EARLY LIFE. 35 



ness of disposition. An instance of her fortitude and 

 presence of mind was sometimes mentioned by him, 

 though never alluded to by her : a swarm of bees 

 having settled on her head and shoulders while sitting 

 in the garden, she remained motionless until they took 

 wing, thus saving her life, which was in imminent 

 jeopardy. She was married in 1750; and, the year 

 after, he married his cousin Miss Nesbitt. She, after 

 a long attachment, married Mr Syme, minister of 

 Alloa, where her daughter was born. He was a sound 

 divine and a learned man, much esteemed by the 

 Principal, with whom he coincided on the great 

 question of lay patronage which then agitated the 

 Church, as it has in our day, having caused the great 

 schism dividing the Establisment into two. He had 

 under his care as pupils the sons of Mr Abercromby, 

 the chief person in the neighbourhood, Sir Ealph and 

 his brother Sir Robert. 



If such as has been described was the Principal's 

 estimate of his sister, it is needless to say that her 

 affection for him, and the veneration in which she 

 held him all her life, and his memory when gone, 

 knew no bounds. I recollect while very young, when 

 he came to Brougham, being much struck with her 

 manner of addressing him. It was always " Sir," not 

 brother ; and he called her " Mally " (Molly) ; but this, 

 I afterwards observed, did not betoken any distance, 

 or want of perfect and cordial familiarity. His other 

 sisters addressed him in the same manner, but in this 

 case there was not by any means the same familiarity. 



