[TO THE EDITOE OP THE " SPECTATOR:]
SIR,—In your interesting article on the Stewarts in the Spectator of August 20th—I prefer to spell their name in the earlier Scotch way before French influence altered it—you have omitted one or two strong characteristics which added to "the enchantment whereby men are bewitched." First, they were a race of brave men, and Mary was as high-spirited as any of them ; even James VI. and I., though always nervous from the tragedy that preceded his birth, was not contemptible in this respect Then they were lovers of art and often themselves artists ; the first James was a poet ; in Scotland they introduced the beautiful style of architecture which has become national ; in England Inigo Jones and Wren were their favoured architects; James may have been "odious and disgusting," but he could admire a jewel and build a Theobalds; if Charles I. had lived we should have had the noblest palace and picture-gallery in the world ; and the world of art owes them much. And (for I must not detain your readers) they were "fluent speakers and writers, easy of access, affable, quick at jest or repartee, and had all the graceful qualities which win the love, if not the confidence, of the masses."
Perhaps I may be allowed to add a curious instance of the lasting strength of the devotion to them in Scotland. My grandfather was instrumental in obtaining the repeal of the Act forbidding the wearing of the Highland dress, somewhere, if I remember right, about the end of the last century ; he was the first to wear it, and travelled in it through Scotland ; as he was changing horses at the little Perthshire village of Logierait he observed the people gathering and whispering together, and presently one old man drew him aside and said : "If you're come about the guid old cause, there are one hundred guid men within sound of the bell of Logierait."—I
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