112 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
the poor fellow’s life, having found him fast asleep, in a cold wintry night
among the snow near the Meadow Cage.
Finding old age and frailty stealing upon him, in 1805 Lauchlan made an
unsuccessful application to the Marquis of Hastings, then Earl of Moira, who
was at the time Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Scotland, to obtain a
pension in consequence of the long period of his service. Starvation or the
workhouse were now the veteran’s only alternatives. His philosophy preferred
the latter, and the interest of some friends procured him admission to the
Charity Workhouse. One would have thought that his weatherbeaten hulk had
at length found a quiet haven-but no ! genius, it has been remarked, is always
young, and the adventurous spirit of the warlike son of Mars could not subside
into inglorious quiescence. Old Lauchlan, at the age of ninety-six, was turned
out of barracks for an amour! The tender-hearted old nurse of the establishment
-some twenty years younger than himself-had shown him kindness during an
illness, ministering to his wants, and sometimes sitting at his bedside, receiving
with greedy ears his stories
“ Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth ’scapes in the imminent deadly breach.” . . . . “His story being done,
She gave him for his pains a world of sighs.”
One day, one unpropitious day, an evil eye beheld the simple pair at their feast
of sympathy, and such proceedings not being in accordance with the rules of the
establishment, they were both expelled. What could a man of spirit do in
such a dilemma ? Marriage could alone testify his gratitude to the gentle fair,
and his resentment of a harsh world‘s cruelty,
No. LIV.
THIS is a second Print of LAUCHLAN M‘BAIN, done in 1815. The cont.rast
in the “ altered gait ” of the two figures, is a striking illustration of the progress
of time. He is here represented, after his dismissal from the Workhouse, as
again employed in the disposal of his roasting-jacks ; but, alas ! the best of his
days were over. Like other geniuses, he found he had outlived his reputation j
and the useful implements in which he dealt, hardly enabled him to beat off
the wolf from his door. His wife continued to cling to him through all his
adversity, and it is said, helped to cheer the gloomy winter of his age and
fortunes. Lauchlan died in 1818, aged 102.
