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Unpublished Letters of Simon 12tli Lord Louat. 371)
" The Karl o£ Cromarty, after drinking excessively in this
house of very good wine for Hvc days, went to Dingwall and fell
adrinking of very bad wine, which made him so sick that he had
almost died there. The Countess was obliged to come in the midst
of the night from Tarbat llonse to Dingwall— 14 long miles—she
having received an Express acquainting her that the Earl was not
like to live till daylight, liut I thank God he is recovered. His
death would be a singular loss to his Country and to his friends,
and particularly, to me which you may see by the Copy of two
letters that he writt to me after his recovery, which I send yon
enclosed."
There is a copy among these papers of a letter from Lovat to
" my mother's chief," the laird of Macleod, in which after describing
a severe illness and the remedies applied, which are not worth
quoting, the following veiy characteristic sentiments are delivered.
The "faint hopes" which the writer entertains of seeing Macleod's
grandfather in the next world may of course be read in two ways,
but it woidd hardly have been agreeable to the grandson.
" I do assure you that I was not at all uneasy to leave this
wicked treacherous world, but on the contrary I was pleased with
the faint hopes of seeing my dear Uncle, your grandfather, and
the other woi-thy persons that I was concerned in who went before
me. But it has pleased God to keep me for some more time from
the happy society of those brave upi-ight honest persons who wei-e
an honour to their King and to their country, and to make me
slave as long as Providence pleases among a corrupt generation in
this poor, unliappy, degenerate Island, where scarce an honest man
can be found Kara avis in terris, ikc. I am resolved, however,
to submit and to pray to God that I may keep my integrity
among the corruption of this age. I pray for my friends as I do
for myself, and particularly for the laird of Macleod, and for those
worthy gentleman that think as he does, for I presume to know a
little of his private sentiments, and, as I thank God they arc now
just and honourable, I hope they will continue so all your days."
Macleod was, it appears, in Parliament, and the next pai-agi-aph
in the letter is somewhat suggestive of what would now be
called a job.
" I took the liberty to write to you about getting the premium
on naval stores. The laird of Grant is more concerned in
this than any man in Scotland, and I am the next to him, if not
as much as he is, for I have vast woods upon my Estate which, if
preserved, will be of great use to my family ; and it would be a
vast loss to all the gentlemen that have woods ujjon their Estates