384 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
attempted to destroy the distillery ; but a strong guard of military having been
placed at the works, and another numerous body of the 9th Regiment, under
Colonel Campbell, being posted in readiness, the rioters were kept at bay, and
contented themselves with burning a hay-stack and some barrels, which they
found not far from the premises,
So much was the spirit of mischief abroad at that period, that the same
night a vast crowd assembled at Ford, about ten miles from Edinburgh, and
attacked an extensive distillery belonging to Mr. Reid, which they burned to
the ground. On the 8th of September following, two of the rioters at Canonmills,
in pursuance of their sentence, were whipped through the streets of Edinburgh,
and afterwards transported for fourteen years.
In person, Colonel Campbell was considered extremely handsome, being of
a more light and agile form than is indicated in the Print, He was remarkable
for carelessness in matters of dress, and an indifference to the advantages
of a fine exterior.
His only brother and successor, Archibald,
rose to the rank of Major in the second battalion of the Royals; and in 1794
was a prisoner at Toulon, having gone in there after it had been evacuated. He
resided at Blythswood House, in the county of Renfrew. He was for several
years Member of Parliament for the city of Glasgow.
A great part of what is called the New Town, or West End of Glasgow, is
built on the Blythswood property.
The Colonel was not married.
No. CLIII.
THE HON. BASIL COCHRANE,
AND
JAMES EDGAR, ESQ.,
COMMISSIONERS OF THE CUSTOMS,
COMMISSIONER COCHRANE, the tall, straight personage to the left,
was the seventh son of William Cochrane of Ochiltree, a branch of the
Dundonald family.‘ He entered the army at an early period, and rose to the
His elder brother, Thomas, became eighth earl of Dundonald. In the TmdilionS Of EdinbuTgh,
under the section “HyndEord’s Close,” the following notices occur :--“In the b tfl at of the house
on the east side of the Close, which ia remarkable for having a row of ten windows to the street over
the piazzas opposite to the Fountain Well, lived the Hon. Thomas hhrane of Ochdtree, better
known in his time by the name of Commissioner Cochrane, being one of the Commissioners of Excise
for Scotland. Thia gentleman, who in 1758 became eighth Earl of Dundonald, waa dascended of