148 REPORT OF MEETINGS EOR 1904 



Mr Maxwell Stuart's anxiety to gratify his guests had been 

 already proved by his unlocking a cabinet of precious stones 

 of which he is a collector, and explaining the methods in 

 vogue for testing and cutting such gems; but it was none 

 the less manifest when he produced for the inspection of 

 the ladies samples of valuable linen, among which were 

 napkins, bearing the name "Mary, Countess of Traquair, 

 1729," woven into the damask. En suite with the Dining- 

 room are the low Drawing-room and the present Smoking- 

 room, which are of more immediate interest as having been 

 used till the date of her death, in 1875, at the advanced 

 age of ninety-nine years and eight months, by Lady Louisa 

 Stuart, the last of the direct descendants of the Earls of 

 Traquair. In the last named room hangs a painting of 

 "King Charlie" dressed as Betty Burke in mutch and 

 kerchief, the disguise adopted by him on the advice of 

 Lady Clanranald, when sheltering in Benbecula near Loch 

 Uskevagh. Though the art of the painter may have failed 

 to reproduce "a gown of light-sprigged calico, a petticoat, 

 a mantle of dun camlet with a hood to cover the head, Irish 

 fashion," as depicted by Andrew Lang in his "Prince 

 Charles Edward, the young Chevalier," it has preserved 

 the strong Stuart features, which doubtless are more highly 

 prized by those of his house, than mere accuracy of detail 

 in the matter of dress. The parish of Traquair appears 

 to have been from a very early period a Eoyal demesne, 

 and frequently the residence of Eoyal personages for 

 hunting, as charters have been dated from the mansion- 

 house by King David I., and use was made of the building 

 by William the Lion during an illness in 1203. 



After spending a delightful time indoors, during which 

 every facility was granted for minutely inspect- 

 Qarden ing its old-world treasures, the members 



and repaired to the terrace in front of the house. 



Grounds. below which on the lawn flourishes a remark- 

 able Silver Fir, and thereafter walked through 

 the Kitchen-garden, divided by a roadway bounded by a 

 strong hedge of beech, which leads to the Arboretum, 

 whence a fine view of the drove-road from Carlisle over 

 Minchmoor was obtained. Striking the modern carriage- 



