SIR ROBERT S1BBALD. 21 



brother, Dr George Sibbald, a physician, to 

 recommend that this child should be suckled to 

 an advanced age, which was accordingly done 

 " till he was two years and two months old, and 

 could run up and down the street and speak," and 

 proved of great advantage, as he not only 

 escaped the threatened malady, but "passed all the 

 diseases commonly incident to children without 

 any manifest hazard." 



He was subjected, however, to other perils 

 consequent upon the political disturbances of the 

 times ; he was kept at a cousin's house at Lin- 

 lithgow at the time of the plague in 1645, till 

 the infection reached that town, when his parents 

 removed to the Kipps. " As I went there with 

 my nurse, we met a troop of Montrose's men, 

 who passed us without doing us any harm." A 

 few years later, a far greater danger awaited him. 

 His parents had removed to Dundee, where 

 they were residing at the time General Monk 

 stormed the town. His father received a blow 

 from a carbine, their house was plundered, and 

 they lost all their furniture, plate, jewels, and 

 money, and a younger sister and himself were 

 exposed to imminent risk. She had incautiously 

 exposed herself above a wooden building that 

 had been erected across the street for the defence 

 of the town, and her brother ran after her to 

 bring her back. It speaks volumes as to the 



