[162] The buildings in this alley are now demolished.
[163] He is said to have been a nobleman of considerable talent, and
a great underhand supporter of the exiled family; see the _Lockhart
Papers_. George Lockhart had married his daughter Euphemia, or _Lady
Effie_, as she was commonly called. In the _Edinburgh Annual Register_
there is preserved a letter from Lord Eglintoune to his son, replete
with good sense as well as paternal affection.
[164] The earl was forty-nine and Miss Kennedy twenty.
[165] The anecdote which follows is chiefly taken from _The Tell-tale_,
a rare collection, published in 1762.
[166] Notes by C. K. Sharpe in Stenhouse’s edition of the _Scots
Musical Museum_, ii. 200.
[167] As a specimen of the complimentary intercourse of the poet with
Lady Eglintoune, an anecdote is told of her having once sent him a
basket of fine fruit; to which he returned this stanza:
‘Now, Priam’s son, ye may be mute,
For I can bauldly brag wi’ thee;
Thou to the fairest gave the fruit—
The fairest gave the fruit to me.’
The love of raillery has recorded that on this being communicated by
Ramsay to his friend Eustace Budgell, the following comment was soon
after received from the English wit:
‘As Juno fair, as Venus kind,
She may have been who gave the fruit;
But had she had Minerva’s mind,
She’d ne’er have given ’t to such a brute.’
[168] An old gentleman told our informant that he never saw so
beautiful a figure in his life as Lady Eglintoune at a Hunters’ Ball in
Holyrood House, dancing a minuet in a large hoop, and a suit of black
velvet, trimmed with gold.