Earls of Cromartie > [NSLBLANK]

clxxxii GEORGE FIRST EARL OF CROM ARTIE. [1630-
party spirit in which Lockhart misrepresented all those who were opposed to
him. His character of John first Earl of Stair may be referred to as an
example of this. He is represented as the author of the barbarous massacre
of Glencoe, and the main plotter to cut off the chief of the Cavalier and
country parties, for which he is compared to Catiline. He is also accused
as the chief author of the Union, for which he is called the Judas of his
country. He and his family are represented as having perverted justice, and
as being the most dreaded and detested of any in the kingdom ; as having
risen but lately from nothing ; and he himself as false and cruel, covetous
and imperious, altogether destitute of the sacred ties of honour, loyalty,
justice, and gratitude.
After painting Lord Stair as black as he could, the artist seems to have
recoiled from his own work, for he immediately adds that this Catiline and
Judas combined was extremely facetious and diverting company in common
conversation, and, setting aside his politics, good-natured. 1
His unfriendly aspersions on the character of Lord Cromartie are also
counteracted in a similar strain. He is represented as the master of an extra-
ordinary gift of pleasing and diverting conversation, which rendered him one
of the most entertaining companions in the world.
In the characters of the Nobility of Scotland, by John Macky, Lord
Cromartie is described in terms similar to the favourable part of his character
by Lockhart. Macky says that Lord Cromartie is a gentleman of very polite
learning and good parts ; hath a great deal of wit, and is the pleasantest com-
panion in the world ; a great master in philosophy, and much esteemed by
the Eoyal Society of London. He hath been very handsome in his person ;
is tall, fair-complexioned, and now past seventy years old. 2 A contemporary
1 The Lockhart Papers, vol. i. p. 89. William, Queen Anne, and King George the
2 Memoirs of the Secret Services of John First. London, 1733, p. 188.
Macky, Esq., during the Reigns of King