room where she was wont to say her prayers-such
private oratories being common in most of the
Edinburgh houses of the time-and the window of
which overlooked the High Street, Thereat he
showed himself, w dhhabiZZt, to the people passing,
an exhibition which so seriously affected the repuwith
violence. Once-we regret to record it of so
heroic a soldier-when transported beyond the
bounds of reason, he gave her a blow on the face
with such severity as to draw blood; and then,
all unconscious of what he had done, fell asleep.
Poor Lady Stair, overwhelmed by such an insult,
THE LAWNMARKET, FROM THE SITE OF THE WEIGH-HOUSE, 1825. (AfIrEzu6ank.)
tation of the young widow, that she saw the necessity
ot accepting him as her husband.
Lady Eleanor was happier as Countess of Stair
than she had ever been as Viscountess Primrose ;
5ut the Earl had one failing-a common one
enough among gentlemen in those days-a disposition
to indulge in the bottle, and then his temper
was by no means improved; thus, on coming
home he more than once treated the Countess
and recalling perhaps much that she had endured
with Lord Primrose, made no attempt to bind up
the wound, but threw herself on a sofa, and wept
and bled till morning dawned. When the Earl
awoke, her bloody and dishevelled aspect filled
him with horror and dismay. ?What has happened
? How came you to be thus 2? he exclaimed.
She told him of his conduct over-night, which filled
him with shame-such shame and compunction,
MARSHAL STAIR. 105 Lady Stair?s closol
House of Lords and Court of Session. In support
of what he stated, Dundonald, in a letter to
that he made a vow never again to take any species
of drink, unless it had first passed through her
hands; and this vow he kept religiously till the
day of his death, which took place on the 9th
April, 1747, at Queensberry House in the Canongate,
when he was in his seventy-fifth year. He
was General of the Marines, Governor of Minorca,
Colonel of the Greys, and Knight of the Thistle.
He was buried in the family vault at Kirkliston,
and his funeral is thus detailed in the Scots Magazine
for 1747 :-
when the procession began, as a signal to the
garrison in the Castle, when the flag was half
hoisted, and minute guns fired, till the funeral was
clear of the city.
With much that was irreproachable in her character,
Lady Stair was capable of ebullitions of temper,
and of using terms that modem taste would deem
objectionable. The Earl of Dundonald had stated to
the Duke of Douglas that Lady Stair had expressed
her doubts concerning the birth of his nephewa
much-vexed question, at this time before the
THE LAWNMARKET, FROM ST. GILES?S, 1825.
I. Six bLton men, two and two. 2. A niourning
coach with four gentlemen ushers and the
Earl?s crest. 3. Another mourning coach with
three gentlemen ushers, and a friend carrying the
coronet on a velvet cushion. 4. Six ushers on
foot, with bgtons and gilt streamers. 5. The
corpse, under a dressed canopy, drawn by six
dressed horses, with the Earl?s achievement, within
the Order of the Thistle. 6. Chief mourners
in a coach and six. 7. Nine mourning coaches,
each drawn by six horses. 8. The Earl?s body
coach empty. 9. Carriages of nobility and gentry,
in order of rank?
A sky-rocket was thrown up in the Canongate
14
