"BONNIE DUNDEE."
Bonnie Dun-dee!
There was something exceedingly pretty in the doings at Dundee the other day when the burghers assembled to do honour to their old Member Mr. Armitstead. In the Parliament of 1880-5 Mr. Armitstead's commanding presence was a familiar and welcome feature. Since then, having piloted Mr. Gladstone in successive journeys about the continent, his personality has obtained a wider field of recognition. When, at Biarritz and elsewhere, the population, tracking Mr. Gladstone, came upon this tall, straight figure, with flowing beard and kindly honest eyes, they thought he must be the Grand Old Man of whom they had heard so much. They, it is said, cheered him accordingly, leaving Mr. Gladstone free from embarrassing attention. That is probably a fable. Certainly, in Dundee, where Mr. Armitstead lived and worked for forty years, there is no chance of his being mistaken for any other G. O. M. Having retired from public life, Dundee wanted to have a portrait of its most honoured citizen. That was very nice, but as acceptance of the suggestion would have involved his presence at the installation of the portrait, and the making of a speech in response to all the kind things said, Mr. Armitstead modestly shrank from the ordeal. But he managed, after all, to gratify Dundee. He sat for his portrait at his own expense, gave it to the city, and, represented to the life on canvas, felt at liberty to absent himself from the public meeting at which the Lord Provost accepted the picture on behalf of Dundee. Thus beyond the timorous Tweed do Merit and Modesty dwell together.