JOHN PATRICK THIRD MARQUESS OF BUTE, K.T. (1847-1900) A MEMOIR BY THE RIGHT REV. SIR DAVID HUNTER BLAIR BT., O.S.B. AUTHOR OF "A MEDLEY Of MEMORIES," ETC. WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1921 All rights reserved TO THE MEMORY OF MY FRIEND...

Just twenty years have passed away since the death, at the age of little more than fifty, of the subject of this memoir—a period of time not indeed inconsiderable, yet not so long as to render unreasonable the hope that others besides the members of his family (who have long desired that there should be some printed record of his life), and the sadly diminished numbers of his intimate friends, may be interested in learning something of the personality and the career of a man who may justly be re

John Patrick, third Marquess of Bute, Earl of Windsor, Mountjoy and Dumfries, holder of nine other titles in the peerages of Great Britain and of Scotland, and a baronet of Nova Scotia, was fifteenth in descent from Robert II., King of Scotland, who, towards the end of the fourteenth century, created his son John Stuart, or Steuart, hereditary sheriff of the newly-erected county of Bute, Arran and Cumbrae, making to him at the same time a grant of land in those islands. His lineal descendant, th

In September, 1861, Lord Bute completed his fourteenth year, attaining the age of "minority" (as it is called in Scots law), which put him in possession of certain important rights as regarded his property in the northern kingdom. The young peer had from his childhood, as is shown by his early correspondence with Lady Elizabeth Moore, been aware that he would be entitled at the age of fourteen to exercise certain powers of nomination in respect to the management of his Scottish estates. Most of

A well-meaning person thought well to compile and publish, some years ago, a volume in which a few distinguished Roman Catholics, and a great number of mediocrities, were invited to describe the process and motives which led them "to abandon" (as some cynic once expressed it) "the errors of the Church of England for those of the Church of Rome." Lord Bute, who was among the many more or less eminent people who received and declined invitations to contribute to this symposium, was certainly the l

The conversion of Bute to the Roman Church, as to which his mind was practically made up before the end of 1866, though the actual step was delayed until nearly two years later, was brought about, as we have seen, chiefly by his own reading and reflection, combined with the impression wrought on his mind by foreign travel—not, it is to be noted, mainly in Catholic countries, but in those Eastern lands where he had every opportunity of studying at first hand the various forms of worship and belie

Although Bute's attraction towards a life of simplicity and retirement was, even in his early manhood, as it remained throughout his life, one of his most marked characteristics, he never allowed this to interfere with such public duties as he conceived to be rendered incumbent on him by the responsibilities of his position. His first public appearance in Cardiff, apart from the celebrations connected with his majority, seems to have been in his capacity as chairman of the local Benefit and Annu

Included in Bute's great inheritance were a considerable number of advowsons, carrying the right of presentation to livings in the Established Church. Nearly a dozen of these benefices were in Glamorgan, two (St. Mary's and Roath) being within the town of Cardiff. Bute was, of course, from the time of his conversion to the Roman Church, legally disabled from the exercise of his right of patronage in regard to these livings; but instead of allowing them to "lapse" (as the technical phrase is[ 1 ]

Bute's domestic happiness was crowned, at the close of the year 1875, by the birth of his eldest (and for some years his only) child, the event taking place at Mountstuart on December 24, 1875. "At twenty minutes to five a.m. on Christmas Eve," he wrote to a friend, "the first cries of my daughter were heard, and the little thing is and has been in excellent health and strength. I cannot believe there is ever much likeness in babies to one parent or the other; but what she has absolutely , such

"They will say that we are dull, of course," Bute wrote to his editor in 1887, discussing the contents of a forthcoming number of the Scottish Review . "But they say that anyhow, without reading us, whatever we put in or leave out." Bute did not always feel sure that his own contributions, written as they were with an immensity of care and painstaking, were not open to this charge. "I feel rather low about the 'Coronations,'"[ 1 ] he wrote a few weeks later. "It seems to me dull, very long, and

Notwithstanding the increasing and incessant claims on his time and attention of literature, business, and family duties, there were few, if any, years in which Bute was not able to secure an interval of what to him was real enjoyment, in foreign travel. Even from such journeys—and they were not infrequent—as were undertaken purely for reasons of health, he seldom failed to derive both pleasure and profit. "I am ordered abroad at once," he wrote on one occasion, "to drink the waters of Chales, i

An incident which gave Bute sincere pleasure, during the year of his mayoralty of Cardiff, was the presentation to him of the freedom of the city of Glasgow, which took place on October 7, 1891. The honour was conferred on him, according to the burgess-ticket which he received, "in recognition of the distinguished services he has rendered to Scotland, by erecting and gifting[ 1 ] to Glasgow the Bute Hall, by his personal contributions to literature, and by the warm sympathy he has ever shown in

Although Bute (who was not given to exaggeration) found occasion to write at the end of 1894, in his usual brief summary of the events of the past twelve-month, "The whole year has been spent in the struggle for the University of St. Andrews," he nevertheless found time, with the ordered industry which was one of his marked characteristics, not only for the numerous other duties incumbent on him, but also for the social amenities which the début of his only daughter had brought into his retired

The latest addition made by Bute to his large landed possessions in Scotland was one which on several accounts was the source of much interest to him during the last years of his life. Just as the chief attraction of Falkland, which he purchased in 1887, had been the fact that it included the ancient royal palace and its hereditary Keepership, so the principal inducement to him to acquire, as he did in 1897 from the Earl of Fife, the Morayshire estate of Pluscarden, was that he thereby came into

(Written by Bute at Harrow School, æt. 15-½.) Subject : EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE. (The footnotes are the young author's own) When the long requiem's assuaging strain Sounds high and solemn through the holy fane, And loud and frequent in the darkened pile The organ's heavy swell is heard the while, Askest thou, pilgrim stranger, wherefore low, In prayer unceasing, mournful hundreds bow; Why choral hymns unceasingly arise, And thuribles with incense cloud the skies, While dying tapers glimmer pale

(Written by Bute at Kirkwall during a visit to Orkney, in July, 1867, æt. 19.) Glory be to Jesus In the highest heaven, For His grace triumphant Unto Magnus given— Wondrous grace that made him, Looking on the Cross, For the love of Jesus Count all things but loss. Born to all earth's splendour, Cradled by a throne, He in very childhood Knew God's love alone; Nazareth's holy stripling Boyhood's pattern made; Through the years of manhood By his Saviour stayed. Like to Paul converted From a world o

(Written by Bute in November, 1867, æt. 20.) The world is very foul and dark,     And sin has marred its outline fair; But we are taught to look above,     And see another image there. And I will raise my eyes above—     Above a world of sin and woe, Where sinless, griefless, near her Son,     Sits Mary on her throne of snow. Mankind seems very foul and dark,     In some lights that we see it in, Lo! as the tide of life goes by,     How many thousands lie in sin. But I will raise my eyes above—

The following was the prayer always said by Bute at the opening of the meetings of the Town Council of Rothesay, during the term of his provostship. It was composed by himself, or rather compiled from two prayers contained in the Roman Breviary—one the Collect for Whit-Sunday, and the other a prayer at the end of the Litany of the Saints. PRAYER. "O God, Who dost teach the hearts of Thy people by sending to them the light of Thine Holy Spirit; grant unto us that the same Thy Spirit may inspire u

16, Rutland Square, Edinburgh,      October 4, 1920. I quite appreciate your desire that I should send you something of my recollections of the late Marquis of Bute, for whom I had the honour of doing some important work. Lord Bute's architects certainly had considerable opportunity of meeting him and getting to know him as he appeared in their department, for one of the outstanding facts of his life was that he was never out of the mortar-tub. It was one of his brothers-in-law, the late Lord He

(From the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, November, 1900.) THE MARQUIS OF BUTE, K.T. (VICE-PRESIDENT, S.P.R.). Magnus civis obît . The death of the Marquis of Bute has removed from earth a great chieftain, a great magnate, a great proprietor, yet withal a figure, a character, which carried one back into the Ages of Faith. Many will mourn the close of that life,—magnificent at once and munificent; far-governing, and yet gently thoughtful in minute detail. Some will miss in more int

LORD BUTE'S PUBLISHED WRITINGS. (This list does not include certain articles separately reprinted from the Scottish Review , and all contained later in the two volumes of "Essays on Home and Foreign Subjects," published after his death.) Order of Divine Service for Christmas Day, according to the Use of the Church of Rome. 1875. The Early Days of Sir William Wallace. 1876. The Burning of the Barns of Ayr. 1878. The Roman Breviary: translated out of Latin into English. 2 vols. 1879. The Altus of