Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/152

408 lively alive to the intellectual pleasures of the world, and shed an amiable purity over his character and manners. It is deeply to be regretted, that the wishes of his father should have thrown an impediment in the way of his embracing, at the outset of life, that profession which was so congenial to the benign gentleness of his disposition. His mild manners and many amiable qualities made a deep impression on all who knew him, while his surviving friends cherish his memory with feelings of the sincerest affection and reverence. Possessed of a pleasing and intellectual fund of conversation, there was about him an infantine simplicity of character, which rendered him alternately the companion of the late Francis Horner, and of Jeffrey, Cockburn, Brougham, and of his other distinguished contemporaries, and the delight of his own children, in whose most playful gambols he would often join. His personal appearance was particularly striking; his dark complexion harmonizing well with his finely-formed and expressive features, over which there hung a deep shade. of languor and pensiveness; his figure was tall, and while discharging the duties of his sacred office, his air and manner were truly apostolic.

GRAHAM,, the celebrated marquis of Montrose, was born in the year 1612, and succeeded to his father, John, earl of Montrose, in 1626, being then only fourteen years of age. As he was the only son of the family, he was persuaded by his friends to marry soon after, which greatly retarded his education. Preceptors were, however, brought into his house, and by assiduous study he became a tolerable proficient in the Latin and Greek languages. He afterwards travelled into foreign parts, where he spent some years in the attainment of modern languages, and practising the various exercises then in vogue. He returned to Scotland about the year 1634, with the reputation of being one of the most accomplished gentlemen of the age. Being a man of large expectations, and meeting with a reception at court which he considered not equal to his merits, he, on the fifteenth of November, 1637, joined the Tables at Edinburgh, to the great dismay of the bishops; who, according to Guthrie, " thought it time to prepare for a storm, when he engaged." That the reader may be at no loss to understand our narrative, it may not be improper here to inform him that the Tables were committees for managing the cause of the people in the contest they, were at this time engaged in with the court for their religion and liberties: they were in number four one for the nobility, another for the gentry, a third for the burghs, a fourth for the ministers; and there was a special one, consisting of delegates from each of the four. The Table of the nobility, we may also remark, consisted of the lords Rothes, Lindsay, Loudon, and Montrose: the two latter of whom were unquestionably the ablest and probably the most efficient members. In point of zeal, indeed, at this period Montrose seems to have exceeded all his fellows. When Traquair published the king's proclamation approving of the Service Book, Montrose stood not only on the scaffold beside Mr Archibald Johnston, while he read the protestation in name of the Tables, but got up, that he might overlook the crowd, upon the end of a puncheon; which gave occasion to the prophetic jest of Rothes, recorded with solemn gravity by Gordon of Straloch "James, you will never be at rest till you be lifted up there above your fellows in a rope; which was afterwards," he adds, "accomplished in earnest in that same place, and some even say that the same supporters of the scaffold were made use of at Montrose's execution." The Tables having prepared for renewing the national covenant, it was sworn by all ranks, assembled at Edinburgh, on the last of February and first of March, 1638; and, in a short time, generally throughout the kingdom. In this celebrated transaction, Montrose was a leading actor. In preparing, swearing, and imposing the covenant, especially in the last, no man seems to have been more zealous.