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The window-tax alarmed
the clergy more and more, and as I had been the great champion in
maintaining on every occasion that the Scottish clergy by our law
ought to be exempted from this tax, on the same grounds on which
they are exempted from paying the land-tax for their glebes, while
one of our meetings were deliberating what was to be done, I told
them that as I intended to be in London in the spring on private
business, I would very gladly accept of any commission they would
give me, to state our claim to the King's Ministers, and
particularly to the Lords of the Treasury; and at least to prepare
the way for an application for exemption to the Parliament in the
following year, in case it should be found expedient. Robertson, who
had thought it more advisable to pay rather than resist any longer,
was surprised into consent with this sudden proposal of mine, and
frankly agreed to it, though he told me privately that it would not
have success. The truth was, that Mrs. Carlyle's health was so
indifferent that I became uneasy, and wished to try Bath, and to
visit London, where she never had been, on our way. The clergy were
highly pleased with my offer of service without any expense, and I
was accordingly commissioned, in due form, by the Committee on the
Window-Tax, to carry on this affair. We prepared for our journey,
and set out about the middle of February. We had the good fortune to
get Martin, the portrait-painter, and Bob Scott, a young physician,
as our companions on our journey. This made it very pleasant, as
Martin was a man of uncommon talents for conversation. We stopped
for two days with the Blacketts at Newcastle, and then went on by
Huntingdon, and after that to Cambridge. As I had not been there
when I was formerly in London, I was desirous to see that famous
university; and besides, had got a warm exhortation from my friend
Dr. Robertson, to diverge a little from the straight line, and go by
Hock-well, where there were the finest eels in all England. We took
that place in our way, and arrived long enough before dinner to have
our eels dressed in various ways; but though the spitch-cocked had
been so highly recommended by our friend, we thought nothing of
them, and Mrs. Carlyle could not taste them, so that we had all to
dine on some very indifferent mutton-broth, which had been ordered
for her. I resolved after this never to turn off the road by the
advice of epicures.
We got to Cambridge in the dark, but
remained all next forenoon, and saw all the public buildings, some
of which are very fine, particularly King's College Chapel. As none
of us had any acquaintances there that we knew of, we were not
induced to stay any longer, and so made the best of our way to
London. My
youngest sister Janet, a beautiful, elegant, and pleasing young
woman, having gone to London to visit her married sister, had
herself married, in 176o, a gentleman who had been captain of a
trading vessel in the Mediterranean, and, having been attacked by a
French or Spanish privateer, took her after a short engagement.
[See Scots Magazine, December 1759:-
"CAPTURES BY PRIVATEERS, ETC.
"By the Dragon, Bell, and the Greyhound,
Dewar, both from London, Le Pendant, Jos. Geruhard, from St. Domingo
; carried into Gibraltar."
See also the Caledonian Mercury, 15th
December 1759 "The Dragon, Bell, and the Greyhound, Dewar, both from
London, are arrived at Gibraltar, and have carried a French prize
with them."—Note appended to the MS.]
He was a very sensible clever man, much
esteemed by his companions, and had become insurance-broker. On our
arrival in London, therefore, which was on the 11th February, we
took up our residence at their house, which was in Alderman-bury.
They had also a country-house, where their children resided the
whole year, and where they spent the summer months; and being only
nine miles from London, with a very good road, my brother-in-law
could easily ride every day to attend to his business, and return to
dinner. Merton was a very agreeable place. The house had been
originally built by Lord Eglinton, and soon after forsaken and sold.
There was a large garden of three acres, divided into three parts,
and planted with the best fruit-trees, on which, when I afterwards
saw it in the season, I said there were more peaches and apricots
than grew then in Midlothian; for I well remember that [there were
very few] till we had hothouses here, which had then only had a
beginning, by Lord Chief-Baron Ord, at the Dean, and Baron Stuart
Moncrieff, and were not in great numbers till 1780.
About the third night after we came, we
went with the Bells to the Scotch dancing assembly, which then met
in the King's Arms Tavern, in Cheapside, where we met many of our
acquaintance, and were introduced to several others with whom we
were not before acquainted. I was glad to find from them all that my
brother-in-law was in high esteem among them as a man of business,
not only for his integrity, but his aptitude for business. My sister
was much admired as a fine woman, and no less for the elegance and
propriety of her manners than for her handsome face and fine person.
He had the good luck to be called Honest Tom, in distinction to
another who frequented Lloyd's Coffeehouse, who was not in so much
favour, and was besides a very hot Wilkite. After a few days more we
were invited to a fine subscription-dinner in the London Tavern,
where there was a company of about fifty ladies and gentlemen. The
dinner was sumptuous, but I was not much delighted with the
conversation. The men, especially, were vulgar and uneducated; and
most of the English among them violent Wilkites, and gave toasts of
the party kind, which showed their breeding where the majority were
Scotch. It was with some difficulty that I could get Honest Tom to
treat their bad manners with ridicule and contempt, rather than with
rage and resentment.
Having now been near a week in London,
it was proper that I should give a commencement to the business
which I had undertaken; I therefore applied myself to making the
necessary calls on Dr. Gordon of the Temple, a Scotch
solicitor-at-law, and the Lord Advocate for Scotland, and whoever
else I thought might be of use. I had drawn a short memorial on the
business which Dr. Gordon approved, but wished it to be left with
him for corrections and additions. This I did, but was surprised to
find, when he returned it several weeks after as fit to be sent to
the press, that there was hardly any change on it at all. But I was
still more surprised, when calling on the Lord Advocate (James
Montgomery, Esq.), and opening the affair to him, to hear him answer
that he wished me success with all his heart, but could give me no
aid; for, he added, that when the clergy were lately in four years'
arrears, the payment of which would have greatly distressed them,
Dr. Robertson had come to him in Edinburgh, and had strongly
interceded with him to get that arrear excused, and he would answer
for the punctual payment by the clergy in future. He had,
accordingly, on this promise, applied to the Duke of Grafton, then
First Minister, and obtained what the Doctor had asked on the
condition promised. In this state of things it was impossible that
he could assist me as Lord Advocate, but that, as a private
gentleman, he would do all he could; that was, to introduce me to
the Minister, to speak of me as I deserved, and to say that he
thought the petition I brought very reasonable, and agreeable to the
law of Scotland. All this he punctually fulfilled, for he was an
honourable man.
The Church of Scotland had been at all
times very meanly provided ; and even when they were serving their
country with the utmost fidelity and zeal at the time of the
Restoration, and ever afterwards supporting that part of the
aristocracy which resisted the encroachments of the Crown and
maintained the liberties of the people—even then their most moderate
requests to be raised above poverty were denied. [Whether or not the
author meant to say Reformation, the word Restoration must have been
a slip.—J. H. B.] After the union of the crowns, and even after that
of the legislatures, they have, on every application for redress,
been scurvily treated. The history of our country bears the
strongest testimony of their loyalty to the king, while they warmly
opposed every appearance of arbitrary power even to persecution and
death. They were cajoled and flattered by the aristocracy when they
wanted their aid, but never relieved, till Cromwell considered their
poverty, and relieved them for the time. Yet, after Presbytery was
finally settled at the Revolution, the clergy were allowed almost to
starve till, down in our own time, in the year 1790, a generous and
wise man was raised to the President's chair, who, being also
President of that Court when it sits as a committee of Parliament
for the augmentation of ministers' stipends, with the concurrence of
his brethren had redressed this grievance, and enabled the clergy
and their families to survive such years of dearth as the 1799 and
1800, which, but for that relief, must have reduced them to ruin.
This happened by good hick while the land estates in Scotland were
doubled and tripled in their rents, otherwise it could not have been
done without a clamorous opposition. [The Lord President of the
Court of Session here referred to is Sir Islay Campbell. This matter
is again alluded to, p. 554 - J H B.]
It is observable that no country has
ever been more tranquil, except the trifling insurrections of 1715
and '45, than Scotland has been since the Revolution in 1688—a
period of 117 years; while, at the same time, the country has been
prosperous, with an increase of agriculture, trade, and
manufactures, as well as all the ornamental arts of life, to a
degree unexampled in any age and country. How far the steady loyalty
to the Crown, and attachment to the constitution, together with the
unwearied diligence of the clergy in teaching a rational religion,
may have contributed to this prosperity, cannot be exactly
ascertained ; but surely enough appears to entitle them to the high
respect of the State, and to justice from the country, in a decent
support to them and to their families, and, if possible, to a
permanent security like that of the Church of England, by giving the
clergy a title to vote on their livings for the member of Parliament
for the county, which would at once raise their respect, and, by
making them members of the State, would for ever secure their
interest in it, and firmly cement and strengthen the whole.
Before I began my operations relative to
the window-tax, I witnessed something memorable. It being much the
fashion to go on a Sunday evening to a chapel of the Magdalene
Asylum, we went there on the second Sunday we were in London, and
had difficulty to get tolerable seats for my sister and wife, the
crowd of genteel people was so great. The preacher was Dr. Dodd, a
man afterwards too well known. The unfortunate young women were in a
latticed gallery, where you could only see those who chose to be
seen. The preacher's text was, "If a man look on a woman to lust
after her," etc. The text itself was shocking, and the sermon was
composed with the least possible delicacy, and was a shocking insult
on a sincere penitent, and fuel for the warm passions of the
hypocrites. The fellow was handsome, and delivered his discourse
remarkably well for a reader. When he had finished, there were
unceasing whispers of applause, which I could not help contradicting
aloud, and condemning the whole institution, as well as the
exhibition of the preacher, as contra bonos mores, and a disgrace to
a Christian city. [Compare Dr. Carlyle's attitude towards this
notorious man and that of Walpole in the following extract from one
of his letters to George Montague:—"A party was made up to go to the
Magdalene house . . . Prince Edward, Colonel Brudenel his groom,
Lady Northumberland, Lady Mary Coke, Lady Carlisle, Miss Pelham,
Lady Hertford, Lord Beauchamp, Lord Huntingdon, old Bowman, and I .
. . Lord Hertford at the head of the Governors with their white
staves met us at the door, and led the prince directly into the
Chapel, where before the altar was an armchair for him, with a
damask blue cushion, a prie-Dieu, and a footstool of black cloth
with gold nails. . . . At the west end were enclosed the sisterhood,
about one hundred and thirty in all in greyish-brown stuffs. As soon
as we entered the chapel the organ played, and the Magdalens sang a
hymn in parts ; you cannot imagine how well. . . . Prayers then
began, psalms, and a sermon: the latter by a young clergyman, one
Dodd. [The Rev. William Dodd; was executed in 1770 for forgery.] . .
. He apostrophised the lost sheep, who sobbed and cried from their
souls; and so did my Lady Hertford and Fanny Pelham, till I believe
the city dames took them both for Jane Shores. . . . In short it was
a very pleasing performance, and I got the most illustrious to
desire it might be printed."]
On the day after this I went to the
House of Peers, and heard Sir Fletcher Norton's [Elected speaker of
the House of Commons in 1770, and created Baron Grantley of
Markenfield in 1782.] pleading on the Douglas Cause, on the side of
Douglas, but in a manner inferior to what I expected from his fame:
but this was not a question of law, but of fact. I dined and supped
next day with Colonel Dow, who had translated well the History of
Hindustan, and wrote tolerably well the Tragedy of Zingis. As James
M'Pherson, the translator of Ossian, and he lived together, and as
his play, in point of diction and manners, had some resemblance to
the poems of Ossian, there were not a few who ascribed the tragedy
to M`Pherson; but such people did not know that, could M'Pherson
have claimed it, he was not the man to relinquish either the credit
or profits which might arise from it, for the tragedy ran its nine
nights. Dow was
a Scotch adventurer, who had been bred at the school of Dunbar, his
father being in the Customs there, and had run away from his
apprenticeship at Eyemouth, and found his way to the East Indies,
where, having a turn for languages, which had been fostered by his
education, he soon became such a master of the native tongue as to
accelerate his preferment in the army, for he soon had the command
of a regiment of sepoys. He was a sensible and knowing man, of very
agreeable manners, and of a mild and gentle disposition. As he was
telling us that night, that, when he had the charge of the Great
Mogul, with two regiments under his command, at Delhi, he was
tempted to dethrone the monarch, and mount the throne in his stead,
which he said he could easily have done :—when I asked him what
prevented him from yielding to the temptation, he gave me this
memorable answer, that it was reflecting on what his old
schoolfellows at Dunbar would think of him for being guilty of such
an action. His company were Dr. John Douglas and Garrick, the two
M'Phersons, John Home, and David Hume who joined us in the evening.
[Colonel Alexander Dow is known as the translator and continuer of
the Persian History of Hindostan, and the writer of Tales from the
Persian, and of another tragedy besides his Zingis, called Sethona.
The editor is not aware, however, of any other source of information
about the personal adventures referred to in the text.—J. H. B.]
I have before, I believe, given some
account of them all but Robert M'Pherson, the chaplain, whom I had
not known till now. Though not a man of genius, he was a man of good
sense, of a firm and manly mind, and of much worth and honour. He
was a younger brother of M'Pherson of Banchors, a man near the head
of the clan in point of birth, but not of a large fortune. He had
been bred at Aberdeen for the Church, but before he passed trials as
a probationer, he had been offered a company in his regiment of
Highlanders by Simon Fraser, and had accepted. But when the regiment
rendezvoused at Greenock, he was told, with many fair speeches, that
the captains' commissions were all disposed of, much against the
colonel's will, but that he might have a lieutenancy, or the
chaplainry if he liked it better. M'Pherson chose the last, and took
orders immediately from the Presbytery of Lochcarron, where he
returned for ten days. He soon made himself acceptable to the
superiors as well as to the men, and after they landed in Nova
Scotia, in every skirmish or battle it was observed that he always
put himself on a line with the officers at the head of the regiment.
He was invited to the mess of the field officers, where he
continued. On hearing this from General Murray, I asked him (M'Pherson)
if it was true. He said it was. How came you to be so foolish? He
answered, that being a grown man, while many of the lieutenants and
ensigns were but boys, as well as some of the privates, and that
they looked to him for example as well as precept, he had thought it
his duty to advance with them, but that he had discontinued the
practice after the third time of danger, as he found they were
perfectly steady.
Dining with him, and General James
Murray and one or two more, at the British one day, I put him on
telling the story of the mutiny at Quebec, when he had the command
after the death of Wolfe. He told us that the first thing he had
done was to send and inquire if Mac had taken advantage of the leave
he had given him to sail for Britain the day before, for if he had
not sailed, there would have been no mutiny. But he was gone, and I
had to do the best I could without him ; and so he went on. Not
being certain if this anecdote might not have been much exaggerated,
according to the usual style of the windy Murrays, as they were
styled by Jock at the Horn, I asked Mac, when the company parted,
how much of this was true? He answered, that though the General had
exceeded a little in his compliments to him, that it was so far
true, that he, being the only Highland chaplain there—he of Fraser's
regiment having gone home--he had so much to say with both of them
that he could have persuaded them to stand by their officers and the
General, in which, if those two regiments had joined, they would
have prevented the mutiny.
One anecdote more of this worthy man,
and I shall have done with him. In one of the winters in which he
was at Quebec he had provided himself in a wooden house, which he
had furnished well, and in which he had a tolerable soldier's
library. While he was dining one day with the mess, his house took
fire and was burned to the ground. Next morning the two serjeant-majors
of the two Highland regiments came to him, and, lamenting the great
loss he had sustained, told him that the lads, out of their great
love and respect for him, had collected a purse of four hundred
guineas, which they begged him to accept of. He was moved by their
generosity, and by and by answered, "That he was never so much
gratified in his life as by their offer, as a mark of kindness and
respect, of which he would think himself entirely unworthy if he
could rob them of the fruits of their wise and prudent frugality;"
and added, "that, by good fortune, he had no need of the exertions
of their generosity." The annals of private men I have often thought
as instructive and worthy of being recorded as those of their
superiors.
Having formerly given some account of James M'Pherson and Garrick, I
shall say nothing more of them here, but that in their several ways
they were very good company. Garrick was always playsome,
good-humoured, and willing to display; James was sensible, shrewd,
and sarcastic. Dow went a second time out to India, and after some
time died there.
By this time I had discovered that I
should have no need to go to Bath, as Mrs. C. had fallen with child,
which left me sufficient time to wait even for the very slow method
of transacting Treasury business, which made me sometimes repent
that I had undertaken it. I had found Sir Gilbert Elliot at last,
who both encouraged and assisted me. I had also met Mr. Wedderburn,
who was not then in the line of doing me much service. Mr. Grey
Cooper, [Afterwards Sir Grey Cooper, Secretary of the Treasury and a
Privy Councillor.] who had been brought forward by the Honourable
Charles Townshend, and was then a Secretary of the Treasury, frankly
gave me his services. But the only person (except Sir G. Elliot) who
understood me perfectly was Mr. Jeremiah Dyson. He had been two
years at Edinburgh University at the same time as Akenside and
Monckly, and had a perfect idea of the constitution of the Church of
Scotland and the nature and state of the livings of the clergy. Of
him I expected and obtained much aid. Broderip, secretary to the
Duke of Grafton, on whom I frequently called, gave me good words but
little aid. On
the 23rd of this month I went with John Home to the first night of
his tragedy of the Fatal Discovery, which went off better than we
expected. This was and is to my taste the second-best of Home's
tragedies. Garrick had been justly alarmed at the jealousy and
dislike which prevailed at that time against Lord Bute and the
Scotch, and had advised him to change the title of Rivine into that
of the Fatal Discovery, and had provided a student of Oxford, who
had appeared at the rehearsals as the author, and wished Home of all
things to remain concealed till the play had its run. But John,
whose vanity was too sanguine to admit of any fear or caution, and
whose appetite for praise rebelled against the counsel that would
deprive him for a moment of his fame, too soon discovered the
secret, and though the play survived its nine nights, yet the house
evidently slackened after the town heard that John was the author.
Home, however, in his way, ascribed this to the attention of the
public, and especially of the Scotch, being drawn off by the Douglas
Cause, which was decided in the Houcz of Lords on the 27th,
forgetting that this took up only one night, and that any slackness
derived from that cause could not affect other nights.
To finish my account of this play, I
shall add here that Garrick still continued to perform it on the
most convenient terms. Mrs. Carlyle, John Home, and I, dined with
Mr. A. Wedderburn at his house in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and went to
the Fatal Discovery with him and his lady and his brother, Colonel
David Wedderburn, when we were all perfectly well pleased. We
returned with them to supper, Wedderburn having continued cordial
and open all that day; his brother was always so.
We became acquainted with my wife's
uncle and aunt, Mr. Laurie and Mrs. Mary Reed, brother and sister of
her mother by another wife. Mr. Reed was a mahogany merchant in
Hatton Wall, a very worthy and honourable man; and his sister, whom
I had seen once or twice before in Berwick, was a handsome and
elegant woman, though now turned of thirty, with as much good sense
and breeding as any person we met with. Mr. Reed was not rich, but
between an estate of £250, which he had near Alnwick, and his
business, he lived in a very respectable manner. Their mode of
living was quite regulated, for they saw company only two days in
the week ;on Thursday, to dinner, when you met a few friends,
chiefly from Northumberland ; and here, if you pleased, you might
play cards and stay the evening. On Sunday evening they likewise saw
their friends to tea and supper, but they were too old-fashioned to
play cards, which was very convenient for me. The uncle and aunt
were proud of their niece, as they found her, in point of
conversation and manners, at least equal to any of their guests; and
the niece was proud of her uncle and aunt, as in him she found as
honest a man as Mr. Bell, and in her a woman who, for beauty and
elegance, could cope with my sister, who was not surpassed by any
lady in the city. Here I met with many old acquaintances, and made
some new ones, such as Sir Evan Nepean and his lady, then only in
their courtship, and A. Collingwood, a clever attorney, said to be
nearly related to the family of Unthank—indeed, a natural son of my
wife's grandfather. To this very agreeable place we resorted often;
and when I came the next year alone, I availed myself of it,
especially on Sunday nights.
I was much indebted
to my hospitable friend, Dr. Blair of Westminster, at whose house
also I met with sundry people whose acquaintance I cultivated. On
the 26th of this month I met him at Court, after having attended
service in the Chapel Royal and in the chaplain's seat, and was by
him introduced in the drawing-room to Lord Bathurst, then very old,
but extremely agreeable ; Dr. Barton, Dean of Bristol, Rector of St.
Andrew, Holborn, etc., and to Dr. Tucker, Dean of Gloucester—very
excellent people, whose acquaintance I very much valued. [Josiah
Tucker, whose works on Trade anticipated some of the established
doctrines on political economy.—J. H. B.]
On the 27th I attended the House of
Peers on the Douglas Cause. The Duke of Buccleuch had promised to
carry me down to the House; but as I was going into Grosvenor Square
to meet him at ten o'clock, I met the Duke of Montague, who was
coming from his house, and took me into his chariot, saying that the
Duke of B. was not yet ready. He put me in by the side of the
throne, where I found two or three of my friends, among them Thomas
Bell. The business did not begin till eleven, and from that time I
stood, with now and then a lean on the edge of a deal board, till
nine in the evening, without any refreshment but a small roll and
two oranges. The heat of the house was chiefly oppressive, and Lord
Sandwich's speech, which, though learned and able, yet being three
hours long, was very intolerable. The Duke of Bedford spoke low, but
not half an hour. The Chancellor and Lord Mansfield united on the
side of Douglas; each of them spoke above an hour. Andrew Stuart,
whom I saw in the House, sitting on the left side of the throne,
seemed to be much affected at a part of Lord Camden's speech, in
which he reflected on him, and immediately left the House; from
whence I concluded that he was in despair of success. Lord
Mansfield, overcome with heat, was about to faint in the middle of
his speech, and was obliged to stop. The side-doors were immediately
thrown open, and the Chancellor rushing out, returned soon with a
servant, who followed him with a bottle and glasses. Lord Mansfield
drank two glasses of the wine, and after some time revived, and
proceeded in his speech. We, who had no wine, were nearly as much
recruited by the fresh air which rushed in at the open doors as his
lordship by the wine. About nine the business ended in favour of
Douglas, there being only five Peers on the other side. I was well
pleased with that decision, as I had favoured that side: Professor
Ferguson and I being the only two of our set of people who favoured
Douglas, chiefly on the opinion that, if the proof of filiation on
his part was not sustained, the whole system of evidence in such
cases would be overturned, and a door be opened for endless disputes
about succession. I had asked the Duke of B., some days before the
decision, how it would go; he said that if the Law Lords disagreed,
there was no saying how it would go; because the Peers, however
imperfectly prepared to judge, would follow the Judge they most
respected. But if they united, the case would be determined by their
opinion ; it being [the practice] in their House to support the Law
Lords in all judicial cases.
After the decision, I persuaded my
friends, as there was no coach to be had, not to attempt rushing
into any of the neighbouring taverns, but to follow me to the Crown
and Anchor in the Strand, where we arrived, Thos. Bell, Alderman
Crichton, Robert Bogle, junior, and I, in time enough to get into a
snug room, where we wrote some letters for Scotland, the post then
not departing till twelve; and after a good supper, Bell and I got
home to Aldermanbury about one o'clock, where our wives were
waiting, though not uninformed of the event, as I had despatched a
porter with a note to them immediately on our arrival in the tavern.
The rejoicings in Scotland were very
great on this occasion, and even outrageous: although the Douglas
family had been long in obscurity, yet the Hamiltons had for a long
period lost their popularity. The attachment which all their
acquaintances had to Baron Mure, who was the original author of this
suit, and to Andrew Stuart, who carried it on, swayed their minds
very much their way. They were men of uncommon good sense and
probity. [Andrew Stuart, often mentioned by Carlyle, had devoted the
whole energies and prospects of his life to the Hamilton side of the
cause. He challenged Thurlow, the leading counsel on the opposite
side, and they fought. His bitter "Letters to Lord Mansfield " have
often been read, like those of Junius, as a model of polished
vituperation.—J. H. B. When the Douglas case was decided in the
Court of Session by the casting vote of the Lord President "some one
asked Boswell why all the people of extraordinary sense were
Hamiltonians?" "I cannot tell," he answered; "but I am sure all
persons of common sense are Douglassians."—Ramsay's Scotland and
Scotsman.] Mrs.
Pulteney being still living, we had a fine dinner at Bath House,
after which, Mrs. Carlyle and I paid an evening visit to Mrs.
Montague. Pulteney [Already referred to (pp. 296, 418, etc.) as Sir
William Johnstone or Sir William Pulteney. He was not made a baronet
until 1794.] at this time had fallen much under the influence of
General Robert Clerk, whom I have mentioned before. I happened to
ask him when he had seen Clerk; he answered he saw him every day,
and as he had not been there yet, he might probably pay his visit
before ten o'clock, and then enlarged for some time on his great
ability. Clerk had subdued Pulteney by persuading him that there was
not a man in England fit to be Chancellor of Exchequer but himself.
Mrs. Pulteney's good sense, however, defeated the effect of this
influence. Pulteney was unfortunate in not taking for his private
secretary and confidential friend Dr. John Douglas, who had stood in
that relation to the late Lord Bath, and was one of the ablest men
in England. But on Pulteney's succession he found himself neglected,
and drew off. Clerk came at ten, as Pulteney had foretold, and I saw
how the land lay.
On this first mission to London I was
much obliged to Sir Alexander Gilmour, who was a friend of the Duke
of Grafton's. He knew everybody, and introduced me to everybody. One
day he carried me to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Cornwallis), who
received me graciously; in short, I called on all the Scotch
noblemen and Members of Parliament, many of whom I saw, and left
memorials at every house where I called. Lord Frederick Campbell
[Second son of John, fourth Duke of Argyle, was appointed Keeper of
the Privy Seal of Scotland, and in 1768 Lord Clerk Register of
Scotland, in which capacity he laid the foundation stone of the
Register House in Edinburgh in 1774. He was instrumental in
recovering from London many valuable records of the Scottish
Parliament.] was particularly obliging. At this time I dined one day
with Sir A. Gilmour on a Sunday, after having been at Court; General
Graham and Pulteney, and Colonel Riccart Hepburn, dined there. In
the conversation there, to my surprise I found [Graham] talking
strongly against Administration for not advising the King to yield
to the popular cry. Gilmour opposed him with violence, and I drew an
inference, which proved true, that lie had been tampering with her
Majesty, and using political freedoms, which were, not long
afterwards, the cause of his disgrace. Graham was a shrewd and
sensible man, but the Queen's favour and his prosperity had made him
arrogant and presumptuous, and he blew himself up. [This is probably
the "Colonel Graeme" who, according to Walpole (who says he was a
notorious Jacobite, and out in the '45), negotiated the marriage of
George III., having been "despatched in the most private manner as a
traveller, and invested with no character, to visit various little
Protestant courts, and ] Not long make report of the qualifications
of the several unmarried princesses.)—See Mem. of Geo. III., ch.
v.—J. H. B.] after this time he lost his office near the Queen, and
retired into obscurity in Scotland for the rest of his days.
My connection with physicians made me a
member of two of their clubs, which I seldom missed. One of them was
at the Horn Tavern in Fleet Street, [Now represented by Anderton's
Hotel.] where they had laid before them original papers relating to
their own science, and had published a volume or two of Essays,
which were well received. Armstrong, who took no share in the
business generally, arrived when I did, about eight o'clock; and as
they had a great deference for him, and as he was whimsical, they
delayed bespeaking supper till he came, and then laid that duty on
him. He in complaisance wished to turn it over on me, as the
greatest, or rather the only stranger, for I was admitted speciali
gratia; but I declined the office. The conversation was lively and
agreeable, and we parted always at twelve. There was another club
held on the alternate Thursday at the Queen's Head in St. Paul's
Churchyard, which was not confined to physicians, but included men
of other professions. Strange the engraver [The father of line
engraving in Great Britain. He was born in Orkney in 1721. A staunch
Jacobite, he served throughout the insurrection of 1745 in the
Prince's Life Guards. He married Miss Lumisden, sister of Andrew
Lumisden, who was one of the Prince's household at Rome. Strange was
knighted in 1787.] was one, a very sensible, ingenious, and modest
man. In the
course of my operations about the window-tax, I had frequently short
interviews with Lord Mansfield. One day he sent for me to breakfast,
when I had a long conversation with him on various subjects. Amongst
others, he talked of Hume and Robertson's Histories, and said that
though they had pleased and instructed him much, and though he could
point out few or no faults in them, yet, when he was reading their
books, he did not think he was reading English: could I account to
him how that happened? I answered that the same objection had not
occurred to me, who was a Scotchman bred as well as born; but that I
had a solution to it, which I would submit to his lordship. It was,
that to every man bred in Scotland the English language was in some
respects a foreign tongue, the precise value and force of whose
words and phrases he did not understand, and therefore was
continually endeavouring to word his expressions by additional
epithets or circumlocutions, which made his writings appear both
stiff and redundant. With this solution his lordship appeared
entirely satisfied. By this time his lordship perfectly understood
the nature of our claim to exemption from the window-tax, and
promised me his aid, and suggested some new arguments in our favour.
I made a very valuable acquaintance in
the Bishop of London, R. Jerrick, having been introduced to him by
his son-in-law, Dr. Anthony Hamilton, whom I met at Dr. Pitcairn's.
I found the Bishop to be a truly excellent man, of a liberal mind
and excellent good temper. He took to me, and was very cordial in
wishing success to my application, and was very friendly in
recommending me and it to his brethren on the bench. He never
refused me admittance, and I dined frequently with him this year and
the next. He was then considered as having the sole episcopal
jurisdiction over the Church of England in America. He was so
obliging to my requests that he ordained, at my desire, two Scotch
probationers, who, having little chance of obtaining settlements
here, were glad to try their fortune in a new world. As I was
unwilling to forfeit my credit with this good man, I had not
recommended them but with perfect assurance of their good
characters. The first, whom I think he had sent to Bermudas, he gave
me thanks for when I saw him a year after, as, he told me, he had
fully answered the character I had given him. He [the Bishop] was a
famous good preacher, and the best reader of prayers I ever heard.
Being Dean of the Chapel Royal, he read the communion service every
Sunday. Though our residence was at my sister's in Aldermanbury, as
I had occasion frequently to dine late in the west end of the town,
I then lodged in New Bond Street with my aunt, and resorted often at
supper to Robert Adam's, whose sisters were very agreeable, and
where we had the latest news from the House of Commons, of which he
was a member, and which he told us in the most agreeable manner, and
with very lively comments.
My good aunt Paterson's husband, a
cousin of Sir Hew Paterson, took care to have us visit his son's
widow, Mrs. Seton, the heiress of Touch, whose first husband was Sir
Hew's son, who had died without issue. There we dined one day with a
large company, mostly Scots, among whom were Mrs. Walkinshaw
[Katherine, third daughter of John Walkinshaw of Barrow-field and
Camlachie (who was uncle to Lord Karnes) and Katherine, daughter of
Sir Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn. Katherine was bed-chamber woman
and afterwards housekeeper at Leicester House to the Princess
Dowager of wales, mother of George III. John Walkinshaw had ten
daughters, the youngest of whom was Clementina, the reputed mistress
of Prince Charles Edward.—Tweed's Edition of McUre's History of
Glasgow.] —who had a place at court, though she was sister of the
lady who was said to be mistress to Prince Charles, the Pretender's
son—and David Hume, by that time Under-Secretary of State. The
conversation was lively and agreeable, but we were much amused with
observing how much the thoughts and conversation of all those in the
least connected were taken up with every trifling circumstance that
related to the Court. This kind of tittle-tattle suited Dr. John
Blair of all men, who had been a tutor to the King's brother, the
Duke of York, and now occasionally assisted Dr. Barton as Clerk of
the Closet to the Princess Dowager of Wales. It was truly amusing to
observe how much David Hume's strong and capacious mind was filled
with infantine anecdotes of nurses and children. Mr Seton was the
son of a Mr. Smith, who had been settled at Boulogne, a wine
merchant, was a great Jacobite, and had come to Scotland in the time
of the Rebellion, 1745. Poor Mrs. Seton, whose first husband,
Paterson, was, by his mother, a nephew of the Earl of Mar, had
fallen a sacrifice to that prejudice, for Seton possessed no other
charm. I call her a sacrifice, because his bad usage shortened her
days. She was a very amiable woman. His future history is well
known. [Archibald Seton successively filled several high offices in
the Indian service, and died in 1818—Gentleman's Magazine, vol.
lxxxviii. p. 184. The mansion of Touch, long the abode of one of the
old Seton families, is a venerable square tower, with later
adjuncts, on the slope of the Gargunnock Hills, about three miles
from Stirling.—J. H. B.]
At this time we had a dinner from Dr.
Gartshore, whose wife, the heiress of Rusco, in Galloway, was my
cousin. [Dr. Maxwell Gartshore, a native of Kirkcudbrightshire, died
after a long and successful professional career in London, in 1812.
—J. H. B.] Besides Drs. Blair and Dickson, there were several
dissenting parsons, such as Drs. Price, Kippis, and Alexander, who
were very bad company indeed, for they were fiery republicans and
Wilkites, and very pedantic, petulant, and peremptory. Blair and I,
however, with the help of Dickson, kept them very well down.
Gartshore himself acted the part of umpire, with a leaning to their
side, as they had an ascendant over many of his patients.
John Home, who was very obliging to us,
when I was at liberty, in the middle of April, went with Mrs.
Carlyle and me to see Hampton Court and Windsor. After we had seen
the first, we went and showed Mrs. Carlyle Garrick's villa in
Hampton Town, which she was highly pleased with. The family had not
yet returned to the country. We went all night to Windsor. In the
morning we called on Dr. Douglas and his lady, a granddaughter of
Sir George Rooke, of Queen Anne's reign, then in residence. He
engaged us to dine with him. We went to church and heard him preach
an excellent sermon, though ill delivered. His conversation was
always instructive and agreeable. He had a greater number of
anecdotes, and told them more correctly, than any man I ever knew.
In going through his library, which was pretty full of books, he
selected one small elegant French novel, and gave it as a keepsake
to Mrs. Carlyle, which she and I were much pleased with, as a token
of regard. WVe
had passed one day with Mrs. Montague by invitation, which did not
please us much, as the conversation was all preconceived, and
resembled the rehearsal of a comedy more than the true and
unaffected dialogue which conveys the unaffected and unstudied
sentiments of the heart. What a pity it was that she could not help
acting; and the woman would have been respectable had she not been
so passionately desirous of respect, for she had good parts, and
must have had many allurements when she was young and beautiful.
John Home went with us to see Sion
House, the inside of which had been most beautifully adorned by
Robert Adam. We dined with Mr. and Mrs. Barry, who had been old
friends of John's, and Barry had been his military companion at
Falkirk, and escaped with him from Doune Castle. John was much
attached to him, and he deserved it. His wife was very amiable.
There dined with us M'Pherson and Blair, besides Home. Our stay in
London drew to a close, and having obtained all I expected from the
Treasury, which was encouragement to apply to Parliament next year,
I made haste to show Mrs. Carlyle what she had not seen.
We went to Greenwich in the morning, and
the same day dined again with Mr. and Mrs. Seton, and supped with my
old friend, Lady Lindores.
I sat to Martin for the large picture
that went next year into the Exhibition : this was for the third
time. Another sitting in January thereafter did the business. We
went to the opera with my sister. We stayed for our last fortnight
at my aunt's, as my business at the Treasury made it more
convenient, and my wife had to make all her farewell visits. She had
not seen Garrick, who was at last to play for three nights. With
difficulty and bribery we got places; but Mrs. C. felt sick, and we
were obliged to leave it in the middle. We went to see Westminster
Abbey, and dined with our kind friends, the Blairs, who had engaged
us. My sister being now gone to Merton with her children, we took
aunt and passed a day there. On the last day we went into the city,
and took leave, and dined at uncle Reed's.
We dined on the 25th April at the
Brand's Head with some friends, and set out on our journey
northwards at five in the evening. Mr. Home had got a partner, a
young man of the name of Douglas, going to Berwick. This lad being
fantastic and vain, because he had an uncle who was under-doorkeeper
to the House of Commons, diverted us much. To enjoy him, Home and I
took him stage about. My wife was delighted with him in the inns,
but she did not choose him to go in the chaise with her, as she was
at this time apt to be sick. My wife's condition made me resolve to
travel slow, though we were to halt some time at Newcastle.
We had agreed, for my wife's amusement
and our own, to take the middle road, and go down by Northampton and
Nottingham, where we had never been ; and were much amused with the
beauty of the country, and the variety of its scenery. When we came
to Nottingham, however, as the road was rough, which did not suit
Mrs. Carlyle's present condition, and the houses and horses
inferior, [we thought] it would be better to turn into the east road
again, and make the best of our way to Doncaster. When we drew near
that place, Mrs. Carlyle found out that we had changed our route,
and was well pleased. We had come by Mansfield and Welbeck (the Duke
of Portland's), and the Duke of Norfolk's, places well worth seeing.
The road goes through the trunk of a famous oak tree. The woods in
that part of the forest of Willingham are very fine, and the oaks
are remarkably large. We arrived at Wallsend, a very delightful
village about four miles below Newcastle, on the road to Shields,
where Mr. Blackett had a very agreeable house for the summer. There
were other two gentlemen's houses of good fortune in the village,
with a church and a parsonage-house. Next day, the 1st of May, was
so very warm that I with difficulty was able to walk down to the
church in the bottom of the village, not more than two hundred yards
distant. Mary
Home, a cousin-german of Mrs. Blackett's and my wife's, was residing
here at this time, and had been for several months at Newcastle.
This was the young lady who John Home married, who was then a pretty
lively girl, and reckoned very like Queen Charlotte. She
unfortunately had bad health, which continued even to this day; for
she is now sixty-seven, and is still very frail, though better than
she has been for several years. It was in some respects an unlucky
marriage, for she had no children. Lord Haddington, however, said
she was a very good wife for a poet; and Lady Milton having asked me
what made John marry such a sickly girl, I answered that I supposed
it was because he was in love with her. She replied, "No, no; it was
because she was in love with him."
We stayed here for eight or ten days,
and visited all the neighbours, who were all very agreeable, even
the clergyman's wife, who was a little lightsome; but as her head
ran much on fine clothes, which she could not purchase to please
her, but only could imitate in the most tawdry manner, she was
rather amusing to Mrs. B., who had a good deal of humour —more than
her sister, who had a sharper wit and more discernment. The husband
was a very good sort of man, and very worthy of his office, but
oppressed with family cares. Mr. Potter, I think, was an Oxonian.
We did not fail to visit our good friend
Mr. Collingwood of Chirton, and his lady, Mary Roddam, of both of
whom my wife was a favourite. We went down together to Berwickshire
in the middle of May, where we remained some days at Fogo Manse, the
Rev. Mr. William Home's, where, leaving John with his bride, we came
on to Musselburgh about the 27th of May, near the end of the General
Assembly. I had
been persuaded to buy a young horse from a farmer near Mr. Home's,
an awkward enough beast, but only four years old, which, if he did
not do for a riding-horse, might be trained to the plough, for I
had, at the preceding Martinmas, entered on a farm of onehundred
acres of the Duke of Buccleuch's. On the Saturday morning after I
came home, I unfortunately mounted this beast, who ran away with me
in my green before the door, and was in danger of throwing me on the
railing that was put up to defend a young hedge. To shun this I
threw myself off on the opposite side, in sight of my wife and
children. I was much stunned, and could not get up immediately, but
luckily, before she could reach the place, I had raised myself to my
breech, otherwise I did not know what might have befallen her in the
condition she was in. No harm, however, happened to her; and the new
surgeon who had come in our absence, a John Steward or Stewart, a
Northumbrian, an apprentice of Sandy Wood's, was sent for to bleed
me. I would not be bled, however, till I had made my report on the
window-lights ready for the General Assembly, which was to be
dissolved on Monday, lest I should not be able to write after being
bled, or not to attend the Assembly on Monday. But it so happened
that I was little disabled by my fall, and could even preach next
day. When we
returned from the south, we were happy to find our two fine girls in
such good health ; but my mother, and unmarried sister Sarah, had
lived for some time close by us, and saw them twice every day.
Sarah, the eldest, was now eight years of age, and had displayed
great sweetness of temper, with an uncommon degree of sagacity.
Jenny, the second, was now six, and was gay and lively and engaging
to the last degree. They were both handsome in their several kinds,
the first like me and my family, the second like their mother. They
already had made great proficency in writing and arithmetic, and
were remarkably good dancers. At this time they betrayed no symptoms
of that fatal disease which robbed me of them, unless it might have
been predicted from their extreme sensibilities of taste and
affection which they already displayed. It was the will of Heaven
that I should lose them too soon. But to reflect on their promising
qualities ever since has been the delight of many a watchful night
and melancholy day. I lost them before they had given me any
emotions but those of joy and hope.
On the 25th of September this year, Mrs.
Carlyle was delivered of her third daughter, Mary Roddam, and
recovered very well. But the child was unhealthy from her birth, and
gave her mother the greatest anxiety. She continued to live until
June 1773, when she was relieved from a life of constant pain. In
iith November that year she had her son William, who was very
healthy and promising till within six or eight weeks of his death,
when he was seized with a peripneumony, which left such a weakness
on his lungs as soon closed his days.
On Monday I went to Edinburgh, and
rendered an account of my mission at the bar of the General
Assembly. I received the thanks of the General Assembly for my care
and diligence in the management of this business, and at the same
time was appointed by the Assembly their commissioner, with full
powers to apply to next session of Parliament for an exemption from
the window-tax, to be at the same time under the direction of a
committee of Assembly, which was revived, with additions. This first
success made me very popular among the clergy, of whom one-half at
least looked upon me with an ill eye after the affair of the tragedy
of Douglas. There is no doubt that exemption from that tax was a
very great object to the clergy, whose stipends were in general very
small, and besides, was opposing in the beginning any design there
might be to lay still heavier burdens on the clergy, who, having
only stipends out of the tithes allocated, together with small
glebes and a suitable manse and offices free of all taxes and public
burdens, would have been quite undone had they been obliged to pay
all that has since been laid on houses and windows.
For as much use as the clergy were at
the Reformation, and for as much as they contributed to the
Revolution, and to preserve the peace and promote the prosperity of
the country since that period, the aristocracy of Scotland have
always been backward to mend their situation, which, had it not been
for the manly system of the President (Islay Campbell), must have
fallen into distress and contempt. As it is, their stipends keep no
pace with the rising prosperity of the country, and they are
degraded in their rank by the increasing wealth of the inferior
orders. Had the nobility and gentry of Scotland enlargement of mind
and extensive views, they would now, for the security of the
constitution, engraft the clergy into the State, as they have always
been in England, and by imparting all the privileges of freeholders,
except that of being members of Parliament, on their livings, they
would attach them still more than ever to their country; they would
widen the basis of the constitution, which is far too narrow,
without lessening their own importance in the smallest degree, for
there could be no combination of the clergy against their heritors;
on the contrary, they would be universally disposed to unite with
their heritors, if they behaved well to them in all political
business; but I know very few people capable of thinking in this
train, and far less of acting on so large and liberal a plan. In the
mean time, on account of many unfortunate circumstances, one of
which is, that patrons, now that by help of the Moderate interest,
as it is called, there is no opposition to their presentations, have
restored to them that right they so long claimed, and for most part
give them the man they like best; that is to say, the least capable,
and commonly the least worthy, of all the probationers in their
neighbourhood. [The sentence seems incomplete, but sic in MS.—J. H.
B.] The unfitness of one of the professors of divinity, and the
influence he has in providing for young men of his own fanatical
cast, increases this evil not a little, and accelerates the
degradation of the clergy. His cousin, Sir James H. Blair, never
repented so much of anything as the placing him in that chair, as he
soon discovered the disadvantage to the Church that might [arise]
from his being put in that situation. It is a pity that a man so
irreproachable in his life and manner, and even distinguished for
his candour and fairness, should be so weak; but he does more harm
than if he were an intriguing hypocrite.
During the summer 1769, after I had
given the clergy such hopes of being relieved from the window-tax,
they set about a subscription (the funds of the Church being quite
inadequate at any time, and then very low) for defraying the expense
of their commissioner, and of procuring an Act of Parliament. Nearly
two-thirds of the clergy had subscribed to this fund, for a sum of
about £400 was subscribed, if I remember right, by subscriptions
from five shillings to one guinea, and put into the hands of Dr.
George Wishart, then Principal Clerk of the Church.
Mrs. C. having recovered from her late
inlying, I now prepared to go to London to follow out the object of
my commission; and lest I should be too late, I set out in such time
as to arrive in London on the 21st of December. I had a Major Paul
as my companion in the chaise, and though we took five days to it,
the expense in those days was no more than £10, 8s. 7d. As my
business lay entirely in the west end of the town, I took up my
lodging in New Bond Street, and engaged the other apartment for John
Home, who was to be there in a fortnight. But I immediately took
Neil [ ], a trusty servant, who had been with him last year, and
could serve us both now, as I required but very little personal
service. The very day after I came to London, I had wrote a paper
signed Nestor, in support of the Duke of Grafton, who was then in a
tottering state. This paper, which appeared on the 23rd of December,
drew the attention of Lord Eli-bank and other Scotch gentlemen who
attended the British Coffeehouse, which convinced me that I might
continue my political labours, as they were acceptable to
Administration. At this time I did not know that the Duke of Grafton
was so near going out, but soon after I discovered it by an
accident. On one of the mornings which I passed with Lord l\Iansfield,
after he had signified his entire approbation of my measures to
obtain an exemption for the clergy of Scotland, I took the liberty
of saying to him in going downstairs, that his lordship's opinion
was so clear in our favour, that I had nothing to wish but that he
would be so good as to say so to the Duke of Grafton. His answer
surprised me, and opened my eyes. It was, "I cannot speak with the
Duke of Grafton; I am not acquainted with his Grace; I never
conversed with him but once, which was when he came a short while
ago from the King to offer me the seals. I can't talk with the Duke
of Grafton; so good morning, Doctor. Let me see you again when you
are further advanced." I went instantly with this anecdote to my
friend Mrs. Anderson, at the British, and we concluded almost
instantly, without plodding, that the change of the ministry was
nigh at hand. When I saw her next day, she told me she had seen her
brother, Dr. Douglas, who was struck with my anecdote, and combining
with it some things he had observed, concluded that the fall of the
Duke of Grafton was at hand, which proved true.
This accordingly took place not long
after, when Charles York, the second son of the Chancellor Hardwick,
having been wheedled over to accept the seals, and being upbraided
severely for having broken his engagements with his party, put
himself to death that very night; which was considered a public
loss, as he was a man of parts and probity. Pratt was appointed
Chancellor, and Lord North became minister. I was in the House of
Commons the first night that he took his place as Premier. He had
not intended to disclose it that night; but a provoking speech of
Colonel Barre's obliged him to own it, which he did with a great
deal of wit and humour. Barre was a clever man and good speaker, but
very hard-mouthed. [See the debate is the Parl. Hist., xvi. 705 et
seq.—The name of Colonel Isaac Barre, so conspicuous in its day, is
so completely excluded from ordinary biographical works of
reference, that it may be useful to refer to a curious notice of him
by Walpole in his Memoirs of George iii. (i. 109). Colonel Barre
gives an account of his own services in a speech reported in Parl.
Hist., xxiii. 156. —J.H.B.] I was the first person at the British
after the division ; and telling Mrs. Anderson the heads of North's
speech, and the firmness and wit with which he took his place as
First Minister, she concluded with me that he would maintain it
long. Lord North was very agreeable, and, as a private gentleman, as
worthy as he was witty; but having unluckily got into the American
war, brought the nation into an incredible sum of debt, and in the
end lost the whole American colonies. He professed himself ignorant
of war, but said he would appoint the most respectable generals and
admirals, and furnish them with troops and money; but he was weak
enough to send the Howes, though of a party opposite to him, who
seemed to act rather against the Ministers than the Americans. They
were changed for other commanders; but the feeble conduct of the
Howes had given the Americans time to become warlike, and they
finally prevailed. North maintained his ground for no less than
twelve years through this disgraceful war, and then was obliged to
give way that a peace might be established. This at first was
thought necessary to Great Britain; but Lord North's attempt to make
a coalition with his former opponents having failed, and Charles
Fox's scheme of governing the nation by an aristocracy, with the aid
of his India Bill, being discovered and defeated, made way for Mr.
Pitt's [William the Younger.] first Administration in 1783, which
soon restored national credit and promised the greatest prosperity
to the British empire, had it not been interrupted by the French
Revolution in 1789, and the subsequent most dangerous war of 1798.
It was discovered early in this period that the revolt and final
disjunction of our American colonies was no loss to Great Britain,
either in respect of commerce or war. I have been led to this long
digression by Lord North's having become Premier in the beginning of
the year 1770.
Although the discharge of my commission required attention and
activity, yet the Lords of the Treasury having frequently referred
me for an answer to a distant day, I took the opportunity of making
frequent excursions to places where I had not been.
One of the first of them was to Bath
with John Home, to pay a visit to his betrothed, Mary Home, whom he
married in the end of summer. He had sent her to Bath to improve her
health, for she was very delicate. We set out together, and went by
the common road, and arrived on the second day to dinner.
Miss Home had taken a
small house at Bath, where she lived with a Miss Pye, a companion of
hers, and a friend of Mrs. Blackett's. They lived very comfortably,
and we dined with them that day. Bath is beautifully built, and
situated in a vale surrounded with small hills cultivated to the
top; and being built of fine polished stone, in warm weather is
intolerably hot ; but when we were there in the beginning of March
it was excessively cold. The only thing about it not agreeable to
the eye is the dirty ditch of a river which runs through it.
On the morning after we arrived, we met
Lord Galloway in the pump-room, who having had a family quarrel,had
retired to Bath with one of his daughters. The first question he
asked me was, if I had yet seen our cousin, Sandie Goldie, his wife
being a sister of Patrick Heron's. I answered no, but that I
intended to call on him that very day. "Do," said his lordship, "but
don't tell his story while you are here, for he is reckoned one of
the cleverest fellows in this city, for being too unreasonable to
sign receipts for above £1000, the produce of the reversion of his
estate. He makes a very good livelihood at the rooms by betting on
the whist-players, for he does not play." Lord Galloway engaged us
to dine with him next day. [Alexander Stewart, sixth Earl of
Galloway. He died in 1773.] We went to the rooms at night, and to a
ball, where I was astonished to find so many old acquaintances.
We had called on
Goldie, who engaged us to dine with him. The day after we were to
dine at Lord Galloway's. We met with Dr. Gusthard, M.D., who had the
charge of Miss Home's health. He was the son of Mr. Gusthard,
minister of Edinburgh, and being of good ability and a winning
address, had come into very good business. Lord Galloway, though
quite illiterate by means of the negligence of his trustees or
tutors, was a clever man, of much natural ability, and master of the
common topics of conversation. We dined next day at Alexander
Goldie's, where we had the pleasure of his lordship's company. In
our landlord we discovered nothing but an uncommon rapidity of
speech and an entertaining flow of imagination, which perhaps we
would not have observed if we had not known that he had been
cognosced at Edinburgh, and deprived of the management of his
estate. Next
day we made a party to Bristol hot wells, and added to our company a
Miss Scott, of Newcastle, a very pleasing young woman, who
afterwards married an eminent lawyer there ; and another lady, whose
name I have forgot, who was a good deal older than the rest, but was
very pleasant, and had £30,000, by which means she became the wife
of one of the Hathorns. This place appeared to me dull and
disagreeable, and the hot wells not much better. Next day we dined
at Dr. Gusthard's, and the day after set out on our return to
London. We resolved to go by Salisbury Plain and Stonehenge, as
neither of us had ever been there, both of which raised our wonder
and astonishment, especially Stonehenge, but as we were not
antiquarians, we could not form any conjecture about it. We got to
London next day before dinner. |
