A charming portrait, after a miniature by Cosway, accompanies Miss Skene's sketch of Lady Stuart-Forbes,—a pleasing contrast to the picture, without merit, either as a work of art or as a likeness, which was engraved for the Memoir of her youngest son, James David Forbes.][Back to Main Text]
Footnote 79: Mr. Andrew Shortreed (one of a family often mentioned in these Memoirs) says, in a letter of November, 1838: "The joke of the one pair of boots to three pair of legs was so unpalatable to the honest burghers of Jedburgh, that they have suffered the ancient privilege of 'riding the Fair,' as it was called (during which ceremony the inhabitants of Kelso were compelled to shut up their shops as on a holiday), to fall into disuse. Huoy, the runaway forger, a native of Kelso, availed himself of the calumny in a clever squib on the subject:—
'The outside man had each a boot,
The three had but a pair.'"[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 80: Books on Civil Law.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 81: A tame fox of Mr. Clerk's, which he soon dismissed.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 82: Mr. James Clerk, R. N.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 83: Mr. Ainslie died at Edinburgh, 11th April, 1838, in his 73d year.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 84: The reader will find a story not unlike this in the Introduction to The Antiquary, 1830. When I first read that note, I asked him why he had altered so many circumstances from the usual oral edition of his anecdote. "Nay," said he, "both stories may be true, and why should I be always lugging in myself, when what happened to another of our class would serve equally well for the purpose I had in view?" I regretted the leg of mutton.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 85: Redgauntlet, chap. i.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 86: Redgauntlet, letter ix.[Back to Main Text]