"Kilmarnock (House) August 27th, 1746."
Yet the young nobleman did not, it appears, entirely satisfy the
expectations of those who were interested in his fate, and attached to
his father's memory, as the following extract from a letter written by
Mr. George Rosse, to Colonel Craufurd, shows.[395]
"Dear Sir,
"I am favoured with yours of the thirteenth from Scarborough, and
had the honour of one letter from Lord Boyd since his father's
execution, and sorry to tell you, it was not wrote in such terms as
I could show or make any use of. If you had seen him, I dare say it
would have been otherwise. However, I took the liberty of writing
with plainness to him, in hopes of drawing from him, what may be
shown to his honour and to his own immediate advantage.
* * * * *
"I put him in mind of writing to his cousin, Duke of Hamilton, and
Mr. Home; an omission, which, with submission, is unpardonable, as
he was apprised of their goodness to his father; and I gave him some
hints with relation to himself, by authority of the ministry, which,
if he continue in the army, may be improved upon. Those things I
think proper to mention to you, as I know your friendship for Boyd,
that you may take an opportunity of mentioning them to him, when you
are with him, which I hope will be soon. He is appointed deputy
Captain-Lieutenant; but that I look upon as a step to higher
preferment. I should like to hear from you; direct to (Crawfurdland)
Kilmarnock, and I am, dear sir, your most obedient, humble servant.
"GEO. ROSSE."
Leicesterfield,
September 8th, 1746.
Notwithstanding these seeming acts of negligence, which may possibly
have been explained, Lord Boyd became, in every way, worthy of being
the representative of an ancient race. He was an improved resemblance of
his amiable, unhappy father. Possessing his father's personal
attributes, he added, to the courtesy and kindliness of his father's
character, strength of principle, a perfect consistency of conduct, and
sincere religious connections, both in the early and latter period of
his life. His deportment is said to have combined both the sublime and
the graceful; his form, six feet four inches in height, to have been the
most elegant; his manners the most polished and popular of his time. In
his domestic relations he was exemplary, systematic, yet with the due
liberality of a nobleman, in his affairs; sagacious and conscientious as
a magistrate; generous to his friends. "He puts me in mind," said one
who knew him, "of an ancient hero; and I remember Dr. Johnson was
positive that he resembled Homer's character of Jaspedon."[396] "His
agreeable look and address," observes that adorer of rank, Boswell,
"prevented that restraint, which the idea of his being Lord High
Constable of Scotland might otherwise have occasioned."[397]
At the time of his father's execution, Lord Boyd was only twenty years
of age. He claimed and obtained the maternal estate, and obtained it in
1751. In 1758 he succeeded Mary, Countess of Errol in her own right, his
mother's aunt, as Earl of Errol, and left the army in which he had
continued to serve. He retired to Slains Castle, where he passed his
days in the exercise of those virtues which become a man who is
conscious, by rank and fortune, of a deep responsibility, and who
regards those rather as trusts, than possessions. He died at
Calendar-house, in 1778, universally lamented, and honoured.
The Countess of Kilmarnock survived her husband only one year; and died
at Kilmarnock in 1747. Two sons were, however, left, in addition to Lord
Boyd, to encounter, for some years, considerable difficulties. Of these,
the second, Charles, who was in the insurrection of 1745, escaped to the
Isle of Arran, where he lay concealed, in that, the ancient territory of
the Boyds, for a year. He amused himself, having found an old chest of
medical books, with the study of medicine and surgery, which he
afterwards practised with some degree of skill among the poor. He then
escaped to France, and married there a French lady; but eventually he
found a home at Slains Castle, where he was residing when Dr. Johnson
and Boswell visited Scotland. He was a man of considerable
accomplishment; but, as Boswell observed, "with a pompousness or formal
plenitude in his conversation," or as Dr. Johnson expressively remarked,
"with too much elaboration in his talk." "It gave me pleasure," adds
Boswell, "to see him, a steady branch of the family, setting forth all
its advantages with much zeal."
William Boyd, the fourth son of Lord Kilmarnock, was in the Royal Navy,
and on board Commodore Burnet's ship at the time of his father's
execution. He was eventually promoted to a company of the 14th foot, in
1761.
Lord Balmerino left no descendants to recall the remembrance of his
honest, manly character. His wife, Margaret Chalmers, survived him
nearly twenty years, and died at Restalrig, on the 24th of August, 1765,
aged fifty-six.
The remains of these two unfortunate noblemen were deposited under the
gallery, at the west end of the chapel in the Tower. Beside them repose
those of Simon, Lord Lovat. "As they were associates in crime, so they
were companions in sepulchre," observes a modern writer, "being buried
in the same grave."[398] But the more discriminative judge of the human
heart will spurn so rash, and undiscerning a remark; and marvel that, in
the course of one contest, characters so differing in principle, so
unlike in every attribute of the heart, and viewed, even by their
enemies, with sentiments so totally opposite, should thus be mingled
together in their last home.