LI—THE LATE MARQUIS OF BUTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2433, 31 October 1900, Page 67

LI— THE LATE MARQUIS OF BUTE.

Another very distinguished and talented Scottish nobleman has passed away since my first Tale from Bode, which related to the late Duke of Argyll, appeared in the Otago Witness.

On the map of Scotland Argyll and Bute are adjoining counties. Bute (or Bode) consists wholly of islands, and composes the Inner Hebrides, lying in the Frith of Clyde. These islands, Bute, Arran, the two Cumbraes, and several smaller islets, are separated from the Outer Hebrides by the long promontory or "Mull" of Cantire, which shelters them from the blasts and storms of the rude Atlantic Ocean. Bute itself, the principal, though not the largest, of the group, may be said to be embayed in the lap of the large county of Argyll, being separated from it only by the canal-like Kyles of Bute.

And now "Pale Death, advancing with impartial footstep," has stepped across the Kyles, and without allowing six months to elapse from the death of the Machkalean Mohr, has taken away also the chieftain- of the High Stewards oi Bute — both of them reckoning among their ancestry, inter alia, King Robert tho Bruce, the hero King of Scotland. For did not that King's sister Princess Marjory, marry Sir Neil Campbell, of, Lochow, the ancestor of the Argyll Campbells, and his daughter, the Princess Marjory, marry Walter, the hereditary Great, or High, Steward of Scotland (in Latin, Senescallus Scotue), the man whom above all hio subjects "the King delighted to honour" — thereby bringing the Stewarts to the throne in the person of Robert the Second, Marjory's Caesar-son, through whom Queen Victoria herself and many others derive their descent from Scottish' and Irish Royalty, and through the latter a pretty clearly established descent from David, King of Judah and Israel?

The death was announced by telegraph cable, on the Bth of October, 1900, of John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, third Marquis of Bute in the peerage of Great Britain, seventh Earl of Dumfries and sixth Earl of Bute in the peerage of Scotland. His lordship had a paralytic seizure in May last, and never recovered vigour. His age was 53. Many at that age, — the Earl of -Rosefaery, for instance, — are looking forward to a bright career of usefulness and honour, "but the latest friend of humanity, the, "Pallida Mors" of Horace, frequently steps in when least expected, and asserts his sovereign sway. If any person could be said to have been born with a silver (or, if you like, a gold) spoon in his mouth, it certainly was the late Lord Bute. His long line of ancestry comprised many personages of Mgh and " honourable distinction. His father, the second Marquis, was a man who would have founded a family, irrespective altogether of the family honours and estates jvhich he inherited. At the naomentotis 'Disruption in 1843, he sat in the Lord High Commissionei-'s chair in the Tron Church, Edinburgh, a man nearly blind, fittingly representing earthly royalty, as contrasted with the headship over the Church of the King of Kings, represented by the afflatus of John Knox and successive worthies, and by the bodily presence of David Welsh, Thomas Chalmers, and the piety of the Covenanted Kirk of Scotland.

He nursed with assiduous care and perseverance the great industry which now forms the main source of supply of the Bute recurring millions. The Cardiff docks and the vast mineral wealth derived from the smokeless coal fields of the family in Glamorganshire supply a perennial revenue of one thousand pounds sterling for distribution by the fortunate owner. And the development of these gigantic enterprises may fairly be said to have been the creation of the second Marquis. He lived childless for over half a- century, when, in 1845, four years after the death of his first wife, he married the Ladyi Sophia Christina Ha-stings, a sister of that Lady Flora whose sad story my loyal pen refuses here to reproduce. The second Marquis inherited from his* mother the earldom of Dumfries, and thus became in early life of higher xank in the peerage of Scotland than his father, Lord Mountstuart, who did not live to succeed to the Bute titles, or even than Ms grandfather, the first Marquis, whose earliest titles dated from 1703, while those of Crichton of Sanquhar and Dumfries reach into the dark ages, 1488. The third Earl of Bute was a favourite of George 111, and in 1761 was for a short time his Prime Minister. Scotsmen were not so highly considered a century and a-half ago as they are now, and the profane Londoners called his lordship "Jack-Boot." How different nowadays ! I recollect when the late Marquis was born, in 1847, Punch remarked — after his manner — that the little baby must be a little Butey, meaning "beauty." The second earl married a daughter of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, celebrated as the friend of Pope, the poet, and as the introducer of inoculation into England from Turkey, where she resided as the wife of Mr Montagu, the first British Ambassador to the Sublime Porte. Before 1703 the Bute family were baronets, and spelt their name Stewart, as witness their old pictures still preserved at Mountstuart House, in Bute. When and why the. old spelling was discarded foi the French form, Stuart, I am not able to say. Many noble families of the royal Scottish name preserve the old spelling — to wit, those bearing the titles respectively of Galloway, Athole, and Londonderry,, while the lairds and commonalty almost universally have made no change. The innovation came from France, whence Mary Queen of Scots (and also of France) signed her name "Marie Stuart," in a letter still extant in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. A few years later, however, she returned a youthful widow to her native kingdom, and wedded her cousin, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, eldest son of Matthew, Earl of Lennox, and next after Mary herself, heir to the English (not the •Scottish) throne.

But exactness in spelling was not much observed. three hundred years ago. I have seen, at Hampton Opurt a small picture of

Queen Mary and Darnley, and underneath is the inscription, putting, so to speak, the cart before the horse ; "Henry Stewarde, King of Scotland, and Mary Stewarde, his wife. "

Proceeding backwards we come to the personage who may be deemed the founder of the Bute Stewarts, Sir John Stewart, of Bute, a son of King Robert the Second, the first of the unfortunate Stewart Kings. He was commonly called, from his complexion, the Black Stewart, probably to distinguish him from his brother, also called Sir John, of Dundonald, who was called the Red Stewart. Sir John Stewart, of Bute, in a Royal charter of 1408, still preserved in the public records at Edinburgh, is styled "Johannes Senescallus, frater regis (Robert III), vicecomes de Bute." He was created b^ his half brother, King Robert 111, in 1398,' Sheriff of Bute, hereditary Keeper of Rothesay Castle, and coroner of Buteshire. - Before the Stewards of Scotland became distinctly royal they were of illustrious dignity, tracing their lineal descent from the Royal prince Bancho,- celebrated by Shakespeare in conection with the Thane or Earl of Fife, Macduff, and Macbeth, the usurper. They were also connected with Bute, for in 1263 Alexander the High Steward was general at the battle of Largs, where the Norwegians were put to flight, the High Steward himself being, however, slain. Again, in 1298, at the battle of Falkirk, Sir John Steward of B.ute, second son of James, Seneschal of Scotland, led the van of Sir William Wallace's army against the English invaders. Sir John of Bute was slain on that victorious field. His childien do not, however, seem to have long remained in Bute, but transferred their abode to Bonkill, and his grandson was created first Earl of Angus, a family for centuries premier peers of Scotland, and now represented by tho Duke of Hamilton, Brandon, and Chatelherault — that is, since the dormancy in 1761 of the dukedom of Douglas. But probably the readers of the Otago Witness are getting tired of ancestral genealogies, and would like to return to the nineteenth century. I hope they are not like the American lady who on visiting England was shown by her hostess the graves of her progenitors. She remarked with all the brusque freshness of 'an Atlantic breeze : " Your ancestors seem, to be all underground ; mine, I thank God, are all alive and flourishing."

The late Marquis of Bute was born at Mountstuart Hoxise in Bute in September, 1847. Queen Victoria, her husband, and their three eldest children were at the time at anchor in Rothesay Bay. The Prince Consort landed, -and had a look round the town and the ancient castle, the favourite abode of the ancient Scotish monarchs. Then it was little better than a heap of ruins and much neglected, in fact, inaccessible. Now, by the care and liberality of the deceased keeper, it is a "thing of beauty and a joy "forever."

The Royal party were on- their route from a visit to Glasgow and its university to take an autumn's residence at Ardverikie, under the shadow of Ben Nevis. To get there they had to go through the Crinan canal, in a trackboat drawn by hor&ec — usually three in number. The master of tlie trackboat was a character. He wore a sort of naval uniform, and was called " Captain " Nicol. The Queen asked him about the localities : " What house is that we are now passing? " " That's the pawlace of the Bishop of Argyll, most sovereign lady, mem, your Majesty."

Then with true Presbyterian modesty he added in an apologetic tone : "Ye ken, your Majesty, he's a bishop, and I'm a captain ! "

When the young Earl of Windsor was seven months old, his father, the second marquis, died of an apoplectic seizure at Cardiff Castle in April,' 1848. From that time the revenue of the Bute estates began to accumulate. The young marquis's uncle, Lord James Crichton- Stuart, who by the recent birth had been deprived of the successsion, was allowed a salary as Commissioner of the Scottish estates, a sinecure office, as the brothei had left no provision by will. Sir James Fergusson, 01 Kilkerian (some time Governor of New Zealand), became by the father's appointment tutor-at-law, although only 16 years of age. The mother died 11 years after her husband, and henceforth the paternal and maternal care of the youthful marquis was entrusted to two relatives, Lady Elizabeth Moore and General Stewart. Whether Lord Bute was too impatient of control, or Avhether his ardent temperament was too much curbed, one result happened : that his lordship applied for relief to the Court of Session, which in Scotland fulfils the duties towards wards in ■minority, which in England are performed by the Court of Chancery. The Court advised the applicant to wait for a few months, Avhen he would be 14 j-ears of age, and the laws of Scotland would allow him then to nominate his own guardians for the approval of the court. Having gone to Oxford, Lord Bute came in contact with advanced Puseyism, and when he became of age he went to Rome, and in 1868 embraced the Roman , Catholic faith, much to the grief of his Scottish and other tenantry. Four years thereafter he married the Honourable Gwendolen Mary Anne Howard, of Glossop, a cousin-german of the present Duke of Norfolk. The family consists of one daughter, Lady Margaret Crichton-Stuart, now aged 25, and three sons — John, hitherto styled Earl of Dumfries, who becomes fourth Marquis of Bute. His age is nineteen, and there are two brothers — Lord Ninian and Lord Coliimb, aged respectively 17 and 14 years. The late marquis filled an eminent role in the recent history of Scotland. His liberality was unbounded. At a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds he endowed the University of Glasgow with a handsome structure now called the Bute Hall, and latterly he donated seventy thousand pounds to found a professorship in St. Andrew's University, for his lordship had purchased an estate in Fifeshire. Lord Bute's classical researches in Greece and on the site of ancient Troy are but a specimen of the liberality which his unbounded wealth enabled him to m,ajiife3t t His liter-

ary attainments were of a distinguished order. In. 1876 old Mounlstuart House, which he had before restored at great cost and with much taste, became a prey to fire, and soon after Lord Bute set about replacing it with an entirely new structure, at a cost of between one and two millions sterling, rendering it now the most commodious and elegant private residence in the British Isles or probably in the whole world. As other and better -instructed pens are no doubt already employed in writing memories of the late lamented peer, I bring my record to a close, applying to him the words of the Psalmist, which I consider he well deserves : "He hath scattered' abroad ; he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever." Requiescat m pace!

BODACH. Tauranga, N.Z., October 16, 1900.