BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 109
Mr. Forbes died at Edinburgh on the 21st June 1815. His figure, which
was tall and handsome, is excellently represented in a capital full-length portrait,
by Sir Henry Raeburn, which ornaments the dining-room at Callendar House.
A splendid mausoleum was erected in a dark recess of the wood to his memory
by his widow, a lady of considerable taste.’
Mr. Forbes was twice married-first to Miss Macadam of Craigengillan.
whose unfortunate brother’s fate made no little noise. She had no children, and,
being consumptive, went out to Madeira, where she died. To her fortune her
husband generously relinquished all claim. His second marriage, with Miss
Agnes Chalmers of Aberdeen, realised his fond wish to become “the founder
of a house.” By her he had two sons and three daughters, who survived him
-a sixth child dying in infancy. His eldest son, William, the successor to the
entailed property, was married to the amiable and accomplishcd Lady Louisa,
daughter of the Earl of Wemyss and March, and elected in 1835, and again in
1837, member of Parliament for Stirlingshire. Local animosities are now fast
dying away, and the descendants of Mr. Forbes bid fair to take their place amid
the aristocracy of the land.
No. CCVIIT.
DR. GREGORY GRANT.
THIS gentleman, long known as a respectable and eminent physician in Edinburgh,
was a brother of Mr. Colquhoun Grant, whose exploits, as an adherent
of Prince Charles Edward, have been noticed in a former article.
The education of DR. GRANT was carefully superintended, and perfected at
the most celebrated schools of the day. Having studied three years at the
1 “About a mile east of Falkirk [we quote from an article, written by the Rev. Dr. Wilson, in
the History of Stirlingshire 18171 stands Callendar House, the princely seat of William Forbes,
Esq. of Callendar. It enjoys a sheltered situation in a park containing four hundred Scottish acres,
of which two hundred are covered with a coppice wood, mostly oak, singularly luxuriant and
beautiful-a remnant indeed of the Caledonian Forest. The writs of the Earls of Linlithgow and
Callendar were, a we have been informed, lost about 1715, when the last Earl of Linlithgow and
Callendar lost his titles and estate by attainder. The park has been recently embellished by the
taste of Mn. Forbes, lady of the late owner, and mother of the present. She has erected a splendid
mausoleum in memory of her departed lord. It is circular, forty-five feet high, with a rustic cell
nineteen feet in height and thirty-six in diameter, on which stand twelve fluted Doric columns,
which, with the capital, are nineteen and a half feet high. Over a Doric entablature rises what
within is a dome, and without is covered with a stone tiling and rib-mouldings. Over the door, in
the north side of the cell, is a Greek inscription, of which the following is a translation :-
‘ All things we mortals call our own
Are mortal too, and quickly flown ;
But, could they all forever stay,
We soon from them must pass away.’ ”
110 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
University of Aberdeen, and subsequently for five years at Edinburgh, he
repaired to London, Rouen, and Paris, and took his degree at Leyden about the
year 1740.l He afterwards practised for some time at Rotterdam, where he
married Miss Sarah Lombe, a lady of much piety and high mental attainments.
By this union he had a son and daughter. Miss
Grant, afterwards married to the late Dr. Andrew Brown, was much celebrated
for her acquirements. She was an accomplished musician, and performed with
science and taste on the piano and pedal harp.
Some time after the death of his first wife, Dr. Grant again entered into the
married state, by espousing a daughter of Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk.
By this marriage he had two sons and a daughter. The eldest, Archibald,
went out to Jamaica to a relation-Grant of Rothiemurcus-where he died.
Thg other son, Johnson, studied for the Church, much against the will of his
father, who was desirous that he should follow out the profession of medicine,
and settled in the vicarage of Kentish-town, London. The daughter was
courted and married by Dr. Thorpe, physician at Leeds, while a student at the
University of this city.
On settling in Edinburgh, Dr. Grant rapidly acquired a wide range of professional
employment, chiefly among the leading families from the north ; and a
course of lectures on the Practice of Physic, delivered about 1770, secured for
him a flattering increase of reputation.’ In chemistry he was known to possess
pretty extensive knowledge; and part of his house was fitted up with the
necessary apparatus for experimenting on a large scale in that interesting
department of science.’ It may be worth mentioning, as illustrative of his
humane disposition, that he devoted an hour, between eight and nine o’clock
every morning-winter as well as summer-to the service of the poor, to whom
he gave medicine and advice gratis. He was long a manager of the Orphan
Hospital, devoting much of his attention to its interests, and was the projector
of the Hospital at Grantown, in Strathspey.
Moving in the best circles of society, the Doctor was a joyous supporter of
the social character ascribed to the last century inhabitants of Edinburgh; and
his house in James’s Court ‘-top flat of the left hand turnpike-was the scene
of many fashionable entertainments. His parties, at which the Duchess of
Gordon and other ladies of high rank were frequently present, were given generally
in the evening, and called “musical supper~.”~ As an instance of the
The former died in infancy.
1 While abroad Dr. Grant enjoyed the friendship of many of the most eminent medical men of
F’rofesaor Lied, of Rouen, wished much that he ahould have become Professor of
* In 1761 he was a candidate for the chair of the Practice of Physic in the University of
Some valuable morbid preparations of the bones, which Dr. Grant had procured at Rotterdam,
the Continent.
Chemistry there.
Edinburgh.
afterwards formed part of the museums of Dr. Barclay and Mr. John Bell. ‘ The Doctor’s horses and carriage were accommodated at Ramsay Gardens.
The gentlemen more regularly in attendance were, Sir James Grant of Grant, Sir John Sinclair,
Mr. Henry M‘Kenzie, and Mr. John Bell, surgeon. The concerts were led by the famous Stabilini.
