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.
