Field Meetings. 231 



are also a bust portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, taken in early 

 life, and painted on a panel ; and one of Mary Seaton. A very 

 curious work of art is the portrait of Margaret Patton, cook to 

 James VI., who is said to have lived to the age of 130. She 

 presents a weird figure, deeply wrinkled, much spent, and bent 

 double, with candle in her hand peering into the dishes among 

 which her work lay. The family portraits include one of the 

 Jacobite Viscount by Kneller, who got his sittings in the tower. 

 Lady Mary and Lady Lucy Herbert, daughters of the Earl of 

 Powis, and sisters to the Countess of Nithsdale who effected her 

 lord's escape from the Tower, are also the subjects of portraits in 

 oils. One was the wife first of Sir Robert Maxwell of Orchard- 

 ton, afterwards of Lord Montague. The other was Abbess of 

 the Augustin Convent at Bruges, and is painted in the dress of a 

 religious order. Other treasures include some rich Bayeau 

 tapestry that was worked for Napoleon the Great. 



One of the external glories of the Castle is its short avenue 

 of magnificent lime trees, which would be planted about the year 

 1817, when a new approach was planned. A still more striking 

 feature is the great beech hedge, which will be about thirty feet in 

 height and of corresponding wddth ; and which is kept in splendid 

 order. It forms one side of a secluded square of lawn, which is 

 enclosed on the other side by the lime trees of the avenue ; a 

 series of grass terraces and clump of fir trees ; and a steep bank 

 rising up to the Castle. In the middle of the lawn is a great oak 

 tree. John Ruskin, who was a relative of the family, mentions 

 the lawn and the limes in the following passage from his 

 " Dilecta " : — 



" I was staying with Arthur and Joan (that is Arthur Severn 

 and his wife, Joanna Agnew) at Kenmure Castle in the year 1876, 

 and remember much of its dear people : and, among the prettiest 

 scenes of Scottish gardens, the beautiful trees on the north of that 

 lawn on which the last muster met for King Charles; 'and you 

 know,' says Joanie, 'the famous song that used to inspire them 

 all, of ' Kenmure's on and awa', Willie!' " 



The Professor of Art takes some of the poet's license in 

 glorifying the scene; for, of course, the last rally for Prince 

 Charles (on whom the Profes.sor bestows the regal title) took 

 place in 1745, and in that the Lord of Kenmure had no part. 

 He had seen his father given to the block for the Prince's father. 



