88 EARLY LIFE. 



it. He was a very powerful speaker in all respects, 

 but his declamation was of the very highest order. 

 Even his violent political opponents confessed this. 

 I have heard Gillies and Malcolm Laing assert, that 

 if he had been earlier introduced into Parliament, he 

 would have proved superior to Pitt. Gillies himself 

 had great powers as a speaker; and for close logical 

 argument, Cranstoun (afterwards Lord Corehouse) was 

 never surpassed. This was the opinion of all our law- 

 yers who heard him at the bar of the House of Lords. 

 Peel said he was the finest speaker he had ever heard, 

 except Pitt which was not a very happy comparison, 

 as no two styles of speaking could be more entirely 

 different. Indeed, Sir William Grant was the only 

 Parliamentary speaker of the same order as Cranstoun. 



Between 1795 and 1799, I generally (as my father 

 did not care to return to Brougham) took advantage of 

 vacations to make walking tours through different 

 parts of the Highlands. These were wild scrambling 

 excursions, but abounding in mirth and jollity ; for 

 we were young, .active, and overburdened with high 

 spirits. 



My companions generally were, my brother James, 

 John Russell, my cousin (his mother being a daughter of 

 Dr Robertson), James Ferguson, and Charles Stuart, 

 my most intimate friend (afterwards Lord Stuart 

 de Rothsay). 1 kept no journal of our tours ; and 

 only recollect that we visited the Falls of the Clyde, 

 Stirling, Loch Katrine and its romantic scenery, and 

 a large portion of the Western Highlands. We must 



