T is hoped that the present collection of examples of Notable Men and Women may form a suitable companion to the volumes of biographical reading with which it is associated. It is doubtless stimulating, and ofttimes instructive, to mingle with our elders and betters in real life, to note their ways of looking at things, to defer to their views and opinions, and treasure up every scrap of wisdom they may have to impart. As this association with them is not always possible, intellectual association through the medium of the printed page may still be possible, and is perhaps the next best thing. And so with the present Gallery of Notables the judicious reader may interest himself in, and keep company with, whom he will, keeping in view the fact that the space is limited, and the desire of the compiler to make the book as varied as possible. GALLERY OF NOTABLE MEN AND WOMEN. LADY GRIZELL BAILLIE. HE never knew what it was to find herself indisposed to do anything she thought proper to be done,' is the eulogy passed upon the Lady Grizell Baillie by her daughter, Lady Murray of Stanhope, who, in the middle of the last century, wrote the story of the eventful life of her mother. And beautiful is the character she has drawn of a wise, brave, ready-witted, and affectionate child, and of a life full of self-devotion for the good of others. The Lady Grizell was the daughter of Sir Patrick Hume, and the eldest of a family of eighteen children. Her father got seriously involved in the political troubles of the reign of Charles II., to whose Government he was opposed. The Government on their side did not allow Sir Patrick to remain long ignorant of the light in which they regarded him; he was soon made to feel the effects of their resentment, and learn from bitter experience that it is no light matter to run counter to the actions and intentions of despotic power. Thus his eldest child was, as it were, nursed in the lap of trouble and anxiety. But from her earliest years she appears to have exhibited the traits of a somewhat remarkable character, and was the comfort and almost idol of her parents, who, even during the tender years of her early girlhood, learned to place implicit reliance upon her ready wit, and unlimited confidence in her judgment and discretion. One of the most intimate friends of Sir Patrick Hume was Mr. Baillie of Jerviswoode, whose son Grizell afterwards married. There were many bonds of union between them,they thought alike in politics, and they were alike sharers in the troubles and dangers of the time; and there is nothing like misfortune to cement closely the bonds of friendship. But in his political undertakings Mr. Baillie proved less fortunate than his friend: one lived to see the triumph of his party and principles, while the other laid his head upon the block, a victim to the power he opposed. When her father's friend was first imprisoned, Grizell, although at the time only twelve years of age, was entrusted with a secret mission to him she was sent from her parents' country-seat to Edinburgh, a long and weary journey, to visit him in prison, so as to convey to him a letter of advice and information, and to bring back with her whatever news he might have to communicate in return. It was hoped that the tender years of the young girl would exempt her from suspicion, and that she would be allowed to pass into the prisoner's cell without being previously searched. So well did Grizell succeed in her embassy, and so overjoyed was her father to see his child exhibit such a readiness of resource and expedient in moments of emergency, such activity and judgment, that when similar occasions arose, as they but too frequently did, he ever after unhesitatingly employed her in preference to any one else. |