"_MYSTIFICATIONS._"[32]
[32] Edinburgh: printed privately, 1859.
"_Health to the auld wife, and weel mat she be,
That busks her fause rock wi' the lint o' the lee (_lie_),
Whirling her spindle and twisting the twine,
Wynds aye the richt pirn into the richt line._"
Those who knew the best of Edinburgh society eight-and-thirty years
ago--and when was there ever a better than that best?--must remember the
personations of an old Scottish gentlewoman by Miss Stirling Graham, one
of which, when Lord Jeffrey was victimized, was famous enough to find
its way into _Blackwood_, but in an incorrect form.
Miss Graham's friends have for years urged her to print for them her
notes of these pleasant records of the harmless and heart-easing mirth
of bygone times; to this she has at last assented, and the result is
this entertaining, curious, and beautiful little quarto, in which her
friends will recognize the strong understanding and goodness, the wit
and invention, and fine _pawky_ humor of the much-loved and warmhearted
representative of Viscount Dundee--the terrible Clavers.[33] They will
recall that blithe and winning face, sagacious and sincere, that kindly,
cheery voice, that rich and quiet laugh, that mingled sense and
sensibility, which all met, and still, to our happiness, meet in her,
who, with all her gifts and keen perception of the odd, and power of
embodying it, never gratified her consciousness of these powers, or ever
played
"Her quips and cranks and wanton wiles,"
so as to give pain to any human being.
[33] Miss Graham's genealogy in connection with Claverhouse--the
same who was killed at Killiecrankie--is as follows:--John
Graham of Claverhouse married the Honorable Jean Cochrane,
daughter of William Lord Cochrane, eldest son of the first
Earl of Dundonald. Their only son, an infant, died December
1689. David Graham, his brother, fought at Killiecrankie,
and was outlawed in 1690--died without issue--when the
representation of the family devolved on his cousin, David
Graham of Duntrune. Alexander Graham of Duntrune died 1782;
and on the demise of his last surviving son, Alexander, in
1804, the property was inherited equally by his four
surviving sisters, Anne, Amelia, Clementina, and Alison.
Amelia, who married Patrick Stirling, Esq., of Pittendreich,
was her mother. Clementina married Captain Gavin Drummond of
Keltie; their only child was Clementina Countess of Airlie,
and mother of the present Earl.
The title of this memorial is _Mystifications_, and in the opening
letter to her dear kinswoman and life-long friend, Mrs. Gillies, widow
of Lord Gillies, she thus tells her story:--