CHAPTER V. 



TIKST MAURIAGK (1804) WIDOWHOOD STUDIES SECOND MARRIAGE. 



[Mr. Samuel Greig was a distant relation of the 

 Charters family. His father, an officer in the British 

 navy, had been sent by our government, at the request 

 of the Empress Catharine, to organize the Russian navy. 

 Mr. Greig came to the Firth of Forth on board a Russian 

 frigate, and was received by the Fairfaxes at Burntisland 

 with Scotch hospitality, as a cousin. He eventually mar- 

 ried my mother ; not, however, until he had obtained the 

 Russian consulship, and settled permanently in London, 

 for Russia was then governed in the most arbitrary and 

 tyrannical manner, and was neither a safe nor a desirable 

 residence, and my grandfather only gave his consent to 

 the marriage on this condition. My mother says : 



MY cousin, Samuel Greig, commissioner of the 

 Russian navy, and Russian consul for Britain, came 

 to pay us a visit, and ultimately became my hus- 

 band. Fortune I had none, and my mother could 

 only afford to give me a very moderate trousseau, 

 consisting chiefly of fine personal and household 



