Mr. Stuart 07i Button Hall. 193 



blood was flowing from the coffin, and before it could be 

 prevented, the dogs accompanying them rushed forward and 

 fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel Douglas. 



Popular tradition is all the authority I have to oflfer for the 

 latter part of the story, but the Hirsel transaction is fully de- 

 tailed in a letter written at that period by the steward of Lord 

 Derwentwater to his Lordship in London, and is also related 

 in " Law's Memorials." In a note appended to that narra- 

 tion. Law states " Before his death, Mr. Home is said to have 

 returned to Scotland, smitten with remorse, and anxious to 

 obtain pardon from a near relation of Johnston, then residing 

 in Edinburgh. This gentleman, in the dusk of the evening, 

 was called forth to the outside stairs of the house, to speak to 

 a person muffled up in a cloak. As he proceeded along the 

 passage, the door being open, he recognised the murderer, and 

 immediately drawing his sword rushed towards him, on which 

 the other leaped nimbly down from the stairs into the street 

 and was never again seen in Scotland." Lord Fountainhall 

 states that the unhappy man was killed in the wars abroad. 

 His name has been omitted in the account of his family in 

 the peerage. 



The sisters of the late proprietor of Hutton Hall, Colonel 

 Johnston, were among the most beautiful women of their day. 

 There were four, — one was Mrs. Oswald of Auchencruive, 

 whose portrait by Raeburn is one of his finest masterpieces, 

 and the engraving of which, in Blackie's edition of the works 

 of Robert Burns, has rendered her face not unfamiliar. " Wat 

 ye wha's in yon toun" was written in her praise by the Scot- 

 tish Bard. A distinguished equestrian, she was a zealous 

 fox-hunter, and withal one of the most graceful, accomplished, 

 and beautiful women of her time. Lady Baird of Saughton, 

 was another sister. 



Some other stories about this old place might still be got 

 together, but I am afraid I have already wearied you with 

 what I have read. The popularity of the Johnstons is greater 

 than could be credited, attaching as it does to a family who 

 have left the country for nearly thirty years. 



The present proprietor is Mr. M'Kenzie Grieves, who resides 

 constantly in Paris. 



