by her friends.  The celebrated Duchess of Gordon proved an especial promoter of the cause.  In 1803, a volume of poems appeared from her pen, which, though displaying no high powers, was favourably received, and had the double advantage of making her known, and of materially aiding her finances.  From the profits, she made settlement of her late husband’s liabilities; and now perceiving a likelihood of being able to support her family by her literary exertions, she abandoned the lease of her farm.  She took up her residence near the town of Stirling, residing in the mansion of Gartur, in that neighbourhood.  In 1806, she again appeared before the public as an author, by publishing a selection of her correspondence with her friends, in three duodecimo volumes, under the designation of “Letters from the Mountains.”  This work passed through several editions.  In 1808, Mrs Grant published the life of her early friend, Madame Schuyler, under the designation of “Memoirs of an American Lady,” in two volumes.

From the rural retirement of Gartur, she soon removed to the town of Stirling; but in 1810, as her circumstances became more prosperous, she took up her permanent abode in Edinburgh.  Some distinguished literary characters of the Scottish capital now resorted to her society.  She was visited by Sir Walter Scott, Francis Jeffrey, James Hogg, and others, attracted by the vivacity of her conversation.  The “Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland” appeared in 1811, in two volumes; in 1814, she published a metrical work, in two parts, entitled “Eighteen Hundred and Thirteen;” and, in the year following, she produced her “Popular Models and Impressive Warnings for the Sons and Daughters of Industry.”

In 1825, Mrs Grant received a civil-list pension of L50 a-year, in consideration of her literary talents, which, with the profits of her works and the legacies of several deceased friends, rendered the latter period of her life sufficiently comfortable in respect of pecuniary means.  She died on the 7th of November 1838, in the eighty-fourth year of her age, and retaining her faculties to the last.  A collection of her correspondence was published in 1844, in three volumes octavo, edited by her only surviving son, John P. Grant, Esq.

As a writer, Mrs Grant occupies a respectable place.  She had the happy art of turning her every-day observation, as well as the fruits of her research, to the best account.  Her letters, which she published at the commencement of her literary career, as well as those which appeared posthumously, are favourable specimens of that species of composition.  As a poet, she attained to no eminence.  “The Highlanders,” her longest and most ambitious poetical effort, exhibits some glowing descriptions of mountain scenery, and the stern though simple manners of the Gael.  Of a few songs which proceed from her pen, that commencing, “Oh, where, tell me where?” written on the occasion of the Marquis of Huntly’s departure for Holland with his regiment, in 1799, has only become generally known.  It has been parodied in a song, by an unknown author, entitled “The Blue Bells of Scotland,” which has obtained a wider range of popularity.