Reeman Dansie
Los 938
Of Jacobite interest: Fascinating album relating to the Erskine family - the substantial quarter calf album with marbled board ends containing various ephemera from the 16th century onwards, the majority specifically relating to the Erskine family of Cadross, including cuttings and letters relating to Lieutenant Colonel Charles Erskine of the 92nd Highlanders in Alexandria, Egypt in 1801, relating how he was injured in battle, had a leg amputated and subsequently died of his wounds, including several letters to his father from military figures including Sir Ralph Abercrombie, Commander of the British Forces in Egypt and others from well wishers including the Marquis of Huntley, Lady Perth. Then a sequence of letters and newspaper clippings relating to the rediscovery of Charles Erskine’s body in 1894, the skeleton identified through the amputation of the leg and a locket bearing the legend ‘I desire that this locket shall be buried along with me’ and the subsequent reinterment in the British Cemetery in Alexandria, with arrangements for a monumental stone. Bill for the engraved etching plate made in 1802, taken from Raeburn’s portrait of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Erskine. Then a sequence of letters from, and drafts of letters to James Stuart, the Old Pretender, and his wife Clementina in correspondence with the Countess of Bute, including letters from James Stuart and one from his wife Clementina, and various drafts of letters from the Countess of Bute, including one to the Old Pretender on the birth of Charles Edward Stuart, ‘The young pretender’ the sequence dating from 1716, one letter to John Stewart, son of James, Earl of Bute, another addressed to Mrs Broomeley, 1729, also an epitaph to John Stewart, son of James Earl of Bute, who was attached to the Court of the Old Pretender in Rome for 12 vears and who died in 1739. The album also contains two receipts from Henry Raeburn, for paintings of members of the Erskine family, 1782 garter robe order signed by George III for Thomas Baron Pelham, letters written to Lord Keith by sons of George III - William. Duke of Clarence, Edward, Duke of Kent, Frederick, Duke of York and Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, an 18th century wine bill, letters relating to the estate of Cadross, military manoeuvres in Egypt and India and various other contents
