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 exclaimed, ‘But, sir, we have Lord Kames,’ Johnson replied, ‘You have Lord Kames. Keep him, ha, ha, ha! We don't envy you him’ (, Johnson, ii. 53). His ‘Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion,’ though written with the object of combating some of Hume's doctrines, raised suspicions of his own orthodoxy, and a formal charge of heresy was brought against him before the presbytery of Edinburgh, which was, however, dismissed. Dugald Stewart considered that Kames's ‘Elements of Criticism’ possessed, ‘in spite of its numerous defects both in point of taste and of philosophy, infinite merits’ (‘First Preliminary Dissertation,’ Encyclop. Brit., 8th edit., i. 222). Johnson styled it ‘a pretty essay … though much of it is chimerical,’ and Goldsmith flippantly said that it was ‘easier to write that book than to read it’ (, Life of Johnson, i. 393–4, ii. 90).

‘As a judge,’ Tytler observed, ‘his opinions and decrees were dictated by an acute understanding, an ardent feeling of justice, and a perfect acquaintance with the jurisprudence of his country’ (Memoirs, i. 208). Tytler ascribes his severity in criminal cases to his innate abhorrence of vice (ib. ii. 2). In person Kames was extremely tall and thin, and his countenance, ‘though not handsome, was animated and intelligent,’ and kindly in expression (ib. ii. 329). His vivacity was always great, and he even indulged in practical jokes. His humour was coarse, and his language on the bench often unseemly. Sir Walter Scott makes an allusion to this peculiarity of Kames in the first chapter of ‘Redgauntlet,’ and Cockburn relates that when Kames ‘tried Matthew Hay, with whom he used to play at chess, for murder at Ayr in September 1780, he exclaimed when the verdict of guilty was returned, “That's checkmate for you, Matthew!”’—an anecdote which was wrongly fathered on Braxfield by Lockhart in the first edition of his ‘Life’ of Scott (, Memorials, 1856, p. 117). During the vacations Kames occupied much of his time in superintending the operations of his farm servants, ‘directing and even aiding their labours’ (Memoirs, i. 155). As an amateur agriculturist he acquired considerable reputation, and his ‘Gentleman Farmer’ was a valuable addition to the general stock of agricultural knowledge. He improved with notable success that portion of the moss of Kincardine which formed part of the Blair Drummond estate (Encyclopædia Britannica, 3rd edit., xii. 389–97). At Blair Drummond also he formed a winter garden on an original plan.

He married in 1741 Agatha, younger daughter of James Drummond, of Blair Drummond, Perthshire. His wife succeeded in 1766 to the estate of Blair Drummond. Their only son, George Home-Drummond, married, on 11 Oct. 1782, Janet, daughter of the Rev. John Jardine, D.D., an Edinburgh minister, and died on 28 Oct. 1819, leaving issue. The present possessor of the estate is Charles Stirling-Home-Drummond-Moray, who possesses a portrait by D. Martin of his great-grandfather, Lord Kames (cf. Cat. Loan Exhibition of Scottish National Portraits, Edinburgh, 1884, No. 509). An engraving from an original drawing of Kames by D. Martin, then in the possession of A. F. Tytler, lord Woodhouselee, forms the frontispiece to the first volume of the ‘Memoirs’ (1814), and two etchings of Kames will be found in the first volume of Kay's ‘Original Portraits’ (Nos. 5 and 132). There is also a portrait of Kames by an unknown artist in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Catalogue, No. 34*). Kames contributed three papers to ‘Essays and Observations Physical and Literary, read before the Philosophical Society in Edinburgh,’ 1771 (i. 1–78, iii. 68–79, 80–99), and was the author of the following works: 1. ‘Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session from 1716 to 1728,’ Edinb., 1728, fol. 2. ‘Essays upon several Subjects in Law, scil. Jus tertii, Beneficium Cedendarum actionum, Vinco Vincentem. Prescription,’ anon., Edinburgh, 1732, 8vo. 3. ‘The Decisions of the Court of Session from its first institution to the present time. Abridged and digested under proper heads in form of a Dictionary. Collected from a great number of Manuscripts never before published, as well as the Printed Decisions,’ Edinb., 1741, fol., 2 vols.; second edition, ditto. Vols. iii. and iv. were compiled by Alexander Fraser Tytler, an edition of which appeared in 1797, Edinb., fol.; and a ‘Supplement to Volumes Third and Fourth of the Dictionary of Decisions, containing all the omitted cases, abridged and digested under proper heads,’ by T. M'Grugor, was published anonymously in 1804, Edinb., fol. 4. ‘Essays upon several Subjects concerning British Antiquities, viz. I. Introduction of the Feudal Law into Scotland. II. Constitution of Parliament. III. Honour, Dignity. IV. Succession or Descent. With an Appendix upon Hereditary and Indefeasible Right. Composed anno .,’ anon., Edinb. 1747, 8vo; the second edition, London, 1749, 8vo; the third edition, with additions and alterations, Edinb., 1763, 12mo; another edition, Edinb., 1797, 12mo. 5. ‘Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, in two parts,’ anon., Edinb., 1751, 8vo; the