B I0 GRAPH I GAL S.KE T C HE S. 185
No. LXXVIII.
THE MARQUIS OF HUNTLY,
AFTERWARDS
DUKE OF GORDON.
THIS Print represents the MARQUISO F HUNTLYw,h en about the age of twentyone.
His first entry
on public life was by adopting the profession of arms, and in being appointed
Captain of an independent company of Highlanders raised by himself in 1790.
and with which he joined the 42d Regiment, or Royal Highlanders, the following
year. Shortly afterwards, the regiment remained nearly a twelvemonth in
Edinburgh Castle, during which period Kay embraced the opportunity of etching
the “ Highland Chieftain.”
In 1792 he entered the 3d Regiment of Foot Guards as Captain-lieutenant.
In 1793, when orders were issued by his Majesty to embody seven regiments of
Scottish fencibles, the Duke of Gordon not only raised the Gordon Fencibles,
but the Marquis made an offer to furnish a regiment for more extended service.
Early in 1794 he accordingly received authority for this purpose, and so much
did the family enter into the spirit of constitutional loyalty, that, besides the
Marquis, both the Duke and Duchess of Gordon “ recruited in their own person.”
The result of such canvassing was soon manifest ; in the course of three months
the requisite numbers were completed, and the corps embodied at Aberdeen on
the 24th June. As a matter of course the Marquis was appointed Lieutenantcolonel
Commandant.
The first movement of the “ Gordon Highlanders” was to England, where
they joined the camp at Netley Common, in Southamptonshire, and were
entered in the list of regular troops as the 100th regiment. They were soon
afterwards despatched to the Mediterranean, where the Marquis acconipanied
them, and where they remained for several years. Leaving his regiment at
Gibraltar, his lordship embarked on board a packet at Corunna, on his passage
home ; but, after having been three days at sea, the vessel was taken by a French
privateer, and the Marquis was plundered of every thing valuable : he was then
He was born at Edinburgh on the 1st of February 1770.
The daring exploit-a race on horseback, from the Abbey Strand, at the foot of the Canongate,
to the Castle gate-betwixt the Marquis and another sporting nobleman, which occurred about this
period, will be remembered by many of the inhabitants of Edinburgh.
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