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In preparing a new edition of this genuine picture of our ancestors prior to the amazing changes produced by the Revolution, - a picture which Paulding informed me suggested "The Dutchman's Fireside," - it has been thought that some account of the good and gifted lady to whom the world is indebted for the Memoir of Mrs. Schuyler would be acceptable, as well as the numerous accompanying notes. number of these were contributed to the edition of 1876, by Joel Munsell, the Albany antiquarian, while other notes were supplied two decades after that date, by the late George W. Schuyler. In the Appendix will be found a sheaf of Mrs. Grant's hitherto unpublished letters, addressed to Mrs. Alexander Hamilton and Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell between the years 1819-1834, that it is believed will enhance the value of the volume. A fine steel portrait of the author appears as a frontispiece. For the larger portion of the illustrations of ancient Albany that are included, the editor is indebted to the courtesy of Col. Augustus Pruyn, who made the photographs from which they are reproduced.

That Mrs. Grant should, in respect to persons and places, have made some slight errors in her admirable memoir of Mrs. Schuyler, is not surprising; the marvel is that so few appear in her pages, when it is remembered that the work was written nearly half a century after the occurrence of the events described, entirely from memory, and that too the recollections of a child between the age of three and

thirteen! Mrs. Grant had neither the aid of letters, a diary, or data of any description in the preparation of the Memoir, which first appeared in London, in 1808, and was republished in Boston and New York during the following year. The last of the numerous editions printed since those dates in the new world and old, was issued in Albany precisely a quarter of a century ago.

NEW YORK, September, 1901.

J. G. W.

MEMOIR OF MRS. GRANT

RS. ANNE GRANT, commonly styled of
Laggan, to distinguish her from her friend

MR

and contemporary Mrs. Grant of Carron,1 was born at Glasgow, February 21, 1755. Her father, Duncan MacVicar, who is described as a plain, brave, pious man, was an officer in the 77th infantry, a Highland regiment; her mother a descendant of the family of Stewart of Invernahyle. "My father," writes Mrs. Grant, " was born in the parish of Craignish, in Argyllshire, and was early left an orphan. He removed, when a young man, to Fort William in Inverness-shire, where he had some concern in farming along with his relation Captain MacVicar. In 1753, he married my mother, who was a grand-daughter of Mr. Stewart of Invernahyle, an ancient family in the neighboring county of Argyll. Sometime afterwards my parents removed to Glasgow." Her maternal grand-uncle, Alexander Stewart of Invernahyle, was the prototype of the Baron of Bradwardine in "Waverley." Sir Walter, in the introduction to a new edition in 1829,

1 Mrs. Elizabeth Grant, author of "Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch."

says, "Stewart was a noble specimen of the old Highlander, far descended, gallant, courteous, and brave even to chivalry." Mrs. Grant, it may be mentioned, was one of the first to recognize his ideal representation in "Waverley," and to express the opinion that the work was written by Scott, who in her judgment was not, in that work, altogether just to her beloved Highlanders. "The only particular," writes Mrs. Grant, "of my infantine history that I remember to have heard related, took place in the streets of Glasgow, and I mention it to show at what an early age children observe and remember. My mother lived in the eastern extremity of the town: I suppose she often spoke to others, though not to me, of my father being in America, and might very probably point westward when describing in what direction the New World lay to some one who knew still less than myself of geography. Be that as it Be that as it may, I certainly set off one Sunday evening when I was at most two years and eight months old, and walked deliberately by myself very nearly a mile to the western extremity of the Trongate; how much further I might have gone is not known. A lady looking out of a window saw with some surprise a child neatly dressed in white, with bare head and arms, walking alone and unattended in the middle of the street. sent for me and asked me where I came from. I said 'mamma's house;' I could tell no more. She next questioned me where I was going. I answered

She