308 LADY JOHN SCOTT SPOTTISWOODE 



that time she rarely left it, except for her periodical visits 

 to Cawston, and her yearly stay in the far north, the one 

 holiday in the year that she allowed herself. Her life at 

 Spottiswoode was a busy one ; as in addition to two farms in 

 her own hands, and the planting and thinning of many acres 

 of woodland, the welfare of her poorer neighbours was her 

 incessant care. Besides constant visits to her own dependants, 

 she went through all the cottages on every farm on the 

 estate, twice a year ; and there was not a sick or poor person 

 in the whole countryside who had not occasion to bless her 

 open-handed generosity. By no one will she be more missed 

 than by the poor. They will remember the charity that 

 never turned a deaf ear to their wants, and the warm heart 

 that felt so keenly for their joys and sorrows. To her own 

 friends and relations her loss means the quenching of a 

 strong personality, which to the last retained all the fascina- 

 tion of brilliant wit, of originality rising to genius, and of 

 the deepest and most enduring family affection. By the 

 outside world she will be best remembered as one of the 

 last of the "sweet singers of Scotland." "Annie Laurie," 

 her best-known song, was written about 1835, but all her 

 life long her feelings found their strongest expression in 

 music and verse. 



Lady John will not easily be forgotten, but the best 

 memorial that later generations can dedicate to her memory 

 is the following of her example in the love of the past, in 

 the care for old customs and traditions, and in a reverence 

 for the landmarks of bygone days. 



