SIR RICHARD MAITLAND. 73 



twelve feet high. Thus, a triumphant reply was furnished to the royal querist, 

 the park stocked with deer, and the serious calumny refuted ! 



The place, however, derives few pleasing associations from the mere circum- 

 stance of its having been the berceau of Duke John ; but is interesting as the 

 residence of his ancestor, the " blind baron," Sir Richard Maitland, to whom 

 posterity has assigned a niche in the temple of genius. He was born in 1496, 

 and finished his studies in France. On his return home, he was received into 

 much favour by James V., and served the queen in some office of trust, as 

 appears from a poem addressed to the unfortunate Mary, on her landing in 

 Scotland — a poem in which he also expresses his own private calamity — the 

 loss of sight. 



" Madame, I was true servant to thy mother, 

 And in her favour stud ay thankfuUie, 

 And thoch that I to serve be iiocht so abil 

 As I was wont, because I may not see . . . ." 

 Yet " that I heir thy people with hie voice 

 And joyful hairtis, cry continuallie — 

 Viva! Marie, tr6 nobil Reyne d'Ecoss!" 



Sir Richard married a daughter of Thomas Cranston, of Corsly ; and from 

 the distich composed by their son, the chancellor, it appears that she expired 

 on the same day with her husband.* His writings are all on the side of virtue ; 

 and he reprobates, with just severity, the practice of those who make the divine 

 language of the muses a vehicle for slander and de traction. f 



The well-known Maitland Collection, consisting of two vols. — one begun by 

 Sir Richard in 1555, and continued up to his death, in 1586, and another in 

 the hand-writing of Mary, his third daughter — is that by which he has rendered 

 especial service to posterity. It contains authentic transcripts from many 

 preceding and contemporary poets, whose names, snatched from oblivion, 

 are thus restored to their proper rank in the lists of native genius. These, 



Unus hymen, mens una : duos mors una diesque 

 Junxit : ut una care, dies cinis unus erit." 



t His rule is — 



" Put not in writ what God or man may grieve ; 

 All virtues love ; and all vices reprieve, (reprove); 

 To steal ane manis fam is greatter sin 

 Nor ony gear that is the warld within." 



The last couplet is remarkable, as expressing the same sentiment as Shakspeare's " Who steals my 

 purse," &c. It is by no means jirobable, however that the bard of Avon had access to these productions 

 of the Scottish muse. 



