209 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
ments of Major and Muster-Master General to the corps. The late Mr. Smellie
introduced the poet Burns to this corps in January 1787, when Lord Newton
and he were appointed to drill the hard, and they accordingly gave him a
most severe castigation. Burns showed his good-humour by retaliating in an
extemporaneous effusion,’ descriptive of Mr. Smellie, who held at that time the
honourable office of hangman to the corps.
The eccentricities of Lord Newton were frequently a source of merriment
amongst his friends. He had an unconquerable antipathy to punning, and in
order to excite the uneasiness he invariably exhibited at all attempts of that
nature, they studiously practised this novel species of punishment in his
company.
His lordship had two estates (Newton and Faichfield), and was fond of
agricultural improvements ; although, like most other lawyers who cultivate
their own lands, he did not know much about farming. One day, when shown
a field of remarkably large turnips, he observed that, in comparison, those on
his own grounds were only like “ gouf ba’s ” (golf balls),-an expression which
his waggish friends frequently afterwards turned to his annoyance, by asking
him how his “ gouf ba’s ” were looking.
We have already mentioned that Lord Newton was an uncompromising Whig.
From his independent avowal of principles, and occasional vehement declamation
against measures which he conceived to be wrong, he was dubbed by his
opponents the “Mighty Goth.” This, however, was only in the way of goodnatured
banter : no man, perhaps, passed through life with fewer enemies, even
among those who were his political opponents. All bore testimony to his
upright conduct as a judge-to his talents as a lawyer-and to his honesty as
a man.
Lord Newton died at Powrie, in Forfarshire, on the 19th of October 181 1.’
His lordship, who is understood not to have relished fernale society, was never
married ; and the large fortune which he left was inherited by his only sister,
Mrs. Hay Mudie, for whom he always entertained the greatest affection.
This excellent piece of good-natured satire appeara in Bums’ Works under the title of {‘A Fragment.”
9 Lord Newton, when an advocate, continued to wear the gown of Lockhart, “Lord Covington,”
till it was in tatters, and at last had a new one made with a fragment of the neck of the original
sewed into it, whereby he could still make it his boast that he wore “Covington’s gown.” Lord
Covington died in 1782, in the eighty-second year of his age. He practised for upwards of half a
century at the bar previous to his elevation to the bench in 1775. He and his friend, Ferguson of
Pitfour, rendered themselves conspicuous by becoming voluntary counsel for the unfortunate priaonem
tried at Carlisle in 1746, for their concern in the Rebellion, and especially by the ingenious means
they devised to shake the wholesale accusations against them.
The linea will be found inserted in our sketch of Mr. Smellie.
