"She lived to a great age, dispensing kindness and benevolence to the
last, and cheered in the sore infirmities of her later years by the love
of friends of all ranks, and all parties of all ages.
"The Living Lamp of Lothian, which from Winton, has so long shed its
beneficent lustre, has been extinguished, but not so will be lost the
memory of the gifted lady, for by not a few will still be cherished the
recollection of her noble nature, and of her Christian life."
Lady Ruthven prized the picture referred to. She would not, as Sir
Francis Grant relates,[D] permit him to touch the canvas after it left
the Abbotsford studio; and it remained a cherished possession which she
took pride in showing to appreciative guests, pointing out the details
of face and form which she still saw with that inner eye, which time had
not darkened.
It is now in the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland--bequeathed to
the nation with other pictures, as well as the magnificent collection of
Greek archaeological objects gathered by herself and Lord Ruthven in
their early married life. She was born in 1789, and died in 1885.
[444] Robert Dundas of Arniston, Esq., the worthy representative of an
illustrious lineage, died at his paternal seat in June 1838.--J.G.L. See
_Arniston Memoirs_--_Three Centuries of a Scottish House_, 1571-1838.
Edin. 8vo, 1887.
[D] See long and interesting letter of June 5, 1872, from Sir Francis to
Sir W.S. Maxwell.--Laing's _Catalogue_, pp. 72-81.