Part 30

[299] Charles Burney, Mus.D., author of “The General History of Music,” and other works. He was an intimate friend of Dr. Johnson, who confessedly prepared his “Tour to the Hebrides” after the model of Dr. Burney’s “Continental Travels.” Dr. Burney was born at Shrewsbury, on the 7th April, 1726, and died at Chelsea, 12th April, 1814.

[300] John, seventh Earl of Galloway, K.P., one of the lords of the bedchamber to George III. In 1796 he was created a peer of Great Britain by the title of Baron Stewart of Garlies. He died 13th November, 1806.

[301] John, Lord Daer, third son of Dunbar Hamilton Douglas, fourth Earl of Selkirk.

[302] The celebrated Edward Gibbon was born in 1737, and died in 1794. In conversation he was genial and elegant, but he occasionally indulged in flashes of irony.

[303] William, second Earl of Shelburne, subsequently Marquess of Lansdown, a distinguished statesman. In 1782 he succeeded the Marquess of Rockingham as Prime Minister. At one period he much frequented the society of Dr. Johnson. The Marquess died in May, 1805.

[304] Richard Price, D.D., a Dissenting minister in London, and eminent philosophical writer, was born in 1723, and died in March, 1791. Dr. Price was a friend and correspondent of Lord Shelburne. An advocate of civil and religious liberty, he supported the cause of American independence, and welcomed the early triumphs of the French Revolution.

[305] Dr. Brocklesby, an accomplished physician, and the generous friend of Edmund Burke and Dr. Johnson. He published various periodical papers on professional subjects. Dr. Brocklesby was born in 1702, and died 1797.

[306] William Schaw, tenth Baron and first Earl Cathcart, born 1755, died 16th June, 1843.

[307] Colonel George Hanger, an eccentric writer and clever humorist, served in the American war. He subsequently resided in London, where his society was cherished by the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. Several works from his pen are full of whimsicality. He succeeded his brother in 1814 as fourth Lord Coleraine, but refused to accept the title. He died in 1824, aged seventy-four.

[308] Mrs. Heron, of Heron, Wigtonshire.

[309] Rev. Ebenezer Stott, minister of Monigaff, Wigtonshire. He was ordained in 1748, and died 17th September, 1788.

[310] Houstoun Stewart, second son of Sir Michael Stewart, Bart., of Blackhall, succeeded to the entailed estate of Carnock, Stirlingshire, when he assumed the name of Nicolson.

[311] Harry Barclay, of Collairnie, Fifeshire.

[312] In 1741, Henry Home, Lord Kames, married Miss Agatha Drummond, only daughter of the proprietor of Blair-Drummond, Perthshire, who, on the death of her brother in 1766, succeeded to the paternal estate. Her proper designation was Mrs. Hume Drummond, of Blair-Drummond.

[313] Anne, only surviving daughter of Sir William Bruce, Bart., of Kinross, and heiress of his estates. She married, first, Sir Thomas Hope, Bart., of Craighall; and secondly, Sir John Carstairs, of Kilconquhar, and had issue by both marriages.

[314] Patrick Heron, Esq., M.P.

[315] John, tenth Viscount Kenmure. Died 21st September, 1824. He was Vice-Lieutenant of Kirkcudbrightshire.

[316] John, seventh Earl of Galloway, had as his first wife Charlotte Mary, daughter of Francis, first Earl of Warwick. He bore by courtesy the title of Lord Garlies before succeeding his father as Earl in 1773.

[317] Edward, Viscount Coke, eldest son of the Earl of Leicester. He married Lady Mary Campbell, daughter and co-heiress of John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, and died _s. p._ in 1753.

[318] Pope has thus described the character of this noted libertine:—“Francis Chartres, a man infamous for all manner of vices. When he was an ensign in the army, he was drummed out of the regiment for a cheat; he was next banished to Brussels, and drummed out of Ghent on the same account. After a hundred tricks at the gaming-tables, he took to lending money at exorbitant interest and on great penalties, accumulating premium, interest, and capital into a new capital, and seizing to a minute when the payments became due. In a word, by a constant attention to the vices, wants, and follies of mankind, he acquired an immense fortune. He was twice condemned for rapes and pardoned, but the last time not without imprisonment in Newgate, and large confiscations. He died in Scotland in 1731 (February, 1732). The populace at his funeral raised a great riot, almost tore the body out of the coffin, and cast dead dogs into the grave along with it.” Arbuthnot’s epitaph on Colonel Chartres is celebrated for its epigrammatic force.

[319] John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, celebrated as a statesman and military commander, is immortalized in these lines of Pope,—

“Argyll, the state’s whole thunder born to wield, And shake alike the senate and the field.”

The Duke was born in 1678, and died in 1743.

[320] Lady Catherine Murray was elder daughter of William, third Earl of Dunmore.

[321] George Baillie of Jerviswoode and Mellerstain. His great-grandson, George Baillie Hamilton, became tenth Earl of Haddington.

[322] There are several versions of this song. The oldest has this opening stanza:—

“How blithe, ilk morn, was I to see My swain come o’er the hill! He skipt the burn and flew to me; I met him with good-will. Oh the brume, the bonnie, bonnie brume! The brume o’ the Cowdenknowes! I wish I were with my dear swain, With his pipe and my yowes.”

[323] John McKie, of Bargaly, in the stewardry of Kirkcudbright. His grandson, who bore the same Christian name, was many years M.P. for the stewardry.

[324] Probably Sir Robert Dalzell, first Earl of Carnwath.

[325] John, eighth Viscount Kenmure.

[326] Mrs. Dunbar, of Mackermore, whose estate in the parish of Monnigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire, bordered that of Mr. Heron of Heron.

[327] Lord Mark Ker was fourth son of the first Marquess of Lothian, a distinguished military officer; he was wounded at the battle of Almanza, 25th April, 1707; he acted as brigadier-general at the capture of Vigo. In January, 1745, he was appointed Governor of Edinburgh Castle. He died 2nd February, 1752.

[328] Hugh Montgomerie, a prosperous merchant in Glasgow, and Lord Provost of the city, succeeded his uncle as fourth baronet of Skermorly. He became M.P. for Glasgow, and was a commissioner for the Treaty of Union. He died in 1735.

[329] James Corbet, merchant in Glasgow, rejoiced in tracing his descent from Roger Corbet (Roger the Raven), who came from Normandy with William the Conqueror. Till lately the family of Corbet possessed lands in Clydesdale.

[330] David Campbell, first of Shawfield, second son of Walter Campbell, Captain of Skipness, made a fortune abroad, and was elected M.P. for Glasgow; he was a commissioner in the Treaty of Union.

[331] Colonel John Irving, pronounced Irwin, of the family of Irving, of Logan, served in the Madras army, and became lieutenant-colonel of the Dumfriesshire militia.

[332] Catherine, second wife of Alexander, sixth Earl of Galloway was youngest daughter of John, fourth Earl of Dundonald.

[333] This gentlewoman was second wife of John, Lord Garlies, subsequently seventh Earl of Galloway. She was daughter of Sir James Dashwood, Bart., and was married to Lord Garlies in 1764. Her ladyship died in 1830.

[334] Son of Sir Adam Whitefoord, Bart., of Blairquhan, Ayrshire. The baronetcy is extinct.

[335] Sir William Maxwell, third baronet of Springkell; born 31st December, 1739; died 4th March, 1804.

[336] The earldom of Fife was renewed in the person of William Duff of Braco, who in 1727 was elected M.P. for the county of Banff. In 1735 he was created Baron Braco of Kilbryde, and was raised to the Earldom of Fife in 1759. He died 30th September, 1763.

[337] The reference is probably to Miss Jane Maxwell, second daughter of Sir William Maxwell, Bart., of Monreith, who married, in 1767, Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon. The Duchess was celebrated for her beauty and wit.

[338] David, sixth Lord Stormont, died 1748.

[339] Apparently the dowager of Alexander, fourth Baron Elibank, daughter of George Stirling, surgeon, Edinburgh.

[340] Sir William Baird, Bart., of Newbyth, succeeded his cousin Sir John Baird in 1746.

[341] Robert Riddell, head of an old Dumfriesshire family, was predecessor of Robert Riddell of Glenriddell, the antiquary and an active patron of Robert Burns.

[342] James, sixth Duke of Hamilton. He married Elizabeth, one of the three beautiful Misses Gunning, who on his death espoused John, fifth Duke of Argyle. The Duke of Hamilton died on the 18th January, 1758, in his thirty-fourth year.

[343] Representative of Sir Alexander Fraser of Durris, who was created a baronet in 1673. The baronetcy is extinct.

[344] John, third Earl of Hyndford, was in 1741 appointed envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the King of Prussia. He died 19th July, 1767, aged sixty-seven.

[345] John, fourth Earl of Dunmore. His eldest son, George, Viscount Fincastle, was born on the 30th April, 1762. The Earl died in March, 1809.

[346] Thomas, ninth Earl of Cassilis. Died 30th November 1775.

[347] Probably a brother of John Alexander, the celebrated painter. John Alexander studied his art chiefly in Florence; he returned to Scotland in 1720, and thereafter chiefly resided in Gordon Castle, under the patronage of the Duchess of Gordon.

[348] Henry, second Duke of Newcastle. His Grace died in 1794.

[349] George Selwyn, M.P., the celebrated humorist, was born in 1719, and died 25th January, 1791. (“Sir George Selwyn and his Contemporaries,” by J. H. Pope, 1843.)

[350] Walter Macfarlane, of that ilk, descended from the old Earls of Lennox, was an accomplished antiquary and ingenious genealogist. He died at Edinburgh, on the 5th June, 1767. His valuable MSS. were acquired by the Faculty of Advocates.

[351] Lady Elizabeth Macfarlane, wife of Walter Macfarlane, of that ilk, was eldest daughter of Alexander, fifth Earl of Kellie. She married, secondly, Alexander, eighth Lord Colville, of Culross, and died in 1794.

[352] Edward Shuter, comedian, died 1st November, 1776.

[353] The Duke de Nivernais, an eminent French statesman and poet, was born 16th December, 1716, and died 25th February, 1798.

[354] General Sir George Howard served under the Duke of Cumberland in suppressing the Scottish Rebellion of 1745. In a note to his “Life of Johnson,” Boswell styles him “My very honourable friend.”

[355] Mrs. Boscawen was daughter of William Evelyn Glanville, Esq., and wife of Admiral Edward Boscawen, a distinguished commander, and sometime a Lord of the Admiralty. In 1761 she became a widow. Her only son succeeded as third Viscount Falmouth; and of her two daughters, Frances, the elder, married Admiral John Leveson Gower, brother of the first Marquess of Stafford; Elizabeth, the younger daughter, married Henry, fifth Duke of Beaufort. In her poem entitled “Sensibility,” Miss Hannah More remarks of Mrs. Boscawen that she—

“Views enamoured in her beauteous race All Leveson’s sweetness and all Beaufort’s grace.”

In the “Life of Johnson,” Boswell, in allusion to having met the Hon. Mrs. Boscawen at dinner at Allan Ramsay’s (29th April, 1778), writes: “Of whom, if it be not presumptuous in me to praise her, I would say that her manners are the most agreeable, and her conversation the best, of any lady with whom I ever had the happiness to be acquainted.”

[356] See _postea_.

[357] Sir Philip Ainslie, of Pilton, Edinburghshire.

[358] Sir John Pringle, Bart., a distinguished physician. He was in 1772 elected President of the Royal Society, and six discourses delivered by him to that body were published after his decease, under the care of Dr. Kippis. These discourses form the theme of Boswell’s criticisms. John Pringle died on the 18th January, 1782, aged seventy-five.

[359] The Hon. Patrick Boyle, second son of John, second Earl of Glasgow.

[360] Sir John Wemyss, Bart., of Bogie, Fifeshire.

[361] This improvident gentleman, who had sought refuge from his creditors in the sanctuary of Holyrood Abbey, was related to the family of Lord Colville, of Culross. From a dinner card pasted into the commonplace-book, the wife of Dr. Alexander Webster, of Edinburgh, formerly minister of Culross, thus entreats Boswell’s support to this unfortunate bankrupt:—

“Mrs. Webster begs Mrs. Boswell would set about the collection for poor Mr. Colville, who is truly starving and has not a house to cover his head. Mr. Ely Campbell has too much humanity not to give something handsome.”

[362] Sir Thomas Rumbold was created a baronet 23rd March, 1779, being then Governor of Madras and M.P. for Shoreham. He had distinguished himself at the siege of Trichinopoly and the retaking of Calcutta. He was wounded at the battle of Plassey, when acting as aide-de-camp to Lord Clive. He died 11th November, 1791.

[363] John Paradise, D.C.L., P.R.S., was son of the English consul at Salonica, by his wife, a native of Macedonia. He studied at Padua, and afterwards at Oxford. Having settled in London, he became a cherished associate of Dr. Johnson. He was distinguished for his learning and social virtues. He died 12th December, 1795.

[364] This gentlewoman, _née_ Anne Cochrane, was wife of Sir George Preston, Bart., of Valleyfield. She was daughter of William, Lord Cochrane of Ochiltree.

[365] A naval captain, of the House of Brisbane, of Brisbane in Ayrshire.

[366] Katherine, Lady Maxwell of Monreith, wife of the fourth baronet. She was daughter and heir of David Blair of Adamton, Ayrshire.

[367] Charles Cochrane, Esq., of Culross, a member of the Dundonald family.

[368] Sir Robert Monro, Bart., of Fowlis (not Sir Harry Munro), is commemorated in the churchyard of Falkirk by a massive and elegantly sculptured tombstone. He fell in the engagement at Falkirk on the 17th January, 1746.

[369] The Rev. James Rolland was ordained minister of the first charge of Culross in 1758; he died 10th December, 1815, in his eighty-eighth year, and the sixty-second of his ministry. He was reputed for his amiable manners and sterling piety. (_Scott’s Fasti._)

[370] William, second Earl of Dumfries, had only one son, Lord Crichton, who reached maturity. He predeceased his father, leaving a son and daughter. The earl died in 1691.

[371] Dr. Robert James, best known in connection with the fever powder that bears his name, was born in 1703, at Kinverston, Staffordshire. After practising as a physician at Sheffield, Lichfield, and Birmingham, he removed to London, where he published his “Medicinal Dictionary.” In the preparation of this work he was assisted by Dr. Johnson, who had been his schoolfellow, and who regarded him as a skilful practitioner. Dr. James produced several other medical works. He died at London on the 23rd March, 1776.

[372] Mr. Gilbert Walmsley, an early friend and patron of Dr. Johnson. He was an elegant scholar, and contributed many translations in Latin verse to the _Gentleman’s Magazine_. He died on the 3rd August, 1751. A monument to his memory has been reared in Lichfield Cathedral.

[373] Thomas Sheridan, father of his more celebrated son, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (see _supra_).

[374] _Née_ Lady Charlotte Compton, daughter of James, Earl of Northampton, and wife of Field-marshal George, fourth Viscount Townshend.

[375] James Short, the eminent optician, was a native of Edinburgh, and studied at the university of that city. In 1736 he became mathematical tutor to the Duke of Cumberland. In 1739 he made a survey of the Orkney islands. He subsequently settled in London as an optician, and obtained a high reputation for his skill in constructing telescopes. He died on the 15th June, 1768, aged 58. He had experienced the patronage of James, thirteenth Earl of Morton, and he evinced his gratitude by bequeathing a thousand pounds to Lady Mary Douglas (afterwards Countess of Aboyne), the daughter of his benefactor.

[376] Boswell refers to the Dowager Lady Colville, relict of Alexander, the eighth Baron. She was daughter of Alexander, sixth Earl of Kellie, and sister of the Hon. Captain Andrew Erskine.

[377] Thomas Alexander, sixth Earl of Kellie, an eminent musician and noted humorist. Died 9th October, 1781.

[378] David Dalrymple, son of Henry Dalrymple of Drummore, passed advocate in 1743, and was raised to the bench as Lord Westhall, 10th July, 1777. He died 26th April, 1784, in his 65th year.

[379] The parish of Carsphairn, in the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright, became vacant in May 1780, by the death of the Rev. John Campbell. The presentee, Mr. Affleck, was probably a son of John Affleck, of Whitepark, in the same county. His settlement was successfully resisted.

[380] The Rev. James Brown merits more than a passing notice. Youngest son of the Rev. John Brown, minister of Abercorn, he was born in that parish in 1721. Licensed by the Presbytery of Perth in 1745, he was in 1747 ordained minister of Melrose. In 1767 was translated to Edinburgh. At Melrose he gave an impulse to the linen manufactures of the place; he afterwards became a zealous promoter of the national charities. On his recommendation, Scripture Paraphrases were added to the Psalmody of the Church. He died on May, 1786.

[381] Lieut.-General Alexander Leslie was second son of Alexander, fifth Earl of Leven. In active service during the American war, he distinguished himself at the battle of Guildford, on the 15th March, 1781. His only child, Mary-Ann Leslie, married 15th June, 1787, John Rutherford, Esq., of Edgerstown.

[382] Sir James Johnstone, Bart., of Westerhall, was a lieutenant-colonel in the army and member of Parliament. In 1792 he laid claim to the marquisate of Annandale. He died unmarried in 1794.

[383] Mr. Robert Keith was ambassador at Vienna in 1749, and in 1758 was transferred to St. Petersburg. He died at Edinburgh in 1774.

[384] Miss Jenny Keith. The younger sister, Anne, latterly called Mrs. Murray Keith, was an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott; she is the prototype of Mrs. Bethune Baliol, in the introduction to the “Chronicles of the Canongate.” She died in 1818, aged 82.

[385] Thomas Barnard, D.D.

* * * * * *

Transcriber’s note:

—Obvious errors were corrected.