Perthshire in bygone days

GENERAL LORD LYNEDOCH. 25
which his deceased wife had so long held ; so, in the words
of James Duff, —
He lias bidden adieu to Drumharvie glen,
Where the birch and the oak are growin',
To the dark fir woods of Williamston,
And the braes o' bonnie Balgowan.
After taking a few months to arrange affairs at his
changed home, Mr. Graham started on his travels, his aim
not well decided ; but the French revolution met him by
the way, and as his life, whatever it was to be, must be
active, he threw in his lot with the soldiery of his
country, and, impatient for action, went as a volunteer to
the defence of Toulon. His first fight had some interesting
associations. A few miles out to sea was the scene of his
wife's death. A few miles further out, lay a small island
which had sent a small artilleryman to fight against him ;
while amongst his companions in arms was an unfledged
youth, of twenty-one, from Shropshire. The little artillery-
man afterwards disorganized the kingdoms of Europe ;
and the Shropshire youth rose to be Commander-in-Chief
of the British Army, and to preside at the Horse Guai'ds
while the little Artilleryman waited his first resurrection
beneath the turf at St. Helena.
The Government was slow to recognise in any way
Graham's services as a volunteer ; but having now chosen
the army as the business of his after life, he saw the
necessity of taking some decisive measures to obtain his
advancement. Within a year he raised a body of men
which, from doubtful beginnings, became one of the crack
regiments of the British service. Every available corner
was ransacked, and within a few months fifteen hundred
tatterdemalions were mustered on the North Inch of Perth.
Jail-birds, preachers, and pickpockets formed a large por-
tion of the raw material out of which Graham fashioned
" the gallant 90th." He found it no easy task, however. He
flattered them at one time and threatened them at another;
fed them with roast oxen and regaled them with beer and
whisky until they rolled upon the grass ; yet they deserted
his ranks in dozens, and as they went scampering over the
country, canny folks were afraid of them, and mothers
subdued refractory children by threatening to put them
among Balgowan's Grey Breeks. Energetic generalship
and hard drill eventually reduced them to order; and,
from the campaign in Egypt to the fall of Sevastopol, the