A Scottish Idyl. 87 



familiar to the admirers of Hogarth's famous march to [''inchley, 

 playing- on his fife, to the vast delectation of two or three bare- 

 footed Highland lasses, to whose unsophisticated ears the shrill 

 squeaking of the wrynecked instrument doubtless sounded sweeter, 

 so prompt is the female ear to novelty, especially where the eye 

 is also allured by comely lineaments and smart clothes — than the 

 deepest drone and sprightliest chanter of their native pipes. The 

 letters from which I have made a selection exhibit, I fancy, a 

 parallel sentiment in the mind of the writer, and gain additional 

 interest as throwing a sidelight on the social amenities which tem- 

 pered, it would seem, a dolorous period of Scottish history. They 

 emanate from the pen of Miss Jean Erskine, daughter of Charles 

 Erskine, Lord Alva, Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland, afterwards 

 wife of William Kirkpatrick of Allisland, one of the Clerks of 

 Session, son of Thomas Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, and at one time 

 member for the Dumfries Burghs. 



'• She was," wrote her grandson, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 

 •■a woman of infinite jest, yet possessed of a most sweet and 

 amiable temper ; she died young and heart-broken by the untimely 

 death of a darling son and other domestic misfortunes." 



Her portrait by Kamsay, painted at his best period (after his 

 return from Rome), represents a fair woman with somewhat 

 irregular features, yet of a very sweet and arch expression, which, 

 added to her clear skin, and plentiful fair hair, gives her a 

 very engaging- look. Her husband, limned by the same pencil, 

 appears a fine dig-nified looking man, calculated, as we know him 

 from other sources to have been, to attract admiration and com- 

 mand respect. 



The first letter is dated from Moffat, then a fashionable spa, 

 and bears date the autumn of 174(3, six months after Cullodeu.and 

 is addressed to Miss AUcia Johnstone of Hilton — who afterwards 

 married Mr Baird, and became mother of Sir David Baird. the 

 captor of Seriugapatam. 



Sweetest of Alsies, — We had the pleasure of yours after 

 long Expectation, I can only rei)eat your own words write on my 

 dear Johnston without leasing. We got your letter at four 

 o'clock, and was obliged to deny ourselves the pleasure of reading 

 it till ten o'clock at night, but when we did read it, we was (dr. 



