Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/32

60 year, and then only to kiss the king's hand, who had a great esteem for his worth and valour. His unusual dress and figure when he was in London, never failed to draw after him a great crowd of boys and other young people, who constantly attended at his lodgings, and followed him with huzzas as he went to court or returned from it. As he was a man of humour, he would always thank them for their civilities, when he left them at the door to go into the king; and would let them know exactly at what hour he intended to come out again and return to his lodgings. When the king walked in the park, attended by some of his courtiers, and Dalyell in his company, the same crowds would always be after him, showing their admiration at his beard and dress, so that the king could hardly pass on for the crowd; upon which his majesty bid the devil take Dalyell, for bringing such a rabble of boys together, to have their guts squeezed out, whilst they gaped at his long beard and antic habit; requesting him at the same time (as Dalyell used to express it) to share and dress like other christians, to keep the poor bairns out of danger. All this could never prevail upon him to part with his beard ; but yet, in compliance to his majesty, he went once to court in the very height of fashion ; but as soon as the king and those about him had laughed sufficiently at the strange figure he made, he reassumed his usual habit, to the great joy of the boys, who had not discovered him in his fashionable dress." Memoirs of Captain Creichton, by Swift.

On the accession of James VII, in 1685, Dalyell received a new and enlarged commission to be commander-in-chief; but the tendency of the court to popery offended his conscience so grievously, that it is not probable he could have long retained the situation. Death, however, stepped in, and "rescued him," to use Creichton's language, “from the difficulties he was likely to be under, between the notions he had of duty to his prince on one side, and true zeal for his religion on the other.” He died about Michaelmas, 1685. A contemporary historian informs us, that "after he had procured himself a lasting name in the wars, he fixed his old age at Binns, his paternal inheritance, dorned by his excellence with avenues, large parks, and fina gardens, and pleased himself with the culture of curious flowers and plants.” His estate was inherited by a son of the same name, who was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, and was succeeded by a daughter Magdalene, who marrying James Menteith of Auldcathy, transmitted the property and title to her son, Sir James Menteith Dalyell, great-grandfather to the present representative. Through this alliance, the family now claims to represent the old line of the earls of Menteith.

General Dalyell, as might be expected, is represented by the presbyterian historians as "a man naturally rude and fierce, who had this heightened by his breeding and service in Muscovy, where he had seen little but the utmost tyranny and slavery." There are two ways, however, of contemplating the character of even so blood-stained a persecutor as Dalyell. He had, it must be remarked, served royalty upon principle in its worst days; had seen a monarch beheaded by a small party of his rebellious subjects, and a great part of the community, including himself, deprived of their property and obliged to fly for their lives to foreign lands; and all this was on account of one particular way of viewing politics and religion. When the usual authorities of the land regained their ascendancy, Dalyell must naturally have been disposed to justify and support very severe measures, in order to prevent the recurrence of such a period as the civil war and usurpation. Thus all his cruelties are resolved into an abstract principle, to the relief of his personal character, which otherwise, we do not doubt, might be very good. How often do we see, even in modern times, actions justified upon general views, which would be shuddered