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MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 195
two daughters. In 1850, Sir James Boswell instituted a legal
process to prove the invalidity of the Auchinleck entail. He
was opposed by Thomas Alexander Boswell, of Crawley Grange,
next heir-male, but it was held by the judges that as the material
word " irredeemably " was written upon an erasure, the entail
was inoperative.* Eelieved from the settlement of 1776, Sir
James Boswell bequeathed Auchinleck to his two daughters as
co-heiresses. Sir James died in 1857 when the baronetcy
became extinct. Julia, his elder daughter, married George
Mounsey, solicitor, Carlisle, some time mayor of that city.
Emily Harriet, the younger daughter, married in 1873, the Hon.
Eichard Wogan Talbot, eldest son of Lord Talbot de Malahide.
The biographer's three daughters were Veronica, Euphemia,
and Elizabeth. Veronica, the eldest, survived her father only
four months; she died of consumption on the' 26th September,
1795, aged twenty-three. Euphemia, the second daughter,
inherited her father's Hterary tastes, combined, unhappily,
with cerebral weakness. Leaving the protection of her
family she fixed her abode in London, resolved on supporting
herself as an operatic writer. She composed an Opera for
Drury Lane Theatre, which, according to her narrative, was
accepted by the manager, and was being prepared for the
stage, when the theatre was in 1809 destroyed by fire. There-
after, she made eleemosynary appeals by private letters and
public advertisements. She entreated pecuniary aid from
the Lord Chancellor Eldon, the Earl of Moira, Lord Lonsdale,
and Lord Sidmouth. On the death of the Princess Amelia, in
1810, she composed a " Soliloquy," which she forwarded to the
Prince Eegent, in the belief that she would be rewarded by a
pension on the Civil List. From private lodgings in Northum-
berland street she in 1811 despatched a missive, setting forth that
* Decisions of the Court of Session, 20th March, 1851.