316 B I0 GR A PHI C AL SKETCHES.
“ Their massy boughs, compact on high,
Seasons with all their storms defy-
While some scant brook that oozes by,
Unheeded and unknown,
Slow on each hidden fibre preys-
Loosens amain the earth-fast base ;
And far the forest wonder lays,
A thundering ruin prone !
“ Thus, thus, lamented chiefs ! ye fell
From glory’s loftiest pinnacle,
By destiny severe :
Ere, tranced in Rorrow, we had paid
Due rites to Blair‘s illustrious shade,
With heart-struck woe we hung dismay’d
O’er Melville’s honoured bier.”
As a memorial of respect to his high talents, and to mark the estimation in
which he was held, a statue of the Lord President Blair, by Chantrey, is placed
in the First Division of the Inner-House of the Court of Session.
Mr. Blair married Isabella Cornelia Halkett, youngest daughter of Colonel
Charles Craigie Halkett of Lawhill, Fifeshire. He left one son and three
daughters-one of whom was the wife of Alexander Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank,
one of the Senators of the College of Justice, and a Lord of Justiciary.
About twenty years previous to his lordship’s death he purchased the small
estate of Avontoun, near Linlithgow, beautifully situated, and which continued
always to be his favourite residence. He took great pleasure in agricultural
improvements, and brought it to the highest state of cultivation. The town
residence of the family in 1773 was upon the north side of the passage
between Brown and Argyle Squares,’
No. CXXIX.
THE HON. ROBERT DUNDAS OF ARNISTON,
LORD ADVOCATE OF SCOTLAND.
THIS gentleman has already been amply noticed in NO. XLVIII. The likeness
of him there given was done in 1790, immediately subsequent to his having
been appointed Lord Advocate of Scotland. The present Portrait was executed
nine years later, and represents him, while he still. held that office, in the attititde
of addressing the bench.
1 The house was purchased by Mr. Blair from the Dutch ladies, the Miss Craawfurds.