Western Worthies: A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West of Scotland CelebritiesJeans, J. Stephen (James Stephen)
History
Western Worthies: A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West of Scotland Celebrities
Jeans, J. Stephen (James Stephen)
Scotland -- Biography
The Duke is proprietor of the greater part of Argyllshire--a county
having an area of 2,432,000 acres, of which only 308,000 are under
cultivation. The greatest breadth of the mainland is about 115 miles;
and from the windings of the numerous bays and creeks, with which the
land is everywhere indented, the county is supposed to have more than
600 miles of sea coast. His chief seats are--Inverary Castle, on the
banks of Lochfyne; Roseneath Castle, Dumbartonshire; Longniddry,
Haddingtonshire; Halnaker, Sussex; and Argyle House, Camden Hill,
London.
THE RIGHT HON. H. A. BRUCE.
The Right Hon. Henry Austin Bruce is a native of Wales. He was born at
Duffryn, Aberdare, Glamorganshire, and is both by birth and training a
thorough Cambrian. His father, who is still living, was for several
years Stipendiary Magistrate at Merthyr, and once contested that borough
unsuccessfully with Sir John Guest. He was originally a Mr. Knight--a
patronymic which, in 1805, he changed to Bruce, and afterwards, in 1837,
to Pryce. The Member for Renfrewshire is, therefore, described as the
second son of John Bruce Pryce, Esq., of Duffryn, St. Nicholas,
Glamorganshire, by Sarah, the second daughter of the Rev. Hugh Austin,
Rector of St. Peter's, in Barbadoes. Paternally, he is a nephew of the
late Lord-Justice Knight Bruce, who was spared to see him attain the
dignity of Privy Councillor, but not long enough to witness his
admission to the rank of a Cabinet Minister. It may be added, for the
purpose of completing these domestic details, that his
great-grandfather, Mr. Bruce of Kennet, was High Sheriff of Glamorgan
more than 150 years ago; and, further, that he himself has been twice
married, his first wife (to whom he was married in 1846, but who died in
1852) being Annabella, the only daughter of Richard Beadon, Esq., of
Clifton, Gloucestershire; and his second wife, to whom he was married in
1854, being Norah, the youngest daughter of the late Lieutenant-General
Sir William Napier, K.C.B., the author of that matchless military
narrative, the "History of the Peninsular War," and distinguished also
as the brother of the heroic conqueror of Scinde. The reader will thus
perceive that the Member for Renfrewshire, who might be supposed from
his patronymic to be a Scotchman, is not even connected closely by
family ties with this part of the Island. His position, however, as the
member for Renfrewshire, and his consequent intimate connection with the
West of Scotland, may excuse his appearance in these pages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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