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Sir John died 30th July, 1844, and was succeeded by his only son, Sir John, who was born on the 12th May, 1791, and married 14th October, 1839, Lady Matilda-Harriet Bruce, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, which lady died 31st August, 1857- Sir John sat in Parliament successively for the counties of Lanark and Renfrew. He died without issue, 6th June, 1865, when the Baronetcy devolved, in pursuance of the limitation of the patent of 1707, upon his nephew, Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, K.T., who assumed the surname of Maxwell, after his patronymic, Stirling.

William Stirling, only son of Archibald of Keir, was born at Kenmure, near Glasgow, 1818, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1839. Succeeding to the estate of Keir and Cadder on the death of his father, 1847, he took an early opportunity of disentailing these properties, and, besides greatly enlarging Keir House, built the beautiful memorial church of Lecropt, near his family inheritance. Stirling Maxwell married at Paris, 26th April, 1865, Anne-Maria, third daughter of David, eighth Earl of Leven, and by her (who died 8th December, 1874) had issue-(1) John Maxwell, present Baronet; (2) Archibald, born 1867. He married secondly, 1st March, 1877, the Hon. Caroline Norton, daughter of the late Thomas Sheridan, and widow of Hon. George Chapple Norton, brother of Fletcher, third Lord Grantley. She died 15th June following. Sir William was highly esteemed as one of the most accomplished scholars of his day, especially in the department of Spanish art and literature. With strong natural artistic tastes, refined by study and travel, Sir William made. many important contributions to critical and historical literature, and published also a volume of "Songs of the Holy Land," 1846. Among his best known works are:-"Annals of the Artists of Spain," 1848; "Cloister Life of Emperor Charles V.," 1852; "Velazquez and his Works," 1855; two sumptuous privately printed books, relating to the victories and processions of Charles V.; "Don John of Austria;" "Essays concerning Proverbs, &c., and the Arts of Design." It was remarked concerning Sir William's "Processions" of Charles V. that, while the greatest and most illustrious historians had vied with each other in preserving the

likeness of the Emperor's person, another in preserving the record of his famous achievements, it was no small addition to even his fame that in this our age, the taste, the learning, and the munificence of a Scottish gentleman, aided by the arts of the nineteenth century, should have raised such a literary monument to his greatness. Sir William was a trustee of the British Museum, 1872, and of the National Portrait Gallery; Lord Rector of Edinburgh University, 1871; Chancellor of Glasgow University, 1875; a Member of the Scottish Education Board; a D.C.L. and LL.D. As a Commoner, he also received the exceptional honour of being created a Knight of the Thistle. He sat in the House of Commons as a Conservative for Perthshire (1852-68), and from 1874 till his lamented death, which took place somewhat suddenly at Venice, 16th January, 1878, when the succession to Pollok opened up to his eldest son, Sir John Maxwell Stirling-Maxwell, the tenth and present Baronet, born 6th June, 1866.

The house of Nether Pollok-a large and handsome structure of four storeys-is situated on the right bank of the White Cart amidst highly-embellished pleasure grounds and beautiful plantations. The building was completed in 1753 by the then Sir John Maxwell, second Baronet, a few weeks before his death. The castle which had been previously occupied by the family was demolished about the same time. It stood on the site of the offices attached to

the present mansion. Upon an eminence about 300 yards to the eastward of the house there stood a still older castle, the remains of the drawbridge and fosse belonging to which were in existence in Crawfurd's time.

In the Parliamentary Return of Owners and Heritages (Scotland, 1874), Pollok estate is entered as consisting of 4,773 acres, with a rental of £13,012, exclusive of £458 for quarries, and £700 for minerals. Sir William's other properties were entered-Stirlingshire (Keir), 1,487 acres; rental, £2,370. Lanarkshire (Cadder, &c.), 5,691 acres; rental, £8,741; minerals, £3,231. Perthshire, 8,863 acres; rental, £5,731.

SIR THOMAS MUNRO, K.C.B.

UNCOMMEMORATED as yet by any statue in the city of his birth, of his upbringing, and of his education, the fame of Sir Thomas Munro has been otherwise well cared for by a still fresh affectionate regard which connects him with all that was brave and of good report as a soldier, no less than with what was wise and humane as an Indian Governor. An equestrian memorial, carved out by the skilful hand of Chantrey for the inhabitants of Madras-a memorial which even native chiefs have been seen to salute with affection-recalls one phase of Governor Munro's career; a choultry and tank at Gooty for the accommodation of travellers, another; while a third is conspicuous as a tomb at Putteecondah, where the hero of the Maharatta war fell a victim to his zeal in that service of the Crown which had been the pride of his life, for the long period of eight-andforty years. His moderation in war was not more remarkable than his homely, disinterested career during such brief periods of peace as service in the East during his time permitted any of the Company's officials to enjoy. Forty years a soldier, for the most part high in command, and eight years a Governor in the wealthy Presidency of Madras, Sir Thomas Munro, with the uncontrolled management of provinces larger than many European kingdoms, died as he had lived, faithful to his public trust, and possessed of only a modest competence. But still more should be remembered to his credit. Founded as English rule in India was by the matchless bravery of Clive, and built up by the policy of Hastings, the India of Munro's day was a country still looked upon by most Europeans as a place to get rich in as soon as possible; so that every greedy factor, however petty his station, thought it no shame to extort from the poorest peasantry in the world whatever could add to his dreams of boundless wealth. Burke was scarcely exaggerating when he declared in the Commons that Indian civil servants were almost universally sent out to begin their progress and career

"To

in active occupation and in the exercise of high authority at that period of life which, in all other places, was employed in the course of a rigid education. put the matter in a few words," said the orator, "these civil servants are transferred from slippery youth to perilous independence, from perilous independence to inordinate expectations, from inordinate expectations to boundless power. Schoolboys without tutors, minors without guardians, the world is let loose on them with all its temptations, and they are let loose upon the world with all the powers that despotism involves." Munro has been fitly classed with Elphinstone and Metcalfe as having done their best to supersede such gangs of public robbers by a body of functionaries not more distinguished for ability and diligence than by integrity and public spirit.

The absence of any memorial here to a citizen so distinguished as MajorGeneral Munro is apt to excite increased surprise when it is remembered that he was a son of Glasgow, not alone by the mere accident of birth or education, but it was a locality seldom absent from either his waking thoughts or dreams. Even when exercising supreme power over the dusky myriads of his Presidency, and amid scenes altogether different, he never forgot or ceased to be influenced by recollections of his early home at North Woodside, on the banks of the then silvery Kelvin. "The Father of his People," never appeared in happier mood than when writing or speaking regarding the land of his fathers and the old house at home, removed in 1869, when the ground was being laid out for the thriving new suburb of Kelvinside. To Munro the comfort of his parents, their country house and their garden, remained with him as fresh as if he had never left the paternal roof. But his sister (afterwards Mrs. Henry Erskine) would appear on the whole to have been his favourite correspondent. His tone has been noticed as changing whenever he addressed her, and the recollections and expectations of his heart to well out in their greatest fulness. One written from the camp before Cuddalore, on the eve when General Stuart (of the house of Torrance and Castlemilk) was making his successful attack on the fort kept by the French, supported with native troops under Tippoo Saib, may still be read with interest and profit:-"I have

never yet been able to divest myself of my partiality for home; nor can I now reflect without regret on the careless, indolent life I led in my father's house, when time fled away undisturbed by these anxious thoughts which possess every one who seeks earnestly for advancement in the world. I often see my father busied with his tulip beds, and my mother with her myrtle pots; I see you drawing, and James lost in meditation: and all these seem as much present to me as they did when I was amongst you. Sometimes, when I walk on the sea-shore, I look across the waves and please myself with fancying that I see a distant continent amongst the clouds, where I imagine you all to be." Replying on another occasion to his sister, who had proposed a visit to Ammondell during his first return home in 1808, after an absence in the East of nearly thirty years, Colonel Munro wrote playfully: "I have been twice at North Woodside, and though it rained without ceasing on both days, it did not prevent me from rambling up and down the river from Clayslap to the aqueduct bridge. I stood above an hour at Jackson's Dam, looking at the water rushing over. The rain and withered leaves were descending thick about me, while I recalled the days that are past. The wind whistling through the trees, and the water tumbling over the dam, had still the same sound as before; but the darkness of the day, and the little smart box perched upon the opposite bank, destroyed much of the illusion, and made me feel that former times were gone. I don't know how it is, but when I look back to early years I always associate sunshine with them; when I think of North Woodside, I always think of a fine day, with the sunbeams streaming down upon Kelvin and its woody banks. I do not enter completely into early scenes of life in gloomy, drizzling weather. I mean to devote the first sunny day to another visit to Kelvin, which, whatever you may say, is worth ten such paltry streams as your Ammon." Sentiments like these show that Munro was something more than a Scotchman; he was a Glasgow Scotchman, fully as much as either Lord Clyde, Sir John Moore, or Thomas Campbell, or, indeed, any other whose image has been judged worthy of being set up in George Square.

Munro came of a good old Glasgow family, his grandfather being Daniel

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