what they were without hyperbolical praise or blazoning their vices and infirmities? At the same time, I make no scruple of speaking with delicacy and tenderness of their foibles, where those were notorious. Of literary and professional men I have treated largely in another work; the present is confined to neighbours in the spot of country with which I am most connected; five of them already occupy a hundred and fifty pages, and it will take as much more to finish that branch of my subject. Beheve me, I mean not to furnish out a feast for malevolence; and as I never flattered the living (in which I confess I was a sorry politician) so I will not now over- load them with panegyric, which is not much better than Spanish wool and pearl powder, upon the female face, when nature’s bloom is either gone, or rendered too common to charm. It has afforded me already much pleasure, and you will hardly guess at the people already pourtrayed; and it was begun and carried on when smarting under what you call the Rush1 which is as if you should call a pimple 1 An eruption on the skin (Jamieson). 156 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY a carbuncle. What is all this to you ? for as you are fretting and strut- ting your hour upon the stage, you cannot have a nitch, living char- acters being precluded. And that my plans be not revealed to Constable1 and his brethren publishers, it is communicated to you as a dead secret. However much you may be disposed to laugh at me and my lucubrations, allow me a little credit for filling up my time, which is at least as rational and innocent, as the ways taken by the gay and fashionable to kill time and reflection. Softly, say you, where is this same new pen to carry the letter?- It has concentered my ideas, and raised the barometer a degree.- I hope by this time your swelled face has assumed its natural hue. I heard before you were very honest like: Increase and multiply was a primeval command. All happiness betide you and much comfort may you have in your little ones playing around you!- I am truly sorry you should be deprived of Mr Dundas’s company at this time; but I trust he will ere long return to his widowed wife and sweet prattlers. I know not in what way they proceed in these matters, whether by jury or not. ’Twas a thousand pities the good Duke did not settle his matters while in sound health. ... I am exceedingly sorry to hear no better accounts of your brother.... What title have I to talk of my petty ailments when younger and stouter people are confined to a sickbed?- Woes me for Dr Gregory and his sweet wife! He is not so strong as he looks. He wrote he was much better and in good spirits - I have read, with admiration of his wit and strength of intellect, his censorian letter which outdoes his own out- doings. But if it be not much more then prudent to provoke a nest of hornets who are alwise the bitterest when most wrong; it is well, that he is perfectly right in his views and topics, for a meaner and more base faced job than that attempted by the President and the juniors cannot be. One woud think they wished to make themselves odious and ridiculous. I am sorry for Hope2 whom the Doctor be- praises and almost weeps over, while he is cutting him to the bone with his censorian lash.- Doctors differ, say you.-I grudge that his incomparable pen should not be employed in editing works of genius which will be a monument of him in after times, when his rivals, chirurgical, physical, and obstetrical shall, as well as himself 1 2 Archibald Constable, 1774-1827. Thomas Charles Hope, 1766-1844, professor of chemistry at Edinburgh. 1805 157 sleep in peace, the voice of controversy not being heard, nor the lash of the censor felt in the grave where jobs and party spirit are unknown. . . . 6 March [1805] .... Do Mr Abercromby and his Lady and son live with Lord Melville? or have they a house of their own? Has he got a slice of the receivership? ’Tis time he were to get something. All in good time.- I have a good mind to publish a list of Scots members since the union with notes and illustrations. It would show that the trade of m.p. (so much in request when the empire is tottering to its fall) is not a lucrative handicraft employment being nearly akin to gamb- ling. I hope he shall be prudent, but he will not learn that from his great ally who was characterised twenty five years ago as a strong dog, a bold dog, and a dog that ran at everything, pretty well from a foxhunter. It leads one to live in splendid poverty, for no fortune can suffice their ideal wants and absurd imitation. Witness your cousin and ally General Graeme1 who certainly was a little giddy and improvident in his prosperity. Be that as it may it was impossible not to admire him after his fall which he bore with magnanimity and equanimity worthy of a philosopher... .James Edmonstoune sent a message last night that if possible he would call here this day; but what is more to the purpose Mrs Edmonstoune will give me a broad goose,2 mine had been stollen to feast tinkers I presume. This I owe to the Eloquence of Naomi, whom I reprehended for imprudence and greed wishing her tongue had got a sneck. They go to Dunse on Thursday...... I am happy to hear that Dr Gregory has such favourable an opinion of your brother Airth: the Doctor is no flatterer: May his prognostications be verified! So there is an end to Kemp, and his unhappy opponent, I will not call him, rival. And the Lady will recover her liberty, if not her good fame which has got a rude shock. She is not only well-jointured, but has much money at her disposal which she will hardly give to the young knight, who will pay the3 piper, getting1 both the skaith and the scorn. Miss Carmichael’s 1 General David Graeme of Braco and Gorthy, 1716-97. a A goose that hatches a brood of goslings (Jamieson). Not identified. 158 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY conduct is more generous than prudent; but she is an honest woman true to her friends whom she would attend to the scaffold or the cell. ’Twill I fancy put protestant father confessors and Fellowship meet- ings out of fashion. The one should be discreet and in the other, the husband be of the party. I lament my friend Bennet’s fate, but men out of their judgment are not accountable creatures.1 Pity he had not been better watched! He was one of the ablest and best of the clergy about Edinburgh.-1 am truly sorry for the shock Lord Melville’s fall will give to his daughter, Mrs Abercromby, whom I value much. I wish George be not led into temptation. Ever since his father’s death I dreaded he would be sucked into the political vortex which was not a situation for him. . . . He [Melville] was a manly strong-nerved candid man. His and Trotter’s2 rural operations and decorations bespoke no wisdom. ... I had an unexpected visit of Mrsjoass and Sir George Abercromby’s Lady3 ten days’ ago. The former is [to] be in this country in summer, I bad her begin here. Grizel Edmondstown is to be with [her] while her brother is at Buxton. . . . 18 March 1805 .... I have long anticipated your brother’s demise, which you and the rest of the family must for some time have seen to be inevitable. In these cases it is well when people are conscious that they have done everything which art and sagacity suggested to avert the evil and to smooth the languor and pain of a cruel distemper. This was the best cordial a dying man could receive, because it melted and soothed his heart, amidst his long and sore sufferings, which by all accounts he bore with composure and resignation. But though a death bed be a sad and dreary scene to worldlings; to the survivors it may prove a school of wisdom, where invaluable lessons may be learned, which may be practised in the day of prosperity when their cup overflows, and likewise in the hour of affliction when human help proves vain; when feeble untutored nature is apt to sorrow immoderately, because it does not look beyond a present world. How happy, how wise are 1 2 He was found drowned in Duddingston Loch, 15 April 1805. 3 Not identified. Hon. Jane Ogilvie, eldest daughter of seventh Lord Banff, married, 1778, Sir George Abercromby of Birkenbog. 1805 159 they who from youth to age have laid hold of the hopes and pro- mises of Christianity, which can speak peace and joy to departing souls, because these point out a future state of bliss when parents and children, relations and friends, may hope to meet again, to part no more. In that happy clime day and night divide God’s works no more. All their tears shall be wiped away. There it may be part of the entertainment of blessed spirits to recal the chances and changes which befel them in their earthly pilgrimage. How much will they change their opinions with regard to the objects of their ambition and fondness? With what love, what commiseration will they look down upon those that are still turmoiling here below ?- If as modish philosophers say and assert, these are fables, still they are worth cherishing, seeing they warm and mend the heart, whilst they invigorate the understanding. But as they are precious truths what folly and madness is it to part with the plight anchor when voyaging through time to eternity? The hope of immortality can convert a death bed into a scene of triumph over disease and death, while it teaches wisdom better than volumes of sermons.- Forgive this effu- sion which flows naturally from taking a retrospect of this country for near half a century. ... If I may be allowed to speak of myself what breaches have in the course of not many years befallen the friends and relatives whom I wished to have for my companions in the journey of life.- Meanwhile, let it not be forgot that if the tears of virtue be not pleasant to flesh and blood they may be converted into wholesome medicine to the soul, more eligible than the joy of fools. I have no doubt but that your venerable mother will upon this sad occasion act like one of those heroines in private life who deserve commemoration more than sceptered Kings and Queens. It would be presumptuous in me to suggest topics of consolation to her. Her piety and virtue are not things of yesterday, taken up on the spur of the occasion, but have shone mildly and unostentatiously in every relation of life, prosperous or adverse. May she be supported in her affliction! And in God’s good time, may she yet witness scenes of joy and comfort in this chequered world! Let her think of what is left, and by an easy transition anticipate better times, when her family shall flourish, and new pledges of affection be given it. Mean- while, she and her offspring will meet with universal sympathy; for i6o LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY the death of a beloved first born, is an inverting the order of nature and one of the severest strokes incident to humanity. It gives me much concern to hear that Mr Dundas has been ailing so much since his return, his complaints being painful and distressing. But as he was getting better last week so I hope he will be able soon to go about again. I suspect he works too hard with a view to filthy lucre. That disease when carried too far, baffles the power of physick. From the paleness of the ink I suspected something wrong. Take care of him. . . . 15 April 1805 .... I have nothing new to tell you, save that yesterday afternoon in sermon time a most alarming fire took place in one of my tenants bam, which consumed it and the stable with two or three stacks, carts etc. It was owing to boiling horse meat in a stove in the end of the barn against which I remonstrated in vain; but the poor man will be the greatest sufferer by his folly and obstinacy. I can give my people good bargains, but I cannot make them wise or provident. I do not want additional vexations; for I do not gather much strength, insomuch that I am ordered to take to bark once more to brace my limbs and stomach, which last is in a very weak state, and beyond my skill which I thought great in that point. In these circumstances, it is in vain for me to think of going to Edinburgh till I am able to peripatise your streets. ... I had a very proper letter from Rachael Erskine giving me an account of good Lady Christian’s situation at present which bespoke a good and well attempered mind. I am afraid her noble niece was rather glackit for her, but allowances must be made for limbs of quality and courtiers and Lady Christian was never easily startled. ... At present I will not moralise upon the fall of Statesmen when the nation itself is surely in no little jeopardy Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness1 was the exclamation of one who was once feared and courted and afterwards as much vilified and neglected. I pity poor Mrs Abercromby and her spouse the more that nothing was done for them while the loaves and fishes were distributing.- Will the man offeeling stand his ground?-1 have this day paid my last fleece of taxes, and have a good deal over. I am in hopes my tenant’s barn will soon be reestablished and though not 1 Wolsey (Shakespeare, King Henry VIII, in, ii). 1805 i6i bound to contribute to repair a loss occasioned by misconduct must assist. Twas a great mercy and almost a miracle, that the dwelling house was preserved together with the cattle.- What have I, say you, to do with bams and stables and cattle? When you come to be a landed Lady you must be the friend of the husbandman when over- taken with mischances. And we must forgive folly etc. as we hope to be forgiven. . . . 14 May 1805 .... Mr Dundas writes me last post you were expected home as yesterday, and speaks of my annual visit to Edinburgh. Though certainly my health be much improved of late, I wish the weather milder before I set my face Edinburgh ways. These cold ungenial winds go through all coverings; now you know how indecent it would be to be seen at Edinburgh muffled up. It matters little whether I be there in June or July, so be it we meet in peace and tranquillity. Beside I know not how soon you may be confined. When I see how the land lies, I can then determine better; but at present there are things that must be done before going from home. Of the public I will say nothing. O for the times when I dreaded nothing but the invasion of vermin on my blossoms and the ravages of frost and Zephyrs from the bass. . . . Our friend Mrs Drummond has had a battle with a lamb. Observ- ing the beast sleeping, she approached it, when it rose and struck her on the knee which strained the sinews; but I hope she will soon be better. ’Twas lucky the ewe did not take part in the combat, for her push would have been more serious being prompted by maternal love and apprehension. I had a visit from the two Erskines on Saturday who are fine lads. I felt an impleasing emotion at parting with James who is about to enter a very new scene. . . . How does your good mother? I hope your brother shall be much the better of his excursion to Chelten- ham. Receive the box with Mr Dundas’s books viz: Arabian nights 5 vols. Grandison 6 vols. Clarissa 7 vols. 162 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Great pains have been taken by William in the packing to which I attended.- I envy any body the reading of the last volumes of the Arabian nights which are delightful tho’ incredible. Grandison is too fine but pleasing but I had not courage for Clarissa; her deathbed is beautiful; the whole is a scene of woe or horror not fit to brace the nerves of a convalescent]. . . . 2i May 1805 .... God willing I hope to be at your castle on Saturday the 25th before your ordinary time of dinner. Tell Mr Dundas I like his advice and treat myself with a chaise being best for one not more than strong. I bring in Mr Blakader1 to consult Dr Gregory: He is the father of the moss colony, a sort of legislator among them, a very important life to Mr Drummond! He wrote me yesterday she was less powerless than at first, but her recovery will be the work of time and patience and vinegar will be most requisite. Some of the smaller ligaments of the knee pan are broke or violently strained. In 1781 running to save a cat from a dog, my leg gave a crack as hers did, and I was carried in and confined six weeks. Dr Graham told me it was some of the lesser ligaments behind the calf of the leg. Who would have thought she would have combated even with a lamb? I suspect it was a rash step. Ladies had need to walk warily and not to run. A truce with moralising till we meet. A most delightful day like the old fashioned Mays spoken of by Allan Ramsay. Not the effect surely of the assembly: that would be cause and effect reversed with a vengeance. Sir Robert agrees to help our ill fated cousins. So does Mrs Oswald Glasgow.2 It is expedient they should leave this country. What an ill- fated set these are? I am just on the wing to bury Gartincaber3 the last of a generation. Strange doings there - a ball or hop when near on his death bed is somewhat new even in your town of dissipa- tion. . . . 25 June 1805 .... I am happy to hear that you and your little woman4 are stout 1 2 Alexander Blackadder (sro, Dundas of Ochtertyre, GD35/63). 3 Possibly wife of George Oswald of Scotstoun. 4 William Murdoch of Gartincaber, died 15 May 1805 (Scots Magazine). Jemima Dundas, born 25 May 1805. 1805 163 and well and her little ailments will only tend to endear her to you, I went yesterday to dine with my excellent friend Dr Graham at Leckie whom I found much better than I expected, very chearful and very ready to answer interrogatories. But it grieves me to hear that the seeds of that fatal distemper are by no means removed. Who knows what a gulph of his native air, and the sight of the loved haunts of his youth, may not do? Be that as it may, I passed a very pleasant day, and returned in the evening having a considerable degree of cold. I begin to think I must be put under regimen in the article of walking as much as of wine or animal food. Last week I was too much with the road people, and to mend matters walked home in the evening from Keir one day, and from Mr Blakader’s the next. The consequence was a hoarseness and severe cough; the latter is much abated and the other going off. I must however avoid lassi- tude. See what it is to have a crazy tabernacle that stands in need of perpetual repairs. . . . I heard yesterday of a strange letter written by N[ess]y Rind1 to Bishop Skinner, Aberdeen,2 wanting to know if in their church there be a book of rules, for the administration of sacraments and church offices for that her brother had been grossly overcharged. She might as well have asked whether natural children did not pay double or triple. The Bishop very naturally sent this letter to the person complained of who would be at no loss for an answer. ’Tis a strange unhappy family. The two doctors are before the court of session where it will afford entertainment to the fore bar; the reverend one has the cry on his side. Receive the box with the first fruits of my pears which are exceed- ingly late this season after having been six weeks in bloom; but they have had nipping frosts and ungenial weather to encounter. This is all that is ready and from what I hear other people are not better off than me. By way of filling the box I send you some stocks of a cabbage much admired which I got from a young friend who said it was from China. My gardiner who is very vain of it call[s] it Pinchang. Every body save Keir admires it which I said was envy. Mr Drummond does, and in matters of taste his suffrage is decisive. ... I sat half an hour with Mrs Drummond yesterday and found her 1 2 Agnes, sister ofj. N. Rind of Wester Livilands. See also above, p. 144, n. 1. John Skinner, 1744-1816, bishop of Aberdeen. 164 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY chearful. She says she still finds it awkward to [go up or] down stairs and in imitation of the bairns puts [one] foot constantly before the other. . . . Did you ever read ‘Henry’ a romance by Cumber- land?1 It is much superior to the run of modern novels. There is a delightful Methodist teacher in it, and a Jemima, not so well.-1 lay in bed this forenoon to get free of this unwelcome visitant.. . . Best compliments to your spouse, to your sisters, to Beatrice2 whom I have christened anew, after one of my favourite heroines. . . . The cabbage take a good deal of boiling, so says Mrs Moir, so says Mrs Watson. .... On Tuesday, Mr and Mrs Stirling their daughter Katherine,3 Beatrice, and your Anne dined here and we had a good deal of laughing and badinage; but it rained so incessantly that there was no going to visit the garden or the banks of the Teith.- Beatrice pro- mised to return and take a Pisgah view, and she and her young friends may have a little of picknick, soberly, as Lady Grace says. She was to visit the Troshacks next day on horseback, which I dissuaded in the state of the weather, but young women seldom listen to advice. She and Miss Stirling met the two younger Buchanans4 at Newton. Who knows but that in the spirit of chivalry they may accompany them to Loch Catherine, and carry them after a slight resistance to their castle which is better quarters than the Laird of Macnab’s inn at Callander6 which Don Quixotte might without impropriety have called a castle.-1 expect Dr and Mrs Gregory and two of the light battallion on their way to these same Trosaghs about Wednesday or Thursday; they say to breakfast, but I advised them to come and dine and lie here in their way to Arcadia. I offered them a semipythagorian dinner, or a pastoral supper; well aired beds, 1 2 Richard Cumberland, author of Henry, 4 vols. in 2 (London, 1795). 3 Maria Dundas. Katherine, daughter of John Stirling of Kippendavie and Mary Graham, his wife, 4married, 1811, James Erskine of Linlathen. Thomas, born 1774, and James, second and third sons of John Buchanan of Auch- leshie6 and Cambusmore. ‘ For the encouragement of the public, an excellent inn has been built at Callander, by Francis M’Nab, Esq., of M’Nab, upon a feu from the family of Perth. It consists of nine public rooms, the largest being 25 feet, by 21, and the height 12 feet, elegantly finished and furnished, and the other parlours in proportion’ {History of Stirling, secondedn., Stirling, 1817, p. 209). 1805 165 provender for their cavalry; this less for my pleasure than for Mrs Gregory’s sake. If they insisted on it, I should make them a bill which they might compare with the Laird of Macnab or his deputy’s charge. I wish they could have a billet on Cambusmore or Fair- fulls’1 who keep a hospitable house, but perhaps he is away with the Keirs to Peterhead etc. This is the age of watering places, where people go to kill time and spend money, seldom to much purpose.... On Saturday I had a thrang time of it. I first made a morning call ’twixt 2 and 3 afternoon on my next neighbour Colonel Callander, who seems to be a pleasant natural man, very well spoke of. His Lady was at Polmaise, whither he was going to dinner. I am not inclined to enlarge my circle, but this was incumbent upon me. From that I went to dine with Colonel Rind and his wife at Livilands, where there were more people than I expected, but a very proper dinner without traces of vanity or excess, weeds that thrive better in some souls than in others, and at no period more than at present. There was no kail owing to her corrupt English education; but she is a pleasing well-bred woman and they say a good oeconomist, but she is fallen among Lions. I fell much in love with her mother Mrs Evans who is a very pleasing comely looking middle aged woman. In short, I was well pleased with my visit which was a compliment due to her; she is about to lie in. We drank porter out of a handsome silver cup given the colonel by his corps - no vanity, all gratitude! Tell Mr Dundas I am much better entertained with his ignoramus than with Cumberland’s novel some parts of which one would not expect from the author of Cavalry, being indiscreet, sometimes a little deficient in drapery, and having characters that should not be exhibited.... Whitbread and company seem to tread in the steps of the old minister who being asked what should be done to the heart malignants, answered ‘ Shame them, moderator, and harry them! ’ I spy no other light but that he will at last escape. I fear Napoleon will take advantage of our divisions. And it would take union and wisdom to repel him. That, say you, if not growling, looks like terror. Anne will tell you of the fable where many were the alarms about the wolf; at last the wolf did come, when the watchmen were asleep.- So she is studying geography! I remember Grizel Edmon- 1 Robert Fairfull of Struie (s*o, Perthshire Freeholders rolls, 1802). i66 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY stoune knew all the Kings since the conquest save the present one, for which I envied her. . . . 22 July 1805 I... was sorry to hear from Maria on Tuesday last, that you had got an inflammation in one of your eyes for which I sympathise with you heartily, it being a sore malady. That explains your silence, had it required explanation. She either has or will give you an account of her travels in Arcadia, and I dare say not conceal her having met with a swain more courteous and attentive than the tonish young men who peripatize your streets in high mall time. I will not fore- stall or mangle her account or anticipate the effect her plaid and bonnet have on her appearance. Suffice it to say she seems to have made a very good use of her time and opportunities, and can give an account of the formation of some of the lakes which might serve for a highland metamorphosis. She and Margaret1 came over on their ponies last week and we chatted and took sketches, and strolled about the salictum, the river side, and my shrubbery bedecked with ivy etc. And I went from Lecropt church yesterday to Kippenross where I dined and staid all night and where she and I flirted at one another in great good humour till towards midnight to the no small amusement of the company. I observe Kippendavie and she have a reverence if not a fear for one another; for he is very sparing of his fleers in her company, being afraid that, in a conflict with her, four of his senses might go halting off. But to make an old woman furnish out by hocus pocus, a loch of I know not how many miles, would be a strange jumble of cause and effect, sufficient to exercise the ingenuity and prove the faith of modem philosophists, I will not call them philosophers. It is not much more ridiculous than the Huttonian theory of water, earth and fire dancing a reel for count- less ages, and configuring earth and sea. For this I refer you to Pro- fessor Playfair’s elabourate defence of it.2 Better resolve it into the fiat of omnipotence which spoke and it was done. ‘Where wast thou, says he to Job, when I laid the foundations of the world?’- Stuff, 1 Margaret Stirling, daughter of John Stirling of Kippendavie. See also above, p. 128. * John Playfair, 1748-1819, mathematician and geologist, professor of natural phil- osophy at Edinburgh, author of Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802). i8c>5 167 stuff say the philosop/»sfc.- Maria goes to Livilands today, tomorrow to Edinburgh to keep you and uncle from being douce and wae, by means of gabbing and daffin. . . . Dr and Mrs Gregory, Miss Farquharson1 and two of the boys seemed to enjoy the banks of the Teith and the environs of my retreat with great satisfaction. And they were most fortunate in weather both here and at Callander and they were better accomo- dated there than I expected. He passed for a Macgregor, having the arms on his chaise. His impetuosity might have been most mischei- vous; for he would not take a guide, by which means the chaise went near three miles further than ever chaise went before. Had he been precipitated many fathoms deep into the Loch, it would have been nuts to Bell and his medical enemies and might have given occasion to some transformation or metamorphosis. But fortunately they returned safe and sound, nay delighted, from Arcadia, dining here on Friday and going to Stirling in the evening, It was great luxury to me for the party was most agreeable. And he behaved with his wonted benignity, looking at sore shins, sore eyes etc. at his mans desire. His two sons whom my bairns call the little gentles, gave exceeding offence to the gardiner’s son whose kilt they lifted, calling him highlander at which he wept sore, saying little gentles had better stay at home. I hope Mrs Gregory will be much the better for it. The country swarms with Englishers, from one of whom I heard a most extraordinary account of one of our countrymen,2 who beats all the English hollow for absurdity. After roaming all over Europe afoot and penniless, commanding respect with an oak stick, he was at last seized at Inchmorrin on Lochlomond as a spy. [He is?] a son of that strange genius Hugo Amot,3 who would not allow his eldest son to be christened, unless he should be allowed to declare his disbelief of Christianity.- It seems to run in the blood. The son on arriving in London, asked who was the greatest philo- sopher, and was told it was Goodwin4 who is one of the boldest and 1 Possibly Miss Francis Farquharson of Persey (sro, Dunkeld Testaments, n Decem- ber2 Possibly 1817). Captain Hugo Amot of Barcormo, apparent heir of deceased Hugo Pollock3 Amot, advocate, his father (sro, Fife Freeholders rolls, 1802). 4 Hugo Amot, 1749-86, father of a family of eight. William Godwin, the elder, 1756-1836. 168 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY least veiled of modem philosop/zi5(5, I will not call them Atheists, let I should be called illiberal and narrow-minded in this enlightened age when Moses and the prophets are less in repute than they once were.- Goodnight. Maria and Amot are too many for a recluse’s letter.... Dr Gregory was very ill pleased to hear the great thristles of which he gave the seed called by his name. ‘ Sure, said I, Doctor, you have no prickles about you’. . . . 3 September 1805 .... I hear you were at Airth last week, but your son William who was here last week with one of the Hepworths1 told me you were not expected at Kippenross. He is a fine civilised little fellow, not just such a pickle as his companion. As a proof of his disposition he would not enter the Garden, till he had leave from the commanding officer. Mrs Joass and Grizel Edmonstoune were here some days, and we passed our time very well. I went over on Thursday to Airthray where I staid till Sunday morning when I went to Stirling church and between sermons saw Dr Graham who sets out next week for the continent by the way of Tonninghen;2 he does not well know where. The world is all before him.- May providence be his guide and conductor! he is, as Lairds and Doctors go, a non- pareil in this country; a young man of good parts and aimiable dispositions. He was in decent spirits, but is far from well. I took no formal leave though I parted from him with a heavy heart I was much pressed to stay or return, to meet Lord Melville at Airthray, but declined it. Much is he to be pitied and I see not that Scotland is likely to gain aught by his fall. Apropos I heard Colonel Duff gave Mrs Whitbread3 at the birthday dinner; no proof of his wisdom or magnanimity! I hope Friday’s dinner went well on, ’twas an awk- ward business.- We had Mrs Cameron at Airthray ;4 she is a fine spoken woman and will enliven the conversation. She carries her husband to England, to educate her son at Harrow and George Abercromby is to do the same thing.- Be it so; there are old fash- 1 2 Not identified. 3 Possibly Tonning in Prussia, on River Eyder. Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Charles (afterwards first Earl) Grey, married, 1789, Samuel Whitbread. * Anne Abercromby, eldest daughter of Sir Ralph Abercromby, married, 1795, Donald Cameron, 22nd of Lochiel. 1805 169 ioned and new fashioned prejudices, and one hardly knows which are the worst and most irrational. I connect the latter with the manners of a frivolous restless age which does not relish home or rational pleasures within one’s reach. . . . How are you all? husband, bairns and Miss Maria who I hope has carried the Laird of Cavil1 by sap or assault; in the war of love all things are lawful and lovely. How is your good mother and how are your sisters. As for Airth21 presume he is preparing to open his trenches before Drummond Castle. Strange that the Misses of Stratheam are mostly for the Pretender. I saw the Summons which is what the lawyers say felo de se. But what would take place if the heiress should die without issue I know not.3 Assuredly she cannot be served heir male to her father; but male and female is out of the question. A truce with law. . . . 26 September 1805 I was favoured with yours by Duncan on Saturday with whom I have broke, he being drunken, some [what?] careless and having more to do than he is able. He broke the glass of Dr Gregory’s print, though carefully put up and he made smash of the fruit sent him. From your saying nothing I hope yours arrived in better plight. O says he, if the outside be sound I am not answerable. I must therefore look for another mode of conveyance, for insolence and systematic carelessness are not to be borne. I hear a good character of an Elder, a Stirling carrier, and mean to try him. It was a great convenience, and I shall feel a blank on carrier days. It is therefore a new epoch in our correspondence. It will for some time ease your labour. . . . Mrs Edmonstoune goes to a house near Leith. Such is the fashion with our Menteith Lairds! All I can do is to wish them well with a little more wisdom. Manual labour and bread earned with the sweat of one’s brow are preferable to whimsies. . .. They are going about in the gig which affords as much air and exercise as Leith or New- haven Sands. I very soon got the better of the rheumatism in my 1 Presumably son of James Robertson Barclay of Keavil, w.s., who died in 1792. * Thomas Graham-Stirling of Airth and Strowan, succeeded his brother, 1805. He 8married, 1807, Caroline Mary, only daughter of Major Home, and died 1836. Clementina Sarah, heiress of Lord Perth, born 1786. James Louis, fourth due de andMelfort, earl ofbecame Perth, onin Scotland,death of Lordthat title Perth being in July limited 1800, to ‘chief heirs male of house whatsoever'. of Drummond He died September 1800, and was succeeded by his brother. (Burke’s Peerage.) 170 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY back which at the time I endited my last was very painful and alarm- ing. My spirits too are rather better; let me not be a malade imagin- aire, or give way to spleen and whimsies as the manner of some is. Real or imaginary it is a sore evil. I have nearly completed my harvest; though a ticklish one it has brightened up. Great was the zeal of my people, the third generation bearing part in my 46th harvest. . . . Will you come to the Stirling ball? I hear of nothing but of Lords this and that, young and old. . . . 13 October 1805 I wrote you a letter ten days ago announcing the resignation or more properly demission of Duncan the carrier. This comes along with the fruit box by Alexander Elder, Stirling carrier, of whose sobriety and attention his townsmen speak highly. I am told he delivers his goods on Tuesday at Edinburgh and leaves town Wednesday, hour and quarters uncertain, but can be easily learned. Be so good as return the box by him. A great deal depends on beginning well. . . . I begin to feel a reluctance to scribble, which has long enabled me to support solitude and neglect; but I will endeavour to set about it doggedly, as Johnson says. Of course, my letters do not flow with the same fluency as heretofore, when like the racehorses my pen alwise ran hard out when it carried least weight. Expect therefore no intelligence from me of the scenes of gala at different houses, and of the Olympic games at Stirling which seemed to turn the head of every rustic, old and young.... Kippendavie gave me a Pisgah view of Lord Glenbervie,1 whose appearance I like much, bespeaking sense and information. Colonel Macdowal Grant2 too had seen you all in good health. I hear the Miss Stirlings Keir embarqued success- ively in a noble Lord’s curricle, but of the other exploits of the Olympic games and of the balls I plead ignorance I wish we had a Pindar to celebrate the Olympic games. O yes! we have the Sheriff who knows Lords, and they know him better than they know themselves; but a truce with dignities great and small, wise and otherwise. ... I am glad to hear the gentlemen did not drink 1 Sylvester Douglas, Lord Glenbervie, 1743-1823, married, 1789, Catherine Anne, 2daughter of second earl of Guilford (Lord North). David MacDowall-Grant of Arndilly, m.p. for Banffshire 1795-6, died 1840 (J. Foster, Members of Parliament, Scotland, London, 1882, p. 225). 1805 171 hard, and that the hours were comparatively moderate. Semi- puritanic Misses are phenomena one seldom meets with nowadays. All extremes are bad: though promiscuous dancing be no sin; sitting up all night is bad for the complection, and when persevered in gives a rakish look. . . . Somebody said David Williamson1 was to be the judge, which would mar a dish of politics and save many letters and much liquor. . . . 27 October 1805 .... I thank you, Mr Dundas and Beatrice for your epistles. I will answer the latter when I can say anything to elevate and surprise; but at present I am hardly in spirits for the war of wit or the unravelling of allegories; but I must first get at the bottom of her personifica- tions. I have heard an apologue by a countryman which gave great offence to our parson: ‘how that pride and greed once on a time agreed to make a journey together, and being benighted where there was no change house: Pride went to the taylor’s house, and greed to the minister’s, where they were so kindly entertained, that they took up their abode there for good. ’ I must see to give this an epigrammatic turn, not so cutting as this. ... I would hardly have written you per post were it not to tell you that I will direct Mrs Watson to dulcify your share of the damsons, meaning however to make you and Mrs Gregory pay me for the sugar expended for that purpose, not having a sugar plantation. So you see I pay some attention to self interest. I did it once before for good Lady Christian Erskine who thought it a good bargain. Dr Gregory it seems has been in Ayrshire which explains his reticence. It is not good to be too punctual neither.- I saw not Lady Glenbervie, but the little I saw of his Lordship pleased me much. Her father was main ugly but very aimiable mannered and sensible.- Ancestry and a good entailed estate are good things, when accompanied with sense and dignity and steadiness. I will not decry ancestry so much as to say with a Norland Laird who was sick of some neighbouring peers, ‘that Lord much fail had been the ruin of the north’. But let me not wag my tongue against dignities, but coronets may be bought too dear. So you are another Duke out of pocket !2-LikeJehoram, he departed 1 David Williamson Robertson Ewart of Balgray, sheriff of county of Stirling 1807, 8elevated William to Ker,bench duke 1811. of Roxburghe, died 22 October 1805, without issue. 172 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY without being desired - what can ennoble fools etc. The estate will be nuts for the lawyers; but ’tis as well to change the breed.... I was at Blair on Friday. Will you take charge of Henry Drummond or find a proper governess for him? Did you ever see the Fop’s fortune, where a very bookish young man beats the beaux hollow in the estimation of the Ladies1.- All in good time say you! Lord Kinnaird2 is a wanter and a fat buck, a little closefisted and not very popular or discreet in his speeches.- I am glad to find any of our fashionables think of matrimony in these days of luxury and dissipation when the men are grown effeminate, and the misses dissipated, to show their charms and spirit, nowise spoilt by sweet timidity which was once the prominent feature of nymphs in sober minded times. Old Mr Abercromby used to compare the tonish misses to race horses, expensive to keep and rear, and apt to run off. I will not pursue the similie.- I am glad to hear James Edmonstoune is so much better. Sea bathing and sea air in summer I understand. Exercise and low diet and a gulph of east wind may be had at Cardross or Newton. I would as soon live on the top of the Muir of Row as at Sir M. Moncriffe’s place.3 Every one to their taste! . . . 15 December 1805 .... To my other complaints were added a rheum in my Cheek which I caught at church on the thanksgiving day when both body and mind were fatigued with attending to a farago which wanted concatenation, and gave every view of providence but the proper one viz. the way in which the almighty deals with nations, the great families of the earth, which he exalts and abuses at his pleasure. . . . I meant to have been at Ardoch and Kippenross before Christmas but since I am engaged to Sir Robert’s, it is as well not to undertake too much; and if my health amends I can make out the visits after the holidays; for the daft days I should suppose over a good while ago.- I will write Annie Erskine4 to Ardoch. Her Mother is to be 1 A ColleyHistory Cibber, of English Love Drama makes 1660-1900, a man, or,vol. The 2). Fop’s fortune (listed in Allardyce Nicoll, Charles, eighth Lord Kinnaird, 1780-1826, succeeded his father, who died 11 October 31805. 4 Sir Henry Moncreiff-Wellwood, bt., 1750-1827. Anne Erskine, 1752-1820, daughter of John Erskine of Carnock and Hon. Christian Mackay, his wife. i8os 173 there till February or more, and her I wish to see once more at least for I have a presentment.-1 will beg Mr Dundas to give two guineas to the patriotic fund for the widows and orphans ;x not a penny for the monument till the town of Edinburgh erects its proposed one for Sir Ralph Abercromby.- What news ? I approve much of the new professor2 who is very able. ... I hope Tom is better; poor fellow, it is a sad vexation to him, fitter for fribbles and jessamies. . . . 31st December 1805 Your letter of Wednesday (evidently the 18th from its contents) reached me last night having sent over my man who extricated it from the packet in which it had been enclosed per Elder. I know of what infinite importance little items are in oeconomies and accounts, but be assured I never grudge postage from my very friends; nay if Mr Pitt in his next budget chuses to impose a quintuple postage on Ladies’ letters I will make no complaint of the charge, for I would chearfully have paid 2 j6 rather than undergo suspense for a fortnight or more. ... I believe it will be rather easier making peace with Duncan than with Napoleon: that however is to be thought of.- In my preface to that superstitious bird the goose, I hinted inquietudes as the cause of your silence. I had at that time got a skeleton of the debates and decision in the Roxburgh will etc.3 I had heard with indignation of the philippick of a cookie’s comb which I was told had given great disgust, and have no doubt it will recoil on the head of the speaker: but from various hands I have heard that Mr Dundas has got a great victory; and what is better a great name for his con- duct in a very difficult, unpleasant business. And General Graham and his wife4 who came last night brought a number of fresh parti- culars. She, a Daughter of James Ferrier,5 gave us some rich items of 1 ‘ For the relief of relatives of the seamen and marines who fell in the glorious battle of 2Trafalgar’ Alexander (Scots Christison, Magazine, one ofDecember the masters 1805). of the High School of Edinburgh, appointed 3professor of humanity at Edinburgh in place of the late Dr John Hill, 1806. The duke of Roxburghe did not leave a will registered in any commissariot court in fo.Scotland. 196) does His not personal mention disposition Mr Dundas, to althoughhis trustees Winter’s (sro, letterReg. toDeeds, Sir George Dal., vol. Douglas 295, 4(see below, p. 175, n. 2) states that Mr Dundas was left £1000. Jane Ferrier, married, 14 August 1804, Brigadier General Samuel Graham of Stirling Castle, 1756-1831. She died in 1846. (Memoir and Correspondence of Susan Ferrier, 5London, 1898, p. 14.) James Ferrier, w.s.,1744-1829, principal clerk of session. (/1

Facsimile of part of letter dated 31 December 1805 (reduced) 1805 175 the flagellation of Sir Lucas Pepys1 and of the celebrated letter of Winter the apothecary2 to Sir G. Douglas3 which was no bad supplement to his oath. I am sorry for the loss of the legacy; but that put in conjunction with Character is a feather lighter than vanity.-1 shall be glad to have Maria’s edition to which after consulting her latin oracle Tom Erskine for whom I feel sincerely, she may prefer by way of mottoe: ‘Fecit indignatio versum’. I wish she had the plucking or the dissecting of the juvenile barrister, who will feel to his cost that of all sorry rhetorical figures, scurrility and even exaggera- tion are the sorriest.- Mathematic and minerallogy! pretty studies for misses! ‘ Charles’ said a very fine girl now no more ‘you make a terrible work with angles: Are these what we call nooks and cornersV I hope in her chemical researches she has no thoughts of making Dieties out of Chrystals. I heard of a miss at Alloa who made well by professing mantua making and navigation. My best wishes attend her in all her researches; be not learned overmuch is a good adage. Let me have a good skeleton of Pete McC.4 under protestation that she must not persist in that species of dissection or rather gibbeting. I passed my time very well here,5 albeit our party was small: Mr and Mrs Watson, Charles Dundas, Burnet Bruce. The Camerons and Abercrombys were kept away by the fatal accident that befel the little girl :6 but I understand the former are not to be here before decamping for London. For my own part, I am pleased. She could not get a Governess in Scotland. Stuff! fantastic stuff!- I could pro- phecy but shall not: Let me congratulate your spouse on getting James Edmonstoune for a client - on some themes brevity is wisdom. ... Heathershot is taken by Colonel Pringle ;7 they had better niffer- 1This comes by Mrs General Graham who returns to Edinburgh on of Sir Rothes, Lucas Pepys,as her secondbt., physician husband. to GeorgePepys attended in, married, the duke 1773, of Jane Roxburghe Elizabeth, in countess his last illness. * Registered in SRO, Reg. Deeds, Durie, voL 313, fo. 652, from William Winter, apothecary, London, 2 April 1804. *4 Sir George Douglas, bt., of Springwood, 1754 or 1755-1821. 6 Not identified. 6 This letter was written from Airthrey Castle. Anne, second daughter of Colonel Cameron of Lochiel, died 18 December 1805 7{Scots Colonel Magazine). William Henry Pringle, later Major General Sir W. H. Pringle, G.C.B., m.p., became colonel in 1809, died 1840 (A. Pringle, Records of the Pringles, Edinburgh, 1933, P- 321-2). 176 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Friday and offers to take charge of this.-1 go home tomorrow and to Ardoch on Friday, to catch Annie Erskine before going to Conde. -1 shall call at Kippenross on going up and offer a visit on my return. After which it will be time to careen May I request a reading of the Roxburgh state of the process. The papers will be returned in good order.- I had no rheumatism but rheum in my cheek which visits me occasionally but gently...... But we every day witness strange coalitions of nymphs and swains as little reducible to cause and effect as my reverend neigh- bour’s nuptials. Besides taking to another shop, he offended the Stirling misses by talking in his sermon when a bridegroom, of our being scullions in God’s kitchen and of false grace (I presume he meant fanaticism) being like the itch which it is pleasing to scratch, but if carried too far produces sores. This is being homely, and reminds one of presbyterian eloquence. Such flights you never hear from your velvet mouthed preachers, as Whitfield called them in days of yore. . . . Poor Anne Stirling does not, I hear, improve. At least so her mother said to Mrs Moir on Sunday. I lament it, for mysteries are not pleasant in male or female complaints. ... 9 at night. Just returned from Blairdrummond where I found the whole family chapterly assembled in great health and spirits. No novels! I met an Oxonian there a simple traveller who goes to the end of Lochlomond and stops short. These Englishers are strange travellers who run about without an object in post haste, having more money than wit or wisdom. He would be the better of a travelling governess if such could be found. . . . In order to give you all an opportunity of epistolising a recluse I will presume to give a very small commission. Airs Watson cries shame for the paucity of china cups and is obliged in a pinch to help me out of her own store. Now as Ladies sometimes find their way to this hermitage. . . it seems expedient not to expose the nakedness of the land in what a highlandman called flecked pigs, out of which the gentles drink hot water.1 Will you be pleased to buy me [blank] ‘ The tea table was a matter of astonishment at first to the common people. A high- lander being directed to enquire after the health of Mr Graham of Braco’s family, brought back word that he fancied they were not well, as he found them drinking hot water out of Flecked Pigs' (Ramsay MSS., vii, fo. 361 v). 1805 177 blue and white china cups and saucers that will do for breakfast or afternoon. . . . Even in these fifty per cent tax times we must have necessaries. Let it be put in a small timber box and atop of it may be deposited the letters which will not be in danger of being stollen by Uterary swindlers. . . . Today I met your old acquaintance Duncan the Callendar [carrier] and in these times of negotiation offered him peace, but he must submit to come here at least once in spite of his vow. I told him there was a great deal of fruit which is not paid by jockey weight. Were he careful it is less complicated than the Stirling one and much better in the letter way. The Cambusmores say he is too much addicted to whisky the sin that most easily besets carriers. What say you? Is it worth a trial and we can return to Elder if he be incorrigible...... I heard before that your good Mother and good Miss Jane were inconsolable for the loss of their old domestics. Nobody has carried the disease of having old servants further than I have done, and the thoughts of a new ministry is like cutting off a right arm. On these subjects one may have too much, as well as too little sensibility. Valuable servants are entitled to be maintained in health and sickness, and in case of our decease to be pensioned and their wives jointured. But we must not sorrow on these occasions immoderately, though we cherish the memory of those humble friends, the sight of whom was a cordial connected with happier times. . . . What has Miss Jean to do with giddiness of head? let her transfer that to the misses who are lighter than vanity being tipsy with hope and admiration. I presume we shall soon hear of Airth’s marriage which is the wisest thing he can do, if he shall wale well. I am very sorry to hear his orchyard has been broke. Hitherto I have escaped, but the gardiner I see has pitched his tent, and is encompassed with guns and stangs and dogs. For more than forty years I did not lose a peck of apples, and the only depredation I ever sustained was I beUeve owing to some of my nymphs’ paramours. . . . Mrs Russell whom I saw t’other day at Blair Drummond, told me she had seen you at Airth and that all would be soon well. The arrival of the Indiaman should reUeve many an anxious heart.-1 shall be very happy to see you and Mr Dundas this autumn, if peradvanture he can get away M 178 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY from countermining the plots and plans of this new pretender. . . . Yesterday I had Miss Stirling Keir, Maria Dundas and three English ladies whom I entertained with fruit and pastoral fare Polmaise’s marriage to Miss G. Spiers1 reminds me of our excellent uncle Manour;s courtship at Lanrick2 where he gave the preference to her that was reading the bible, when the younger sister was playing at cards. Yet was the good man no puritan, no hanger of his head like a bullrush. It would not surprise me if the Laird be led a dance. . . . I am sometimes afraid that my lowness of spirits may interrupt the course of my lubrications; for a week I have been almost horn idle, or rather barren. Tuesday3 one oclock. I am so ill with the Rheumatism in my back and confusion in my head that I am not able to put pen to paper, hardly to sit up. I therefore request of Mr Wingate to write a few lines to say that he thinks it a bagatell but with the Stoic of old I am inclined to say pain, pain thou art troublesome but I will not allow thee to be an evil. . . . 1 William Murray of Polmaise, married Grace, daughter of deceased Alexander 2Spiers of Elderslie, 18 October 1805. John Dundas of Manor married, secondly, in 1780, Agnes, daughter of John Haldane of3 Lanrick. Paragraph written by Dr Wingate. 1806 ffi

ii January 1806 . . . . Yesterday on my return from Kippenross, after another week of sober daft days, I found a letter from Mrs Joass, covering one from you franked by the m.p. No dates, for these are only material in the testing clause of deeds. On Friday the 3rd (to show my accuracy) I set out on my northern excursion in frost and snow, called at Kippenross, got some excellent broth; saw the nymphs in great beauty and good humour, nought the worse of the late hot campaign of balls and races. There were three swains or swans as they may be miscalled, young Carden and two /ter juvenile, one of them i.c. his father makes 2500 hogsheads of sugar: that would do. After enditing a visit on my return from Arcadia I set my face north- wards much cast down with the bad news and little consoled by the comments of the courier, sun etc. which may vie with the French ones.-1 found a kind reception at Ardoch and was happy to see my excellent friend Lady Christian in good health and spirits surrounded by a family of love: at dinner we had Charles Stirling and Carden, the former a fine spoken man, to enliven the conversation. Lady Christian and I had a very great deal of interesting discourse upon persons and topics somewhat antiquated, which had made an in- delible impression on our minds. I read her my lives of Lady Hamilton1, Lady Sarah Bruce2 and Lady Rachael Drummond,3 the two first venerable pleasing specimens of still life; the last a strongly 1 2 For this, see Scotland and Scotsmen, ii, 135. Third child of seventh earl of Kincardine, 1699-1795, aunt of Lady Christian 3Erskine, Only daughter died unmarried of James at Lundin Stobhall. or Drummond,For this, see Scotlandwho assumed and Scotsmen, title of earlii, 146. of Perth, and Rachel, third daughter of seventh earl of Kincardine, his wife, died unmarried at Cardross, 1798. For this, see Scotland and Scotsmen, ii, iji. i8o LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY marked yet valuable character, not easily drawn. Her faults and foibles were akin to original sin, being referable to blood and carrying filial duty sufficiently far. It met with her hearty approbation, because everything was taken by the favourable handle. I did not take Mrs Erskine’s with me, though a most pleasing species of brogue, why, because it was in fact her own story. If one of the most faultless, still it came too close to her feelings.- Of living persons connected with our circle nothing was said; and never were fewer reflections made on persons that would naturally have occurred. The weather was stormy and the ground very wet with snow or rain; but all within was serene. The more I consider everything about the house and place the more did I venerate the sound sense of Sir William1 who made an excellent figure in the drama of life, grafting kindness and hospitality on rigid oeconomy without a grain of meanness. I surveyed everything I saw with the more interest, that it is very doubtful whether I shall ever be at Ardoch again; for I take it for granted, that young Abercaimy2 and his lady will pitch their tent there ere long. Though a great exertion on my part to encounter frost and snow on the borders of the muir of Orchel when Boreas and Eurus with their ungenial gales preside at this season, I am happy at having made out my visit to a set of aimiable friends whom I valued for their own sakes and connected with those that are gone. . . . On Sunday Mr Graham and I went to the chapel of Ardoch where we heard a good diffuse sermon on the words of Barzillas, 2 Samm. Ch. 19 ‘How long have I to live?’ The whole story is very pleasing, and should be studied by the tribe of courtiers and gour- mandisers who jointly or severally are a great people, not alwise very wise or provident. I was prevailed on to stay till Wednesday when I accompanied Mr and Mrs Graham to Kippenross where we arrived at 5, and had perhaps as good a dinner as Barzillas gave David. I must not forget that to make up Lady Christian’s party, I played two nights at whist and was, O strange! praised for my play. Could I remember the four last cards, I know the rules. It is more than I have done these ten years. I passed two pleasing days at Kippenross, albeit the Laird and I are no granters of propositions. I 1 2 Sir William Stirling of Ardoch, died 1799. James Moray of Abercaimy, died without issue 1840. i8o6 181 rallied him on his being charged with undermining the house of a new married Laird; but he wants not defences, and counter charges, to which I coud not reply. I called on the sheriff but missed him. I told my landlord that I meant to have him made judge of police for the city and environs of Dunblane with a handsome salary pay- able by the vacant rent; and the first cause tabled should be the entry to the house of Kippenross which in such weather is a nuisance. Charles Stirling tumbled down t’other day.- He should open a policy of insurance for limbs.- Yesterday in a very bad day I set out and called at Keir where I had not been for a long time. Both Keir and I saluted each other by the name of Stravaguers and Jean and I flirted a little together. And then through deep snow I came home and found all right, and was hailed by my friend Robin to whom I administered crumbs which he took, eying me askance with great gaiety and good humour. I trust to be stationary for a while and by way of exercising my pen sit down to write letters: but before answering Maria I must mention a thing that gives me uneasiness. She sent me a copy of an anonymous letter directed to M[aria] D[undas] as the editor of‘the Ochtertyre Scandalous weekly’ signed Oxoniensis. It contained a rich note from the sermon of Dr Tatham, rector of Lincoln college,1 a man of great learning and great eccentricity who had been most kind to me in 1791.1 gave Harry Drummond a letter to him as a literary curiosity worth knowing if not copying.- That however did not make me responsible for his faults and follies. From him I doubt not the story came, immediately or mediately; but I cannot believe him the author of that silly, I was going to call it an impertinent, witticism. I suspect it to be the deed of some of Maria’s juvenile friends who had heard it. She is none of my weekly correspondents, nor do I boast of it: I would not read her lively letters, even at Kippenross, for fear of the Macknickies. I do not think your correspondence and mine can be called scandalous; but what is there that wits and sneerers cannot ridicule? Tho’ the thing be contemptible, it gives me the more pain, that anonymous writers have nothing of the heroic about them, and sneering at one’s friends is the sorriest of all figures of rhetoric. I mention it to you rather than to Maria: if she gets any more of the kind, let her burn them. . . . 1 Edward Tatham, 1749-1834, described by DNB as ‘controversiahst’. 182 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY 26 January 1806 .... In my last I told you all that occurred, and since that time all has been storm without and solitude within, save that Keir popped in and indited me to dine with Lady Stuart1 if tomorrow be good I have been much entertained with a Maria Edgworth’s tales which I brought from Kippenross, Amie inconnue and the Good Aunt are excellent, though a little of the Blamange. As to her practical educa- tion I f[ind?] it a little fantastic. Nothing like the roast beef of the Tatler, Spectator, to say nothing of the Lady and gentleman’s calling, which are worth their weight in gold. But whatever be our modem systems of education, they are all grafted on indulgence, nor can fathers and mothers deny themselves the luxury of pampering and spoiling the objects of their affection. Ay! say you, bachellors’ wives and maidens’ baims would be finely managed. . . . 3 March 1806 .... I had occasion to write Mr Dundas on business and desired him to let you know that Mrs Watson was now in her usual state of health and spirits. I trust she will be spared to take charge of my household affairs a while longer, it being no easy matter to meet with her like for me. Let me now thank you for the trouble you have had in looking out a successor for her had she been taken away. In my last,2 I said you should have the earliest intelligence when matters took a decided turn.- And though the character you have got of the person you mention be very flattering; as Mrs Watson is surprisingly recovered. I must not think of a change of ministry. But that does not diminish my obligations to you and Mrs Joass.... I heard an overly report of Dr Rind’s being ill and in summer or autumn last he told Meiklewood he was threatned with a paralytic affliction. This after- noon I learnt from one of his rural patients that on Friday last he was greatly better. It seems he had fallen from his horse at his own door. Though I have no intercourse with him, I am sorry at everything which prevents him from doing for his large family.... I was sorry for Lord Glenbervie whom I respect. I trust Lauderdale shall not be viceroy of Scotland. I lay my account the crown lawyers will be 1 Helen Murray, relict of Sir John Stewart of Grantully (sro, Edinburgh Testaments, 42 September 1810). This letter is missing. i8o6 183 changed but a general sweep would be an odious inpolitic measure. The state of our politics remind me of those of Abussinia and Sennair1 as described by your cousin2 after his best manner. God preserve us. 30 March 1806 .... Woes me for Lord Melville’s friends! I was electrified by the victory so complete, so unexpected! I fancy a sight of the French fleet off Inchkeith, would not make the [consciences of voluptu- aries smite them. Be that as it may, the more than Asiatic splendour of the Lady you mention at his ball, was not well timed. I saw her at Airthray in August and set her down as one that wished to change her state with all convenient speed. Good old Mr Abercromby, being told that a young woman from whom there was some expectation would not marry, ‘That I do not beheve’, said he; ‘for whenever she sees a young man, she cackles like a hen’.- If Maria will tell you that cackle is only applicable to geese, I answer that some of our swains or swans that would pretend to a rich widow in her August of life, are what may be termed metaphorically geese or goslings. ...OI long for a folio account of the conversazzione at Allanton’s which I dare say was a most pleasing convention, without a spark of pedantry or affectation. Pray was there food both for body and mind; for I hear it whispered he does not superabound in the former. I have heard strange accounts of the Roman ones where there was nothing edible but sweetmeats sherbets etc. . . . 20 May 1806 .... I was pestered with jealousies among my farm servants one of whom wished to be paramount. Who shall be greatest has been a controversy as old as our Saviour’s time. And a country minister said that the thing which had and would convulse the church was ‘which of the ministers of Edinburgh should be the greatest'. Resig- nations etc. were threatned, but last night with the help of Mr Rob3 and my ordinary minister, I got peace without giving anyone a superiority, myself to be paramount and each to do his own work. 1 2 A town on the Nile in the Sudan. 3 James Bruce of Kinnaird. George Rob, tenant in Muir of Ochtertyre, 1798 (sro, Dundas of Ochtertyre, GD 35/92(i)). 184 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY I was so much hurt at these trifling broils, that I was thinking to give up my farm or to pray my residuary legatee to anticipate possession. Regard to the faithful services of one who was my minister for the farm for more than 45 years made things not adjusted in winter last as I could wish; but it was my duty to make the honest man easy and comfortable, and not to throw him too much into the back- ground neither. He is no mutineer, but tho’ his memory is gone, he is never happy but when working and tending his old horses. You will ask why all this to you? I answer that it has dispelled the fogs that clouded my mind, and are only better than low spirits without visible cause, or diseases, which being without a name are incurable because they assume shapes which baffle skill and temper- ance. And secondly it may teach you when you come to be Lady of a Manour to rock the cradle of reclining age, whose strength and energies had been exerted in your service. . . . I fear there is some demur about the liberation of John Aber- cromby etc., for our neighbour Emperor is a slippery Lad. John was alwise my favourite; he was so like his father in looks and humour.- I am truly grieved for Rachel Erskine’s situation but I trust her complaints will soon take a better turn. There has been something wrong in the configuration of some of that excellent family in which I am deeply interested.- We were told last week that Mr Edmonstoune had been very ill and yesterday I heard he was much better. Woes me for him and for his Lady! but the disease is partly in the mind and breaks out into restlessness etc. I hear he goes to England, that promised land where one may live for nothing - where he may live on a perpetual regimen and abstinence for fat things and strong liquors. His noble tenant is as little stationary as him, going to Saltcoats to the seabathing that universal specific! The poor man’s attachment to Scotland is unaccountable indeed ridiculous. . . . Woes me to hear of Anne Stirling being no better. ... I pity her parents. I trust her youth will surmount her complaints and restore her to her family. . . . 2 July 1806 .... For near a week past my spirits were much depressed, I cannot say why or how, insomuch that I could hardly scribble on any subject which is my only resource in solitude; and if neither brilliant x8o6 185 nor useful it is at least an innocent recreation. I could hardly add an epilogue to the life of Sir Hugh Paterson1 which is given as a sample of the cavaliers of this country, all of which he outlived. They were kind-hearted worthy men if not worldly wise, or happy in their politics, proved excellent neighbours and members of society. There is however an end to the trait; so much the more pity, unless Allanton’s eloquence shall bring their principles and crotchets into repute of which I have great doubts. With good Sir Hugh I passed many pleasant days and we coalesced better than could have been expected, considering that we were antipodes. I speak of him and his set not in the language of panegyric or satyr, and yet much may be said to remind us of a set of people worth commemorating, and of modes and manners that exist no more. What a contrast ’twixt him, his principles and manners, and those which have sprung up since his departure? Jacobitism was surely better than jacobinism grafted on infidelity. If his ploys or merry meetings were sometimes more riotous than was proper, the balls and hops in which he delighted late in life, were as rational and less costly than the private balls now in vogue commencing at midnight and ending at 8 or 9. They will serve to bring forward a set of Sempronias and old maids for the next generation; for poor Cupid is scared away by twierdressing and overdressing. . . . On arriving at Woodside Allan told me there was a Mr Crawford there. O said I that is the Mr Crawford.2- See Lord Melville’s trial. The news of his aquittal accompanied me from Lin- lithgow and though I rejoice at it, think his friends have been indiscreet; for it is needless to provoke enemies whose power and malice are very great. Are the Ladies who take the lead in all good things beginning to pluck caps? I remember pretty scenes of that kind in days of yore. O! say you, we are all agog about royal scandal.- Of that I know nothing but what the papers say. Poor woman! hard has been her fate, and dear has she paid for the pros- pect of royalty. . . . I dined at Blairdrummond and found them well, And on Friday I made a morning visit at Lanrick Castle dined at Leckie and found them all in tolerable spirits, but hope is a blessed thing! The Doctor 1 Sir Hugh Paterson, bt., of Bannockburn, 1686-1777; the baronetcy was forfeited in 21716. John Crauford of Auchenames, M.P., died 1814. 186 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY is at Turin and well used. I presume we will restore their sailors and get home our women and invalids. . . . O I am head and ears in Allanton’s vast work, in which there is a great parade of erudition and some pedantry.1 It is very fatiguing reading and one is not alwise disposed to grant his propositions and inferences. I am only in the first volume and heaven knows if I shall get through it. All I can collect is his talents do not lie to history. . . . 2 September 1806 Captain Dundas would tell you he was here, much pleased with his excursion, and with James Stewart Ardkennacrockan,2 a very pastoral but not very smooth name! On Sunday I had full account from good Dr Gregory in which he enters with great feeling into Maria’s case of whom he entertains good hopes mingled with fears. I trust however the sea voyage and the mild air of Devonshire will complete her cure. He says she sails on Thursday .... 23 October 1806 .... Either your hand becomes more microscopic, or my eyes worse; but besides a set of various readings, I contrived, in my great wisdom, to convert Margaret into Mary.3 I guessed there was something going on from what I saw two years ago. All happiness betide them! but I like not these separations, remembering what befel Mary Joass which broke her father’s heart. I think very well of the young man and of his connections who were most worthy, and he is within two of a coronet. But I trust fortune will in due time flow in upon them, which will make up for delays and for the want of that gewgaw which is sometimes dearly purchased by taking the person and mind along with a peerage.- I was very agreeably sur- prised to receive an epistle from Maria. . . . She gives a very good account of the crowd of fashionables that resort to their house, fit for nothing but to bow to. However she meets with some to consort 1 ‘In 1806 he obtained some credit for a competent edition of Sallust’s works (a vols.2 4to)’ (DNB). Ardkinchrokans (sro, General Register of Sasines, vol. 829, fo. 75, 13 December 31808). James Margaret Sandilands, Douglas, later second tenth daughter Lord Torphichen. of John Stirling of Kippendavie, married, 1806, i8o6 187 with. Too much company and too much conversation are not good for one of her lively humour. I would no more pretend to advise a Lady of her genius as to her reading, than in the tender connections; but she might find better books than Gibbon’s history which though written in a fascinating style, contains a great deal of sugared poison nicely enamelled: but I daresay it will do her less harm than most people; but lead us not into temptation is a good prayer. I alledged however that she has a partiality for philosophers who are not alwise the wisest or best of men; but you know if weak women go astray, their stars are more to blame than they, and genius is apt to diverge from orthodoxy. . . . On Saturday I paid the last duty to my worthy friend Jean Stewart Argaty1 who was a worthy well bred sensible woman, rich in anec- dote. She was to have flitted to Alloa on Friday but slept the sleep of death on Wednesday. She had however made her will and her head was put into the grave by Ardvorlic instead of Mr Binning.2 But she neglected to order her funeral in the old fashion for which she meant ^100 all to be eaten and drank at her funeral. By that her friends escaped a headach. She knew more of this country than any that now remains. . . . I dine with the Allantons today at Blair. There will be no want of literary cracks. I must take care that my words be few and well weighted!- ’Tis too much for my nerves. . . . 2 November 1806 .... Mr Dundas would tell you that after having packed the box, Duncan the carrier did not arrive, being stopped as I thought by the badness of the day; but he made his appearance yesterday about one oclock and said he was so heavily loaden that he could not possibly have taken the boxes; but promised to do better in future. The poor man seems hardly able to speak or walk, having never recovered from a bruize he got by the overturn of his cart about six weeks ago and he says he has no money for Doctors. . . . Fine weather for electioneering! Allanton and I passed two days at Blair, one of them in the hurricane. His voice and manner joined to the fury of the 1 Daughter of deceased George Stewart of Ballochallan, died at Argaty House, 15 2October 1806 (Scots Magazine). David Munro Binning of Softlaw, advocate, 1776-1843. l88 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY elements, were too much for my nerves and he was not the same the second as the first day. Harry Drummond and he had a precious colloquy on false Latin quantities, and Scotticisms. Let me speak sense and truth in my antiquated dialect, were it only to exercise his ingenuity to discern slips. ‘O knowledge ill inhabited worse than Jove in a thatched house’ says Shakespear of a witty Clown1; nor is pedantry and conceit more than aimiable. He wanted my MSS but I decUned it courteously. . . . Lady Abercromby writes Mrs Joass that Maria is a bad patient. I wish her exertions do not hurt her, and she is full of life and spirit of which she should be chary. . . . There is no understanding the Prussian or Austrian politics. Half the exertions now made last year, would have done the business. The same Almighty arm which pulled down the proud King of Assyria can [halt] the progress of this Charlemagne. . . . 13 December 1806 .... And now for business: .... in your second box alias Pomona junior, you will find such a miscelany as is seldom met with. On the one side is a can of Damsons which being of the same size will I hope arrive as safe as Dr Gregory’s one. Opposite to it is a goose which I hope you will find good and just in trim. In the bottom are two books for Dr Robert Anderson,2 Heriots Green, which I beg you’l send him with the letter to him atop. They are rare and curious books which I wished to send dry and safe, having kept them too long. ... You will find as many onions as I can spare, sufficient as least to make onion soup, which is a specific after sacrificing liberally to Bacchus. I wish there had been more of them. We used to get cargoes of them of old from Flanders or Holland but that will not do at present: yet I see Dutch butter advertised. Atop are Ochiltree and golden pippens and Crassan pears very good and in case for eating. More might have been sent, but that would have diminished the quantity of onions. I intend to use leeks as a succidaneum. . . . By all accounts Germany was ripe for judgment, being sunk in gross sensuality and infidelity, in which the clergy were involved. Whether we are better I shall not enquire; but are the numbers of 1 2 Touchstone in Shakespeare’s As you like it, in, iii. Robert Anderson, d.d., 1768-1837, minister of St Giles, Edinburgh. 8o6 189 late dinners and later tea drinkings diminishing at present ? As for the ladies’ dress, their little hankerchiefs etc. I shall say nothing; but these were seldom regulated by the rule of right or the fitness of things; but methinks it would be as well if some little attention were paid to warmth and decency which are not incompatible with elegance or attention to finance - Well! our elections are over from which I kept aloof. Did you read Mr William Dundas’1 oration to his voters or Mr Adams’s2 to the Fife ones. I wonder not at people making bombast harangues but it woud be as well they did not print them. Nor do I think Mr Adams’s incomparable friend, the dawning states- man has much cause to thank him.- As to principles and practice these seem to be out of the question at present. The people esteemed Jacobins are now in power, and their conduct is as inexplicable as their theories. The old honest Jacobites were aimiable tho’ sorry politicians, and I heartily wish we had men like Pitt and Melville to direct our councils. . . . [25] December 1806 . . . Christmas morning. Ah me the hurricane has beat down the fine ash covered with ivy south of the house the pride of my heart. I wish that be the worst of it. It must settle ere I set out.- On review- ing the mischief there will be a fine stump covered with ivy to show what the tree was and two neighbouring ones have suffered only partially. 1 2 Rt Hon. William Dundas, m.p. for Sutherland. William Adam of Woodston (sro, Fife Freeholders rolls, vol. 8, minutes for I December 1806). i8oy

25 February 1807 I wrote you on Monday a melancholy letter1 about good Mrs Watson who this afternoon breathed her last twixt three and four without a groan or complaint. But a little before dinner I asked her how she did, and she answered chearfully she was easier, but for the last three days she suffered very severely from fever etc. on which medicine had no effect. It is a severe blow upon me; but I have reason to be thankful that she has been preserved so long with so shattered a constitution.- The point is now to get a proper successor. The only question is whether it should be an interim one in case a good one cannot be had ’twixt terms; for her maids though very well behaved and attentive, cannot carry on things but William is a good coadjutor, and knows much of Mrs Watson’s ways.... I mean to ask Mrs Drummond to let her housekeeper examine the inven- tories which are full and which Mrs Watson assured me would be found right tho a little deranged perhaps. Meanwhile everything is in a proper train; her repositories sealed up, and her keys assorted and marked. I believe her books are brought up till a day or two before she fell seriously ill, and she has I understand left a full note of things belonging to herself and how they are to be disposed which will save some trouble and I hear she has some lying money which I am glad of. I hardly expect to meet with her like again. It imports my friends to get one who can make such pyes etc.; but the great thing is to get an honest well tempered woman who will be at peace. ... I mean to give her [Mrs Watson] a decent burial and to lay her head in the grave. . . . Mr Rob breakfasted here today and gives me hopes of a short 1 This letter is missing. 1807 191 interregnum. Mrs Moir bred at Cardross in an excellent school lived all this winter with William Stirling the wright’s wife and is out of place. Mrs Stirling is to write this night to her friend advising her to accept of this offer. She lives in Brodies buildings Canongate. By Mr Rob’s account [she] is a sensible woman and besides her breeding is of a good race. . . . 24 March 1807 .... On Thursday I attended my honest friend Mr Russell’s1 burial, and was surprised to see Sir Harry there: He told me he had been at Richmond and saw Maria of whom I have heard nothing for more than a month. He and his sons looked very wise, as if the law and the gospel lay on their shoulders. I wish him very well; but am not more than fond of the people that direct our Counsels who are fonder of new and desperate remedies than befits wise and able statesmen. ... You are at least two posts before and hear fresher good and bad news than me, which in dark and perturbed times is no luxury to me. After paying the last duties to my warm-hearted abrupt friend, I surveyed the graves of his father and brother in whose company I had passed many happy days. I then (being once abroad) accom- panied Kippendavie to his house, and spent two nights very pleasantly albeit there were none but young nymphs and one fat i.e. rich swain, Somerville of Sorn.2 We went on very smoothly. But my host is more partial to jury trials than I am, accounting them the cheapest and most expeditious way of deciding causes; but I told him that he must bring over Jamaica judges, jurors and attomies; for ours knew nothing of the matter and were too old to learn. Even if our law and modes of procedure should be spared, how are the evils now complained [of] to be remedied?- by cutting off a third of their salaries, till the long roll be made up, which when it was as far back in 1760 when President Dundas3 came to the chair, yet in a few months he put things in high order pleasing all men, hurting none! A thing impossible at present, says Mr Dundas. 1 David Russell of Woodside, merchant in Glasgow, died 12 March 1807 {Scots Magazine).2 William Somervell of Som, died 1818 (J. Paterson, History of the Counties of Ayr and2 IVigton, Edinburgh, 1863-6, Kyle, i, 706). Robert Dundas, 1713-87, Lord Amiston. 192 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Things go on well. Mrs Wilkie sold last week 13 or 14 lb. butter, a very different return from Mrs Watson’s, who states often 5 and 10s. weekly much later. It is said she expected to have outlived me, and marched off with her ill gotten pose.1 There will be time enough to make enquiries, before my brother trustee returns from Jamaica. AJamaica jury would find it to be a clear point.... What say people of Lord W[oodhouselee]’s li[fe] of Karnes.2 It is no ladies’ book and much too deep for me. He deals deep in under plots and is a general panegyrist of living authors. . . . 7 April 1807 I was favoured with ... a very fine cod per our new Callendar carrier. Many thanks to you for your gift which came very season- ably to entertain the Keirs, Colonel Callendar and Colonel Duff Fetteresso3 at whose house in the north I had been most hospitably entertained in 1792. And what was more it was Mrs Wilkie’s Jirsf dinner, in which she acquitted herself to very good purpose, her apple pye being red in the flesh, little inferior to her predecessor’s. All the company admired the mutton. ... I will be proud to have you for my customer in the butter way. Mrs Wilkie will state it at the Stirling market price the Friday before, which is or was more moderate than yours viz. i8d... . The only difficulty is the convey- ance, and the vehicle for it. There are three modes of sending it: 1st Gibbs fly on Saturday to be sent by my carrier to him on Friday, 2nd Elder the Stirling carrier who is in general accurate as to parcels, if not as to letters, 3rd the Callendar carrier who goes only once a fortnight. Make therefore my good Madam your own choice and care will be taken to forward what you want either once a week or fortnight as it suits you best. Perhaps two small boxes will make you more independent of carriers than one. A lock and key seem exped- ient. Mrs Wilkie’s returns already far exceed her predecessor’s: of the latter no more at present. I wish I had studied a dairy, and been at the carving school when I went to the logic class and dancing school, where I never could comprehend right and left.. . . How like you our late minister’s speeches ? ’Twas not decent to talk of Charles 1 2 A secret hoard of money (Jamieson). 2 Memoirs of the life and writings of the Hon. Henry Home, Lord Karnes, published 1807. Lt. Col. Robert William Duff of Fetteresso and Culter, died 1834. 1807 193 I’s fate etc. I fear however that this will only be a lutestring ministry which will not even last the summer. I pity the poor King; I pity his ministers. What a change in Lord Melville’s situation! Last year it was Crucify, crucify; now he basks in the royal favour. I tremble for the meeting of parliament, and for the madness of the outs and the imbecility of the inns. . . . 15 April 1807 .... Tomorrow bytimes I set out for ArdvorUch with whom I had lost all credit in the visiting way, the Cambusmores being away I breakfast at Callendar at Macnab’s inn. I stay two nights with my worthy friend, and propose on Saturday after calling at Lord Doun’s to dine and stay all night at Lanrick castle where I have not eat or drunk for years. After taking sermon etc. at Doun on Sunday I return home. . .. When summer comes I will dine at Cambusmore, the ballance, after four years suspence, being against me. The young Laird and I seldom forgather, and as the bairns say I am very easy. I am sorry to hear your younkers are complaining: It reminds me who am a stranger to these things of Jenny in the play her descrip- tion of a wedded life ‘Ane scalds his shin, another tynes his shoe’ etc.1 But their ailments seem not very serious. ... I see one of the weddings over. The gentleman is no juvenile neither. I thought Raith had been to take Miss Adam2 to himself. I am diverted to see the weddings of our ordinary tenants’ daughters inserted in ample form in the news papers. Among that class of people marrying and giving in marriage is more in request than among your beaux and belles who philander together till breakfast time. We will see what a number of matches will take place when the nymphs and swains repair to Arcadian scenes. . . . 23 April 1807 .... Sir Robert Abercromby and B. Bruce dine here today and my object is to give them no more than is just good for them. At Livi- lands we had two full courses and among other things, a huge roul of salmon a very costly dish! . . . The company was so numerous 1 Ae wean fa’s sick, ane scads itsell wi broe, Ane breaks his shin, anither tines his shoe. 2 Possibly Christian,Allan Ramsay, daughter The of Gentle deceased Shepherd, Thomas 1, ii. Adam of Dyke, married, 15 November 1810, David Dunn of Easter Craigannat {Scots Magazine). N 194 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY that even the landlord could not get out his breath; but there is folly in deeds as well as in words. We had the Leckies and Garturs etc. I called at Gartur [Lod]ge, Colonel Duff’s and Craigforth before dinner which was paying debt and killing time. I eat salmon new killed as being lightest, nothing else. Do not Rumford your kitchen or get a Rumford cook. I love not French cookery or sauces. Well! Ministry seems to stand its ground. Will they make any odds on our law reform? An evil there undoubtedly is, but how to correct it is the point. I will not run a paralel ’twixt it and the Rumford kitchens. There must be a fleece of EngUshmen brought to instruct our lawyers and writers, as well as the judges. . . . 10 May 1807 Are you a great politician? I hear Mr Wemyss1 walks over the course; so it is an ill wind that blows not good to some bodies. If the suit be confined to Doctors Commons, the lovers may marry: but if the divorce goes on here, our law is so harsh and unmannerly as to make it a capital crime. I heard the last Duke of Atholl2 say, that he brought in a bill of that kind into the house of peers which was thrown out by the commons as a breach of the imprescriptable rights of the two sexes to make the best amends they could. Soon after when the King was in the house, the Duke wanted to speak to Lord Mansfield3 but could not for a press of Ladies. The latter came and said ‘Duke of Atholl, see how unpopular your unhappy bill has made you with the women who are a great body’. For want of better intelligence I must tell you of my election politics. On Wednesday night about 8 at night when keeping my room, I heard a carriage drive like thunder past my bedchamber where I was confined. On hearing the hurricane I went and received Lord James Murray4 and Sir John Murray his aid de camp5 who had 1 2 Not identified. 3 John, third duke of Atholl, 1729-74. 4 William, first earl of Mansfield, 1705-93. James Murray of Cairdneys, 1782-1837, commonly called Lord James Murray, m.p. for Perthshire 1807-12, son of fourth duke of Atholl, created Baron Glenlyon of 5Glenlyon, 1821. This could be (a) Sir John Murray, bt., of Blackbarony, 1766-1809; (b) Sir John Murray,1745-1822. bt., of Stanhope, c. 1783-1848; or (c) Sir John Murray, bt., of Lanrick, iSoy 195 been scampering since 6 in the morning, making votes from Carden westward. As elections banish ceremony and produce a temporary equality, I took them in dishabille as I was, into my room, and seated the Candidate in an elbow chair, and the Baronet on a chair beside him. We then fell a chatting and I found means to thaw the ice of ceremony. -1 am a very shallow politician, but no vanity and interest I have bid adieu, and therefore go on general grounds. Since poor G. Haldane1 we have no independents, and poor Balgowan2 has committed suicide in compliment, it is said, to a Dulcinea, the dispute lies ’twixt the Atholls and Breadalbanes: Now I like the first best and am not enamoured of Foxite politics. I therefore cut the matter short, but told his Lordship that I wished nothing so much as to vote at no more elections. Wherefore if the Majority be hollow, I told his Lordship I hoped he would excuse me. I might have kept him a few days in suspence, and after much courtship have struck my flag. It did not cost me a drop of liquor, and away they drove to a Rumforded supper.- Our candidate should be an epicurean in his eating: ‘All the Atholl family are epicures, save my wife’, said old Lord Sinclair,3 ‘and she has faults of her own'; the greatest was her marrying him.- I was very poorly last week. My complaints are now better, but the mercury is rather laigh and as the Laird of Macnab said of his pen, that it made him spell ill, so who can be in spirits in these times. It requires some genius to fill up paper in these circumstances. How is the Laird of Raith? I pity him much, as well as the Nisbets who were misled by a coronet - Woes me more burials. A Daughter of Colonel Duff’s.4 Never did I attend so many in two months. She is to be buried on Tuesday. The father and mother are good people and much to be pitied.- Is your good mother still at Airth?. . . . 17 May 1807 .... My new housekeeper and I go on well together. She says it requires as much skill to order a little as a great dinner. I told her she 1 Brigadier General George Haldane, son of Patrick Haldane of Gleneagles; m.p. for Stirling burghs, 1747-58, governor of Jamaica, died 1759. *3 This cannot be Thomas Graham of Balgowan, later Lord Lynedoch, died 1843. John, master of Sinclair, 1683-1750, married, secondly, 24 April 1750, Amelia, *daughter Jane, daughter of Lord of George Lt. CoL Murrey. Duff of Fetteresso, died 6 May 1807 (Scots Magazine). 196 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY would find her office well nigh a sinecure for I saw very few people and that in an easy way. I have got from herself more of her history than you seem to know. She was first with Mrs Hay of Mordington1, a widow lady who led a sort of migratory life who yet had cows. Next she was withMrTrotterof Bush2 (a steadymanshe says) where there was a good dairy. Next with Mrs Racket who lived at times at Aberdeen and had a dairy.3 The Conde family was next to Cardross the school she was most likely to improve in. Mrs Oliphant my old acquaintance, could best tell her humours etc., for we have all our humours. Miss Stirling Keir who knows all things, said her cooking did not please Conde. In these cases one must do as they can and I think she promises well. In the meantime after receiving the linen from Mrs Martin she has been for some days assorting and taking notes of it, with a view to a new inventory. And she has already made a wondrous redd up in the garret. I hope she will turn the dairy to good account. Last week she had 12 or 13 lb. of butter from two cows which explains the mystery of Mrs Watson’s accumulations who states 5, 10, or 17 a week when she had five or six cows when the grass was best. ’Tis a black business. Will you be pleased to tell Mr Dundas that my brother trustee Captain Mac- dougal4 sailed some weeks ago for the West Indies, so he cannot act for six months; but the Edinburgh writers smell carrion, and have been enquiring about it. One thing I am determined on, namely not to act. Whether there be a remedy I know not but enquiry may be made. A deeper and more daring scheme of fraud seldom occurs, the success of which depended on a thing very precarious viz. on my coming to the knowledge of her money in bank, which I might have got from people that ought to have informed me of it. Such were the effects of implicit confidence without check or controul! Her religion ought to have done it, but the love of money is the root of all evil.- If Mrs Wilkie be not far advanced or matronly, she is no beauty. I told her she would grow fat from ease. She seemed to think she was already too much so. I like her all the better for being a protegee of Lady Christian. . . . 1 2 Relict of Alexander Hay of Mordington who died 18 May 1788. Robert Trotter of the Bush and Casdelaw, postmaster-general for Scotland, died s9 July 1807. 4 Not identified. Not identified. 1807 197 I am looking over my papers with a view not to publication, but to put them in some order, and I began where you suggested and have contracted a full page into a few sentences without a sting. I know not if I shall ever attempt a new subject, but this will both amuse and employ me.- I thank Mr Dundas for sending me Lord W[oodhouselee]’s life of Karnes, accompanied with a card, a latin epigram on me pretty much in his general strain of panegyric and elogium, and two [n]otes. I have only glanced at it, but from some interesting parts of his tale, he seems not to have availed himself [of] the information I very rashly gave him, or to have substituted anything better of his own.- It convinces me that even in the age of biographical research, my sketches will be found beneficial to my executors if properly managed. It is too early to give any opinion of a book where metaphysics and toothsome criticism occupy a great share of it. I never was more than sanguine as to my expectations. I believe his Lordship to be a virtuous man of great research; but if I mistake not he is one of those painters who are all glare; whereas both nature and art require a happy mixture of light and shade, even in the fairest forms and fairest characters. Otherwise biography would soon be on a footing with French funeral sermons where the faults of heroes are either concealed or converted into virtues. . . . A gentleman is just come intill who tells me Mrs Watson got -£150 by a sister and saved from the wreck of her husband’s affairs ^50. So far well but still £300 of it cannot be accounted for honourably. 21 May 1807 .... Yes I have had the chin cough many years ago! I am sorry to hear you speak of Mr Dundas’s cough being formed. Age is no security against it; for a venerable friend upwards of 70 caught it from a child, and it was rather comic to see his fits of coughing. And therefore I believe it to be apocryphal till I hear it confirmed. Poor Lord Karnes had a bad cough: I overheard him one day have a dialogue with it. First he cried Bu—, at last, in great wrath, he added, O Damn you! . . . Ask your husband if he thinks I can have any intercourse with Mr Rolland, till he shall explain matters. I hear Mr Edmonstoune has again taken up house. Certainly I would not fail in attention; but one would not obtrude visits in such a case. Glad 198 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY shall I be if his reconvalescence shall last, and that strong traces of his caprice do not remain in his conduct. At any rate, it will be as well that your brother and his cara sposa make their appearance from the Elysian fields of England, and from the salubrious waters of Cheltenham. I am not sure that a draught of the Pow of Airth waters would [not] be as good for them...... I congratulate you on the arrival of your brother and his family from the land of Goshen, to which we Scottish people are as partial as our forefathers were hostile. Much good and much mischief results from our connection with that still happy country. It is not alwise expedient to tread in the steps of people richer and more polished than ourselves, lest an expence be incurred which cannot be afforded. At any rate proffessed imitation alwise implies inferiority, a thing which our fathers would not confess, having much to say for themselves and having all the comforts and the essential luxuries of social and domestic life. . . . What wonderful changes and new notions have I seen in my time? What a difference between Auld Reekie and the new town of Edinburgh? Who will deny that the latter is the seat of pleasure and good cheer? and if one may judge by appearances, its inhabitants are either rich or have ample credit. . . . The flitting, as we call it, will doubtless be troublesome to good Mrs Graham, but she has friends and coadjutors who will take the bulk of the burden; and if she quits a rich picturesque country she goes to her native district where she will be in the heart of her friends and relations. I presume she will get a rake1 of the Airth etc. tenants, and ere long I hope things will be made comfortable for her.- I rejoice to hear of John Abercromby’s being exchanged, and of his preferment which may enable him to make a fortune. I am the more partial to him, that he is the likest in face and manner to his excellent father.... He has got a strain of the manners of the rest of the family, which are very different from those of the last generation whose popularity and courtesy contributed, in con- junction with better qualities, to their eminence and success. There is in short as wide a difference ’twixt them as between Auld Reekie and New Edinburgh. All of them, say you, very good in their way! 1 A kind of duty exacted at a mill (Jamieson). 1807 199 0 I had a call from George Abercromby, and a long chat with him and Burnet Bruce who went next day to hold a court martial. I asked if Princes (military men) were amenable to court martials for ungentlemanly behaviour, the best thing in our code of martial law which by a parity of reason might be extended to other classes of people.- I feel very much for Mrs Joass who wants not grievances and temptations which she once expected as little as the citizens of Edin- burgh do an invasion. I never liked the jmrction of the families; and if report says true, the saints are very greedy. I wish her all comfort in resuming her house. The well is a convenience, and a substitute for the river Jordan. I trust there is little risque of her taking a dip. 1 fear most of the tears and importunities of her daughter, which may work upon her nerves, if not on her understanding. I owe her a letter in very general terms, but if I can muster spirits I will write her without committing myself upon contraversial points. ... I had a call and crack yesterday with Harry Drummond who was very pleasant and communicative. ... I rejoice to hear from the Keirs that Tom Erskine’s [eyes] were greatly better. He has my best wishes.- Maria will be an accession to John Abercromby. Blood is thicker than water in distant countries, however little it be valued at home, by people that are seemingly in a state of sweet ebriety. That is not surprising for a prophet is not honoured in his own country. Let me not censure the age, or find fault with things which catmot be helped without a degree of adversity, a more severe purge than any in Dr Hamilton’s book1 which I am told is read as if it were a novel by ladies and gentlemen. . . . 31 May 1807 .... I thank you for your intelligence as to the nymphs and swains that are going to yoke together in the autumn of life. Whether the delators, as we call them, or the demurs as the English term it, came from the one or the other, it will at least abbridge the bairn time. All good befal Mr Selkrig2 whom I like much: ‘Fairer’ (he may say) to his mistress ‘to me in age you seem, than Maids for beauty 1 Alexander Hamilton, 1739-1802, professor of midwifery at Edinburgh, author of 2several medical works. Tod Charles of Drygrange, Selkrig, accountant, w.s., 1 June who 1807 married (Scots MissMagazine). Tod, daughter of deceased Thomas 200 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY famed’. I suspect it however to be a squib; at least it seldom happens that latter spring blossoms are productive - Your accounts of poor Maria who I thought had been quite well, hurt me much. I presume when she got out, she was like a bird escaped from a cage, apt to take too long a flight; but prudence and providence against summer colds are in little estimation in her eyes. ’Tis a thousand pities that anything should ail her. Yesterday I had a long and spirited letter from her of the 25th franked John Aberfcromby] who it seems comes in for one of Lord Grenville’s boroughs. What strange mixty maxties have we in politics?- She says nothing of her imprudence, but only that she had had an inflammation in her lungs which confined her some days to bed and for weeks to her bedroom, but that she gets daily better. When she received Tom Erskine in her bedchamber, her words were numbered, which is, she supposes the reason why he has not come back. He had much to see in the great city etc.: she gives a curious account of Mr Savage their new minister1 who is very rich, fond of society, sings a good song and takes a part in a glee to admiration. What a change! When I write her I must advise her to look elsewhere for ghostly council. At present I have neither spirits nor topics, though if once I set about it in earnest, they would be as plenty as blackberries. ‘Tyne siller, tyne little; tyne friends tyne meikle; tyne heart, tyne all’.-1 will bear up as I best can against complaints which few pity. I remember Dr Charters in his sermon on, T would not live alway’, says that it is strange that a person should be at ease in fortune and circumstances, and yet be distressed. ’Tis I believe ‘the soul struggling to get free of the tegument of flesh’-1 trust however the mercury will rise, and that we shall meet again in comfort. . . . How long do you remain at Prestonpans? Have you got a set of agreeable idlers to while away the time. Stick to the Spectators and to Swift and Pope, and meddle not with our silver age writers. . . . 25 June 1807 .... I am glad the butter pleases; if your people be attentive it will be punctually sent. I know not where you are, whether at Prestonpans or in St Andrews Square, or how long you mean to be a sojourning in the country. ... As to poor Mr Edmonstoune I have my doubts, 1 Not identified. He was not a minister of the Church of Scotland. 1807 201 and am at least afraid his conduct will not be very steady and his taste for expence not diminished. All good betide him!-1 am happy to hear of Maria’s being so well, but as prudence or what we call taking tent is none of her virtues, do not think her visit to Bushy park1 an infallible proof of her reconvalescence. ... I am sorry Mr Dundas’s cough sticks so long, for I cannot believe it a real chin cough.- What say people of lady Elgin? I hear his friends defend him. For my own part I shall be neutral. ’Tis a bad business. . . . How is good Mrs Gregory? Her husband is much alarmed. ii July 1807 .... I am glad however to find that you have got a retreat to your liking and comfort, albeit it be stourie and exposed to the Bass Zephyrs which are now surceased. I perfectly understand the geo- graphy of the place. If the battle of Preston was fought two miles east, there was another little honourable to the army fought there in 1761 between a toll bar keeper and a set of English officers of Dragoons who being mad or drunk, behaved little better than a certain chieftain. I saw them stand trial for it, but having submitted, the King ordered them to be sharply reprimanded and threatned. This was during Lord Bute’s ministry. Drummore was a place made by a spirited excellent judge somewhat more than 70 years ago.2 O for a few such men just now! Much was he loved and respected in his day, and delightful was his social hour; yet he was dignified even in his glaiked horns. The turnpike house where the battle was fought, stood below the house, near where you sojourn. There you will not be troubled with idlers and gadders and if you want purling streams you have the waves in a variety of forms, appetising you for your meals. . . . And you will return to your retreat with increased relish and can make a choice collection of shells [and] pebbles as I used to do at Fisherrow when at Dalkeith school. I can say very little of my neighbours. I passed a pleasant day at Blairdrummond after their return and was glad to see Mrs Drummond so well.- I have seen none of the Kippenrosses since March. O yes He called on his way 1 Bushy Park, near Richmond, was occupied by William iv when Duke of Clarence 2(Black’s Picturesque Tourist, Edinburgh, 1862, p. 88). Hew Dalrymple, Lord Drummore, 1690-1755, son of Sir Hew Dalrymple of North- berwick, bt., lord president of the session. 202 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY to dine with Lord Melville etc. at Blair when I was far from well. All good betide Miss Anne! Much is she likely to learn from her host and hostess [who] are said to be superior people. I hope she shall be lucky in the lottery of marriage. On reading the papers I see nothing but plebeian or bourgeois weddings. One would expect a plentiful crop after the balls etc. O say you the world will be peopled. . . . 28 September 1807 ... We had a very merry party on Thursday with the Kippendavies and their guests, and to keep Harry Drummond my carver in humour I placed Mary Stirling1 beside him. I was they say in great spirits of which the Master of Glenbervie2 promised to acquaint Maria, lest she should think that I was going to the land of forget- fulness.- I have this day settled with my farm servants which last year was a soturce of much uneasiness. ... Tell him [Mr Dundas] I hope the Teind papers are got out of the register having no mind to be at the mercy of the heritors or minister. . . . 5 October 1807 You have no doubt heard that I was in some risque of visiting that ‘undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns’. Indeed, at one time, I thought I was likely to be reduced to a state of helpless debility, but let me bless the father of mercies that my recovery has been as sudden and complete as the symptoms were alarming. Much do I owe to Mr Wingate’s sagacity and decision who bled me at the critical moment. I leave Dr Gregory to give the disease a name, but it is nowise akin to palsy. We pray to be delivered from battle, murder, and sudden death; for who is habitually pre- pared for his great change? Much have I to be grateful, that with a crazy constitution my life has been spared so long, when many of my juniors more vigorous and robusthave been called to pay the debt to nature. Sir Thomas Brown, author of that beautiful eccentric book, ‘the religio medici’, says, that his life had been a miracle for thirty years. . . . Do not think (to speak the language of Falstaff) that I 1 2 Daughter ofjohn Stirling of Kippendavie. See below, p. 220, n. 3. Hon. Frederick Sylvester North Douglas, 1791-1819, died in the lifetime of his father. i8oy 203 speak like ‘a death’s head’. These sentiments befit us in our prime, and in our hour of wealth. At present my spirits are so good, that I almost wish for a lively letter to answer. Two successive nights I had a set of dreams more pleasant and more connected than usual; in the first I saw splendid towns, gawdy equipages, troops marching, and after loosing my way, came at length to a splendid inn, but wakened before getting dinner. Next one, I was at a great dinner or supper at which much wit and mirth was going on, and in which I took my share. Sir Thomas Brown in a passage quoted in the Spectator, says that at ordinary times he was saturnine, but were he to write a comedy, it should be in his sleep, giving a lively account of his dreams. I at least enter not into particulars, or build anything on them; but whether it was that I was too liberal of my wit; but so it was, I wakened with a degree of headach which evanished with last night’s sleep, which was less strongly marked.- Well you are returned to your ordinary modes of life, and have no longer two houses on your shoulders. Do you consort with the Diveses that remain in town? for I am told that at no time are they more sociable and easy than at this dead season when others are tasting of the pleasures of the country when abroad. Is Selkrig’s honey moon over yet? It should be commensurate to the length of his courtship, and the demurs of his mistress. If Ranger’s adage ‘Any- thing soft will do’1 be true, his olive branches might have been as numerous as yours. You are one of the sober Lady Diveses.- This marriage of the heiress of Perth will make a great revolution in Strathern, at least a great stir.2 Whatever she be, her good mother3 was surely better entitled to the title of Lady Dives than either you of Lady Kippendavie, whose manners approach to those of Lady Grace. .. . The young man is nobly bom and well connected. Is he handsome, not too tonish, I hope, or akin to bucks and maccaronies ?- Lady Christian does wisely in quitting the town for a season; the life of Dives (without the sin I confess) being too much for her years. It is astonishing how well she stood it. Two of her suppers would 1 2 FromClementina B. Hoadly, Sarah, Theheiress Suspicious of Lord Husband, Perth, married, in, in. 1807, Hon. Peter Robert Burnell, who succeeded his mother, and became Lord Willoughby de Eresby. See also above, p.2 Clementina,169, n. 3. daughter of tenth Lord Elphinstone, married Lord Perth, 31 March 1785. 204 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY have done for me. ... You will probably see Mrs Drummond when settling Johnnie’s household; for I do not imagine she goes expressly to hear Madame Catalini1 warble away in a celestial strain. A taste for Italian music is like a sixth sense, and is, I fear, a source of much hypocrisy in our hyperborean climate. Our sweet Scots melodies married to Allan Ramsay’s verse, suit our northern lugs better. Such a Goth! says the dillitanti, or the would be so. Alas! for the season which threatens death disease etc. to appal the Diveses and the dilettanti, if the state of public affairs do not make any impression upon them.. .. Were you at Catalini’s concerts? Few of our modish Ladies can understand, much less relish a Scots song. A blessed, a classical reformation truly! That is not my affair. We are precisely in the state Edward wished when he courted us a little roughly to be 500 years ago, mere Englishes. Professed copying ever implies infer- iority. Heard you of Lady Holland2 and the D[ uke] of A[rgyll]’s3 French cooks their mutual congres every morning? There is a sweet set there. Tom Sh[eridan?],4 Lewis the monk5 etc. What would Duke Archibald6 say were he to revisit this earth? he would be horrified. Good night. I tire you...... Yours of the 1st which contained an answer to part of my last respecting Cataleni and her myrmidons who are both suspicious and costly guests. There is no need of spies in a country where there are no secrets and no strengths, and where we have to trust to our volunteers who will I fear be found little better than a rope of sand - a truce with matters too high for me! And now of Dr Gregory’s prescription. I said he should be at liberty either to starve or scarify me. He does not propose to break my skin, but he confines me with- in very narrow bounds in eating and drinking. Next to no animal food for months! but one glass of wine diluted with water!! He says wine is no more necessary to a man than to a horse, to a Christian than to a Turk. To his rules and ordonnances do I chearfully submit like clay in the hands of the potter; and as a proof of it on Friday I 1 2 Angelica Catalan!, 1780-1849. 3 Elizabeth Vassall Fox, Lady Holland, 1770-1845. 4 George William, sixth duke of Argyll, 1768-1839. 6 Thomas Sheridan, usually called Tom, 1775-1817, son of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Matthew Gregory Lewis, 1775-1818. ‘ Archibald, third duke of Argyll, 1682-1761. 1807 205 took one morsel of mutton and yesterday an egg with the addition of broth and vegetables. ... He also forbids me to indulge in the company and conversation of those I like best, an injunction I revolt at The English of it, good Madam, is that my habit is apoplectic, and therefore everything that stimulates the passions, good and bad, must be avoided. I know well that I stand on hollow ground; but am nowise cast down by his preaching terrors more than I was in 1797, when he first sentenced me to die. If his present regimen turns out as auspiciously as the then one, I will have no reason to complain that my natural rights are abbridged. I shall endeavour to keep up my spirits, and when a friend or neighbour deigns to visit an ailing man fat and fair, to chat and laugh, although I must not drink fair with them, or set the table in a roar. From the spirit of contradiction, I would like to be alongside of our lively friend Maria: I think the Doctor would grant a dispensation in that case. Much do I esteem him; and the first thing I did on reading his letter of terrors and precautions was to drink his health and prosperity. . . . On Thursday about two oClock, William came to tell me that the Earl of Elgin was at the door. I went down, and he came up and sat three quarters of an hour very chearfully, without coming on family matters or public affairs which are not pleasing, and might occasion what the Doctor calls an excitement. I could not help looking at his proboscis and was glad to find it entire on the whole, whatever the illnatured world might say. He is a very gentlemanly mannered man though much changed from what he was in 1790 when I saw him last, a blooming young man, very like his excellent father. He visits post haste, having come the day before from Broomhall to Cardross forty five miles, to stay one night; and after a long walk to see the policy and farm, was to dine at Broomhall at seven where he had company. I love posting without an object, and turning dinner into supper. Apropos, have you heard, that at Inverary the Duke dines at eleven at night, drinks tea at one, sups at three, and break- fasts at three afternoon. His Lordship told me his aunt was to return to Broomhall where she would stay till the end of November when she goes to Dunse. Much is his Lordship endebted to her; much does she enjoy the loved haunts of her youth.- His Lordship had no servant or outrid [sic] him.- It was an interlude, and a sample of modem manners. . . . Apropos is Mr Dundas still a Turk in the 206 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY article of wine? has he made a proselyte of John Wauchope?1 ’Twould be a great feat. . . . 20 October 1807 .... I wonder not that you inhabitants of squares should be fond of visiting your country friends. Cramond is a fine place upon rather too great a scale, at least that is the case with the garden which should be a productive one, both soil and shelter being excellent, and when the spirit moves them to visit purling streams, they have only to go up the river. I doubt not that the sheriff’s family is very agreeable. The country and the parish of Cranston I know well from the many visits I paid my venerable friend Mr Smith,2 than whom I have known few worthier. I was never at Chesterhall which seemed a dull looking place. I would not be surprised if my old friend Mrs Clerk should write pastorals on the banks of the Tyne. Be that as it may she has an exuberance of spirits as well as an acuteness which makes her an interesting companion. I fancy they see much com- pany there. . . . Today on my return from the good dowager of Keir’s burial3 I called at the old house of Newton, where I had spent many pleasant days in my chearful mom of youth with old Newton, a rough kind- hearted man, and with his wife, my aunt, one of the best of women4. ... I went there to call for Mrs Campbell of Cary, a highland lady,5 in whose house I spent the summer 1770 most pleasantly, in a most romantick country. Both she and her husband were kind worthy people. She told me with honest pride, how fortunate she is in her sons. We discussed the politics of Rannoch which is much changed and talked of some of my old companions there.- It was perhaps too much for me to go to the burial, but respect to the memory of the good Lady and her excellent husband, a firstrate country gentleman, made [me] resolve to go, and I stood it well; indeed people are seldom the worse of doing their duty; but I was excused going to the churchyard and standing in the cold. 1 2 John Wauchope, w.s., died 1828. 3 William Smith, 1697-1783, minister of Cranstoun. Anne Hay, widow of Archibald Stirling of Keir, died 16 October 1807 (Scots Magazine).4 James Edmonstone of Newton, married Elizabeth, bom 1700, sister of Anne 6Dundas, Ramsay’s mother. Mentioned in sro, Dundas of Ochtertyre, GD35/70, but otherwise unknown. i8oy 207 I was almost glad not to see the good Colonel’s new house. At the burial were a number of people, but my spirits were not good, and little talk took place. I was glad to see Tom Erskine seemingly much better, and William StirUng who looks ill. I said I supposed it was a stound of love, and I recommended to John to look out for a good heiress. Know you any such? O ay! Miss Stewart Allanton.1 Let him make a sicker contract. What the old Lady left and to whom I know not, but Keir got 15 turkey by the hearse and coaches, four of which died by the way. Colonel Belches the chief mourner was in a great state with three livery servants riding behind his carriage.2 Methinks he wants something to dulcify him- I like not Maria’s expedition to Exmouth which has been the Grave of many, who were past hope before they went thither. . . . I long to hear of her being safely housed. It is even a wetter climate than ours. I saw Gartur today: he says Lady Christian goes on Thursday to Broomhall. . . . 17 November 1807 .... All good betide Mr Holland and I am glad he is recovered. He would be much better for a quarter of my Esculapius but no eloquence will make him give up the cup or abstain from good things. You would be highly entertained to hear Mrs Wilkie taking orders for dinner. Broth is the standing dish, but in spite of the letter of the Doctor’s prescription I take two mouthfuls of boiled meat and a coffee cup of light custard. I do even take to fowl’s flesh in obedience to Sir John Sinclair’s advice to studious men.3 He is I am afraid an empyric and wise fool: I will not pun leaving that to poetesses. . . . 10 December 1807 .... This afternoon after my dinner about a quarter from three, George Abercromby arrived in his Gig in his way to Craigforth, which was a little retrograde, but I took it very kind and in spite of 1 Elizabeth Margaret, only surviving child of Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton, married, January 1812, Reginald Macdonald of Stafia, who succeeded his father-in-law as 2second holder of the baronetcy of Allanton. 8 Col. John Hepburn Belshes of Invermay, died 24 July 1819 (ScotsMagazine). Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, 1754-1835. 208 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY interdictions, we chatted chearfully till 4 o’clock when I told him he would be scandalously early. I invited him to join me in my solitary glass of wine to which he consented, requesting a crust of bread, saying he did not like to drink in a morning. I said according to my ideas it was the afternoon, and our repast concluded with Muir- fowl eggs which woes me! will not last long. He seemed to know very little of his mother and sisters, and on hearing his account of Clackmannanshire, it grieved me to think its golden age was over, to which I could bear testimony. I advised him to take a game at 7 and 11 style with Lady Kennet who should be paramount of the country, and added that if things did not take a happy Change, there would be an end to parliament and to the bustle of provincial politics.- You seem disposed to die hard] far be it from me to awaken you from your dream of security. I understand Lord Melville never was in higher spirits; and of a Glasgow merchant’s wife going in her coach with three or four daughters to Bath. All I shall say is let us not put our trust either in princes or in ministries, and let me not discuss the point which of the two last was worst, i.e. fondest of Crusades and conquest. . . . O I hear that Mr Russell said tother day that he had got a piece of a whale from Perth, meaning an excellent salmon from Perth but indeed he did not much under- stand Scotch fish Fame says Melfort1 is supported by the Prince of [torn].-What conquest may do I know not, but a little teazing is sometimes not amiss. I will not say as Mrs Harrison of Feltonbridge2 said of a neighbour ‘he is ruined that’s all’- but surely we are in great jeopardy and modish hours look like infatuation.... I shall be glad to hear that Captain Dundas has recovered of the operation he underwent. And I doubt not that Maria will make a notable house- wife and give her guests better intellectual cracks than are to be found at the ponderous dinners of Richmond or Edinburgh. Will she write a romance a system of Ethics, or a book of travel or politics? What is become of her Russian Jo, the chargee d’affaires or the secretary? ... I understand Harry3 Dfrummond] is one of the 1heroes of the Speculative Society. He is a modest lad and I 2 Charles Edward, but for the attainder, fifth earl of Melfort, 1752-1840. 3 Felton is in the parish of Linton, Peeblesshire. Mrs Harrison is not identified. A debating society connected with Edinburgh University (W. K. Dickson, HistoryLockhart], of thePeter’s Speculative Letters to Society, his Kinsfolk, Edinburgh, third edn., 1905; 1819, Cockbum, i, 268 ff.). pp. 73-6; and [J. G. i8oy 209 hope will turn out well. Much correspondence passes twixt Mr D[rummond] and me but we seldom meet. I am not well; he has been ill. . . . 28 December 1807 .... For1 some days past I have suffered severely from my Eyes a most grievous complaint to one in my situation. I was in hopes that matter was over but it seems the seeds of the disease remains [sic] tho not so ill as on Saturday still unable to write or read. . . . 1 Written by Dr Wingate.

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. . . . If we had a fat or rather a magnificent Christmas, it did not abound much in mirth or good cracks. Sir Robert was kind and dignified. . . . George Abercromby was in about the sheriffship, but he would not ratify the treaty which would displease Lord Bute. I hear he visited Lady Christian lately, but is in a very precarious state. Of course our party afforded little room for a letter. The party was at first very small, Mr and Mrs Abercromby, the latter a great favourite of mine. Then came a Dr Ker,1 Burnet Bruce, Sandy Buchanan, and last, not least, Bob Dundas who was overpersuaded to stay three days and was very facetious and funny and it is not easy to say whether he or G. Abercromby, who delights in quizzing, had the best of it, only it would have afforded a comic poet hints for a scene or two. Woes me for the declensions of families and the new code of manners, which our host regreted in strong terms as well he might. To that did he impute the systematic neglect of his nephews. He said General John2 had not called at Kennet which would have been at least decorous in the present state of that family. He is in high dudgeon with his nephew Colonel Alexander3 who rather than revisit his native country or him, either last year or now, chose rather to cross the widest and most dangerous passage to join his regiment in Ireland. And he is most hurt with the conduct of the females and the m.p. If I mistake not, the whole family will sooner or later be chapterly assembled at London. The boy goes up to an English school or academy. . . We went on, George and I, decently 1 2 John Ker, surgeon, Stranraer (sro, Wigtown Testaments, 12 May 1813). 3 Sir John Abercromby, 1772-1817, second son of Sir Ralph. Colonel Alexander Abercromby, 1784-1853, youngest son of Sir Ralph. 211 keeping my own with him. I told however Sir Robert that I was afraid I had spoilt the batch. Till he turns over a new leaf, I will keep as much aloof from him as he does from me... 0 ! I must tell you a phenomenon in manners. At church a coach with two footmen on the dickie, and a riding servant followed by a curricle, drove up. At coming out I was told that both belonged to Mr Philp of the Dol,1 a great distiller who has made a fortune by fishing in troubled waters and is deeply engaged in distilling from sugar. He was a clerk of the old Steens2 and failed with them in 1788, but has revived like a phoenix from its ashes. The coach methinks was not more than wise, and he should for a while have been satisfied with a cu[ric]le or caravan. To saynothing of a severe cold, feasting did not raise my spirits. On that disagreeable theme I will not enlarge, but it is not pleasant in the decline of life to be left like a whale on the shore. . . . Yet am I persuaded my course draws near its close and one may live too long. When sentiments came first in vogue a buck drank to old Anthony Murray [of] Dollaray3 ‘May we live all the days of our lives’.- ‘Content’, said the old man; let me add ‘let me not live till my friends be wearied of me’ ... . 1 hear the commissioners of excise are white washed. More of the cottagers of Glenbumie4 in my next.- Very fond of clarty ideas. Much good however, more art than nature. 24 January 1808 .... Who says I am neglected? I had visits from Keir and Sir John Murray some days after. The former seemed most happy at having got over his Yule which was as bountiful as that of the Greeks. On the Saturday night he stopped the dancing at 11 and was supported by the fiddlers whose conscience smote them. He told me his sisters were gone on a second Yule to Strathem, but he would not stir a step. I predicted they would be in the heart of Drummond Castle, 1 John Philp purchased Middleton Kerse, 1808, died 1827 (R. M. Fergusson, Logie, a parish2 The history.Scots Magazine Paisley, 1905,lists Jamesii, 174). Stein, distiller at Kilbagie, bankrupt 28 February 1788, John Stein, distiller at Kennetpans, bankrupt 29 February, and Robert Stein, 3distiller at Kincaple, bankrupt 1 March. 4 Anthony Murray of Dollerie, 1676-1761. Elizabeth Hamilton, 1758-1816, miscellaneous writer, published The Cottagers of Glenburnie in 1808. 212 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY against which he seemed determined, but I expect to hear of their invading Keir like a land flood.- Sir John told me he and his Lady were two nights at Drummond Castle and kindly received, dining after 7 and breakfasting one day at 10. He speaks of Mr B[urrell] as a sensible pleasant man who would not let brag be played in his house. How would Tom Erskine etc. like that? but the Baronet sees everything in the fairest light. O! I had another call from the Garturs yesterday who have been great strangers. They too had been over at the castle and dined half past eight. What would my eccentrick, honest friend Lady Rachel Drummond have said? She would have said ‘vanity of vanities! all is vanity’. . . . The Garturs brought me a pressing invitation from Sir Robert to meet them and Tom Bruce and wife at Airthray tomorrow and I mean to go, the house being temperate, and if the fare be splendid, the sight of it will do no mischief for I have stipulated barley broth and Rachel Erskine, a fine girl, engages to hob and nob with me in taking my glass of wine. It is a party with which Dr Gregory himself cannot find fault excepting on the footing that they are people I like. But the Ladies are as gentle as good Mrs Gregory herself. I go the more readily that my eyes are strong and my spirits getting up. The last month was but a dreary one; let me be thankful it ended so well; but if I understand any disease, it is sore eyes, and even Dr Gregory speaks with reverence of the results of my experience. I trust there is no truth in a challenge being given him by Dr Hope. They are too good to play the part of Burdett and Paul.1 Many years ago, Dr Mead2 and Dr Misauban,3 a French quack, fought a duel with swords, and the latter being disarmed, was ordered to ask his life. ‘Why should I, Doctor? I am not your patient’. I stand by my Doctor through good report and bad report; but methinks there would be no harm in confining the delinquents to a dark room and feeding them on lenten fare after copious phlebotomy.- Dr Monro’s4 expedition to 1 Sir Francis Burdett, 1770-1844, and James Pauli, 1770-1808, who fought a duel in 1807 over the Westminster election, when Burdett was elected member of parlia- 2ment Possibly (DNB, Richard s. v. Burdett).Mead, M.D., 1673-1754. DNB relates a story that he fought a duel with John Woodward, 1665-1728, physician and geologist, over the latter’s attack on3 the work of Dr John Freind. 4 John Misaubin, M.D., died 1734. Either Alexander Monro, secundus, M.D., 1733-1817, or tertius, M.D., 1773-1859. 8o8 213 see the cook I looked on as apocryphal till I saw Keir, but I presume he got his fee. I was much diverted with your expression of witless marriages. Boys should not commit matrimony, nor should ministers be rash in coupling them; but in your great town brothers and sisters may marry if they pay the fees. Woes me for my friend Strageth who is a good man; but the boy made a false step at the threashold; for after being a cadet in the academy at Woolwich, he threw it up and commenced writer. Better he had been writing in his style book like the lads of the last age. His Pamela was a nursery maid and it was a match of honour. Foolish Lad! but he will see his sin in his punish- ment. I suspect he was over indulged. It is a miserable business. . . . Has the Bishop given his ball? I heard of a hop at Dr Gleig’s and of a marriage likely to ensue, fruits not very common of your Edinburgh balls, for the papers are stuffed with manufacturers etc. entering into that holy state. But I am told the Stirling dinners approach to those of Glasgow which beat Edinburgh ones hollow.- Conversation is out of the question. A little fasting and prayer or, in other words, a little of Dr Gregory’s regimen, would be good for the purses, persons and souls of those bourgeois-gentlehommes. . . . 5 February 1808 I am ever troubling you with my little matters, but when grievances occur, one naturally has recourse to a friend. Mrs Wilkie’s conduct in some things is exceedingly culpable. I hope she is honest; but she has a passion for company and her roaming about that cannot be justified. I early cautioned her against forming intimacies with the neighbours which, if carried far, would not be a comfort to her; but she took her own way. At last I discovered that whenever my back was turned, which is very seldom, she had her junquetings. In Aprill when at Ardvorlich, she gave a dinner to some of the tenants and servants; and when in Edinburgh in July a great tea drinking to a very miscelaneous company. The same thing took place week before last when at Airthray. Every body hears of these things before I do; but two of my intimate friends were told in September of the two first of these irregular and indecent doings. The drawing room tables, glasses etc. were carried down to entertain these people and there were drams for the gentlemen and ladies. At last it came to my 214 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY ears, and I taxed her with them, saying I would rather have a con- fession from herself than proof which could easily be had. Nothing could be more explicit or candid than her confession and she expressed much contrition for her conduct, endeavouring to palliate it. I told her I should consult with my friends what was to be done; but as at any rate she must continue till Whitsunday I hoped she would give me quiet and faithful service till then repressing some petty abuses which resulted from her forming parties or rather flattering favourites to serve her little purposes, for ambition and faction are not confined to courts and senates. . . . Her being an indifferent cook is of little consequence to me who see so little com- pany, but even good broth is an object. She might have made the house purgatory, had I given her immediate warning.... The dairy she appears to have conducted well and I hope her accounts and inventaries will be fair and exact.- It occurs to me that the first thing to be done is to make enquiry at good Mrs Oliphant about her peculiarities; for genius will break forth in little as well as great matters, and I suspect there were other reasons besides her ignorance of ragouts. Ill temper etc. to say nothing of gadding are perhaps better reasons for change. She told me Mrs Drummond had parted with her housekeeper Sanders and her maid for what I accused her off. Indeed I warned her that her going so much there might give offence - Now my good Madam what shall I do? You will hardly counsell me to keep the woman even if she should turn over a new leaf. It is no easy matter to find one to fit me, used to country business and of a staid character, for to have too little to do makes people some times over active. I must never expect to see Mrs Watson’s li[ke] again who, if she helped herself, knew her business excellently well. Will you apply to Mrs Ofliphant] ? I dare say Mrs Drummond told Mrs Erskine something of the matter-i/ie promises to call on me and to give me advice.- You know we were taken at unawares and I wondered not at the high wages for them as the order of the day but the Keir housekeeper has only £12 a. year It is hard to have one’s evening of life clouded or disturbed by servants etc. which appear in a variety of forms. Old servants are a costly luxury. . . At Airthray I heard Mrs Joass means to live with her daughter, I wish she may relish either the company or the dis- course. I had an odd sort of a letter from her, promising a longer one. i8o8 215 I dare say she knows nothing of the Newtons who I doubt have no plans. . . . 23 February 1808 .... It is painful to me to give you so much trouble about my domestic affairs. I can add little to what I said in my former epistle on that subject. I had a conversation with my neighbour Mrs Drummond who told me more particulars about her housekeeper and mine which determined her to change. She advised me to give her two months or six weeks warning before the term. I see little prospect of comfort from her service, for the way in which she has behaved and the connections she has formed. Nor does she seem to have that discretion which becomes her place, making instead of healing divisions; for where there are secrets, favouritism must less or more prevail. At the same time, she is quiet, and makes profes- sions of giving quiet service while here, and I told her she should be well treated, and the better she behaved the better it would be for herself; but I am persuaded her love of gossiping or of improper company did not commence here. The expediency of a change is more apparent than the cure, for it would require one versed in a dairy, and one who could dress or direct occasionally a little dinner, at least make good broth, besides being discreet and oeconomical. I must however take my chance and make the best of a connec- tion that is not for better and worse. I can hardly expect such a housekeeper again as Mrs Watson who with all her faults and her worldly wisdom, understood business perfectly, having everything creditable; but she was bred under Mrs Abercromby whose oecon- omics she practised. I wish not for a modish one, but for one staid and sober minded suited to my situation and fortune, and the sequestered way in which I live now that I have outlived the bulk of my friends. ... I sometimes think of giving up this place, but where should I go? that however is not the question at present. . . . Your supper mongers never dream of seeing Danes or Russians in the Frith. Are these suppers different from private balls? I am strangely illiterate. I am glad to hear that our friend Maria is well and busy in a clime replete with invalids. As she has fascinating talents and a masculine understanding ; may she turn them to the best account and not be romantic. I hope she shall meet with friends 216 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY where ever she is. It is a semi-watering place. ... I had yesterday a bill of health with regard to the health of Dr and Mrs Gregory and their little ones from Dr T. Brown, his partner,1 with gratulations and apologies from the Doctor for not writing considering how much he has to do and write. Woes me! that he should be so deeply involved in polemics! Better give a few modish suppers and do like other people. It is well the Doctors do not come to fisty cuffs. Know you not that Mrs Drummond has been innoculated for the vaccine small pox with eighteen others without effect as to her! . . . 7 March 1808 .... I am exceedingly obliged to you for your zeal to find me a proper housekeeper. It is all a hit or a miss, as old Mayne of Powis said of playing at whist. ... I like every thing about the one you mention but her being so long in an Inn. Here she will have little to do but be quiet and make broth. Yet I would like one who could have everything genteel and oeconomical. After fixing I must look out for a couple of maids, for I dislike Edinburgh misses whom I have had, till I found them naught. The maid who acted as pro- housekeeper when you were here, very much to my satisfaction, has been spoilt by Mrs Wilkie as being in all her secrets and conscious of her ploys. ’Twas a great pity, as she was good, but she went in a violent hurry, and hired with some of the Rinds which is no inheritance. . . . No marriages, Mainie Stirling Keir said yesterday, the young philanderers at balls or suppers being colliginers or writers’ pren- tices. She is going in en famille to see Mrs Siddons, and to keep lent, not in the old fashioned style, but to enjoy the pleasures of a great pampered town. . . . Last week I had a letter from Maria dated Sidmouth, perhaps the best I have ever had from her; but though highly gratified with and melted with it, it gave me a sore heart to hear that she had had a relapse, owing she confesses, to her having chap[er]oned her sister to balls. What, balls in that village! the retreat of invalids or malades imaginaires ? She is she says in rare spirits, cheers her father, and holds out her arm to be bled, like the lamb that dances and plays about when doomed to gratify the 1 Thomas Brown, who, in 1810, succeeded Dugald Stewart in the chair of moral philosophy at Edinburgh. i8o8 217 purposes of riot. She gives an account of her cottage and garden, where myrtles grow wild. They are in terms for a pew and she for a grave, beside Dr Currie of Liverpool. There is a vein of rational piety in the letter that is very instructive 1 must write Mr Dundas to thank him for two nice and voluminious law papers, books as good Lord Auchinleck called them. Miss Mainie says, Lady Elgin opposes the divorce keenly. Now I thought she longed for liberty, at least for a tender connection elsewhere. Sweet reading the love letters one finds in trials for Grim. Con. Ay say you they are read for all that. There is a taste for garbage as well as for excellence. 12 March 1808 .... I observe what you say as to Mrs Metcalf and ratify your pro- ceedings. High wages are the order of the day, but must fall in ordinary servants. She will here have little room for exertion, the main thing being to keep quiet and have things in some order when people pop in, for though broth and vegetables are my common fare, I must have meat for others and for servants. By the bye I want no change from Mrs Watson’s style offeeding them, from my little dinners. I hope she has no genius for cabals, which take place some- times in kitchens, as well as in King’s cabinets. I hope I have got one maid well recommended who will answer either for kitchen maid or dairy maid, and a friend is looking out for another and will I hope be successful. It must be the housekeeper’s business to drill them, and except in the dairy there is little to do. On Monday forenoon I mean to announce the change of Ministry to Mrs Wilkie, who I presume expects it. . . . Your being here at the change of ministry is a thing rather to be wished for than expected. Should you be prevented, perhaps Miss Stirling Keir may allow her housekeeper to see the linen inventaries delivered over. Of the one made up by you, Mrs Wilkie has made two copies with additions, and assures me they are in good order not as when you found them a sort of chaos. I have gone over her book and considering that she had two cows fewer than Mrs Watson in 1806, her returns in the four first months are much larger than her predecessors. . . . Woes me for Mrs Joass! I trust she shall escape their snares, and will not be converted. The fall of their sect is not strange, but I thought it had been a gaining to build churches. But there is no 218 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY saying and though Robert be a deep man, such people sometimes sink. I trust they might, all of them male and female, have done as well for time and eternity, had they persevered in their original faith and chosen good Ministers. As the gardiner at Castle Lyon said of his Lordship’s marriage, ‘ Wae betide it I’1 Do not you hold predestination in that matter? I witnessed poor Mary’s with a sore heart. I doubt it will break off the connection. With the other Abercrombies it is very slight and not likely to increase. There are, says Scrub,2 secrets in all families. . . . 21-22 March 1808 .... On Monday forenoon I announced a change of ministry to Mrs Wilkie. ... I took a review of the sweet meats, salt pork and beef, butter and cheese of which there seems to be good store. ... You will saythere is some danger of my becoming a coalquean, a connois- seur in preserves and women’s thrift. Of that however there is as little chance as of my becoming an anabaptist or, as it is now phrased, a baptist. I see implicit confidence is not the thing, but there is a middle course to be followed by Bachellors. . . . Last post I had a long letter from poor Mrs Joass, written apparently with a sore heart which explains her brevity on a former occasion. .. . Though she has consented to stay a year in his family she means not to embrace his fluctuating opinions. She thinks she can be comfortable; at any rate she can return to her own house in a year. He is the father of a promising family and the husband of her only child. . . . My only fear is the importunity of her daughter and the strange company and stranger conversation she will hear there. And people’s minds do not grow stronger as they grow older. . . . The change is the more strange that he was no chicken when he and his brother established their tabernacle. The tenents of the Baptists were as well known then as now, and in doctrine I believe there is little difference. Robert has not as yet joined them. It will not make his churches sell or set better and none attends more to self than Robert. Everything maybe taken by two handles. It is better than a separation occasioned by infidehty, immoderate chastisement etc. . . . My friend Strageth announces a visit of some days on Friday. From him I expect much information1 as to your great town, the parliament house etc. Poor 2 Castle Lyon, the residence of the earls of Strathmore and Kinghome. Scrub, servant to Squire Sullen, in Farquhar’s play, The Beaux’ Stratagem. 8o8 219 man! he does not lie on beds of roses more than other people but he has nothing to reproach himself with, and that is a great matter in Epicurean times, when greybeards and matrons are as giddy and improvident as juveniles. . . . I thank you for closing the treaty with Mrs Metcalf. I hope she shall turn out well.... I am not ill to serve. Indolence and over confi- dence have been (what Mrs Slipslop calls) my Curricuristics. All I wish is to close in peace my reign which commenced with the poor King’s, when our country was if anything too prosperous and too glorious and my kindred and neighbourhood what my heart could wish. Alas how changed? ... I confess I did not expect that douking would have been the last stage of a connection that was once very dear. In Edward the Sixth’s time Anabaptists were burned in England. Dead cats etc. is a milder persecution. I do not approve of either, believing that it hardens or inflames enthusiasts. . . . Had I been disposed to come to your carnival, Mrs Siddons would have been a great inducement, though I had almost as soon see an execution as her in Belvidera j1 but I should like to have seen her in Lady Townly reading a practical lecture to the Ladies of Edin- burgh, who bating gaming (which is at least not general) seem to have adopted her ethics reduced to practice. ... I have not seen Marmion, but from the short extracts in the papers, the measure seems singular, and Lady Heron seems to have been a loose moralist. I was once intimate with the author, who is a lively fellow, not quite a Homer or a Milton. I have seen none that could inform me of it. Time enough! Time enough! If the black pated Dutchess cannot do him much good, she may damn with faint praise.2- He has done well with his muse. . . . Know you not that I had destined this forenoon to write an answer to Maria; had I been in a proper frame. Had she been worse you would have told me, but she has been so much in the habit of playing bo peep with the King of terrors that she makes light of prognostics and diagnostics and even of prudence. . . . 19 April 1808 .... I thank you for your calendar of marriages as it may be called, which1 when fulfilled will show that Cupid is a better marksman s Principal female character in Otway’s tragedy, Venice Preserved. Harriet Katherine Townshend, wife of fourth duke of Buccleuch, died 1814. 220 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY than the paucity of marriage at Edinburgh after the winter campaign of private balls and public places for some years seem to denote. Nature will out and the world must be peopled. Nowadherence was Lochnell’s sin,1 and levity that of his wife who was the prosecution. That I presume is also the case of Lady John who had better have been still sole.2 If these divorces mark a bad spirit on the part of one of the parties, they are very different from the French divorces which resemble those of the Jews who had that liberty given them on account of the hardness of their hearts. Lord Elgin must first make out his libel. So much for marriage, a theme somewhat out of my way. I must one of these days pay a visit shorter or longer to gratulate the parents and the daughter at Kippenross.3 It reminds me of good Mr Abercromby’s marriage which was that of two neigh- bour bairns, before he had put on the gown. Yet it proved a most happy marriage though both very young. This couple are rather too rich and easy; but thanks to the present modes, it is not easy to say what is a competence. They shall have my best wishes. The bride- groom has all the experience a regiment of Dragoons could give.- I at last answered Mrs Joass’s letter which was a more arduous task than epistolising that wit and genius Maria. After wishing that Mr H[aldane]’s late step may promote his spiritual advantage here and hereafter, I confessed his piety and good intentions. ... I consider Mrs Joass’s living a year in his house, as an uncontestable proof of her love and affection for her only child. There may she find her situation comfortable! I was glad for her resolution not to go along with him in the fluctuations which he is disposed to make. But if she should be importuned, I bad her think what her excellent parents whose piety was rational and fervent, would say could they look down from the mansions of bliss, and see what passed here on earth among those they loved. .. . Said I too much? I could not say less. I 1 Divorce at instance of Eleanor Fraser, otherwise Campbell (widow of Sir George Ramsay of Bamff, and daughter of George, Lord Saltoun), against Maj. Gen. Duncan Campbell of Lochnell (sro, Edinburgh Commissariot Consistorial Decreets, vol. 229.fo.893). Elizabeth John Campbell, eldest daughter of William Campbell of Fairfield, against John D. E. H. Campbell, her husband, commonly called Lord John Campbell, later seventh duke of Argyll (sro, Edinburgh Commissariot Consistorial Decreets, 3vol. 29, fo. 1153). Mary, third daughter of John Stirling of Kippendavie, married, 26 April 1808, James Russell of Woodside. i8o8 221 dread her daughter’s teazing more than a host of missionaries -1 am clear that Dr Stewart1 should by way of punishment give a number of his mutinous brethren a hearty plunge to cool their fever which has come to a great height - Know you aught of Dr Gregory? I believe I must be seriously ill before I can correspond with him, or he must be delivered of his burden. If after his douking, he should turn preacher, he would have a numerous attentive audience, and his homihes would be both eloquent and cogent, befitting a good man.- I meant not to have written till tomorrow, but to pass the time in this snow storm I sat down to endite this epistle.... Though nowise akin to Macbeath, I am sometimes in a depressed hour disposed to say with him ‘ I have fallen into the sear the yellow leaf’2 - you know the rest. Indeed the friends I love have become unkind, and strange revolutions have taken place in families.- Why touch on these keys which affect me more than the assessed or property taxes. I am just finishing a life of my cynical but respectable friend Charles Dundas3 which has amused me much. Anything to fill up the time innocently! . . . 3 May 1808 .... A thousand, ten thousand thanks to you, for the offer of your services in time of especial need. I will therefore expect you on Sunday the 15 th of May, term day, to dinner at 4 or 5 as you please, for by means of a collation I am reconciled to late hours. Mrs Wilkie is making a wonderful steerie to have everything in order according to the inventaries made up by you. And the transference to Mrs Metcalf will not take up much time. I will summon the two new maids to be ready to let the two old ones away, who go to our cousin Dr Rind for the punishment of their sins, for by all accounts it is an odd family. Of one of them I had a very good opinion till she was spoilt by being in Mrs Wilkie’s parties. Two hours will settle her account. This has hitherto been a sad milk year, owing to the intense cold and want of grass, but [I] am in hopes the dairy and 1 Dr Charles Stewart, physician, Edinburgh (sro, Edinburgh Testaments, 17 August 21826). 3 Shakespeare, Macbeth, v, iii. Charles Dundas, adviser to the late Mr Drummond of Blair. For his life, see Scot- land and Scotsmen, ii, 232. 222 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY its proceeds will speedily amend, for little has been made or sold. Let me do justice to Mrs Wilkie, excepting her love ‘of high life below stairs’1 and wandering by moonshine, I know nothing wrong of her, and she has been very quiet and zealous as I could wish, with- out any frost in her face. . . . I know Mrs Drummond was to change her Edinburgh house- keeper, her Blair one only came at Martinmas. From living privately in the country, I presume they do not mix with the world. Few people as I see, I believe I gave as many dinners since January as they. I expect you will be able to give me some account of Harry, of whom I know next to nothing, only that he has been very gay or in other words, dissipated in the late campaign. He is certainly very different from the bulk of the Edinburgh juvenile lawyers. Is he making a dead set ? All this is more proper for conversation than corresponding. Mainie Stirling who knows all things says, there are sixty seven marriages talked of, and his among the rest, but it requires confirma- tion. Extremes lead naturally to their opposites, but it is well when it is the ton to enter into the holy bands of wedlock.- O she gave me an account of the execution which was very private and snug. Being confined all that week to the house, I had the grace to write a letter to my friend the bride, apologising for not having been to pay my respects after the holidays, to pay my debt and to congratulate her on her approaching nuptials, with a few wishes for her happiness and prosperity. Indeed I know nothing wanting at Woodside save purling streams, but as she is no poetess or shepherdess, it may be dispensed with. And I was agreeably flattered with a good letter in return.- Now I thought brides had another tow in their rock2 than to correspond with old batchellors. Mainie told me my scrawl was acceptable; but I told her if she would form a tender connection, I should give her a more magnificent letter on her feet-washing day.3 I am endited to dine at Keir with the Kippenrosses on Wednesday when some intelligence of what is passing in the world may be got. Among other things reserved for conversation is Dr Gregory who I hope has now got a little respite from his war of contraversy which 1 2 The tide of James Townley’s farce, produced in 1759. 3 To have business of another kind (Jamieson). The day before the wedding when the bride had her feet washed by her friends (SND). i8o8 223 absorbs his attention and makes him forget his rural friends. It is true his partner Dr Brown wrote me a letter of compliment and excuse. It is curious that most of my intimate friends and corres- pondents have been abominably eminent; let me be thankful I have had them. ... I will not congratulate you or Mr Dundas on Robert Ferguson’s nuptials, which are likely to prove fatal to the Elgin family.1 Faults on both sides! . . . 31 May 1808 .... I had almost forgot the way in which Sir Harry was jockeyed out of his election by Lord James Murray, afterwards Duke of Atholl.2 Rural politicians have seldom been rigid moralists. Yet the Baronet suffered more from his eccentric sister Lady Pen, than others from a London life. If the toast was an indiscreet one, it was a sorry reason for a forty years feud. The Dutch blood accounts sufficiently for the conduct of the Dundases of Blair.3 It was no less conspicuous in the descendants of the Dutch Lady Kincardin, the Cochranes and Boswells, etc.4 .... Nothing surprises me more than the taciturnity or in other words the insignificance of the general Assembly which for the first time, for more than a century, has not had as much business as afforded scope for our juvenile orators who can speak upon any thing. You will say anything is better than disputes about cause and effect which three years ago convulsed the church. Nothing but changes! The English convocation formerly so noisy and tempes- tuous, meets now only in form. It is the more strange that there is a prodigious mass of combustible matter at present, sufficient to convulse church and state. . . . How did you find the young good wife? As well as could be expected from one who wants purling streams. Of that poor Mrs 1 Robert Ferguson of Raith, married, 20 April 1808, Mary, heiress of William Nisbet 2of Dirleton, divorced wife of earl of Elgin. James, second duke of Atholl, died 1764. * The account of the family of Dundas of Blair in Douglas’s Baronage, 182, does not 4mention any Dutch marriage. wife Veronica of Alexander, Van Arsen, second daughter earl of of Kincardine. Corneille vanShe Somelsdyke,died in 1701. Baron Their Somelsdyke, daughters were Mary, married, 1681, William Cochrane of Ochiltree, Anne, married, 1684, Sir David Murray of Stanhope, and Elizabeth, married,1704, James Boswell of Auchinleck. 224 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Buchanan cannot complain.1 As she did not choose to lie with her husband’s progenitors she has got a romantic bed on a small knowle near a mountain stream. It is perfectly in the style of Ossian’s tomb save that it wants the withered oak and the gray stones. Being my coeval, and long my companion, her demise was a summons of removal to me. All her progeny were chapterly assembled. Young Kennedy2 was there, not his father, as we were told. .... How is Maria? . . . Let her know that to my great sorrow Robin Redbreast, my companion summer and winter in the morn- ing since Lord Nelson’s victory, has disappeared for a fortnight, whether he is fallen into the paws of a nasty hawk or he be nestling I know not, but it is a fit article in a hermit’s gazette. . .. 9 June 1808 I was favoured with your kind letter . . . inclosing one from Mrs Joass which gave me much satisfaction, as she told me she was very comfortable, and had not heard a word of controversy on the Baptists since she came to that house. So far it is well. If any of your misses be predestinated to match with founders or leaders of sects, her importunities might possibly have more effects on your mind than the homilies of the husband. A child’s importunities is [sic] like the dripping of water which excavates marble in time. You may per- haps not be pleased at such a supposal; but twenty years ago when the good Major returned from Bath with his family I should have felt indignant, had anybody fortold what has been the fate of my favourite Mary who was a natural fine girl. O ! I remember in the days of my youth making one in a Country Bumkin with Lady Glenorchy (Willy Maxwell)3 who was just the Lady Harriet in Steel’s Grief alamode, while her sister4 was Lady Charlotte.5 What 1 Mrs Murray Kynnynmound Buchanan, wife of John Buchanan of Cambusmore, last surviving child of Patrick Edmonstone of Newton, died 16 May 1808 {Scots Magazine).2 3 Not identified. Willielma, second daughter and coheiress of Wilham Maxwell of Preston, married John,4 Lord Glenorchy, son of John, third earl of Breadalbane. She died 1786. Mary, elder daughter and coheiress of William Maxwell of Preston, married William,6 seventeenth earl of Sutherland. She died 1766. Lady Sharlot and Lady Harriot, orphans, two sisters, wards of Lord Brumpton, in Steele’s play, The funeral, or Grief a-la-Mode. 8o8 225 strange metamorphoses take place in this chequered state, this valley of tears, in consequence of Ladies’ connections with that animal Man. It is to be presumed that such of them as like a serious turn regard it as a luxury and pity those that will not go all their length. Be that as it may few of your belles are inclined to take a surfeit of reUgion. A middle course between what Whitfield called the velvet mouthed preachers (i.e. the flowery and philosophical ones) and the Method- ists or Baptists seems expedient. Yours and Mrs Joass’s were the first account I had of poor Kennet’s illness which gives me great concern, for though more mulish than I once imagined, he was an honest kind man and his sense was common sense.1 It grieved me to see the descendants of excellent Mr Abercromby falling out about volun- teers or the empire of Clackmannanshire, a very humble object of ambition! ‘The woman thou didst give to be with me, she did give me, and I did eat’.- She gets the blame. Poor woman! I heartily pity her at present. I had a very good letter from her dated Monday in a very good spirit. It is well the brothers are there. Dr Monro gives some hopes, Dr Gregory, that King of terrors, none. From what Mr Wingate who deals much in learned words tells me, he is not likely to hold long unless a favourable turn takes place. At his christening I took a hearty potation with Dr Webster a most delightful companion.2 It was the first time I was overtaken.... 14 June 1808 .... I could give a little rural scandal fitter for a comedy than the commissary court. A late Servant of mine, a handsome fellow, a good workman and what is less common a good pen and ink man, being tired of leading the sinful life of a bachellor, bought a house in Downe to keep a shop and a public house, made love to a Miss Gilfillan3 who had ^150 in bank and was a legatee of Captain Gilfillan’s4 for £350 but it is liferented. She is middle aged, lame of a haunch and an arm, but money can give charms to deformity and debility. The Lady at last consented, and they were proclaimed thrice 1 2 Alexander Bruce of Kennet, died July 1808. 3 Rev. Alexander Webster, d.d., 1707-84. Janet Gilfillan, niece of Captain Thomas Gilfillan (sro, Stirling Commissariot Inventories, w.48). * Captain Thomas Gilfillan, Stirling (sro, Stirling Testaments, 3 June 1808). P 226 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY in one day at Doun, but some of her Glasgow friends not liking the match with a man under church scandal etc. came in a chaise on Monday and carried her off at ten at night from her paramour, who delayed too long though the clothes and wedding dinner were ready. It has made the town of Doun very merry at the expence of the bridegroom. Of him it might be said ‘ Unstable as water thou shall not excell’.11 had a long visit and a very interesting crack with Mr Home Drummond, there is a change of the lesser kind, originating from the son who has got a clerk and a cause about the Steeple of Falkirk, and is desirous of being a man of business for which he deserves much credit. Mrs Home Drummond if you please, com- plains of rheums in her head and teeth and after trying dentists in vain, means [to] try the cold bath in which I hope she is well advised for as Dr Gregory said to me here ‘It is a monstrous bad precedent for patients to prescribe for themselves. ’ . . . 23 June 1808 The Huntly story reminds one of the pretender to the Hamilton titles.2 As Lord Monboddo said it was impossible to defame Sir John Dalrymple,3 so it is not easy to scandalise some noble characters. I rather suspect it to be what old Craigbarnet4 in his Doric dialect, called a Blairhusk, i.e. a burlesque.- Coal tar etc! The good governor will find picking the bushes, timeously with the hand, the only effec- tual way of banishing the caterpillar, and preserving the bushes. Everything strong enough to kill the vermin, kills the leaves, if not the bushes, at least prevents their carrying for a year or two, a great matter! This year though the vermine abounded, not a bush, hardly a leaf is hurt, and great is the crop of them and strawberries, two of our best fruits. The crop of other fruit is unequal but most of apples. It is wonderful that after the last Siberian summer, it should have been so well. This is such news as a heritage affords !- O ! I dined at Cambusmore on Saturday and in my way paid my 1 ! Genesis, xlix, 4. James George, seventh duke of Hamilton, 1755-1769, was the unsuccessful claimant sin the Douglas cause. 4 Possibly Sir John Dalrymple of Cousland and Cranstoun, advocate, 1726-1810. James Stirling of Craigbarnet, died after 17 February 1774 (W. Fraser, Stirlings of Keir, Edinburgh, 1858, pp. 134-5)• 8o8 227 income tax at Doun (no easy matter in these times of taxation), visited old and new Newton, and thought of those that were gone. Before dinner my host and I walked over to Ballochallan, another of the haunts of my youth, which conjured up friends that were gone. The Laird took me through the house which his tenant to strengthen the Hypothec (what know you of Hypothec?) has furnished magni- ficently, but the things which struck me most was [s/c] the size and altitude of a bed, 4 feet high and 7 or 8 square, and the kitchen was without a particle of Dust. Now in my valuable friend Mrs Janet’s time (a second founder of the family) it was not the temple of cleanliness. But her own kindness and her brother’s manly sense and inborn courtesy made the plainest fare rehshed, wherever or how- ever cooked.1 So much for my sentimental journey!- Never had I more propositions granted than by my host. I cannot say just so much of his sons, but we went on decently. The fine arts spread northwards it would seem. I now see some light into my travels this summer, but when all the world is gadding abroad why should I be stationary? And if one cannot travel without money, credit superabounds. I shall give you the outlines of a plan that depends on circumstances. I mean first to pay a visit of two days to my venerable friend Dr Macleod of Glasgow, wishing to see and converse (or what is tantamount to dispute with him) while it is in our power. He is lame from a fall, and not less querulous than formerly, but his heart is as warm and kindly affectioned as ever, and few men are more learned and com- municative. From that William and I proceed to Wilton near Hawick to see Dr Charters, whom I wish much to see once more, a very eloquent, virtuous tho singular man. I must however before speaking of times write him and learn what time will suit him best, for this you know is a busy time. From that the way to Edinburgh is plain sailing; only my stay will be shorter than usual, this being a thrang time even to Hermits. . . . Will you be surprised to see a meeting of my Creditors called or a sale of my paternal inheritance? I will put off the evil day as long as I can...... I have just now a letter from Mr Bruce Grangemuir2 dated 1 David Stewart of Ballochallan. *p. Thomas66). See Bruce also above, of Grangemuir, p. 31, n.i. Fife (View of the Political State of Scotland, 1811, 228 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY yesterday giving very slender hopes of poor Kennet’s recovery of which Monro speaks very doubtfully. The Watsons have been there twice and Sir Robert has also visited. All that is well. Woes me for him and the infants! These marks of reconciliation have been cordials to the poor man. . . . 28 June 1808 .... I had a very pleasing family dinner at Blair on Friday: Mrs Drummond entertained me much with an account of her son Johnnie and his dog Juba, who it seems lies in a cradle and has a governess. I set down the young man as a genius or pickle. I presume David and he are sworn brothers. On Saturday I dined at Kippen- ross where I saw the young folks who I think look a little thin. The Laird and I when the Ladies withdrew, had all the cracks to ourselves. Fine long days! On Sunday it being a cool morning I walked over to Lecropttohear a young preacher and see the poor minister whose over exertions have brought on a spitting and throwing up of blood about which his rural doctors differ. I advised him to take the best advice. He had heard of Gregory’s bidding a poor man who re- covered, lay out on making a coffin for himself. That is some- what in the style of preaching terrors to which Muir1 is somewhat predicted. The poor man looks very ill.- Keir’s man invited me to a family dinner, to which I agreed, wishing to see him, as Dr Henderson2 who was at church, said he had a very sore leg. On going in Mainie told me that young Aber- cairnie3 and Orchel4 had popt in for which her brother was sorry, but old fashioned hospitality admits of no discrimination. I will not attempt to pourtray your cousin and his neighbour who seem great friends. The former is very good natured, but a little glaiket, and desperately fond of modem carriages which are all open. On these he read us a lecture which amused me much, being in my own way connected with manners. Instead of going out of the door, he went out at the window, and calling for a favourite horse made him play 1 8 John Muir, minister of Lecropt from 1803 to 1820. 3 Dr John Henderson of Westerton (sro, Stirling Freeholders rolls, 1809). James Moray of Abercaimy, 1780-1840, eldest son of Charles Moray of Abercairny, 4and Anne Stirling of Ardoch (Fraser, Stirlings ofKeir, 24). A son of William Graeme of Orchill, either Patrick (Peter), 1781-1813, or Laurence, bom 1784, died before 1813 (Graeme, Or and Sable, 447). i8o8 229 all his tricks, pick up his glove and hat, prance and plunge, soberly in a way to please not fear a Lady - Keir looked very sour and I was not much edified. Then came up his carriage a trim tram, I think he called it, drawn by two horses one after another. I advised Orchel to ensure his limbs as the other drove a little in the style of Phaeton; of him your boys can tell you. And they went off like Jehu, to go to Ardoch. What would your excellent uncle and aunt have said of modern equipages? It seems a Bedlam, i.e. four horses abreast in the modish vehicle. I hope Keir will also take speedily the best advice, as Rind and Henderson differ in opinion. ... In the evening the misses accompanied me to the water side.- You see a historian of private life needs not to go far in quest of intelligence. . . . It was a strange contrast to young Russell’s sermon1 which was a good one, and was more mild and less loud than his father’s of which Burns has given an admirable sketch in his holy fair. We are, I am afraid, as ripe for judgment as the French and Spanish noblesse. Make the younkers explain the Abercaimy family’s motto, ‘Talem tanti genuere parentes’. . . .Jean Stirling2 called just now with Mr and Mrs Harley Drummond.3 I told him he makes me an old man having been in London when his father was bom, and his great- grandfather’s companion to Scotland. Keir’s leg is better, in con- sequence of which he will not get to Edinburgh. . . . 7 July 1808 .... I had very kind letters from Dr Macleod and Dr Charters with an invitation from him and his wife4 whom I never saw, expecting me at his manse on Friday the 15th promising to preach at Wilton the 17th that I may once more hear a voice vibrate on my ear which used to charm it and the understanding in my happiest years. I pro- mise myself much pleasure from that visit; for he is a first rate man in point of talents and heart, albeit a little singular. His wife is said to be an aimiable accomplished woman, ten years elder than himself, 1 2 John Russel, 1785-1826, minister of Muthill, son of John Russel. Jane, third daughter of William Stirling of Keir, 1775-1835 (Fraser, Stirlings of 3Keir, 551). George Harley Drummond of Stanmore, 1783-1855, great-grandson of Andrew Drummond,4 Margaret, daughter banker. of Robert Scott of Bumhead, proprietrix of estate of Crawhill, left her husband an annuity of £300. 230 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY but by the death of her brother, she brought him a good estate for their lives, which then goes to the next heir. That and a great glebe make him a rich man, standing in no need of an augmentation. On Monday or Tuesday the 19 th if no accident interveen I mean to set my face Edinburgh ways. But I will then write you a sentimental letter from the banks of the Teviot. On Wednesday the 13 th I mean to set out for Glasgow, to dine with Macleod and stay all next day; set out on Friday the 15th betimes for Hamilton, Lanerk, Biggar and Selkirk, to be at Hawick or Wilton early in the aftemoon.- The poor Doctor has many complaints and grievances some of which are larger than the life; lameness is a sore evil. Meanwhile I expect much pleasure from his conversation which was alwise instructive, often original, replete with kindness, even in his most disputatious moods. And it is alwise a while before I can reconcile my ear to the vibrations of his shrill untuned voice. The wags alledge that he speaks high English to the tune of the isle of Sky. But he is a man of excellent heart and great information, perhaps the most learned man in the college. He expresses much gratitude for this visit which he considers as likely to be our last meeting; pour prendre conge pour j'amais is no pleasing thing. Yet which of us may drop first is not a clear point. If the Oswalds be at Sheilhall,1 I will see them. . . . From the account I had of poor Kennet I imagined he would not have lasted so long, but in case it should take place, I must make an apology in respect of my engagement which cannot be altered. Meanwhile, let me not complain of neglect. On Saturday I had the Leckie family in high glee, and last night the Garturs sent announc- ing a visit this day. Had I had the second sight, I should have kept an excellent leg of mutton which a friend of mine and I ate yester- day till this day, but not having that faculty in which there is more pain than pleasure, I promised them a little dinner, telling that it was proper people \tfho fared sumptuously every day should now and then be easily pleased, a thing of infinite consequence! And in fact, there will be a decent one though my last leg be gone. Mrs Metcalf seems to shine in difficulties and resources. I hope she will do well. Next week she is to have her bouking washing. The measles have raged these two months, and one of my ploughmen a man with three 1 Alexander Oswald of Shieldhall, died 1813. i8o8 231 children, has got them, but Mr Wingate thinks him in a good way. Two or three sets of my young friends want them. Hitherto they have not been mortal but ware the dregs!- You see it was predestinated that I should not take a peep of the college of justice in its original form! . . . Great news! but none knows what may happen between the cup and the lip. At the best Spain will be delivered with blood.- 8 o’clock. The news confirmed. Lord Melville had a note from Mr Kerr confirming the good news.- He is for sending money, ammuni- tion but no men. What will Napoleon say to them and to us? Ven- geance, vengeance! I had a very pleasant dinner today with the Garturs and after admiring my roses which are beautiful and stately, we have settled a family convention which I hope will bring us to- gether oftner than we have been and make me think myself at Cardross which was to me a paradise.-1 go on Saturday to visit the young folks at Lanrick. . . . 26 September 1808 .... Positively you must hover about in the hunting week and grace the races with your presence. I hear there is a playhouse too. Were I to take my pastime I should attend it, a very good or very bad play being rare fun. I suppose Russell of Stirling will deliver over the Misses to Satan, carrying matters much further than Mr John McLaren1 seventy years ago who only said they were driving as hard as they could to the Abbey. ‘And I trow my friends, our fashion- ables dread it much more than hell’.- .... Are you for Apple jelly as well as for damsons? There is a great store of apples fit for it which is not the case every year. Mrs Metcalf says she is a proficient in making both, having sent up a deal of both for Admiral Duncan2 etc. She will obey your orders, and I shall give you fruit. Of apples there is great store and those of the best.... When does Mr Dundas make his appearance? Tell him I have a goose at his service, and I mean to turn Turkey merchant having more fowls than friends. .. . I make John an offer of being my goose herd and I will secure him against the Gander and bubbly Jock. . . . 1 John McLaren, 1667-1734, minister of the Tolbooth, Edinburgh. * Viscount Duncan, 1731-1804. 232 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY 31 October 1808 I will give you some account of my travels which were finished this day (Monday) about one oclock. The day yours arrived, I dined with the Jardines at Blair,1 and had a pleasant family party. On Wed- nesday I went to pay a nuptial visit to Mr and Mrs Russell at Wood- side, and was much pleased with the style in which they go on, wherein they appear to go on nearly in the way with the last genera- tion, than which a better pattern could not be followed. Miss Hepworth2 was there and sang like a nightingale; and we had Mr Knox, minister of Larbert,8 a very able man, who gave me a special anecdote of Ramsay, minister of Kelso,4 who was tormented with a fool and vixen. Lecturing on Verse 12th of 148th psalm he said, ‘Perhaps, my brethem, you may wonder that wives are not called to praise the Lord, but the 8th verse will explain that “Fire and hail, snow and vapours, wind and storm fulfilling his word”’- You may be sure the remark made his hearers, who knew his circumstances, very merry.-1 told Mrs Graham Gartur who did not much like the application, ‘that any body who looked in her face would see fire and hail gathering there’. I arrived there on Thursday about three afternoon after making two calls. I was told that dinner might be late as the Mastertons were expected from Porto Bello.5- At last, about seven they arrived, and we sat down to dinner, when very indifferent about meat, but I did better than I expected. If late hours be not for people in health, they are worse for invalids. Little Miss Masterton, a very interesting delicate girl, got a cough and Miss Ruddiman, the governess, the rheumatism, from night air and the latter’s riding in the Dickie. I was much gratified to see my old acquaintance Miss Masterton wonderfully well, and very chatty and we did not run out of discourse as to persons and things - On Friday forenoon we took an airing to see the house of Touch where I had in days of yore 1 Family of Rev. John Jardine, d.d., 1715-66, minister of the Tron, Edinburgh, father8 of Mrs Home Drummond. 3 Not identified. 4 JamesRobert Ramsay,Knox, 1765-1825. 1672-1749, married, firstly, Alison Nisbet, secondly, Margaret 6Borthwick. Anne James Amelia Masterton Murdoch, of Gogar, his wife; died and1836; Margaret Mary, hisSeymour, unmarried their sister, daughter, who diedborn 1840;1799 (Fergusson, Logie, ii, 35). 8o8 233 spent many a pleasant day. The house is in dishabille but I was much gratified with the pictures, Sir Hugh1 and Charles Smith2 etc. But what was not more than pleasant, I missed many a tree which once gave shade and shelter. In some of the belts, the oaks 30 years old are cut down, and the beeches left, because the bark of the latter would not sell! Poor old Mary weeps bitterly when she hears the sound of axes, and prays devoutly for her master’s return. We got an accession of company: Mrs Sandilands3 and Miss Stirling,4 en pelisse of the newest fashion, and strait laced which is new, came there in their way to B[annock]bum where there was to be a great party next day where Megginch6 etc. were to be. And the Lady Abbess of Ardoch9 and Miss Isabel Erskine7 came from that place. Dinner half past five very good and pleasant. The two young Ladies went off before tea, i.e. about nine: but they defy snow and vapours, wind and storm. It being my first visit I staid two nights very agreeably, it being an offset from the Cardross family, worthy of it. Apropos, its head passed home while we were out, which did not grieve me. On Saturday forenoon I went to Meiklewood and had a long walk and pleasant chat with the Laird.8 We saw Edington shooting.9 Fame says he is to espouse a Daughter of Lord Pol- kemmet’s.10 If not more than wise, he will be the easier guided, and fools make very eligible husbands.11 On Sunday Mr Grfaham] took me to Gargunnock Kirk where we got a good sermon delivered 1 Sir Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn, bt., whose son Hugh married Elizabeth Seton, Lady2 Touch. Lady T ouch married, secondly, Hugh, only son of Charles Smith, merchant (Douglas, 3Baronage, 170). 4 Margaret Douglas Stirhng, wife of James Sandilands. 5 Anne Stirling, eldest daughter of John Stirling of Kippendavie. died Robert in iSij. Drummond of Megginch, who was sold Megginch by his brother in 1795, * Anne Stirling of Ardoch, 1761-1820, eldest daughter of Sir William Stirhng, fourth baronet,7 married Col. Charles Moray of Abercairny, 1778. 3 Not identified. John Graham of Meiklewood. *10 James, son of Col. James Edington of Gargunnock, who died 1800 (Scots Magazine). 11 William Baillie, Lord Polkemmet, died 1816. This marriage does not seem to have taken place. Burke’s Peerage gives Lord Polkemmet’s daughters as Isabella, died unmarried, Mary, married James Johnston of Straiten, Helen, died unmarried, Janet, married D. I. Campbell of Skerrington, Eliza, married James Campbell of Dunmore, and Penuel-Jane, married Farquhar Campbell of Ormsary. 2U LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY to a thin auditory. From thence to Lecky where we had a very pleasing family party and two young Doctors. The old Doctor was very communicative. He is not more than fortunate in neighbours, but is seemingly stout and strong. I wish the Misses transformed into wives, in which capacity they promise to figure. . . . Good night! A plague on this pen! That makes a great odds to you and me who both run a little fast when matter superabounds which produces various readings and senses a very bad thing in conveyancing. ... I thought it best to write you by post to have John or some careful steady hand to kepp1 the carrier and take charge of your crockery and greybeard which are safe and secure as such fragile ware can be; and it is proper to take tent. . . . 15 November 1808 .... I grieve at the thoughts of seeing Maria no more in the land of Cakes, but as it is for her Good, all that remains is to wish her a pleasant and prosperous voyage, and the completion of her own and her father’s plans. ... Well we have got a double court. May it prove efficient! It will give occasion to a few dinners and some idle words. . . . Are you a musicante or do you understand as much Italian as to distinguish between Italian and Scottish fanatics? It is at least a costly entertainment. ‘O Niel’, said somebody to Niel Gow, ‘that is as bad as Italian’. . . . 28-29 November 1808 .... I heard a little of the new president2 and his reproof to J. Clerk whose petulance is worthy of a check. May everything answer expectation!- I hear Keir is much better. I am to send him some pears as a medicine. His was low spirits with a vengeance.... I have not been able to call on him owing to ailments or bad roads. Indeed the distance is too much for my limbs which are weakning much. . . . Woes me for the news from Spain which were to be expected. Our councils seem to be infatuated, in sending the flower of our little army to be starved, slaughtered or captivated. I pity them that have friends in that country. . . . 1 2 To intercept, receive (Jamieson). Robert Blair, Lord Avonton, appointed president of court of session, 16 November i8o8 235 Could you send the cottagers of Glenbumy1 in square. A match twixt the pastoral muse of Macniel2 and Miss of Glen- bumie would make a fantastic breed. 24 December 1808 I . . . return you my best thanks for the fine cod. ... It served to entertain a friend whom I found on my return from Keir where I went to condole with him and his sisters for the loss of their aimiable brother Robert,3 whose manners were fascinating. I met the poor Laird out a walking in a very cold day. He looks well and when weighed in the ballance is increasing in ponderosity, but he says he is not well and Jane says he is little better. Whether the disease be in his spirits or in his stomach I know not, but I wish him better, he being an honest man and a good neighbour, under a rough outside and with not many theories and those not very clear. There I found Charles throwing offletters by dozens very expeditiously. The whole made an impression on my mind not more than pleasant who has seen generations pass away when apparently strong. I am very much interested in good Lady Christian under whose hospitable roof, and those of her nearest connections, I passed my happiest hours. Her mother was for nine or ten years much troubled with breathlessnessbut she was more irregular than her daughter. I think it wise to contract their circle, there being times for everything under the sun. There is a new beatitude ‘Blessed is he that expects nothing’. I expect nothing from the present Laird who indeed does not court society. Yes! I had a very good letter from Maria franked by James Abercromby the 12th. Never did she write a better letter than when she thought herself seriously ill and bound for the land of forgetful- ness. .. . She speaks with enthusiasm of seeing new nations and new religions, and of language like a philologist. If I live to hear of her arrival, I will endite her an epistle. Meanwhile, it is pleasant to have known her. At Bombay they will be safer than in the mother country for which every true patriot musttremble when our councils seem infatuated, and our armies on a distant shore encompassed with triumphant cruel enemies. ... I forgot to thank you for the cottagers of Glenbumie which I thought you had had of your own, 1 2 By Elizabeth Hamilton. 3 Hector McNeill, 1746-1818, Scottish poet. Robert, fourth son of William Stirling of Keir, 1772-1808. 236 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY but it will be forthcoming for Anne’s library. How the party at Airthray will turn out... I cannot tell not having the bill of com- pany. ... I have had a bridegroom and bride, William’s daughter, to entertain at tea. She is a fine girl, and he is well spoken of, a tenant. . . . Next time you write, know you aught o( ‘ Lucubrations on the Epigram’1. It is a pamphlet of translations of a fine Greek epigram sent I think by Dr Gregory. I hope the Doctor is not going to commence Poet. I suspect Woodhouselee has a finger in the pye. The whole shows more versitility than judgment...... Mrs Callendar is the fourth wife at least of Colonel Callander Craigforth who is still alive at Paris, some say in offices others that he keeps a gaming house.2 Be that as it may, his wife having received a D[ra]ft has cleared all his scores at Stirling and gone to Edinburgh. I pity my neighbour and his wife who are virtuous people. From the old boy they have little to fear, but the death of Sir Alexander Campbell.3 Wherever he is he will be doing or hatching mischief, his ethics not being more sound than those of Mrs Clark4 and her royal paramour. ... I am just now getting William to read me for an hour before supper Bishop Burnet’s history of the Duke of York who was a stone of a brighter water ;5 though great were his faults which led to his ruin and that of his house. His brother alledged that his mistresses were imposed on him by his priests by way of penance. It is below the dignity of parliament to be engaged so long in that nasty business. O ! She is in a fever? about which there is a bulletin.6- We have never thriven since that word was naturalised. ... I hope Mr McDoual Walkingshaw’s hopes shall be realised. At Castle 1 2 Written by Dr Gregory, privately printed, 1808. Sir James Callander of Craigforth, bom 1744 or 1745, died 1831 or 1832, assumed baronetcyForbes, Surrey, of Livingston 1768, secondly, in 1810, Harriet married Datens, firstly, thirdly, Christian, Elizabeth daughter Helena, of daughter George of earl of Antrim. In 1810, he sent Madame Lina Talina Sassen, a French lady, to Scotland as his ‘beloved wife’, but the court of session found the marriage not proven 2(Kay, i, 427, ii, 51). Sir Alexander Campbell of Ardkinglas, cousin german of James Callander of 4Craigforth. 5 Mary Anne Clarke, 1776-1852, mistress of Frederick, duke of York. 6 Included in Burnet’s History of his own time, vol. i, 1723, vol. ii, 1734. Bulletin: ‘modem word . . . first recorded in latter half of 18th c.’ (New English Dictionary). i8o8 237 Semple I presume he gathered birds nests. Even in this age ofexube- rant rent, he will not let the loch high. I am truly sorry for my worthy friend Keir, and wish him better health. It is well that his sisters absent themselves from felicity awhile. Methinks Lady Rumpus (the Dutchess) and some other Racketting Ladies would be much the better for a spare diet and a pelisse or shawl of sack- cloth...... Why should I tell you that from Saturday the 3rd to Tuesday I was seriously ill if not dangerously with stomatic complaints, more severe than any I have had for a number of years. For this no neglect or imprudence on my part could be assigned. Mr Wingate said Nature was doing its own work, not in the most pleasing way. Be that as it may, his prescriptions exceeded expectation. I am now returned to vegetables and fruit, strange remedies you will say, for such complaints! It is one of the secrets which good Dr Gregory disclosed to me. Whatever others may say of him, you and I have reason to stand by him, while his enemies will undergo a severe flagellation, perhaps dissection or hanging in chains. I know nothing of the controversy which I lament on his own account. Let me congratulate you on the appearance of a young Laird of Airth.1 It must have given your good mother great joy. The birth of a Laird of Struan2 is an event that may be looked for in due time, unless retarded by a troop of daughters lam diverted, not surprised, at what you say of the new made Bishop, who is fond of saying severe things from the chair of verity, a thing which seldom does much good when people have not verd [?veered] about. But may not his hearers be too hasty in their applications?- Of Lancaster and his system3 I know very little, but beheve the good old way, of rigid discipline exercised with discretion on lads of 15, 16 or 17 was the best human wisdom could devize to make good scholars, and pre- pare them to be good members of society. Hot bed plants may be showy, but are seldom permanent or deUcious.... My two plough- 1men, both of them parents of families, finding themselves deficient 2 William, son of Thomas Graham of Airth; bom 1808. His Maj. heir, Gen. George George Duncan, Duncan was Robertson not bom tillof Struan,1816 (Burke, married, Landed 1799, Gentry). Anne Outhwaite. *on Joseph Gallon Lancaster, Hill, see 1778-1838.Cockbum, For271. an account oftheLancasterian school in Edinburgh 238 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY in arithmetick, have put themselves to a night school set up by my servants for their infantry. I laughed to hear that their grown scholars sometimes say their lessons to a boy of nine or ten, a good arithmetician. The attempt is laudable and they may be much the better for addition and subtraction which an Earl of Morton about eighty years ago, said had been many a thousand merk in his way.1 Mr Ferguson has much cause to be proud of his son the General who is certainly safer in London than in Spain or Portugal2. . . . Yesterday I had a call from poor Colonel Rind who gave me such an account of his lawsuits, charges of horning, captions etc. ’twixt him and his brother as made my heart sore. He is the best of a very so-so family. He is much obliged to Mr Williamson for taking away a bad lawsuit twixt him and his tenant a. graceless minister, who pays fs an acre. I am certainly better off than him, for one had better be out of society than in perpetual brawls. O I had a kind invitation from Sir Robert who is now in Edinburgh. Shall I accept? perhaps to take leave of the Abercrombies who, excepting him, are not kind or even attentive.... Yesterday was a very thrang day taking down and Rumfording the kitchen chimney, for next to a scolding wife nothing can [be] more irksome. I rejoice to hear that our two chambers work wonders. . . . 1 Either Robert, eleventh earl of Morton, died 1730, or George twelfth earl of Morton, 1663-1738. * General Sir Ronald Crawford Ferguson of Muirtown, g.c.b., 1773-1841, son of deceased William Ferguson of Raith. 1809

[9 January 1809] On coming in from a long walk with my young neighbour Harry Drummond, I found your paquet and letter of the 7th covering a political love letter from a voluminous bookmaker.1 He seems to know the places where I am most vulnerable, for in Oct. 1806 he made the same request to Mrs Drummond, after I had given him a stern denial. Nor is it the first time that he has solicited my acquain- tance ; for your new Bishop brought me sundry messages to that purpose, but I declined forming any connection with a man whose spirit and conduct I did not love. If these were my sentiments years ago, the matter is not mended by the treatment I met from his brother bookmaker, Woodhouselee,2 to whom I gave more liber- ally than was either consistent with prudence, or he made good use of, quoting only the most insignificant sentence of more than a hundred pages of what I sent him at the desire of Mr Drummond Woodhouselees’s behaviour gave my mind a rude shock, and I do not wish for a second from this quarter. In these cases, it is best to take one’s ground and to keep it. I am persuaded both you and Mr Dundas, if he has time to think of me, will think me right in declining any intimacy with this man, to whose pedantry and caprices you are no stranger. Will you therefore, good Madam, give him a polite denial in the softest most elegant form? I wish him success and celebrity from his labours, which I think undertaken much too late, when the actors on both sides have paid the debt to nature, and nothing remains but a set of scraps and fragments preserved by memory, and access cannot be had to the repositories of people that 1 1 Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton. Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, died 1813. 240 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY figured on that occasion. I wrote no history of that period, though in my various lucubrations, I take a view of it and its consequences, illustrated by a number of characteristic anecdotes and incidents. Were I to communicate my views to him, he would probably scout or mangle them. I endeavour to do justice to both parties, respecting the virtue and aimiable manners of persons who thought very differently from me. More than half my connections were with the disaffected. I look on my lucubrations with the same partiality and affection that you do on your progeny; and though not disposed to submit them to the mercy of the Edinburgh etc. reviews, my residuary legatee1 will find them in tolerable order, and may find them a property of some importance, if some great change does not take place in our situation and taste. Forgive me for imposing an unpleasant task on you, but you can do it in the properest gentlest manner, for I do not wish to commence a correspondence that might have too much of the acid in it, which does neither suit my taste or give a fillip to my spirits which are rather better than when I wrote on Tuesday. It is not incurious that I am just now [ string ]- ing together a number of anecdotes relative to 1745-6 without con- nection, as an appendix to a tract on the influence offeudal tenures and feudal manners on public and private life a curious subject little known. I thank you for lucubrations on the epigram, of which Dr Gregory sent me a copy, and more for the three unprinted epigrams which show the versatility of your genius and are equal to a number of the printed ones. Do you aspire to the Mutton and turnips? It is an astonishing pubHcation, the secret history of which I know not. When John Home2 the poet appeared in 1778 in the Assembly in full regimentals, Mr Robert Walker said it was the farce after the play. We know Dr Gregory to be an eminent wit, logician, and a most poignant satyrist in prose; but I never heard that he was a poet. It is at least a more safe, but less high-seasoned mess than his attacks on the medical tribe, or what he calls his defence. He must have had a number of coadjutors; I confess I did not expect you to have been of the number. Few Ladies with such a numerous infantry think of poetry; that and music being generally relinquished after marriage. 1 2 James Dundas, Ramsay’s cousin, later of Ochtertyre. John Home, 1722-1808, minister of Athelstaneford. 1809 241 ... I never wrote a line in verse, though my inscriptions [are a?] species of poetry in measured lines. . . . 23 January 1809 I wrote you a long letter this day fortnight relating chiefly to Allanton with whom I am not disposed to coalesce, prognosticating no comfort from the connection. As he made choice of you to make the application, I entreated of you to give him a denial in the gentlest most courtly terms you could. It is sufficient to say in general terms, that the ill usage I received from one author makes me very chary of my communications to others. And I consider my lucubrations as goods and chattels which I do not mean to make too cheap. My great object is to cut the connection, and to enter neither into col- loquies nor epistolising with him. I wish him success, but without the spirit of prophecy, fortell he will not equal Sallust in his Cataline or Jugurtha, any more than his patron Woodhouselee, whom he has bepraised in his dedication, will Plutarch or Dr Johnson. I am persuaded both you and Mr Dundas if he has not got a new light, will think me right. . . . Since you have returned to poetry, pray write an elegy on my Robin Redbreast, who in an evil hour last week having come into the house, was worried by a filthy cat, and was lying on the stair when I returned from my walk. For four years it attended me regularly every morning save in the hatching time, when gallanting his mate or tending its young. For these eight days it has absented itself which makes me believe it is no more. It is at least as good a theme as Catullus’s sparrow1. I do not however make a point, but leave it to your own discretion, like Sancho’s penance which might be performed at his own time, and in his own way; had I not ceased to write in measured Hues I would have tried an effusion.- I am sorry to tell you my neighbour Mr Drummond is, if not dangerously ill, much distressed with a cutaneous ailment, or in plain words an outstriking on his shin, and an itchiness which makes him sleep ill. Mr Wingate who attends him says it is much the same with what Colonel Edmonstoune2 had in 1787 which was both obstinate 1 1 Cf. Carmina, iii. Colonel James Edmonstone of Newton, who married Mary, daughter of George Abercromby of Tullibody. Q 242 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY and painful. His limbs too are a little swelled which I do not like- Yesterday he was better and had rested well. The Colonel and I went to Perth to drink Pitcaithly water.11 could not boast of success, but he drank every day two bottles of water and two of wine, which did not meet Dr Wingate’s prescription. Be that as it may, he re- covered soon after, and enj oyed better health for years then formerly. I wish my neighbour length of days and good health, he being an honourable man, and one of my best neighbours. If somewhat indolent and shy, the young man is likely to be equally keen and active, of a very different turn from him.... With three generations of that family I have lived on the best terms and I hope well of the heir apparent who surely has parts. Does he coalesce with the fair and gay after finishing his law task? . . . Time was when I had nothing else to excite my hopes or fears than a storm of frost and snow. It is too much to have both the natural and political horizon clouded and tempestuous, to say noth- ing of hurricanes in parliament. Let us hope the best, and leave the result to providence, sympathising with those who have the dearest pledges of their love at stake. God Grant we may not have theme for a second flowers of the forest! Apropos I have commissioned Marmion though fallen into the prose of life.... I will be obliged to Miss Agnes to buy for me some hard fish cod or ling which can be sent per next carrier. I like them and they will be useful below stairs. 6 February 1809 .... I thank you for endeavouring to get me a reading of Miss Bowdler’s book ;2 anything that resembles Maria must be interesting. Her turn for languages and even her thirst for knowledge were not so attractive as her conversation. In short she was just the Beatrice Shakespear drew. I trust by this time their ship has got within the tropics, out of the realm of frost and snow. After a violent inter- ruption yesterday senight, which as the Bairns said blew the ice off the water, and scattered it on the fields, the fields and hills, are again 1 Susan Ferrier referred to this place with mineral wells in Perthshire, as ‘ Spitcaithly ’ *(Memoirs Henrietta and Maria Correspondence Bowdler, of1754-1830, S. Ferrier, who London, edited 1898, Fragments p. 127a.). in prose and verse by the late Miss Elizabeth Smith, published in 1810. Her own works appear to be of a religious cast, not in the least resembling Maria’s. 1809 243 covered deep with snow. The weather and the times are somewhat akin, being somewhat portentuous. Though one must execrate the policy of sending the flower of our troops into the heart of a penin- sula, without fortresses or food for man and beast, it is a great matter that they were not all slaughtered or taken. It is well Sen- nacherib begins to soften his tone, surely they will not return to the charge, but to crusading there is no end, for experience will not alwise teach wisdom.- This attack on the Duke of York will not add to our strength, or to general confidence in men and measures. Mrs Clarke will make a figure. It reminds one of the question put by the prophet to the Shunamite woman ‘Wilt thou be spoken for to the King or to the Captain of the host’, and she answered, T dwell with my own people’.11 fear Mrs Clarke’s people are none of the best; and vice, prodigality and meanness sometimes go hand in hand. I wish it mav end in smoke. That it is a conspiracy against the house of Brunswick I will not say, but woes me! they give their enemies too much room to attack and vilify them. It would require a multiplepoinding (ask Mr Dundas its meaning) to say which of them should be preferred in the last place, an Irishism, you will say; but it is parliament house language, which is not alwise classical, though significant.-1 rejoice to hear that our judges are dignified and decorous. Does our friend Balmutto get out his breath? In president Craigie’s2 time he and Lord Bankton3 (both he and Craigie great lawyers and virtuous men)—‘Mr Andrew my Lord’ said the President most indecently - ‘My Lord’ retorted the other, ‘that’s buff’4. . . . I must now say a little of a lady who at present attracts the atten- tion of high and low hereabouts, viz. Mrs Callander of Craigforth, the fourth, fifth or sixth wife, for aught we know, of a noted person- age. She has been fluttering between Edinburgh and Stirling, advertising without money to pay her husband’s debts. After ineffec- tual attempts to get Entree at Craigforth, and paying court to the tenants, she at length came to the house of one of them a Forrester, with two maids and a man, taking posession. The man killed a hen and gave her two eggs, but she continued with him for some days 1 2 II Kings, iv, 13. 3 Robert Craigie of Glendoick, lord president, died 1760. 4 AndrewNonsense, Macdowal, foolish talk Lord (Jamieson). Bankton, c. 1685-1760. 244 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY calling for mutton chops, of which last he knew not the meaning. To Mason1 she went, but as she has no cash he gave her nothing but pepper and mustard. The man took advice how to get ridd of her. On spreading a carpet on his floor, she fell adancing. I am sorry for the Colonel and his wife, but they are at Sir James Stewart’s.2 She has got a Stirling lawyer to advise her, a Mr Cuthil.3- She must either be a low or foolish woman, and if she had brought money might have gone on, but she bids fair to land in a jail, being an alien from a very suspicious quarter. Mr Henry Erskine must interpose.- You see our little country affords scope for exotic geniuses. What will you say if her worthy husband be made Prefect of Stirlingshire under Sennacherib? This is an age of wonder! I am happy to tell you that Mr Drummond is now almost quite well. I only heard that on Tuesday. The first day that one could walk with comfort which for some days one could not do, I shall beat up his quarters. Moully heels* (if one may use that expression) to a very great degree were one of his maladies. . . . What hear you of Dr Gregory? The lucubrations are a mystery I wish unriddled. Surely he is not the author of the greater part. One would have thought he had another tow on his rock, but he wants not the eccentricities of genius. . . . What shall I tell you? am not I in the heart of Marmion, which I like passing well: but I must be more master of the story of Constance and other circumstances before I can pronounce. I like it better than the lay of the last Minstrel, because he has less Machinery. He avails himself of his priviledge as a romance writer to sclent i.e. fib on occasion, painting scenes much bigger and gaudier than the life. Have I not been at the hostel at Gifford or Yester? which was just a change house, as Sandy Moray Abercairney called the Star and Garter in Pall Mall. For aught yet seen, Marmion not James the fourth is his hero. It has been said the Devil is the hero of paradise lost. Let me finish it before saying more, suffice it to say, many passages touch the heart which is my test of poetry.... Many thanks to you for what your Spouse calls a smooth letter to this draw[cansir] of literature. I believe it was as well not to mention a biographical Lord.- All for the best! but it may teach a little caution which is akin to wisdom. If not more than heroic it 1 2 8 Not identified. Sir James Steuart-Denham, bt.,4 of Coltness, 1744-1839. Archibald Cuthill, writer in Stirling. Chilblains. 1809 245 makes people steer clear of rocks and quicksands on which genius is sometimes wrecked. . . . My little affairs go on well within and without doors. The more I see of Mrs Metcalf the more I approve of her. For that I have to thank you. And she manages the servants with discretion. The same may be said of my farm, the great drawback on which is the sight of my poor friend William Maceain1 who is weak in mind, good humoured and ready to work if he knew when. And he gives me a diurnal snuff which makes me look back to his prime. I do all I can to make the poor old man comfortable which 48 years service entitle me to do. . . . 14 February 1809 .... On Wednesday last, a killing cold day, I made a visit at Blair, and was glad to find Mr Drummond in tolerable health and spirits, but a good deal shaken. On Thursday they go to your great city, not to dash away but to keep aloof from bustle, faring sumptuously every day. Mrs Drummond who is very well, said her son was very busy and very gay. ‘ Why said I, should he not give a ball in your absence: Plenty of room! It would be a stroke of genius! ’ She said they would not be long away. I understand Keir has been carried by his sister to Edinburgh. I fear he is no so well as could be wished, but the ladies are passing well and desirous of tasting the pleasures of Edinburgh and have no objection to ponderous dinners and late hours. These are poor objects, indeed Boetian ones. Misses in their teens and a little more, have an important object in view, viz. an establishment in life. Know you how the laird is?- Well what say your quidnuncs to the Duke of York’s nasty story? He has met with a Hempie2 as my tenant said of our minister’s wife. She will read her sin in her punishment, and die in a jail. Methinks, a quarter of a year’s beating hemp in bridewell would be good for the health of her soul, accompanied with spare diet, and a touch of hangie’s laws. At Dalkeith when at school the mob exercised authority in its own style, making loose women either ride the Stang, i.e. the pole of infamy, or ducking them in the river till half drowned. What treat a royal mistress in that manner? Why not? She beats Nell Gwyn 1 2 William McEwan, Ramsay’s servant, to whom he left an annuity of jQy in his will. A rogue; one for whom the hemp grows (Jamieson). 246 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY hollow. His Royal Highness has not been fortunate. The charge will sink him in the public opinion at a most interesting time. . . . Mrs Callendar has decamped for Edinburgh and it is said has paid her scores. She is I doubt an avantereuse. What better could be expected from her Lord? It may be collected that Mr Wardle1 will gain nothing by her conduct which seems to be part of a great plan. . . . I have got a new favourite a black colie a tenant’s dog which consoles me a little for poor Robin. . . . 13 March 1809 lam much gratified with the excerpt from Maria’s letter which is truly Pindaric, something more than poetic or sentimental, I am glad she is so comfortably situated in her commander and in her messmates. Mr Tyler2 seems to be a citizen of the world; they say a moving stone gathers no fog.. .. But granting her due credit for her thirst after knowledge of which language is the vehicle and passport, were she to live to the age of Methuselah, she would be still to learn and aspire after tongues unknown, perhaps not worth the trouble of acquiring. Meanwhile let me wish them a safe and prosperous voyage to their desired port. If Tyler returns by land, he must not think of a female companion through a dreary wilderness. . . What a difference between Edinburgh in my younger days, and its present state when the new town increases with amazing velocity? And the inhabitants live in a style that will not disgrace their palaces, yet nothing could be more rational or mirthful than Auld Reekie in its unadorned state, when there was no want of elegance or know- ledge ; when the public places were well calculated to make the fair and the gay acquainted, promoting an establishment in life. Let me not however compound for sins I am inclined to, by damning those I have no mind to.3 Parents must introduce their children into com- pany, in doing which there is room for discretion and good sense to operate. I am glad to see the playhouse in some repute. As the forenoon lasts now till eleven at night, it is a sort of morning recreation pour passer le temps, previous to a morning supper and sitting up all night, which are, it would seem accounted the first of luxuries. In a word Edinburgh seems to be a little London; its luxuries and pursuits are nearly the same. . . . Were the two Erskines James and 1 Not identified. 2 Not identified. 3 Samuel Butler, Hudibras, pt. I, c.i. 1809 247 Th[omas] at home? a winter campaign at Edinburgh is at least better at Edinburgh than at Corunna. That family shall alwise have my best wishes. The Blair family must do like other people, for the sake of their young folk, who shall I hope escape the snares of the Dutchess who it would seem is a sort of Circe or Calypso who you know could transform guests into animals somewhat akin. O saw you ever Comus? you have surely read it. There we see something analogous to your midnight conversations, and hear everything that can be said of pleasures in opposition to the sentiments of the two brothers which were narrow and illiberal. The transformation was you know allegorical. Apropos, strange that masquerades do not come in vogue! There was one at Eglinton.- What will the sons and daughters of vanity say when the Flushing fleet comes up the firth? Will they not call to the hills to cover them? Ay, say you who are only a spectator, and not initiated in the mysteries, so will the recluses. A little, or rather a great deal offasting and prayer seems requisite for your city. . . . Well how goes on the work of education in these long protracted forenoons? Annie Abercromby when a lassie lively and sensible, told her grandfather that now it consisted of dancing, music, drawing and a little work. He that had much of the philo- sophy of common sense said in answer, ‘Misses bred in the ton resembled race or hunting mares which though fine looking were costly and apt to run away. A pad was best for a country gentleman travelling through life’. What a similitude say you? It is allegorical at least, one of the best ways of conveying instruction. . . . 28 March 1809 A thousand thanks for . . . your account of the Blairdrummond feast or supper; for of the dancing and cards which preceded it you say nothing, not caring perhaps for these things. Your account of it is simple and unadorned, but everything seems to have been con- ducted with decorum and dignity; fullness may be combined with elegance; and sobermindedness with the gloss of fashion. What distinguishes it from those of the vainglorious that have more wealth than wisdom, is the discrimination of guests, or in other words, the selection of them. There is no common sense in having a fashionable mob of people whom one never sees but at those mid- night modem parties, where it cannot be expected that the seeds of 248 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY friendship will be sown. If this exertion be a departure, to a certain degree, from the maxims and manners of my neighbours; it was in them a wise and necessary measure, in the situation of their family and well warranted by their fortunes and prospects. And what is best of all, it has been conducted with taste and good sense which are nearly allied; the antipodes of bourgeois ostentation and vanity, which are not entitled to esteem and admiration for being magnifi- cent, and crowded with people that laugh at or despise their enter- tainer, when either an upstart or living in vainglorious state which either does not suit his origin, or his finances. From the abuse to the use of a thing is not logical reasoning. Private balls as they are very absurdly called, have, like Pharoah’s lean kine, swallowed up all the other diversions. ... I wish I could have had Gyges’s ring which would have transported me unseen into the heart of the joyous assembly where one could have made his observations in the spirit of that charity which thinketh no evil and is not easily provoked. Think not I am exhorting you to give a fete to 100 people. I heard and but heard of you having had a triste partie degarcons which ended very joyfully.- I am much diverted with the oeconomies of the Abercairny family. If it be better to have a little too much room; a super- abundance of it is worse. That house in its old form was the seat for many years of hospitality and good cheer. ’Twill not be in our time, that the steps of the stairs of modem houses will be worn away by guests and neighbours. I presume their balls and parties used to be on a greater, more miscelaneous scale; but the fountain can never rise higher than its source. What is become of the young Laird? It might be expedient for him to board. Apropos, when does Mrs Graham migrate to Struan? It is I think a prudent measure.. . . Now for my walk, to walk off Mr Whitbread’s speech which smells strong of anarchy and misrule. Strange they will not be satisfied with dis- grace and loss of power; but for his own vice and folly it could not have happened. These gentry wish to abuse the throne which would affect the cottage. . . . Had John Drummond a Pisgah view of the fete, or was he and Juba confined to their room? I am glad to hear the boys like the rector’s class.- Keep them back if possible. Hot bed education is the bane of the age, not mended by lads being men at sixteen. The misses are not produced so soon, but they are very 1809 249 ingenious in making up their leeway. Pray does the appetite of misses and masters increase in the ratio of the plenty and splendours ? ‘When I was a young lass’ said old Lady Tullibody1 to a lass that would not eat of her good things, ‘When I was young I had a stomach that would have pleased any man’. . . . 25 April 1809 .... Glorious news and unexpected. Cochrane2 will be a second Nelson. Woes me for our countrymen in Spain! We seem infatuated. I had sooner be a barrowman than be a minister of war or of state. 23 May 1809 .... This is anything but a sentimental letter, but butter is nowadays an interesting subject, considering our close intercourse with the English, whose ruling passion is toast and butter...... Are you idle enough to go [to] the general assembly? Alas! their debates are insignificant and their eloquence turns to no account. Greed and laxity are indeed making rapid strides among them! Not more they may say, than among their heritors. Strange to tell there is delightful weather; sweet for once is the breath of May! That used not to be the case in the assembly time, when the debates used to be eloquent, savouring sometimes of the Zephyrs from the Bass. Somebody seeing the synod pacific and the weather mild, observed that long ago the Devil was so much afraid of the good clergy, that he used to raise a storm when they met, but that now they were become lazy or insignificant he gave himself no trouble about their proceedings. .... Where is General Ferguson? Will the chicken pye club pay tribute to Mr Pitt? It is too much what Keir called drinking Fox’s dregy3. Want of parts and energy, unless in mischief seems the character of parties. . . . Remember you Jenny’s description in the Gentle Shepherd or her account of the complaints and crosses inci- dent to children. I sat last week half an hour with Mr Drummond 1 Mary, daughter of Ralph Dundas of Manor, married George Abercromby of Tulli- body.2 3 Sir Alexander F. I. Cochrane, admiral, 1758-1832. (Jamieson). The funeral service, or ‘compotation of the funeral company after the interment’ 250 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY and his daughter and had a chearful chat. He tells me Harry [goes] to [Oxf]ord to take a bachellor’s degree of civil law. ‘What am I to get by that?’ said old Gibson of Durie1 when desired to give a ball on his succeeding to the Estate. . . . And now for my studies which help me to beguile the solitary hours without having the fears of Jaffray2 and Co.- O! Walter Scott is, they say, turned reviewer. I wish him success but he had better stick to poetry and the regions of fiction. A man may write himself out of repute and provoke gainsayers. 6 June [1809] .... I observe what you say of the Castlesemple family which I hear is to be reunited. All good betide the new proprietor and his family !3 I hope he shall have a good sale in these south-sea times. As for Garthland4 one would not recommend him as a pattern to a Scottish laird or senator. The marvel is he had not made shipwreck of his constitution long ago as well as of his fortune. I hope he shall not hurt his brother who is not likely like him to lead the life of Dives. People sometimes seek for disquietudes, as for hidden treasures. . . . Poor Dr Macleod’s death was a thing to be expected, and as he had lost his faculties, a continuence of life was not desirable but when I looked back to the instruction and entertainment I had had from him for more than twenty years, the news did not tend to exhilarate the spirits of one who has survived the greatest part of his friends and associates.... Mr Dundas wrote me that Mr Holland was much better, at which I rejoiced, he being my junior by a year. With him I spent the happiest days of my youth, while summer suns stole unperceived away. His manners were rather smoother and more insinuating than poor Macleod’s. All happiness befal him! He must beware of late tea drinkings and too much eloquence over his bottle, and become a disciple of Dr Gregory. ... I presume you are either 1 2 Possibly John Gibson of Durie, died 1767. 3 Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, 1773-1850. The estate of Castle Semple belonged to the McDowall of Garthland family, until beingit was parcelledbought by out John in 1808, Harvey the principal(G. Crawford, part of theA general property, Description including of the the mansion, Shire of 4Renfrew, Paisley, 1818, p. 349). William Macdowall of Garthland and Castle Semple, died 1810. He had five brothers. iSop 251 at the seaside or returned for a start to your husband and boys. What are your plans? Let me not interfere with them. If I get a little better I would like to take a Pisgah, perhaps a last peep at Edinburgh which if it has not a hundred gates like Thebes in Egypt, has a hundred streets London street Dublin street etc. . . . 18 June 1809 .... Having got a cargo of lime for the turnip field and everything in order, I meant to have wrote Mr Dundas as your locum tenens (you see I do not say your better half) announcing my intention of being in Edinburgh on the 24th, but poor William’s wife was taken ill that morning, being speechless and in a high fever. That being the case I postponed writing till I should see how she was, as I could not take him away if she continued ill or be cut off. She has however taken a favourable turn, the fever has abated, and she begins to take some nourishment and there is every Reason to hope she will re- convalesce. The truth is I suspected it was the hysterics, or as old Mr Maine Powis called them the Satirics that was dealing with her, to which she was very subject.... I shall now lay my plans before you: I mean to reverse my last year’s one, to begin with Edinburgh and to go from thence to Mr Watson’s and Tom Bruce’s,1 if they be at home, and disposed to receive a fellow of no mark or likelihood. In Edinburgh I could do without a man, but it is I think prudent to have William when on my travels. Considering the paucity of my Edinburgh friends fewer days than usual may suffice there. . . . 13 July 1809 .... For these three days I have been very much distressed, first with my eye and then with the effects of a second bleeding with leeches which swelled my face. Both the first and second bleedings stopped the inflammation and William, my sub-occulist, says it is clearer than for a fortnight. Still the eyelids are a little swelled and inflamed. Nothing can exceed Mr Wingate’s zeal and attention. He said there was more debility than inflammation, and called it a Greekish word chronic which may be interpreted lasting. At that however I laugh; 1 Thomas, son of Robert Bruce, eighth of Kennet, married Margaret, daughter of Robert Ramsay of Blackcraig. 252 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY knowing that whenever the inflammation goes off, my eye grows strong. In the meantime it is a dispiriting complaint, worse then the pimphigus1 or collection of little ulcers in 1805, or the vile fit in 1806. On Monday forenoon I had a visit from Mr Trail who had supped at Baron Clerk’s2 soon after we were there. He is a pleasing well informed man and will I hope be an accession to the neighbourhood. A Caithness man could not but be struck with the trees etc. That day Mr Graham Gartur, Anne and Mainie Erskines with Eliza Hay,3 a fine little creature, dined here. The exertions I made to entertain my guests, j'oined to strong sunshine, did not lessen my complaints. On Tuesday I sat four and a half hours under the leeches, like Seneca bleeding in the Bath. . . . As for my watch no more needs be said than that it is lost, for I am positive I did not pull it out from leaving Edinburgh to Falkirk where I missed it. It was a very old unsightly piece, but I have the gold chased case.4 Suppose it advertised? As a family piece and my old companion I should like to get it back and to pay for it. I believe I must get a plain silver or pinchbeck watch, for to vanity I have bid adieu. I will be obliged to you and Mr Dundas to hold a consulta- tion on this important subject. I wish not to discover the longitude so a fine or expensive one is needless. In that however there is no haste I have in the meantime got Mrs Metcalfe’s watch which is so far well. There is no curing heedlessness and mislaying things. So much for one old companion which I trusted should have continued with me while time endured. The watch may be recovered or replaced, but the coldness or alienation of an old friend who sweet- ened my cup for more than fifty years is a more bitter pill to digest. You are an epigrammatist: Nature has been very bountiful in her gifts, but her heart seems to lie in an icehouse. Mr Dundas may in discourse see what he meant by a total change in what might be called the family compact. No more of that! To mourn a mischief 1 This is presumably the ailment mentioned on p. ijo, above, though the words are2 different. 3 James Clerk, baron of exchequer, 1809 (Edinburgh Almanac). 4 Elizabeth Seton, daughter of Robert Hay of Drumelzier, died unmarried 1858. GD35/53/23), Ramsay, in addsa letter ‘perhaps to Mr it [theDundas, watch] 4 Julymight 1809 be picked(sro, Dundasby some of of Ochtertyre, the people about Drysdales, some of which are loon enough It was as old as Charles the Second being by Massey’ (a Paris clockmaker, cf. Britten’s clocks and watches, ed. G. H. Baillie, London, 1951, p. 159). 809 253 that is past and gone, is the next way to bring on a new one says Shakespear1 This heart will shortly cease to throb, and an end be put to all my joys and sorrows.- Meanwhile you must give me credit for my ingenuity. William and the gardiner are my readers. The latter enters deep in Gil Bias, the prince of romancers and says he likes it as well as Newton on the prophecies.2 Amusement is my object which is innocent. . . . 18 July 1809 .... When you and Mr Dundas have held a college about a new watch I will be glad to hear from you, by post. Exclusive of a com- panion, I am presently excluded from the tea chest by the loss of my late watch, and keys. My tea equipage is very awkward and in- complete. ... I understand Harry Drummond returned on Sunday and is to march to Perth with his corps on Monday. Promotion in the local militia is very rapid. It will I am afraid be found a rope of sand. My young neighbour cannot be accused of inactivity. He has my best wishes as the representative of a family to which I am much attached.- Poor Keir is in Ireland, beholding not enjoying scenes of luxury and dissipation. . . . 1 August 1809 I... approve much of the northern expedition which will contribute to your amusement and to Mr Dundas’s health, more especially if you spend some time at Peterhead, a place to which I am very partial, and should prefer to most of the English wells. The place is neat and picturesque, and the air so keen that it invigorates the frame and promotes digestion. I was also much pleased with the people who are innocent and cleanly, systematically civil and obliging, and when I knew them not extravagant, but the late great influx of company may have made a change, and the flocks of idlers and flatterers from the South will not improve them. An English lady asked Dr Dundas to get her a cool summer place, he recommended Peterhead; on meeting the bird of passage again at some of the English wells, she told him she had got what she so much wanted a 1 To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on. 2 Thomas Newton, 1704-82,Shakespeare, bishop of Bristol, Othello, author 1, iii. of Dissertation on the Prophecies. 254 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY charming cool summer retreat. I presume you will among other places visit Pitfour1 whose house is not far off. I dare say you will like the Norlands who are an acute, sensitive kind-hearted people, very attentive to strangers. Nay I like the sharpness of their tones and their Doric dialect which gives a relish to what they say. They have by all accounts changed much as well as ourselves, but the ground work remains and strikes every traveller. No doubt you will visit Aberdeen which improves apace in buildings, streets etc. On the whole I trust your jaunt shall be equally pleasant and salubrious. .... O I have dined at Mr Traill’s, and had handsome entertain- ment: two courses in china etc. but a very pleasing party. Lady Doune2 and I recognised one another. Lady Isabella Sinclair3 seems learned in the history of private life and could write interesting pro- spects of Caithness, the most hospitable part of Scotland where in days of yore it was ill taken to pass a gentleman’s door. Nous avons changez tout cela, says the mock Doctor speaking of the position of the heart.4 He and five of his Daughters5 dined here last week and seemed much pleased with my plain dinner and removes. He has a prodigious farm and dairy; sows 1000 bolls of grain; has sixty milk cows and ten dairy maids. He is to be away three months. I like him much. One of his daughters the third has a fine turn for drawing and writes like copperplate. I am glad to see the place so well tenanted.... I rejoice to hear such good accounts of Maria who I trust long before now has reached the place of her destination. God bless her and hers though we are not likely to meet again in this world! What of that? It seems made for Buenaparte. ... By all accounts the Vienna noblesse were the greatest gourmandes in Europe, beating you Edinburgians hollow. ... I feel for Mrs Macdowall6 and her infants, but hope their affairs will be brought to order. It is a tragic story. . . . 15 August 1809 .... I congratulate you upon finishing your travels so much to your liking,1 meeting with no mishaps but a bad dinner at Killin where 2 Pitfour in Old Deer parish, Aberdeenshire. 3 Margaret Ainslie, second wife of Francis, later tenth earl of Moray, 1771-1848. 4 Isabella, daughter of William, tenth earl of Caithness. 6 From Moliere, Le Medecin malgre lui, ii, 6. 8 James Traill had six daughters, all of whom died unmarried. Her husband, Day Hort MacDowall, died 16 July 1809 (Scots Magazine). 1809 255 I have ate happy ones with the good minister who was passing rich with small matters, and the being forced to quit Lochearnhead which was long a miserable one. When Achalader1 told Lady Glenorchy that she must have been miserably ill off at that place, ‘ Why’, said she, ‘ it is much better than Capua in Italy which proved fatal to Hannibal’s army after its victories’. I wish you had seen Dunotter castle within two miles of Stonehaven which is a great curiosity. . . . [and that] you had been some days at Aberdeen and consorted with the noblesse and with the Advocates who do not think themselves small drink. Had they known of so eminent a man as Mr Dundas, they would have so feasted him. The good old houses were oddly set down in corners. Sir Thomas Miller’s lady2 being asked in coming in sight of Rome, if she had ever seen any- thing like it T think’, said she, ‘it reminds me of Aberdeen’. You have no thoughts of making the comparison. ’Twas a pity that Ogilvy3 who is a very learned man had not known the Doctor. He is the most elegant latin scholar in Scotland, but his showing Dr Doig4 a coin of King Hiero of Syracuse almost cost us our dinner from his breaking out into a Greek Rhapsody. The libraries would not have edified an Oxonian. I wish you had staid a week at Peter- head where the most aimiable of the Scottish bishops has his abode, a great favourite of mine.5 I was in hopes you would have sowed on Pitfour,6 whose wine by all accounts is better than his house, but he is said to be very kind. I do not wonder at your admiring the three great high places with which I am acquainted. Lord Bread- albane7 may build a palace, but his soul bears no proportion to it. His predecessor8 whose guest I was for a week lived like a prince and made his people happy. I am glad you paid filial duty to your 1 died Probably 1799, unmarried John Campbell (M. O. of Campbell, Achallader, A Memoriallieutenant History colonel, of theBreadalbane Campbells ofFencibles, Melfort, London,1 1882, p. 45). Sir Thomas Miller of Barskimming and Glenlee, bt., 1717-89, lord president, 3married, secondly, in 1768, Anne Lockhart. William Ogilvie, professor of humanity at King’s College, Aberdeen. See also above,4 p. 3. 5 David Doig, ll.d., rector of Stirling grammar school, died 1800. 9 John Skinner, episcopalian bishop of Aberdeen, died 1816. 7 James Ferguson, of Pitfour, M.P., died 1820. 8 John Campbell, fourth earl of Breadalbane, 1762-1834. John, third earl of Breadalbane, baptised 1696, died 1782. 256 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY good mother. It would have been most improper to have come this way, considering the hurry you were in. To travel to advantage one should travel slow and see better company than publicans especially in the highlands. . . . And now of myself. Two days after writing you, it [Ramsay’s eye] took a favourable turn owing as I thought to bathing it with wellwater and a poultice of bread and cold water all night, and applying an ointment. William says my eye is nearly in its usual state the whole being clear. I now scribble without fear but must be temperate in my studies and pleasures, which are at least less fatiguing than those of the people that carry on war with the muir- fowl amid heavy rain. Such I presume were the inmates at Lochern- head! Now for business addressed equally to you and Mr Dundas, only too humble for his dignity and avocations. Positively I must have a companion that I can call my own, Mrs Metcalf’s has even more faults than my former one going wondrously slow, but use reconciles one to any thing. I wish for a decent watch, no matter whether the case be silver or pinchbeck, only let the hours be marked in letters not figures. I wish not for an expensive one and still less for a strong one. Time and I will ere long part, and therefore vanity is out of the question. That being the case, I mean this same orloge to be the property of my name sonjohnnie, his first parapher- nalia. I would not have a long chain but a short one, not to tempt pick pockets again, and I must have a seal about 5s. a God, Goddess, hero or sage [at] your pleasure.- As for the lock and key of the tea ch[est] that can be had at Stirling. . . . 29 August 1809 Just returned from Blair Drummond whither I went yesterday to dinner with Dr Charters and had a pleasant party. And first of Ralph and Charles Stirling.1 Instead of arriving on the Wednesday they did not come till Saturday senight, when it was with difficulty I could get them to stay all night, and a servant came over to enquire for them at ten at night. I carried them to Stirling next morning, being on my way to Airthray. They said they would come back when the weather was better, but it has rained ever since Sunday 1 Charles, third son of Col. Charles Moray Stirling of Abercaimy, captain in army, died 1820, unmarried. 1809 257 excepted. The truth is they can neither fish nor bathe their supreme delights! I alledged on Charles that he was as restless as a hen on a hot girdle. ... I have discovered Ralph to be an excellent mender of pens a great matter to a scribbler. I thought they had gone to Struan but it is choke full. I saw Mrs Joass, Bess Dundas1 and Grizel Edmonstoune. Mrs Joass says she is to make no visits. She is bent twofold, and not in good spirits. There I heard of James Buchanan’s death which is a dreadful shock to his family.2 If not the ablest, he was the most aimiable and gentlemannered of the whole. And his discretion in a great metropolis did him honour. I wrote the father a kind letter and was answered by the major.3 I had Dr Stuart from Monday night till Thursday morning when he went to Cambusmore. I like to see ministers grateful; he professes great obligations to Auchlishy. On Friday before tea Dr Charters appeared in one of Gibb’s chairs. Andrew and the carriage were left to attend the Lady who has got two misses with her in his absence. She made a point of his making the visit which she would have done had she been stronger. It has made me very happy. He is a man of a strong mind with much eloquence and elegance in his conversation, yet much simplicity. We have been very busy, and I have got hints from him which I think of great consequence. On Sunday he preached at Kincardine to a crowded audience few of whom he knew after about thirty years. He preached on the two witnesses in the revelation in a style somewhat different from Lauchlan Taylor, your old neighbour. The people were most attentive, indeed I never saw a person sleep in church when he held forth. A countryman told a minister of a neighbouring parish that as long as Dr Charters was on the revelations, he need not expect to see him. In the afternoon he gave one of his sermons on old age which I regreted I did not hear, having got cold, but though a great exertion yet by stopping in going and returning at Blair, I was not the worse of it, and my cold is better though the weather is damp beyond measure. The good Doctor seems to enjoy his jaunt and the sight of his old parish. My expedition last year and his now were great feats for indolent men wedded to the banks of the Teith and the Teviot.- God send us 1 2 Elizabeth Dundas, daughter of late Dr Thomas Dundas, physician in Alloa. 3 AlexanderHe was killed Buchanan. in action See at alsoTalavera. above, See p. also90, n.above, 4. p. 103, n. 1. R 258 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY better times and better weather! Much reason have we to dread mishaps: but let us bode well, I fear Dutch agues. A victory like the one in Spain would make us sing, closing de profundis. . . . 11 September 1809 .... The same day that my friend Dr Charters set out for Fife, did I begin my corn harvest and have cut down all that is ripe, being more than half through. The crop is good and will stand much rain; for I never yet saw that weather when an industrious alert man could not save his crop, though I have sometimes been hard put to it. On Thursday I achieved a great feat, in getting up my hay stack in fine condition, which was commenced somewhat rashly, from the state of the Atmosphere and the lightening for several nights preceeding; but there are times when risks must be run. . . . For more than a week I have been head and ears in Coelebs1 which is a wonderful book, much superior, both in object and strain, to the great run of novel writers, who either depart from or disfigure nature. Whereas the author recommends a model too perfect or too shining for the bulk of young men or young women in a giddy epicurean age, when luxury and something very like dissipation engross the attention of the male and female fashionable world. Its folly and shortcomings are painted with a glowing, I cannot say with a hasty hand calculated to make a deep impression. If it shall be thought a methodistical work, never did methodism assume so rational or edifying a form; for it expressly reprobates, as in the case of Mr Tyrrell, some of the fanatical, rash uncharitable notions attributed to that sect. If you would only take a quarter of the Taber- nacle you would hear little else. I love the Stanleys, and think the father would make an excellent professor of divinity; for he is too strict and too narrow to fill the moral philosophy chair. I think Coelebs and his mistress rather spiritless and uninteresting. Commend me to Phoebe, who is all nature yet spirited. I almost wish there had been obstructions and advantures to have retarded their union. With all their imprudency Tom Jones and Sophia Western will be more admired than this pair of lovers who are likely to be cloyed with sweets. In short, this book may be considered as a collection of 1 Hannah More, Coelebs in Search of a Wife (second edn., London, 1809). 1809 259 intellectual sweetmeats. When old Mayne of Powes gave his plough- men Citron etc. in place of kitchen, one of them said ‘This is excel- lent, but indeed my teeth lair in it’. In like manner the continued strain of sentiment, however orthodox and interesting, is apt to surfeit, rather to be reduced to practice; but it must be acknowledged there is no weakness or fanaticism in them. ... I am delighted with the Rattles, the Flams etc. which are drawn with great spirit and force. O ! when Miss Rattle shall come out i.e. be presented, she will feed on pleasures till her teeth lair in them. And Flam’s dissertation on the effects of music on his daughter is excellent, as well as his preference of England to Athens. On the whole, it is a book that may do good, if it does not reclaim the young and the gay who have forgot their catechism and neglected their bible. Had it been less strict and not presented a very difficult task, it might have done more good but in times like these it is well to have a high seasoned dish that does not contain more or less poison. Do you think that Coelebs would have met with his marrow at Edinburgh ? I am afraid he would have been severe on the conduct of matrons and their daughters, most wrongeously and unjustly, say you! You would hear our Coelebs was at Kinnaird seeing his cousins. So much for Coelebs which has enabled me to pass a wet fore- noon in making a few slight remarks. It may serve as a book of Remedies so pure and rational is its strain. ‘ Consistency is the test of genuine piety’. A rational Coelebs would prefer Miss Stanley with all her parade of charity, to Miss Flam with or without her tocher. Mrs Drummond told Dr Charters that her daughter had never read a romance - a boast which few modem Misses can make. Dr Doig of Stirling took another way with his only daughter. Knowing he said that Misses will find means to read novels, he thought it best to give her the least exceptionable. These she read with great assiduity till she got Clarissa, after which she would not look at them. The sufferings and deathbed of Clarissa teach admirable lessons to an impressive well disposed mind. For my own part I wish the fair and the gay to adopt the religion of Addison and act up to the precepts of the Gentleman and lady’s calling which breath a mild, a rational, and a liberal spirit. Ay say you batchellors’ wives and maidens’ bairns are ever well managed. . . . Should a chapter of Coelebs be made the lesson of the night at balls, I fear the beaux and belles would 260 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY soon say to the reader ‘it sufficeth’, as Dr Turner of Cambridge1 said to the bible clerk who was reading in time of dinner.... 25 September 1809 .... I breakfasted next morning with I think one of the happiest most contented men of my acquaintance. His first exploit after studying physic in Edinburgh, was to walk across France and Swisserland just before the revolution, along with a Dr Garrick of Bristol an eminent physician.2 His name is Peter Muschet, the son of a minister of Stirling,3 whose philanthropy and good will to man he inherits. He went soon after to Bengal where in the course of ten or twelve years he made a competence with which he returned to his native country, where he married a Miss Saunders4 to whom he had been attached at his outset in life. He purchased his father’s house and some enclosures near Gartur house which he would not exchange for ere a park or palace in Christendom. Everything about the place, his north aspected wall which will carry nothing but cherries, interests, nay delights him, and though his wife be neither young nor hand- some ; fairer to him she seems than maids for beauty famed ;5 and indeed she is a very sensible pleasing mannered woman, without conceit or affectation. They have three children, the eldest a boy somewhat spoilt, the second a girl, a fascinating prattler whom it will not be easy to spoil. The man and wife are as pious and serious as Coelebs and the Stanleys, without morosity or narrowness. In short he is a proof that a man with one talent and a competence may be happier than a Lord or Nabob wallowing in wealth and luxury. The man and wife are great favourites with the Gartur family and I wish they were as near me, they being innocent, easy and kind.- From that I proceeded to Gartur, where after depositing a basket, I proceeded to pay a visit to my excellent friend Meiklewood who 1 Probably Joseph Turner, matriculated 1763, d.d. 1785, Fellow and Master of Pem- broke College 1784-1828, died 1828; or (less likely) Shallet Turner, bom 1692, ll.d. 1728, Fellow of Peterhouse, 1714-48, professor of modern history 1735-62, died 17622 (Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses). Possibly Andrew Garrick, author of Diss in aug. de asthmateperiodica (Edinburgh, 1787) (Edinburgh University Library, Att. 78.7, 11/8). 43 John Muschet, 1733-93, minister of Stirling, East Church. s AgnesFrom HardyknuteSaunders, wife (Scotish of Patrick Songs, Muschet ed. J. Ritson, of Birkhill, Glasgow, 1764-1835, 1869, ii,died 486). 16 July 1810. 1809 261 has never missed an opportunity of sweetening my cup, when indisposed. He, his wife,1 son and daughter set out on Tuesday for Penzance in Cornwall. The two latter are not well, William the son far gone in a consumption, but all of them chearful and resigned. The Lady and he travel in their post chaise hiring horses, Mr Graham rides the steed which last year carried him 1400 miles in England and Wales. It is a long journey at this season; let us hope it will be pro- pitious but the poor lad looks very ill. I parted with them not without some emotion and returned to Gartur to dinner where I found none but Mar2 and his daughter,3 Lady Christian and Rachael, and we went on very well having never seen Mar so pleasant or so little verbose. ... He is also the patient of Gregory and may be exhibited in the Doctor’s lectures as a strong proof of the effects of temperance and regimen steadily pursued, for he seems quite recovered from the paralytic stroke and very chearful. He gave me some anecdotes of his two Grandfathers Mar4 and Grange5 who were but so so men, that once strutted and fretted their hour on the political stage of Scotland, little to their credit and profit. I came home on Wednesday and fell to my papers, determined to see my honest friend Keir the first good day. Accordingly, this being a sunny day, I went over in the forenoon and sat more than an hour with him. From what his man tells me which I trust more than what he says, joined to his emaciated appearance, I am afraid his days will not be many. And he is highly culpable in eating nothing but milk and vegetables whereas a mixture of them with animal food would assimilate best. He gives a curious account of his host Ralph Peter. Rather than consort with him I would live on water, kaill and sowins, and were I his physician I would prescribe them to him by way of penance. The misses came from church but I could not get them catechised about their travels which they seemed to like though they lived very private. I saw also Mrs Robert 1 Clementina Stirling, died 18 March 1821, second wife of John Graham of Meikle- 2wood (sro, Stirling Sheriff Court, Inventories, vol. 6, fo. 9). 3 John Francis, restored earl of Mar, 1741-1825. Mar had four daughters, Charlotte Francis died 1837, Mary Anne died 1844, Char- 4lotte died 1852, and Jane died 1857. John, eleventh earl of Mar, succeeded 1689, died 1732; his daughter, Francis, married James6 Erskine, knight-marischal, son of James Erskine, Lord Grange. James Erskine of Grange, justice-clerk, son of Charles, tenth earl of Mar, died 1754. 262 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY in her weeds with her babe j1 she seems a pleasing natural woman. I must not omit that Lady Christian looks younger than twenty years ago, agreeing well with a country life, and not being exposed to the idlers of fashion who teaze and exhaust her spirits. She sets out for Broomhall tomorrow to revisit the haunts of her youth as well as her nephew and niece. From her they will learn nothing but good, whether they are apt scholars or not is not the question, but there I suppose she will sojourn till the town fills a little.- On coming home I found I had missed George and James Aber- cromby who had walked about a good while and left a very kind letter from Mrs Abercromby inviting me in her own name and Mrs James Abercromby to come over tomorrow and pass a day or two.... It is the first invitation I have had from them, for hitherto I invited myself which is but awkward; but it will remind me of scenes to which I look back with pleasure mingled with regret. . . It would have been too much happiness had you popped in when your spouse and his sons were here. I regreted the latter were so little here, but they were otherwise engaged. They are fine lads and very popular. Ralph is manly beyond his years and very sensible, though a little reserved. If William has to a stranger a litde of a sour look, yet as soon as his eye kindles and he laughs, one sees a vein of humour and kindness. At night he associated with William and his son, my nameson in both names, from whom he would learn no harm which is more than can be said of that class of people.... Had this day been good I should have secured such part of my crop as was in danger but after a white frost and snow on the highland hills much rain in the night. This morning the high hills have got a covering which indicates an early if not a severe winter. I might moralise and say the winter of life is fast coming on. Let me be thankful it is at least gentle. . . . 28 September 1809 In my long letter by the carrier I threatened you with another after I should return from Tullibody. I came home yesterday before dinner, much gratified with my visit to a place and family which 1 Sarah Steel, relict of Robert, son of William Stirling of Keir, by whom she had a daughter who died young. iSop 263 have alwise interested me very much. ... I got a frank from the m. p.1 whom I had not seen for fifteen or sixteen years, a long period in his life and story. I found him easy and communicative as I desired for we kept aloof from party or persons. He told me that he and his wife had made the little tour, by Blair Atholl, Taymouth, Dunyra and loch Catherine with the last of which they were delighted. I understand Lord Balmutto is just returned from a visit to Lord Melville, whose liberality is great; for in the opinion of such men, a slip in politics cuts deeper than one in morals, but our great countryman was alwise goodnatured and courteous. I am exceed- ingly pleased with his better half, who, though past her bloom, is a pleasing Lady-looking well bred woman, without affectation or conceit, taking her share in the conversation, no easy matter among strangers or rather foreigners If she cannot help speaking English, it sounds more naturally from her than from the tonish Edinburgh misses who are perhaps some steps above the standards. And were she to stay much longer in this country, she would acquire some knowledge of our Doric dialect which (I mean in books) is too much neglected by a fastidious generation, who forget that it is the lan- guage of pastoral poetry superior to anything ancient or modern. She was therefore gravelled at some of my words and stories, but very desirous of understanding them. Mairbetaiken and Randy2 required some circumlocution, and was almost too hard for Mrs Colonel Tytler who with her husband and daughter, were inmates of the family, he being on a cruize against the partridges, over whom it is poor to triumph, they being as defenceless as hares. Be that as it may, we had a very pleasing natural party. If our friends are deficient in aught, it is in progeny. George has only one son3 and James the same, a chaffy-cheeked spirited fellow of size.4 Miss5 was at Dunyra with her grandfather. Our entertainment was good but not over- loaded or overdressed and I have seldom seen a second course more honoured in the eating. Even I ate some fritters not to be particular; and though there were various wines, adhered to humble port with 1 2 James Abercromby, later first Baron Dunfermline, m.p. for Midhurst 1807-12. 3 Especially; and quarrelsome or scolding. 1 George Ralph, later third Baron Abercromby, 1800-52. 6 Ralph, 1803-68, son of James Abercromby and Mary Anne Leigh (Kay, i, no). Montagu, elder daughter of George, second Baron Abercromby. 264 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY the addition of a glass of sweet wine which I liked. We had the first day our Coelebs and MacConochie the advocate.1 The conversation was very good, save that more than enough was said of the Duel2 the meaning and consequences of which, none could tell, further than that it was a bitter bad business, no proof of the wisdom or temper of our cabinet ministers. . . . Mrs Abercromby was alwise a great favourite, and her husband has capability. I hope we shall meet again as we parted. The house is a good one and much improved; and without doors everything is gay and well disposed. Plenty of gravel walks and good roads the chief defects of it in days of yore, which did not prevent people walking about with great amenity, though they dirtied their shoes. . . . How is good Mrs Graham? Will you get me from her who is rich in anecdote, the stanza of the ballad, ‘and we ran and they ran’ which speaks of Keir, Newton and the other cavaliers of this country3. . . . The playhouse is not more quiet than the cabinet. I presume you live at your castle on which your spouse says you are planning improvements. You have however no thoughts of rearing a castle, or quitting the house to accomodate midnight morning guests. Mr, Mrs and Miss Tytler offered a visit at Keir, but Miss Mainie said the house was choke full.... There I read Jaffray’s critique on Coelebs which is equally severe and unjust, but his disapproba- tion is applause.4 The charge of insipidity, or as I call it wershness is the best founded. All I shall say is, the gentry of the last age, epis- copalian and presbyterian had nearly the same ethics and divinity with the Stanleys a little diversified, with less parade of charity, nosegays etc. Phoebe and Celia are delightful creatures.- What a glorious harvest day! Even William Kay crowns stacks and lends a helping hand.- We now see that a Saturdays change5 is not so bad as is said. Ay! but as the Soothsayer said to Caesar of the ides of 1 Either Alexander Maconochie, w.s., eldest son of Lord Meadowbank, 1777-1861, or Alan2 Maconochie, w.s., of Meadowbank, 1748-1816. 8 Between Castlereagh and Canning, 21 September 1807, on Putney Heath. The refrain in the verses ‘The battle of Sheriffmuir’ is as follows: And we ran and they ran And they ran and we ran. 4 And we ran, and they ran awa’, man. 5 Cf. Scots Magazine, 1809, pp. 435 ff., pp. 516 flf. According to Jamieson, Saturday was an unlucky day, but he does not quote this phrase. 1809 265 March, ‘It is come but not passed’.... I must away to my stacks and see if all can be got in tonight, for even ambition may lurk in a hermitage. Do not smile if I say that I never see a young Laird and a Miss in the height of the mode, seated together, but I think of the Miss Flams and the Westmoreland squire [Coelebs] who was not caught by their charms displayed. What a prurience of imagination say you? O! I forgot to congratulate you on the late addition to your family. Has William given him a name ? I was for calling him oyster rather than Oscar. Perhaps nothing will please him but a classic name. 8 at night, every sheaf in, as well as could be wished. Given old and young a draught of porter with thanks. And I took in a number of baskets, more than I expected wherefore it becomes me to be grateful to God for all his goodness and mercy. . . .

10 October 1809 I have lately superabounded in letters, and it therefore behoves me to be brief at present, the rather that I want matter unless I were to give an account of a sabbath day’s visit from Mainie Stirling Sunday was eight days, with a number of friends eight or ten in number, the Ramsays of Barnton1 etc. A walk to the garden was proposed and while I was talking with Mainie and Mrs Ramsay, the younkers were not idle. I would have thought less of a few late peaches; but two of the Misses and Abercaimy’s youngest son2 tore off pears and apples, breaking the spurs, and they might as well have eat stones. I hope Mainie did not know what was passing when my back was turned. It was well I had paid my visit to her brother, whom I honour. It was a strange feat; from such visitors I pray to be kept. The best way is to dispise it, only I will not soon return the visit. I wish the Laird would marry, and change the ministry. His situation seems to make no impression on the misses, tho’, when he shall go (as he phrases it) they will find a wonderful odds. . . . Let me con- gratulate you on the approaching nuptials of your Niece who was alwise a favourite of mine3. . . . 1 2 George Ramsay of Bamton, died 1810. 3 Charles, third son of Charles Moray of Abercaimy. Ann, eldest daughter of John Stirling of Kippendavie, married, 6 November 1809, Ludovic Houstoun, younger of Johnstone (Scots Magazine). 266 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY lam reading with much satisfaction and profit poor Finlayson’s1 posthumous sermons which are pious, rational and orthodox. They want nothing but a little of Dr Erskine’s unction and keenness, which made his homilies the more interesting. There are however none so mediocre but that a well disposed mind may profit from them. A Lady reputed over charitable to preachers, was asked what she thought of a very weak one, ‘O said she, he had a good text’. Well! the great wedding is over; and if report be true, another is on the stocks. That, say you, is a secret, and as there are secrets in all families, it is better not to anticipate. Instead of something like a runaway marriage, where the wedding pair scamper off, as if ashamed of being seen, getting no dinner, our neighbours went on in the old style banqueting and feasting. Harry Drummond told me he was at the ceremony and saw shoals of old shoes hurled after them when setting out for Struan. I have heard of throwing the stocking, but not of old shoes thrown at them when quitting the house. It cannot be said of this as an eccentric genius once said, that a third of the bride’s tocher was laid out in clothes, another third in eating and drinking, and the other third paid fifty years after. He was an Atholl man. Esteeming them too fashionable to take the good old way I was forced to write at the young good wife, as Queen Anne’s minister did with Lord Peterborough.2 .... So! Mrs Cameron is returned to Scotland and deigns to be pleased with the country that gave her birth! She will find Edin- burgh a little London, not perhaps so elegant or up to the mode as the metropolis, but rather less costly. I do not expect that she and you will ever be very familiar; for she early laughed at relationship etc. as antiquated. She is sensible and well informed, else she would not have ruled her father and mother from the time she was four- teen. By way of penance I would prescribe her passing a winter in Lochaber among the clan. The house (a castle, I suppose) is roofed in and likely to remain so. For her excellent father’s sake, I wish her and hers well wherever she dwells. .... So you have got a new playhouse. I know not on what foot- ing, but if the papers which never fib say true it is elegant and well 1 James Finlayson, d.d., minister of St Giles, 1758-1808, whose sermons were pub- lished2 at London, 1809. Charles Mordaunt, third earl of Peterborough, 1658-1735. i8op 267 attended.. .. On whose risque is the new theatre built? What comes of the old? Is it to be turned into a conventicle or waxhouse? Covent garden stock should sell dog cheap. . . . Apropos have you heard of Mr Skinner of Linshart’s poems?1 It is the third. He was a second Bums and besides being a man of genius, great were his piety and labour of love. At the same time great was his passion. . .. 1 John Skinner, d.d., 1721-1807, episcopal minister at Longside, Aberdeenshire, who lived at Linshart, a cottage in the parish, author of A miscellaneous collection of fugitive pieces of poetry (Edinburgh, 1809). i8io

13 March 1810 .... I thank you for your note of Mr Allison’s sermon on the fast day. It seems to have affected your feelings like a tragedy, where heroes and heroines have their exits and their entrances. To tell his congregation of Diveses of the judgments that impended over them, which would assuredly diminish for a season the number and splendour of their banquets, routes and balls, was hardly to have been expected from a man so liberal-minded, and so little accustomed to say bitter things from the chair of verity, his sentiments being smooth, and his language soft. Majesty of the people! was ill-timed, to say no worse at the present crisis. If we stand on a precipice, and have no confidence in our rulers, matters will not be mended by what is called the Majesty of the people, which, in other words, means the Majesty of the Mob; which doubtless when exerted with energy, and all the violence and absurdity o£ Mob justice, can overset thrones and reduce princes and aristocrates to misery and contempt. White paper money which had produced all the effects of exorbitant wealth was annihilated, at least suspended. A limited King and a free constitution, are things to be admired and wished for. . . . I thank you and Christian Erskine1 for the recipe to make a route. It is too light for the man of feeling, being better suited to his younkers. Suffice it to say, I have no desire or expectation to taste of that savoury over hot dish. Methinks, it is a bold turkey or two that makes its appearance in conventions of hungry lads and lasses. Ay, say you, but they had dined late, and it is not genteel to indulge 1 ling, Probably born 1771,Christian, son ofdaughter William of StirlingDavid Erskine of Keir; of thisLinlathen, cannot married be Christie Charles Erskine, Stir- daughter of James Erskine of Cardross, who died in 1805 (see above, p. 121, n. 3). i8io 269 appetite on those occasions. . . . There was fully as much wit and mirth and as many soft things said in the old assembly tea room over a can of negus, as at a modem ball etc. at four in the morning. Com- parisons say you are invidious, but what can be expected from an antiquated man whom nobody knows. Does Siddons’s piece read well, as well as pit, box and gallery it, as Bays says.11 prize comedies that mend the heart like the conscious lovers,2 or make it laugh like Farquar’s pieces.3 We Scottish boddies have never succeeded in comedy, though we have wrote good tragedies.- So far had I written when I was interrupted in what you will perhaps call a homily on sins I am not incUned to, by the arrival of Sir Henry Moncrieff and Dr Somerville4 who sat with me two hours much to my satisfaction; the Knight’s conversation being alwise very interesting. It is what he excells in. From politics we kept aloof, but he told me Sir William Erskine’s evidence is much ad- mired.5 One is alwise to leam: he thought him shallow and a rattle which are what the Grammarians call sunynames. And just as they were going away came a card from your good mother and sister apologising for not calling and making kind enquiries. Had I spirits or time, I would give you an account of the distribu- tion of my time which suits my taste and situation, without just cause of reprehension. After a late breakfast eaten with appetite, I stray forth about noon sauntering till past two.- Dining about three in the long days, sit and read till past four. Then for one and a half hours I sally forth, and see what is going on in farm cattle etc. Drink tea at six though William would fain protract. He or the gardiner read for an hour or two before supper, not caring to study hard at that time.- A light supper about nine.- Retire to bed room before ten - read for an hour and a half some of my lucubrations. Began Lady Rachel Drummond last night. Then go to bed. With all my wakerifeness, get six or seven hours of sleep and rise refreshed. All this, say your flatterers of fashion, is no better than the life of an oyster! 1 Talking of his new play: ‘In fine, it shall read, and write, and act, and plot, and show—aye, and pit, box, and gallery, y gad with any play in Europe’ (The Rehearsal, 1,2 i). 3 A comedy by Steele, published in 1722.4 6 George Farquhar, 1678-1707. Thomas Somerville, D.D., 1741-1830. Sir William Erskine, bt, of Torrie, 1770-1813. 270 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY 9 April 1810 .... My reconvalescence seems to be as much owing to regimen as to medicine of which I now take next to nothing, save a pill in which are a few drops of laudanum to promote sleep, and strengthen the stomach. To nothing have I been more obliged than to porridge and sowins. In a few days after my last, the stomach complaints evanished, being I am convinced brought on by the henbane which Dr Gregory commends much, albeit it did not answer my constitu- tion after repeated trials. Medicines good in themselves, do not suit every constitution, and weak stomachs are sometimes capricious. Dr Wingate therefore was right in prescribing it, but it is not wonderful that I should dislike it. The Doctor’s response did not touch either upon my restlessness at night (no new complaint) nor on the pain in my right shackle bone and tendons adjacent which has distressed and weakened my arm for six weeks past. Had he thought it an indication of palsy or apoplexy which he so much dreaded in 1790, he would have spoke out plain or prescribed something for it. . . . So! Maria is not married,1 at least has not declared it. Aiblens she may alter her mind: but in that matter Ladies take their own way, spuming prudential considerations. Meanwhile she has my best wishes. -1 did suspect there was something wrong, at least particular, in the conduct of a certain chieftain. His exploits when a schoolboy and a young traveller may be seen in his process with Erraght.2 One however would have thought his wild oats had all been sown. I am heartily sorry for his wife who is certainly a woman of good sense and great address. She governed her father and mother from the time she was fourteen, and it was taken for granted that she ruled her husband without showing that she ruled him. By all accounts he has a great and improveable estate, but no income is sufficient for a London pleasurable life. I know not, nor wish to know, his ruling passion or pursuit, but for the sake of his wife’s family I hope he will soon turn over another leaf. She was all along too fine and finical for me. I have of late been re-reading Amelia whose conduct in circumstances perhaps not very different from the present case, 1 She married Captain Thomas Graham, second son of Robert Graham of Fintray, at Bombay2 in December 1809 (Scots Magazine). Maj. Gen. Allan Cameron of Errach t.Argyll (View of the Political State of Scotland, 1811, p. 15). i8 io 271 evince the heroine in private life. The less that is said by her friends the better. I congratulate you on your young men and almost wish for some high school politics, for nowhere are there more petty interests. I have no doubt that David will make a figure in the society of Westminster school which has produced many great and good men. Since he is able to fight his way, there is little danger of his becoming a fag, a thing very common in Enghsh schools. I neaver heard of it in Scotland, save in Heriot’s hospital where it was timely checked by whipping, expulsion etc. It would be nothing against Johnnie Drummond, if he was for a year or two at David’s school. It would give a firm tone to his mind which has been relaxed by indulgence, overgrowing and propensity to colds. He has a number of favourites of different kinds which engross his attention. Were you not at their route or ball? Are there no drums'? By this time the fever will be somewhat abated. . . . The striking thing in last paper was an advertisement from a Lady’s feoofmaker. I hope they have not got the length of Jackboots and spurs in which the shopkeepers of Edinburgh a hundred and twenty years ago used to parade the streets arrayed in tye wigs. Good old Mrs Forrester of Denovan1 used sixty years ago to wear a thrice tailed wig and a parchment chest which made her rattle like a drum, but I never heard of her boots though she would fain have worn the breeches. ... I should have liked to see Mrs Siddons in Volumnia. You will not in spite of her age and size, look upon her like again. O for a balloon to have transported me! . . . Have not yet seen [Prat’s]2 second poem but am told it is stupid, ill-natured and obscure. The man knows nobody and cannot describe what he never witnessed. He therefore writes at characters, rather than of them. When is the Lady of the Lake to appear? This country affords no intelligence. How soon the weather is better, I must go to see Sir Robert who has been most kind and attentive during my long illness. There I will hear somewhat of what is going on in the world. And I must call on Mr Traill who has 1 Ann Haldane, 1706-84, daughter of John Haldane of Lanrick, relict of Thomas Forrester2 of Denovan (sro, Stirling Testaments, x., 14 February 1789). This reading is doubtful. One word has been written on top of another and the result is virtually illegible. It might refer to Samuel Jackson Pratt, author of some thirty volumes of poems and plays, published from 1774 onwards, including Sympathy (1807) and The Lower World, a poem (1810). 272 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY lost a fine lad1 of a consumption which assumed various forms, and confined him to the bedside for months.- They are in great distress. I long to see Lady Isobel again. At Airthray I will hear nothing of the chief and shall not drop a hint as if I had heard aught. Mrs Metcalf goes on well having got two cows calved and a grey calf.... Jean boots cannot be readjack boots. I did not expect cheapness from this fashionable bootmaker. I presume Mr Dundas is returned from the wedding. The new married pair will not want villas to take, that being one of the features of the times. . . . 12 July 1810 My health continues to improve and today I had a long meeting with seven or eight country Sanchoes about the militia, which our rustics dread little [less] than human sacrifices. It gave me great pleasure to find my young friend Harry Drummond presiding on Tuesday in a general meeting at the Kirk where he gave great satis- faction and sentenced gainsayers. And today the Sanchoes and I laid on the sums to be paid by each person liable to be drawn in a way that satisfied the Sanchoes. Our parish has all along voted liberally, high and low being pleased. Harry goes to his regiment week; it is what I call a military masquerade. Young Abercairny is his Lieutenant Colonel. He is your cousin wherefore I say nothing. 14 August 1810 .... I agree with you that the sound of musical glasses is something supernatural. What a variety of pleasure you Edinburgians enjoy! I envy you for nothing so much as for your playhouse which was, if the newspapers may be trusted, truly comic.- I am glad to hear that Maria is well; allowed to voyage with her husband. All happi- ness betide her! Everything from her pen must be precious and therefore one would like to see her account of Pownah and the Marrathas.- I am diverted with the reason assigned for David’s remaining in England viz. the danger of spoiling his language. Why nothing but English is now to be heard in Auld Reekie except among the high school boys. It is not the language of St James any 1 John Traill, son of Janies Traill of Hobbister, died at Newton, 23 March 1810 (Scots Magazine). 8io 273 more than that of Thames street. Verily everything may be carried too far. The great matter is to speak sense and at his time of life habits of application are invaluable. Mrs Bruce has got down her son who by all accounts will not be a scholar.1 She and the tutors are not at one. These long vacations are much against boys. .... This is a very late season for fruit and com, a fortnight later than last year. The gooseberries are now come in and very good and unless these heavy rains burst them there will be plenty of them about the 27th and at any rate the Royal Stewarts will be forth- coming and by that time the first of the apricots of which there is a full crop will be ready and the apples will be fit for baking. The eating ones will be late, but Margaret Bruce, Mrs Watson, used to say nothing was so delicious as a green apple of her own pulling, in which she spoke like a daughter of Eve. I will be happy to see you and your daughter or daughters about the 27th to stay as long as you can. I would sooner take charge of Misses under their Mother’s charge than of the younger boys who are not under rule. I trust my spirits will be better than that I am at present.... I have had a set of Cavaher Ladies under consideration, sisters yet differing in lesser particulars, strongly marked yet worthy characters. It may amuse you. No such people nowadays. You have surely heard of Mrs Forrester and her sisters2. . . . Mr Graham Gartur, Mr McNeil the poet and Peter Muschet a favourite just arrived and are to take pot luck with me and a decent dinner they will get and my first apple pye 1 2 Robert, eldest son of Alexander Bruce of Kennet, born 8 December 1795. Agnes, 1707-74, married John Dundas of Manor; Lilias, born 1708, married George Wilson of Sands; Margaret, 1709-81, married Bontine of Ardoch; Isobel, 1713-82, married Charles Stewart of Ardsheal; and Janet, born 1717, married John Murray, merchant at Glasgow (Gen. Sir J. A. H. L. Haldane, The Haldanes of Gleneagles, 284-6). i8ii

4 January 1811 .... On Christmas morning in a sad blast I made my visits at Newton and Keir. . . . There the Moray family past the holidays. I have not seen a less assuming pair than the Earl and Countess. From thence I proceeded to Airthray castle where I passed eight days most comfortably, my host being one of my earliest companions, and his guests descended from his excellent parents. There were Mr and Mrs Bruce of Grangemuir, his brothers Ralph and Burnet and Mrs Cameron. Our fare was as usual excellent, as well as the wines. Yet I did not exceed in either, eating the plainest things (new killed salmon, being easier digested fare, beef or mutton) and keeping pace with the Ladies in quaffing soberly a couple of glasses of Burgundy Champaign Sheraz or Constantia wine. I tasted not the excellent claret, satisfied with port diluted with water. It was more mirthful than most parties usually are, to which none contributed more than Burnet who did not use to open or tell what he knew. I have not laughed more these ten years. George Abercromby and his wife were there and very pleasant; she you know was alwise a favourite. Apparently the widowed-wife is very chearful and more easy than I ever saw her. Of her husband the Bruces knew nothing; none spoke of him; he is probably in London. ... A better regulated great household cannot be figured, while the domestics tho’ full fed are orderly and attentive. From William’s account, who will hardly spoil, their luncheon is a hearty dinner of flesh and loaves, a prelude to dinner or supper of the same ’twixt seven and eight. Breakfast at half past nine, go to bed at eleven. I only complained that the Ladies did not fitt out the tea which was done by a Frenchman - a petty grievance! Mrs Cameron said if I would visit her she would fitt out 8 11 275 tea for me. She had two fine boys with her for two days, her daughters are in England. Do not think me enamoured of elegance and fullness which are only valuable when conjoined with temper- ance festivity and kindness. I return to my little dinners at two and to my hermitage with increased relish, nowise in love with vanity or great rents, having seen R. Dundas Blair’s great steading and folio houses. . . . I have been horn idle for a week unless when answering a lively letter from Mrs Stuart Luss1 who makes herself merry with her husband’s mossy shrubs and stuffed birds; little better than laugh- ing at the marri[age?] of vegetables! She fears that when she shall depart, [he] will have her stuffed. You do not presume to interfere with your husband’s business or studies. Both you and Mrs Stuart are rearing your olive branches with pleasure and honest pride. In them I trust you will both be most happy. She seems highly pleased with Mr Fergusson. Expect a letter and perhaps a petition for which I have not room at present. Suffice it to say I have requested Mrs Gregory’s name among my friends to Dr Hardie of Ashkirk’s2 sermons, which are likely to be no less elegant than sublime and affectionate. I will send you an excerpt from Dr Charters’ letter which shows him to have been no less able than aimiable and useful, cut off in the meridian of life, leaving a wife and some infants. I shall say no more than that he was to have taken some charge of my MSS 7 January i8n .... I rejoice to hear of Maria’s safe arrival, and to my best wishes she is well entitled. May her own and her husband’s fortune be equal to their deserts! I am truly sorry to hear of the death of Charles Bruce Elgin,3 who was a general favourite, the most popular of the family. I remember him in frocks and called Andrew. What changes do 40 years produce in families districts etc.? I write more easily than yesterday, but though if fresh matter shall occur I may write 1by the carrier, allow me to thank my young friends for part of their 2 Susan, daughter of Joseph MacIntyre, minister of Glenorchy. Thomas Samuel Hardie, died 22 September 1810, minister of Ashkirk, nephew of Colvill,Samuel ministerCharters, of d.d., Ormiston. minister His ofsermons Wilton, were married published Jean, at Hawickdaughter in of1811. Alexander * Charles Andrew, son of ninth earl of Kincardine, bom 1768, died 27 December 1810. 276 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY book. The white cat I gave to William’s youngest son a fine little fellow, to read to Naomi and the other ladies of the Stonniegate who bore it, till it speaks of a web of 400 yards drawn through the eye of a needle. On which Naomi retired indignant, but Will said it was all by enchantment. He says it is the finest book he ever read. A numerous levee of bairns ’twixt 6 and 9, attended to get Matrimony which a miss about Jemima’s size said she liked because it was sweet. From your saying nothing of Mr Dundas I conclude him better... . 4 February 1811 .... You will not be sorry to hear that my eyes and sleeplessness are improved. It was well the latter neither produced headach nor confusion. Indeed both mind and body are at present stronger than I have reason to expect. To be sure I am left like a pelican in the wilderness. Keir is with you I suppose, as are the Traills attending the folly fair: Meiklewood’s son a fine lad is in the last stage of a consumption. The j’aunt to Cornwall did not answer. . . . Let me thank you for the subscriptions you have got for Dr Hardie’s sermons from which, setting aside the charity, I expect instruction and pleasure. If any more be got, in a few weeks they will be all collected and sent either to Dr Charters or Miss Hardie, Leith terrace. The good Samaritan, as I call Peter Muschet, from whom I expect most has been at Dundee etc. for a month but is dayly expected.... I protest when I sat down it was not my intention to have galloped on so fast but one thing leads to another.- It is more entertaining than hearing William and John Miller1 read alternately an hour or more before supper something amusing.- Tell Tom Erskine that when Robert Berry passed Advocate2 he dictated his thesis to his uncle old Mr Ferguson of Raith3 who though a worthy man was neither a patriot nor hero. Yet to him did his nephew accomodate Sallust’s beautiful character of Cato of Utica which was much admired as happy. Let our young friend try his hand on his patron. I am afraid he cannot be praised for keeping aloof from luxury or from his abstinence from good things since he leads what I call the life of Dives.- Be that as it may, tell Tom I estimate every young 1lawyer by the dedication2 to his thesis. . . . Well! We are to have a Ramsay’s gardener.2 On Robert Berry see above, p. 84, n. 4. Robert Ferguson of Raith, died without issue in 1781. i8i i 277 regency which will gladden some and depress other hearts. ... I have just now a letter from David Erskine from which I learn that his mother sent a cod for which I thanked you.- Dancing school balls are fine things to girls. I hope my friend Anne has jigged out the shoes of the rest. I will answer Davie’s letter soon. Young Ladies never deal in Intelligence. . . . 19 March 1811 When do the Erskines migrate to Angus ? It will be a new scene to them. Charles Dundas called his sister in law a Dundee bicker1 a short but significant phrase. ... So your singer Mr Worgam is a Male and a sort of Methodist2! of course his music would be seraphic, calculated to mend as well as melt the heart, not jiggish as Pope calls the Duke of Chandos’s band.3 By the bye, I was well acquainted with Dr Hughington4 its director, in 1761, who called the poet an Urchin whom he never forgave for his sarcasm upon the levity of his Music. I was more entertained with him than with the company of hunters,5 to whom he was an appendage. He and Monboddo used to gabble Greek like Ducks in a Millpond, wakening the inebriated hunters from their naps after dinner.-1 will next post send Dr Charters a list of subscribers got by myself and friends amounting to more than fifty. Of them twenty three were got by 1 Bicker is a quarrel or angry altercation (New English Dictionary), but neither SND2 nor DOST mentions any connection with Dundee. Presumably the Worgan mentioned as ‘an odd fish’ in ‘Extracts from the journal of Jessy Allan’ (Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, xxx, 118). A Dr Worgan, a celebrated performer on the organ, died in 1790 (Gentleman’s Magazine, 1790) and may have been 3 And now the Chapel’s silver bell you hear That summons you to all the Pride of Pray’r: LightMake quirksthe soul of dance Musick, upon broken a Jig andto Heaven. uneven. Pope’s Epistle to Burlington. nons,Pope himselfthe Chandos protested house that (Pope’s he did Epistle not mean to Several Timon’s Persons, villa ed. to F.be W. identified Bateson, with London, Can- 41951. Not PP-identified. 146-7). The The Huntington duke concerned Library, was San James Marino, Brydges, California, first duke where of the Chandos. Chan- dos manuscripts are deposited, cannot find this man, nor is there any reference to this episode in Pope’s correspondence. The only two known directors of the Chandos orchestra are Handel and Pepusch. See C. H. C. and M. I. Baker, The Life and Circum- 5stances For anof Jamesaccount Brydges, of the First Hunter’s Duke ofball Chandos and races (Oxford, of 1761, 1949), see 129Scots ff. Magazine, 1761, p. 107. 278 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Dr Stuart of Luss and his wife at Glasgow and Lochlomond. She is a most lively interesting correspondent. Going to attend her sister Mrs Colonel Colquhoun in her inlying,1 she says ‘she leaves her daughter Betsy2 housekeeper for the first time’ adding with maternal tenderness, ‘Indeed she is all I could wish; the father all over’.- Many thanks for your helping the widow and the fatherless. - No money is wanted till the book be published by Constable which Dr Charters says will be in a few weeks. He sent me a sample one on the reunion of souls and their recognising one another in another state. I gave a reading of it to Meiklewood and Mr Muschet, who both pronounced it excellent. The one had lost a son, the other an aimiable wife. I am enjoined by Mrs Metcalf to make an apology for the white- ness of her butter, owing to the season and to straw etc. Lord Balmuto entertaining Lord Monboddo said to him after supper ‘You see my Lord we do not dye our butter’: ‘No Mr Boswell, I never heard of butter dyed white’. Last night a cow calved and in a few days some more, so its complection will improve, as well as its quality. She seems to think it sinful to dye butter, forgetting that some of your fashionable dye their cheeks, or whiten their bosoms. Receive likewise a goose, the last of this year’s poultry. I think Mr Dundas has no objection to it. A country woman who had a cause before the court, told Clerk Chrystie of Stirling,3 that she had brought him a goose of which he was fond. On coming in he asked his wife for the goose, but was told it was the goose pudding in the cow.4 I mean it not as a bribe, or even a quickener, as Toshach of Alloa5 called an additional doze of Ippecacuana to Mrs Joass, to the great merriment of her family.. . . When we meet, I will show you 1 Barbara Camilla Macintyre, married, 1801, Lt. Col. Ludovic Colquhoun, 1757- 1835, third son of Sir James Colquhoun of Luss. Her fifth child, Archibald Campbell, was born at Belleville, Edinburgh, 27 March 1811 (W. Fraser, Chiefs of Colquhoun, 2Edinburgh, 1869, pp. 381-2). Elizabeth Stuart, 1793-1824, married James McLagan, minister of Kinfauns, in 31819. William Christie, burgh clerk of Stirling (sro, Stirling Burgh Records, B66/22/1, 427 September 1744). ‘In some parts of England, especially in Yorkshire, the people prepare a pudding which they term . . . Goose Pudding, to be served with Goose’ (New English Diction- 5ary). The phrase does not appear in DOST or SND. William Toshack, surgeon in Perth, whose relict, Elizabeth Oliphant, residing in Alloa, left a testament (sro, Commissariot of Stirling, T., 5 September 1800). i8i I 279 an effusion to the memory of Dr Hardie which his uncle much admires. The perusal of his sermon, makes me give it another and appropriate turn. It is time to cease from things which if they afford pleasure, require intense thought and do not promote sleep. . . . 16 April 1811 .... Our late successes are not just equal to Blenheim or Ramillies; but they are better than defeats or even bloody victories which produce no fruit. It is at best but a losing game. ... In the Peninsula (as it is called) are stationed the prime of our land; heaven send them well home and avert from this still happy country the judgments which have overtaken other nations! . . . I expect Mr Traill and his son the lawyer1 to eat a leg of mutton today. The latter tells me Harry Drummond is one of the depute Advocates, a very early promotion, but it seems his colleagues are likewise juveniles. It is a new scene; it is to be hoped he will make a figure in life equal to his ambition. Poor Lord Armadale2 was at Stirling yesterday, very unfit for his duty, but we are not to believe the reports of rustics who speak of housebreakers sentenced to six months imprisonment which is like giving them the degree of masters of arts. Lord Monboddo was very eloquent upon the diminution of the human species, instancing it in little Johnnie Erskine, whose grandfather Lord Tinwald was a handsome dignified man.3 What would he have said of the bench or bar at present?... I am very anxious to have tidings of Mr Dundas’s health hoping that his complaints have evanished, or given way to superior skill. You say nothing of the collegians or of David, of whom I have heard nothing for a great while.. .. 26 May 1811 .... What the worse would you or I have been of another quarter at the writing school? It is now too late; it is said I have of late years improved, at least I have enlarged the size of my alphabet which resembles Saxon characters.-1 promised to say a little of my trading 1 George, eldest son of James Traill of Hobbister and Rattar, advocate, 1788-1871. * Sir William Honyman, bt.. Lord Armadale, died 1825. Charles Erskine of Tinwald, lord justice clerk, 1680-1763. 28o LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY voyage on Monday which was a busy day. I first called at Craigforth where the Colonel met me. What said I, are you at home? I expected to see Mrs Callendar. He told me that she and the children etc. amounting to sixteen had set out for Ardkindlas on Friday and made out the journey in one day. He made believe I should see Dr Gregory, but Dr Law1 supplied his place. I then drove to Mr Burn’s house,2 and had an audience of his wife who told me she had wrote William how ill his father was. I next called on my good friends the Miss Colquhouns Camstraddan3 where among a bevy of females, I met with their niece Mrs Scott,4 a widow of whom I had heard much, being very interesting and lively, the grandchild of Camstraddan, a great friend of mine; in whose fairy castle on the banks of Loch- lomond I have spent many pleasant hours. Were you never in that Arcadia? if I have any skill she and her infants will fall into the hands of an eminent anatomist, who it is said halts between two objects. From that I drove to Mr Muschat, Birkhill. . . who was to dine with me at Gartur. I sent him to dress, but he took a plaguy time and I should have tired desperately, had it not been for his sister, a very sensible well informed woman5 who gave me much intelligence about the Leckie and Meiklewood families. Thanks to modern manners we arrived time enough for him to visit a sick person for he practices gratis. I found the Gartur family in health and spirits, not too exuberant. Also Mainie Erskine whom I style my enemy and three Hays. After a very pleasing easy meal I set out and came home after 9.1 wished they might return better then well, the great object of our modem well pilgrimages. O he is troubled with Bile; so was I last year, if I may believe Dr Wingate. To it however I have no title, having not fattened in the East or West Indies. If I be not worse than at present, I shall not think of well friendships which are sorry succidanea, as the apothecaries call it, for good neighbourhood and hereditary connections. 1 Possibly Dr James Law of Elvingston, who practised in Edinburgh, died 1830 2(Kay, i, 401). 3 Edward Burn of Coldoch. Agnes (died 1821), Helen (baptised 1756), and, possibly, Margaret Haldane, though ‘she resided in Melville place, Stirling’, 1761-1838, unmarried daughters of 4Robert Colquhoun, 14th laird of Camstradden (Fraser, Colquhoun, ii, 240-1). Helen, daughter of Elizabeth Colquhoun and Rev. John Allan, married, 1799, Rev. 6Archibald Scott, 1770-1805, minister at Pettinain. She died 3 August 1819. Either Anna, born 1765, or Martha, bom 1773. i 8 i i 28i Yesterday I had a letter from Mr Drummond announcing a signal victory and inviting me to dinner tomorrow in a very kind strain. I shall not finish this epistle till I return from thence. But let me suggest to Mr Dundas that the only person fit to fill the president’s chair is Lord Melville which he would do with equal ability and dignity. Nor is [it] without precedent: Viscount Stair1 who re- signed in 1680 was put into that chair in 90 and held it for eight years. O ! he will not have it, and it would interfere with the Lord Advocate’s pretensions. It is truly mortifying to see the law so low. Such weather! but writers’ ploughs go Sunday and Saturday, trust- ing to other people’s industry.- O! I have the Edinburgh corres- pondent2 which though full of good news, is too eloquent and long winded for me. I shall however try it a quarter. Aiblins it may grow less diffuse. The life of man is too short to spend much time in such disquisitions. It will have room for scandal relative to English courtiers male and female.- No such thing in Caledonia except among the clergy of whom we hear.- Thursday forenoon. I spent a very pleasant day with the family at Blairdrummond. ... I was very glad to hear from Mrs Drummond that you were now much better than some weeks ago, owing to bathing She also gave me tidings of Mrs Abercromby’s being in a good way. She is a favourite of mine. Poor Mrs Cameron is the widowed wife. It is well she has so much power over her children. May they answer her expectations.- They will be untainted with Scotticisms. A little Galic would do the lady no harm.- So our news are confirmed but it is a bloody victory. ... I am not so sanguine as my neighbour who is what Voltaire in his Candide calls an optimist, i.e. thinks everything of the best. It is at least better than disponding. They set off next week for Porto Bello from which Mrs Drummond and Johnnie may expect benefit. Warm and cold baths are the order of the day. To them I am fortunately a stranger.- Nothing new under the sun! It was the case with the Romans and the eastern nations. . . . Mr Drummond told me he had had a letter from Edward Burn saying that his brother was much better. So Dr Law’s prescription has answered well! Poor man! much has he suffered from a faulty 1 2 Sir James Dalrymple, afterwards Viscount Stair, lord president, 1619-95. The Edinburgh Correspondent was published 1810-16, and 1818-22 (J. P. S. Ferguson, Scottish Newspapers held in Scottish Libraries, Edinburgh, 1956, p. 14). 282 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY constitution. Mrs Metcalf is perfectly delighted with the Corres- pondent. Please send Hardie’s sermons. .... Let me say a little of my antenuptial visit to which I was invited by Eliza, who I think will not be long of passing up to the altar. Not being admitted to Lady Isabella at Newton, one of the misses being unwell, and finding the Noblesse at Dunblane chapterly assembled at an excise court or going to preach, I arrived unfashion- ably early and the Laird had just arrived from Glasgow, where he had been to bury his partner Gordon’s wife.1 We had a great deal of pleasing chat and of good news (somewhat overcharged perhaps) before he and she made their appearance in great glee, and seemingly well prepared for the great change in their state. They were seated together at the foot of the table where they had a great deal [of] interesting conversation together, the topics of courtship being inexhaustable. Read conclusion of Bums’ cotter’s Saturdays night as to the felicity of happy love. It almost set my mouth awatering. After dinner, being charged to fill a bumper of Madeira and to give a toast, I gave the bride and bridegroom sitting yonder, alluding to a Glasgow custom after not before matrimony. There it was once common for the young married pair to receive company for a week seated at the head of the room, in two arm-chairs ‘Will you go’ said people to one another, ‘and see the young couple while they are sitting V The metaphor was a little bourgeois, taken, I am afraid, from a hen sitting on her eggs which was not more than elegant or seemly, but Glasgow was not in those days the seat of elegance or delicacy. The toast went well. . . . I lament both the President2 and Lord Melville.3 We are not likely to see their like again in the faculty in these degenerate times. I admit the persons you mention are very fit subjects for biography, being members of the feast of tabernacles* which once made a great figure, most of them being eminent men, most of them gone save Mr Rolland who was repeatedly expelled for non-attendance. Both 1 Possibly Mrs Gordon of Aikenhead, who died at Glasgow, 27 May 1811 (Scots Magazine).2 3 Robert Blair of Avonton, lord president, died 20 May 1811. 4 Lord Melville died suddenly on 29 May 1811. A ‘ club composed of lawyers and literary men, whose bond of union was their friendship for Mr Dundas’ (Scotland and Scotsmen, i, 448). i8ii 283 Blair and Melville were sent to their account ‘ unanointed unanealed’ with all their imperfections on their heads. Who knows but they were taken away from the evil to come. ... If our great man was faulty in aught, it was in his choice of judges. . . . But if my health and spirits (which you will say have got a fillup in the nuptial house) shall continue, I would fain hope to be in Edinburgh end of next week, but of that I can speak more decidedly by the carrier. I am sorry to give you all this trouble about so little a man as myself. I must bring my chamber-chield with me to speak the language of Pitscottie1 or good Lord Auchinleck. Whether it to be my last or penult visit to Auld Reekie, time will show. . . . Charters’ little preface resembles his letters. More to the purpose could not be said, in fewer words. He might be Archbishop of Sparta. I wrote him today. We diffuse fellows must take our own way. All men have not the same talents! Tho bred up at the feet of Gamaliel his nephew’s strain or style is very different from his - both may be good. I lament Hardie from whom I had expectations. His first sermon is rational, and liberal too much for your Bishops. Read the one on the reunion of souls which was sent me in manuscript. It must be a profitable adventure to the widow and her little ones who are much endebted to Charters. ... I read your letter without mistaking or doubting a word. This was written with almost as much rapidity as yours, which may cause various readings. Similar causes produce similar effects. . . . 20 August 1811 I was favoured with yours of the 14th by Mrs Metcalf who arrived here on Thursday drouked like a hen, having been outside passenger. A sailor friend of her sister’s got a guinea to buy a ticket for Thurs- day. But the rogue did not come back saying he would drink the money and it would make her stay another day. Indeed, the wonder is that she got away; for nothing could exceed the kindness or generosity of her sister and her husband, a planter and Charlestown merchant very rich. From her she got ten guineas in gold with a silk gown; from him a five pound note. She said they had a chest of dollars, and a casket of guineas. They importuned her much to go to Carolina. Though a day too late, I gave her a gracious reception, 1 Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, ? 1500-?! 565, chronicler. 284 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY knowing the greatness of the temptation, and the ardour of her mind which in favourite points is quite girlish. I hope it will not spoil her, for you know the devil now tempts by making rich, not making poor. She seems little fond of Edinburgh and complains of the fatigue she underwent in making calls and says she will not seek away again. . . . She says her sister is a very clever woman, having married her present husband weeks after the death of the first, a sailor, ‘whereas I have been ten years a widow’. Lead us not into temptation. None can say what gold, silk gowns and notes may do. She says she had an interview with your young folks and speaks much of Tom who longs to be here. . . . I long to converse with David on the policy and customs of Westminster school which differ widely from those at Westminster hall. Much have I heard of fags which is not the brightest part of the great English schools. It is well that it is only temporary, requiring only spirit and discretion to emerge from abasement. I remember a Captain Chudleigh1 telling Dr Doig that when in the fag state, he was ordered to steal a sow, which was done and she kept till she produced pigs. It found its way into Heriot’s hospital, giving occasion to much whipping and expulsion. The fine arts spread rapidly. The great benefit of Westminster is the probability of a lad’s being elected to Christ Church or King’s College which opens a wide field for preferment.- After saying so much of fags, tell William that, with his leave I shall call the dog Fag, as he is to be a servant of servants. . . . Are you going over to Fife to pay your respects to the cydevant Countess?2 I hope Mrs Stirling and her fair daughter are better. I long to hear of Mrs Abercromby.- Any accounts of Mrs Cameron? the last was from Charles Dundas. We have too many widowed wives at present, which is not an eligible state or a proof of virtue on one side. . . . Mortified at Dr Stuart’s not making his appearance from the sacrament at Aberfoil but his better half has sent him a love letter. ... As a horizontal posture is recommended, I lie abed two hours after dinner while William reads Tom Jones. We are just parted from Upton.- He sometimes asks ‘but who was Tom Jones father?’ Time will show, say I. 1 2 Not identified. Divorced wife of earl of Elgin, married, secondly, Mr Ferguson of Raith. 1811 285 2 September 1811 .... My excellent friend of Luss arrived after dinner on Tuesday senight, drouked, at least his umbrella, plaid and great coat which exituded wet. The love-letter I mentioned was from his wife with tidings of a fine girl of eleven whom he left dangerously ill in a fever.1 She was however much better and said to her mother, ‘ Go you to bed and sleep: I am better’.- The Doctor was naught the worse of the wet weather, and staid till Friday when he set out for home; and though neither he nor his horse be very fleet, arrived at night and found his little darling much better. His wife who cannot be persuaded to Doctor him, i.e. to render honour to whom honour is due, writes me two days after, that her Christy, though still weak, improves. By all accounts they are most lucky in their children. On Friday the day he went away, Dr Anderson of Edinburgh,2 a voluminous bookmaker, and a man rich in literary anecdote, who has alwise been most obliging, arrived to dinner and staid a week much to my satisfaction. Deeply did he enter into my lucubrations, great part of which were to him an unknown though interesting country. His censures were confined chiefly to Patavinities or colloquial expressions which could hardly be avoided by an historian of private life who speaks a Dorick dialect.- On Saturday I dined at Blair very pleasantly, and was glad to find them all nothing the worse of Porto Bello. Harry who figures in the Edinburgh register wishing to reform Oxford, sets out on the northern circuit about the middle of the Month. None will accuse him of eating the bread of idleness, or of keeping himself hack from observation, neither is he disposed to hide his talents in a napkin. All good betide him! So much by way of prelude to the rest of your three younkers who made their appearance yesterday when I was half undressed. Let me once more congratulate you and Mr Dundas on having such pleasant prospects before you. Though different, they are all of them pleasant, sensible, and natural, well-informed for their years, and anxious to improve themselves, not over for- ward blossoms which does [s/c] not alwise produce the richest fruit. They were most welcome to me, and my people were most glad to hail them, their manners being very popular. Instead of porridge they called for cakes and milk to which I added butter, which David 1 Christian Stuart, bom 22 July 1800. 2 Robert Anderson, d.d. 286 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY says is better than London butter which consists of hog’s lard. I alledged he was doing penance in eating as his forefathers had done. In short, I was highly gratified with the Westminster scholar who let me into the policy of the school and the masters, not forgetting fagship, his boarding house etc. And to give me some idea of their discipline, he made me up a rod composed of birch twigs, such as the masters use to elicit the seeds of genius and eradicate those of vice and folly. I told him I should preserve the rod as a memorial of him. He officiated as my chaplain in reading, after your ordinary, some chapters of the bible, being relieved by his brothers. He cannot be accused of knapping or over accenting. The sermon he read was Hardie’s sixteenth sermon ‘one generation etc.’ an admirable one, worthy the pen of an angel, well suited to pilgrims and strangers. I imagined it was Charters’s being in his best manner, but Sir Henry Moncrieffe says it is Hardie’s, though not of those selected for publication. The Baronet gave me some precious anecdotes of him almost at the point of death. . . . 29 October 1811 .... Many thanks to you and Mr Dundas for the aged spectacles which are some of the summonses of removal mentioned in my letter of Thursday. It is needless to say much of this frail tabernacle. . . . Poor Lord Newton1 was called to his account ‘unanointed unanealed’ as the ghost in Hamlet says. He was one of the ablest of our judges, if not the most decent. What say the Regent’s friends to his conduct on this occasion? little good I suppose. I wish Cathcart2 and Gillies3 to be judges, for party should be out of the question.... Since human aid is vain, may our well-intentioned monarch receive in due time a crown of glory. It is a penance to read the newspapers. Why say you anything is better than bloody unconsequential victories. A truce with these topics; better a dish of scandal to bring grist to Burnet Bruce’s mill. Andrew Balfour complained that they had nothing to do but divorce the canaille in forma pauperis Do you ever see the Christian Instructor written by an Andrew Thomson, 1 2 Charles Hay, Lord Newton, died 19 October 1811. 2 David Cathcart, Lord Alloway, died 1829. Adam Gillies, elevated to bench as Lord Gillies, 30 November 1811. See also above, p. 129 and n. 3. 1811 287 minister of Greyfriars,1 a man of more zeal than wisdom or can- dour. By not bringing home his rancoronious charge he must be held a libeller, not an aimiable feature in a servant of the prince of peace whose reprehensions to sinners were at once mild and weighty. He treats English Bishops and Archbishops like pick-pockets. I am sick of them! Bishop Gleig is not likely to make many proselytes to his usage of prayer for the dead not in purgatory but in a state of bliss in paradise or in the sleep of the tomb. About eighty years ago the usage men as they were called, convulsed their fallen church by insisting on a set of usages which seemed to be rags of popery.2 They were opposed by many of their brethren and at last they were laid aside in 1730. Methinks it is not wise to revive them. Many are the souls I could pray for, were it lawful or would it avail them aught. A middle state (under every modification) implies a change of which priests would fain keep the key. At Oxford I heard the soul of Henry the Eighth prayed for who assuredly was no Saint. I thought it a high but idle strain of charity. How is Miss Agnes? how was David, how are your other younkers? Kippendavie may say the boughs of my family flourish. Let me not repine that I am the last of my race. I must now go to the potatoe field. . . . Churchmen dominant and abased, ought in reviewing books to avoid unmerciful flagellation, tantamount to torture. Study the fathers like old Lady Balgowan3 who had the fathers on her finger end. A thimble would fit them better said a rural wit4. . . . 4 November 1811 .... I had just finished an answer to Mr Wilson’s5 when who should pop in yesterday about noon but Mr Dundas.... He will tell you how my stupid eyes mistook Leadhills for Lumlethan, though the latter was fairly written. He gave me an interesting account of Maria, and hopes of seeing her in her perigrinations.- She is by all 1 Andrew Mitchell Thomson, 1778-1831, editor of Edinburgh Christian Instructor for twenty years, minister of New Greyfriars, Edinburgh, 1810-14, when he was transferred! For a note to onSt George’s.the Usage men, see H. G. Graham, Social Life of Scotland in the 8Eighteenth Century (London, 1909), 392. 4 Probably Elizabeth Carnegie, wife of John Graham, fifth of Balgowan, died 1767. Identified {Scotland and Scotsmen, ii, 341) as Baron Maccara, probably the Baron of 6McAra mentioned in 1688 {Register of the Privy Council, 3rd series, xii, 332), or his son. Not identified. 288 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY accounts sufficiently full of Indian mythology, which is more multi- farious and absurd than Homer’s deities. A seceding minister at Down preaching a farewell sermon, advised his hearers not to read Pope’s Homer’s Iliad which was full of idolatry and will-worship- A very needless caution to them! One would recommend to our lively friend the study of the fathers whose notions are as discordant as those of the Bramins or Hindoos who have 3000 Gods. Nay if we may believe some of our Christianised Bramins, they have a trinity very different from ours.- It would afford her at least as wholesome food for the soul as the Sanscrit manuscripts she has been devouring. Nay she could either combat or support the Christian instructor who fondly beheves that the inbringing of the nations is at hand. I doubt he and she would not agree in their notions in which case he will have no mercy on her book1 if his review shall last so long, a thing very doubtful. The thing I like least is the little prospect of her husband’s getting a ship but she has a rich contented mind which is a perpetual feast. I wish she had got a landman, but the dye is cast. Her travels in her own style, would be more acceptable than her mythology which no wit or genious can render interesting to us northerns. So much for what may be termed a thread spun out of nothing, but an answer to your letter was due, and one must take such reek as comes out of the lum heid. I am glad you relish the Italian comic opera which I have seen before at Edinburgh. Com- mend me to Shakespear etc. You will see much on the Italian opera and music in the first volume of the Spectator. . . . Your husband is gone to breakfast this morning at Kippenross and returns to eat a goose (rather too fat) and an apple pye and goes to StirUng at night. ... I [was] highly entertained with George and John’s places, the one [too] high and the other too low to rise. The seeds of ambition are early sown. I introduced him to my bairns whom he made happy with his copper which they prize beyond matrimony though that he sweet...... Johnnie Clark the occulist and goldsmith2 (a fine thoughtless body) broke in 1773 for no less than -£180 stg. Yet did the poor man feel more compunction than the shoal of bankers who failed the 1 2 Journal of a Residence in India (Edinburgh, 1812). John Clerk, goldsmith, burgess of Edinburgh, 17 July 1751. 1811 289 year before. In like manner, indolence and inattention made me leave things undone which I should have done, but by means of a little subtraction and addition I have got matters into order, much to my satisfaction. When in that hopeful temper of mind, I set about arranging my last year’s voutchers, and found them right, in the order my residuary legatee could find no fault with. And pen and ink men measure everything by their own standard. I also assorted the letters in my bureau which were in a miscelaneous state, bundel- ling them up. Yours not the least entertaining, when decyphered, I put them into my travelling trunk and when in the humour I will collect the rest and put them in the same place. You must arrange them, I will not. With William’s aid who knows your letters and Dr Gregory by headmark, not internally I will make a further pro- gress today. .. . And now of a hermit’s feast or kirn, the fifty first he has held since his accession to this place, to a very happy and well pleased company whom I surveyed with pleasure, and thanked for their services. Poor William McEain my first servant, was not able to come, but a portion was sent to him, as a token of his past services. Naomi, one of my jointured widows, was there, happy as an empress. It was more numerous, and almost as anomalous in point of character and humour, as one of your great Edinburgh hecatombs which Mrs Baron Muir1 called not inaptly meetings of creditors. . . . O! I am indicted to Christmas by Sir Robert who is most attentive. There he tells me I shall meet with relations and friends only - whom I should otherwise seldom see. ... I am glad Mr Williamson’s2 scruples are got over, so will Lord Woodhouselee’s whose promotion surprised if aught in these latter times could make me stare, I believe him honest and he will be decorous. Is Burnet Bruce to be the new sheriff of Stirlingshire ? In writing Mrs Gregory I request her interest to get a copy of Creech’s prophetical epitaph proposing that he should hold the same place in the Provost’s house- hold that Dr Tirte Afuera3 did in poor Sancho’s. His prescriptions as to eating and drinking would not please the Deacons or even the 1 Katherine, daughter of James Graham, Lord Easdale, married William Mure of Caldwell, one of the barons of Exchequer, who died 1776. 3* PedroDavid RezioWilliamson de Aguero, Robertson from TirteEwart, Afuera, later, Sancho’s1811, Lord pretended Balgray. doctor, when ruling Barataria. 290 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY summer flies that haunt city feasts. . . . This is the day of our presi- dent’s inauguration. He may now with Mr Wilson’s1 leave call himself Lord President2. . . . 10 December [1811 ] .... I was not able to read without help Dr Gregory’s death warrant on your provost3 which is classical but indiscreet. All that can be said is he has repeatedly killed his own wife whom he loves. I told him in return to a melancholy letter that I trusted the symptoms would in a short time go off as heretofore. ... I must have had recourse to decypherers, who could hardly spell Dr Gregory’s Latin which is large. He should be made bo[dy?] physician to Creech who in truth is not treated with more respect than by Lady Karnes’s Berwick housekeeper who called Mr Scratch the bookbinder...... Remember me kindly to Mr Dundas whom I thank for his letter and to Mrs Erskine who is at least well-housed. What would her house and Mr Erskine’s in Merlins Wynd4 say were they to meet? Alas! the latter is pulled down like the house of Bourbon. . . . 1 2 Not identified. ;Charles Hope of Granton, appointed lord president, 12 November i8n. 4 William Creech. Marlin’s wynd was east of Tron church, demolished to make room for South Bridge. ffi 1812

[-] January 1812 . . . . I verily believe that I shall lose my sight, though there be no inflammation. God’s good will be done! compared thereto my late ailments were trifling, for I doubt there is no cure for it. What of that? Tis not the first time I have been unable for weeks and months to [ read or ? ] write and found people to act as secre [taries or] readers. Perhaps it may go off. ... I fear my scribbling is nearly at an end but one must be prepared. . . . 21 January 1812 .... Dr Wingate says the symptoms may possibly lead to a cataract, but that is often a work of time, and at present they are rather better, as a proof of which, this is written without glasses. Your proposition of rubbing up my glasses reminds me of an old gentleman who cursed the taylors for making his cloths so tight that he could not run up the hills as he used to do. My complaints run somewhat to extremes equally unpleasing; suffice it to say some alarming ones have been removed by medicine - want of sleep and a confusion in my head, bear hard upon me. ‘So many warnings of mortality!’ Meanwhile, I use the means and leave the rest to the sovereign dis- poser of life and death in whose mercy I trust. This is somewhat in the strain of a last speech and dying words, though not at present one in a sentimental key. . . . I have corresponded with the new married pair at Cambusmore,1 and had a kind answer on different parts of the sheet I shall in con- sequence of what they say, probably have a call from them for at present I could hardly entertain them though I have a fine sheep 1 Thomas Buchanan of Powis, son of John Buchanan of Cambusmore, married, 31 Dec. 1811, Catherine, daughter of Sir Ralph Abercromby 292 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY in the house. ... Sir Robert seemed ignorant of it till the noose was tied. George and the major said nothing so there was no room for complaints. ... To him in point of interest it is a great match for she has friends on both sides who may get him credit and a good voyage.- Marias plans and motions I am unacquainted with, and there are secrets in all families. In her welfare I take a deep concern and lament that her mate has his fortune to make. He is young and spirited, and she aimiable and able. I hope her work shall be popular for Hindoo mythology is sufficiently known. Would she describe scenes and persons with a highly impressive pencil as she used to speak and epistolise, it would be a classic work, but let her not forget her Catechism. Poor Ralph’s accident is not uncommon in Muscovy and Sweden. I hope by this time his sores are healed and he is returned to his studies with increased relish. I dare say David is an interesting correspondent. Tell William that Fag waxeth in stature and beauty being very popular and promising, wanting nothing but a little education. He is rather too kind at times.-1 hope all the rest are well. I hope John was little hurt and that a check will be put to the late enormities which are disgraceful. . . . Fag’s bark is so loud and sonorous that Mrs Metcalf who is in fear of robbers, trusts more to it than two miles. So you are to have a new tragedy from a very frosty clime, in which however there is a volcano and hot springs on a great scale. Of that you know all that is necessary; I shall hear. Are the private balls numerous? Methinks the banditti might make an attack upon them when going home and uncover some fair nymphs and fine gentlemen whose dress would not be equal to the embroidery of the last generation. ... Woes me that poor Keir should with the best intentions have been tossed about for three years to no purpose. And however genial the climate of Malta may be it is not likely to avail a man who runs counter to the directions of his medical man. If not a first rate he was an honest kind hearted commonsense man. His sisters deserve credit for facing the perils of the sea privateers etc. I had a howdye from the Blair family saying they were all well save Mrs Drummond who was better.... Dr Wingate who attended her tells me she will get round soon. I called there on Christmas day on business but did not see her. Mr Drummond and I corresponded T 8 12 293 about swans and I told him of black swans which Sir Robert was to get from Botany Bay from Colonel Macquarrie1 as odd in ornitho- logy as love or heroism on the shores of Iceland. . . . My littlest tenant and his wife fine boddies gave a ball on hansell monday2 to a set of rural beaux and belles at which a very decorous tradesman acted in the double capacity of director and fuller. The company did not separate till three in the morning without excess or indecency. 4 February 1812 .... I understand Sir George Mackenzie3 is the author of the tragedy lately damned. Were you there? Was there or not hissing, catcals etc. I once saw a comedy the Gallant in the closet vamped up by the famous James Boswell damned at Edinburgh with general consent. It was written by Lady Houston.4 It was a laughable scene. Iceland is a strange country for the tragick muse to inhabit. What say people of it? Pantomime seems to be the rage at present which is little better than what I called the horse comedy when horses were the principal actors.... I had a visit from Kippendavie who told me of William’s marriage5 which shows him to be disposed to obey the divine command of increase and multiply.... I have been for weeks in debt to my lively correspondent Mrs Stuart Luss. Yesterday I got an ammanuensis to whom I dictated an answer in a playful mood. Farewell! You know I took a sort of solemn leave of you in Sep- tember. Of your friendship and sympathy I entertained no doubt. 17, 18 February [1812] Dr Wingate6 having called in from seeing a Patient and staying 1 Lachlan Macquarie, died 1824, Major General and governor of New South Wales, Austraha.2 The first Monday of the New Year, on which handsel was given, formerly regarded 3as a holiday (SND). Sir George Steuart Mackenzie, bt., of Coul, 1780-1848, author of Travels in .. . Iceland (Edinburgh, 1811). For an account of the first night of The Tragedy of Helga, 422 Eleanora January 1812,Cathcart, see Scots 1720-69, Magazine, wife 1812,of Sir p. John153. Houston of Houston (Boswell’s 3London Journal, 1762-1763, London, 19JI, p. 5; Scotland and Scotsmen, i, 171). William, born 1787, son of John Stirling of Kippendavie, married. 1811, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Barrett. • Written by Dr Wingate. 294 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY dinner I employ his Pen.- There is litde change since I epistolized Mr Dundas on Friday. . . . Great are my hopes of benefite [sic] from his glasses too, of which that came nearest my joint I keep and return the other three. One of mine I intend as a legacy to William my best reader. Will Mrs Graham takeit amiss if I bequeath the other to her to serve as preservers twenty or thirty years hence, for strange to tell age and wrinkles will sooner or later overtake will and youth? I will not entertain you with the adventures of an invalid but Mrs Metcalf’s reading is a great entertainment for if the story be either melting or funny she either melts with tears or laughes heartily but is perfectly incredulous about Guliver’s travels. She is indeed a happy mortal. When we meet next I will make you laugh with some of her communications which were truly comic Bad as the day was the Doctor and I sallied forth to appetize us for an excellent leg of mutton. ... I1 am not yet quite up to the use of my new glasses, but perhaps things may amend. ... I was diverted with the account of Abercairny’s eating club which shows due reverence to the natural rights and equality etc. Much good may he do his people.... Has Ralph got the use of his toes. . . . This day takes off the Prince’s restrictions. May he make a wise use of power! Neither you nor I expect a place. 1 can hardly read what I have written - it is well meant. 28 February 1812 .... I must go and write a courteous refusal to Sir P. Murray being resolved to take no share in the ensuing election. I gave the same yesterday to Mr Drummond and his aid de camps. The former is a bustler and at everything, and his measures are sometimes problem- atical. The latter bears an excellent character, only a little too elo- quent in his love letters. Mrs Metcalf who reads my political letters says no woman could say him [no ]. This is not a case where honour and conscience must take a decided part, the candidates being un- exceptionable and supported by respectable families.- It makes a great schism among the Murrays. I have outlived those that were entitled to sway me. Once or twice I was able to serve my bosom friends. In my declining state it was therefore wise to make an end 1 Written by Ramsay. I 8 I 2 295 of the matter and to quit the torrid zone of politics. I never was one of those that kept up their political fire and here I am like the ass twixt two burdens or the subjects of the two Kings of Brentwood. ... Sir Patrick dispairs I fancy of the town of Edinburgh.... A Lady commonly speaks her mind in the P.S. I seldom have a page un- occupied. Mary Abercromby1 married to Archibald Stirling] !2 I can’t beheve it. Prince Volchius in love! says the rehearsal.3 Death is sometimes a deliverance. I know nothing of the poet or poem you allude to.. . . When Dr Wingate’s son a lively lad heard that I pro- posed to send his father to the writing school he could hardly sit on his chair for laughing.- None will take me for a model in politics, but it is well I have lost no character, which is more than most rural politicians can say. 16 March 1812 There are surely pleasures in eating and drinking and dancing if not revelling which rustic hermits know nothing of. None more likely to profit from them than the medical tribe. The famous Lady Johnston’s4 favourite daughter having married a man in the excise her father took his bed. Somebody asked the Lady what ailed him. Nothing she said but the gauger fever which was not deadly. Is there not, my good friend, what may be called a late supper or a ball fever which seizes not only youths and maidens but decent grey- beards and virtuous soberminded matrons in time of lent, and is in nature contagious like the fever in this neighbourhood, which afflicts old and young lasting only four or five days not dangerous. ... I hope your inmate Mrs Graham is guarded in chap[er?]oning younkers. . . . O I had Mrs Metcalf read Don Quixotte’s tale of Cardenio at which she wept heartily. She would have made an excellent player. Saw you Mrs Siddons? I should have liked Queen Catherine better than Isabella, Belvidera etc. . . . Tuesday noon. Bled last night with leeches with good effect though the little 1 2 MaryArchibald Abercromby, Stirling, laterdaughter of Keir, of Sir who Ralph, married, died unmarried 1815, Elizabeth, 1825. daughter of Sir John3 Maxwell of Pollock. ‘Prince Volscius in love? Ha, ha, ha ... He first resolves to go out of Town, and 4then, as he is pulling on his Boots, falls in love’ (Buckingham’s Rehearsal, in, ii). Barbara, daughter of Alexander, fourth Lord Elibank, married, 1719, Sir James Johnstone of Westerhall, by whom she had fourteen children. She died 1773. 2p6 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY wretches have as usual swelled my face and reddened the eye lids but these are trifles. . . . Woes me. I can hardly read what I wrote yesterday. You are entitled to retaliate on me for finding fault with your hand most wrongeously and unjustly. . . . 31 March 1812 Pam Glad you deciphered mine so easily but you will be sorry to hear that two Hours after writing I find it difficult to read my own writing. What of that? I am applying the mean[s] directed by Doctor Gregory which were first suggested by Wingate leaving the issue to the sovereign Physecian who orders everything well and wisely. It is too early to say what shall be the result, but last night I was bled with leeches the second time which again swelled my face and spoiled my beauty, but that is a triffle if it shall conduce to the great point. Meanwhile I neither despair nor despond knowing blind people are more chearful than deaf ones because the former can enjoy conversation. I trust however we shall meet again to see and con- verse with one and other [5/c] as we were wont to do. Remember you are to act as presidentess at a sorry but solemn convention. So much for this tottering tabernackle of flesh which has already last much longer than I expected; but of its dissolution there is less appearance at present than in July when I was your Guest. This letter may shew of what importance a man is to himself and you are no severe Critic.- I am diverted with your account of the Poem which I have little chance and less desire to see, but I am satisfied with sober Prose which speaks to and from the heart. Such high trust will be your fair inmate’s work; she is only to write as she speaks which is the best test of Letter writing a very difficult species of Composition. Books of travel are peculiarly interesting because one puts himself into the place of the Traveller. There is little danger of backspiering her any more than your Cousin Bruce of Kinaird in Abbysinnia or the desert. Sorry I am to hear from herself that her health is not good, but it is so far well that she is not Doctor Gregory’s patient, which she would be were she really ill. . . . As for the Mobility they seem to be driving very hard to the Gallows, it is an honour to them to be executed in the same place 1 Written by Dr Wingate. 1812 297 with the Marquisses of Montrose and Argyle who were justified at the Cross of Edinburgh. I rejoice to hear that my friend David is likely to succeed in shewing for College which may lead to Honours and emoluments which will gladden his own and his parents’ heart though I shall not see it. Tell him I keep the Rod he made up for me by way of Memo- rial. I am glad you say nothing of your own cold at which I was a little alarmed, but things are sometimes made worse than they really are. It is surely incumbent on you for the sake of your children to keep up an intercourse with Beaumont1 knowing that you will not go too far in those wayward luxuries which would be to me severe penances. Tell our friend that I would have answered her letter just now but my secretary has not time and my spirits are not good enough to indite a proper letter to glad face as your children call her. . . . Having2 a secretary at my Elbow I indite you a short letter to go by the Carrier. . . . The verdict was a favourable one from my Edinburgh Doctor who is little given to flattery. I shall give his recipes a fair trial and it is not always that Town and Country Doctors agree like Lambs. I am now convinced that my having gone to Edinburgh four months sooner would have done no good, whereas the good Doctor’s visit and converse gave a fillip to my spirits which is a great Matter. My great ambition is to be able to read your fairly written Epistle. On receiving Mrs Graham’s Epistle I wrote you and Mr Dundas long letters, but before there arrival good Mrs Graham of Airth had breathed her last which would give you all a great shock. I feel for her Husband and her Children. If I have not seen I have corresponded with Charles Graham3 who by all accounts is much improved or to speak more properly just what he was. Sweet are the uses of adversity and he has surely had a sample of the tender Mercies of the modern Senacherib. . . . Meiklewood4 was here yesterday and added much to my comfort. What ship has Captain Graham got? 1 2 2 Not identified. Written by Dr Wingate. Charles Graham Moir, later of Leckie. See also above, pp. 185-6. * Written by Ramsay. 298 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY 9 May 1812 .... My last letter was rather in a gloomy style, befitting one in fear of outer darkness. This will breath another spirit. For the last eight days my vision has improved considerably, and I was able to dip into my lucubrations which I had not done for some weeks. It was so great a mortification to me that I set my three readers to try their hands on some of them. Mrs Metcalf my best decypherer made out some parts of them; and what was more said she was more entertained with my Antidotes, i.e. anecdotes, that she liked them better than Don Quixotte which had been our study for some time. William and the gardiner made also some progress but I hope (and what should we be without hope) to be soon able to do so myself. On Tuesday afternoon Dr Wingate in his way from Callendar called here and took a survey of my eyes which he pronounced to be much better, i.e. clearer than the week before. Of course his expectations of reconvalescence, at least of being no worse are very sanguine, which did not seem to be the case with our Edinburgh Doctor who concurred with him in trebling the quantity of blue pills, i.e. mercury or calomel disguised. It is a medicine I do not love, but as I play for a mighty stake, it is worth trying steadily. Dr Wingate tells me that it cured a patient of his, an old man of a similar complaint. I told him that failures occasioned by years or constitutional infirmities often baffle human skill. . . . Being directed to breakfast in bed Fag attends my levee every morning and approves himself so skilful a courtier that he succeeds in getting bread and butter and cream of which he is very fond. He is a very engaging cur and very inoffensive, but a great coward and somewhat of a fool. T’other day he started a hare in the field, from which he manfully ran away but seing it run in its turn, ran after it barking loud. Such are the adventures of a solitary man and his domestics. This comes by Harry Drummond and his spouse1 who go to Edinburgh on Monday.- Had it not been that Mr Dundas had not answered my letter relativeto my cousin Mrs MacNare orMacNair.2 1 Henry Home Drummond, younger of Blair Drummond, married, 14 April 1812, Christian, eldest daughter of late Charles Moray Stirling of Abercaimy (Scots Magazine).2 Ann Craig, granddaughter of Lilias Ramsay, John Ramsay’s aunt, married David McNair, officer of excise. 1812 299 I should not have wrote till Monday, but hers is a clamant case which calls for attention. I referred him for information to Dr Coventry1 or John Muir2 whom I call the good Samaritain. Till I hear from Mr Dundas I cannot answer Mrs MacNair’s letter. . . . O I am (as Sir John Falstaff says) indicted to dine tomorrow at Blair with the new married pair who have lived very quietly. . . . Much do I expect from the young wife of whom every body speaks well. She has had a surfeit of company and mirth in her father’s house. A middle course is expedient.-1 was surprised tother day to hear that George Abercromby was to become a citizen of Edinburgh having displenished his farm. It makes little odds to you or me. . . . 11 May 1812 Last night I commenced a long letter of my own writing to Mr Henry Drummond the Benedict of the neighbourhood, who I hope has got a Beatrice to sweeten his cup and enliven his life. I have not past a pleasanter day in a house where I have spent many happy hours in my youth, prime and decline. I admired the simplicity and goodness of the dinner which was well suited to the company, yet not ponderous, such as used to be given during the honeymoon in days of yore. Nothing could be detracted, and more would have been superfluous or bourgeois. I like the young Lady’s humour and con- verse very much, being natural, naive and unaffected. I told her she was the fifth Lady I had seen in that house, viz. Lady James3 who was a heroine in private life, who combined elegance with a superior understanding, frugality with fullness, humility with courtly manners. Her death when I was fifteen was (as her husband said) a great loss to me. 2nd her aunt afterwards Lady Erskine,4 his second wife, I visited in her honeymoon and in her widowhood. 3rd Mrs Drummond, Lord Karnes’s wife a superior woman who with talents to have figured in literature or business confined herself to her own department in which she shone, being the best adviser her husband 1 Possibly the Andrew Coventry who graduated in medicine at Edinburgh in 1783. 3* John Muir, minister of Lecropt. Christian, daughter of Alexander, ninth earl of Eglinton, married, 1737, James Moray4 Frances of Moray,Abercaimy. daughter She diedof James 1748. Moray of Abercairny, married, firstly, George Drummond of Blair Drummond, secondly, General Sir William Erskine of Torrie. 300 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY could have had. 4th the present Mrs Drummond whom I need not characterise to you. There was almost as little/mss at his marriage as at the present one. Having been asked as one of Miss Jardine’s elders to dine on that joyous occasion Lord Karnes said in his own way that I was the only one who had come in a wedding garment, viz. in a full stand of blue.- I apologised for not appearing in the same way at present, the new suit being only commissioned. In a word I augur well of the happiness of the young pair who have fair prospects before them. She will perhaps moderate her ambition to excell: in the course of one little year he has committed matrimony, hanged two culprits, banished others; will be a member of assembly where he can exercise his talents for legislation or judicature. Then comes the Session when he will not be idle. In the vacation he will be a soldier a major of local militia which will afford him ample exercise for his exertion. . . . Never may we hear the din of arms! I well remember the 1745 which proved a source of woe to many that deserved a better fate. So much for our young neighbours and their pursuits. . . . Woes me for Bolden Dundas1 who has suffered in the peninsula which has proved fatal to numbers of our brave countrymen. The honest Dutchman who broke his leg in a fall from the mast, was thankful it was not his neck. I wish our armies home, but ministers will not take my counsell. I am truly sorry that Cap- tain George Dundas’2 state of health makes it necessary to quit Bombay before making his fortune or ensuring independence. That and his brother’s wound will bear hard on Mrs Graham. ... I hope you had a pleasant squeeze at Bess Dundas’s: I advised the young good wife to give a ball in summer which would be striking a new stroke, which she only answered by claiming a fete champetre in the fruit season and she regreted she could not eat my mutton with the rest of her family on Thursday. Dr Gregory to whom I sent the other leg to celebrate his wife’s birthday pronounced it magnificent. It is indeed the oldest and largest I ever had. You perhaps owe the preceeding pages to Mrs Metcalf not being 1 General William Bolden Dundas, Royal Artillery, brother of Maria Dundas, mar- riedSable, Jemima 636). Agnes, daughter of Robert Graham, 12th of Fintray (Graeme, Or and * Brother of Maria Dundas, Mrs Graham. I 8 I 2 301 at leisure to read to me at the usual hour being engaged in a washing. We are just beginning Joseph Andrews and will introduce her to Mrs Slipslop and her Lady. I must give a lecture on little neat dinners, but she is almost as ardent and desirous to shine as if she were a youthful barrister. She will probably write you a billet doux with the turkey. I reprimanded her for taking forehand payment when the animal might have died. In this she seems to follow the council which Rob Roy gave a young friend ‘ Cousin, when you deal with the great, be sure you get forehand payment else they will neglect you’.... My eye does not improve, the mist before it being so great that I could hardly distinguish faces, but it went off by teatime and it still continues in the forenoon. The medicine does not operate perceptibly, but it may soon. ... You all question the reality of my ailments. I will sally forth to see the garden and the barley field which promises fair but there may come a frost a killing frost - but who sanguine as gardiners and farmers. I am tomorrow to see a person much connected with Sir Robert who can tell Mr Aber- cromby’s apparent reason for becoming a burgher. Perhaps he expects a second son. . . . 25 May 1812 .... No change to the better has taken place since Friday when I gave Mr Dundas a full state of my situation which is at best a sorry at least an unpleasant. When medical men meet with an obstinate or perverse constitution they are not responsible for the effect of powerful medicines which like elephants may recoil on their allies. Dr Gregory was all along less sanguine in his expectations from the calomel or mercury than my country Doctor. . . . Let me now by your means thank Mr Dundas for his satisfactory letter of Saturday which enabled me to answer Mrs MacNair’s letter which was directed to Dr Coventry’s care. I wrote her to send a receipt and call on Mr Dundas who will pay her ten pounds which is as much as a man whose rentroll is under par can afford. She and my other relations must wait till my demise. ... I shall mention Sir Robert’s name no more. An ossification in the heart is they say incurable.1 When Mr Dundas knows who is to be minister of this 1 Sir Robert Abercromby, died 3 November 1827. 302 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY parish1 will you let me know it? Mr Russell is very mysterious, blessed are they that expect nothing. ... Ill as I am and dark as my prospects I might be worse. A palsy or apoplexy or an ossification of the heart whereof Mr Erskine of Cardross who was all heart died, are more dreadful than blindness. . . . 9june 1812 .... This2 morning when breakfasting in bed with the Doctore by my side Mariah’s letter made its appearance informing me of his [her husband’s] sudden and unexpected flight in consequence of his promotion to a Ship. Sorrey as I was at missing a visit from a man I wished so much to see, I rejoice at the cause of my disappointment, trusting that it should give him an opportunity of distinguishing himself in his proffession, anticipating flags and penants; so soon as I hear further particulars I will write an answer to her kind letter. . . . May her literary labours be crowned with fame and success. I must be contented with postumus fame the meanest of all ambition. At present I must be considered as one of those canebrificous stars which according to a wh[im?]sical philosopher of my name emits darkness the same way the sun does light. A sorry constalation you will say but an alaguse [analogous] to my present situation. ... I am truly sorry for Mrs James Erskine’s misfortune in the loss of her first born upon its entering into this darksome world but I hope a smiling progeny awaits them. When Mrs D. Erskine dined here Saturday sennight we were in high spirits over an excellent leg of mutton the fellow of the one I intended for Maraia and her husband today, I fear I must eat it myself. . . . Though the medicine has operated as the Doctor desired the mist still continues but will I hope soon dissipate. Suspence is a cruel state. Let me not repine. Is not this all a judgment on my scoff at your handwriting? Farewell once more. 24 July 1812 .... You ask about the Blair family. Mrs Drummond and Johnnie are getting round but Mr Drummond has had for some days a 1 Alexander Gray, 1774-1863, ordained minister of Kincardine-in-Menteith, 21 January2 1813. Written by Mrs Metcalf. 1812 303 cutaneous eruption on his face which distresses him much though not so severe as some years ago. Mrs Drummond and Dr Wingate think it will not be lasting or increase. I thought Porto Bello would have removed the peccant humours. . . . Your last letter is worthy [of?] your best times when you wrote verses. Mrs Graham must not let her genius evaporate in talk. Mrs Drummond wrote me that James Drummond, the Duke’s son in law,1 stands for the county and bad me rest on my arms. The regent does not rest on beds of roses. ‘Miss Agnes not marry’! one would almost say with Lord Auchinleck Whatfore ? That is a Scotticism above your learned in- mate’s ken. Remember me to her, when she has nothing else to do let her give me a screed of a letter. Another Scotticism very significant. Farewell. Is it true that modish writers charge 3/4d. for three lines and 6/8 for a longer one? That was the way with the English attorneys one of whom charged 6/8 for attending his client to see that huge monster vulgarly called ‘Le Elephant’! Let Maria (as I call her) sell her lucubrations as high and let Mr Dundas draw the costs. 1 Amelia Sophia, 1780-1849, daughter of fourth duke of Atholl, married}. A. J. L. C. Drummond, younger of Strathallan, afterwards Viscount Strathallan.

Anne Graham slohn'Dundas of Manor Jamesltemm d. about l/O^ U d.iJit ^JeanGtahatrr ^Alcxrtrmer . . Xy'mgstont, 3m can

MaiyXtyin^stjane' ItelphVmdas of Manor ^ HelmBumct Jolin^Rainsay 1075 -17^ rfOclttertyre =james Gt^iliamofAirdt -Jean Small 16/6-1]46

1 WmmGraliam JohnPundas MatyDundas JanetDundas tnrTfiomasDundas Da^hDundas AnneDundaSf Tames Ramsay ofAirth 1701 -80 b.1703 b.1704 U1705 b.1709 b.1706 ucf Ochtmyre 3730-50 ~Gtor$t ^JeanTairbum — MaryBeny d. 1748 -Anne Stirling Abercromty ofTulllbow a.tsoo

General Henry StrMpIt SirHobert Maty Htzabcdi MatyDundas BalpH !>unaas Abercromly Abcrcrmby -James ^Alexander killed 1763 Dtmdas istyiscount 1734"180l baptised 1740 l:dnumstime Joass of d.1815 JSiclville -Maty Annr d.185^ of Newton Colleonard lysg-mi Mantes. ^.1734 'Baroness Abercrmby d.mi

r Halpli Peter JMom^uDundas - George Anne Johnjames Gmel Maty Joass Dtmdas 1772-1837 ! Abercnomby, Abercromby, Edmonstone 1771-18x9 0.57.18^8 later 2nd d.1844 ^ d.1820 ^ James -nlananne Baron -Donald — Barham Alexander la Tondre Abereromby Qtneron of Seton Haldane- lochtei 1768-1851 ijeg-i&sz

H 1 1 AntieGtaham James Gmham Thotms Graham Maty d.mo Jane, d. Wtlliamina Ctmstm BmABBTH GttAHAM JamcsVundas AdmiulGtorgt JaHTSTAAMSAY Ralph d,1836 ofAirtli ofAirth =]0lw Stirling umn.1850 1773-1849 d. unm. 1764-1821 tfOchtertyrt Dundas, a.i8i4 or b.1739 -David d.1805 1768-1836 cfKfypendavit -Day Here 1848/49 1752-1831 0CHTE1UYRE Bskfne w.s. ^Caroline 1742 - isie McDowallof 1736-1814 d.ijsi Mary Home WalMnsliaw 1753-1803

1 Thomas prslune James Brslune ^ Katfimnr Mamret Douglas MatyStiflwg -Balplt -David -John MartaDmidas oflmUthen ofltnlathen StMtng Stirpig J7&6-U20 dames b.1799 b.1803 1785-1842 1788-’! 870 d. 1816 b.1791 17*4r~l&S6 - James Dundas -James Sandihnd^ 'Russell of 1795-1825 --Maty •Jemima 1) 1809 Weriofhlord Woodstde- b.1800 0.1805 CapsnhThomas Totpntchen -Wtom Graham, d.1822 b.1796 -Huabedt -Wdtiamvna Christian L and 2) 1&27 Anne b.1801 ■Thomas SfrAugustus Sterling' Graham Walldllcott b.1797 ^-Geoiyr [twins] 1779-1844 hi 802 b.1806 • -

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INDEX ABBOTSHALL, Fife, 84 to educate his son at Harrow, 168 Abercromby, Alexander, Lord visits Airthrey, 30, 210, 274; Abercromby, 39, 58 Cheltenham, 35-36; Edinburgh, Abercromby, Alexander, colonel, son 150, 157; Ochtertyre, 48, 64, 76, of Sir Ralph Abercromby, 210 83, 199, 207, 262 Abercromby, Alexander, w.s., 42 Abercromby, George Ralph, later Abercromby, Anne, wife of Donald third Baron Abercromby, son of Cameron of Lochiel, see George Abercromby of Tulli- Cameron, Anne body, 263 Abercromby, Catherine, daughter of Abercromby, Sir James, m.p., later Sir Ralph Abercromby, wife of first Baron Dunfermline, 262-3 Thomas Buchanan of Powis, see Abercromby, hon. Jane, n£e Ogilvy, Buchanan, Catherine wife of Sir George Abercromby Abercromby, Elizabeth, relict of of Birkenbog, 158 Major Alexander Joass, see Joass, Abercromby, Sir John, general, 48, Elizabeth 50, 55, 70, 95,184,198,199-200, Abercromby, Sir George, of 210, 235 Birkenbog, 158 Abercromby, Mary, nee Dundas, Abercromby, George, of Tullibody, wife of George Abercromby of xxiv, 11, 33, 54, 133, 172, 183, Tullibody, xxiv, 11, 33, 54, 147, 220, 225, 247 215, 220, 249 Abercromby, George, of Tullibody, Abercromby, Mary, daughter of Sir later Lord Abercromby, son of Ralph Abercromby, 295 Sir Ralph Abercromby, 25, 28, Abercromby, Mary, relict of James 90, 125, 144, 175 Edmonstone of Newton, see at his grandfather’s funeral, 12 Edmonstone, Mary connections with Lord Melville, Abercromby, Mary Anne, nee Menzies, Baroness Abercromby, election143, 158 cause of, 74 relict of Sir Ralph Abercromby, houses of, at Comrie, 65; in xxv, 63, 69, 95, 188 Edinburgh, 31 Abercromby, Mary Anne, nee marriage of, xxv Leigh, wife of James Aber- marriage of his sister, 292 cromby, later Baron not appointed receiver general, 153; Dunfermline, 262-3 or sheriff of Orkney, 52 Abercromby, Montagu, nee Dundas, R. writes to, on his father’s death, wife of George Abercromby of 53, 54 Tullibody, later second Baron to become citizen of Edinburgh, Abercromby, xxv, 64, 160, 281, 299, 301 284 U 308 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Abercromby, Montagu—continued Airthrey, Stirlingshire, xxv and Lord Melville’s fall, 158 r. hears news at, 150, 214 favourite of r’s, 48, 90, 264 r. visits, 2, 7,11,29-31, 38,49,125, R. to visit, 144, 262 144, 147-9, I52, 168, 175, 183, visits Airthrey, 30, 125, 149, 210, 212, 256-7, 272, 274 274; Cheltenham, 356; Edin- visitors to, 32, 83, 141, 236 burgh, 150 Albany, duke of, see Stewart, Abercromby, Montagu, daughter of Murdoch George Abercromby of Tulli- ale, see drink body, 263 Alexander, James, first earl of Abercromby, Sir Ralph, k.b., xxv, 6, Caledon, 150 7, 36, 50, 53-55, 113, 173 Alexander, James, of Somerhill, Abercromby, Ralph, son of James Kent, 150 Abercromby, m.p., 263 Alison, Archibald, minister of Abercromby, Sir Robert, xxv, 4, 35, episcopal chapel in Cowgate, 112, 127, 137, 162, 292, 301 Edinburgh, xvii, 15, 25, 74, 102, and black swans, 293 122, 136, 268 dines with r., 3, 62, 121, 193 Allan, Helen, wife of Rev. Archibald intends to stand as m.p. for Scott, see Scott, Helen Stirlingshire, 64, 83 Allardyce, Alexander, xii-xiv invites R. to Airthrey, 212, 238, 289 Alloa, Clackmannanshire, 175, 187 R. visits or intends to visit, 2, 57, 62, Alloway, Lord, see Cathcart, David 91, 125, 147, 149, 172, 210-n, almonds, see fruit 271, 274 America, United States of, see visits Rennet, 228 Carolina Aberdeen, 3, 196, 254-5 amusements Aberfoyle, Perthshire, 284 betting, 23 Aboukir, Egypt, 66 brag, 212 Abyssinia, 183, 296 bull-baiting, 43-44 Achallader, laird of, see Campbell, cards, 178, 247 John chess, 23 Adam, Alexander, rector of the high cockfighting, 43 and n, 117-18 school, Edinburgh, 27 and n dancing, 78, 81, 87, 110-11, 120, Adam, Christian, daughter of 150, 171, 211, 244, 247 bis, 277 Thomas Adam of Dyke, 193 drinking, xxii, 37, 48, 69, 116 Adam, William, of Woodston, 189 fishing, 257 Addington, Henry, first Viscount gaming, 219 Sidmouth, 73 hunting, 91, 132 Addison, Joseph, 72, 106, 259 races, 18, 60, 130 and n, 179, 231, Cato, 114 and n 277« agriculture, improvements in, 17, shooting, 263 121, 131 swimming, 257 see also crops; harvest whist, 180 Airth, Stirlingshire, 125, 143, 168, see also balls; plays 177 Anderson, Robert, minister of St Airth, lairds of, see Graham Giles, Edinburgh, 188, 285 INDEX 309 Angus, 85, 277 Auchleshie, laird of, see Buchanan, animals John, of Auchleshie and cats, 162, 241, 275 Cambusmore cows, 254, 278 Australia, see Botany Bay dogs, 162, 177, 228, 246, 284, 292, Austria, see Vienna 298 Avonton, Lord, see Blair, Robert goats, 41, 42 Ayr, 138, 142 lamb, 162 Ayrshire, 171 sheep, 161 antiquities, xiv, xvi Greek coin, 255 baillie, William, Lord apoplexy, see illness Polkemmet, 233 apple pie, see food Baillie, [blank], Miss, 28 apples, see fruit Baird, Anne, Lady, nee Preston, wife apricots, see fruit of Sir David Baird, 68 Arabian Nights, xix, 161-2 Baird, Sir David, general, 68 Ardkennacrockan, Perthshire, 186 Baird, [blank], Miss, shopkeeper in Ardkindlas (Argyllshire?), 280 Stirling, 77 Ardoch, Perthshire, 10, 96, 172, 176, Balfour, Andrew, commissary of 179-80, 229 Edinburgh, 31, 83, 88, no, 114, Ardvorlich, Perthshire, 213 141, 286 Ardvorlich, laird of, see Stewart, Balgray, Lord, see Ewart, David W. R. William Balloch, Dunbartonshire, xviii Argyll, marquess and duke of, see Ballochallan, Perthshire, 227 Campbell balls, 37, 73, 91, 112, 154, 162, 170, Argyllshire, 36, 41 179, 202, 216,259, 268, 269, 271, Ariosto, Lodovico, Orlando Furioso, xix, 38-39 dress293, at, 295 37 Aristarchus of Samothrace, 93 Hunter’s, 277/1 Armadale, Lord, see Honyman, Sir in summer, 300 William on succession to estate, 250 army, xxiv, 105-6, 113-14, 125, 143, preparations for, 144 201 private, 69, 185, 215, 220, 248, 292 see also court martial; militia quarrel at, 135 Amot, Hugo, advocate, 167 see also amusements, dancing; Amot, Hugo, of Balcormo, son of Blair Drummond; Edinburgh Hugo Amot, advocate, 167, 168 Balmuto, Lord, see Boswell, Claude Artois, Comte d’, later Charles x, Irvine king of France, 85 Bandeath, Stirlingshire, 81 asparagus, see vegetables banking, 196 Atholl, dukes of, 195 Banks, Robert, sheriff clerk of see also Murray Stirling and Clackmannan, 5 Atterbury, Francis, bishop of Bankton, Lord, see Macdowal, Rochester, 25 Andrew Auchinleck, Lord, see Boswell, Bannatyne, Sir William Macleod, Alexander Lord Bannatyne, 131 310 LETTERSOFJ OHN RAMSAY Bannockburn, Stirlingshire, 79, 233 Black Mount, see Rannoch, Muir of Baptists, see religious denominations Blackadder, Alexander, no, 162-3 Barclay, James Robertson, doctor, 87 Blackburn, Hugh, wife of Alexander Barclay, [blank], of Keavil, 169 and n Bruce of Kennet, see Bruce, barley, see food Hugh Barrett, Elizabeth, wife of William Blair, Hugh, minister of Lady Stirling, see Stirling, Elizabeth Yester’s church, Edinburgh, Bath, Somerset, 25, 42, 46, 80, 154, xvii, 33, 123 208 Blair, James, medical practitioner at Baxter, [blank], Mrs, 49-50 Kirkintilloch, 97 Beattie, James, The Minstrel, 3 Blair, Robert, Lord Avonton, 234, Beaumont, [blank], Mr, 297 282-3 beef, see food Blair Atholl, Perthshire, 263 Belgium, see Ramillies Blair Castle, Perthshire, 104 Bell, John, surgeon, 28, 167 Blair Drummond, Perthshire, xxiv, Bellenden, Mary, wife of fourth duke 247 of Argyll, see Campbell, Mary ball at, 49-50, 245 Bellenden Ker, John, otherwise building of house of, 47 Gawler, 147 Lord Karnes’s improvements at, Bellenden Ker, William, Lord 121 Bellenden of Broughton, later r. unable to visit, 155 fourth duke of Roxburghe, 118, r. visits, 2, 106, 112, 132, 139, 148, 172, 176-7, 185, 187, 201, 228, Belshes,171. John 173 Hepburn, of Invermay, 245, 256-7, 281, 285 colonel, 207 visitors to, 89, 91 Bengal, India, 260 Blair Logie, Perthshire, 62 Bennet, William, minister of Blane, Mary, housekeeper of Robert Duddingston, author of Buchanan of Drummakiln, 99 Excellence of Christian morality, Blenheim, Germany, 279 xix, 14, 158 boiled meat, see food Bernard, Saint, 88 ‘bole hive’, see illness Berry, Agnes, xvi Bombay, India, xxvi, 235, 300 Berry, Mary, xvi Bonaparte, see Napoleon Bonaparte Berry, Robert, advocate, 84, 276 Boswell, Alexander, Lord Auchin- Berwick, 52 leck, 18, 217, 283, 303 betting, see amusements Boswell, Claud Irvine, Lord Balmuto, Betty, William H. W., 131 143, 243. 263, 278 Bible, 4-5, 178 Boswell, James, of Auchinleck, 223» Biggar, Lanarkshire, 230 Boswell, James, son of Alexander bile, see illness Boswell of Auchinleck, Life of Binning, David Munro, of Softlaw, Johnson, 105, 1x6 187 Boswell, John Irvine, of Balmuto, birds goose, 157 Botany143 Bay, Australia, 93, 293 robin, 181, 224, 241, 246 Boulogne, France, 126 swans, 293 Bourbon, house of, 290 INDEX 311 Bowdler, Henrietta Maria, author of Bruce, Margaret, wife of Walter Fragments in prose and verse, 93, Watson of Southfield, see 242 and n Watson, Margaret brag, see amusements Bruce, Mary, n6e Nisbet, afterwards Brahmins, 288 Ferguson, wife of (1) Thomas, Brazil, Dom Pedro, emperor of, seventh earl of Elgin, and (2) xxvi Robert Ferguson of Raith, 195, bread, see food 201, 217, 223, 284 Breadalbane, earls of, 195 Bruce, Ralph, son of Robert Bruce, see also Campbell, John Lord Kennet, 274 Brentwood, Essex, 295 Bruce, Robert, son of Alexander Brighton, Sussex, 42 Bruce of Kennet, 273 Broddam, [blank]. Dr, 108 Bruce, Lady Sarah, daughter of Broomhall, Fife, 205, 207 seventh earl of Kincardine, 179 broth, see food Bruce, Thomas, seventh earl of Brown, James, minister of West St Elgin, 51, 201, 205, 220, 223 Giles, Edinburgh, 34 Bruce, Thomas, of Grangemuir, son Brown, Thomas, later professor of of Robert Bruce of Kennet, 31, moral philosophy at Edinburgh, 212, 227, 251, 274 216, 223 Bruce, Veronica, nee Van Arsen, wife Browne, Sir Thomas, Religio of Alexander, second earl of Medici, 202-3 Kincardine, 223 Bruce, Alexander, of Kennet, 77,102, Bruce, [blank], daughter of James 112, 130, 146, 225, 228, 230 Bruce of Kinnaird, wife of John Bruce, Burnet, son of Robert Bruce, Jardine, 76 Lord Kennet, 121,149,150,175, Brucefield, Clackmannanshire, 65 Brunswick, house of, 243 Bruce,193. Catherine, 199. 210, Lady,274, 286, relict 289 of Brydges, James, first duke of Henry Bruce, baron of Chandos, 277 Clackmannan, 67 Brydone, Patrick, 124 Bruce, Charles Andrew, son of ninth Buccleuch, duchess of, see Scott, earl of Kincardine, 275 Harriet Bruce, Lady Christian, wife of James Buchan, earl of, see Erskine, David S. Erskine of Cardross, see Erskine, Buchanan, Alexander, of Amprior, Lady Christian 90, 210, 257, 292 Bruce, Hugh, nee Blackburn, wife of Buchanan, Catherine, nee Aber- Alexander Bruce of Kennet, 77, cromby, wife of Thomas 112, 145, 208, 273 Buchanan of Powis, 290-1 Bruce, James, of Kinnaird, 31, 183, Buchanan, Helen, 43 296 Buchanan, James, son of John Bruce, Janet, wife of William, eighth Buchanan of Cambusmore, 103, earl of Kincardine, 24 164, 257 Bruce, Laurence Dundas, son of Buchanan, Jean, wife of Hector Robert Bruce, Lord Kennet, 146 McDonald (Buchanan), 99 Bruce, Margaret, n6e Ramsay, wife Buchanan, John, of Cambusmore, 30, of Thomas Bruce, 31, 212 38, 68, 165, 177, 193, 227, 257 312 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Buchanan, Murray Kynnynmound, butter, see food n6e Edmonstone, wife of John Buxton, Derbyshire, xxiii Buchanan of Cambusmore, 223-4 Buchanan, Robert, of Drummakiln, cabbage, see vegetables Caesar, xvii, 70 Buchanan,99 Thomas, of Powis, Caithness, 79-80, 254 second son of John Buchanan of cake, see food Auchleshie and Cambusmore, Caledon, James Alexander, earl of, 164, 290-1 see Alexander, James Buchanan, Stirlingshire, 103 Callander, Christian, nee Forbes, wife Buckingham, duke of, see Villiers, of Sir James Callander of George Craigforth, 63 building activity, 85 Callander, Elizabeth Crompton, nee bull-baiting, see amusements Erskine, wife of George Bunyan, John, Pilgrim's Progress, xix, Callander of Craigforth, 63,165, 236, 244, 280 Burdett,5i Sir Francis, 212 Callander, George, of Craigforth, 63, burgundy, see drink 165, 192, 236, 244, 280 Burn, Edward, of Coldoch, writer in Callander, Sir James, of Craigforth, Stirling, 55, 126, 143, 280 236, 243-4 Burn, [blank], brother of Edward Callander, John, of Craigforth, no Bum of Coldoch, 281 Callander, Perthshire, 13, 164, 167, Burnet, Gilbert, bishop of Salisbury, 192, 193. 298 History of his own time, 236 Callcott, Sir Augustus Wall, xxvi Burnett, James, Lord Monboddo, 5, Calvin, John, 32 129, 141, 226, 277-9 Cambridge, King’s College, 284 Bums, Robert, xii, 23 Cambusmay, Perthshire, 13 Cottar’s Saturday Night, 282 Cambusmore, Perthshire, 193, 226, Holy Fair, 10 and n, 39, 229 257 Burrell, Clementina Sarah, daughter Cambusmore, laird of, see Buchanan, of Lord Perth, see Drammond, John afterwards Burrell, Clementina CambusWallace, Perthshire, 76, 83, 89 Burrell, hdn. Peter Robert, later Lord Cameron, Allan, of Erracht, 270 Willoughby de Eresby, 203, 212 Cameron, Anne, nee Abercromby, Bushby, John, sheriff clerk of wife of Donald Cameron of Dumfries, 89 Lochiel, xvii, 56, 168, 175, 247, Bushby, Richard, headmaster of 266, 270-1, 274-5, 281, 284 Westminster school, 25-26 Cameron, Anne, daughter of Donald Bushy Park, Surrey, 201 Cameron of Lochiel, 175 Bute, earl of, see Stuart Cameron, Catherine, 41 Bute, 90 Cameron, Donald, of Lochiel, xxv, Butler, James, first duke of Ormonde, 56, 125, 168, 175, 270, 272, 274 Cameron, Sir Ewan, of Lochiel, 56-57 Butler,54 Thomas, earl of Ossory, son Campbell, Sir Alexander, of of first duke of Ormonde, 54 Ardkinglas, 236 INDEX 313 Campbell, Archibald, first marquess Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, 65 of Argyll, 297 Capua, Italy, 255 Campbell, Archibald, third duke of Cardross, Dunbartonshire, xxiv, 9,54, Argyll, 204 70, 172, 191, 194, 233 Campbell, Charlotte Susan Maria, r. visits or intends to visit, 5,23-24, Lady, daughter of John, fifth 59, 62, 65-67, 82, 91,117,120-1, duke of Argyll, 79 Campbell, Sir Duncan, of Glenurchy, visitors139, 231to, 23, 77, 97, 107, 205 cards, see amusements Campbell,115 Duncan, of Lochnell, Carmichael, [blank], Miss, 157 major general, 220 Carolina, u.s.a., 283 Campbell, Duncan, commissary of carriage, see transport Stirling, 40n Garrick, [blank], doctor, of Campbell, Eleanora, nee Fraser, wife Bristol, 260 of Lt.-gen. Duncan Campbell of Castle Lyon, Perthshire, 218 Lochnell, 220 Castle Semple, Renfrewshire, 236-7 Campbell, Elizabeth John, wife of Castle Semple, family of, 250 Lord John Campbell, later Catalani, Angelica, 204 seventh duke of Argyll, 220 cataract, see illness Campbell, George, principal of Cathcart, David, later Lord Alloway, Marischal College, Aberdeen, 5 286 Campbell, George William, sixth Cathcart, Eleanora, wife of Sir John duke of Argyll, 204-5 Houston of Houston, see Campbell, John, fourth duke of Houston, Eleanora Argyll, 118 Cathcart, Mary Anne, wife of sixth Campbell, John D. E. H., later Lord Napier, see Napier, Mary seventh duke of Argyll, 220 A. Campbell, John, third earl of Catholics, see religious denominations Breadalbane, 255 cats, see animals Campbell, John, fourth earl of Catullus, 241 Breadalbane, x 15, 255 cauliflower, see vegetables Campbell, John, Lord Stonefield, 59 Cawder, Lanarkshire, xxiii Campbell, John, of Achallader, 255 celery, see vegetables Campbell, Mary, nee Bellenden, wife Cervantes, Miguel, Don Quixote, 289 of fourth duke of Argyll, 118 chair, see transport Campbell, Naomi, wife of John chaise, see transport Morison, see Morison, Naomi champagne, see drink Campbell, Willielma, nee Maxwell, Chandos, duke of, see Brydges, James relict of John, Lord Glenorchy, Charlemagne, xvii, 114 119, 224, 255 Charles 1, king of Great Britain, 129, Campbell, [blank], Mrs, of Cary, 206 Charles192-3 v, Holy Roman Emperor, Campbell, [blank], Mrs, 67 Camstraddan, laird of, see Colquhoun Charters,95 Margaret, n6e Scott, wife Robert of Samuel Charters of Luscar, Cape Horn, South America, xxvi 6im, 229, 257 314 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Charters, Samuel, of Luscar, minister Cochrane, William, of Ochiltree, of Wilton 223 « and subscriptions to publication cockfighting, see amusements of Hardie’s sermons, 276-9, 283 cold, see illness at Blairdrummond, 256, 259 Colquhoun, Agnes, daughter of his sermons, 61, 134, 200, 286 Robert Colquhoun of Cam- r. visits, 227 stradden, 280 visits r., 257-8 Colquhoun, Barbara Camilla, nde writes to R., 229, 275 MacIntyre, wife of Lt.-col. cheese, see food Ludovic Colquhoun, 278 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, 36 Colquhoun, Helen, daughter of cherries, see fruit Robert Colquhoun of Cam- chess, see amusements stradden, 280 Chesterhall, Roxburghshire, 206 Colquhoun, Sir James, twenty-fourth chilblains, see illness of Colquhoun, 105, 112, 121, China, 163 china crockery, 176-7, 254 Colquhoun,145, 154, Sir 157 James, twenty-fifth Christianity, xvii, 16, 34, 123 of Colquhoun, 112, 115, 119, see also religious denominations; 121, 157 sermons Colquhoun, Jane F., wife of David Christie, William, burgh clerk of Kemp of Balsusney, see Kemp, Stirling, 278 Jane F. Christison, Alexander, professor of Colquhoun, Margaret Haldane, humanity at Edinburgh, 173 daughter of Robert Colquhoun Christmas festivities, 5, 91, 147, of Camstradden, 280 149-50, 210-11, 274 Colquhoun, Mary, n£e Falconer, Chudleigh, [blank], captain, 284 Lady, wife of Sir James Churchhill, [blank], Miss, 43 Colquhoun, twenty-fourth of Cibber, Colley, xix Colquhoun, 105, no, 112, The Fop’s Fortune, 172 114-15, 119, 121, 141, 145, 154, The Provok’d Husband, 22, 45 Clackmannanshire, 104,112, 208,225 Colquhoun,157 Robert, of Camstradden, claret, see drink 280 Clark, John, goldsmith, burgess of Colville, Alexander, of Hillside, Edinburgh, 288 minister of Ormiston, 145 Clarke, Mary Anne, 236, 243, 245 Colville, Jean, wife of Thomas Clason, Robert, minister of Logie, 62 Samuel Hardie, see Hardie, Jean Clerk, James, baron of exchequer, Comrie, Perthshire, 65, 68 252 Condie, Perthshire, 176 Clerk, John, Lord Eldin, 129, 134 Constable, Archibald, 156, 278 Clerk, [blank], Mrs, 98, 206 Constable, George, xiv Clyde, Firth of, 100 Constantinople, Turkey, 43 coach, see transport consumption, see illness coal, 38 cookery, 7 and n, 81-82, 194 Cochrane, Sir Alexander F. I., see also food admiral, 249 torn, see crops INDEX 315 Cornwall, 276 Cumin, Patrick, professor of church Corunna, Spain, 247 history at Edinburgh, 34 cough, see illness Cuming, Sir Alexander, bt., 72-73 court martial, 199 Cunningham, [blank], goldsmith, 77 see also army Cunningham Graham, William Coventry, Andrew, doctor, 299, 301 Cunningham, of Gartmore, see Coventry, Francis, Pompey the Little, Graham, William Cunningham 49 Cunningham Cowie, Margaret, nee Ramsay, aunt Curll, Edmund, 117 of r., xxvi curricle, see transport cows, see animals Currie, James, m.d., 23, 217 Craig, Ann, wife of David McNair, custard, see food see McNair, Ann Cuthill, Archibald, writer in Stirling, Craigamhall, Perthshire, 87 244 Craigbarnet, laird of, see Stirling, James dalgleish, William, minister in Craigforth, Stirlingshire, 194, 207, Peebles, 133, 134 243, 280 Dalkeith, Midlothian, xii, 43, 82-83, Craigie, Robert, of Glendoick, 201, 245 243 Dalrymple, Sir David, Lord Hailes, Cramond, Midlothian, 206 Cranstoun, Midlothian, 206 Dalrymple,33, 55 Hew, Lord Drummore, Crauford, John, of Auchenames, 185 201 Creech, William, 289-90 Dalrymple, James, Viscount Stair, Letters to Sir John Sinclair, 128 lord president of session, 281 Crieff, Perthshire, 77, 132, 152 Dalrymple, Sir John, of Cranstoun, Cromwell, Oliver, 57 bt., 226 crops, 2, 12, 19, 22, 98, 262 Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, com, 5, 58, 258, 273 xix, 101 grain, 254 damsons, see fruit hay, 258 dancing, see amusements oats, 100 Davidson, David, minister of pease, 100 Cumbernauld, 79 potatoes, 287 deafness, see illness see also harvest Dee, River, 144 Crosbie, Andrew, 94 Delphi, Oracle of, 112 cucumber, see vegetables Dempster, George, of Dunnichen, Cullen, Robert, Lord Cullen, xviii. 116-17 140 Dessau, Germany, 59 Culloden, Invemess-shire, 41 Devonshire, 186 Culross, Fife, 104 Dick, Sir James, of Prestonfield, 33 Cumberland, duke of, see William Dighty, River, Angus, 84 Augustus, duke of Cumberland dining habits, 48, 59, 87, 205 Cumberland, Richard, xix distilling, 211 and n Henry, 164, 165 divorce, 31,40,115,194,217,220,286 Cumbernauld, Stirlingshire, 79 see also marriage 310 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY doctors, 22 and n, 28, 49, 52, 96-97, drinking, see amusements 138,151,153,156, 212, 216, 221, Drumlanrig, Dumfriesshire, 134 240 Drummond, Agatha, wife of Henry see also illness Home, Lord Kames, see Home, dogs, see animals Agatha Doig, David, rector of Stirling Drummond, Agatha, daughter of grammar school, 255, 259, 284 George Home Drummond of Douglas, Catherine Anne, wife of Blair Drummond, xxiv, 8, 250, Lord Glenbervie, lyon, 171 259 Douglas, hon. Frederick Sylvester Drummond, Amelia Sophia, nee North, master of Glenbervie, 202 Murray, wife of J. A. J. L. C. Douglas, George, twelfth earl of Drummond, younger, of Morton, 238 Strathallan, 303 Douglas, Sir George, of Springwood, Drummond, Andrew, son of Sir John bt., 173M, 175 Drummond of Machany, xii, Douglas, Robert, eleventh earl of 132, 229 Morton, 238 Drummond, Charles Edward, but Douglas, Sylvester, Lord Glenbervie, for attainder, fifth earl of Melfort, 170, 171, 182 208 Douglas, William, fourth duke of Drummond, Christian, n6e Moray, Queensberry, 134 wife of Henry Home Drum- Doune, Perthshire, 13,26,193,225-6, mond, later of Blair Drummond, 227 xxiv, 298-9, 300 Doune Hunt, 90 Drummond, Clementina, wife of dreams, 203 James, eleventh earl of Perth, Dreghom, Lord, see Maclaurin, John 203 dress, see fashions Drummond, afterwards Burrell, drink Clementina Sarah, wife of hon. ale, 91 P. R. Burrell, 169M, 203 burgundy, 148, 274 Drummond, Frances, n£e Moray, champagne, 148, 274 wife of George Drummond of claret, 274 Blair Drummond, 299 eau de Noyau, 7 Drummond, George, of Blair linseed tea, 35 Drummond, 299 madeira, 282 Drummond, George Harley, of milk, 221, 261, 285 Stanmore, 132, 229 port, 81, 263, 274 Drummond, George Home, of Blair porter, 49, 165, 265 Drummond, xvi, xxiv, in, 90, sherry, 7, 148, 274 no, 120, 123, 163, 294 tea, 81, 130, 137, 205, 213, 250, and moss colony, 162 253, 256, 269 bis, 274-5 correspondence with r., 209, 281, whisky, 116 292 wine, xii, 12, 100, 150, 152-3, 204, health of, 22, 51, 109, 113, 241-2, 206, 208, 212, 242, 255, 263-4, 244-5. 249-50, 302-3 274 r. meets, 147-8 see also food r’s manuscripts and, 239 INDEX 317 visits cockfight, 43; Edinburgh, 152; Drummond, John, son of John Ochtertyre, 226 Drummond of Strageath, 125, wedding of, 300 213 Drummond, Rev. George William Drummond, John, son of Andrew Auriol Hay, A Town Eclogue, 122 Drummond, 132 and «, 123, 124 Drummond, John George, younger Drummond, Henry Home, later of son of George Home Drum- Blair Drummond, xxiv, 100, mond of Blair Drummond, xxiv, 8, 204, 228, 248, 271, 281, 266,137. 298147, 154. 172. 181, 222, 302 at Oxford, 89, 137-8, 250 Drummond, Margaret, nee Munro, career as lawyer, 226, 279, 285 wife of George Harley Drum- correspondence with r., 151, mond of Stanmore, 132,144,229 Drummond, Mary, relict of John meets299 R., 188, 199, 239, 299 Pringle, see Pringle, Mary militia and, 253, 272 Drummond, Meg, sister of George Speculative Society and, 208 Drummond, lord provost of wedding of, xxiv, 298, 300 Edinburgh, 93 Drummond, James, fourth earl of Drummond, Lady Rachel, daughter Perth, xi of James Drummond of Lundin, Drummond, James, eleventh earl of X02, 179-80, 212, 269 Perth, 12, 15, 17 Drummond, Robert, of Megginch, Drummond, James A. J. L. Q, younger, of Strathallan, after- Drummond,233 Robert Hay, ninth earl wards Viscount Strathallan, of Kinnoull, 124 303 Drummond, Sir William, of Logie- Drummond, James, of Blair Drum- almond, 118 mond, grandson of James Drummond, William Abemethy, Drummond of Blair Drummond, bishop of Edinburgh, 15, 153 xxiv Drummond Castle, Perthshire, 169, Drummond, James, of Blair 211-12 Drummond, xxiv Drummore, East Lothian, 201 Drummond, Janet, nee Jardine, wife Dryden, John, Virgil, 112 of George Home Drummond of Drymen, Stirlingshire, 99 Blair Drummond, xxiv, 49, 113, Dublin, Ireland, xxii 139, 204, 259, 281 duelling, 52, 93, 212 and n, 264 and n dress of, 138 Duff, Anne, wife of Alexander Duff health of, 161-4, 201, 226, 245, of Hatton, 153-4 292, 302-3 Duff, James, Earl Fife, 153 housekeeper of, 50, 214, 222 Duff, Jane, daughter ofR. W. Duff of inoculated for smallpox, 216 Fetteresso, 195 r’s relations with, 190, 215, 228, Duff, Robert William, of Fetteresso, 239, 303 168,192,194-5 wedding of, 300 Dunbartonshire, 105 Drummond, John, of Strageath, 125, Dunblane, Perthshire, xxii, 45, 116, 213, 218-19 132, 181, 282 3i8 letters ofj OHN RAMSAY Duncan, Adam, Viscount Duncan, replacement of r’s watch, 252-3, 256; tabernacle (Haldanechurch), Duncan,231 [blank], carrier, 19, 26, 16; in correspondence, xi, xiii, 177 xv, xvi, 23, 26, 32, 58, 65, 171, arrival at Ochtertyre, 32, 58, 125 173, 179, 224, 283, 289, 297 failure to appear at Ochtertyre, 6, religion of, xvii-xviii 187 visits Aberdeen, 254-5; Airth, 168, his horse, 77 177; Mr Rolland, 36; Ochter- in trouble with post office, 51 tyre, 221, 273; Peterhead, 253-4 r’s relations with, 168-70, 173 Dundas, Elizabeth, wife of James Dundas, Agnes, nee Haldane, wife of Edmonstone of Newton, see John Dundas of Manor, 178 Edmonstone, Elizabeth Dundas, Anne, wife of James Ramsay Dundas, Elizabeth, wife of Robert of Ochtertyre, see Ramsay, Anne Dundas of Amiston, 114 Dundas, Anne Stirling, daughter of Dundas, Elizabeth, nee Spital, wife James Dundas, n, 131,133, 148, of Robert Dundas of Blair, 104 164-5, 236, 277 Dundas, Elizabeth, daughter of Dundas, Bolden, see Dundas, William Captain Dundas of Manor, 150 B. Dundas, Elizabeth, daughter of Dr Dundas, Charles, later Baron Ames- Thomas Dundas, 257, 300 bury, 30, 147, 175, 284 Dundas, Elizabeth Christian, Dundas, Charles, adviser to Mr daughter of James Dundas, 50 Drummond of Blair Drummond, Dundas, George, admiral, xxv 113, 221, 277 Dundas, George, son of Admiral Dundas, Christian, wife of John George Dundas, 300 Hamilton, younger of Sundrum, Dundas, George, son of James see Hamilton, Christian Dundas, 90, 288 Dundas, David, son of James Dundas, Dundas, Henry, first Viscount 152, 271-2, 279, 284-7, 292, 297 Melville, xvi, xxv, 8, 65, 125, Dundas, Elizabeth, nee Graham, wife 143, 208, 231, 263 of James Dundas of Ochtertyre, at school in Dalkeith, 83 3, 9, 18, 27, 45, 148, 171, 181-2, character of, 83-84, 157 203, 285, 297 death of, 282-3 at balls, 73, 79, 114 political career of, 73, 124, 158, births of her children, 11, 50, 90, 160, 168, 183, 185, 193 162-3 r’s opinions of, 83-84, 189, 281; is health of, 35,96,106,156,166,281, pressed to meet him at Airthrey, 297; of her family, 30, 90-91, 168 131, 151-2 visits Blair Drummond, 106, 202 life of, xiv-xv, xxii Dundas, James, later of Ochtertyre, r’s relations with, about requests xi, xxii, 1, 3-5, 8, 11, 71, 73-74, for his letters, xv-xvi, 116-17, 103, 138, 143, 155-6, 162, 177, 239-41; gifts of fruit, vegetables, 187, 191, 197, 205-6, 223, 272, etc, xx, 22, 71, 74, 102, 192; 278, 285, 286, 303 obtaining a bursary, 45-47. 68, conduct of, in Roxburghe cause, 101; plans for his funeral, 296; 118, 123, 173-6 INDEX 319 health of, 9, 33, 35, 118, 160, 197, marriages of, xxvi, 270 and n 201, 253, 276, 279 r’s relations with and opinions of, life of, xiv-xv 164, 169,181, 224, 234, 242, 254, r’s relations with, about minister of 292, 294 Kincardine-in-Menteith, 301-2; visits Bombay, 235; Bushy Park, news on various topics, 18-19, 201; Edinburgh, 167; England, 42, 67, no, 165, 196, 202, 231; 186, 199; Exmouth, 207; Livi- obtaining a bursary, 46-47, 68, lands, 167; Ochtertyre, 178; 101; r’s manuscripts, 239-41; Richmond, 191; Sidmouth, 216- replacement of r’s watch, 252-3, 217; Trossachs, 164 256; subscriptions, 5, 173; in Dundas, Marianne, nee La Touche, compliments sent through Mrs wife of R. P. Dundas later of Dundas, 2, 19, 94, 164, 290; in Manor, xxii, 137, 141, 142, 146, correspondence, xi, xiii, xxvi, 148 104, 154, 161, 171, 182, 217, Dundas, Mary, daughter of James 250-1, 294, 297-9, 301 Dundas, 11 visits Aberdeen, 254-5'» Fleurs Dundas, Mary, daughter of Dr Castle, 68; Kippenross, 288; Thomas Dundas, xii-xiii Ochtertyre, 262, 287-8; Peter- Dundas, Mary, wife of George head, 253-4; Stirling, 288 Abercromby of Tullibody, see Dundas, Jean, wife of first Viscount Abercromby, Mary Melville, 153 Dundas, Montagu, wife of George Dundas, Jemima, daughter of James Abercromby of Tullibody, later Dundas, 162-3, 276 second Baron Abercromby, see Dundas, John, of Manor, 178 Abercromby, Montagu Dundas, John, son of James Dundas, Dundas, Nancy, wife of Admiral 126, 152, 231, 256, 288, 292 George Dundas, xxv Dundas, Margaret, nee Wedderbum, Dundas, Philip, governor of Prince wife of Philip Dundas, 88 of Wales Island, son of Robert Dundas, Margaret, n6e Wedderbum, Dundas of Arniston, 88 wife of Richard Dundas of Dundas, Ralph, of Manor, xi, xv, Blair, 102 xxii, xxiv Dundas, Maria, daughter of Admiral Dundas, Ralph, merchant, burgess of George Dundas, later wife of Edinburgh, son of Ralph Dundas Thomas Graham, 168, 175, 183, of Manor, xv 202, 205, 275, 295, 300 Dundas, Ralph, captain, son of Ralph, career of, xxv-vi fourth son of Ralph Dundas of correspondence with r., xv, 166, Manor, 145, 186, 208 171, 186-7, 216-17, 219-20, 235, Dundas, Ralph, of Manor, general, 246, 297, 302 xxii, 67, 146 health of, 186, 188, 200-1, 215-17, Dundas, Ralph James, son of James 219, 272, 296 Dundas, 119, 148, 149, 256-7, literary activities of, xix, 187, 208, 262, 292, 294 272,292,296,303 -Journal of a res- Dundas, Ralph Peter, later of Manor, idence in India, xxvi, 287-8; Little xxii, 137,141,142,146,148,162, Arthur’s History of England, xxvi 261 320 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Dundas, Richard, son of Robert balls in, 9, 114, 213, 219-20 Bruce Dundas of Blair, 104 compared to Bath, 25, 154; to Dundas, Robert, Lord Arniston, London, 266-7; to Thebes, 251 president of court of session, 191 differences between Auld Reekie Dundas, Robert, of Amiston, chief and New Town, 198, 246 baron of exchequer in Scotland, dinners in, 208, 245, 254 George Abercromby to become Dundas,114 Robert Bruce, of Blair, 104, citizen of, 299, 301 130, 210, 275 hangman in, 141 Dundas, Thomas, Baron Dundas of improvements in, 85-86 Aske, 65 manners in, 43, 123, 128, 135, 150, Dundas, Thomas, doctor, son of 219 Ralph Dundas of Manor, xiii, ministers in, 74, 84, 148, 183 72-73, 253 places in: Assembly Room, 69,269; Dundas, Thomas Graham, son of Charlotte Square, 31; Cowgate, James Dundas, 284 27; Dublin Street, 251; Heriot’s Dundas, William, son of James Hospital, 271, 284; Holyrood, Dundas, 148, 168, 262, 265, 284, 85,124,231; London Street, 251; 292 Marlin’s Wynd, 290; North Dundas, William, m.p. for Suther- Bridge, xii-xiii; Queen Street, land, 189 125; St Bernard’s Well, 106 Dundas, William Bolden, general, r. at university of, xii; discusses son of Admiral George Dundas, his visits to, 43, 56, 71, 154, 300 160-1, 227, 230, 250-1, 297; Dundas, [blank]. Miss, 90 loses watch at, 252; visits, xii, Dundas of Blair, family of, 223 xiii, 2, 11-12, 127, 162, 213, 283 Dundee, Angus, 276 reviews, 240 Duneira, Perthshire, 65, 263 shopkeepers in, 271 Dunfermline, Fife, 27, 145, 149 Sir Ralph Abercromby’s monu- Dungannon Fort, Ireland, xxii ment in, 173 Dunipace, Stirlingshire, 101 Speculative Society, 208 and n Dunlop, [blank], Mr, 10 theatre at, xviii, 17, 25, 43, 266-7, Dunnottar Castle, Kincardineshire, 272, 288, 293 visitors to, 44, 50, 77, 140, 142, Duns,255 Berwickshire, 205 167, 175, 229, 236, 298 Durham, Admiral Sir Philip Charles, writers in, 80, 196 26«, 34 Edington, James, of Gargunnock, 233 Duthie, [blank], 49 Edmond, James, provost of Stirling, 10 Edmonstone, Barbara, nee Seton, EAST INDIES, 280 wife of John James Edmonstone eau de Noyau, see drink of Newton, 14^, 30, 90, 142, Edgar, James, commissioner, 60 Edgeworth, Maria, Tales, 182 Edmonstone,157. 169, Elizabeth,184 nee Dundas, Edinburgh, 36, 40, 73, 105, in, wife of James Edmonstone of 118,123-4,127,170,216,284,295 Newton, 206 INDEX 321 Edmonstone, Gilbert, 142 Eldin, Lord, see Clerk, John Edmonstone, Grizel, sister of John elections, electioneering, 27 and n, 35, James Edmonstone of Newton, 64, 70, 74, 84, 187, 189, 195, xxiii, 51, 158, 165-6, 168, 257 223, 294-5 Edmonstone, James, of Newton, Elphinstone, hon. Keith, wife of xxiii, xxv, 206, 241-2 David Erskine of Cardross, see Edmonstone, John James, of Newton, Erskine, hon. Keith 30, 39. 157. 215 Elphinstone, William, son of tenth becomes client of Mr Dundas, 175 Lord Elphinstone, 70, 83 colonel of militia, 36 English, see languages health of, xxvii, 14, 36, 42, 90,108, epitaphs, xiii bis, 6, 71 bis, 99, no, 172, 184, 197-8, 200-1 241, 289 relations with r., xxiii, 25, 76 Erracht, laird of, see Cameron, Allan settles articles of Doune Hunt, 90 Erskine, Ann, second daughter of visits Bath, 25; Buxton, 158; James Erskine of Cardross, 66, Ochtertyre, 83 90 Edmonstone, Mary, nee Aber- Erskine, Anne, daughter of John cromby, relict of James Erskine of Camock, 172, 176, Edmonstone of Newton, xxiii, 252 xxv, 5, 6, 9, 14. 33 Erskine, Anne, nee Graham, wife of Edmonstone, Murray Kynnyn- David Erskine, w.s., xxiv mound, wife of John Buchanan Erskine, Anne, nee Stirling, wife of of Cambusmore, see Buchanan, Professor John Erskine of Murray K. Camock, xxiv education, 182, 247, 248-9 Erskine, Charles, Lord Tinwald, 279 at Alloa, 175 Erskine, Charles, Lt.-col., son of at Dalkeith grammar school, xii, 83 James Erskine of Cardross, 9, 50, at Edinburgh high school, 25, 27 at Edinburgh university, xii, 147 Erskine,53-54. Lady 65 Christian, nee Brace, at Eton, 75 wife of James Erskine of at Harrow, 168 Cardross, xxiv, 89, 160, 196, 210 at Heriot’s hospital, Edinburgh, health of, 5, 10, 24, 63, 103 271 r’s relations with, 65, 171, 179, at Oxford, 250 180, 235 at Westminster school, 75, 271, visits Ardoch, 96-97, 179; Blair 284, 286 Drummond, 139; Broomhall, Lancasterian system of, 237 and n 205, 207, 262; Cardross, 117; of ploughmen, 237-8 Edinburgh, 203-4; Gartur, 261 Edward 1, king of England, xvii, 204 Erskine, hon. Christian, nee MacKay, Edward vi, king of England, 95, 119, wife of John Erskine of Camock, 219 D.D., xxiv, 93, 290 Eglinton, Ayrshire, 247 health of, 38, 67 Egypt, 28, 70 hears of death of her son, 66 see also Aboukir r’s relations with, x, 3, 7, 23, 50, Elder, Alexander, Stirling carrier, 77, 91, 107, 125, 134, 180, 214 169, 170, 173, 177, 192 visits Ardoch, 172-3 322 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Erskine, Christian, wife of Charles Erskine, James, of Grange, lord Stirling of Kenmure, see justice clerk, 261 Stirling, Christian Erskine, James, of Linlathen, son of Erskine, Christian, daughter of David Erskine, w.s., xxiii-iv, 37, James Erskine of Cardross, 95, 121 career75 of, at high school, 25, 27; Erskine, David, of Cardross, son of at university, no, 147; in army, James Erskine of Cardross, xxiv, 113-14, 125 9i death of his child, 302 birth of his son, 134 r’s relations with, 49,136,140,154, health of, 97-98 161, 246-7 marriage of, 97-98 Erskine, John, eleventh earl of Mar, r’s relations with, 24, 85, 89, 117, 261 120, 277 Erskine, John, of Camock, professor visits Dr Wingate, 101; Ochter- of law at Edinburgh, xxiv tyre, 24 Erskine, John, of Carnock, d.d., Erskine, David, of Carnock, youngest minister successively of Old and son of John Erskine of Camock, New Greyfriars, Edinburgh, xxiv, 18, 38, 55, 62 xxiii-iv, 9, 14, 83, 290 Erskine, David, w.s., son of John family of, xxiii, 55 Erskine of Carnock, xxiii, xxiv, health of, 67, 87 portrait of, 59, 63, 121 Erskine,35, 36,David 74-75 Steuart, eleventh earl preaching of, 15, 27, 34, 38, 74, of Buchan, xv, 116-17, I20> 266 122 r’s correspondence with, 52, 76; Erskine, Elizabeth, nde Myers, wife sketch of his character, 53 of Captain William Erskine, 63 Erskine, John, grandson of Lord Erskine, Elizabeth Q, wife of George Tinwald, 279 Callander of Craigforth, see Erskine, John Francis, restored earl of Callander, Elizabeth C. Mar, 261 Erskine, Erskine, n£e Monro, wife of Erskine, Katherine, wife of James Henry Erskine, lord advocate, Erskine of Linlathen, see Stirling, afterwards Erskine, Erskine,154 Frances, wife of George Katherine Drummond of Blair Drummond, Erskine, hon. Keith, nee Elphinstone, see Drummond, Frances wife of David Erskine of Erskine, Henry, first Lord Cardross, Cardross, xxiv, 97, 101,121, 302 Erskine, Marion, daughter of James Erskine, hon. Henry, of Almondell, Erskine of Cardross, 6n, 52, 252, lord advocate, 63, 135, 154, 244 280 Erskine, Isabel, 233 Erskine, Matilda, wife of John Erskine, James, of Cardross, xxiv, Graham of Gartur, see Graham, 10, 23-24, 39, 54, 66, 69, 74-75. Matilda Erskine, Rachel, daughter of James Erskine,77.139, James, 302 eldest son of David Erskine of Cardross, 24, 160, Erskine of Cardross, 134 184, 212, 261 INDEX 323 Erskine, Thomas, of Linlathen, son of fashions in dress David Erskine, w.s., xxiv, 37, female, 24, 26, 37, 77-79, 81, in, 207, 212 115, 123, 129, 138, 144, 189, career of, at high school, 25, 27; at college, no, I47 male,233. xiv, 271 18, 37, 44, 56, 81, ill, health of, 199 271, 300 Maria Dundas and, 175, 200 Fenelon, Francois de Salignac de la r’s relations with, 75, 121, 136, Mothe, xix, 134 140, 154, 161, 173, 246-7, 276 Ferguson, Sir Adam, son of Pro- Erskine, William, captain, son of fessor Adam Ferguson, 108 James Erskine of Cardross, 63, Ferguson, James, of Pitfour, 255 Ferguson, Mary, wife of Robert Fer- Erskine,134 Sir William, bt., of Torrie, guson of Raith, see Brucej^Mary 269 Ferguson, Robert, of Raith, elder, 276 Erskine, [blank], Miss, niece of Dr Ferguson, Robert, of Raith, 45,46-47, John Erskine of Carnock, 9 68, 101, 193, 195, 223 estate affairs, xx-xxi, 160-1, 183-4, Ferguson, Sir Ronald Crawford, of Muirtown, general, 238, 249 Esten, Harriet Pye, relict of Major Ferguson, William, of Raith, 238 John Scott Waring, 43 and n, 46, Fergusson, George, Lord Hermand, 60 121, 131 Eton, Buckinghamshire, 75 Fergusson, [blank], Mrs, 275 Evans, Ann, wife of J. N. Rind of Ferrier, James, w.s., 173 Wester Livilands, see Rind, Ferrier, Jane, wife of Brig.-gen. Ann Samuel Graham, see Graham, Evans, [blank], Mrs, mother of Ann Jane Rind, 165 fever, see illness Ewart, David W. R., of Balgray, Fielding, Henry, xix, 49 later Lord Balgray, 171, 238, Joseph Andrews, 219, 301 289 Tom Jones, 258, 284 Exmouth, Devon, 207 Fife, Earl, see Duff, James eye diseases, see illness Fife, 79, 109, 189, 284 Finlayson, James, professor of logic at Edinburgh, 1, 147 fairfull, Robert, of Struie, 165 Sermons, 266 Fairney, [blank]. Miss, xu, 112 fish, see food Falconer, Mary, wife of Sir James fishing, see amusements Colquhoun, twenty-fourth of fit, see illness Colquhoun, see Colquhoun, flowers, xix Mary roses, 231 Falkirk, Stirlingshire, 19,79,126,138, thistles, xix, 168 141, 226, 252 fly, see transport Fane, John, tenth earl of Westmor- food land, 52 apple pie, 7, 47, 192, 273, 288 Farquhar, George, 118, 218, 269 barley, 8, 212 Farquharson, Francis, of Persey, 167 beef, 8, 102, 218, 274 X 324 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY food—continued apples, xx, xxv, 2, 63, 103, 142, boiled meat, 207 177, 188, 226, 231, 265, 273 bread, 32-33, 58, 137 apricots, xx, 2, 12, 126, 133, 273 broth, 137, 179, 205, 212, 214-17 cherries, xx, 2, 12, 260 butter, 41, 137, 188, 192, 196, 200, damsons, xx, 22, 171, 188, 231 218, 278, 285-6 geens, xx, 12 cake, xx, 285 gooseberries, xx, 12, 19, 53, 98, cheese, 41, 218 I24«, 126, 133, 226, 273 custard, 207 greengages, xx eggs, 58, 205, 243 nectarines, xx fish, xx, 11, 47; cod, xx, 47, 192, nuts, xx 235, 277; haddock, xx; halibut, peaches, xx, 2, 12, 46, 62, 126, 265 xx, 51; salmon, 29,49, 50,193-4, pears, xx, 2, 6, 10,13,63,126, 163, 208, 274; skate, xx; trout, 41 188, 208, 234, 265 fritters, 263 plums, xx, 2, 12, 126 goatsflesh, 41 strawberries, xx, 12, 226 goose, 188, 231, 278, 288 see also food; gardening; vegetables goose pudding, 278 and n Fisherrow, Midlothian, 201 greens, 36 Fitzpatrick, Anne, countess of Upper grouse pie, 94 Ossory, xvi ham, 49 Flanders, 188 hen (fowl), 49, 141, 243 Fletcher, [blank], Mr, 23, 61 jelly, 152 Fleurs, Roxburghshire, 68 kail, 165, 261 Florence, Italy, 98 meal, 11 Forbes, Christian, wife of James melon, 47 Callander of Craigforth, see mutton, 102, 192, 205, 230, 244, Callander, Christian Forbes, John, ofNewe, 82 nettle274, kail, 279 150 Forbes, John, of Pitnacriffe, colonel, pastry, 29, 32 53 porridge, 12, 91, 102, 270, 285 Forrester, Ann, nee Haldane, relict of potage, 8 Thomas Forrester of Denovan, salt pork, 218 271, 273 sheep’s head, 100 Fox, Charles James, 109, 195, 249 soup, 8, 28, 64 Fox, Elizabeth Vassall, nee Grey, sowins (boiled oatmeal), 8, 261, Lady Holland, 204 270 France, 59, 73, 89, 101, 119, 260 sweetmeats, 218 see also Boulogne; Paris turkey, xxv, 5, 22, 49, 207, 231, Francis de Sales, Saint, xix, 9, 134, 268 154 see also cookery; dining habits; Franklin, Benjamin, 120 drink; fruit; vegetables Fraser, Eleanora, wife of Duncan Forth, Firth of, 215, 247 Campbell of Lochnell, see fritters, see food Campbell, Eleanora fruit, xx, xxiii, 237, 273 Frederick the Wise, elector of almonds, xx Saxony, 32 INDEX 325 Frederick Augustus, duke of York, xiv, 5, 213, 287 236, 243, 245-6 Gleig, George Robert, son of George funerals, xviii, xi, 68, 82, 162, 187, Gleig, bishop of Brechin, xiv 190-1, 195, 206-7, 282 Glenbervie, Lord, see Douglas, Sylvester Glenbervie, master of, see Douglas, Gaelic, see languages hon. F. S. N. Gairloch, Dunbartonshire, 100 Glenorchy, Lady, see Campbell, gaming, see amusements Willielma gardening, gardens, xvi, xix-xx, 12, goats, see animals 46, 51, 206 goatsflesh, see food see also fruit; vegetables Godwin, William, the elder, 167-8 Gargunnock, Stirlingshire, 233 Gogar, Midlothian, 62 Gartmore, Perthshire, 97 goose, see birds; food Gartur, Stirlingshire, 194, 260, 280 goose pudding, see food Gartur, laird of, see Graham, John gooseberries, see fruit Gascoign, [blank]. Lady, 40 Gordon, Cosmo, of Clunie, baron of Gawler, John, see Bellenden Ker, John exchequer, 25 Gay, John, Beggar's Opera, 109 Gordon, James Farquhar, of Balmoor, Geddes, Alexander, Bible (transla- 119 tion), 4 Gordon, Jane, wife of Alexander, geens, see fruit fourth duke of Gordon, 117 General Assembly, 223, 240, 249 Gordon, Margaret, nee Haldane, wife George in, king of Great Britain, of James Farquhar Gordon of xvi-xvii, 50, 113-14, 193, 286 Balmoor, 119 George 1 v, prince regent, later king of Gordon, [blank], Mrs, 282 Great Britain, 286, 294, 303 Goths, 15 Germany, 59, 189 gout, see illness see also Blenheim; Dessau; Gow, Niel, 28, 234 Tonninghen Graeme, David, of Braco and ghosts, 72-73 Gorthy, general, 157 Gibbon, Edmund, Decline and fall of Graeme, Laurence, son of William the Roman Empire, xix, 187 Graeme of Orchill, 228-9 Gibbs, [blank], 192, 257 Graeme, Patrick, son of William Gibson, Edmund, bishop of London, Graeme of Orchill, 228-9 xix, 15-16 Graeme, William, of Orchill, 27 Gibson, John, of Durie, 250 Graham, Anne, nee Stirling, relict of Gifford, East Lothian, 244 William Graham of Airth, gig, see transport mother of Elizabeth Dundas, xv Gilfillan, Janet, 225-6 and her son, James Graham of Gilfdlan, Thomas, captain, 225 Airth, 4, 98, 143, 159 Gillies, Adam, Lord Gillies, 129, 286 Elizabeth Dundas visits, 255-6 Glasgow, 97, 100, 123, 146, 213, 230, flitting of, 198, 248 278, 282 inconsolable at loss of old servants, Glassites, see religious denominations 177 Gleig, George, bishop of Brechin, joy of, at birth of grandchild, 237 326 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Graham, Anne—continued Graham, Maria, wife of Thomas r’s relations with, 161,264, 269,297 Graham, see Dundas, afterwards visits Airth, 295 Graham, Maria Graham, Anne, wife of David Graham, Mary, wife of John Stirling Erskine, w.s., see Erskine, Anne of Kippendavie, see Stirling, Graham, Caroline Mary, nde Home Mary wife of Thomas Graham of Graham, Matilda, n£e Erskine, wife Airth, xxii, 198, 297 of John Graham of Gartur, 24, Graham, otherwise Moir, Charles 52, 212, 232 Alexander, younger of Leckie, Graham, Robert, of Fintry, xxvi, 84 doctor in Stirling, 151 Graham, Robert, of Gartmore, 23 his health, 83 Graham, otherwise Moir, Robert, of r’s relations with, xxi, 71, 80, 89, Leckie, doctor, 64, 89, 162, 194, 97-98, 123-4, 163, 168, 234, 297 230, 234, 280 visits Palermo, 123-4; Rome, Graham, Samuel, brig.-gen., deputy 97- 9governor of Stirling8; Turin, Castle, 185-6 40n, Graham, Christian, daughter of William Graham of Airth, xv Graham,173 afterwards Graham Stirling, Graham, Clementina, wife of John Thomas, of Airth, xxii, 141,169, Graham of Meiklewood, 261 177, 198, 297 Graham, David, of Newton, 32, 48 Graham, Thomas, of Balgowan, Graham, Elizabeth, wife of James later Lord Lynedoch, 84, 195 Dundas of Ochtertyre, see Graham, Thomas, son of Robert Dundas, Elizabeth Graham of Fintry, husband of Graham, Elizabeth, wife of John Maria Dundas, xxvi, 270ft, 275, Graham of Balgowan, 287 288, 292, 297, 302 Graham, James, first marquess of Graham, William, of Airth, xv, xxii Montrose, xv, 297 Graham, William, of Buchlyvie, Graham, James, third duke of general, 141 Montrose, 65 Graham, William, son of John Graham, James, of Airth, xxii, 4, Graham of Meiklewood, 261, 98- 9276, 278 9, 101, 132, 138-9, 141-3, 156-60 Graham, William, son of Thomas Graham, Jane, nee Perrier, wife of Graham of Airth, 237 Brig.-gen. Samuel Graham, 173, Graham, William Cunningham Cunningham, of Gartmore, 10, Graham,175 Jean, sister of Elizabeth 96, 117, 139, 180 Dundas, xxii, 24, 36-37, 43-45. Graham, Williamina, wife of Day 68, 101, 126, 143, 154, 177 Hort Macdowall of Walkin- Graham, John, of Gartur, 24, 52, 207, shaw, see Macdowall, Williamina 212, 230-1, 251, 260, 273, 280 grain, see crops Graham, John, of Meiklewood, 182, Grant, James, general, governor of 233, 276, 278, 280, 297 Stirling Castle, 40ft Graham, Katherine, wife of William Gray, Thomas, Elegy, 82 Mure of Caldwell, see Mure, Greek, see languages Katherine Greek coin, 255 INDEX 327 greengages, see fruit Haldane, Catherine, daughter of Greenock, Renfrewshire, 140 James Alexander Haldane, 82 greens, see food Haldane, George, brig.-gen., son of Gregory, Isabella, nde Macleod, wife Patrick Haldane of Gleneagles, of James Gregory, 151, 164-5, 195 167, 171, 201, 212, 216, 275, Haldane, James, of Airthrey, xxv 289-90, 300 Haldane, James Alexander, xviii, xxv, Gregory, James, professor of medi- 29, 48, 79, 83, 119, 220 cine at Edinburgh, 122 and n, Haldane, Margaret, wife of J. F. 169, 280 Gordon of Balmoor, see Gordon, annoyed to hear of a thistle called Margaret after him, xix, 168 Haldane, Mary, nee Joass, wife of health of, 216 James Alexander Haldane, xxv, his opinions, 37, 43, 99, 101, 128, 48, 79, 92, 154, 186, 199, 218, 213, 228, 250 220-1, 224 his wife’s illness, 151,156, 201, 290 Haldane, Robert, xviii, 2 n, 28, 118- literary activities of, 124, 153, 156- 119, 218 157; Lucubrations on the Epigram, Haldane church, see religious 236, 240, 244; Memorial, 22, 25, denominations 28 Haldane’s Milne, Dunbartonshire, patients of, 14, 96, 104-5, 138, xviii, 33. 157, 162, 186, 225-6, 261 ham, see food quarrels of, with other doctors, 49, Hamilton, Lanarkshire, 23, 230 52, 96, 156-7, 222-3 Hamilton, Alexander professor of r’s relations with, 61, 164-5, I67, midwifery at Edinburgh, 199 221, 300; in correspondence, Hamilton, Archibald, ninth duke of 48-49, 149, 289; in medical Hamilton, 18, 43, 46, 60 treatment, xxi, 12, 134, 151-3, Hamilton, Christian, n6e Dundas, 202, 204-5, 207, 212, 237, 270, wife of John Hamilton, younger, 296-8, 301 of Sundrum, 128 William Creech and, 290 Hamilton, Elizabeth, Cottagers of Grenville, William Wyndham, Glenbumie, 211 and n, 235 Baron Grenville, 52, 200 Hamilton, Henrietta, wife of James grouse pie, see food Hamilton of Orbiston, 76 Guilford, second earl of, see North, Hamilton, James George, seventh Frederick duke of Hamilton, 226 Guthrie, [blank], 40 Hamilton, John, younger of Sun- Gwyn, Nell, 245-6 drum, captain, 128 Hamilton, Margaret, n£e Stirling, relict of Sir Hugh Hamilton hacket, [blank], Mrs, 196 of Rosehall, bt., 68-69, 76, Haldane, Agnes, wife of John Dundas 179 of Manor, see Dundas, Agnes Hannibal, 255 Haldane, Ann, relict of Thomas Hardie, Jean, nee Colville, wife of Forrester of Denovan, see Thomas Samuel Hardie, 275, Forrester, Ann 283 328 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Hardie, Thomas Samuel, minister of Hill, John, professor of humanity at Ashkirk, Sermons, 275-6, 278-9, Edinburgh, 147 282-3, 286 Hindoos, 288, 292 Hardie, [blank], Miss, 276 Hoadly, Benjamin, 203 Harris, James, Philological enquiries, 1 Holland, Lady, see Fox, Elizabeth V. Harrison, [blank], Mrs, of Felton- Holland, 6, 32, 126, 188 bridge, 208 Holyrood, see Edinburgh Harrogate, Yorkshire, xv Home, Agatha, nee Drummond, wife Harrow, Middlesex, 168 of Henry Home, Lord Karnes, harvest, 58, 170, 258, 264-5 xxiv, 26, 290, 299-300 see also agriculture; crops Home, Caroline Mary, wife of Hawick, Roxburghshire, 227, 230 Thomas Graham of Airth, see Hay, Charles, Lord Newton, 1x0, 286 Graham, Carohne M. Hay, Elizabeth Seton, daughter of Home, Elizabeth, wife of Rev. Robert Hay of Drumelzier, 252 Christopher Tait, see Tait, Hay, [blank], relict of Alexander Elizabeth Hay of Mordington, 196 Home, Henry, Lord Karnes, xxiv, 26, Hay, [blank], 280 xio, 121, 130, 192, 197, 299-300 hay, see crops Home, James, colonel, xxii headache, see illness Home, John, minister of Athelstane- Heathershot, Stirlingshire, 175 ford, 240 Hebrew, see languages History of the Rebellion, xix, 74,107 Hely-Hutchinson, Richard, Baron Home, Mary, daughter of George Donoughmore of Knocklofty, Home of Bassendean, 27 later Viscount Hutchinson, 70 Homer, xix, 97, 107, 128, 219, 288 hen, see food Honyman, Sir William, Lord Henderson, Ann, daughter of Sir Armadale, 279 John Henderson of Fordell, 26 Hope, Charles, later Lord Granton, Henderson, Sir John, of Fordell, bt., 27, 129, 290 10, 26, 34 Hope, Jean, wife of first Viscount Henderson, John, of Westerton, Melville, see Dundas, Jean doctor, 228, 229 Hope, Sir John, brig.-gen., 46 Henry viii, king of England, Hope, Sir Thomas, of Craighall, lord 287 advocate, 129 Henry, Robert, minister of New Hope, Thomas Charles, professor of Greyfriars, Edinburgh, 80 chemistry at Edinburgh, 156, Hepworth, [blank], Miss, 232 212 Hepworth, [blank], 168 housekeepers, xv, xxi, 190, 192 bis, Hermand, Lord, see Fergusson, 195-7. 207, 213-19, 221-2, George 230-1, 245, 283-4 Hervey, John, 250 and n see also servants highland chieftain, household of, Houston, Eleanora, nee Cathcart, Lady, wife of Sir John Houston highland56-57 dress (kilt), 167 of Houston, 34, 121, 293 Hiero, king of Syracuse, 255 Houston, Sir John, of Houston, 34, Hill, Benjamin, lieutenant, ngn INDEX 329 Hughington, [blank], Dr, 277 influenza, see illness hunting, see amusements Innes Ker, Essex, sister of third duke Hutchinson, Lord, see Hely- ofRoxburghe, 118 Hutchinson Innes Ker, John, third duke of Roxburghe, 118, 123 Innes Ker, Mary, sister of third duke Iceland, 293 ofRoxburghe, 118 illness, xiii, xxi-ii, 9, 19, 21, 24, 42, inns, 164 and «, 193, 244 108, 134, 149-52. 155. 184, 200, Inveraray, Argyll, 205 202, 225, 228, 235, 261, 271 Inverhaddon, laird of, see Stewart, apoplexy, xii, 270 Allan bile, 280 Ireland, 210, 253 ‘bole hive’, 30 see also Dublin; Dungannon; broken ligaments, 162 Lilly cataract, 291 Irving, John Robert, of Bonshaw, 23 chilblains, 244 and n Italy, 89 cold, 12, 53, 62, 138, 142, 146, 211, see also Capua; Florence; Palmero; Rome; Turin consumption,257, 297 38, 261, 272, 276 cough, 24, 63, 96-97. 131. 163, 197, 201, 232 jacobins, jacobinism, xvi, 185, 189 deafness, 12, 32 Jacobites, jacobitism, xvi, 39, 74, 96, eye diseases, xxi, xxiv, 12, 71, 94, 103, 153, 185, 189, 240 166, 209, 212, 251-2, 256, 291, Jamaica, 191-2 298, 301-2 James 11, king of Great Britain, 236 fever, 8, 152, 190, 251, 285 James iv, king of Scots, 244 fit, 252 Japan, xxiii, 76 gout, 129 Jardine, George, professor of logic at headache, 14, 203 Glasgow, 76 influenza, 33. 35. 43, 95 Jardine, Janet, wife of G. H. measles, 230-1 Drummond of Blair Drum- palsy, 270 mond, see Drummond, Janet paralysis, 182, 261 Jardine, John, minister of Tron, ‘pimphigus/peripas’, 150, 252 Edinburgh, xxiv, 232 rheum, 176, 226 Jardine, John, son of Professor rheumatism, 150, 169, 178, 232 George Jardine, 76 scarlet fever, 104 Jeffrey, Francis, Lord Jeffrey, 250, 264 skin troubles, 241, 303 jelly, see food smallpox, 15, 216 Joass, Alexander, of Colleonard, stomach complaints, xxi, 237, 270 major, xiii, xxv, 79, 224 suppurating leg, xxii Joass, Elizabeth, n6e Abercromby, ulcers, 252 relict of Major Alexander see also doctors; watering places Joass, 188, 278 Inchkeith, Fife, 183 correspondence with r., xiii, 42, Inchmorrin, Dunbartonshire, 167 48, 51, 53. 55, 179. 220, 224-5 India, see Bengal; Bombay; Poona illness of her daughter, 79, 92 330 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Joass, Elizabeth—continued Kelly, Angus, 49 relations with r., xxv, xxvii, 33, Kemp, David, of Balsusney, 105, no 87, 182, 199, 214, 217-18, 224, Kemp, Jane Falconer, n6e Colqu- houn, wife of David Kemp of visits257 Bath, 46; Cardross, 90; Balsusney, 105, no Edinburgh, 62; Ochtertyre, 158, Kemp, John, minister of Tolbooth, 168 Edinburgh, 105, 112, 119, 122, Joass, Mary, wife of J. A. Haldane, 123, 141, 145, 157 see Haldane, Mary Kenmure, Lanarkshire, xxiii Johnson, Samuel,xix, 13,117,170,241 Kennedy, [blank], 224 Devotions, 74 Kennet, Clackmannanshire, 5, 6, 38, Diaries, Prayers and Annals, 105 130, 150, 210 Plays, 23 Ker, John, surgeon, 210 Prayers and Meditations, 72 Kerr, [blank], Mr, 231 Johnstone, Barbara, nee Murray, wife Killin, Perthshire, 254 of Sir James Johnstone of kilt, see highland dress Westerhall, 295 Kincardine-in-Menteith, Perthshire, judges, 55, 123, 191, 194, 243, 279, xiii, xviii, 257 281-3, 286 Kinnaird, Charles, eighth Lord Kinnaird, 172 kail, see food Kinnaird, Perthshire, 259 Keay, John Ramsay, son of William Kinnoull, earl of, see Drummond, Keay, 262 Robert Hay Keay, William, r’s servant Kippendavie, laird of, see Stirling, arranges Mrs Dundas’s letters, 289 John, of Kippendavie and his health, 95, 101 Kippenross his relations, 236, 251, 275-6 Kippenross, Perthshire, 181 his work at Ochtertyre, 190, 264, bought by John Stirling of 269 Kippendavie, xxiii Mrs Burn writes to, 289 r. visits or intends to visit, 90, 134, packs r’s luggage, 1, 162 166, 172, 176, 179-80 r’s relations with, 58,142,205,251, visitors to, 14, 99, 107, 148, 168, 256, 262, 294 188 reads to R., 253, 276, 284, 298 Kippenross, laird of, see Stirling, John Keay, William, son of William of Kippendavie and Kippenross Keay, 275-6 Knox, Robert, minister of Larbert, Keir, Perthshire 232 housekeeper at, 214 r. visits, 87, 91, 127,131,135, 146, laing, Malcolm, xix, 106 r. 163unable to visit, 155 lamb, see animals situation of, xxii Lancaster, Joseph, 237 and n visitors to, 85, 138, 264 Lanark, 230 see also Stirling, James, of Keir Langholm, Dumfriesshire, 47 Keith, William, accountant in languages Edinburgh, 104 English, xvii, 14, 86, 230, 272 INDEX 331 Gaelic (Erse), 41, 57, 60, 281 lettuce, see vegetables Greek, 30, 255, 277 Lewis, Matthew Gregory, 204 Hebrew, 14 Leyden, John, 107 Latin, 14, 31, 60 bis, 101, 188, 255 libraries, xx, 80, 93, 101, 255 Sanscrit, 288 Liffy, River, Ireland, 137 Scots (Doric), xvii, 86, 188, 226, ligaments, broken, see illness 263, 281, 285, 303 Lindsay, Charles, Alloa carrier, 96 Lanrick, Perthshire, 58-59, 131, 178, Lindsay, Robert, of Pitscottie, 283 185, 193, 231 Lindsay, [blank], Mrs, supposed Larbert, Stirlingshire, xxii, 39 wife of Philip Dundas, 88« La Touche, Marianne, wife of R. P. Linlithgow, 126, 185 Dundas, later of Manor, see linseed tea, see drink Dundas, Marianne Linshart, Aberdeenshire, 267 Latin, see languages literary works Lauderdale, earl of, see Maitland, see Addison, Joseph; Arabian James Nights; Ariosto, Lodovico; Law, James, of Elvingston, doctor, Beattie, James; Bennet, 280-1 William; Boswell, James; Lawson, George, minister, of Bowdler, Henrietta M.; burgher church, Selkirk, 133 Browne, Sir Thomas; Bunyan, Leadhills, Lanarkshire, 287 John; Burnet, Gilbert; Bums, Leckie, Stirlingshire, 103, 185, 234 Robert; Cervantes, Miguel; see also Graham, otherwise Moir, Cibber, Colley; Coventry, Charles A., and Robert Francis; Creech, William; Lecropt, Perthshire and Stirlingshire, Cumberland, Richard; 127, 131, 166, 228 Dalrymple, Sir John; leeks, see vegetables Drummond, George William; Leigh, Mary Anne, wife of James Dryden, John; Dundas, Maria; Abercromby, m.p., see Aber- Edgeworth, Maria; Fielding, cromby, Mary A. Henry; Finlayson, James; Leishman, [blank], 97 Geddes, Alexander; Gibbon, Leith, 169 Edmund; Gay, John; Gray, Leith, Water of, 106, 125 Thomas; Gregory, James; Le Sage, Alain Rene, Gil Bias, 71, Hamilton, Elizabeth; Harris, 107, 253 James; Home, John; Hardie, Leslie, David, sixth earl of Leven, 50, Thomas S.; Homer; Johnson, 83 Samuel; Le Sage, Alain R.; letter-writing Mackenzie, Sir George S.; by Elizabeth Dundas, 23-24, 65, Macpherson, James; Milton, 289 John; More, Hannah; Newton, by James Dundas, 104 Thomas; Pope, Alexander; by Maria Dundas, 235 Pratt, Samuel J.; Richardson, by R., xiii, xv-xvi, 53, 94, 116-17, Samuel; Scott, Sir Walter; 155, 170, 181, 209, 220-2, 234, Shakespeare, William; 283, 291, 296 Southeme, Thomas; Steuart, Sir by Adam Rolland, 36 Henry; Stuart, Andrew; Swift, 332 LETTERS OFJ OHN RAMSAY literary works—continued MacConochie, [blank], advocate, Jonathan; Tasso, Torquato; 264 Thomson, Andrew M.; Tytler, Macdonald, William, of Ranathan Alexander F.; Wallace, George; and St Martins, 59 Warton, Thomas; Young, Macdonald, William, son of Wilham Edward Macdonald of Ranathan and St literature, xviii-xix Martins, 59 see also poetry McDougal, Janet, relict of Wilham litigation, 123, 145, 173, 176, 238 Watson, see Watson, Janet Liverpool, Lancashire, 217 Macdougal, [blank], captain, 196 Livilands, Stirlingshire, 139, 143-4, Macdowal, Andrew, Lord Bankton, 165, 167, 193-4 Loch Katrine, Perthshire and Macdowall,243 Day Hort, of Walkin- Stirlingshire, 164, 263 shaw, xxii, 87, 126, 236, 254« Loch Lomond, Stirlingshire and Macdowall, William, of Garthland Dunbartonshire, 99-100, 167, and Castle Semple, 250 176, 278, 280 Macdowall, Williamina, nee Lochaber, Inverness-shire, 56, 266 Graham, wife of Day Hort Lochearnhead, Perthshire, 255-6 Macdowall of Walkinshaw, xxii, Lockhart, Anne, relict of Sir John 254 Wemyss of Bogie, see Wemyss, MacDowall-Grant, David, of Anne Amdilly, 170 Logiealmond, laird of, see McEwan (MacEain), William, 96, Drummond, Sir William 245, 289 London Macfarlane, [blank], Mr, 52 compared to Edinburgh, 92, m McGibbon, John, town clerk of places in: Charing Cross, 132; Stirling, 3 and n Newgate prison, 56; Star and MacGregor, Gregor, of Glengyle, 39 Garter, Pall Mall, 244; Macgregor, otherwise Murray, Westminster Hall, 284; Robert, of Glengarnock, 59 Westminster School, 75, 271, Macgregor, Rob Roy, 301 284, 286 Macgregor, [blank], Mr, 52 R. visits, xii, 229 Macgregor-Murray (afterwards visitors to,38,43,67,69,85,132,167 Murray Macgregor), Sir Ewan longevity, 47 John, 59 Louis xiv, king of France, 101 Macgruther, [blank], Miss, 68 Lowth, Robert, bishop of London, 4 Macintyre, Barbara Camilla, wife of Lumlethan (?Lamboletham, Fife), 287 Lt.-col. Ludovic Colquhoun, Luss, Dunbartonshire, 99, 100 see Colquhoun, Barbara C. Luther, Martin, 32 Macintyre, Susan, wife of Rev. John Lyon King of Arms, 60 Stuart, see Stuart, Susan MacKay, hon. Christian, wife of John macara, [blank], Baron, 287 Erskine of Carnock, see Macbeath, John, husband of Erskine, hon. Christian Christopher Tail’s niece, 139, Mackenzie, Sir George Steuart, bt.. 140-1 Tragedy of Helga, 293 and n INDEX 333 McLaren, John, minister of Tolbooth, Masterton, James, of Gogar, 232 Edinburgh, 231 Masterton, Margaret Seymour, Maclaurin, John, Lord Dreghom, 94 daughter of James Masterton of Maclean, Alexander, of Ardgour, 153 Gogar, 232 Macleod, Anne, wife of Sir J. Masterton, Mary, sister of James Murray of Lanrick, see Murray, Masterton of Gogar, 232 Anne Maule, Margaret, Lady, wife of Macleod, Hugh, professor of James, fourth earl of Panmure, ecclesiastical history at Glasgow 76 correspondence with r., xiii, 229 Maxwell, Anne, wife of William death of, 250 Murray of Touchadam and description of, 230 Polmaise, see Murray, Anne visited by R., 100, 227, 230 Maxwell, Mary, wife of William, visits r., 57-58, 83-84, 128-30 seventeenth earl of Sutherland, Macleod, Isabella, wife of Dr James see Sutherland, Mary Gregory, see Gregory, Isabella Maxwell, Willielma, relict of John, Macleod, Roderick, principal of Lord Glenorchy, see Campbell, King’s College, Aberdeen, 131 Willielma Macnab, Francis, of Macnab, 164-5, Mayne, Helen Elphinstone, 149, 150 Mayne, James, of Powis, 149 McNair,193, 195Ann, nee Craig, wife of Mayne, William, of Powis, 136, 216, David McNair, xxvi, 298-9, 301 251, 259 McNeill, Hector, 235, 273 Mead, Richard, m.d., 212 Macpherson, James, Ossian, 106-7, meal, see food 224 measles, see illness Macquarie (Macquarrie), Lauchlan, Megginch, laird of, see Drummond, 293 Robert MacTurk, [blank], 100 Meiklewood, Stirlingshire, 144, 233 madeira, see drink Meiklewood, laird of, see Graham, Maitland, James, eighth earl of John Lauderdale, 112, 182 Melfort, earl of, see Drummond, Malachy, Saint, 88 Charles Edward Malta, 65, 292 melon, see food Mansfield, earl of, see Murray, Menstrie, Clackmannanshire, 33 William Menteith, Perthshire, 59, 116, 169 Mar, eleventh earl of, see Erskine, Menzies, Archibald, of Chesthill, 98 John Menzies, Mary Anne, wife of Sir marriage, comments on, 5-6, 8, 48, Ralph Abercromby, see 59, 107-8, 129, 172, 178, 183, Abercromby, Mary A. 202, 213, 219-20, 222, 240 Menzies, Stewart, of Culdares, 121 see also divorce; weddings Metcalf, [blank], Mrs, 278, 292, Martin, [blank], Mrs, 196 294, 300-2 Mason, [blank], 244 engaged as housekeeper by R., 217, Masterton, Anne Amelia, wife of 219, 221 James Masterton of Gogar, 232 her conduct as housekeeper, xxi, Masterton, James, colonel, 72 230-1, 245, 272 334 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Metcalf, Mrs—continued Erskine, Erskine her reading, 282, 294, 295, 298 Montgomery, Ann, wife of George visits Edinburgh, 283-4 Moir of Leckie, see Moir, Ann watch of, borrowed by r., 252, 256 Montrose, Angus, xxiii Methodists, see religious denomina- Montrose, marquess and duke of, see tions Graham militia (volunteers), 13, 36, 96, m- Moray of Abercaimy, family of, 229, 112, 116, 126-7, 130, 143, 225, 248 Moray, Alexander, of Abercaimy, 98, see253, also 272,army 300 milk, see drink Moray,244 Anne, nee Stirling, wife of Miller, Anne, wife of Sir Thomas Charles Moray of Abercairny, Miller of Barskimming and Glenlee, 255 Moray,233 Charles, of Abercaimy, Miller, Sir Thomas, of Barskimming colonel, xxiv, 106, 294 and Glenlee, lord president of Moray, Charles, son of Charles session, 255 Moray of Abercaimy, 265 Miller, John, r’s gardener, 276 Moray, Christian, daughter of ninth Miller, [blank], Mr, 112 earl of Eglinton, wife of James Milton, John, 28, 125, 127, 219 Moray of Abercaimy, 299 Comus, 247 Moray, Christian, wife of Henry Misaubin, John, m.d., 212 Home Drummond, see Moidart, Inverness-shire, 142 Drummond, Christian Moir, Ann, n£e Montgomery, wife Moray, Frances, wife of George of George Moir of Leckie, 115 Drummond of Blair Moir, Charles Alexander Graham, Drummond, see Drummond, younger of Leckie, see Graham, Frances otherwise Moir, Charles A. Moray, James, of Abercaimy (1780- Moir, George, of Leckie, 115 1840), 180, 228, 248, 272 Moir, Robert Graham, of Leckie, see Moray, James, of Abercaimy, 98 Graham, otherwise Moir, Mordaunt, Charles, third earl of Robert Peterborough, 266 Moir, [blank], Mrs, 164, 176, 191 More, Hannah, Coelebs in search of a Moira, earl of, see Rawdon- wife, 49, 258-9, 264 Hastings, Francis Morison, John, r’s servant, no Moli£re, quoted, 254 Morison, Naomi, nee Campbell, wife Moncreiff-Wellwood, Sir Henry, bt., of John Morison, 152, 155, 157, 172, 269, 286 276, 289 Monnypenny, Alexander, of Morton, earls of, see Douglas Pitmellie, 23, 50, 65 Mouat, [blank], Mr, at Langholm, 47 Monro, Alexander, secundus, m.d., Moultray, [blank], of Seafield and 212-13, 225, 228 Rescobie, 53 Monro, Alexander, tertius, m.d., Muir, John, bailie of Edinburgh, 3, 212-13, 225, 228 Monro, Erskine, wife of Henry Muir,73, John, 95, 109minister of Lecropt, 228, Erskine, lord advocate, see 299 INDEX 335 Muiravonside, West Lothian, 48 Murray, Nicholas Helen, daughter of Munro, Margaret, wife of G. H. fifth Viscount Stormont, 76 Drummond of Stanmore, see Murray, Sir Patrick, of Ochtertyre, Drummond, Margaret 152, 294-5 Murdoch, Sarah, wife of William Murray, Patrick, minister of Murdoch of Gartincaber, 59 Kilmadock, 116 Murdoch, William, of Gartincaber, Murray, Robert, of Glengarnock, see Macgregor, otherwise Murray, Mure,59. Katherine, 162 nee Graham, wife Robert of William Mure of Caldwell, Murray, William, first earl of 289 Mansfield, 194 Murphy, Arthur, 26ft Murray, William, of Touchadam and Murray, Alexander, Earl (Count) Polmaise, father, 178 Murray, 17 Murray, Wilham, of Touchadam and Murray, Amelia, wife of John, Polmaise, son, 48 master of Sinclair, see Sinclair, Murray Macgregor, Sir Ewan J., see Amelia Macgregor-Murray, Sir Ewan J. Murray, Anne, nee Macleod, Lady, Muschet, Agnes, nde Saunders, wife wife of Sir John Murray of of Peter Muschet of Birkhill, 260, Lanrick, 57, 58, 60, 116 278 Murray, Anne, nee Maxwell, wife of Muschet, David, portioner of William Murray of Touchadam Ochtertyre, xi and Polmaise, 48n Muschet, John, minister of Stirling Murray, Anthony, of Dollerie, 211 East Church, 260 Murray, Arthur, jgn Muschet, Peter (or Patrick), of Murray, Barbara, wife of Sir James Birkhill, surgeon, 260, 273, 276, Johnstone of Westerhall, see 278, 280 Johnstone, Barbara Muschet, Robert, xi Murray, Grace, nee Spiers, wife of Muschet, [blank], Miss, 280 William Murray of Polmaise, 178 Muscovy, 292 Murray, Helen, wife of Sir John music, xiv, 27-28, 57, 204, 232, 240, Stewart of Grantully, see 247, 277 and n, 288 Stewart, Helen Muthill, Perthshire, 68 Murray, James, second duke of mutton, see food Atholl, 223 Myers, Elizabeth, wife of Captain Murray, James, of Cairdneys, William Erskine. see Erskine commonly called Lord James Elizabeth Murray, 194-5 Murray, John, third duke of Atholl, 194 napier, Mary Anne, nee Cathcart, Murray, John, fourth duke of Atholl, wife of William, sixth Lord 303 Napier, 34, 121 Murray, Sir John, of Lanrick, 57, 59, Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of the 116 French, xvii, 10, 61, 68, 120, Murray, Sir John, 194-5, 211-12 154, 165, 173, 184, 188, 231, Murray, Lucky, 77 244, 254, 297 336 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY nectarines, see fruit 262, 287-8; Ralph Dundas, son Nelson, Horatio, Viscount Nelson, of James Dundas, 256-7; Capt. 224, 249 Ralph Dundas, 186; Ralph Peter nettle kail, see food Dundas, 137; William Dundas, Newhaven Sands, Midlothian, 169 168; James Edmonstone of newspapers, periodicals, 130, 286 Newton, 83, 108, 157; earl of Edinburgh Correspondent, 281-2 Elgin, 205; Anne Erskine, 252; Edinburgh Register, 285 James Erskine of Cardross, 23; The Guardian, 26 James Erskine of Linlathen, 49, The Lounger, xix, 57, 115 161; Keith Erskine, 302; The Mirror, xix, 57, 115 Marion Erskine, 252; Thomas The Spectator, xix, 182, 200, 202-3, Erskine of Linlathen, 75, 161; 288 John Graham of Gartur, 24, 231, The Taller, xix, 93, 182 252, 273; Maria Graham, 178; Newton, Perthshire, 65, 90-91, 172, Samuel Graham, 173-4; Dr 206, 227, 274, 282 James Gregory, 152, 164-5, idy; Newton, Lord, see Hay, Charles Elizabeth Hay, 252; Dr Hugh Newton, Thomas, bishop of Bristol, McLeod, 57-58, 84, 128-30; Dissertation on the Prophecies, 253 Hector McNeill, 273; Lord Nisbet, Mary, wife of Thomas, James Murray, 194-5; Sir John seventh earl of Elgin, see Bruce, Murray, 194-5, 211-12; Peter Mary Muschet, 273; George Ramsay North, Frederick, second earl of of Barnton, 265; Dr Daniel Guilford, 171 Sandford, 86; Col. J. N. Rind, Norway, 145 144, 238; Rev. John Smith, 95; Nova Zembla, xxiii, 147 Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton, nuts, see fruit 101; James Stewart, Ardkenna- crockan, 186; William Stewart oats, see crops of Ardvorlich, 65; Charles Ochtertyre, Perthshire, xi-xii, 47-48, Stirling, 256-7; James Stirling of 189 Keir, 182,211; Jean Stirling, 229; description of house, xx John Stirling of Kippendavie, farm servants at, xxi, 183-4,202,245 1x7, 201-2, 293; Marion garden at, xix-xx, 51, 102-3, 177 Stirling, 178, 265; Rev. John government forces at, in 1745-6, 39 Stuart, 95, 257, 285; Dr Daniel visitors to: George Abercromby, Wingate, 293, 298 64, 76, 83, 199, 207-8, 262; Ogilvie, hon. Jane, wife of Sir James Abercromby, 263; John George Abercromby of Abercromby, 70; Sir Robert Birkenbog, see Abercromby, Abercromby, 193; Alexander hon. Jane Bruce of Kennet, 77; Burnet Ogilvie, William, professor of Bruce, 193, 199; Rev. Samuel humanity, King’s College, Charters, 257-8; W. C. Aberdeen, 3, 255 Cunningham Graham, 117; Ogilvy, John, of Inshewan, 64 G. H. Drummond, 229; David Ogilvy, Patrick, of Lonmay and Dundas, 285-6; James Dundas, Inchmartine, 58 INDEX 337 Oliphant, Ebenezer, of Condie, 87 Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, 165, Oliphant, Laurence, of Condie, 88 Oliphant, Mary, nee Stirling, wife ot philosophy,253-5 28, 166-8 Ebenezer Oliphant of Condie, Philp, John, of the Dol, 211 87M, 88, 196, 214 ‘pimphigus’, see illness onions, see vegetables Pinkerton, John, 106 Orchel, Muir of, 42, 68, 180 Pitcaithly, Perthshire, 242 Ormonde, duke of, see Butler, James Pitfour, Aberdeenshire, 254 Ossian, xix, 106-7, 224 Pitfour, laird of, see Ferguson, James Ossory, earl of, see Butler, Thomas Pitt, William, the younger, no, 173, Oswald, Alexander, of Shieldhall, 189, 249 230 Playfair, John, professor of natural Oswald, James, younger of philosophy at Edinburgh, 166 Dunnikier, 76 plays, playhouses, xviii, 17-18,25,29, Oswald, [blank], Mrs, Glasgow, 43, 131, 219, 231, 246, 264, 162 266-7, 269, 271-2, 292-3 Oxford, 89, 137, 138, 285, 287 plums, see fruit Christ Church, 284 Plutarch, 241 poetry, xix, 13-14, 240-1 Polignac, Comte de, 91 Polkemmet, Lord, see Baillie, Palermo, Italy, 123 William palsy, see illness Polmaise, Stirlingshire, 165 paralysis, see illness Polmont, Stirlingshire, 46, 56 Paris, France, 14, 63, 236 Poona, India, 272 pastry, see food poor relief, xviii, 8, 19, 28-29 Paterson, Sir Hugh, bt., of Pope, Alexander, 200, 277 and n Bannockburn, xvi, 185, 233 Homer’s Iliad, 288 patronage porridge, see food grant of bursary, 45-47, 68, 101 port, see drink ministerial charge at Kincardine- porter, see drink in-Menteith, 301-2 Porteus, Beilby, bishop of London, Paul, Saint, 32 148 Pauli, James, 212 Portobello, Midlothian, 232, 281, peaches, see fruit 285, 303 pears, see fruit Portsburgh, Edinburgh, 93 Pearson, William, xxiii Portugal, 238 peas, see vegetables potage, see food pease, see crops potatoes, see crops; vegetables Peebles, 134 Poussin, Nicholas, 37 Penzance, Cornwall, 261 Powis, Stirlingshire, 67, 146 Pepys, Sir Lucas, bt., 175 Pratt, Samuel Jackson, The Lower periodicals, see newspapers World, 271 and n Perth, 84, 89, 138, 208, 253 Preston, Anne, wife of Sir David Perthshire, xi, 41, 64 Baird, see Baird, Anne Peter 1, tsar, 37 Prestonpans, East Lothian, 200, 201 330 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Pringle, Mary, nee Drummond, marriage of, xii-xiii; succession relict of John Pringle, w.s., 120 to estate of Ochtertyre, xii Pringle, William Henry, colonel, 175 manuscripts of, xiii-xiv, xvi Ochtertyre, estate of: garden, xix-xx; house, xx ; r. as landlord ueensberry, duke of see of, xx-xxi; servants at, xxi Douglas, William relations with: earl of Buchan, xv; Sir Walter Scott, xii; Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton, xv-vi; Lord races, see amusements Woodhouselee, xv-vi Raith, Fife, 84 views of: on literature, xviii-xix; Raith, lairds of, see Ferguson, Robert on politics, xvi-vii; on religion, and William xvii-viii Ramillies, Belgium, 279 Ramsay, John, first laird of Ramsay, Allan, poet, 19, 162, 204, Ochtertyre, xi Ramsay, John, son of eighth earl of Ramsay,249 Anne, nee Dundas, wife of Dalhousie, captain, 65, 66 James Ramsay of Ochtertyre, Ramsay, Lilias, wife of John Wingate xi, xxii of Charterhall, see Wingate, Ramsay, George, ninth earl of Lilias Dalhousie, 66 Ramsay, Margaret, wife of Thomas Ramsay, George, of Bamton, 265 Bruce of Grangemuir, see Bruce, Ramsay, James, minister of Kelso, 232 Margaret Ramsay, James, of Ochtertyre, w.s., Ramsay, Margaret, wife of Mr Cowie xi, xii see Cowie, Margaret Ramsay, hon. Jean, wife of George Ramsay, Ralph, brother of John Ramsay of Bamton, 265 Ramsay of Ochtertyre, xi-xii Ramsay, John, of Ochtertyre, 1-303 Rannoch, Perthshire, 60, 206 passim Rannoch, Muir of, or Black Mount, connections with Abercrombys of Perthshire, 41-42 Tullibody, xxiv-v; Drummonds Rattray, John, surgeon, xi of Blair Drummond, xxiii-iv; Rawdon-Hastings, Francis, second Dundases of Manor, xxii; Maria earl of Moira, 114, 124 Dundas, xxv-vi; Edmonstones Regent, Prince, see George iv of Newton, xxiii; Erskines of religious denominations Cardross, xxiv; Grahams of Baptists, xviii, xxv, 56, 219, 224-5 Airth, xxii; Stirlings of Keir, Catholics, 136 xxii-iii; Stirlings of Kippendavie, Glassites, 7 xxiii; Tail family, xviii Haldane church (tabernacle), xviii, letters of: significance of, xv; 15-16,29», 119,199,217-18,220 spelling of, xxvii; to Robert Methodists, xvii, 4, 15, 73, 225, Burns, xii; to Elizabeth Dundas, 258, 277 xi; to James Dundas, xi Seceders, 9-10, 78, 87, 136 life of: birth, xi; burial place, xiii; Swedenborgians, xviii, 31-33 description of, xiv; education of, see also Christianity; General xii; health of, xxi; proposed Assembly INDEX 339 rheum, rheumatism, see illness Ruddiman, [blank], Miss, 232 Richardson, Samuel Rumford, Sir Benjamin Thompson, Clarissa, xix, 128, 133, 161, 162, Count von, 7 and n, 194-5, 238 Russel, John, minister of Muthill, 229 Sir259 Charles Grandison, xix, 128,133, Russel, John, minister of Stirling, west 161, 162 church, 10, 39-40, 229, 231 Richmond, Surrey, 191, 208 Russell, David, of Woodside, 101, Riddell, Sir John Buchanan, of 143. 191 Riddell, bt., 27 Russell, James, son of David Russell Rind, Agnes, sister of J. N. Rind of of Woodside, xxiii, 208, 22OK, Wester Livilands, 144, 163 222, 232, 302 Rind, Anne, nee Evans, wife of J. N. Russell, Sarah, eldest daughter of Rind of Wester Livilands, 136, David Russell of Woodside, 101, 139, 144. 165 144 Rind, James Nathaniel, of Wester Russell, [blank], wife of David Livilands, colonel, 66-67, I35» Russell of Woodside, 139, 177 136, 139, 144, 165, 238 Russia, 145 Rind, [blank], doctor, brother of J. N. Rind of Wester Livilands, ST HELENA, I34 66-67, 135. 182, 216, 221, 229, Sallust, 241, 276 238 salt pork, see food Ritchie, David, minister of St Saltcoats, Ayrshire, 184 Andrew’s, Edinburgh, 74 Sandeman, William, 7 and n Ritson, Joseph, 25 and n, 75, 147 Sanders, [blank], housekeeper at Rob, George, tenant in Muir of Blair Drummond, 214 Ochtertyre, 183, 190, 191 Sandford, Daniel, bishop of Edin- Rob Roy, see Macgregor, Rob Roy burgh, 16, 86, 123, 136 Robertson, Alexander, of Struan, 41 Sandilands, James, later tenth Lord Robertson, George Duncan, of Torphichen, xxiii, 135,138, i86n Struan, 237 Sanscrit, see languages Robertson, Hugh, w.s., 4, 8 Sassen, Lina Talina, reputed wife of Robertson, James, of Newbigging, Sir James Callander of Craig- general, ion, 27 forth, 236, 243-4, 246 Robertson, James, minister of Saunders, Agnes, wife of Peter Callander, 13 Muschet of Birkhill, see Muschet, robin, see birds Agnes Rohaldy, [blank], 91 Savage, [blank], Mr, 200 Rolland, Adam, of Cask, 19, 36, 47, Saxony, elector of, see Frederick the 61, 94, 154, 197, 207, 250, 282 Wise Rome, Italy, xix, 97, 255 scarlet fever, see illness roses, see flowers Scots, see languages Ross, Isabella, later wife of George Scott, Alexander, quoted, 35 Bell, surgeon in Edinburgh, 61 Scott, Harriet Katherine, duchess of Row, Muir of, Perthshire, 172 Buccleuch, 219 Roxburghe, dukes of, see Innes Ker, Scott, Helen, nee Allan, wife of Rev. and Bellenden Ker Archibald Scott, 280 Y 34° LETTERS OFJOHN RAMSAY Scott, Margaret, wife of Rev. Shakespeare, William, xviii, xix, 24, Samuel Charters, see Charters, 39, 242, 288 Margaret As you like it, 188 Scott, Sir Walter, xii, 250 Hamlet, 60, 89, 99, 108, 115, 286 Lady of the Lake, 271 Juilius Caesar, 103, 264-5 Lay of the Last Minstrel, 244 King Henry IV, 13, 17, 44, 57, Marmion, 219, 242, 244 145, 202-3, 299 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, xix, Macbeth, 221 106-7 Othello, 253 The Antiquary, xiv sheep, see animals Seceders, see religious denominations sheep’s head, see food Selkirk, 133, 230 Sheridan, Thomas, 204 Selkrig, Charles, accountant, 199, 203 Sheriffmuir, battle of, 47 Sennacherib, xviii, 244 sherry, see drink Sennair, Sudan, 183 Shieldhall, Lanarkshire, 230 sermons, xvii, xix, 16, 93, 99, 120, shooting, see amusements 168, 172, 180, 193, 197, 233, 288 Siddons, Sarah, 216, 219, 269, 271, by Archibald Alison, 25, 74, 102, 122-3, 268 Sidmouth,295 Devon, 216 by William Bennet, 14 Simpson, David, 17 by Hugh Blair, 33-34 Sinclair, Amelia, nee Murray, wife of by Samuel Charters, 61, 200, 229, John, master of Sinclair, 195 Sinclair, Isabella, daughter of by257 William Dalgleish, 133-4 William, tenth earl of Caithness, by James Finlayson, 266 254, 272, 282 by Thomas Hardie, 275-6, 279, Sinclair, Sir John, of Ulbster, 207 282, 283, 286 Sinclair, John, master of Sinclair, 195 by George Lawson, 133 Sinclair, Robert, son of Sir Robert by John McLaren, 231 Sinclair of Stevenson, 90 by Beilby Porteus, 148 skin troubles, see illness by James Ramsay, 232 Skinner, John, bishop of Aberdeen, by David Ritchie, 74 163, 255 by John Russel (of Muthill), 229 Skinner, John, episcopal minister at by John Russel (of Stirling), 39-40 Longside, Aberdeenshire, 267 by Christopher Tait, 176 smallpox, see illness by Edward Tatham, 181 Smith, Hugh, son of Charles Smith, by John Watt, 62 merchant, 233 servants, xxi, 21, 95, 147, 177, 183-4, Smith, James, minister of Larbert, 39M 202, 214, 217, 225, 245, 274, 289 Smith, John, minister of Campbel- see also housekeepers town, 95 Seton, Archibald, of Touch, 4 Smith, Robert, surgeon in Edinburgh, Seton, Barbara, wife ofj. J. 113 Edmonstone of Newton, see Smith, William, minister of Edmonstone, Barbara Cranstoun, 206 Seton, Lilias, wife of Sir Henry Steuart Smollett, Tobias, xix, 49 of Allanton, see Steuart, Lilias Somervell, William, of Sorn, 191 INDEX 34I Somerville, Gordon, & Co., West Stewart, Andrew, of Castlemilk and Indian merchants, xxiii Torrance, Genealogical history of Somerville, Thomas, minister of the Stewarts, 1, 7, 60 Jedburgh, 269 Stewart, Anne, nee Stirling, relict of soup, see food Sir John Stewart of Castlemilk, South Africa, see Cape of Good 8n, 60 Hope Stewart, Charles, son of tenth Lord South America, see Cape Horn Blantyre, 153 Southeme, Thomas, The Fatal Stewart, Charles, physician, Edin- Marriage, 66, 88 burgh, 221 sowins, see food Stewart, Charles Edward, the young Spain, 231, 234, 238, 249, 258, 279, pretender, 74, 103 300 Stewart, David, of Ballochallan, 227 see also Corunna Stewart, Dugald, 106 Spiers, Grace, wife of William Stewart, Francis, Lord Doune, later Murray of Polmaise, see Murray, tenth earl of Moray, 193, 274 Grace Stewart, Helen, nee Murray, Lady, spinach, see vegetables relict of Sir John Stewart of Spital, Elizabeth, wife of Robert Grantully, 182 Dundas, of Blair, see Dundas, StewartJames.Ardkennacrockan, 186 Elizabeth Stewart, Janet, sister of David Stair, Viscount, see Dalrymple, James Stewart of Ballochallan, 227 Steel, Sarah, relict of Robert Stirling, Stewart, Jean, daughter of George see Stirling, Sarah Stewart of Argaty, 187 Steele, Sir Richard, 224 Stewart, Sir John, of Castlemilk, 8« Steins, distillers, 211 Stewart, John, presentee to parish of Steuart, Elizabeth Margaret, Little Dunkeld, 151 daughter of Sir Henry Steuart of Stewart, John, minister of Luss, see Allanton, 101, 144, 207 Stuart, John Steuart, Sir Henry, of Allanton, 99, Stewart, Margaret, nee Munro, wife of Francis, Lord Doune, 254, 274 asks154, r. for183 his letters, xv-xvi, Stewart, Murdoch, second duke of 239-41, 244-5 Albany, 33 edition of Sallust, 186 Stewart, William, of Ardvorlich, 41, Jacobites, his views on, 185 65, 125, 187, 193 meets R., 101, 144, 187-8 Stewart, see also Stuart offers his house to Kippendavie, 31, Stirling, Alexander Gartshore, of Craigbamet, 116 publishes91, 93 Genealogy of the Stirling, Anne, daughter of John Stewarts refuted, 1, 8, 60 Stirling of Kippendavie, 135, Steuart, Lilias, nee Seton, wife of Sir 176, 184, 202, 233, 265 Henry Steuart of Allanton, 101, Stirling, Anne, nee Hay, relict of 144 Archibald Stirling of Keir, 206-7 Steuart-Denham, Sir James, of Stirling, Anne, of Ardoch, wife of Coltness, 244 Charles Moray of Abercaimy, Stewart, Allan, of Inverhaddon, 60-61 see Moray, Anne 342 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Stirling, Anne, second wife of Stirling, Jean Willelmina, daughter Professor John Erskine of of John Stirling of Kippendavie, Carnock, see Erskine, Anne Stirling, Anne, relict of William Stirling,133 John, of Kippendavie, xxii- Graham of Airth, see Graham, iii, 22, 64, 128, 170, 220, 287 Anne compared to Napoleon, 61 Stirling, Anne, relict of Sir John health of, 135 Stewart of Castlemilk, see r. meets, 133, 166, 180, 191, 202, Stewart, Anne 222, 228 Stirling, Sir Archibald, of Keir, xxiii visits Newton, 91; Ochtertyre, 49, Stirling, Archibald, later of Keir, son 117, 164, 20X-2, 293 of William Stirling of Keir, wants house in Edinburgh, 31, 91, xxiii, 69, 295 Stirling, Archibald, of Kippendavie, Stirling,93 John, son of Patrick Stirling, xxiii writer in Dunblane, 45 Stirling, Charles, son of Charles Stirling, John, merchant, Lawn- Moray Stirling of Abercaimy, market, 38 256-7 Stirling, afterwards Erskine, Stirling, Charles, of Kenmure, son of Katherine, daughter of John William Stirling of Keir, xxiii, Stirling of Kippendavie, later wife of James Erskine of Stirling,67, 69,Christian, 89, 95, 114,nee Erskine,179, 181, wife 235 Linlathen, xxiii, 164, 302 of Charles Stirling of Kenmure, Stirling, Margaret Douglas, daughter xxiii, 268 of John Stirling of Kippendavie, Stirling, Elizabeth, nee Barnett, wife afterwards wife of James Sandi- of William Stirling, 293 lands, later tenth Lord Tor- Stirling, Sir Henry, of Ardoch, xv phichen, xxiii, 128, 148, 166, Stirling, James, of Craigbamet, 226 186, 233 Stirling, James, of Keir, 35, 85, 87, Stirling, Margaret, relict of Sir Hugh 112, 137, 148, 163, 199, 207, 213, Hamilton of Rosehall, see 265 Hamilton, Margaret and Charles James Fox, 249 Stirling, Marion, daughter of health of, xxii-iii, 89, 108, 229, William Stirling of Keir, xxii, 234, 237, 292, 29, 52,135,170,178,196,216-17, R. meets, xxi, 23, 135, 181-2, 222, 228, 264-5 228-9, 235, 261 Stirling, Mary, daughter of John visits Edinburgh, 245, 276; Stirling of Kippendavie, later Harrogate, 15; Ireland, 253; wife of James Russell of Wood- Kippenross, 91; London, 69; side, xxiii, 202, 220, 222, 232 Malta, 292; Ochtertyre, 192,211; Stirling, Mary, n£e Graham, wife of Peterhead, 165; Weymouth 52 John Stirling of Kippendavie, Stirling, James, son of John Stirling xxii-xxiii, 57, 61, 127, 134-5, of Kippendavie, 107, 140 139, 164, 203, 284 Stirling, Jean, sister of James Stirling, Mary, wife of Ebenezer Stirling of Keir, xxii, 87, 135, Oliphant of Condie, see 170, 181, 229, 235 Oliphant, Mary INDEX 343 Stirling, Patrick, eldest son of John Struan, laird of, see Robertson, Stirling of Kippendavie, 91 George D. Stirling, Robert, son of William Stuart, Christian, daughter of Rev. Stirling of Keir, 23 5 John Stuart, 100, 285 Stirling, Robert, minister of Dun- Stuart, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. blane and Kilbride, 116 John Stuart, 100, 278 Stirling, Sarah, nde Steel, relict of Stuart, John, third earl of Bute, 29,201 Robert Stirbng, 261-2 Stuart, John, fourth earl, first Stirling, Sir Thomas, of Ardoch, 55 marquess of Bute, 42, 210 Stirling, Sir Thomas, general, of Stuart, John, minister of Luss, xii, Strowan, xxii xiii, 95, 99, 100, 112, 257, 275, Stirling, Thomas Graham, of Airth, 278, 284-5 see Graham, Thomas Stuart, Joseph, son of Rev. John Stirling, Walter, physician in Stuart, 100 Stirling, 46 Stuart, Susan, nee McIntyre, wife of Stirling, Sir William, of Ardoch, 180 Rev. John Stuart, 95ft, 100, 275, Stirling, William, son of John 278, 285, 293 Stirling of Kippendavie, 207,293 Stuart, see also Steuart, Stewart Stirling, William, wright, 191 suppurating leg, see illness Stirling, [blank], of Carden, 150, Sutherland, Mary, nee Maxwell, wife 179 of William, seventeenth earl of Stirling, [blank], major, 68 Sutherland, 224 Stirling, ix, 9-10, 57, 77, 79, 83, 136, swans, see birds 192, 236, 279 Sweden, 292 castle, 40, 65 Swedenborgians, see religious doctors, 97, 138 denominations militia, 91, 126, 130, 151 sweetmeats, see food r. visits, 3, 11, 57, 126, 256 Swift, Jonathan, 200 society in, 87, 136, 145, 170, 176, Gulliver's Travels, 146, 294 Switzerland, 260 visitors213 to, 132, 137, 144, 167, 288 Stirlingshire, 64, 244, 289 stomach complaints, see illness tait, Christopher, minister of Stonefield, Lord, see Campbell, John Kincardine-in-Menteith, xviii Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, 255 138, 140, 176 Strageth, laird of, see Drummond, Tait, Elizabeth, wife of Rev. John, of Strageth Christopher Tait, xviii, 138, Strahen, George, 172 140-2, 245 Strathallan, Viscount, see Drummond, Tasso, Torquato, Jerusalem James Delivered, 39 Strathdighty, Angus, 113 Tatham, Edward, rector of Lincoln Stratheam, Perthshire, 109, 203 College, 181 strawberries, see fruit taxation, 160, 177, 221, 227 Streatham, Surrey, 105, 211 Taylor, John, 105 Strode, William, major-general, 119 Taylor, Lauchlan, minister of Struan, Perthshire, 248, 266 Larbert, 46, 257 344 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Taymouth, Perthshire, 263 Traill, John, son of James Traill of tea, see drink Hobbister, 272 Teith, River, Perthshire, xx, 21, 57, transport 124, 137, 144, 167, 257 carriage, 60, 101, 132, 144, 207, testaments, 61 and n, 118 228, 229, 257 Teviot, River, Roxburghshire, 230, chair, 257 257 chaise, 141, 144 bis, 162, 167, 226, Teviotdale, Roxburghshire, 134 261 theatre, see plays coach, 56-57, 207, 211 theft curricle, 170, 211 of fruit, 102-3 fly, 192 of goose, 157 gig, 169, 207 of r’s watch, 252 and n, 253, 256 see also Duncan; Elder, Alexander of spoons, 44 travel thistles, see flowers abroad, xxvi, 97-98, 168, 246, 255, Thomas, Vaughan, tutor of Henry 260, 272, 288, 292, 296 Home Drummond, 100 in England, 186, 261, 276 Thompson, Nancy, wife of Admiral in Scotland, 56, 79, 100, 164, 166, George Dundas, see Dundas, 176, 179, 205, 227, 230, 232, Nancy 253-4. 256, 263 Thompson, Thomas, merchant in trees, 134, 189, 233, 252 Virginia, xxv Trossachs, Perthshire, 164 Thomson, Alexander, tenant in Muir Trotter, Robert, of the Bush and of Ochtertyre, 19 Castlelaw, 196 Thomson, Andrew Mitchell, minister Trotter, [blank], Mr, 158 of New Greyfriars, Edinburgh, Troy, 112 Edinburgh Christian Instructor, Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, 33,48, 286-8 65, 105, 141, 146, 262 Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, 110-112 Turin, Italy, 186 Thurot, Francis, 119 Turkey, see Constantinople Tillotson, John, archbishop of turkey, see food Canterbury, 25 Turner, [blank], Dr, of Cambridge, Tinwald, Lord, see Erskine, Charles 260 Tod, [blank]. Miss, daughter of turnips, see vegetables Thomas Tod of Drygrange, 199 Tyler, [blank], Mr, 246 Tonninghen (?Tonning, Prussia), 168 Tyne, River, Lothians, 206 Torphichen, Lord, see Sandilands, Tytler, Alexander Fraser, Lord James Woodhouselee, xv-xvi, 236, 289 Tosh, Johnnie, 49-50 Memoirs of Henry Home of Karnes, Toshack, William, surgeon in Perth, 192, 197, 239-40 278 Tytler, Isabella, wife of Patrick Touch, Stirlingshire, 4, 232-3 Tytler, major, 40, 263-4 Traill, George, son of James Traill of Tytler, Patrick, major, of Stirling Hobbister, 279 Castle, 40», 263-4 Traill, James, of Hobbister, 252, 254, Tytler, [blank], daughter, of 271-2, 276, 279 Patrick Tytler, major, 263-4 INDEX 345 ulcers, see illness war, Napoleonic, 50-51, 62, 65, 85. Upper Ossory, countess of, see 95, 101, 124, 126, 141, 143, 165. Fitzpatrick, Anne 183, 231, 243, 249, 258, 279, 281 bis, 286, 300 Ward, John William, later earl of van arsen, Veronica, wife of Dudley, 147 Alexander, second earl of Wardlaw, Elizabeth, Lady, 107 Kincardine, see Bruce, Veronica War die, [blank], Mr, 246 vegetables, 237, 261, 275 Waring, Harriet P., relict of Major asparagus, xx, 10 J. S. Waring, see Esten, Harriet cabbage, xx, 121, 163-4 P. cauliflower, xx, xxiii Warton, Thomas, History of English celery, xx, 71, 74 poetry, 1, 3 cucumber, xx watering places, 46, 88, 165, 242 and leeks, xx, 188 ». 253 lettuce, xx, 121 Watson, Sir Brook, 132 onions, xx, 188 Watson, Janet, nee McDougal, r’s peas, xx, 3, 8 housekeeper potatoes, xx, 11, 12 conduct of, as housekeeper, xxi, spinach, xx, 10 192, 196-7, 214-15, 217 turnips, 251 domestic hints of, 7, 164, 171 see also food; fruit illness and death of, 24, 146, 182, Vienna, Austria, 254 190 Villiers, George, second duke of wants china cups, 176-7 Buckingham, quoted, 86, 269, Watson, Margaret, nde Bruce, wife 295 of Walter Watson of Southfield, Virgil, Publius Maro, 60, 112 30, 42, 49, 62, 148,150,175, 228, Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet de, Watson,273 Walter, of Southfield, 30, 36, 281 48, 49, 62, 148, 175, 228, 251 volunteers, see militia Watt, John, minister at Blair Logie, 62 Wauchope, John, 206 wages, servants’, 214, 217 weather, 2, 10, 28, 43, 46, 51, 58, Wales, 144, 261 Walker, Robert, minister of St Giles, 85. 90, 97, 98,100, 105,126, 131, Edinburgh, 34, 240 187,134, 189,137, 207,152, 221,161-4, 242-3, 179-82, 245, Wallace, George 249, 256, 285 Thoughts on .. . the descent of Webster, Alexander, D.D., 225 ancient peerages in Scotland, 77 Wedderburn, Alexander, first earl of Prospects from hills in Fife, 17 Rosslyn, 120 Wallace, Robert, minister of West St Wedderburn, Anne, daughter of Sir Giles, Edinburgh, 34 John Wedderbum of Ballendean, Waller, Edmund, quoted, 16 Walpole, Horace, fourth earl of Wedderburn,139 Sir John, of Blackness Orford, xvi bt., 102 346 LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY Wedderbum, Margaret, wife of Wilson, [blank], Mr, 287, 290 Philip Dundas, see Dundas, Wilton, Roxburghshire, 227, 230 Margaret wine, see drink Wedderburn, Margaret, wife of Wingate, Daniel, surgeon in Stirling, Richard Dundas of Blair, see 101, 280, 294, 297, 302 Dundas, Margaret opinions of, on health of various weddings, 78, 80-82, 84, 141-2, 193, patients, 8, 146, 225, 231, 241-2, 222 and n, 225-6, 266, 282 see also marriage opinions292, 303 of, on r’s health, xxi, 134, Wemyss, Anne, nee Lockhart, Lady, 142, 150-2, 202, 237, 251-2, 270, relict of Sir John Wemyss of 293-4, 296, 298, 301-2 Bogie, 84 writes to Mrs Dundas for r., 178, Wemyss, [blank], Mr, 194 293, 296-7 Wesley, John, 4 Wingate, Lilias, nee Ramsay, wife of West Indies, 196, 280 John Wingate of Charterhall, Weymouth, Dorset, 52 xxvi whisky, see drink Winter, William, apothecary in whist, see amusements London, 173M, 175 Whitbread, Elizabeth, nee Grey, wife Wishart, George, minister of Tron, of Samuel Whitbread, 168 Edinburgh, 34 Whitbread, Samuel, 129, 165, 248 Wishart, William, principal of White, [blank], butler at Cardross, 97 Edinburgh university, 34 Whitfield, George, xviii, 15, 16, 176, Woodhouselee, Lord, see Tytler, 225 Alexander F. Whyt, Hugh, minister of Larbert and Woodside, Perthshire, 101, 139, 143, Dunipace, 39/1 185, 222, 232 Wilkie, [blank], Mrs, r’s house- Woolwich, Kent, 125, 213 keeper, xxi, 192, 195-6, 207, Worgam, [blank], Mr, 277 213-14, 215-18, 221-2 Wright, Thomas, 32 William in, king of Great Britain, Wright, [blank], minister of 101 Larbert, 39 William Augustus, duke of Cumberland, 103 Williamson, David, see Ewart, David tester, East Lothian, 244 W. R. York, duke of, see Frederick Willoughby de Eresby, see Burrell, Augustus, duke of York hon. Peter R. Young, Edward, Night Thoughts, 76 SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY THE EXECUTIVE 1965-1966 President W. DOUGLAS SIMPSON, CBE, D LITT, LL D, FS A Chairman of Council PROFESSOR G. W. S. BARROW Council WILLIAM FERGUSON, PH D R. W. MUNRO R. J. ADAM PROFESSOR S.G.E.LYTHE I. M. M. MACPHAIL, PH DR PROFESSOR A. A. M. DUNCAN SIR JAMES FERGUSSON OF KILKERRAN, BT, LL D MRS MARJORIE O. ANDERSON PROFESSOR J. D. HARGREAVES PROFESSOR J.D.MACKIE,CBE,MC,LL D T. I. RAE, PHD T. C. SMOUT, PH D Corresponding Member of Council V.H.GALBRAITH,FBA sometime Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford Honorary Treasurer IAN B. COWAN, PH D Department of Scottish History, University of Glasgow, 29 Bute Gardens, Glasgow W2 Honorary Secretary GRANT G. SIMPSON, PH D Scottish Record Office, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh 2 MEMBERSHIP Membership of the Scottish History Society open to all who are interested in the history of Scotland. For an annual subscription of £2 2s. or $7 members normally receive one volume each year. Enquiries should be addressed to the Honorary Secretary or the Honorary Treasurer, whose addresses are given overleaf. SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY REPORT of the 79th Annual Meeting The 79th Annual Meeting of the Scottish History Society was held in the Rooms of the Royal Society, George Street, Edinburgh, on Saturday 30 October 1965, at 11,15 a.m. Professor Gordon Donaldson, Chairman of Council, was in the Chair. The Report of the Council was as follows: The Council will propose to the Annual Meeting that Dr W. Douglas Simpson, c.b.e., d. litt., ll.d., be elected to the office of President, which has been vacant since the death of Dr Balfour-Melville. The Council feels that the Society may thus suitably recognise Dr Simpson’s notable record of con- tributions to Scottish history and archaeology over a period of more than forty years. The Council is glad to report that the first volume of the new Fourth Series, Mr E. R. Cregeen’s Argyll Estate Instructions (Mull, Morvern, Tiree), 1771-1805, has been well received. The next volume, Miscellany, Volume X, is now in proof and it is hoped that this will be ready for issue in December. It will be followed in 1966 by Letters of John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, 1799-1812, edited by Miss B. L. H. Horn. These are the personal letters of a fascinating individual, a Perthshire country gentleman and litterateur, who was an acute observer of Scottish society in his day. The Council is confident that this volume will be of value both to specialist historians and to members who are interested in social history. The Council has heard with deep regret of the death, in an accident, of Mr James Dow, who was at work on his edition of Papers of James Spens of Wormiston, King fames Vi’s Ambassador to Sweden, 1612-29. The loss of a fine man and a promising scholar will be keenly felt in the world of Scottish historical studies. The Council is glad to be able to report that Mr Archibald Duncan has generously undertaken to complete Mr Dow’s work on this volume. Three new items have been added to the list of volumes in preparation. Pursuing its policy of publishing more nineteenth-century material, the Council has accepted two volumes relating to this period. Minutes of Edinburgh Trades Council, 1859-76, will be edited by Mr Ian Macdougall. These Minutes are the earhest of their kind in Scotland and are of importance in the field of working class history to which historians are now giving increasing attention. No other Trades Council records from any part of the United Kingdom have so far appeared in print. Mr J. S. K. Milne is editing a volume of Estate records of the Ramsays of Barnton, 1788-1865. These docu- ments not only originate in an area for which no estate records have been published, they also illustrate the attitudes to land and investment of a type of landowner who has been ignored. The Ramsays began as a ‘nouveau riche’ family and were active in estate improvement, railway development, coal- mining, and coaching services. Also in preparation is a volume of Records of the Knights Hospitallers in Scotland, to be edited by Dr Angus Macdonald. This will draw together the scattered surviving materials about the Order and its house at Torphichen. The volume will also refer to the properties of the Knights Templars, which passed to the Hospitallers, and will include a rental of Hospitaller lands in Scotland in the period 1539-62. The Council has considered methods of making available out-of-print volumes and has decided in principle to enter into an agreement with the Kraus Reprint Corporation, who will probably reprint the entire First, Second and Third Series. The Society’s finances will eventually benefit con- siderably from royalties and a large increase in library membership can be expected. Present members are advised, however, that stocks of back vol- umes in the Society’s format will be rapidly depleted and they are recom- mended to purchase now any volumes in which they may be interested. The present cost of back volumes is 30s. each; the cost of reprints will be greater. Fuller details of reprinting arrangements will be announced later. In 1961 the annual subscription was raised from fi is. to 5s. (£1 10s. for libraries) but this small increase has proved inadequate to meet continually rising costs. The Council has learned with gratitude that the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland has decided to make a contribution of ^250 towards the cost of Miscellany, Volume X, in place of the sum of ^150 contributed towards previous volumes. Nevertheless, the Council has regretfully decided that it must propose to the Annual Meeting that the subscription be raised to £2 2s. (or 7 dollars). The Council proposes to recognise next year the eightieth anniversary of the Society’s foundation in 1886. An Anniversary meeting will be held in Edinburgh on a Saturday during April 1966 and will include a lunch and special addresses for the occasion. Members will receive details later. Professor Gordon Donaldson has now completed his term of office as Chairman of Council and in his place the Council has elected Professor G. W. S. Barrow, who will assume his duties after the Annual Meeting. Members of Council who retire in rotation at this time are Mrs A. I. Dunlop, 5 Dr C. T. Mclnnes and Sir William Arbuckle. In addition, two members of Council have resigned: Professor R. H. Campbell, now at the University of East Anglia, and Dr M. R. Apted, who has been transferred to a post in Wales. The following will be proposed to the Annual Meeting for election to the Council: Mrs Marjorie O. Anderson, Professor J. D. Hargreaves, Professor J. D. Mackie, Dr T. I. Rae and Dr T. C. Smout. During the past year nine members have died and three have resigned; forty new members have joined. The membership, including 188 libraries, is now 515. The Council welcomes the continued rise in membership. The total membership, now over 500, stands at its highest point since 1938. To attract further new members the Council has in preparation a brochure about the Society’s activities and this will be distributed early in 1966. Any member wishing to obtain copies of the brochure in order to recruit others should write to either of the Hon. Secretaries or to the Hon. Treasurer. Before presenting the Annual Report, Professor Donaldson proposed from the Chair that Dr W. Douglas Simpson be elected President of the Society and this proposal was carried unanimously. In presenting the Annual Report, Professor Donaldson referred to the flourishing state of the Society, especially now that membership was over 500. He felt that he could hand over the Chairmanship of Council to Professor Barrow with every confidence forthe future. Professor Donaldson outlined the programme of pubUcations and explained the reasons which had led the Council to undertake reprinting through the Kraus Reprint Corporation. A discussion followed on this topic, initiated by Mr C. de B. Murray, who felt that reprinting should not be undertaken by these means. Mr J. Norman W. Hunter, seconded by the Rev. Duncan Shaw, proposed that the meeting endorse the policy of the Council. Mr C. de B. Murray moved the negative, but failed to find a seconder, and the motion was carried. The Annual Report was seconded by Professor G. W. S. Barrow and was duly adopted. Professor Donaldson intimated to the meeting that Mr H. H. Donnelly, Honorary Treasurer of the Society, had decided to retire from that office following upon his recent appointment as Secretary of the new University of Stirling. Professor Donaldson expressed the thanks of the Society to Mr Donnelly for the painstaking work which he had undertaken on its b ehalf during his term of office, which began in 1959, and offered him good wishes for his future activities. Professor Donaldson also intimated that 6 the Council had appointed Dr Ian B. Cowan, at present Joint Honorary Secretary, to be Honorary Treasurer, and Mr Grant G. Simpson, the other Joint Honorary Secretary, to be sole Honorary Secretary. Sir Wilham Arbuckle nominated for election to the Council Mrs Marjorie O. Anderson, Professor J. D. Hargreaves, Professor J. D. Mackie, Dr T. I. Rae and Dr T. C. Smout, who were seconded by Dr C. T. Mclnnes and duly elected. Dr Douglas Young then gave an address entitled ‘The Motives of Robert Bruce’. The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to Dr Young, proposed by Professor A. A. M. Duncan. 7 ABSTRACT ACCOUNT OF CHARGE AND DISCHARGE OF INTRO- MISSIONS of the honorary treasurer for the year from ISt November 1964 to 31st October 1965. I. GENERAL ACCOUNT CHARGE I. Cash in Bank at 1st November 1964: 1. Sum at credit of Savings Account with Bank of Scotland o 1 2. Sum at credit of Current Account with Bank of Scotland 361 16 11 3. Sum at credit of Savings Account with Edinburgh Savings Bank 50 o o 4. Sum at credit of Special Investment Account with Edinburgh Savings Bank 5. Cash in hands of Bank of Scotland to meet postages ,62,427 1 8 11. Subscriptions received 667 17 7 in. Donation 35 o o iv. Grant from Carnegie Trust 150 o o v. Past publications sold (including postages recovered from purchasers) 105 17 o vi. Interest on Savings Account with Bank of Scotland 36 12 8 vii. Income Tax Refund 67 15 5 viii. Sums drawn from Bank Current Account ,61,371 17 o ix. Sums drawn from Bank Savings Accounts £1,000 o o £3,490 4 4 DISCHARGE I. Cost of publications during year £2,183 10 6 Cost of printing Annual Report, Notices and Prin- ters’ postages etc. 130 7 o £2,313 17 6 II. Miscellaneous Payments 57 7 10 in. Sums lodged in Bank Current Account £1,388 6 11 iv. Sums lodged in Bank Savings Accounts £2,101 12 9 V. Funds at close of this account: 1. Balance at credit of Savings Account with Bank of Scotland 44 14 6 2. Balance at credit of Current Account with Bank of Scotland 16 9 11 3. Balance at credit of Savings Account with Edinburgh Savings Bank 50 1 3 4. Balance at credit of Special Investment Account with Edin- burgh Savings Bank 1,006 17 0 5. Cash in hands of Bank of Scot- land to meet current postages 16 4 1,118 19 o £3,490 4 4 II. DR ANNIE I. DUNLOP SPECIAL FUND ACCOUNT CHARGE 1. Cash in Bank at 1st November 1964: 1. Sum at credit of Savings Account with Bank of Scotland ^<599 2 9 2. Sum at credit of Current Account with Bank of Scotland 19 6 o 718 8 9 11. Interest on Savings Account with Bank of Scotland 20 19 4 £739 8 1 DISCHARGE 1. Sums lodged in Bank Savings Account £20 19 4 11. Funds at close of this Account: 1. Balance of credit of Savings Account with Bank of Scotland 720 2 I 2. Balance at credit of Current Account with Bank of Scotland 19 6 o £739 8 1 £739 8 1 Edinburgh, $oth November 1965. I have examined the General Account and Dr Annie I. Dunlop Special Fund Account of the Honorary Treasurer of the Scottish History Society for the year from 1st November 1964 to 31st October 1965 and I find the same to be correctly stated and sufficiently vouched. C. T. MCINNES, Auditor

SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY UST OF MEMBERS I966-I967

INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS ADAM, R. J., Cromalt, Lade Braes, St Andrews. ADAMS, I. H., 77 Clerwood Park, Edinburgh 12. ADAMSON, Miss Margot R., 100 Handside Lane, Welwyn Garden City, Herts. AGNEW, C.H., Ygr., of Lochnaw, The Lowland Brigade Depot, Penicuik, Midlothian. ALDERSON, J. J., Havelock, Victoria, AustraHa. ALEXANDER, Joseph, Trust, per J. A. Carnegie & Smith, Solicitors, Bank of Scotland Buildings, Kirriemuir. ANDERSON, Mrs Marjorie O., West View Cottage, Lade Braes Lane, St Andrews. ANDERSON, Rev. W. J., 16 Drummond Place, Edinburgh 3. ANNAND, A. McK., Magdalen, High Street, Findon, Worthing, Sussex. ANNAND, James K., 174 Craigleith Road, Edinburgh 4. ANTON, Professor A. E., 18 West Chapelton Crescent, Bearsden, Glasgow. ARGYLL, His Grace the Duke of, Inveraray Castle, Argyll. ARKLE, Douglas G., f.s.a. scot., 10 Linton Road, Arbroath. ARMET, Miss Catherine M., Mount Stuart, Rothesay. ARMSTRONG, M., 17 Muirend Gardens, Perth. ASPLIN, P. W., Strathcraig, Loganswell, Newton Mearns, Glasgow. BAIRD, Kenneth D., 17 Bellevue Crescent, Edinburgh 3. BANNERMAN, John W. M., ph.d., Arrochy Beg, Balmaha, Stirling- shire. BARCLAY, R. S., ph.d., 185 Carrick Knowe Drive, Edinburgh 12. BARLOW, Miss Ethel, 4 Hillside Terrace, Old Kilpatrick, Glasgow. BARR, Mrs. A. R., Rockbank, Hunter’s Quay, Dunoon, Argyll. BARROW, Professor G. W. S., Department of Modem History, The University, Newcasde upon Tyne. (Chairman of Council.) BAYNE, Mrs Neil, 51 Ann Street, Edinburgh 4. BENNETT, Mrs Josephine M., b.l., 91 Victoria Road, Dunoon. BERNARD, K. N., f.s.a. scot., 77 Lower Chapel Street, Ilkeston, Derbyshire. BEST, Professor Geoffrey, 4 Ormidale Terrace, Edinburgh 12. BIGWOOD, Miss A. R., 13 Jackson Street, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. BONAR, John J., 30 Greenhill Gardens, Edinburgh 10. BRANSTON, Miss A. L., 41 Raeburn Place, Edinburgh 4. BRISTOL, Nicholas M. V., 9 Lexham Gardens, London w.8. BROWN, A. L., d.phil.. History Department, The University, Glasgow w.2. INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS BROWN, Cmdr. A. R. P., r.n. (Retd.), Capelaw, 29 Woodhall Road, Edinburgh 11. BROWN, G. W., North Cuan Farm, Isle of Sell, by Oban, Argyll. BROWNING, Professor Andrew, d.litt., Durie House, 6 West Abercromby Street, Helensburgh. BUCHANAN, John, 67 Great King Street, Edinburgh 3. BUIST, Frank J., Fairneyknowe, by Arbroath, Angus. BULLOCH, Rev. James, Manse of Stobo, Peebles. BURNS, Rev. Charles, Archivio Segreto, Citta Del Vaticano, Roma, Italy, BURNS, David Murray, 60 North Castle Street, Edinburgh 2. BUTCHART, H. J., Willowwood, 626 King Street, Aberdeen. C AIRD, J. B., d. de l’univ., Department of Geography, The University, Glasgow w.2. CAMERON, Alexander D., 18 Crown Avenue, Inverness. CAMPBELL, Colin, P.O. Box 8, Belmont, 78 Massachusetts, u.s.a. CAMPBELL, Lt.-Col. H. Alastair, Altries, Milltimber, Aberdeenshire. CAMPBELL, J. L., of Canna, d.litt., ll.d., Isle of Canna, Inverness- shire. CAMPBELL, Peter H., Levensholme, Tyneview Road, Haltwhistle, Northumberland. CAMPBELL, Professor R. H., School of Social Studies, Wilberforce Road, Norwich. CAMPBELL, Rev. William M., The Manse, Barloan, Dumbarton. CANT, R. G., 2 Kinbum Place, St Andrews. CARMICHAEL, P.O., Arthurstone, Meigle, Perthshire. CHECKLAND, Professor S. G., ph.d., Department of Economic History, The University, Glasgow w.2. CHEYNE, Rev. Professor A. C., b.litt., b.d., ii Tantallon Place, Edinburgh 9. CLAVERING, R. J., 56 Farnley Road, Menston, Ilkley, Yorks. COCKBURN, Very Rev. J. Hutchison, 8 Stonehill Road, East Sheen, London s.w.14. COLQUHOUN, Rev. John, Free Presbyterian Manse, Glendale, Skye. CORSAR, K. C., of Cairniehill, f.s.a. scot., Mauricewood, Milton Bridge, Midlothian. COSH, Miss Mary, 63 Theberton Street, London, n.i. COSSAR, James, Lyndale, 10 Craig’s Bank, Edinburgh 12. COWAN, Ian B., ph.d., 119 Balshagray Avenue, Glasgow w.i. (Honorary Treasurer.) CO WE, F. M., 10 Ravensdowne, Berwick-upon-Tweed. COWIE, Miss Isabella, Glenrinnes, Dufftown, Banffshire. CRAWFORD & BALCARRES, The Rt. Hon. The Earl of, Balcarres, Colinsburgh, Fife. INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS CRAWFORD, Iain A., Nether Kinneddar, Saline, Fife. CREGEEN, E. R., Anaskeog, Kilmichael Glassary, Argyll. CREGEEN, Miss Sheila, Kerrowkeil Cottage, Patrick Road, St Johns, Isle of Man. CROSS, A. R., Old Ballikinrain, Balfron, by Glasgow. CUTHBERT, Alexander, c.A., f.s.a. scot., 27 Cumlodden Avenue, Edinburgh 12. DAICHES, Professor David, Downsview, Wellhouse Lane, Burgess Hill, Sussex. DAVIDSON, W. L., c.a., 142 St Vincent Street, Glasgow C.2. DAVIES, Miss Katharine, ph.d., 198 Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh 9. DAVIS, E. D., Craigie College of Education, p.o. Box 17, Ayr. DE BEER, E. S., 31 Brompton Square, London s.w.3. DICKSON, A. Hope, House of Aldie, Rumbling Bridge, Kinross-shire. DICKSON, C. H., 8 Highwood Gardens, Ilford, Essex. DICKSON, D., 20 Lime Grove, Lenzie, Dunbartonshire. DICKSON, Walter, 5 Elcho Terrace, Portobello, Edinburgh 15. DOIG, James, 1724 Highland Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois, u.s.A. DONALD, G. D., Tigh-Na-Mara, Lower Vaul, Isle of Tiree. DONALDSON, Professor Gordon, d.litt., 24 East Hermitage Place, Edinburgh 6. DONALDSON, Robert, National Library of Scotland, George iv Bridge, Edinburgh 1. DONNELLY, H. H., c.b., ll.b., Highfield West, Claremont Drive, Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire. DOW, Rev. A. C., ph.d., Stoneywood Church Manse, Bankhead Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeenshire. DRAFFEN, George S., of Newington, m.b.e., Newington House, Cupar, Fife. DRUMMOND-MURRAY, P„ Orchard Cottage, New Road, Tylers Green, Penn, Bucks. DUNBAR, John G., Royal Commission, Ancient & Historical Monu- ments (Scotland), 52 Melville Street, Edinburgh 3. DUNCAN, Archibald, Windward House, Kilcreggan, Dunbartonshire. DUNCAN, Professor Archibald A. M., Scottish History Department, The University, Glasgow w.2. DUNLOP, Mrs Annie L, o.b.e., ph.d., d.litt., ll.d., 73 London Road, Kilmarnock. DUNLOP, Rev. A. Ian, 11 Bellevue Place, Edinburgh 7. DURACK, Mrs Isabel J., 87 Comiston Drive, Edinburgh 10. DURKAN, J., ph.d., 14 Newfield Square, Glasgow s.w.3. ELRICK, W. J. H., c/o Bank of New South Wales, 29 Threadneedle Street, London e.c.2. INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS FARQUHARSON, R., 7 Sutherland Crescent, Darling Point, Sydney, New South Wales, AustraHa. FERGUSON, William, ph.d., Scottish History Department, University of Edinburgh, 2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh 8. FERGUSSON, Sir James, of Kilkerran, Bart., ll.d., Kilkerran, May- bole, Ayrshire. FILE Y, P. W., Assistant Director, Maryland Historical Society, 201 West Monument Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, u.s.A. FINLAYSON, Rev. Angus, Free Church Manse, North Tolsta, Stor- noway. FINLAYS ON, C. P., 17 Granville Terrace, Edinburgh 10. FINLAYSON, G., History Department, The University, Glasgow w.2. FLEMING, A. M. H., Fasnacloich, Appin, Argyll. FLEMING, Mrs M.J. P., m.b., ch.b., 17 Graham Park Road, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. FRASER, Mrs Agnes P., d.a., f.s.a., 76 Moira Terrace, Edinburgh 7. FRASER, Barclay S., Viewforth, Glebe Road, Cramond, Edinburgh. GAFFNEY, Victor, 51 East Trinity Road, Edinburgh 5. GALLOWAY, T. L., of Auchendrane, by Ayr. GASKELL, P., ph.d., Dormers Comberton, Cambridge. GAULD, Miss Mary B., 29 Beechgrove Terrace, Aberdeen. GILFILLAN, J. B. S„ Edenkerry, Helensburgh. GILL, Brian H., 23 Bedford Drive, Colinton, Edinburgh 13. GLADSTONE, John, Capenoch, Penpont, Dumfriesshire. GLENTANAR, The Rt. Hon. The Lord, Glen Tanar, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire. GORDON, Edmund von, c/o 5419 Dierdorf, Bez Koblenz (Kupferhaus Kreissparkasse Neuwied). GORRIE, D. C. E., The Knowe, Limekilns, Fife. GOULDESBROUGH, Peter, ll.b., Scottish Record Office, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh 2. GRAHAM, Norman W., Suilven, Kings Road, Longniddry, East Lothian. GRANGE, R. W. D., Aberdour School, Burgh Heath, Nr. Tadworth, Surrey. GRANT, I. D., 12 Ardmillan Terrace, Edinburgh n. GRANT, Miss I. F., ll.d., 35 Heriot Row, Edinburgh 3. GRANT, Ian R., 11 Cumin Place, Edinburgh 9. GRAY, Alexander L., 131 High Street, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. GRIEVE, Miss Hilda E. P., 33 Shrublands Close, Chelmsford, Essex. GUTHRIE, Douglas, m.d.,f.r.c.s., 21 Clarendon Crescent, Edinburgh 4. HADDO, The Earl of, Haddo House, Aberdeen. HADEN-GUEST, Lady, The University, Glasgow w.2. INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS HAIG, Miss Lilian S., 30 Hazel Avenue, Kirkcaldy. HAIG, R. W., Old Petty, Dalcross, Inverness. HALDANE, A. R. B., w.s., 4 North Charlotte Street, Edinburgh 2. HALLIDAY, J., 32 Cameron Street, Dunfermline. HALLIDAY, Rev. R. T., b.d., Holy Cross Rectory, 28 East Barnton Avenue, Edinburgh 4. HAMPTON, Gordon, b.l., c/o Messrs Hastings & Co., 1st Floor, Marina House, 15-19 Queen’s Road, Hong Kong. HANNAH, Alexander, The Red Cottage, 37 Abbotswood, Guildford, Surrey. HARGREAVES, Professor John D., 146 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen. HARPER, Colin C., ll.b., 17a Dundas Street, Edinburgh 3. HARRISON, E. S„ ofj. Johnston & Co., Newmill, Elgin. HAY, Professor Denys, 31 Fountainhall Road, Edinburgh 9. HAY, George, 29 Moray Place, Edinburgh 3. HAY, Colonel R. A., United Service Club, Pall Mall, London s.w.i. HEELY, Mrs Muriel S., Norbury House, Alford, Lincolnshire. HENDERSON, Mrs M. I. O. Gore-Browne, Malleny, Balemo, Midlothian. HENDERSON, W. H., Cedar Grove, Dirleton, North Berwick, East Lothian. HENDERSON-HOWAT, Mrs A. M. D., 7 Lansdowne Crescent, Edinburgh 12. HESKETH, Lady, Towcester, Northamptonshire. HILLEARY, Ian, Tayinloan Cottage, Bemisdale, Isle of Skye. HILTON, Miss Margaret, 10 Lorraine Gardens, Glasgow w.2. HOPE, Colonel Archibald J. G., Luffness, Aberlady, East Lothian. HORN, Professor D. B., d.litt., Dept, of History, The University, Edinburgh 8. HORNE, Miss Edith M. Van, 5 Rothesay Place, Edinburgh 3. HOUSTON, George, Department of Political Economy, The University, Glasgow w.2. HOWDEN, D. G. B., Greenaway, London Road, Balcombe, Haywards Heath, Sussex. HOWE, J. R., Sandene, 106 Somerset Road, Meadvale, Redhill, Surrey. HOWELL, Roger, Jr., ph.d.. Department of History, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine 04011, u.s.a. HUIE, A. W., 15 Louisville Avenue, Aberdeen. HUNTER, J. N. W., ph.d., Moray House Training College, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh 8. HUNTER, R. L., 74 Trinity Road, Edinburgh 5. HUNTER, R. L. C., ll.b., Dept, of Jurisprudence, Queen’s College, Dundee. INNES, Sir Thomas, of Leamey, G.c.v.o., Lord Lyon King of Arms, New Register House, Edinburgh 2. INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS IREDELL, Godfrey W., il.m., ph.d., d.p.a., f.s.a.scot., Wood- lands, Braithwaite, Keswick, Cumberland. JEFFRIS, Miss Ruth B., 602 East Holmes Street, Jamesville, Wisconsin 53575, U.S.A. KATES, G. N., 39 Brimmer Street, Boston, Mass., u.s.A. KEIR, Sir David Lindsay, Hillsborough, Lincombe Lane, Boars Hill, Oxford. KELLY, F. N. Davidson, St Gerardine’s,30 Old Kirk Road, Edinburgh 12. KENNEDY, A., Ardvoulin, South Park Road, Ayr. KENNEDY, F., 20 Constitution Street, Dundee. KENNEDY, James, b.sc., 9 Segton Avenue, Kilwinning, Ayrshire. KERR, Rev. T. A., ph.d., 13 Lady Road, Edinburgh 9. KETELBEY, Miss C. M., 18 Queen’s Gardens, St Andrews. KIDD, Matthew P., Coorie Doon, Queen Victoria Street, Airdrie. KILGOUR, Robert M., Messrs. Ferguson, Reekie & Kilgour, 22 Great King Street, Edinburgh 3. KILPATRICK, Rev. John, b.d., ph.d., f.s.a.scot., Grove Cottage, Clynder, Dunbartonshire. KILPATRICK, P. J. W„ Slipperfield House, West Linton, Peeblesshire. KINNIBURGH, T. C„ The Battery, The Bayle, Folkestone, Kent. KIRKPATRICK, Mrs A., 33 Keir Street, Bridge of Allan, Stirling- shire. KNOX, J. M., 57 St Vincent Street, Glasgow C.2. LAING, John E., 11 Treemain Road, Whitecraigs, Nr. Glasgow. LEE, Professor Maurice, Jr., History Department, Douglars College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, u.s.A. LEGGE, Miss M. D., b.litt., French Department, The University, Edinburgh 8. LESLIE, The Hon. J. W., East Kintrockat, Brechin, Angus. LILBURN, Gavin G., c/o National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London, s.w.i. LINDSAY, Lady Broun, Colstoun, Haddington. LOBB AN, R. D., ed.b., 3 Orchard Terrace, Edinburgh 4. LOCKETT, G. D., m.b.e., Clonterbrook House, Swettenham, Congleton, Cheshire. LOCKHART, S. F. MacDonald, Newholm, Dunsyre, Carnwath, Lanarkshire. LOLE, F. P., 54 Whalley Hayes, Macclesfield, Cheshire. LONGMUIR, Rev. J. Boyd, b.l., i Lygon Road, Edinburgh 9. LORIMER, W. L., 19 Murray Park, St Andrews, Fife. LYTHE, Professor S. G. E., University of Strathclyde, George Street, Glasgow c.i. INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS 9 MACALLISTER, R. B., 5 Wardlaw Avenue, Rutherglen, Glasgow. McALLISTER, R. S., 6 Ogilvie Place, Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire. MACARTHUR, D., 8 Dempster Terrace, St Andrews, Fife. McARTHUR, Neil, Solicitor, Old National Bank Buildings, Inverness. McCAFFREY, J. F., 109 Canniesbum Road, Bearsden, Glasgow. McCLOSKEY, Miss Phyllis D., 30 Athole Gardens, Glasgow w.2. McCOSH, Bryce K., of Huntfield, Quothquan, Biggar. MACDONALD,}. M., Bruach, Sidinish, Locheport, North Uist. MACDONALD, Rae, 12 Rosemod Court, 333 Musgrave Road, Durban, South Africa. MACDOUGALL, A. C., j.p., Cornaigmore Schoolhouse, Isle of Three, Argyll. MACDOWALL, C. G., Flowerburn Cottage, Fortrose. MACFARLANE.L.}., 19 Don Street, Aberdeen. McINNES, C. T., ll.d.. White Cottage, Old Kirk Road, Edinburgh 12. MACKAY, Miss E. R., f.s.a. scot., Ach na Craobhan, Rhearquhar, Dornoch, Sutherland. MACKAY, Rev. Hugh, f.s.a. scot.. The Manse, Duns, Berwickshire. MACKAY, Miss Margaret L., 3 Braid Mount, Edinburgh 10. MACKAY, Wilham, o.b.e., Netherwood, Inverness. MACKECHNIE, Miss Catherine B., 59 Polwarth Street, Glasgow w.2. MACKECHNIE, Donald, Schoolhouse, Bridge of Douglas, Inveraray. MACKELLAR, Miss Margaret E. G., 5 Dudley Drive, Glasgow w.2. MACKENZIE, Sir Compton, 31 Drummond Place, Edinburgh 3. MACKENZIE, Mrs P. C., The Cottage, Upper Clatford, Andover. McKERRAL, Andrew, c.i.e., b.sc., Morton, Midcalder. MACKIE, Professor}. D., 67 Dowanside Road, Glasgow w.2. MACLEAN, Angus, Sea-View, CaoUs, Isle of Three, Argyll. MACLEAN, Rev. Ewan A., 6 East Restalrig Terrace, Edinburgh 6. MACLEAN, }ames N. M., Ygr., of Glensanda, b.litt., Department of History, The University, Edinburgh 8. MACLEAN, Dr}., Van Neckstraat 102, ’s-Gravenhage 1, Holland. MACLEAN, Mrs L. M., of Dochgarroch, The Parsonage, Pitlochry, Perthshire. McMILLAN, N. W. 160 West George Street, Glasgow c.2. McNAB, Rev.}. Stratheam, 2 Broomfield Gardens, Ayr. McNEILL, Peter G. B., 185 Nithsdale Road, Glasgow s.i. McNEILL, Wihiam A., 33 Oakfield Avenue, Glasgow w.2. McNUTT, Miss Margaret R., ll.b., dip.ed., 384 North Deeside Road, Cults, Aberdeen. MACPHAIL, I. M. M., ph.dr., Belhaven, Meadow Road, Dumbarton. MACPHERSON, Captain}. Harvey, f.s.a.scot., Dunmore, Newton- more, Inverness-shire. MACQUEEN, Professor}ohn, Enghsh Literature Department, Univer- sity of Edinburgh, George Square, Edinburgh 8. MACRAE,}. A., 230 8th Avenue, Prince Rupert, b.c., Canada. 10 INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS McROBERTS, Rt. Rev. Monsignor David, s.t.l., Carstairs House, Carstairs Junction, Lanarkshire. MALCOLM, Colonel George, of Poltalloch, Duntrune Castle, Loch- gilphead, Argyll. MARSHALL, David C., Kilbucho Place, Broughton, Peebleshire. MARSHALL, Miss Rosalind K., dip.ed., 21 Church Street, Kirkcaldy, Fife. MARWICK, W. H., 5 Northfield Crescent, Edinburgh 8. MATTHEWS, Henry McN., 1120 Fifth Avenue, New York City 28, New York, u.s.A. MAXWELL, Stuart, f.s.a.scot., 23 Dick Place, Edinburgh 9. MICHAEL, James, o.b.e., Achtemrack, Drumnadrochit, Inverness- shire. MILLER, R. Pairman, w.s., 13 St Catherine’s Place, Edinburgh 3. MILNE, J. S. K., 8 Craigcrook Terrace, Edinburgh 4. MITCHELL, Miss Rosemary, 24 Alexandra Place, Oban, Argyll. 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SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS Volumes marked with an asterisk are no longer obtainable First Series *i. BishopPococke’sToursinScotland, 1747-1760. Ed.D.W. Kemp. 1887. *2. Diary and Account Book of William Cunningham of Craigends, 1673-1680. Ed. Rev. James Dodds. 1887. *3. Grameidos libri sex : an heroic poem on the Campaign of 1689 by James Philip of Almerieclose. Trans, and ed. Rev. A. D, Murdoch. 1888. *4. The Register of the Kirk-Session of St Andrews. Part 1, 1559-1582. Ed. D. Hay Fleming. 1889. *5. Diary of the Rev. John Mill, Minister in Shetland, 1740-1803. Ed. Gilbert Goudie. 1889. *6. Narrative of Mr James Nimmo, a Covenanter, 1654-1709. Ed. W. G. Scott-Moncrieff. 1889. *7. The Register of the Kirk-Session of St Andrews. Part h, 1583-1600. Ed. D. Hay Fleming. 1890. *8. A List of Persons Concerned in the Rebellion (1745). With a Preface by the Earl of Rosebery. 1890. Presented to the Society by the Earl of Rosebery. *9. Glamis Papers: The ‘Book of Record’, a Diary written by Patrick, first Earl of Strathmore, and other documents (1684-89). Ed. A. H. Millar. 1890. *10. John Major’s History of Greater Britain(i52i). Trans, and ed. Archibald Constable. 1892. *11. The Records of the Commissions of the General Assem- blies, 1646-47. Ed. Rev. Professor Mitchell and Rev. James Christie. 1892. *12. Court-Book of the Barony of Urie, 1604-1747. Ed. Rev. D. G. Barron. 1892. *13. Memoirs of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, Baronet, 1676- 1755. Ed. John M. Gray. 1892. *14. Diary of Col. the Hon. John Erskine of Carnock, 1683- 1687. Ed. Rev. Walter Macleod. 1893. *15. Miscellany ofthe Scottish History Society. Vol.i. 1893. *16. Account Book of Sir John Foulis of Ravelston, 1671- 1707. Ed. Rev. A. W. Cornelius Hallen. 1894. PUBLICATIONS *17. Letters and Papers illustrating the Relations between Charles ii and Scotland in 1650. Ed. Samuel Rawson Gardiner. 1894. *18. Scotland and the Commonwealth. Letters and Papers RELATING TO THE MILITARY GOVERNMENT OF SCOTLAND, Aug. 1651-Dec. 1653. Ed. C. H. Firth. 1895. *19. The Jacobite Attempt of 1719. Letters ofJames, second Duke of Ormonde. Ed. W. K. Dickson. 1895. *20, 21, 22. The Lyon in Mourning, or a Collection of Speeches, Letters, Journals, etc., relative to the Affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, by Bishop Forbes. 1746-1775. Ed. Henry Paton. 3 vols. 1895-96. *23. Itinerary of Prince Charles Edward (Supplement to the Lyon in Mourning). Compiled by W. B. Blaikie. 1897. *24. Extracts from the Presbytery Records of Inverness and Dingwall, 1638-88. Ed. William Mackay. 1896. *25. The Records of the Commissions of the General Assemblies, 1648-49. Ed. Rev. Professor Mitchell and Rev. James Christie. 1896. *26. JohnstonHonours of of Scotland, W^ arist on's 1651-52. Diary, Ed.1639. C. R.Ed. A.Howden.—The G. M.Paul—The Earl of Mar’s Legacies, 1722, 1726. Ed. Hon. S. Erskine.— Letters by Mrs Grant of Laggan. Ed. J. R. N. Macphail. 1896. Presented to the Society by Messrs T. and A. Constable. *27. Memorials ofJohn Murray of Broughton, 1740-1747. Ed. R. Fitzroy Bell. 1898. *28. The Compt Buik of David Wedderburne, Merchant of Dundee, 1587-1630. Ed. A. H. Millar. 1898. *29, Brothers30. The CorrespondenceDeBellievre, French of DeAmbassadors Montereul in Englandand the and Scotland, 1645-48. Ed. and trans. J. G. Fotheringham. 2 vols. 1898-9. *31. Scotland and the Protectorate. Letters and Papers relating to the Military Government of Scotland, from January 1654 to June 1659. Ed. C. H. Firth. 1899. *32. Papers illustrating the History of the Scots Brigade in the Service of the United Netherlands. 1572-1782. Ed. James Ferguson. Vol. 1, 1572-1697. 1899. *33,34. Macfarlane’s Genealogical Collections concerning ’ Families in Scotland. Ed. J. T. Clark. 2 vols. 1900. Presented to the Society by the Trustees of the late Sir William Fraser, K.C.B. *35. Papers on the Scots Brigade in Holland, 1572-1782. Ed. James Ferguson. Vol. n, 1698-1782. 1899. PUBLICATIONS *36. Journal of a Foreign Tour in 1665 and 1666, etc., by Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall. Ed. Donald Craw- ford. 1900. *37. Papal Negotiations with Mary Queen of Scots during her Reign in Scotland. Ed. Rev. J. Hungerford Pollen. 1901. *38. Papers on the Scots Brigade in Holland, 1572-1782. Ed. James Ferguson. Vol. in. 1901. 39. The Diary of Andrew Hay of Craignethan, 1659-60. Ed. A. G. Reid. 1901. *40. Negotiations for the Union of England and Scotland in 1651-53. Ed. C. Stanford Terry. 1902. *41. The Loyall Dissuasive. Written in 1703 by Sir jEneas Macpherson. Ed. Rev. A. D. Murdoch. 1902. *42. The Chartulary of Lindores, 1195-1479. Ed. Right Rev. John Dowden, Bishop of Edinburgh. 1903. *43. A Letter from Mary Queen of Scots to the Duke of Guise, Jan. 1562. Reproduced in Facsimile. Ed. Rev. J. Hunger- ford Pollen. 1904. Presented to the Society by the family of the late Mr Scott, of Halkshill. *44. MiscellanyoftheScottishHistorySociety. Vo1.ii. 1904. 45. Letters of John Cockburn of Ormistoun to his Gardener, 1727-1743. Ed. James Colville. 1904. *46. Minute Book of the Managers of the New Mills Cloth Manufactory, 1681-1690. Ed. W. R. Scott. 1905, *47. Chronicles of the Frasers; being the Wardlaw Manuscript. By Master James Fraser. Ed. William Mackay. 1905. *48. Proceedings of the Justiciary Court from 1661 to 1678. Vol. 1, 1661-1669. Ed. SheriffScoTT-MoNCRiEFF. 1905. 49. Proceedings of the Justiciary Court from 1661 to 1678. Vol. h, 1669-1678. Ed Sheriff Scott-Moncrieff. 1905. 50. Records of the Baron Court of Stitchill, 1655-1807. Ed. Clement B. Gunn. 1905. 51. 52, 53. Macfarlane’s Geographical Collections. Ed. Sir Arthur Mitchell. 3 vols. 1906-8. *54. Statuta Ecclesij® ScoticanjE, 1225-1559. Trans, and ed. David Patrick. 1907. *55. The House Booke of Accompts, Ochtertyre, 1737-39. Ed. James Colville. 1907. 56. The Charters of the Abbey of Inchaffray. Ed. W. A- Lindsay, Right Rev. Bishop Dowden and J. Maitland Thomson. 1908. PUBLICATIONS *57. A Selection of the Forfeited Estates Papers preserved in H.M. General Register House and elsewhere. Ed. A. H. Millar. 1909. 58. Records of the Commissions of the General Assemblies, 1650-52. Ed. Rev. James Christie. 1909. 59. Papers relating to the Scots in Poland, 1576-93. Ed. A. Francis Steuart. 1915. 60. Sir Thomas Craig’s De Unione Regnorum Britannia Tractatus. Ed. and trans. C. Sanford Terry. 1909. *61. Johnston of Wariston’s Memento Quamdiu Vivas, and Diary from 1632 to 1639. Ed. G. M. Paul. 1911. Second Series *1. The Household Book of Lady Grisell Baillie, 1692-1733. Ed. R. Scott-Moncrieff. 1911. *2. Origins of the ’45 and other Narratives. Ed. W. B. Blaikie. 1916. *3. Correspondence of James, fourth Earl of Findlater and first Earl of Seafield, Lord Chancellor of Scot- land. Ed. James Grant. 1912. 4. Rentale Sancti Andree; being Chamberlain and Granitar Accounts of the Archbishopric in the time of Cardinal Betoun, 1538-1546. Trans, and ed. Robert KerrHannay. 1913. *5. Highland Papers. Vol. i. Ed. J. R. N. Macphail. 1914. *6. Selections from the Records of the Regality of Mel- rose. Vol. 1, 1605-1661. Ed. C. S. Romanes. 1914. *7. Records of the Earldom of Orkney, 1299-1614. Ed. J. S. Clouston. 1914. 8. Selections from the Records of the Regality of Mel- rose. Vol. n, 1662-76. Ed. C. S. Romanes. 1915. 9. Selections from the Letter Books of John Steuart, Bailie of Inverness, 1715-52. Ed. William Mackay. 1915. 10. RENTALE DUNKELDENSE; BEING THE ACCOUNTS OF THE Chamberlain of the Bishopric of Dunkeld. 1506-1517. Ed. R. K. Hannay. 1915. 11. Letters of the Earl of Seafield and Others, illus- trative of the History of Scotland during the Reign of Queen Anne. Ed. Professor Hume Brown. 1915. 12. Highland Papers. Vol. ii. Ed. J. R. N. Macphail. 1916. 13. Selections from the Records of the Regality of Mel- rose. Vol. m, 1547-1706. Ed. C. S. Romanes. 1917. *14, 15. A Contribution to the Bibliography of Scottish Topography. Ed. Sir Arthur Mitchell and C. G. Cash. 2 vols. 1917. PUBLICATIONS 16, 17. Papers relating to the Army of the Solemn League and Covenant, 1643-1647. Ed. Professor C. Sanford Terry. 2 vols. 1917. 18. Wariston’s Diary. Vol. h, 1650-54. Ed. D. Hay Fleming. 1919. *19. Miscellany of the Scottish History Society. Vol. m, 1919- 20. Highland Papers. Vol. in. Ed. J. R. N. Macphail. 1920. Third Series 1. Register of the Consultations of the Ministers of Edinburgh. Vol. 1. 1652-1657. Ed. Rev. W. Stephen. 1921. 2. Diary of George Ridpath, Minister of Stitchel, 1755- 1761. Ed. Sir James Balfour Paul. 1922. 3. The Confessions of Babington and other Papers rela- ting to the Last Days of Mary Queen of Scots. Ed. Rev. J. H. Pollen. 1922. 4. Foreign Correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland (Balcarres Papers). Vol. 1, 1537- 1548. Ed. Marguerite Wood. 1923. 5. Selections from the Papers of the late Sir William Fraser. Ed. J. R. N. Macphail. 1924. Presented to the Society by the Trustees of the late Sir William Fraser, K.C.B. 6. Papers relating to the Ships and Voyages of the Com- pany of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies, 1696-1707. Ed. George P. Insh. 1924. 7. Foreign Correspondence with Marie De Lorraine, Queen of Scotland (Balcarres Papers). Vol. n, 1548- 1557. Ed. Marguerite Wood. 1925. 8. The Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 1413-1579. Ed. J. Maitland Anderson. 1926. 9. Miscellany of the Scottish History Society. Vol. iv. 1926. 10. The Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine, 1543-1560. Ed. Annie I. Cameron. 1927. 11. Journal of Thomas Cuningham, 1640-1654. Conservator atCampvere. Ed. Elinor Joan Courthope. 1928. 12. The Sheriff Court Book of Fife, 1515-1522. Ed. William Croft Dickinson. 1928. 13. 14, 15. The Prisoners of the ’45. Ed. Sir Bruce Seton, Bart., of Abercorn, and Mrs Jean Gordon Arnot. 3 vols. 1928-9. PUBLICATIONS 16. Register of the Consultations of the Ministers of Edinburgh. Vol. n, 1657-1660. Ed. Rev. W. Stephen. 1930. 17. The Minutes of the Justices of the Peace for Lanark- shire, 1707-1723. Ed. C. A. Malcolm. 1931. 18. The Warrender Papers. Vol. 1, 1301-1587. Ed. Annie I. Cameron, with Introduction by Principal Roberts. Rait. 1931. 19. The Warrender Papers. Vol. n, 1587-1603. Ed. Annie I. Cameron, with Introduction by Principal Robert S. Rait. 1932. 20. Flodden Papers. Ed. Marguerite Wood. 1933. 21. Miscellany of the Scottish History Society. Vol. v. 1933- 22. Highland Papers. Vol. iv. Ed. J. R. N. Macphail, with Biographical Introduction by WilliamK.Dickson. 1934. 23. Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome, 1418-1422. Ed. Rev. and Hon. E. R. Lindsay and Annie I. Cameron. 1934. 24. Early Correspondence of Robert Wodrow. Ed. L. W. Sharp. 1937. 25. Warrender Letters. Correspondence of Sir George Warrender, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 1715. Ed. William K. Dickson. 1935. 26. Commentary on the Rule of St Augustine by Robertus Richardinus. Ed. G. G. Coulton. 1935. 27. Survey of Lochtayside, 1769. Ed. Margaret M. McArthur. 1936. 28. Ayr Burgh Accounts, 1534-1624. Ed. G. S. Pryde. 1937. 29. Barony Court Book of Carnwath, 1523-1542. Ed. William Croft Dickinson. 1937. 30. Chronicle of Holyrood. Ed. Marjorie Ogilvie Ander- son, with some additonal notes by Alan Orr Anderson. 1938. 31. The Jacobite Court at Rome, 1719. Ed. Henrietta Tayler. 1938. 32. Incholm Charters. Ed. Rev. D. E. Easson and Angus Macdonald. 1938. 33. Miscellany of the Scottish History Society. Vol. vi. 1939- 34. Wariston’s Diary. Vol. in. Ed. J. D. Ogilvie. 1940. 35. Miscellany of the Scottish History Society. Vol. vn. 1941. 36. Two Missions of Jacques de la Brosse, 1543 and 1560. Ed. G. Dickinson. 1942. 37. Minutes of the Synod of Argyll, 1639-1651. Ed. Duncan C. Mactavish. 1943. PUBLICATIONS 7 38. Minutes of the Synod of Argyll, 1652-1661. Ed. Duncan C. Mactavish, with Introduction by J. D. Ogilvie. 1944. 39. Monymusk Papers. Ed. Henry Hamilton. 1945. 40. 41. Charters of the Abbey of Coupar Angus. Ed. D. E. Easson. 2 vols. 1947. 42. Accounts of the Collectors of the Thirds of Bene- fices, 1561-1572. Ed. Gordon Donaldson. 1949. 43. Miscellany of the Scottish History Society. Vol. vin. 44. 1951.Scottish Population Statistics. Ed.J. G. Kyd. 1952. 45. The Letters of James iv, 1505-1513. Calendared by R. K. Hannay. Edited with Biographical Memoir and Introduction by R. L. Mackie assisted by Anne Spilman. 1953. 46. 47. Account of the Proceedings of the Estates in Scot- land, 1689-1690. Ed. E. W. M. Balfour-Melville. 2 vols. 48. Calendar1954-5. of Scottish Supplications to Rome, 1423-1428. Ed. Annie I. Dunlop. 1956. 49. Early Records of Aberdeen, 1317 and 1398-1407. Ed. William Croft Dickinson. 1957. 50. Miscellany of the Scottish History Society. Vol. ix. 1958. 51. Wigtownshire Charters. Ed. R. C. Reid. i960. 52. John Home’s Survey of Assynt. Ed. R.J. Adam. i960. 53. Court Book of the Burgh of Kirkintilloch, 1658-1694. Ed. G. S. Pryde. 1963. *54, 55. Acta Facultatis Artium Universitatis Sancti Andree, 1413-1588. Ed. Annie I. Dunlop. 2 vols. 1964. Fourth Series 1. Argyll Estate Instructions (Mull, Morvem, Tiree), 1771- 1805. Ed. Eric R. Cregeen. 1964. 2. Miscellany of the Scottish History Society. Vol. x. 1965. (Memoir of Dr E.W. M. Balfour-Melville, by D. B. Horn; Bagimond’s Roll for the diocese of Moray, ed. Rev. Charles Burns; Accounts of the King’s Pursemaster, 1539-40, ed. A. L. Murray; Papers of a Dundee shipping dispute, 1600-4, ed. W. A. McNeill ; A Scottish liturgy of the reign of James vi, ed. Gordon Donaldson; List of schoolmasters teaching Latin, 1690, ed. D. J. Withrington; Letters of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun and his family, 1715-16, ed. I. J. Murray; Sir John Clerk’s Observations on the present circumstances of Scotland, 1730, ed. T. C. Smout; A Renfrewshire election account, 1832, ed. William Ferguson.) 3. Letters of John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, 1799-1812. Ed. Barbara L. H. Horn. 1966. PUBLICATIONS In preparation The Court Books of Orkney and Shetland, 1614-15. Ed. R. S. Barclay. The Swedish Papers of Ambassador James Spens, 1606-31. Ed. Archibald Duncan and the late James Dow. Tyninghame Kirk Session Minutes, 1615-50. Ed. D. J. WlTHRINGTON. Letters of Popes Clement vii and Benedict xiii Con- cerning Scotland, 1378-1418. Ed. Rev. Charles Burns. 2 vols. Papers On Sutherland Estate Management, 1800-20. Ed. R. J. Adam and A. V. Cole. Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome. Vol. ra. Ed. Annie I. Dunlop. Argyll Estate Instructions (Central Argyll and Kintyre). Ed. Eric R. Cregeen. Minutes of Edinburgh Trades Council, 1859-76. Ed. Ian Macdougall. Estate Records of the Ramsays of Barnton, 1788-1865. Ed. J. S. K. Milne. Records of the Knights Hospitallers in Scotland. Ed. the late Angus Macdonald. The History of Scottish Trade and Industry: a Mis- cellany of Documents. RULES 1. The object of the Society is the discovery and printing, under selected editorship, of unpublished documents illustrative of the civil, religious and social history of Scotland. The Society will also undertake, in exceptional cases, to issue translations of printed works of a similar nature which have not hitherto been accessible in English. a Chairman,2. The affairs Treasurer, of the SocietySecretary, shall and be twelve managed elected by a Members, Council, fiveconsisting to make of a quorum. Three of the twelve elected Members shall retire annually by ballot, but they shall be eligible for re-election. 3. The Annual Subscription to the Society shall be two guineas or seven whosedollars. SubscriptionThe publications is in of arrear, the Society and noshall Member not be delivered shall be to permitted any Member to receive more than one copy of the Society’s publications. 4. 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