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and second baronet, was born at Greenwich, 9th October, 1764. Studying at Eton and Oxford with distinction, he was called to the English Bar. Being eager to run the race his father ran in 1806, he successfully contested Dumbartonshire. His first political triumph was shortlived. In the following year he was beaten by Henry Glassford. In 1812, he was elected for Stirlingshire, and this seat he held till his death at Brighton, 1st April, 1821.

By his first wife, Emma, daughter of Richard Wilbraham Booth of Rode Hall, Cheshire, he had a son, Archibald, and a daughter. Sir Archibald Edmonstone, the third baronet, was born in 1795. At his father's death he contested Stirlingshire. He was unsuccessful. His opponent was Henry Home Drummond of Blairdrummond. There voted for Mr. Drummond 47, for Sir A. Edmonstone 42, majority for Drummond 5. These five votes cost the county the representation of a man of the rarest talents and personal worth. Defeated in his first effort he never again sought Parliamentary honours. He devoted his life to theology and poetry, to travel and beneficence. In Kilsyth there never has been a proprietor so greatly beloved. He married, in 1830, his cousin, Emma Wilbraham of Rode Hall. This lady bore him three daughters, who all died in infancy. In looking over his manuscript verse, I have noticed two poems and a sonnet addressed "To E. W.," and in the whole large collection of his poetry these are the only occasions on which he tunes the erotic lyre. He died on the 13th March, 1871.

Sir William Edmonstone, the fourteenth of Duntreath, and the fourth baronet, succeeded his brother. He was born 29th January, 1810. At an early age he entered the navy. Whilst serving as a midshipman on board the

Sybelle frigate, in a brush with the pirates of Candia he was wounded in the face by a sabre stroke, which carried away part of his lower jaw. Every inch a sailor, and on constant duty, he was created by the Queen a Companion of the Bath and Naval Aide-de-Camp. Afterwards he became Superintendent of Devonport and Woolwich dockyards. In 1869 he became rear-admiral, and at his death he was admiral on the retired list. He was the last living man who had seen the dead body of Lord Byron. When on a cruise in Grecian waters, his vessel anchored off Missolonghi. Bearing a letter of introduction to Lord Byron, he went ashore and called for him. Byron, having received an appointment to lead the Grecian expedition against Lepanto, was in great spirits. For nearly a whole day he entertained Sir William with his vivacious company and conversation. When they parted, the poet pledged the young sailor to visit him on his return cruise. This Sir William very gladly consented to. In little more than a fortnight his ship again cast anchor at Missolonghi. The young sailor was at once put ashore, and made all haste for Lord Byron's villa. The butler answered his call. "He had come to see Lord Byron," he said. "His lordship had died the day previously," replied the butler. The young midshipman was thunderstruck, but having always a ready way with him, he at once observed: "Then I must see the body." The butler remembered him having been with Byron so recently, and conducted him to the room where the remains were lying. He stood and gazed a long time on the dead face of the great poet. The touch of death had not yet stained it. The features were singularly clear and distinct. The face was beautiful, and of a marblelike purity and whiteness. Many years afterwards, when he had occasion to inspect a London lunatic asylum, Sir

William thought he recognised a face that he knew, in one of the patients confined in a padded room, and in the last degree of madness. On inquiry, he found the patient was Captain Wild, who was staying with Lord Byron at the time he spent the happy day with him at Missolonghi. This story I had from Sir William's own lips on one occasion as I sat next him at dinner.

Sir William married, in 1841, Mary, eldest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Parsons, C.M.G. By this lady he had eleven of a family-two sons, Archibald William, born and died in 1865; Archibald, the present baronet, born 30th May, 1867; and nine daughters, all of whom are now married.

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CHAPTER XV.

The Christian Gentleman's Daily Walk"-SIR ARCHIBALD EDMONSTONE, the Christian Gentleman-Public Opinion— Colzium Library and Chapel-Books, Sermons, HymnsLetter to People of Kilsyth-Vols. of Travel-Thoughts by the Way Opinion of Mezzofanti-Prince Charlie's WidowMeets Belzoni-The Holy Land-Ali Pasha-Classical Spots -Byron's "Maid of Athens "_" Fitzwalter "_" Progress of Religion Happiness"-Letter from Lamartine-Literary Estimate-Translation from Petrarch.

A VERY little more than forty years ago there was issued from the London press a modest and unassuming little volume, bearing the title "The Christian Gentleman's Daily Walk." It was suggestive of the saintly Herbert's "Temple," and Robert's "The Portraiture of a Christian Gentleman." In its form it was reminiscent of works that had gone before it, but that was all. It was the author's own; it was original; it was written with a fine spiritual sympathy; it embodied the weightiest and maturest counsel which one, moving in the higher ranks of life, had to give to those who were similarly situated. To every man who held in his hands the power of doing good, and was willing to do it, the little book had something to say that was of the very best. It taught the affluent and aristocratic to hold before their minds pure ideals and to cherish manly ambitions, to find worthier honours than could be won from the turf, the card-table, or the billiard-room. It

taught them to remember the trust reposed in them, and to study how their lives might be best spent to the advantage of the people and the welfare of the State. And the book made its way. In a few years it passed through

several editions.

About the character depicted in the volume there is no room for the slightest doubt. When the author spoke of the Christian gentleman at his devotions, at business, in his study, in society, in his family, in politics, he was but speaking of himself. The portrait he paints of the Christian gentleman is his own. The " daily walk " which he so faithfully describes, and so zealously commends, was but the transcript of his own common life. The book is doubly valuable. It is valuable because of its merits; and valuable as a revelation of the inner life of Sir Archibald Edmonstone, the third baronet of his family, and a man of the highest talents and accomplish

ments.

Educated at Eton and Oxford, endowed with excellent abilities, there is apparent in all Sir Archibald's writings the complete Christian consecration of his gifts. He was a private gentleman, but he should have been a bishop. His literary products possess a high deportment of thought and statement, his orthodoxy is unimpeachable, his reasoning calm and sound. A safer, truer man there could not have been, nor one worthier of lawn sleeves and a seat among the spiritual peers. "Awful," he writes, "is the responsibility, tremendous will be the doom, of those who have abused the talents committed to them, stimulating the passions, undermining the morals, or shaking the faith of their fellows. Who can limit the evil which an able and seductive writer may convey perhaps to the latest generations?" He thought it was much more for the interest of the

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