288 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
In prompting this compliment to the American General, vanity had probably
no inconsiderable influence ; for, perhaps, there never lived an individual who
thought so much of himself, or one who, in what he said or did, had his own
glorification more in view. Some amusing anecdotes respecting him have
recently appear& in Fraser’s Magmine ; and in the Town Eclogue the reverend
author has thus satirised the foibles of the Earl :l-
“ His brain with ill-assorted fancies stor’d,
Like shreds and patches on a tailor’s board ;
Women, and Whigs, and poetry, and pelf,
And ev’ry corner stuff‘d with mighty self-
With scraps and puffs, and comments without end,
On prince and patriot, parasite and friend ;
Vaunting his worth-how all the great caress’d ;
How Hamilton dined, and how the Duchess dress’d ;
And Ariosto sang the BUCHANcr est.”
After all, vain as his lordship undoubtedly was, and mean as many of his
actions may be characterised, still, as the Editor of the Percy Letters remarks,
“he is entitled to more credit than is usually allowed him. By his laudable
economy he retrieved the fortunes of the ancient family he represented
-an exampIe which it would not be unwise for many of our noblemen to
follow; he paid off every farthing of debt left by his predecessor-a step
equally worthy of imitation ; he begrudged no labour which might advance the
interests of science and literature, and he spared no pains to promote the
success of tlose whom he deemed worthy of his patronage. With these merits,
his personal vanity may be overlooked, and even his parsimony be forgiven, for
we all know how difficult it is to eradicate early habits-habits, too, engendered
at a period when these acquisitions were a merit rather than a demerit ; for,
never let it be forgotten that, besides gradually paying off debts for which he
was not legally responsible, he for years submitted to the severest privation,
to enable him suitably to maintain and bring up his brothers, Henry and
Thomas.”
Lord Buchan contributed largely to the periodical works of his timeparticularly
to the <G‘ entleman’s Magazine,”, the “ Scots Magazine,” and still
more particularly to the “ Bee.” In 1812 he collected the stray productions, of
which he published one volume at Edinburgh, entitled <T‘ he Anonymous and
Fugitive Pieces of the Earl of Buchan.” The preface announced the succession
of other volumes, but no more ever appeared. To Grose’s “Antiquities of
Scotland,” his lordship furnished the “ Description of Dryburgh.”
Amongst other extraordinary exhibitions got up by his lordship, was a sort of assembly, upon
Mount Parnassus, of Apollo and the nine Muses. The scene of action was his lordship’s drawingroom,
where he presided over the smoking tea-urn, crowned with a garland of bays-nine young ladies of
the first rank in Edinburgh enacted the Muses. To complete the tableaux, the noble Lord thought
that the presence of Cupid was indispensable ; and the astonishment of the Muses and the company
present may be conceived, when the door opened, and a blooming boy of ten or twelve years of age
entered as the god of love, with his bow and quiver-but in purk nuturdibuo I I
Letters from Bishop Percy to George Paton, dbc.
