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Memoirs of James, Marquis of Montrose, K.g. Captain General of Scotland
Memoirs of James Marquis of Montrose Kg Captain General of Scotland Author:James Grant General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1853 Original Publisher: G. Routledge Subjects: Scotland Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.... more »com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: Immediately on the west side of the castle, but surrounded by foliage, the foundations of the old kirk are still to be traced, together with the boundary of its deserted cemetery, containing a few monumental stones. At the mansion of his father-in-law, Montrose spent that term so generally known as the honeymoon, and continued thereafter to reside with him. There, too, all the accounts of his factors were brought, and the rents of his estates paid in, under the legal eye of the old senator. The fortalice which received the young Earl and his blooming Countess, has now given place to the modern castle of Kinnaird ; a square but magnificent edifice, having at each angle a tower, one of which is said to be a portion of the ancient mansion.1 The property is still in possession of the Carnegies of Southesk and Pittarrow ; Sir James Carnegie, in the year 1764, having purchased back the estates of which his family had been so cruelly and unjustly deprived for their loyalty to the house of Stuart. He obtained them for the small sum of £36,870, no person venturing to bid against him, in the Parliament house at Edinburgh,2 where they were exposed for sale. CHAPTER IV. Lady Magdalene's Death. " He that hath a wife and children," says Lord Bacon, " hath given hostages to fortune ; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or of mischief:" but the future life of Montrose proved the fallacy of this aphorism. In those days, when married and residing at the solitary- castle of Kinnaird, with his fair young Countess and her venerable fath...« less