[333] Sir Thomas Brisbane, who had formerly commanded a brigade in the
Peninsula. In 1832 he succeeded Sir Walter Scott as President of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. Sir Thomas had married in 1819 a daughter of
Sir Henry Hay Makdougall of Makerstoun, Bart. Sir Thomas died at
Brisbane House, Ayrshire, in January 1860, in the eighty-seventh year of
his age.
[334] For an account of this family see _The Swintons of that Ilk and
their Cadets_, 4to, 1883, a privately printed volume by A.C. Swinton of
Kimmerghame. In a letter to his friend Swinton in 1814, Scott says that
he had been reading the family pedigree "to my exceeding refreshment."
[335] One of the Abbotsford labourers.
[336] _2 Henry IV_. Act IV. Sc. 2.
[337] Mr. E.W. Auriol Drummond Hay, heir-presumptive at one time of Lord
Kinnoul, was then residing in Edinburgh, owing to his official duties in
the Lyon Office; he took a great interest in archaeological matters, and
was for two years Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries before his
departure as Consul General to the Barbary States. He died at Tangier on
the 1st March 1845.
[338] Milton's _Comus_, v. 208.--J.G.L.
[339] Lady Scott had not been quite four months dead, and the entry of
the preceding day shows how extremely ill-timed was this communication
from a gentleman with whom Sir Walter had never had any intimacy. This
was not the only proposition of the kind that reached him during his
widowhood.--J.G.L.
[340] A coil of rope.
[341] See _Life_, vol. x. 95, and _The Haigs of Bemersyde_, 8vo, Edin.
1881, edited by J. Russell.
[342] Mr. Thomas Shortreed, a young gentleman of elegant taste and
attainments, devotedly attached to Sir Walter, and much beloved in
return, had recently died.--J.G.L.
[343] See Act III. Sc. 1.
[344] The Rev. Dr. Thomas Somerville, minister of Jedburgh, author of
the _History of Great Britain during the reign of Queen Anne_, and other
works, died 14th May 1830, in the ninetieth year of his age, and
sixty-fourth of his ministry.--J.G.L. Autobiographical Memorials of his
_Life and Times_, 1741-1814, 8vo, Edinburgh, were published in 1861.
[345] _Much Ado about Nothing_, Act III. Sc. 5.
[346] Afterwards Judge in the Court of Session from 1843, author of
_Gleams of Thought reflected from Milton_, etc. It was of this witty and
humorous judge Mr. Lockhart wrote the sportive lines:--
"Here lies that peerless paper peer Lord Peter,
Who broke the laws of God and man and metre."
Lord Robertson died in 1855.
[347] Act III. Sc. 3.
[348] One of Scott's old High School mates.--_Life_, vol. i. p. 163.
[349] Burns's _Epistle to J. Smith_.