Edinburgh Bookshelf

Kay's Originals Vol. 1

Search

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 99 was said she afterwards formed a “ mesal2knce” with John (commonly called Jack) Fortune, a surgeon, who went abroad (brother of Matthew Fortune, who kept the Tontine, Princes Street)-both sons of old Fortune who kept the noted tavern in the High Street, the resort of the higher ranks in Scotland fifty years ago ;’ but Mrs. Fortune was a younger sister. Sir Hew’s family originally consisted of fifteen, several of whom died when young. The eldest daughter, Miss Mary, was married in 1775 to General Fletcher of Saltoun (then Campbell of Boquhan), and afterwards to Colonel John Hamilton of Bardowie, in Stirlingshire; and the second, Lucken, was married to General Gordon Cuming of Pitlurg, Aberdeenshire, by whom she had ten children. Mr. Kay mentions that the publication of this Print created great excitement at the time (1784), and was the cause of several articles being written pro and con in the periodicals of the day. Captain Crawford (brother to the lady) was very much irritated, and threatened to cudgel the limner, at the same time “ daring him at his peril to pencil any lady ever after.” As might have been expected, this threat had a very contrary effect-being immediately followed by an alteration of the Plate, making the head-dress of Miss Crawford a little more ridiculous, and also by the caricature of ‘‘ RETALIATIO;N O R THE CUDGELLER CAUGHT.” RETALIATION ; OR THE CUDGELLER CAUGHT, REPRESENTthSe gallant and high-minded Captain Crawford, who was then young, in the hands of a brawny porter, while his sister and her companion, Miss Hay of Montblairy, who then resided with her mother in Haddington’s Entry, Canongate, are lustily calling out for help. This caricature, however, is supposed to have been merely a flight of fancy, without any foundation in fact. Captain Crawford, afterwards Sir Hew, was a very handsome man. He married a Miss Johnston, of the county of Leitrim in Ireland, by whom he had two sons and three daughters. “On the 10th of October 1775, a wager w8s determined at Fortune’a tavern, Edinburgh, on the quality of the beef of two bullocks-one fed by the Duke of Buccleuch, the other by John Lumsdaine of Blanairn, Esq. A sirloin of each waa roasted ; and it took two men to carry each to the table. The wager was determined in favour of the Duke. Besides his Grace and Mr. Lumsdaine, there were a goodly number of other iioblemen, gentlemen, clergy, etc., at dinner-twenty-one in number--aZZ dressed in the nzanufactures of Scotland.” The Duke of Bucclench is well known to have been “ a great encourager of Scotch manufactures,” which were at that time in their infancy.-The Earl of Hopetoun, as Commissioner to the General kssembly, used to hold state in Fortune’s tavern ; and on election occasions the Scottish Peers frequently terminated the proceedings of the day by dining there. The premises were at an earlier period the town residence of the Earls of Eglinton.
Volume 8 Page 145
  Shrink Shrink   Print Print