Ardtaraig

NOTES

Note I, Page 14
This Miss Macarthur was co-heiress of Milton, Dunoon. She married our ancestor, Donald Campbell; whilst her sister, the other co-heiress, married John Campbell of Glenfoichen, in Lorn, and from her was descended Dr Campbell, afterwards minister of Dunoon, who flourished in my mother’s young days – a stiff old aristocrat, who was wont to point out to mamma the mansion-house of Milton, in which their respective great-grandmothers were born. This stately old cleric sang “like an angel,” but talked even worse than “poor Poll,” as he positively croaked when he spoke. On the other hand, his sister, Isabella, who managed his bachelor establishment, had the most silvery voice when speaking, but was incapable of singing a note. Even in those long past days, some of the Glasgow “tobacco lords” would venture to land on the classic shores of Dunoon, to inhale a breath of its pure atmosphere, when Dr Campbell would snort defiance, and waving his lily-white hands (of which he was not a little vain), stigma¬tise the intruders as “Mushrooms – mushrooms, the growth of a night!” He was in the habit of taking his morning bath in a hollow or cave in the rocks on the south side of the place, where now is built the bustling pier. The cave is quite easily seen from the water; at least it was, till the last time I saw it, when I fancied some excavations had been made, but I have never sailed past the spot without taking a long look at “the cove,” as the old gentleman called it. Describing his method of bathing, he would say, “I take three dips and then I rise – three dips and then I rise – three dips, and then I run into the cove!” How would his spirit have been vexed could he have imagined -the Clyde as it is to-day, with its rushing steamers, and its crowds of tourists and trippers!
Note II, Page 26
Copy of Latin inscription on the tomb of grand papa’s uncle, the late Rev. Hugh Campbell, minister of Rothesay, in the churchyard there, south side of the church:- .
“Hic positae sunt Reliquiae, Hugonis Campbell, Rothsayensis Ecclesiae quondam Pastoris, Generosi, omnibus chari sed suis charissimi, qui Pietate erga Deum ac Benevolentia erga mortales quamdiu vixit paucis secundus fuit. Obiit XXIV. Jun. An. Dom. MDCCLXIV. Aetat LXIV.”
Translation of above:¬
Here are deposited the remains of Hugh Campbell, formerly Pastor of the Church of Rothesay, of gentle birth, dear to all, but dearest to his own, who for piety towards God, and bene¬volence towards mortals, all his life long, was second to few. He died on the 24th of June, in the year of our Lord, 1764, aged 64 years.
The above translation was kindly made at my request by cousin the Rev. Duncan Maclean, B.D., son of Mrs. Georgina Campbell Maclean, who was the last survivor of the Ardtarig family, as stated in the foregoing reminiscences. In a note written by him, he says; refer¬ring to the inscription: “The only doubtful word is generosus which, in Latin, oftener means what I have put in, than literally ‘generous,’ especially when followed by a word like benevolentia, which would otherwise be too much of a mere repetition.”
Note III, Page 22
In the Canongate of Old Edinburgh there stood the house of Sir John Whiteford, of Ballochmyle, Ayrshire, who was one of the earliest patrons of Robert Burns, and in “The Lass of Ballochmyle” is a remembrance of the kindness shown to the Bard by a daughter of the house. In Bakehouse Close was the mansion of the Duchess of Gordon, another of the poet’s patronesses. These ladies were the same who were at school with grandmamma, or about the same time.