Series 1 > Journals of Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall, with his observations on public affairs and other memoranda, 1665-1676

xxiv JOURNAL OF JOHN LAUDER
reluctancy took off his hand. In short, his lordship is (what
I know by experience) as communicative as he is universally
learned and knowing. He hath observed the decisions of
the Session from November 1689 till November 1712, which
I have seen in Manuscript; but his excessive modesty can’t
be prevailed on to make them publick.’
There are no materials for expanding Mr. Laing’s sketch
of Fountainhall’s life, except in so far as the notes of his
travels and his expeditions into the country, and the accounts,
here printed, give some glimpses of his habits and his domestic
economy in his early professional years. He lived in troubled
times, but his own career was prosperous and comparatively
uneventful. The modesty which Professor Forbes truly
ascribes to him disinclined him to take a part, as a good
many lawyers did, in public affairs, except for a short period
before the Revolution, as a member of Parliament; and,
together with his prudence and strong conscientiousness, pre¬
served him from mixing in the political and personal intrigues
which were then so rife in the country. The same modesty is
apparent in his writings in mature life to a tantalising degree.
It may not be so conspicuous in his boyish journal, when he
was ready enough to throw down the gauntlet in a theo¬
logical discussion; but in the later voluminous mss., when
even dry legal disputes are enlivened by graphic and personal
touches, the author himself rarely appears on the scene.
We miss the pleasant details of Clerk of Penicuik’s Memoirs}
We learn little of the author’s daily walk and conversation.
It does not even appear (so far as I know) where his house
in Edinburgh was. We do not know how often he went to
Fountainhall, or whether he there realised his wish to spend
half his time in the country.2 We do not know how he
occupied himself there, though it may be gathered that he
took much interest in the management of his property and
1 Scottish History Society.
s Journal, p. 21.