BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 323
and, about the year 1776, was appointed one of the Judges of the Commissary
Court, which office he resigned in 1 7 9 1.
The Laird and his brother were men of primitive habits. From some unaccountable
aversion to matrimony, neither of them ever married;’ and they both
resided in the same house. Their domestic establishment was limited to one
female and two men-servants; one of whom, Archibald Brown, butler and
factotum, was considered the waiting-man of the Laird ; the other of the Commissary
Judge. It does not appear that this retired mode of life resulted from
parsimony of disposition. They were very wealthy; and their management
of accounts exhibited the utmost liberality. To their domestics they were
extremely kind, a new year’s gift of a hundred pounds being no unfrequent
addition to the stated salary ; and several distant relatives, in circumstances not
the most prosperous, were understood to participate largely in their munificence,
often receiving sums of double that amount, in such a way as amply testsed
the disinterested kindness of the donors.
Both brothers were early risers, and it was no uncommon thing for them to
walk the length of Dalkeith and back again before the servants were out of
bed. As an instance of the active benevolence of the Laird, it is told that
one morning meeting a person of abject appearance, with bruised feet and
worn-out shoes, he instantly stripped off his own, and, causing him to sit down
by the wayside, desired him to try whether they would fit. An exchange
having been thus readily effected, the philanthropic Laird of Riccarton, putting
on the shoes of the mendicant, proceeded on his walk.
In stabure the Laird was somewhat shorter than the Commissary Judge.
Totally indifferent to external appearance, almost no persuasion could reconcile
him to any innovation in the fashion of his habiliments. Even a change of
linen was reluctantly complied with ; and he was often observed greatly to lack
some portion of that industry which gave to the stockings of Sir John Cutler
so much celebrity for their durability. Those of the Laird were usually
retained, without the application of soap or needle, until perfectly useless ; then,
and then only, consigned to the flames, the old made way for the new, to be
in turn subjected to similar treatment. A gentleman passing him one day,
charitably slipped a sixpence into his hand. Not at all disconcerted, after
examining it for some time, Mr. Craig coolly pocketed the donation.
The death of the elder brother occurred on the 22d January 1814, when he
was in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He succeeded his father in 1732, and
had consequently been eighty-two years in possession of the estate. “During
the whole course of his life he uniformly supported the character of an upright,
honest man. He was a father to his tenants and servants, and a most liberal
friend to the poor.”
RoberGthe subject of the Print-survived till he attained the advanced age
Notwithstanding the strong prejudice entertaiied against wedlock, neither the Laird nor his
brother showed any dislike to children. On the contrary, the boys of the neighbourhood were often
regaled in the kitchen with strawberrias and other fruits when in season.