Earls of Aboyne

43
an appropriate flower — such as the snowdrop for
January — and a charming- illustration of the same
in colours on a gold baokground, the whole being
enclosed in a decorative design. She
laid eight poets under contribution, writing the
verse for four months — 'April, September, Nov-
ember, and December — herself. She used the
heather to illustrate September, beginning —
I love the hardy frugal heath,
That 'winds her ever constant wreath
Around each granite rock and stone,
Which but for her were quite alone;
And clothes the muir with garb as fair
As garden ground with flow'rets rare.
Lady Huntly died at (Mon, August 10, 1893.
She and tho tenantry erected in 1868 a granite
obelisk (6.' feet high) with cross on the hill of
Mortlich (1248 feet above sea level), in memory
of her husband, while she herself was commem-
orated (in 1906) by a monument erected by her
six daughters in Orton Longueville Church. It
consists of a tablet of alabaster. The corbel has
a cherub's head and wings carved on it, and on
each side of the tablet are standing figures of
angels. She has seven sons and seven daughters,
born between 1815 and 1864 : —
1. Charles, the 11th and present Marquis of
Huntly.
2. Lord Lewis Gordon: born May 1848. He en-
tered the navy, and 'was lost on board the ill-
fated ironclad "Captain/' which turned turtle
off Finisterre, September 7, 1870, the very night
that the Empress Eugenie crossed the Channel
in Burgoyne.'s yacht on her flight from France.
3. Lord Bertrand Gordon, born July 24, 1850. He
was at Eton in 1865, and died at Sydney on
August 10, 1869.
4. Lord Douglas William Cope Gordon, born
October 11. 1851. He began his career as an
ensign in the Coldstream Guards, October 1871,
and became lieutenant May 1874. He stood as
a Liberal for Huntingdonshire at the general
election of 1874, but was defeated by 290 votes.
In May 1876, lie became Liberal M.P. for West
Aberdeenshire, defeating (by 2343 votes to 813)
Colonel Thomas Lines of Learney, who had
spoken of him during the campaign as "the
terrible cornet of home." He took his seat in
the House of Commons on May 15, being intro-
duced by Viscount Macduff, now Duke of Fife,
and by Mr Adam, the Liberal Whip and mem-
ber for Clackmannan and Kinross. In accord-
ance with a previous promise to stand again
for Huntingdonshire, he contested that seat