90 Echoes of the 18th Century. 



that you know would give encouragement to other enemys. At 

 long run I'll engage he'll thankfully accept of £300, if not less 

 money ; but sooner or later I do fear we must knock under. 

 Please write me if you have any view of ending with John 

 Gordon, of Kirkconnel, and Mr William Camp ; the price of 

 these lands, wliich tlie last got, would do me service at this junc- 

 ture, when, to be free with you, T scarce know what hand to 

 turn me to ; but in all circumstances you are ever to believe me 

 to be, Sir, your very much obliged humble sevt., 



Mary Kenmure. 



Amid all her struggles and difficulties. Lady Kenmure seems 

 to have found means to help others ; for there is a deed, signed 

 on May 21st, 1729, in which Lord Carnwath acknowledges a 

 loan from " Mary, Viscountess of Kenmure, my sister," of 

 £405 17s 6d. She outlived all her anxieties, however, saw many 

 another ancient Scottish house go down in the Rising of 1745, 

 and died, I believe, at Terregles in 1776. In that musty old 

 cupboard I also found another short but very suggestive note to 

 Mr Veitch from the titular Duchess of Perth : — 



Drummond Castle, 12th June, 1744. 

 Sir, — A friend of mine in Edinburgh will deliver to you this 

 letter, with the twenty-five pounds sterling Mr Stewart borrowed 

 from you in my name in July last, and eleven months' annual 

 rent. You will give the bearer Mr Stewart's receipt for the 

 money, which I will return him when I account with him. I 

 am much obliged to you for the Ion (sic) of the money, who am. 

 Sir, your servant. 



Jkan Perth. 



Twenty-five pounds was a larger sum at that date than at the 

 present day, but the inability of a woman of such rank to pay it 

 under eleven months is very significant. 



The old cupboard, however, produced something more than 

 communications only too common in lawyers' offices. Lord 

 Eliock was less careful in destroying his letters than might have 

 been expected from a lawyer ; consequently, more than a century 

 after date, a curious society episode comes to light, in which he 

 was mixed up ; a somewhat remarkable specimen of social tactics 

 in high-class Edinburgh society nearly 140 years ago. Lord 



