110 LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 



limited information I have obtained respecting these tribes, and I 

 am not acquainted with any publication on the subject of which 

 you do not appear to have been in possession." He then adds: 

 " On referring to the Rev. Mr. Myers' application and the Note of 

 Council, it seems to me that Mr. Myers could not take a better 

 step than to offer the Presbyterians to restore to them the sums 

 they subscribed for the building of the Church : this, I think, would 

 remove all difficulties." There are then some family compliments : 

 " Lady Sarah unites with me in felicitating your Lordship and Mrs. 

 Mountain very sincerely on your daughter's marriage, and on the 

 good state of health which both Mrs. Arrabin and her sister seemed 

 to enjoy when we had the pleasure of meeting them. I have the honour 

 to remain, my dear Lord, yours very faithfully, P. Maitland." 

 This letter is dated from "The Cottage," i.e. Stamford Cottage, July, 

 1st, 1823. So recently as September 18th, 1873, I noticed in the 

 Bath Chronicle the following sentence : " Several noble families are 

 placed in mourning by the death of Lady Sarah Maitland, daughter 

 of Charles, fourth Duke of Richmond, and aunt of the Countess of 

 Bessborough." This is the same Lady Sarah. 



In Sir Peregrine Maitland's day, the Canada Company, which still 

 carries on its operations, was instituted and incorporated. Of its 

 first Chief Commissioner, Mr. Gait, I exhibit two little relics ; the 

 first, a note, dated Barn Cottage, Old Brompton, 25th I'Tov., 1833, 

 addi-essed to W. Jerdan, Esq., for thii'ty-four years editor of the 

 Literary G-azette, relating to the atfairs of Mr. Picken, deceased, a 

 man of letters, who had, in his day, written a book on the Canadas. 

 " The sudden death of Mr. Picken," he says, " has left his family in 

 very straitened circumstances, and his son has requested me, if you 

 would have the goodness to insert it in the Literary Gazette, to write 

 his character. . He likewise tells me that his father has a novel 

 finished, and if he can dispose of it, I have promised to correct the 

 press. The notice in the Gazette would be of great service." The 

 second relic of Mr. Gait is a portion of the manuscript of a story 

 vof his, entitled, " Tribulations." I select a passage : " No to waste 

 ■words, we were by and by married, but for all that she was not your 

 :grandmother ; for she had not been my gude wife scarcely a twelve- 

 month and a day when she took a kittling in her Craig and departed 

 this life at her appointed time with a sore heart — a kink, as it were — 

 leaving me all her residue, which was a great penny, more than' 



