THE COUNTESS OF AIRTH.

Ar the back of the palace of Holyrood House, within a lane called Croftangry, is an old house which two hundred years ago was the residence of the Earl of Airth, a clever but unfortunate nobleman, who was deprived by Charles I. of his previous title of Earl of Menteith, along with the presidency of the Privy Council, and other high offices, for having used the expression, "that he had the reddest blood in Scotland;" in which he alluded to his descent from a son of Robert II., then suspected (erroneously) to have been older than the son from whom his Majesty was descended.

This nobleman, like many both better and worse men, was afflicted with a bad wife;* respecting whom he has left a most amusing paper, from which we shall make the following apposite extract, being the third grand grievance in the list:

"This woefull wyse wife of myne made propositioune to me that she conceived it not honourabill for me to pay rent for ane house, as I did then for a little house I duelled in, besyde the church-yaird, pertaining to one Ridderfoord, who had it in heretage; bot that I should rather buy ane house heretablie; which foolish desyre of that wicked woman's I refuised, and toulde her that I knew not how long I should stay at Edinburch, and would not give my money to buy ane hous thair.

* Agnes, daughter of Patrick Lord Gray.

Bot

she replyed, that it would serve for ane house for my lands of Kinpount; which foolish answer of that wicked woman's showed her vanitie, and the great desyre she had to stay still in Edinburch; for the like was never heard, that the house standeth seven myles from the lands, Kinpount being seven myles from Edinburch. Alway. there being some things between the Earl of Linlithgow and me, he did offer to sell to me his hous, which he hade at the back of the Abbay of Halliroodhous, which sumtyme [formerly] belonged to the Lord Elphinstoune. The E. of Linlithgow and I, for the pryce of the hous, yairds, and grass yairds, at the pryce of eight thousand fyve hundreth merks, did agrie, and he disposed of them to me. And it was no ill pennieworth; for it was worth the money, hade my goode wyfe conteined herself so; bot shee thocht the house too little for my familie, though it was large aneugh. It is to be remarked also, that so soone as I removed from the little hous I dwelt in besyde the church-yaird, and came to remain in the hous I bocht from the E. of Linlithgow, at the back of the Abbay, that fals knave Traquair did instant come to reside in the litle house wherein I duelt befor, pretending that it wes to be neire the counsell of staite, which did sitt in the Abbay; bot it wes for ane uther end, that the villaine micht wirk his ends against me. And, presentlie efter this, I wente up to London; and I wes no sooner gone, but my wyfe sett to werke all sorte of tradesmen, such as quarriers, maissons, sklaitters, vrights, smiths, glasiers, painters, and plaisterers; and I may say treulie, that the money which she bestowed upon hir re-edifieing of that hous and gardens, wes twyse so much as I gave for the buying of them from the Earle of Linlithgow. So that in truth, that hous, and the gardens and orchards, and uther things which my wyse wyfe bestowed upon it, stoode me

in above 25,000 merks Scott money, bot I will only set doun heir 20,000. But after all this, when I wes to remove from Edinburch, I disponed to my son James, heretablie, that hous, gardens, and orchards, and grass yairds; and, within two years efter, or therby, that house took fyre accedintallie (as I conceave), and wes totallie burned, as it standeth now; and so became of everie thing that the unhappie woman, my wyfe, laid hir hand to. Bot this is nothing to that which will follow heirefter," and so forth.

"To quote another of My wyf and hir wyse actes,' namely, the second in the roll :—

"I, being ane other tyme in London, the Earle of Galloway made ane proposition to my prudent wyfe, of ane marriage to his eldest son, the Lord Garlies, to my second daughter, Margaret; which shee presentlie did give ear unto, without farther advysment, and contracted and married them before I returned from London. . . . Now, I pray, consider how unfitting ane match this west for me. First, my father and the Earl of Galloway were cousin-germans; and then our estate lying at so great ane distance the one from the uther; and I am sure I might have married thrie of my daughters to thrie barouns lying besyd me, with that portion I gave to Galloway, any one of which would have been more usfull to me than the Earl of Galloway. They had children, bot they all died; so that money was as much lost to me as if I had castin it in the sea.”

It appears that the unfortunate Earl afterwards disposed of his house at the Abbey to his majesty, but never received the payment. He died in great embarrassment, and was succeeded by his grandson, who also died in impoverished circumstances (1694), and was the last inheritor of the titles Airth and Menteith. The last earl, being at one time obliged to retire to the

sanctuary of Holyrood for protection against his creditors, applied to his kinsman and vassal, Malise Graham, at Glaschoil, on the southern shore of Loch Katrine, for such a supply of money, or such security, as might relieve him. "Faithful to the call of his liege lord, Melise instantly quitted his home, dressed like a plain Highlander of those days, travelling alone, and on foot. Arriving at the Earl's lodgings, he knocked for admittance, when a well-dressed person opening the door, and commiserating his apparent poverty, tendered him a small piece of money. Malise was in the act of thankfully receiving it, when his master advancing, perceived him, and chid him for doing a thing which, done by his pecuniary friend, might tend to shake his credit more than ever. The Highlander, making his appropriate obeisance, but with the utmost nonchalance, took from his bosom a purse, and handing it to his lordship, addressed him in the following words in Gaelic :

"Here, my lord, see and clear your way with that. As for the gentleman who had the generosity to hand me the halfpenny, I would have had no objection to accept of every halfpenny he had."

The story declares, that his lordship's necessity was completely relieved, and that he instantly returned with his faithful vassal to his castle in the Loch of Menteith."

LADY RUSSELL.

RACHEL WRIOTHESLEY, afterwards Lady Russell, the noblest Heroine of the Peerage, was the second daughter of the celebrated Earl of Southampton,* by his first wife, likewise named Rachel, daughter of Henry de Massey, Baron of Rovigny. She was born in 1636; but we have no account of the circumstances of her early years. Biography is equally silent as to the time of her marriage to Francis Lord Vaughan; upon whose death, about the year 1669, she wedded a second husband, in the person of William Lord Russell, eldest son of William second Earl of Bedford, by Anne, daughter of Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset.

There appears some colour for the supposition that Lady Russell had hitherto not been quite satisfied with the state of wedlock. Whatever were the merits of her deceased lord, therefore, she readily gave her affection to his successor. "When marriages are so very early," she observes in one of her letters, perhaps not without some remembrance of her former match, "it is accepting, rather than choosing, on either side."

• Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, was not only an eminent statesman, but also a patron of genius; for he presented Shakspeare with 1000l. to assist the poet in completing some purchase he had in hand; and he was supposed, not without reason, to have been connected with him in some of his finest writings. This nobleman died May 16, 1667.