BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 107
attainted Earl of Linlithgow, and who succeeded eventually upon the death of
her aunt to the title of Errol, was naturally desirous of recovering her father’s
possessions, but she only survived the execution of her husband a short time.
Her descendants,’ it was said, entertained a similar anxiety for these estates,
which, when brought to the hammer, were set up at a low price, to favour them.
Forbes, however, did not fail to appear on the spot; and, with his copper
transmuted to gold,” became the purchaser at a remarkably cheap rate :’ so
much so, that he has been frequently afterwards heard jokingly to remark that
even the wood on the estate would have bought the whole.
The
inhabitants of the ancient burgh of Fallrirk, always noted fqr their clannish
feeling, were in a paroxysm. The house of Callendar had ever been identified
with 44 the bairns 0’ Fa’kirk,” and kept up till a late period the old feudal dignity
that had long distinguished it. So late as 1759 the following entries appear
in the household accounts-“ 4th Nov. Shoes to my Lord’s pyper, 2s. ;” “ 3d
Dec. This we presume,
must have been the piper of Kilmarnock.
Mr. Forbes and his brothers experienced the height of insult and abuse
whenever they entered the town. His younger brother, James, in particular,
was a favourite source of amusement to the then unchecked mob. He was not
of the most shrewd intellect, and his simplicity subjected him to much rudeness.
His coat-tails were cut away on one occasion ; and on another, his *queue was
docked, from which he was ever afterwards named Rumpock. It is singular
that the colliers, who had been the hereditary bondsmen of the old family,
were the most devoted to them. One night in autumn, during the militia
riots in 1797, a great band of them, aided by a few of the town’s lads, went
out with a drum, and parading round the house, so alarmed Mr. Forbes and his
brothers that they fled by a back door, and ran up through the wood. Looking
round from among the trees, they beheld the flickering blaze of Carron Works,
and imagining that Callendar House was in flames, proceeded with all speed
by the village of Redding to Lialithgow, from whence they posted to Edinburgh,
where, applying to Lord Adam Gordon, the Commander-in-Chief, they caused
a troop of the Lancashire Dragoons to be sent out to Falkirk, who inflicted
their unwelcome presence on the inhabitants for nearly half-a-year. It is to
this affair the caricature of Copperbottom’s Rctrsat alludes.”
Not long after he became proprietor, numerous disputes occurred between
Mr. Forbes and the tenants of the estate. The Rev. Mr. Bertram of Muiravonside
and he disagreed about the rent of a park attached to Haining Castle.
The neighbourhood was much excited when this result was known.
To my Lord’s pyper, two weeks’ kitchen money, 1s.”
The titles of Lithgow and Callendar were in the person of the hair-male, Livingston of
Westquarter.
s When asked for his security, “I have it in niy pocket,” said he, and instantly tabled the cash
in one of the two largeat bank notes ever issued in Scotland.
Mr. Forbes had a favourite old black horse, with a long tail, only ridden by hia faithful servant
Johnnie Howie (who waa with him for twenty-four years), to which he playfully gave the name,
appropriately enough, of Copperbottom.