Edinburgh Bookshelf

Kay's Originals Vol. 2

Search

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 327 his troops, and the place was speedily retaken. Ever since the Cape has remained in possession of Britain. General Dundas wasappointed Governor of Dumbarton Castle in 1819. He died at his house in Shandwick Place, Edinburgh, on the 4th of January 1824, after a long and painful illness, “which he supported with the patience of a Christian, and the fortitude of a soldier.” The next of the military figures, with the volunteer cap and feather, in the centre of the Promenade, is SIX HENRY JARDINE. His father, the Rev. Dr. John Jardine-who died in 1766, aged fifty-one, and in the twentyfifth year of his ministry-was one of the ministers of Edinburgh, one of the Deans of the Chapel-Royal, and Dean of the Order of the Thistle. His mother was a daughter of Provost Drummond, of whose patriotic exertions for the city of Edinburgh, the New Town and the Royal Infirmary are honourable memorials. Sir Henry was brought up to the profession of the law, and passed a Writer to the Signet in 1790. He was appointed golicitor of Taxes for Scotland in 1793 ; Depute King’s Remembrancer in the Exchequer in 1802 ; and King’s Remembrancer in 1820, which latter office he held till the total change of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland in 1831. He was knighted by George the Fourth in 1825. Sir Henry was the original Secretary to the Committee for raising the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers in 1794, of which corps he was appointed a Lieutenant on the 20th October of the same year; a Captain in 1799 ; and Major in March 1801. He was the last individual alive enumerated in the original list of officers ; and he was one of three trustees for managing the fund remaining, after the Volunteers were disbanded, for behoof of any member of the corps in distress. Sir Henry Jardine was long conspicuous as a public-spirited citizen, there being few institutions for the promotion of any useful or national object of which he was not a member. In the lists of the year 1838 his name appeared as one of the Councillors of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; one of the Extraordinary Directors of the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts,; one:of the Ordinary Directors of the Scottish Naval and Military Academy; one of the Brigadier-Generals of the Royal Company of Archers ; one of the Councillors of the Skating Club ; one of the Directors of the Assembly Rooms, George Street ; and one of the Sub-Committee of Directors of the Royal Association of Contributors to the National Monument. He was also one of the Ordinary Directors of the Bank of Scotland ; one of the ”rustees for the Encouragement of Scottish Manufactures ; one of the Trustees for Promoting the British White Herring Fishery j and one of the Vice-Presidents of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. With the charitable and humane institutions of the city the name of Sir Henry was not less extensively associated. He was one of the Managers of the Orphan Hospital; one of the Auditors of the Society of the Industrious
Volume 9 Page 436
  Enlarge Enlarge  
328 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Blind ; one of the Committee of Management of the Deaf and Dumb Institution ; one of the Extraordinary Directors of the House of Refuge; and one of the Ordinary Managers of the Royal Infirmary, and of the Royal Public Dispensary. To the Society of Antiquaries, Sir Henry communicated an interesting account of the opening of the grave of King Robert the Bruce, which took place at Dunfermline, in presence of the Barons of Exchequer and other gentlemen, on the 5th of November 1819.’ i The other figure with the volunteer cap, immediately in the rear of Sir Henry, is the late SIR ROBERT DUNDAS of Beechwood, Bart., one of the Principal Clerks of Session, and Deputy to the Lord Privy Seal of Scotland. He was born in June 1761, and descended of the Arniston family, whose common ancestor, Sir James .Dundas, was knighted by Charles I., and appointed a Senator of the College of Justice by Charles 11. His father, the Rev. Robert Dundas, brother to the late General Sir David Dundas, K.G.C.B., and some years Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty’s Forces, was a clergyman of the Established Church, and some time minister of the parish of Humbie, in the county of Haddington. Sir Robert-the subject of our notice-was educated as a Writer to the Signet, After a few years’ practice, he was made Deputy Keeper of Sashes; and, in 1820, appointed one of the Principal Clerks of Session. He succeeded to the baronetage and the estate of Beechw9od (near Edinburgh) on the death of his uncle, General Sir David Dundas. He acquired by purc)ase, from, Lord Viscount Melville, the beautiful estate of Dunira, in Perthshire. Sir Robert was an original member of the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers, and held the commission of Lieutenant in 1794. In 1792, he married Matilda, daughter of Baron Cockburn, by whom he had eight children. He died on 1 The communication of Sir Henry appeared in the Society’s Tyamactiom, printed in 1823, vol. ii. part ii., together with a drawing of the coftin, and a facsimile of a plate of copper supposed to have been attached to it. This relic is stated to have been found by the workmen a few days a f h the opening of the grave, and is described as “ five and a half inches in length, and four in breadth, and about one-eighth of an inch in thickness, with holes at each corner for fixing it on the coffin, bearing this inscription, Robertus Xcotomm Rex; the letters resemble those on the coins of this King [Bruce]. A cross is placed under the inscription, with a mullet or star in each angle, with the crown, precisely of the form iu those coins. It was found among the rubbish which had been removed on the 5th, close to the vault on the east side, and most probably had been adhering to thc atones of the vault, and had thus escaped our notice at the time.” The plate, so minutely and gravely described, was forwarded by Provost Wilson of Dunfermline, and duly deposited in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries ; but it afterwards transpired that the “important fragment,” as it was termed, was nothing more than an ingenious device, the work of a blacksmith, contrived for the purpose of hoaxing the Antiquariev ! The success of his attempt waa complete ; and but for his own imprudence, or rather an irresistible desire to enjoy the laugh at the expense of the Society, the deception might have remained undiscovered. It may not be unworthy of notice that Sir Henry wiw one of the commissioners appointed, along with Sir Walter Scott and others, to open the chest which contained the Regalia of Scotland, deposited in Edinburgh Castle, but which, according to rumour, had been carried to the Tower of London, and that he had the high gratification of being the first to lay hands upon the Crown, which he held up to the view of the spectators. It was found on the 4th of February 1818.
Volume 9 Page 437
  Enlarge Enlarge