284 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD 



kit-cat of one with soft brown eyes, a white skin, and 

 abundant curling dark hair. Artist unknown, but not 

 the same hand that portrayed Sir Alexander in a con- 

 ventional steel-jacket one Mr. Aikman, whose fee was 

 5, 7s. 6d. ' Within doors,' says Mr. Graham, ' the furni- 

 ture was rude, . . . the beds were closed like a box in 

 the wall, or in recesses with sliding doors, which im- 

 prisoned and stifled the sleeper ' [vol. i. p. 7]. But Sir 

 Alexander made better provision for his bride. On 5th 

 November 1711 appears the entry: 



Scot*. 



'To I/. J. M. to buy a bed in Ireland 17 



guineas and | for a down bed . . . 225 150' 



This bed, a carved mahogany four-poster, is still in use. 

 Sir Alexander's dining-room table, round, of dark 

 mahogany, is that on which I am writing, and I hear an 

 eight-day clock also, which he bought about this time, 

 ticking out the seconds as faithfully as it did nearly 

 two hundred years ago. 



Other references to this marriage and its conse- 

 quences lend some agreeable local colour. There were 

 some changes in the bachelor establishment that year, 

 as was natural. The laird paid 149, 2s. Scots for ' a 

 gray pad for my wife's use ' ; and later, 21 guineas 

 sterling to a midwife. He wanted a valet, so William 

 Dun (the same who sixteen years later got into such 

 disgrace over the English drove, and was discharged) 

 received 9, 12s. Scots (16s. sterling) to carry him to 

 Edinburgh, there ' to learn to sheave and dress.' And 

 so ran out the first year of married life : one of tranquil 

 happiness and tender anxiety. Lady Jean's eldest 



