The Dedication, written in his Lordship's life-time, was addressed to Baron Erskine: it could not be prefixed to the trait, but is retained in the Appendix to the Work in Manuscript, from having originated in the remarkable circumstance—that the honourable Thomas Erskine, afterwards Lord high Chancellor of Great Britain,[1] was a
- ↑ It is remarked by Sir Nathaniel W. Wraxall, in his "Own Times," that had Lord Erskine been born one grade higher in the aristocracy, had he been the son of a Marquis instead of an Earl, he would have been precluded, by the regulations of the Scotch nobility from practising at the bar;—and consequently cut off from such a source of fame and emolument as it proved to him.—Are there not those who would suggest a doubt here? Would not this enterprizing genius, on finding where his forte lay, have preferred relinquishing the barren privileges of aristocratical consanguinity, if they were such a serious obstacle to his advancement? especially as he was said to have finally determined on this professional choice from being unable to support his family on a commission in the Army, for which he had exchanged the Naval service.—The Author may add a circumstance respecting this Nobleman's relatives, which he has not seen noticed any where.—His Lordship, when Sergeant Erskine, being in company, at table, with a young man entirely deaf, accosted him with much facility by the digitalis verba, or finger alphabet; explaining that he had been used to converse in that mode with an uncle he had; who was, he said, a very learned man, and knew seven Ianguages.
