2645. Memoirs of the late Earl of Fife. . 
cradle for the profession of the law, and 
his. first. instructor. was the celebrated 
William Guthrie, whose picture is still, 
in existence at Duif House, and. who, 
after marrying in the family, repaired to 
London, and became one of the most la-— 
borious, if not one of the most able,: 
writers of his day. 
Meanwhile Mr. Daff, the subject of 
the present memoir, repaired to tie Uni- 
versity. of Edinburgh, for the ‘two-fold 
purpose of completing his education, and 
studying the civil law, which is unhap- 
pily the basis of the jurisprudence of 
Scotland, the whole having been entirely 
formed on the French model, in conse- 
quence of which it is but litéle favourable 
either to personal security, or public hap- 
piness. But the death of Lord Braco, 
in, England, who had turned out exceed- 
ingly wild, altered the views of-his young- 
er brother, so that he immediately re- 
turned home, and became, what in Eng- 
land is termed, a country gentlenian.— 
He found his father in possession. of a 
very large. fortune, which he. had aup- 
mented by the purchase of considerable 
properties in the ‘counties of Aberdeen, 
Moray, and Bamff A rigorous and, 
perhaps, salutary economy, proverbial 
for two or three generations in the fa- 
mily, had enabled-liin to achieve this; 
aud he had good seme enough, instead 
of leaving pitiful annuities to his younger 
children, to bequeath them separate and. 
independent estates. 
During the life of his father Mr. Duff, 
now become Lord Braco, conceived tite 
outline of a noble plan for the improve- 
ment of his patrimonial fortune, which 
he filled up and completed, after the 
lapse of more than half a century. His 
model and mentor, on this occasion, was 
the late Farl of. Findiater, a nobleman 
who possessed a great and enlightened 
mind, and whose name and deeds will be 
long remembered in that portion of Scot- 
Tand, which at this day reaps so many 
advantages from his beneficent projects. 
Tn conformity to his judgment, which had 
been ripened by travel and experience, 
his Lordship began to plant, and in the 
éourse of a few years, the sides and-tops 
of hills, nearly inaccessible, and hitherto 
unproductive, began -to assume a new 
and amore advantageous. aspect. The 
sterile soil now appeared verdant, and 
the uniform dull and barren extent of 
heath obtained a warmer and a more ci- 
vilized tint, from the fir, the pineaster, 
the larch, the elm, the ash, and the oak, 
whose united masses for the first time cast 
~ 
[April ly 
a protecting shade along the dreary’ 
waste. - 
His Lordship’s ambition, nearly at the 
same time, pointed at another object : 
this was a seat in Parhament. He ac-- 
cordingly became a candidate for the» 
county of Moray, and sat for some years_ 
as its representative. In 1760, he also: 
married Lady Dorothea Sinclair, sole 
heiress of Alexander, ninth Earl of Caith-. 
ness, with whom he obtained a very con- 
siderable fortune: but the nuptials: did 
not take place under happy-auspices, and,’ 
on the whole, this union proved unfortu-: 
nate, perhaps, to both parties. | 
In 1768, he succeeded his father,: 
both in honours and estate, and being. 
now in possession of Duff house, a noble. 
mansion, erected by the late Mr, Adam, - 
architect, at Leith, and still unfinished, 
he immediately proceeded to complete 
and to furnish it. NSE 
Soon after this he purchased Fife 
house, at Whitehall, and having a taste. 
for building, expended-a very large sum 
in altering, or rather rebuilding it. In- 
deed, no Nobleman in Great Britain pos- 
sessed, perhaps, so many seats, for, 111 
addition to the town and coumtry house - 
already mentioned, he had many others, 
some of which shall be here enumerated. 
Of Delgaty castle, where he occasion- 
ally resided, all the floors were formed 
from wood out of his own plantations. 
At Rothemay house, Mary Queen of 
Scots appears to have slept: it is situate 
in a picturesque country, but sequestered 
from all the world. Innes house, with 
the adjoining lands, he purchased frora 
his cousin, Sir James Innes Ker, the 
20th in lineal descent from Bercaldus, 
whose blood has mingied with that of 
the Scottish monarchs. Balvenny castle 
is situate on thé banks of the Devron, 
-while Marr lodge is in the centre of Aber- 
deenshire. ‘Here are grouse, ptarmigan, 
and vame of all sorts; here, too, herds 
of wild deer scour along the mountain’s 
brow, dart precipitately into the dells and- 
valleys, and at times approach within 
gun-shot of the house. us 
During thepolitical ebullition that suc-- 
ceeded: the French Revolution, in this 
country, the Earl of Fife, we believe, was 
an Alarmist, and like many others of that 
description, in order to demonstrate his 
confidence in the existing government, 
accepted of an English peerage from it. 
Accordingly, in-1793, he was created 
Baron Fife, of the kingdom of Great Bris 
tain. his circumstance, however fiat- 
tering it might prove in ong point of views” 
) was 
