Edinburgh Bookshelf

Kay's Originals Vol. 1

Search

422 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. obtained permission to relieve the Clerk of his usual duty. He commenced with great confidence, quite satisfied of the impression he would make upon the Peers assembled. His amazement and vexation may be imagined when the Chancellor (Thurlow), after endeavouring in vain to comprehend what he was uttering, exclaimed-‘‘ Mr. Col-co-hon, I will thank you to give that paper to t,he Clerk, as I do not understand Welsh.” The discomfited writer was thunderstruck- he could hardly believe his own ears; but, alas! there was no remedy. He reluctantly surrendered the paper to the Clerk ; and his feelings of mortification were not a little increased as he observed the opposite agent (who had come from Edinburgh with him) endeavouring with difficulty to suppress a strong inclination to laugh.’ He had several children, mostly daughters, whom he left well provided for, and who were all respectably married. The estates of Kincaird and Petnacree, in Perthshire, which he had purchased, were left to his son, Lieutenant Charles Grant, who, after his unfortunate duel in 1759; retired from the army, and became melancholy and unhappy. Having sat for his likeness, two excellent miniature Portraits of Mr. Colquhoun Grant were executed by Kay-one of which is possessed by Mr. Maclean, and the other by the Publisher of this work. ’&fr. Grant died at Edinburgh on the 2d December 1792. 1 During the discussion on the Scots Reform Bill in Parliament, a very eminent and accomplished Scots M.P., who, like Mr. Colquhoun Grant, had for a long series of years imagined he spoke the English language to perfection, addressed the House in a strain, as he conceived, of impassioned eloquence and convincing argument. What effect it produced upon the auditors we know not, but next day it was announced in some of the public journals that the “- - had addressed the House in a long and no doubt very able speech, which we regret we could not follow, as it was given in broad Scotch.” Itfr. Francis Foulke, of Dublin, the other party, was at the time a student in the University of Edinburgh, and one of the Presidents of the Natural History Society, aud of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. The affair originated in a petty quarrel about a dog :- “.On Friday, December 18, Lieutenant Grant, with two companions, after having spent the evening together, were going home, when, meeting with Mr. Foulke and his party, a scuffle ensued, and next day Itfr. Foullie sent Lieutenant Grant a challenge by Mr. P--. Owing to certain reports relative to Mr. Fonlke, Lieutenant Grant did not think himself called upon to accept the challenge, but took the advice of other officers, who were of opinion that Lieutenant Grant ought not to give Mr. Foulke a meeting without satisfyiug himself of the truth of these reports. In the meantime Mr. P- had an interview with Lieuteuant Graut, who still declined to accept, on which Mr. Foulke posted him in the coffee-houses. Lieutenant Grant having upon inquiry found that Mr, Foulke’s character was eTery way unexceptionable, and that on a late occasion he had behaved with great honour, wm willing to give him every satisfaction, and was on his way for that purpose when he met Captain Lundie, who told him that a placard was posted up in the Exchange Coffee-house, couched in the following terms :-‘ That Charles Grant, of the 55th Regiment, has behaved unbecoming a man ’ of honour and a gentleman, is thus publicly asserted.-P.S. The person who makes this declaration has left his name at the bar.’ Along with this was left a slip of paper, on which was written ‘ FRANCFISO ULKE.’M r.. Grant that evening sent a message by Mr. M-, who understood that the parties were to meet on Tuesday morning at nine o’clock. From some misunderstanding, however, Mr. Foulke and his friend imagined that it wasMr. M- (who delivered the message), and not Mr. Grant, that he was to fight ; and when the gentlemen met in the King’s Park, Mr. Foulke expressed his surprise at seeing Mr. Grant, and said that he expected to meet Mr. M- (who attended as Lieutenant Grant’s second). Mr. M- expressed his willingness to meet Mr. Foulke, but thir a The following is an account of the duel.
Volume 8 Page 586
  Shrink Shrink   Print Print