206 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Ainslie Place.
To the philosopher we have already referred in
our account of Lothian Hut, in the Horse Wynd.
In 1792 he published the first volume of the
?Philosophy of the Human Mind,? and in the
following year he read before the Royal Society of
Edinburgh his account of the life and writings of
Adam Smith.; and his other works are too wellknown
to need enumeration here. On the death
of his wife, in 1787, he married Helen D?Arcy
Cranstoun, daughter of the Hon. George Cranstoun,
who, it is said, was his equal in intellect, if
superior in blood. She was the sister of the
Countess Purgstall (the subject of Basil Hall?s
? Schloss Hainfeldt ?) and of Lord Corehouse, the
tiiend of Sir Walter Scott.
Though the least beautiful of a family iq which
beauty is hereditary, she had (according to the
Quarter& Review, No. 133) the best essence of
beauty, expression, a bright eye beaming with intelligence,
a manner the most distinguished, yet
soft, feminine, and singularly winning. On her illfavoured
Professor she doted with a love-match
devotion; to his studies and night lucubrations
she sacrificed her health and rest; she was his
amanuensis and corrector at a time when he was
singularly fortunate in his pupils, who never forgot
the charm of her presence, the instruction they
won, and the society they enjoyed, in the house of
Dugald Stewart Among these were the Lords
Dudley, Lansdowne, Palmerston, Kinnaird, and
Ashburton. In all his after-life he maintained a
good fellowship with them, and, in 1806, obtained
the sinecure office of Gazefie writer for Scotland,
with A600 per annum.
Her talent, wit, and beautymade the wife of the
Professor one of the most attractive women in the
city. ?( No wonder, therefore,? says the Quarfero,
?that her saloons were the resort of all that was
the best of Edinburgh, the house to which strangers
most eagerly sought introduction. In her Lord
Dudley found indeed a friend, she was to him in
the place of a mother. His respect for her was
unbounded, and continued to the close; often
have we seen him, when she was stricken in years,
seated near her for whole evenings, clasping her
hand in both of his. Into her faithful ear he
poured his hopes and his fears, and unbosomed his
inner soul ; and with her he maintained a constant
correspondence to the last.?
Her marriage with the Professor came about in a
singular manner. When Miss Cranstoun, she had
written a poem, which was accidentally shown by
her cousin, the Earl of Lothian, to Dugald Stewart,
then his private tutor, and unknown to fame ; and
?he was so enraptured with it, and so warm in his
commendations, that the authoress and her critic
fell in love by a species of second-sight, before their
first interview, and in due time were made one.
Dugald Stewart died at his house in Ainslie
Place, on Wednesday, the 11th June, 1828, after a
short but painful illness, when in the seventy-fifth
year of his age, having been born in the old College
of Edinburgh in 1753, when his father was professor
of mathematics. His long life had been
devoted to literature and science. He had acquired
a vast amount of information, profound as it was
exact, and possessed the faculty of memory in a
singular degree. As a public teacher he was
fluent, animated, and impressive, with great dignity
and grace in his manner.
He was buried in the Canongate churchyard.
The funeral procession proceeded as a private one
from Ainslie Place at, three in the afternoon ; but
on reaching the head of the North Bridge it was
joined by the Senatus Academicus in their gowns
(preceded by the mace bearer) two and two, the
junior members in front, the Rev. Principal Baird
in the rear, together with the Lord Provost, magistrates
and council, with their officers and regalia.
He left a widow and two children, a son and
daughter, the former of whom, Lieutenant-Colonel
Matthew Stewart, published an able pamphlet on
Indian affairs. His widow, who holds a high
place among writers of Scottish song, survived him
ten years, dying in July, 1838.
The Very Rev. Edward Bannerman Ramsay,
LL.D. and F.R.S.E., a genial writer on several
subjects, but chiefly known for his ? Reminiscences
of Scottish Life and Character,? was long the occupant
of No. 23. He was the fourth son of Sir
Alexander Ramsay, Bart., of Balmaine, in Kincardineshire,
and was a graduate of St. John?s College,
Cambridge. His degree of LL.D. was given him
by the University of Edinburgh, on the installation
of Mr. Gladstone as Lord Rector in 1859. He
held English orders, and for seven years had been
a curate in Somersetshire. His last and most
successful contribution to literature was derived
from his long knowledge of Scottish character. He
was for many years Dean of the Episcopal Church
in Scotland, and as a Churchman he always advocated
moderate opinions, both in ritual and doctrine.
He died on the 27th December, 1872, in
the seventy-ninth year of hi5 age.
In the summer of 1879 amemorial to his memory
was erected at the west end of Princes Street,
eastward of St. John?s Church, wherein he so long
officiated. It is a cross of Shap granite, twenty-six
feet in height, having a width of eight feet six
inches from end to end of the arms. At the height
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