Chiefs of Grant > Correspondence

1737.] TO ARCHIBALD EARL OF ISLAY. 345
strafarir, or rather we should be both recorded as fools and ideots, if any private interest
could discord us ; and they are positively your cut-throats and mine who endeavour or in-
sinuate to put any difference or coolness betwixt us. If you reflect upon what I say, you will
find that I tell you plainly what you should think as Laird of Grant, and I as Lord Lovat ;
and remember that I tell you that, if we split, it will be a fatal stroke to both our familys,
that will hurt them more than anything else that could happen. But I hope all the devils in
hell will not be capable to succeed in such a malicious enterprise. I am perswaded that Mr.
M c Farlane, who is a sufficient man and an Edinburgh security, will bind with you and me
for some hundred pounds, if they can be had ; so I beg you may endeavour to get them,
that Fraserdale may be at peace till summer, and then, if God spare me so long, I will put
him from making any more noise.
I am informed from Edinburgh that the only competitor you have is the famous Mr.
John Murray, who they say is married to Mrs. Tom, tho' her other husband be alive. I am
not angry at this competition, for I believe really that the Duke of Athole, notwithstanding
of what is said of his pushing for Mr. Murray, will not do himself so much hurt as offer to
support a man of Mr. Murray's character to be one of the judges of our land. However, as
humane affairs are uncertain, I will not sleep easy till I hear that the King's letter is writt
in your favours, because, after all that is past in that affair, I am ten times more anxious
about it than you are yourself; and in all events you will alwayes find me, with unalterable
zeal and attachment, my dear neveu,
Your most affectionate and most faithfull slave,
Lovat.
443. To Archibald Earl of Islay — Education of his children — Recommending
Ludovick Grant of Grant for Newhall's gown. [Copy.]
Beaufort, 21st January 1737.
My Lord, — I had a letter from my brother-in-law, the Laird of Grant, in which he gives me
an account that your Lordship was so good as to enquire after my children and the age of
my eldest boy, which he call'd 14 years, and that your Lordship wish'd that I should send
him to England to be educate there. I give your Lordship a thousand thanks for being so
kind as to think of me and my children ; but Sir James was grossly mistaken in my boy's
age, for he is but just ten years old, and of such a delicate constitution that I durst not
venture to send him this year to the school of Dalkeith, where I design'd he should go ; but
he is one of the prettiest boys in the world, both for a comely person and a fine genius. The
second, who is seven years old, is a prodigy of wit and cunning ; and the third, your Lord-
ship's godson, promises as much as any child that ever I saw of his age, both for strength
and sprightlyness. So that I have great reason to thank God for having such hopefull
children ; and when they are of age for foreign education, it is but just that your Lordship
vol. ii. 2 x