BURNETT. 



Hurnftt, 



number of his intimate friends, he went to London in 

 the spring vacation of 1780. Here he was so ca- 

 j and sought after, anil was so delighted with 

 tin- respect and attention which he universally re- 

 ceived, that he contii.uetl to pay an annual visit to 

 the metropolis, until he wa ! incapable, by 



age and intirmitiej, for undertaking the journey. 

 <-n in London, his visits were not confined to thr 

 library and btudy of the scholar or man of letters ; 

 he took particular delight in shewing himself at 

 court. He- frequented the levee and drawing room 

 of St James's ; and the king is said to have taken a 

 pleasure in conversing with the old man, with a dis- 

 tinguishing notice, that could not but be veiy flatter- 

 ing to him. But in the midst of this universal respect 

 and esteem, while he was in the very blaze of his re- 

 putation as an author, and his declining years were 

 sweetened by the caresses of his family, and the kind 

 attentions of his friends, his feelings received a shock 

 by the death of his youngest daughter, from which 

 he never completely recovered. This young lady, 

 in personal loveliness, was one of the finest women of 

 the age, and was second to none in the graces of her 

 mind. To her father's benevolence of disposition 

 he added his refined taste for elegant literature. 

 Wherever she appeared, she was attended with gene- 

 ral admiration, and many were the suitors she attract- 

 ed to her father's house, and her father's table was 

 often surrounded by all that was truly respectable 

 among the youth of her country. Poetry and the 

 fine arts were her prevailing amusements; and though 

 she mingled in the world of fashion, she shared in none 

 of its follies. Her chief delight was to be the nurse 

 and companion of her declining parent ; and her ut- 

 most wish to soften, by assiduity and kindness, the 

 pillow of age. *' She was the ornament of the ele- 

 gant society of the city in which she resided," says 

 one of Lord Monboddo's biographers, " her father's 

 pride, and the comfort of his domestic life in his de- 

 clining years. Every amiable and noble sentiment 

 was familiar to her heart ; every female virtue was 

 exemplified in her life." The poet Burns, who, on 

 his lirst appearance in Edinburgh as an author, was 

 zealously patronized by Lord Monboddo and his 

 daughter, and whose feelings were exquisitely alive to 

 the emotions of gratitude and admiration, celebrates 

 the charms and excellence of Miss Burnett in the fol- 

 lowing beautiful stanza : 



Thy daughters bright thy walks adorn, 



Gay as the gilded Summer sky, 

 Sweet as the dewy milk-white them, 



Dear us the raptured thrill of joy ! 

 Fair B strikes the adoring eye; 



Heaven's beauties on my fancy shine. 

 I see the Sire of Love on high, 



And own his work, indeed, divine, -f- 



By the death of his accomplished daughter, who 

 was cut off by a consumption in the 25th year of her 

 age, the strongest tie was dissolved which bound him 



to society and to life. From that time he begin to 

 droop exceedingly both in his health and spirit*, tad 

 died at his houc in Edinburgh, on the 26th of May 



: lis disease was a stroke of palsy, v 

 dered him quite insensible to bodily pain, and lie ex- 

 pired without a struggle at the advanced v 

 eighty- five. 



To a sound discriminating judgment, and a highly 

 cultivated genius, Lord Monboddo added a dignity, 

 benevolence, and integrity of character, which led 

 him to reprobate every action that was inconsistent, 

 with the nicest principles of honour, or which sa- 

 voured of meanness, injustice, and oppression. As a 

 judge, he conscientiously discharged the dtitiet of 

 his office ; his decisions were sound, upright, and 

 learned, and always marked with acute discrimina- 

 tion. Although rigidly temperate in all his habtts, 

 yet he delighted much in the convivial society of his 

 friends ; and he was excelled by none in playful hu- 

 mour, which, being always accompanied in him with 

 the gravity of the judge, was doubly striking in it* 

 effects. With the learned he was the philosophic 

 sage ; but with the young and the gay, he was the 

 liveliest, the most sportive and playful of the party. 

 His conversation was both amusing and instructive, 

 and excited the wonder and admiration of al! 

 learned acquaintance, for the clear arrangement of his 

 ideas, and the correct and perspicuous language in 

 which they were expressed. His perpetual pursuit 

 was, what he considered the chief object of h-.. 

 life, the improvement and culture of his mental powers. 

 Lord Monboddo, however, had peculiarities in an 

 eminent degree. His unbounded admiration of the 

 customs, the literature, and the philosophy of the 

 ancients, strongly prepossessed him in favour of 

 whatever was connected with such studies. In them 

 he supposed that he beheld all that was praise-wor- 

 thy and excellent, while he looked upon the moderns 

 as a degenerate race, exhibiting only effeminacy and 

 corruption. This attachment to ancient manners, 

 led him to imitate them even in his amusements and 

 habits of life. He was fond of athletic exercises in 

 his youth, particularly fencing and fox hunting, 

 which tended to strengthen a constitution naturally 

 healthy and robust. His general hour of rising, in 

 all seasons, was six in the morning ; and, till a late 

 period of his life, he used the cold bath in the open 

 air, even in the middle of winter. He took a light 

 early dinner, and a plentiful supper. The ancient 

 practice of anointing even was not forgotten ; though 

 the lotion he used was not the oil of the ancients, but 

 a saponaceous liquid, composed of rose-water, olive 

 oil, saline aromatic spirit, and Venice soap, which, 

 when well mixed, resembled cream. This he applied 

 at bed-time, before a large fire, after coming from 

 the warm bath. His method of travelling was also 

 in conformity to his partiality for ancient customs. 

 A carriage, which was not in common use among 

 the ancients, he considered as an engine of effemina- 

 cy and sloth ; and to be dragged at the tail of a 



f Burns, in a letter to Mr Chalmers, dated from Edinburgh, 27th December 1786, bears farther testimony to the charm* 



id excellence of this lady : " One blank," says lu-, in the Address to Edinburgh, ' Fair D ,' is the heavenly Miss Bur- 



ett, daughter to Lord Monboddo, at whose house I have had the honour to be more than once. There has not been any 

 hmg nearly like her, in all the combinations of beauty, grace, and goodness, the great Creator has formed, since Milton's lite 

 on the farst day of hex existence." See Cuuic's Life ofJJums, vol. ii. p. 3is 



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