Memoirs of Sir George Sinclair, bart., of Ulbster

Front matter

V

MEMOIRS

OF

Preface

greatest banquet, I believe, ever given in Scotland to any public man—the Right Hon. gentleman, in expressing his gratification at witnessing the magnificent assemblage met to do him honour, mingled with it the expression of his regret at the absence, caused by ill-health, of his friend, Sir George Sinclair. <£ I miss to-day,” said Mr. Disraeli, “the presence of one of my oldest friends, and should have liked to have been welcomed by his cordial heart, and by that ripe scholar¬ ship wdiich no one appreciated more than myself.” The beautiful blending of the “ cordial heart ” with the high order of intellectual culture to which Mr. Disraeli, then a Cabinet Minister, so felicitously referred, were qualities in the character of the subject of these “Memoirs,” which were more or less fully unfolded in every step which he took along the pathway of life. It has been my object in this Volume to bring out to the best or my ability those noble intellectual qualities which, in so marked a manner, were in happy association with the moral and religious character of Sir George. Such a nature, and such a career as his, ought to be held up to the admiration, not of those of the present day only, but to that of generations yet unborn, in order that we all may, by imitating his bright and benevolent example, prove a source of benefit and blessing to mankind.

London,

January , 1870 .

Chapter I. Page

Birth, of Mr. Sinclair—Notices of his Ancestors—Is sent to Harrow—His great and varied Acquirements—His Popularity among his School Companions—His Intimacy with Lord Byron—Lord Byron’s Opinion of Mr. Sinclair as expressed in a Letter to Mr. Moore —Lord Byron’s Mother. 1

Chapter II

Leaves Harrow—The Rev. Dr. Drury, Head Master—Goes to the Uni¬ versity of Gottingen—Is taken Prisoner by the French—Is brought before and examined by Napoleon the Great—Suspicion of being a Prussian Spy—His Narrative of the Incidents which then occurred —Remarks and Reflections Fifty-five Years afterwards on the Con¬ duct of Modern Prussia in connection with the Emperor of the French—Visits the Court of Prussia—Dines with the King—An In¬ cident at Dinner —The English Language.18

Chapter III

Return to England—His Election as Member of Parliament for Caith¬ ness—His debut as a Speaker in the House of Commons—His Marriage with Miss Camilla Manners, Daughter of Sir William Manners—Se¬ cond Tour to the Continent—Intimacy with Mr. Joseph Hume— Letters from the Latter.44

CHAPTER IY.

Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair’s Intimacy and Correspondence with German Prin¬ cesses—The Queen’s “Early Years of the Prince Consort”—Letters from the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, Prince Albert’s Mother, to Mrs. Sinclair—Letters from the Duchess of Clarence to Mrs. Sinclair . 80

Vlll

Chapter VIII

Correspondence with Prelates and the Clergy of the Church of Eng¬ land—Letter from Mr. Sinclair to the Archbishop of Canterbury— Letter to the Archbishop of Armagh—Letters from the late Dr. Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, and from Dr. Blomfield, formerly Bishop of London—Letters from the Rev. Charles Simeon and the Rev. Dr. Croly,.108

Chapter IX

Mr. Sinclair’s Friendship with Sir Francis Burdett—Letters of the Latter to the Former—Mr. John Wilson Croker and the Quarterly Review—Mr. Croker’s Correspondence with Mr. Sinclair . . .11)2

Chapter X

The year 1880—Sir George Sinclair’s Friendship for Charles the Tenth of France—His Sympathy with the Royal Exile—Letter to the Count de Chambord, or Due de Bordeaux, on the State of Affairs in France— Interview with Charles the Tenth—The deep Interest Sir George took in the Misfortunes of the Royal Exile—General Observations , 229

CONTENTS.

IX

Chapter XI. Page

Elevation of the Duke of Clarence to the Throne—Incident at Bushey House—Mr. Sinclair’s Intimacy with his Royal Highness as King — Refuses an Invitation to Dine with his Majesty on a Sunday— Letter to the King stating the grounds of his Refusal—Letter on the State of the Country.240

Chapter XII

The Part which Sir George Sinclair took in the Scottish Non-Intrusion Question—His Letter to Lord Aberdeen on the Subject—Is Assailed for Remaining in the National Church after the Disruption—Ulti¬ mately joins the Free Church of Scotland—Suggests and advocates a Union between the Free Church and United Presbyterians . . 207

Chapter XIII

Sir George joins, in 1835, the New Party of Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham—His Reasons for taking that Step, as given by Himself—

His Last Speeches in the House of Commons, before Retiring from Parliament—His Reasons for Retiring.202

Chapter XIV

Correspondence with Peers of the Realm—The late Duke of Sutherland —Letters from the Duke to Sir George Sinclair—Letters to Sir George Sinclair from the late Duke of Newcastle—The late Duke of Manchester—The Duke of Argyll—The late Marquis of Normanby—The late Earl of Derby—The late Lord Lyndhurst—The late Lord Brougham—The late Lord Ashburton ..... 300

CHAPTER XY.

Letters from Members of the House of Commons—Letter from Sir James Mackintosh to Lady Camilla Sinclair—Letter to Sir George Sinclair from the late William Wilberforce—The late Sir Robert Peel—Sir Robert Inglis—Sir James Graham—Mr. Disraeli .... 354

CHAPTER XYI.

Letters from M. Berryer—M. Victor Schoelcher—Mr. Carlyle—Mrs. Carlyle,

and other Friends with whom Sir George Sinclair corresponded . 379

X

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVII.

PAGE

Literary Labours of Sir George Sinclair—Travels in Germany in Two Volumes—Various Works on Political and Religious Subjects—Writ¬ ings for the Newspaper Press—Letters to the Protestants of Scot¬ land—Poetry.432

CHAPTER XVIII.

Sir George Sinclair at Home—Letters to bis Daughter—His Labours

amor.g the Poor—Dr. Turnbull—Miscellaneous Remarks . . . 45G

CHAPTER XIX.

Break-down in Sir George Sinclair’s Health—His Visit to Cannes in the Hope of its Restoration—Return to his own Country—His Continued Illness—His Death and Funeral—Lines on his Death . . .472

CHAPTER XX.

Thurso Castle—Harold's Tower—Tribute to the Memory of Sir George

Sinclair—His Successor in the Title and Estates . . . .477

MEMOIRS

OP

SIB GEORGE SINCLAIR, Babt.

Chapter I

Birtli of Mr. Sinclair—Notices of his Ancestors—He is sent to Harrow—His great anil varied Acquirements —His Popularity among his School Companions— His Intimacy with Lord Byron—Lord Byron’s Opinion of Mr. Sinclair a3 expressed in a Letter to Mr. Moore —Lord Byron’s Mother.

George Sinclair, the subject of these Memoirs, was bom on the 28th of August, 1790. His birth took place in the Canongate, Edinburgh, in the house of his grand¬ mother, Lady Janet Sinclair. He was the eldest son of the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair, Bart., and of the Hon. Diana Macdonald, only daughter of Alexander, first Lord Macdonald. He was descended from a family of great antiquity and high position in Scotland. They originally came from Normandy, as the surname Sinclair indicates. One of the villages in Normandy still bears the name of St. Clair, or de Sancto Claro, which was the name from which that of Sinclair was derived. The first of the Sinclair family of whom we have any specific information, was William de Sancto Claro. David the First, King of Scotland, who occupies a prominent place in Scottish history, because of the numerous monasteries which he founded, introduced a number of Norman settlers into Scotland, and granted to William de Sane to the manoi of Roslin, near Edinburgh. The precise year in which this took place cannot now be ascertained, but it was early in the twelfth century. From William de Sancto Claro, who may be regarded as the founder of the family in Scotland, was descended Sir William, who having married one of the co-heiresses of Malise, Earl of Strathern, Caith¬ ness, and Orkney,—brought the last of these titles into the St. Clair, afterwards Sinclair, family. Those who would wish to trace the intermediate history of the Sinclair family down to the beginning of the seventeenth century, will find some curious information on the subject, in the “ Memoirs of the Life and Works of Sir John Sinclair, Bart.,” by his son, the Venerable Archdeacon of Middle¬ sex. In 1596 and 1603, George, the fifth earl of Caith¬ ness, conveyed the lands of Ulbster to Patrick Sinclair. In both these grants the latter is designated by the Earl of Caithness as his cousin. From that time till now the ancestors of the subject of this volume have been distin¬ guished from other branches of the Sinclair family, by beino; designated as the Sinclairs of Ulbster: and the chief of the family is described as Bart, of Fibster.

The Sinclairs of Ulbster have for the last two centuries and a half formed matrimonial alliances with the highest families in the North of Scotland. John Sinclair, the great-grandfather of the subject of these Memoirs, married in 1714 Henrietta Brodie, sister to the Lord Lyon of Scotland—a name which occupies a prominent place in the annals of the early part of last century. George, the eldest son of John, and grandfather of him whose

NOTICES OF HIS ANCESTORS.

career constitutes the subject of this work, was educated at the private academy at Stoke Newington, kept by the celebrated Dr. Isaac Watts. Dr. Watts seems to have cherished a special friendship for his pupil; for on hearing of the death of the father of the latter, while the latter was at Utrecht, Dr. Watts wrote a long and affectionate letter to him, impressing on him with great earnestness the importance, now that he was heir to large estates, and about to fill a distinguished position in society, of continuing to cultivate those “ Christian virtues which had bloomed in his early years.”

“ In the early part of life,” says Dr. Watts, “ we are apt to be too sensibly impressed with the ridicule of the world. We are afraid and ashamed to run counter to the fashions of the age, be they ever so vicious. May the grace of God defend your heart with genuine courage, and guard you against all such weakness. May the books of the New Testament, the Psalms of David, and the wise Proverbs of Solomon his son, be the rules of your conduct, the assistants of your devotion, and the life of your spirit. May the providence of God guide and determine all your affairs for you. ‘ In all thy ways ac¬ knowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths,’ Prov. iii. 6. I shall always be glad to hear of your advancement in wisdom and happiness. May your present behaviour in the world make it appear that youth and piety are no strangers to each other, and in your following years of life may you be an ornament to our religion, and an honour to your native country. Grace and peace be with you ! ”

Archdeacon Sinclair most justly says, in quoting, in the Life of his Father, this letter of counsel and friendship from Dr. Isaac Watts, that the letter was equally worthy of Dr. Watts, and honourable to his pupil. It will be gratifying to those who revere the memory of the author of that volume of hymns which is universally sung in the

B 2

MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR, BART.

churches and chapels of all our religious denominations, throughout the whole realm of evangelical Christendom, to be informed that this pupil of Dr. Watts, as stated by Archdeacon Sinclair, “ retained the sentiments of consis¬ tent piety, the seeds of which in early life had been implanted by Dr. Watts,” elsewhere called “ the venerable instructor ” of the youthful George Sinclair,—the arch¬ deacon’s grandfather. This George Sinclair, after making a tour on the Continent in company with the Earl of Sandwich—afterwards First Lord of the Admiralty,—• Lord President Dundas, and other distinguished cha¬ racters of that day, returned to Scotland, and soon afterwards married Lady Janet Sutherland, daughter of William, Lord Strathnaven, who would have been the seventeenth Earl of Sutherland had he outlived his father. The chief of the Sutherland family did not at that time possess a dukedom. It will be seen that the Sinclair family became at this time, through the marriage of the grandfather of the subject of these Memoirs, inti¬ mately connected with the Sutherland family.

Lady Janet Sinclair, grandmother of him to whose bio¬ graphy this volume is devoted, was a handsome woman, of highly cultivated intellect, great natural shrewdness, and remarkable for her business habits and energy of character. She was withal somewhat eccentric; and Archdeacon Sinclair, her grandson, attributes certain eccentricities in the character of her son, his father, Sir John Sinclair, to having been brought up chiefly under her guardianship.

Archdeacon Sinclair, in the memoirs of his father, to which I have made more than one reference, records some of the eccentricities of his grandmother, Lady Janet. “ I

NOTICES OF IIIS ANCESTORS.

have already,” says the Archdeacon, “ mentioned the popularity of Lady Janet with her dependents. Their confidence in her regard for them was not misplaced. On some points, especially of matrimony, it extended to a degree which we might pronounce divertingly eccentric. She was sensitively anxious that each of her female domestics should find a suitable husband and protector. On one occasion, during a serious illness, being under some alarm for her own fife, she gave her maid some salutary advice ; and, among other admonitions, pressed upon her the necessity of being married. The young woman, no doubt astonished at the introduction of such a subject, confessed that she had already entered into an engagement of the kind, but was prevented from com¬ pleting it by 4 a little hindrance.' 4 And what is that ?' said her mistress. 4 Only just, my Leddy, that the man is married already, and his wife is not dead yet; but they tell me she is dying.' Lady Janet was satisfied, and expressed the comfort she had received from this inte¬ resting communication.

44 Notwithstanding eccentricities of this kind, which, I may observe, had generally a benevolent tendency, some idea of the respect which this really superior woman inspired among her northern neighbours, may be gathered from another story which she sometimes related. She happened to be directress of an assembly given at Edin¬ burgh, while the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland held their session. A simple-minded gentleman in the north, no doubt as little conversant with ecclesias¬ tical affairs as with the nature of the fashionable meeting over which her ladyship was to preside, addressed a letter of business to 4 The Eight Hon. Lady Janet Sinclair,

G MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR, BART.

Moderator of the General Assembly, Canongate, Edin¬ burgh/ This simple correspondent did not mistake in supposing that her ladyship took real interest in the welfare of the Scottish establishment, and the efficiency of its ministers.

“ The autograph is now before me of her letter to a young clergyman, Mr. Nicholson, whom her son had recently appointed to the parochial charge of Thurso. It is characterised by a deep sense of the responsibilities belonging both to patron and incumbent.”

But notwithstanding certain oddities in Lady Janet Sinclair, she was an eminent Christian, as will appear from the following letter to her son, the late Sir John Sinclair, father of the subject of this biography. I am sure that when my readers have perused it, and consider the circumstances under which it was written, they will concur with me in the opinion, that one might in vain range through the wide domain of female biography in their search for an exemplification of Christian philosophy which would surpass it. She had almost attained the allotted period—threescore years and ten—of human life, and was in the hourly expectation of death, when she penned this letter to her son.

LADY JANET SINCLAIR TO JOHN SINCLAIR, ESQ.

MY DEAR SON,

Before this can be delivered to you, I shall have bid a final adieu to this vain world, to all its concerns, and all my connexions in it. The death of an affectionate parent will naturally affect a son of your sensibility. I earnestly pray Almighty God to grant his choicest blessings on you, my dear son, your amiable wife, and promising children. May you always endeavour to serve God faithfully, and to worship him with reverence ; may religion and virtue be the rule of all your

NOTICES OF IIIS ANCESTORS.

actions • and suffer not the temptations or allurements of a vain world to make you swerve from your duty. My settle¬ ment, of date 1776, which will accompany this, will give a striking proof of my attachment to you and yours. May the blessing of God accompany it. Your sisters I recommend to your affectionate attention. I hope they will merit it. Mrs. Campbell has a large family, which she will find it difficult to educate and provide for. Mrs. Rigg is happily married to a good husband, and is in great affluence. My dear Jessy is happy under your and Mrs. Sinclair’s protection. I hope you will be a father to them all. As to your own concerns, I en¬ treat you to observe economy, and beware of impositions. Re¬ side as much in Caithness as possible ; and do not trust too much to the management of others in the conducting of your affairs. You’ll find few to trust. Self-interest with some, popularity with others, you’ll have to encounter. Even my long experience was not proof against their arts. Keep short accounts with those you employ in every capacity, and do as much of your own business and affairs as possible yourself. I don’t approve of setting large “ tacks-farms” to tacksmen. They often oppress the poor people under them. To be in debt is a most disagreeable situation to be placed in. To con¬ tract it is easy, but how difficult to repay! It lessens one’s importance, chagrins the temper, and ruins a family. Beware of cautionary and engagements for others. I have had a variety of trials and afflictions in life, with malice unprovoked, disrespect, and indifference. These I did not merit or resent, and I now forgive.

Adieu, my dearest son, till we meet in another world, as I trust, in the mercy of God, and through the merits of an allsufficient Saviour, that we shall meet in a state of bliss and endless happiness, where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. May you and yours be happy. God bless all my dear children, prays your affectionate mother,

Janet Sinclair.

The name of Sir John Sinclair, father of Mr. Sinclair, who on his death succeeded to the title and the estates of

MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR, BART.

Ulbster, was for nearly half a century one of the best known in all Scotland. It was, indeed, a household word. There was scarcely a peasant north of the Tweed to whose ears the name of Sir John was not familiar. And he well deserved the celebrity he enjoyed, for he was, indeed, a benefactor to his country. He had recourse to every available method of spreading useful intelligence through all parts of the land, and urged on his country¬ men the adoption of every means within their reach for improving the various branches of industry which during his day were common in Scotland. The promotion of agriculture was an object especially dear to his heart, and probably there is not an instance on record, in the history of any nation, in which one individual did more for his country, with respect to material improvements, than Sir John Sinclair did for Scotland. He was a voluminous author, and on various subjects, especially of a financial and statistical nature. His “ Statistical Account of Scot¬ land/’ a work of great merit and still holding a prominent place in the country to which it relates, extends to no fewer than twenty-one volumes. The mass of informa¬ tion it contains is amazing, and never could have been collected but by a man of wonderful energy.

Sir John Sinclair was personally acquainted with nearly all the leading men of the latter half of the last century and the early part of the present. There was not, indeed, a statesman of eminence at that period of our history with whom he was not acquainted. With most of them he was on terms of more than ordinary friendship. William Pitt had a high regard for him, and, when Prime Minister, consulted him on some of his great financial schemes. Having been contemporaneously with Pitt

NOTICES OF IIIS ANCESTORS.

thirty years in parliament, he had constant opportunities of cultivating a close intimacy with the Prime Minister of that period. It was, indeed, William Pitt that con¬ ferred a baronetcy upon him. Mr. Pitt had great confi¬ dence in Sir John Sinclair’s opinions on monetary and fiscal questions, and consulted him on several occasions when preparing to bring financial measures before the House of Commons. His earliest work on financial sub¬ jects was entitled “ Hints on the State of our Finances,” and exercised a decidedly beneficial influence on the condition of our national finances at the period at which it appeared. Nor was it without a salutary effect on the financial condition of several continental countries, espe¬ cially Holland, the statesmen of which latter country were forward to admit their obligations to the views on national finances which they had been led to adopt from the perusal of Sir John’s able and enlightened work on the subject. Among the eminent men of our country who were struck with the masterly work of Sir John Sinclair on the subject of our national finances, was the celebrated Dr. Price, the author—or, perhaps, more pro¬ perly speaking, the inventor—of the scheme of a sinking fund for the extinction of the national debt.

What the extent of the correspondence of Sir John Sinclair must have been during the sixty years which it embraced may be inferred from the fact that his biogra¬ pher, when he commenced his preparations for writing his Memoirs, found that he had to deal with no fewer than from 40,000 to 50,000 papers. A somewhat appalling sight it must have been to his excellent son and biogra¬ pher! Sir John Sinclair died on December 21, in the year 1835, and was succeeded in the baronetcy and

MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR, BART.

family estates by his son George, the subject of these pages.

The mother of Mr. Sinclair was the Hon. Diana Mac¬ donald, second wife of Sir John Sinclair, and daughter of Alexander, first Lord Macdonald. She was remarkable alike for her beauty and her lady-like manners. The female portion of the Macdonald family were, indeed, particularly, as they still are, eminent for their personal attractions and aristocratic bearing. Sir John, too, was a fine specimen of the gentleman. Probably “ so hand¬ some a couple/’ to use a familiar phrase, has seldom been seen. On their presentation to George the Third, that monarch paid them, in this respect, a very high, and from the manner in which he spoke, a doubtless sincere compliment. It was to the effect that though he might have seen more beautiful women than Lady Sinclair, and more handsome men than Sir John, yet that he had never seen a more beautiful woman and more handsome man united together as husband and wife, than the friends before him.

I have mentioned that George Sinclair, Sir John’s eldest son, and the subject of this biographical work, was born in the Canongate, Edinburgh, in the house of his grandmother, Lady Janet, to whom I have made a brief reference. The portrait taken of him when he was seven years of age by Raeburn, one of the finest portrait painters at the end of the last and the beginning of the present century, shows what a beautiful boy he must then have been. Probably few men have displayed greater precocity as a poet than did Mr. Sinclair. He entered Harrow school when only ten years of age, and before he was eleven he composed in Latin a

HIS PRECOCITY AS A POET.

poem on Human Life, of which the following translation :—

HUMAN LIFE.

“ The day of life flies fast away,

A warning that our night is nigh.”— Horace.

I. Boundless and vast the projects of the mind

House still to house, and lands to lands are joined,

As if fruition were all-way,

And life a sure eternal day.

II

Hark ! Death arrests ! Where now those towering schemes ? To nought they sink, as vain illusive dreams.

What's life ? a flower that charms the sight,

Whose morning glory dies at night.

III. Why boast of life, that hourly flies away

A poor and short reprieve from day to day.

Yet youth and beauty we adore,

And of the gods would ask no more.

iv.

Ah ! lust impetuous, raging thro’ the veins. Black tempests raises of disease and pains. We pray the gods to interpose,

But no relief from rising woes.

V

When death imperious gives the dreadful call, The young, the old, his trembling victims fall. Nor wealth, nor beauty, can procure The least respite—e’en of an hour.

VI. Her beauty gone, but not her vanity

Old Dian now must that with art supply.

A deadly symptom, yet betrays The withered proud in deep disguise.

VII. Therefore let us departing life improve

And timely check the mad impulse of love. And where sage virtue points the way, There let us walk, and bless her sway.

is a

MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR, BART.

These verses were greatly admired by all at the school capable of appreciating their merits in one so young. They were especially admired and commended by Dr. Drury, the head-master. At that still celebrated educa¬ tional institution he not only became a great favourite with all the scholars because of his amiable manners, but com¬ manded universal admiration and respect for his varied scholastic attainments. I am speaking of George Sinclair when he was only fourteen or fifteen years of age. At that early period in his life, he was master of several languages, and possessed a store of literary knowledge which but few have acquired within two or three years after entering their teens. Dr. Drury, head-master, pointed out to the other pupils Mr. Sinclair as one whom they ought, both intellectually and as a gentleman, to make an object of emulation.

Among those who were his fellow scholars at Harrow were several young men who afterwards rose to great eminence; some in the political, and others in the lite¬ rary world. Among the former was the late Sir Robert Peel, and among the latter Lord Byron. Both these distinguished persons cherished the warmest friendship for their schoolfellow. The friendly feelings which young Byron, afterwards Lord Byron, entertained for George Sinclair, and his appreciation of young Sinclair’s scholastic attainments, are specially noticed in Moore’s ‘‘Life of Lord Byron.” They were in the same form together. In the early part of that work Moore publishes a letter from Lord Byron, in which the following passages occur in relation to George Sinclair:—“The prodigy of our school days was George Sinclair (son of Sir John) ; lie made exercises for half the school (literally), verses at

IIIS INTIMACY WITH LOUD BYRON.

will, and themes without it. He was a friend of mine, and in the same remove, and used at times to beg of me to let him do my exercise—a request always most readily accorded upon a pinch, or when I wanted to do something else, which was usually once an hour. On the other hand he was pacific, and I savage ; so I fought for him, or thrashed others for him, or thrashed himself to make him thrash others, when it was necessary, as a point of honour and stature, that he should so chastise; or w T e talked politics, for he was a great politician, and were very good friends. I have some of his letters, written to me from school, still.”

In another part of Moore’s “ Life of Lord Byron ” there is another reference to George Sinclair by the noble poet. W riting to a friend of the name of Harness, Lord Byron says :—“ How well I recollect the perusal of your ‘ first flights/ There is another circumstance you do not know. The first lines I ever attempted at Harrow were addressed to you. You were to have seen them; but Sinclair had the copy in his possession when we went home; and on our return we were strangers. They were destroyed.”

The friendship which subsisted between Lord Byron and Mr. George Sinclair may be further inferred from the fact, that the noble poet, after reaching his ma¬ jority, offered to pay him a visit to Thurso Castle, the picturesque residence, in Caithness, of Sir John Sinclair, the father of the subject of these Memoirs. Lord Byron, however, laid down certain conditions to his paying his proposed visit to his friend and fellow student at Harrow. The first stipulation he made w r as, that he should not be bored by dinners with the neighbours. The second was, that a good stock of claret was to be laid

MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR, BART.

in ; and the third, that his “friend Hobhouse,” afterwards Sir John Hobhouse, and for the latter twenty years of his life Lord Broughton, should be invited to Thurso Castle at the same time. As a sort of subsidiary stipulation to his paying his own proposed visit to Thurso Castle, Lord Byron said that there must be good fishing and a rubber of whist. The latter is a thing to be had in every family of note in Scotland, as everywhere else, where religious scruples do not interdict the use of cards; while with regard to the former condition, there are probably few places in the world in which there is such excellent fishing as at Thurso Castle, for in the adjoining river, Thurso, salmon are exceedingly abundant. Mr. Sinclair s father, Sir John Sinclair, mentions, in his “ Statistical Account of Scotland/’ a draught of salmon in that river, which is neither deep nor wide, so great, that I doubt whether it was ever paralleled in the annals of salmon fishing. There is a well authenticated account of the fact, that in July 1744 the extraordinary number of 9,560 were taken by nets in that small river in one day. But Lord Byron’s stipulation that there should be excellent angling sport was prospectively complied with, for so near was Thurso Castle to the sea, that the spray often entered the house, and fish had frequently been caught by the net from the drawing-room windows. Immediately after this Lord Byron’s sudden marriage took place, and the conse¬ quence was, that the visit to Thurso Castle was never paid.