Ardtaraig

made by the uneducated being akin to the broken English of the foreigner. Andrew Campbell, with his Irish wife, came over from Ayrshire, and settled in Cowal; no doubt to prosecute the sheep-farming started by his father, John Campbell of Lagwine. He seems to have prospered fairly well; at all events, he had a large family – no fewer than nine sons and two daughters. Two of the sons went into the Army, Major John, 16th Foot, and Captain Andrew, 21st Foot, while William became an M.D., and practised in Grenada, West Indies, and Ivie was captain of an Eastindiaman. The others died abroad in early life. The eldest daughter, Grace, who was destined to become our grandmother, was sent when quite young to live with her grandparents, the M’Crotcherts, in Ayr, then an aristocratic little county town. Old Mrs M’Crotchert’s maiden name was Grace Elliot. She was a native of Antrim, Ireland, and was related to the famous General Elliot (afterwards Lord Heathfield), who so bravely defended Gibraltar from 1779 to 1783.
The old couple, who were evidently most kindly disposed, as well as possessed of comfortable means, seem to have made much of their granddaughter. Long afterwards, she was wont to tell the daughters of Ardtarig of the happy youthful days she had spent in Ayr, and to describe her grandmother as a graceful old lady, with a long waist, hoops, and beautiful hands, which latter point she, the granddaughter, had herself inherited. The old couple placed their young charge at a first-rate boarding-school, where Miss Maxwell, afterwards Duchess of Gordon, and the daughters of Sir John Whiteford and others, were her schoolmates. This I mention merely to show what kind of a school it was. There she received what was, in those days, a superior education, and she retained wonderfully into extreme old age her knowledge of languages and other acquirements. Her letters in correspondence were somewhat formal, but always very correct. During the school period she was looked upon as a delicate girl, subject to colds and coughs. She had a pony of her own for exercise; a corrective, we may suppose, for the many hours a day spent by her lying upon that instrument of torture, a back-board, in order to strengthen her spine! It must have been a shock to her kind old relatives when, after all this tender care, she left them to give her hand, at the early age of seventeen, to a man fifteen years her senior; about whom (excellent though he was), they probably knew but little; and, as it happened, to enter upon a life of many cares, and to become the mother of fifteen children! Fortunately, this last fact was still unknown, but there was enough at the outset which might have grieved the old people, and made them think that their darling was committing a great mistake. Truth to tell, I am merely supposing this. What they really thought or felt history sayeth not but to the best of my knowledge they never again appear upon the scene. This, of course, may be accounted for by the fact of their advanced age, and by the probability of their having passed away soon after. Her aunt, Mrs Forbes, Ardhighland, ventured so far as to express her disapproval, by saying to the small bride-elect, “If I were your mother, I would not allow it.” The girl answered with spirit, “Though you were my mother, you could not prevent it!” The marriage took place in 1788. Grandpapa was then thirty-two, and the bride just seventeen, small in stature, slight of figure, but endowed with a high spirit and a firm will. How it was that she subjugated the stalwart George will never now be known. No doubt the little blind god was chiefly responsible, and under his wing the redoubtable bachelor was captured, and that by the veriest little fairy. The marriage ceremony was performed at Ballimore by the Rev. Hugh MacTavish, in the presence of a large gathering. Long afterwards, when an old woman, the bride of that day would say, with wistful sadness, that she, the centre of the circle, had lived to be the last survivor.
At times I wonder if Gran’s brother, Major Dan, had himself been an admirer, for I have been told that after the ceremony he said to her, with a playful wave off, “The back of my hand to you, my lady!” The house of Ardtarig was then in course of building, but the husband brought his little wife, first of all, home to his bachelor quarters. The old original house existed in my day and was not far from the newer one, but what remained of it was then used as a barn. It was called the “Black Barn,” possibly from the colours of antiquity that distinguished it. After a while the couple settled down in the new house, there to live a married life of close upon sixty years, and to have a family of six sons and nine daughters, twelve of whom grew up.
The young wife soon outlived her early delicacy, and enjoyed excellent health throughout her