Page images
PDF
EPUB

good as he may work towards deficient thairintill, That thay the peace of the country." may be sent back by the The gallant Lord Gordon's directour of our Chancellarie to letters are particularly friendly. Holland, Quhilk as the samen In one he warns him of the will be honorabill for yourself keenness of the Ministry of so schall it do us good and Aberdeen in suspecting remiss- acceptable service. And if ness towards the Covenant; in occasioun present we shall not another headed "For the rycht be unmyndfull thairof." worshipfull Christe Ga," he tells him that if a trooper is not provided, "nothing for Cristen but plundering and quartering"; and in another, written after he had joined Montrose, and shortly before he met a glorious death at Alford, he, in default of a printed copy of the Roundheads' proclamation, sends "the copy written with my unleagable hand." After the execution of the Marquis, Straloch's advice seems to have been much relied on by his surviving sons, in the embarrassed state of the family affairs.

Throughout these troubled years Straloch, amidst the clash of arms, had been busy with his scientific and literary pursuits. In 1641 King Charles wrote to him from Holyrood:

"Trustie & weill beloved, We greit you weill Having laitly seen certaine cairttis of divers schyres of this our ancient kingdome sent heir from Amsterdam to be correctit & helpeitt in the defects thairof, and being informed of your sufficiencie in that airtt, & your Love both to Learning and to the creditt of your Natioune we have thairfoir thoucht fitt heirby earnestly to intreitt yow to tacke so mutche paines as to reveis the saidis cairttis, and to helpe thame in sutche thingis as yow find

In 1646 he represented to Parliament that on account of his work on the maps he had been "excussed from the ordinarie burdens of the rest of the subjects in Scotland," but this had been disregarded by the present commanders, and he was daily taxed in a heavy manner. The Committee renewed all former Acts in his favour, and ordained all officers to observe them " upon their highest perills," and the Committee of War at Aberdeen having seen the Acts recommended them to Col. Montgomerie, the Commander-inChief. He also produced to the Aberdeen Committee a letter from the Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, which stated that he was still vexed by some unruly people, and urged that "he may be sheltered by your auctoritie auctoritie from all publict burdens or injurie quhatsomever... that thairby he may be encouraged to go on till the perfyting of that worke so happilie begunne, quhilk as it will be acceptable & tend to the honour of this natioun so sall it oblidge us to remaine your assured good friend."

The surveys made by Timothy Pont, encouraged by Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, Director of the Chancery, for an Atlas of Scotland, had been sent to Blaeu, the cartographer

[ocr errors]

of Amsterdam, who found them in disorder. At the King's desire Straloch undertook their revisal, and with the aid of his son James completed the work, which was first issued under the title of the Theatrum Scotia' in 1648, with a dedication to Scotstarvet, who had procured an order of the General Assembly directing the parish ministers to supply information, and in his letters mentions that a Dunkirk vessel had taken the map of Fife from a Leith ship, and that the Earl of Southesk intended to get James Gordon to draw the shire of Angus. The Theatrum' consisted of forty-six maps, of which seven were executed by Straloch himself from personal survey, he being the first Scotsman who practised mensuration. They were1. A Chart of Great Britain and Ireland from Ptolemy and the ancient Roman authors.

actual

2. Scotland, as described in
the Roman Itineraries.

3. Modern Scotland.
4. Fife, from actual Survey

and Mensuration.

5. Aberdeen and Banff, with

part of Kincardine. 6. The Inland provinces between the Tay and the Moray Firth.

7. The northern and most inaccessible parts of Scotland, including part of Skye, from actual survey. To all were appended Treatises in which Straloch described everything remarkable, towns, castles, religious houses, antiquities, rivers, lakes, &c., in each district, and introduced

VOL. CXCII.-NO. MCLXII.

notices of the most famous families. The second edition was issued in 1655, when "Straloch was much abused by the publisher, who dedicated the work to Oliver Cromwell instead of Charles II., omitted some of his best descriptions (particularly those of Aberdeenshire and Banff), and prefaced

the whole with Buchanan's 'De Jure Regni."" A third edition was published in 1664.

The Description of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff is a remarkably good piece of work. It occupies just thirty pages of the Spalding Club publications, is written in nervous and concise Latin, and deals comprehensively with the climate, physical characteristics, trees, animals, fish, and birds, the antiquities, the dignities, and the divisions of the country. It notes under the old divisions the principal residences, the leading families, and most important historical events. Straloch appears to have been the first to detect the error by which Ptolemy turned the north of Scotland to the east, and this being allowed for, to testify to the accuracy of the information obtained from the Roman soldiers and sailors. In his 'De Insula Thule Dissertatio' he argues that the classic Thule was neither Orkney, Shetland, nor Iceland, but the island of Lewis.

He was also the author of many minor treatises on the History and Antiquities of Scotland, of a Preface intended to be prefixed to Archbishop Spottiswood's History, of a

R

graphic description of the Scottish Highlanders, of a oritical Letter in Latin to David Buchanan, containing strictures on the histories of Boece, Buchanan, and Knox, and on Buchanan's 'De Jure Regni,' and of a family history previously at Craig, and now at Gordon Castle, entitled 'Origo et Progressus Familiæ Illustrissimæ Gordoniorum in Scotia,' which comes down to 1595. It is described as "very correct as to the geography of places," but, owing to his old age and the situation of his dwelling preventing consultation of the public Records, defective in many things. "What we have of it," says William Gordon, another family annalist, "is very well done and deserves the greatest credit, for he was a gentleman of the strictest veracity." It contains anecdotes and passages which could only have been available to one on close terms with the House of Huntly.

Straloch expressed the hope that some one of fine parts would reduce the scattered papers of the time into a truthful account of the reign of Charles I., and remove the misrepresentations by which Europe had been so long im. posed on. He had collected much material, and in vain endeavoured to induce Lord Crimond (father of Bishop Burnet) to undertake the work. The character of a great man is often to be traced as significantly in the letters addressed to him as in his own, and those written to Straloch by Crimond, Scotstarvet, and Professor Johnston of St Andrews

are eloquent of the regard felt for him by the most judicious and cultured minds of his day, and of their common interest in and knowledge of the classics and the past of their country. He was himself a distinguished classical scholar and an accomplished master of Latin in prose and verse. One of his descendants wrote in 1780: "There are many epigrams, epitaphs, and emblems written by Straloch and his sons still remaining among the family MSS. Some of these have been published,

. though none were intended for the public view; for it appears Mr Gordon amused himself with these trifles merely for the sake of his children, who were taught by these poetical exercises the force and elegance of the Latin language. Accordingly all of his children who lived to maturity became excellent classical scholars." The following lines, from one of his emblems, illustrate the flow of his Latin verse:

"Parce Cupidineis mea corda lacessere telis,

Altius aspiro, purior urit amor :

Me desiderium Cœlestis provocat aulæ,

Parce igitur telis, sæve Cupido, tuis. Nequit insidias fraudesque dolosque Cupido,

Me placet ætherio subdere colla Evasi casses fraudesque Cupidinis : jugo: ignes

Ignibus extinxi: sic parta mihi quies."

In his will, dated September 1657, Straloch "recommended his soul to the Almighty my Creator and redeemer, hoping by his suffering for me to have salvation," and appointed his

body to be buried in the church of New Machar. He left to his son John a watch and medal of gold which he "had of umquhile George Lord Gordon," and to James, Minister at Rothiemay, "all maps, papers, and descriptions, the most part written and drawn with my hand, which conduce to the description of Scotland, and he to be accountable therefor to the public" after correction. His books and

all such papers as concern learning and literature were to be divided among his sons Hugh, Lewis, and Arthur, "and that Alexander, altho' he be no scholar, may be contented also with such as are most expedient for him." Two hundred merks were left to the poor and indigent of New Machar. He lived long enough to witness the Restoration, and died in his eighty-first year on Sunday, 18th August 1661, survived for one year by his widow.

All the lands which belonged to him had passed from his descendants in little more than a century. His great grandson, Alexander Gordon of Pitlurg, who represented AberIdeenshire in the Union Parliament, had succeeded to an unencumbered estate, but "high living at Paris" and an unfortunate connection with Law of Lauriston and the Mississippi Scheme proved fatal to his fortunes. In 1723 he sold Kinmundy to James Ferguson of Balmakelly, and shortly afterwards parted with the ancestral Pitlurg, while Straloch was sold during a minority in 1766. "The Great Straloch " is, however, represented by the descendants of his son's younger

son John, to whom inheritance from Skene and Cumming heiresses brought the estates of Parkhill, Dyce, and Birness, and by whom the old name of Pitlurg was transferred to the lands of Leask in Buchan.

The portraits of Straloch by Jameson-one preserved in the public hall of Marischal College - show the intellectual forehead and dignified mien of a cultured Scottish gentleman, wearing the cavalier moustaches and small pointed beard which are found in those of his unfortunate chief, the second Marquis of Huntly. His career affords perhaps the finest example of an accomplished type not uncommon among the gentry of the bleak and barren north. The flower of his manhood was spent in close touch with the intellectual society that is associated with the names of "the Aberdeen Doctors," and the dual universities of the capital of the country "benorth the Mounth.” The later portion of his life, though passed in retirement from public affairs and in exceptional freedom from the exactions of "The Troubles," was saddened by the judicial murders of his monarch and his chief, and by the temporary destruction of all that he held most dear. But it closed in the bright light of a happy sunset, and it has left to posterity an inspiring example of assiduous service, rendered by one whose position might have been deemed to relieve him from such painstaking labour, to his countrymen's knowledge of their native land.

MUSINGS WITHOUT METHOD.

THE FOLLY OF INTERNATIONAL SPORT THE "DECAY" OF CRICKET

-THE GAME AND THE SPECTATOR-THE ART OF LETTER-WRITING
-COWPER'S LETTERS.

was chartered at enormous expense. A Government grant made the journey of its heroes easy and comfortable. Private

IF you look at the word "sport" in the dictionary, you will find it explained somewhat after this fashion: "Amusement, enjoyment, diversion, munificence came to the aid of fun." Whether it be pursued a generous Government, and under a roof or in the open nothing was spared which air, its essence is and should money and forethought might be pleasure and delight. The compass to ensure success. In fierce egoism of victory should the train of the heroes came be no more than an incident. a vast army of "rooters," a Sport for sport's sake is the peculiar adjunct to athleticism one and only excuse which the happily unknown among Engamateur can bring forward for lishmen. We ourselves saw the self-denial of laborious them four years ago at the days. The mere taint of pro- Stadium of the White City, fessionalism is, and will always and do not cherish a pleasant be, abhorrent to English ath- memory of their antics. It is letes. The best test of a the business of the "rooters " sportsman is that he should to encourage their own chamnot grudge another the tri- pions, and to prove their disumph of victory. Such, indeed, gust at every success that is has always been the spirit of not won under the stars and our countrymen, and if America stripes. To this end they are and Sweden are proving their armed with tin trumpets and superiority in what are foolishly unseemly things called "college called the "Olympic Games," we yells." From sunset to sunshould take our defeats like down they shout "rah," "rah,” men and refrain rigidly from and when off duty they may excuse and explanation. be recognised by the flags which they wave and the foolish badges which they wear in their button-holes. That they deprive sport of amenity matters not to them. They see in sport nothing but a "serious proposition." The business of their heroes is not to amuse themselves, but to win; not to delight in their strength and prowess, but to show that

was

[ocr errors]

It is not in this light that the Americans regard athletics. The team which represented the United States at Stockholm run on business lines." It was, to use its own lingo, "out to win." Mere sport is a superstition, which it did not harbour in its mind for a moment. The steamer which brought it to Sweden

its

« PreviousContinue »