Chiefs of Grant > Correspondence

406 IV. — LETTERS FROM SIMON LORD LOVAT. [1740.
more malice and cruelty than ever the Spanish Inquisition did ; but Evan defeat them all,
and Mr. Donald's good charracter is perfectly well established, and he will get the kirk of
Fearn in spight of all his enemys. He is the first minister that ever I battled for, and I am
glad that I have had success. It has cost me a great deall of trouble and some expence, but
I am very much honour'd and oblidg'd by the principall gentlemen of that countrey who
stood up for Mr. Donald, and fought his cause vigorously upon my account.
This letter is so long that it may truly serve for answer to the three letters you say
you did me the honour to write to me without getting a return, and I have made it long
apurpose to punnish you for your false accusation.
When your affairs oblidges you to come to this countrey, you know that you will be as
welcome to this little habitation as to any house in Strathspey ; for, quarrells apart, I am as
much as any man alive, with attachment and respect, my dear Laird of Grant,
Your most obedient servant and most affectionate uncle,
LOVAT.
P.S. — If the Senator of the Colledge of Justice, my friend Petry Oig, be at Castle Grant,
I beg you do me the honour to assure him of my most sincere and humble respects.
I have not been a mile from my own house since October last, tho' I bless God I
never was in greater health or spirits, but the weather was so excessivly bad, and the least
cold affects me so that I durst not venture abroad. I therefore beg, my dear nephew, that
you may make my excuse to my Lord Elchies, that I cannot wait upon him as I us'd to do
without risquing my health and my life ; but I hope his Lordship will do me the honour to
come to this little house and see the Laird of Grant's grandchildren, and a casheir'd Lord
whom you know was his Lordship's faithful] friend ; but perhaps his Lordship will put me
in mind of a distick of Cato's —
Cum fueris frelix, multos numerabis amicos,
Tempora si fuerunt nubila, solus eris.
I must end this postscript with telling you that my Lady Lovat goes south the beginning
of the next week. I fullfill'd faithfully to her all the conditions that my Lord Hay and her
brother desires, and I give her besides an handsome present of gold for her pocket. A very
honest, pretty gentleman of my own family takes care of her in the journey. She has a
gentlewoman, a ryding footman, and a running footman besides, and what baggage horses she
pleases. The gentleman has money to defray all the charges of the journey, and he is to give
her a quarter of the yearly alliment, and that she is to have upon her arrivall in the south ;
so whatever lyes and calumnys may accuse me of, I shall be alhvays ready to prove that no
man ever behav'd with more patience and good nature than I have done in all that affair,
so I freely submitt to Providence in that as well as in all other things. I have suffer'd
within these four years the most extravagant and capricious turns of fortune that ever any