Earls of Cromartie > [NSLBLANK]

fci
PREFACE.
Eoyston, 1 and also added a short Memoir of the Duchess. 2 Her Grace was
the lady to whom Sir Walter Scott made his " Last Minstrel " recite or sing
his famous " Lay." The allusion in the Introduction to the kindness of the
Duchess to the aged minstrel is very touching: —
" The Duchess marked his weary pace,
His timid mien, aud reverend face,
And bade her page the menials tell, .
That they should tend the old man well :
For she had known adversity,
Though born in such a high degree ;
In pride of power, in beauty's bloom,
Had wept o'er Monmouth's bloody tomb ! "
In another Family Book with which I have made some progress, I hope
to be able to give a Memoir of the sagacious Duchess.
The Correspondence of the third Earl of Cromartie includes many letters
written during the Insurrection of 1745-6, by Sir Thomas Sheridan and
Colonel "John O'Sulivan, who attended Prince Charles Edward. These letters
throw much light on the operations of the Highlanders in that ill-fated
expedition.
The letters of Simon Lord Lovat contain several new touches of that
versatile genius, although his correspondence is already well known from the
previous publication of many of his letters. The present Collection affords
good specimens of his Lordship's peculiar style of epistolary correspondence,
which is usually characterised by extravagant protestations of friendship,
flattery, and servility. At the conclusion of his letters, Lord Lovat was to
his correspondents often a " faithful slave," while to Duncan Forbes, whom he
addressed as his " Dear General," as figurative of his high official position, Lovat,
in mock humility, subscribed himself as his " devoted Corporal." Yet with
these faults, there is often a copiousness of language, as well as a learning and
originality that mark a vigorous mind and bespeak the scholar. Writing
1 The Red Book of Grandtully, vol. ii. pp. 301-319. 2 Ibid. vol. i. p. ccxxi.