Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Anne Grant

GRANT, Mrs Anne (1755-1838), a Scottish authoress, generally known as Mrs Grant of Laggan, was born at Glasgow, 21st February 1755. Her father, Duncan MacVicar, who held a commission in the army, went in 1757 with his regiment to America, and his family followed him in 1758. He received an allotment of land on retiring from the army in 1765, but ill health compelled him to return to Scotland in 1768, and after the outbreak of the revolutionary war his lands were confiscated. In 1779 Anne married the Rev. Mr Grant of Laggan, near Fort Augustus, Inverness, and on his death in 1801 she was left with a large family and only a very small income. It being known to several of her friends that she occasionally wrote verses, a proposal was made that she should publish a volume of poems, and this being acceded to, the names of as many as 3000 subscribers were obtained. The volume appeared in 1803 under the title of Original Poems, with some Translations from the Gaelic, and met with a rather favourable reception, on account of its easy versification and the truth and tenderness of the sentiment of some of its smaller pieces. In 1806 she published Letters from the Mountains, being a Selection from the Author's Correspondence with her Intimate Friends from 1773 to 1804, which, by its spirited descriptions of Highland scenery, character, and legends, awakened a large amount of interest. Her other works are Memoirs of an American Lady, with Sketches of Manners and Scenery in America as they existed previous to the Revolution (1808), containing reminiscences of her stay with Mrs Schuyler, the lady with whom she spent four years of her childhood in America; Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland (1811); and Eighteen Hundred and Thirteen, a Poem (1814). After the death of her husband, Mrs Grant resided for some time on a small farm near Laggan; but in 1803 she removed to Woodend near Stirling, in 1806 to Stirling, and in 1810 to Edinburgh, in the society of which she was until her death a prominent figure, being much esteemed for her conversational powers, her tact and good sense, her cheerfulness of disposition, and her thorough kindness of heart. For the last twelve years of her life she received a pension from Government; and this, along with her other sources of income, not only placed her in easy circumstances, but enabled her to gratify her generosity by giving to others. She died November 7, 1838.

See Memoir and Correspondence of Mrs Grant of Laggan, edited by her son J. P. Grant, 3 vols., 1844.