APPENDrX, (13) 



ney he felt himfelf a good deal indifpofed, but returned to Account of Lotd 



Edinburgh, reflored, as he faid, to his ufual health, though 

 his altered looks and appearance ftrongly excited the apprehen- 

 sions of his friends. Thofe apprehenfions were but too foou 

 verified. He was attacked in fummer 1795 with a breaft-com- 

 plaint, attended with dangerous fymptoms, for which, after 

 fome palliative means, to which his diforder never at all yield- 

 ed, he was advifed to try the milder climate of Exmouth in De- 

 vonfhire, a voyage to the Continent being, in the prefent fituar- 

 tion of public affairs, difficult to accompliHi, and particularly 

 difagreeable to his inclinations. He was accompanied in this 

 journey by his nephew, the eldeft fon of his brother Sir Ralph 

 Abercromby, who watched the laft days of his uncle with 

 that tender affiduity which, though the world can neither fee 

 its merit nor feel its fufferings, is one of the mofl important 

 and mofl difinterefled of all the domeflic duties. On the road to 

 Exmouth, he was feized with flill more violent fy mptoms than 

 any his diforder had hitherto exhibited ; and though he expe- 

 rienced, during the fpace of about two months, fome tempo- 

 rary relief, he never gained any material advantage, and the 

 difeafe made progrefTive advances, till at laft it carried him off 

 on the lyth day of November 1795. He bore its fufferings 

 with the greatefl patience and fortitude ; and though for fome 

 time he entertained hopes which his phyficians and friends faw 

 to be but too ill founded, he met its conclufion with perfe(5l 

 compofure and refignation. 



The diforder which terminated fo fatally was perhaps only 

 the effedl of a gradually debilitated conftitution, not of any 

 determinate and immediate caufe. Yet fome of his friends, 

 with an anxiety natural in fuch a circumftance, have traced it 

 to various fources. An accidental fall into the uninclofed foun- 

 dation of a houfe in the New Town of Edinburgh, was by 

 I fome, 



Abercromby. 



