We have been favoured with some notes relating to this affair. "When Bowey's aisle" (the old name for what afterwards belonged to the Alexanders)" was dismantled, the monument erected by the Countess of Stirling, to the memory of Sir William Erskine and his wife, whose only child she was, was in a state of perfect preservation in the side of one of the buttresses of the church, which projected a little into the aisle; and as the buttress was not taken down, this monument remained, till it was removed a few years ago by the family of Mr James Wright, writer, in order to make way for a monument erected by them, to the memory of that gentleman, on the very spot in which it stood." The memoranda farther bear:-"The aisle does not seem to have been carried off by the creditors of the * Sir William Erskine was parson of Campsie, Commendator of the Bishopric of Glasgow, a younger brother of the family of Balgony, and cousin-german of the Regent Mar. (Vide Crawfurd's Peerage, voce Alexander Earl of Stirling.) The following is the inscription on the monument above referred to, erected by Janet Countess of Stirling, to the memory of her parents : "Hic jacet in spe resurrectionis Amque ejus numerosa sobole auxit, Et hoc monumentum Parentibus Pie Í have deemed it right to preserve this inscription, as the monument has been removed, and very possibly may be broken up. It was pulled down by Mr Wright, and thrown aside into an outhouse, to which access could only be obtained by the interference of the public authorities, when on a recent occasion inspection of the monument was required family, like the palace, but remains at this moment in the hereditas jacens of the earl. Mr Wright obtained possession of it before it was pulled down, buried his wife and son in it, and was latterly interred in it himself. The site of it is now enclosed with a stone wall and iron railings, erected when the West Church was repaired." "The aisle is remembered to have been occupied as a joiner's shop, or place for holding the wood of a joiner in the neighbourhood, before the late Mr Wright began to bury in it." Mr Humphrys managed to inlist a large portion of the periodical press in his favour; and, accordingly, the public has, for a series of years, been enlightened by occasional puffs of trashy publications relating to his "claims," of indignant Jeremiads and incidental paragraphs, all tending to mystify "the many," and inlist their sympathies in his favour. Every now and then advertisements similar to this appeared. "INTIMATION. "LORD STIRLING respects the motives which have induced T. W. C. to withhold his own name and address; and having ascertained, by the reference to Sir G. M. the perfect truth and correctness of T. W. C.'s information, he feels bound in gratitude for so generous and well-timed a disclosure of important facts on the part of a stranger, to comply with his request of a 'short acknowledgment in either the Edinburgh or London newspapers.' Lord S. begs to assure T. W. C. that all his statements respecting the amissing charter of 1639 have been verified by the search, and will soon completely effect its discovery. The information sent, respecting dark intrigues of the opposite party, will be useful; but T. W. C. will be glad to hear that, as might have been expected, those men who seek the overthrow of a family by treachery-whose plans are supported by fabricated papers and defamatory state ments—have traitors in their own camp, to whose revelations Lord S. is indebted for ample means of exposing and punishing the chief conspirators. "20th September, 1836." (Edinburgh Advertiser.) The marriage of his daughter, Miss Angela Humphrys, afforded another opportunity for "tickling the trout;" and in the newspapers of April, 1835, it was thus noticed, care being taken to preserve the usual inaccuracy of rumour in like cases. "Runaway Match in High Life.—The gossips of Edinburgh have experienced considerable excitement from the circumstance of an Englishman having eloped with the fair daughter of a Scotch Peer. The young lady is the beautiful Lady A[ngel]a A[lexande]r, only daughter of the Earl of S- -g, (who has recently claimed the title,) and the bridegroom is W▬▬▬▬▬e P▬▬▬▬▬▬n, Esq. a person of good property in Cheshire. The parties were married yesterday, at St James's, by the gentleman's brother, and instantly departed for Paris."LONDON PAPER. The deposition of Mr Tyrrell throws some light on the mode in which funds were raised for support of his claims. In the "Narrative of the Oppressive Law Proceedings, &c. against the Earl of Stirling," (Edinburgh, 1836, 4to.) there is a curious invention about a design to entrap this "much injured nobleman" by Lord Goderich's private secretary. This is apt to startle the unwary reader, and may perhaps afford matter of future speculation as to the cause of this deep laid *Scraptoft Hall, the residence of Mr Pearson, is situated in Leicestershire, a few miles from the town of Leicester. See an engraving of it in Throsby's Views, vol. I. and a more enlarged description in Nichols' Leicester, vol. II. It was originally the seat of the family of Wigley. scheme of tyranny, and the inquisitorial practices resorted to by the British Cabinet. We would ven ture to propose a solution of the enigma. Might it not be a trait of the professional tact of a bailiff employed by some long deferred and disappointed creditor-Sir Henry Digby for example-whose cause against the "Earl" might then be pending? With reference to Mr Humphrys' dealings with Mademoiselle Le Normand, this paragraph occurs in one of the Times of April, 1838:-" Extract of a letter Paris, April 26-The Emperors Napoleon and Alexander, and dozens of individuals (after them) of the first distinction, with thousands of the common file, have, from time to time, consulted the famous Parisian fortune teller, Mademoiselle Le Normand. Are you aware that the wise and grave elderly gentlemen, who constitute the present Cabinet of Great Britain, have, through Earl Granville, been dealing lately with that celebrated tireuse des cartes? To be serious, however, the following comes from an unquestionable source :-The British Government has called upon that of France to institute inquiries respecting certain deeds which a soi-disant or a real Lord (Alexander) Stirling has produced, and on which he grounds a claim to the inheritance of the whole of Canada. His lordship has, moreover, protested against the mission of Earl Durham. It appears that when lately in Paris, his lordship obtained from Mlle. Le Normand certain documents, on which he rests the claim just mentioned, and copies, or a description of which he has laid before the British Government. In consequence of an application of Earl Granville, Mlle. Le Normand was yesterday summoned to the Prefecture of Police, when she was called upon to state in what way the documents in question had come into her possession. She replied that they had been left with her en depot by a party respecting whom she either would not or could not give any account. All that could be obtained from her in addition, was an admission that she had received money for the papers." At the same time, and in connection with the above, the Standard remarks:-" Lord (Alexander) Stirling, if Lord he be, seems to be a fortune hunter, and therefore sought a fortune teller in the celebrated Mlle. Le Normand; of course his lordship's wishes were soon complied with, and upon the payment of the required fee, Mlle. produced a bundle of papers, authorizing his lordship to put in his claim for the whole' of Canada." With reference to the criminal prosecution, we cannot help thinking that it was very inexpedient, as the excerpt charter, which was the basis of any claim Mr Humphrys could set up, might, if such a step were really necessary, have been set aside at a comparatively trifling expense by a process of reduction-improbation in the Court of Session. Indeed, we should have thought that the reduction of the service and infeftment would, of itself, have answered every useful purpose; as it is, the country has been put to an enormous expense without any corresponding benefit, as the Jury have only decided that which the Judges of the Court of Session could have done, namely, that the writs by which Mr Humphrys endeavoured to support his imaginary claims are false and fabricated. In conclusion, we may express an opinion in conformity with that of the majority of the Jury, for we think it exceedingly 7 |