I3 I0 GR AP HI C AL SKETCHES. 35 1
should be sorry to see his learned friend prevented from following this healthful
sport. Other property he understood was at the proprietor’s will, and exclusively
his own ; and he could not see why land was not alike sacred. If a
gentleman had no power to prevent another from following his sport on his
grounds, it might be carried to every species of sport. With regard to the law
allowing and encouraging hunting to preserve our nobility and gentry from
becoming effeminate, he saw little danger of this ; but, if they had no game to
pursue on their own grounds, let them ?runt upon th highway-perhaps this would
brace their nerves! As for the common people, they might attend to their
necessary avocations ; or, if that would not do, and if not allowed to hunt, they
might roll cannon bulls,’ which he saw was a new diversion likely to be introduced,
and which he believed they would find to be exercise enough to make them
hardy, without trespassing on their neighbour’s property, by hunting where they
had no right.
Lord Eskgove was one of the judges before whom Marerot, Skirving, and
Gerrald, the Reformers of 1793, were tried; and, making due allowance for
the difference of sentiment held on the principles involved in these trials, it
must be admitted that, in delivering his opinions on the various points brought
under the review of the bench, his arguments were acutely logical, and in strict
accordance with existing laws.’
On the death of Lord Eraxfield in 1799, Lord Eskgrove was promoted to be
Lord Justice-clerk, which office he filled with ability and integrity of character.
In 1804, the honour of a baronetage was conferred upon him as a mark of
Royal approbation ; but, being then far advanced in years, he did not long enjoy
his title.
Sir David Rae married in 1762 Margaret, daughter of Dougald Stewart,
Esq. of Blairhall, a near relative of the Earl of Bute and of Lady Ann Stewart,
daughter of Francis, Ear1 of Moray, by whom he had two sons and a daughter.
David, his successor, entered early into the army, and was at one time
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Middlesex Militia On his death he was succeeded
by his brother, Sir William Rae, who for many years was Sheriff of Edinburgh,
the arduous duties of which office he discharged with universal approbation. He
was appointed Lord Advocate upon the promotion of Lord Meadowbank in
1819, and held this high office down to the end of the year 1830. He was
again appointed Lord Advocate during Sir Robert Peel’s administration in
1835, and afterwards was elected member of Parliament for the county of Bute,
and a Privy Councillor.
Lord Eskgrove lived for many years in a house at the head of the Old
There used to be an old game, for which, in the Kirk-Session records, various transgressors of
the Sabbath-day used to be punished, called “ playing at the bulletzl ”-perhaps his lordship alluded
to this ; but it was not a new diversion, being very common during the seventeenth century. ’ It ought perhaps to be remembered, aa due to the characters of the judges who filled the bench
in 1793, that similar opinions were held by their suwesso~s, and the legality of their proceedings
confirmed twenty-seven years afterwards, in the case of Macleod, who was transported in 1821, for
his connection with an unstamped periodical, published in Glasgow, called the “Spirit of the Unio~”
He died on the 4th October of the same year.
