Over the fireplace of the dining-room of Niddrie House there is a painting on canvas inserted in panelling said to be a portrait of 'Wallace Wight.' It has been in possession of the family for nearly two hundred years, being mentioned in various inventories of the property from the year 1707. An interesting notice of it appeared in James Paterson's _Wallace and his Times_, and the family tradition is that it is a genuine portrait of the hero, the words inscribed above the likeness, 'Gvl: Wallas: Scotvs: Host: ivm: Terror,' certainly giving colour to the supposition. We are more inclined to think, however, that the portrait represents one of the more immediate ancestors of the Jane Wallace who brought the connection into the family--probably Sir William Wallace of Craigie, who distinguished himself as a loyalist in the civil wars. It certainly came into the family through the marriage of James Wauchope in 1710 with Jane, daughter of Sir William Wallace of Craigie, and if it does not represent the champion of Scottish independence, it is from the same source as a similar portrait preserved at Priory Lodge, Cheltenham, in the hands of a descendant of the Craigie-Wallace family. It was when he was serving with his regiment at Monaghan, in Ireland, that the father of General Wauchope first met his future wife, Frances Maria, daughter of Henry Lloyd of {24} Lloydsburgh, County Tipperary. They were married on 26th March 1840, and two sons and two daughters were the issue of the marriage. These were-- 1. William John Wauchope, born in September 1841. 2. Harriet Elizabeth Frances, afterwards married to Lord Ventry of County Kerry, Ireland, by whom she has issue, five sons and four daughters, of whom her daughter, the Hon Hersey Alice Eveleigh-De-Moleyne, is the present Countess of Hopetoun. 3. Andrew Gilbert, the subject of our story, born at Niddrie on 5th July 1846. 4. Hersey Josephine Frances Mary, now residing in London. A typical Scotsman, loyal to the backbone to the land of his birth, Andrew Gilbert Wauchope had always a warm corner in his heart for Ireland, and was ever ready to acknowledge, and indeed to boast of, his Irish extraction. Combining as he did much of the canniness of the Scot with that steady-going determination of purpose and fearlessness in danger peculiar to his countrymen, he displayed the Irish side of his character in that generous light-heartedness and impulsive good nature which often led him into self-denying deeds of kindness, and now and again into trouble. General Wauchope was, as we have seen, the heir to no mean family traditions. The record of the Wauchopes is one of patriotic energy through five or six hundred years of stirring Scottish history, many of them years of turmoil and strife; and the warlike spirit of the fathers, as well as their more peaceful characteristics, may be found not infrequently imaged in this last scion of the race. {25} CHAPTER II