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
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