285
Sir John himself, and the French soldiers pouring
in, made them all prisoners. The French with
difficulty extricated him from the fallen horse, and
while they were conveying him to the citadel, he
was severely wounded in the foot by a ball supposed
to have come from the British piquets. From the
effects of this encounter he suffered for a considerable
period.
On the 3d of May Sir John was created a British
peer by the title of Baron Niddry of Niddry, county
of Linlithgow. He declined being a partaker in the
pecuniary grant which, on the 9th of June ensuing,
was moved by the chancellor of the exchequer, as a
reward for the services of him and other distinguished
generals. On the death of his brother by his father's
prior marriage, he succeeded to the family title of
Earl of Hopetoun, and in August, 1819, he attained
to the rank of general. He died at Paris, on the 27th
August, 1823, in the fifty-eighth year of his age.
From the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1823 we
extract a character of this excellent and able man,
which, if it have a small degree too much of the
beau ideal in its composition, seems to be better
fitted to the person to whom it is applied than it
might be to many equally celebrated.
"As the friend and companion of Moore," says
this chronicle, "and as acting under Wellington in
the Pyrenean campaign, he had rendered himself
conspicuous. But it was when, by succession to the
earldom, he became the head of one of the most
ancient houses in Scotland, and the possessor of one
of its most extensive properties, that his character
shone in its fullest lustre. He exhibited then a
model, as perfect seemingly as human nature could
admit, of the manner in which this eminent and use-
ful station ought to be filled. An open and magni-
ficent hospitality, suited to his place and rank, with-
out extravagance or idle parade, a full and public
tribute to the obligations of religion and private
morality, without ostentation or austerity; a warm
interest in the improvement and welfare of those
extensive districts with which his possessions brought
him into contact—a kind and generous concern in
the welfare of the humblest of his dependants—these
qualities made him beloved and respected in an ex-
traordinary degree, and will cause him to be long
remembered."1
HOPE, SIR THOMAS, an eminent lawyer and
statesman of the seventeenth century, and the founder
of a family distinguished for its public services, was
the son of Henry Hope, a considerable Scottish
merchant, whose grandfather, John de Hope, was
one of the gentlemen attending Magdalene de Valois,
first consort of James V., at her coming into this
country in 1537.
Henry Hope, a younger brother of the subject of
this memoir, following the profession of his father,
was the progenitor of the great and opulent branch
of the Hopes of Amsterdam; a house, for extent of
commerce and solidity of credit, long considered
superior, without exception, to any private mercan-
tile company in the world.
Thomas Hope, after having distinguished himself
at school in no small degree, entered upon the study
1 The esteem and affection in which the earl was held in the
scenes of private life, and in his character as a landlord, has
since  his death been testified in a remarkable manner, by the
erection of no fewer than three monuments to his memory, on
the tops of as many hills—one in Fife on the mount of Sir
David Lindsay, another in Linlithgowshire near Hopetoun
House, and the third in the neighbourhood of Haddington.
An equestrian statue of his lordship has also been erected in
St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh, with an inscription from the
pen of Sir Walter Scott.
of the law, and made so rapid a progress in juridical
knowledge, that he was at a very early age called
to the bar. However, like the generality of young
lawyers, he enjoyed at first a very limited practice;
in 1606 he burst at once upon the world on the fol-
lowing occasion.
Six ministers of the Church of Scotland, having
thought proper to deny that the king and his council
possessed any authority in ecclesiastical affairs, were
on that account imprisoned for some months in
Blackness Castle, indicted for high-treason, and on
the 10th of January, 1606, put upon trial at Linlith-
gow, before a jury consisting chiefly of landed gentle-
men of the three Lothians. As it was carefully pro-
mulgated that the king and court had openly expressed
the highest displeasure against the ministers, and
had declared that they would show no favour to any
person that should appear in their behalf, none of
the great lawyers chose to undertake their cause;
even Sir Thomas Craig, although he was procurator
for the church, refused to be concerned in this affair,
and Sir William Oliphant, who had at first promised
to plead for them, sent word the day before that
he must decline appearing. The ministers, thus
abandoned, applied to Mr. Hope, who, pitying their
case, with the greatest cheerfulness and resolution
undertook their defence; and, notwithstanding the
reiterated endeavours of the court to perplex and
browbeat him, conducted himself in so skilful and
masterly a manner, that he made a deep impression
on the jury. However, by an unlawful tampering
with the jurors (some of the lords of council having
procured admittance to them after they were locked
up), and assurance that no harm was intended against
the persons or goods of the accused, nine of the
fifteen jurymen were induced to bring in a verdict
of guilty, and the ministers were sentenced to banish-
ment forth of the kingdom, which was accordingly
executed.
By the commendable intrepidity, knowledge of the
law, and singular abilities manifested by Mr. Hope
at this important trial, he became so greatly the
favourite of the Presbyterians, that they never after-
wards undertook any important business without con-
sulting him; and he was retained in almost every
cause brought by that party into the courts of justice,
so that he instantly came into the first practice of any
lawyer at that period. By this, in a few years he
acquired one of the most considerable fortunes ever
made at the Scottish bar; which enabled him to pur-
chase, between 1613 and 1642, the lands of Gran-
toun, Edmonstoun, and Cauldcolts in Mid Lothian;
Prestongrange in East Lothian; Kerse in Stirling-
shire; Mertoun in the Merse; Kinninmonth, Arnydie,
Craighall, Ceres, Hiltarvet, and others, in Fife.
It was the policy of King Charles I. to bestow
honours and emoluments upon those who had most
power to obstruct his designs, and hence, in 1626,
the great Presbyterian barrister was made king's ad-
vocate, with permission, revived in his favour, to sit
in the bar, and be privy to the hearing and determin-
ing of all causes, except those in which he was re-
tained by any of the parties. He was also in 1628
created a baronet of Nova Scotia. If the king ex-
pected by these means to gain him over from the
Presbyterians, he was grievously disappointed, for
although Sir Thomas discharged the duties of his
high office with attention and propriety, his gratitude,
principles, and inclination were all too powerfully
engaged to his first friends and benefactors to admit
of his deserting them: it was, on the contrary, with
pleasure that he beheld that party increasing every
day in numbers and consequence. It would draw
out this account to too great a length to enumerate