History of the life and death of John, Earl of Gowrie

JOHN, EARL OF GOWRIE. 151
According to Calderwood, it was now therefore
the Earl's purpose to set out from Perth, on Tues-
day August 5th, in his journey to Dirleton, where
he was to ask his mother to come and keep house
with him ; and from thence he was to go to Seaton,
the seat of the Earl of Winton, in East Lothian,
where he was to see the lady with whom he had
been advised to be contracted. Calderwood gives
her the title of Countess of Angus ; and she was,
indeed, by courtesy, sometimes so denominated,
but her ordinary denomination was, " the Mistress
of Angus." The scheme was a good one: The old
Countess of Gowrie was to live, or keep house with
her son till the young Lady should be of a proper
age. But the scheme was frustrated by the sad
catastrophe which happened at Perth on the day of
the Earl's intended journey.
Hume of Godscroft informs us that Lady Mar-
garet Douglas died unmarried when she was fifteen
years of age *. She no doubt expected that the
Earl of Gowrie, if he had lived, would have been
her husband ; and it appears in a note which Prin-
cipal Robertson subjoined to his remarks on the
* Hume's History of the Douglasses, page 360.