208 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Great Stuart Street.
shire, and of Amelia, daughter of Alexander Graham,
of Duntrune, who died in 1804 and was thus
the last lineal representative of Claverhouse.
In addition to her accomplishments, she possessed
wit and invention in a high degree, and was
always lively, kind, and hospitable. She had a
keen perception of the humorous, and was well
known in Edinburgh society in the palmy days of
Jeffrey. Gifted with great powers of mimicry, her
personifications at
private parties were
so unique, that
even those who
knew her best were
deceived. One of
the most amusing
of these took place
in 18z1, at the
house of Jeffrey.
He asked her to
give a personation
of an old lady, to
which she consented,
but, in
order to have a
little amusement at
his expense, she
called upon him
in the character of
a ? Lady Pitlyal,?
to ask his professional
opinion
upon an imaginary
law plea, which she
alleged her agent
was misconducting.
On this occasion
she drove up to
his house in? the
carriage of Lord
Gillies, accompagood
humour. Her conversation, so far as I have
had the advantage of hearing it, is shrewd and
sensible, but noways brilliant. She dined with us,
went off as to the play, and returned in the character
of an old Scottish lady. Her dress and behaviour
were admirable, and her conversation
unique. I was in the secret of course, and did
my best to keep up the ball, but she cut me out of
all feather. The prosing account she gave of her
WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN.
(F7m a Ph&-ra#h ay MCSSYX. Ross and Tbmsa.)
nied by a young lady as her daughter, and so
complete was the personification, that the acute
Jeffrey did not discover till next day that he had
been duped ! This episode created so much amusement
in Edinburgh that it fdund its way into
the pages of Blachood. Sir Walter Scott, who
was a spectator of Miss Graham?s power of personation,
wrote thus regarding it :-
Went to my Lord Gillies to dinner,
and witnessed a singular exhibition of personification.
Miss Stirling Graham, a lady of the family
from which Claverhouse was descended, looks like
thuty years old, and has a face of the Scottish cast,
with good expression, in point of good sense and
? March 7.
son, the antiquary,
who found an old
ring in a slate
quarry, was extremely
ludicrous,
and she puzzled
the professor of
agriculture with a
merci!ess account
of the succession
of crops in the
parks around her
old mansion house.
No person to
whom the secret
was not entrusted
had the least guess
of an impostor,
except the shrewd
young lady present,
who.observed
the hand narrowly,
and saw that it
was plumper than
the age of the lady
seemed to warrant.
This lady and Miss
Bell, of Coldstream,
have this
gift of personation
to a much greater
degree than any
person I ever saw.? Miss Graham published in
1S29 the ?Bee Preserver,? translated from the
work of M. de Gelieu, for which she received the
medal of the Highland Society. She possessed a
large circle of friends, and never had an enemy.
Her friend William Edmondstoune Aytoun died
on the 4th August, 1865, sincerely regretted by all
who knew him, and now lies under a white marble
monument in the beautiful cemetery at the Dean.
Charles Baillie, Lord Jerviswoode, who may well
be deemed by association one of the last of the
historical Lords of Session, for years was the occupant
of No. 14, Randolph Crescent, and his name
is one which awakens many sad and gentle
