232 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
The death of his second countess left the earl
free to win the prize and fulfil the nursery predictions.
? Admirers of a youthful, impassioned,
and sonnet-making cast might have trembled at
his approach to the shrine of their divinity, for
his lordship was one of those titled suitors who,
lifetime, it is not surprising that many interesting
particulars concerning her have been preserved and
handed down to us. She had a grace and bearing
all her own; hence the Eglinton air and the
Eglinton manner were long proverbial in Edinburgh
after she had passed away. Her seven
FLESHMARKET CLOSE. (From a Vicurpvhishd in 1845.)
however old and horrible, are never rejected except
in novels and romances ;? and though Sir John
Clerk had declared his passion, he did so in vain,
and his lovely Susanna became Countess of Eglinton
about the year of the Union.
To the charms of her personal appearance were
added the more powerful attractions of genius and
great accomplishments. Possessing these, in the
elevated position which she occupied during a?long
daughters were all handsome women, and it was
deemed indeed a goodly sight to see the long procession
of eight gilded sedans issue from the Stamp
Office Close, bearing her and her stately brood to
the Assembly Room, amid a crowd that was hushed
with respect and admiration, ?to behold their
lofty and graceful figures step from the chairs on
the pavement. It could not fail to be a remarkable
sight-eight singularly beautiful women, conspicuous
