CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

MISS STIRLING GRAHAM.

Fifty years ago, or thereabouts, when by goodfortune my brother and I were permitted to makesome advance towards an acquaintance with theluminaries which at that time in a remarkablemanner distinguished society in the Scottish capital,we one evening, at the house of John ArchibaldMurray—afterwards Lord Murray—enjoyedthe satisfaction of seeing a lady who some yearspreviously had become locally famous. She was alively pleasant person, rather small in figure,unmarried, and had seemingly reached middle age.From her manners she evidently moved amongpeople in the higher circles. As to her languagethere was the marked peculiarity that, besides aScottish intonation, there was a pretty frequentuse of the Scottish dialect—that which is bestexemplified in Burns; for as yet there were stilla few northern ladies of rank who in conversationdid not disdain to employ incidentally words inthe national vernacular. They spoke as they hadbeen taught in early life, and as they were accustomedto speak among old and familiar friends.There was nothing coarse or vulgar in theirlanguage; the Scotch words gave an agreeableflavouring to their discourse. Lady Anne Lindsay,the writer of Auld Robin Gray, was a good specimenof this lingering class of high-born ladies, whounderstood and still occasionally used a Scotchseasoning in their conversation. Lord Cockburnhas presented some charming reminiscences ofthis class of ladies, and he wrote just at thetime when they had very nearly died out.

The lady who interested us on the presentoccasion was Miss Stirling Graham of Duntrune.As we understood, she lived mostly at the familyestate in Forfarshire, with a mansion overlookingthe estuary of the Tay, and commanding a distantview of St Andrews. Usually she spent herwinters in Edinburgh, where she was immenselyesteemed for her geniality and accomplishments.My brother, who had already written much aboutthe disastrous troubles in Scotland in the seventeenthcentury, felt a peculiar interest in MissStirling Graham, on account of her connectionby heritage with that historical personage, JohnGraham of Claverhouse—the terrible Claverhousedescribed by Scott in Old Mortality, for his persecutionof the Covenanters, and who as ViscountDundee perished by a musket-shot at the battleof Killiecrankie, 1689. Claverhous

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