liarity of a tender
friendship--"An intimacy," Mr. Skene says, in a paper before me, "of
which I shall ever think with so much pride--a friendship so pure and
cordial as to have been able to withstand all the vicissitudes of
nearly forty years, without ever having sustained even a casual chill
from unkind thought or word." Mr. Skene adds, "During the whole
progress of his varied life, to that eminent station which he could
not but feel he at length held in the estimation, not of his
countrymen alone, but of the whole world, I never could perceive the
slightest shade of variance from that simplicity of character with
which he impressed me on the first hour of our meeting."[133]

[Footnote 132: [James Skene, son of George Skene of Rubislaw,
was born in 1775.]]

[Footnote 133: [Beside the memoranda placed by Mr. Skene in
Lockhart's hands and used by him in various portions of the
_Life_, the friend's unpublished _Reminiscences_, from which
Mr. Douglas has fortunately been enabled to draw largely in
annotating the _Journal_, contains recollections of peculiar
interest.]]

Among {p.239} the common tastes which served to knit these friends
together was their love of horsemanship, in which, as in all other
manly exercises, Skene highly excelled; and the fears of a French
Invasion becoming every day more serious, their thoughts were turned
with corresponding zeal to the project of organising a force of
mounted volunteers in Scotland. "The London Light Horse had set the
example," says Mr. Skene; "but in truth it was to Scott's ardor that
this force in the North owed its origin. Unable, by reason of his
lameness, to serve amongst his friends on foot, he had nothing for it
but to rouse the spirit of the moss-trooper, with which he readily
inspired all who possessed the means of substituting the sabre for the
musket."

On the 14th February, 1797, these friends and many more met and drew
up an offer to serve as a body of volunteer cavalry in Scotland; which
offer being transmitted through the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord-Lieutenant
of Mid-Lothian, was accepted by Government. The organization of the
corps proceeded rapidly; they extended their offer to serve in any
part of the island in case of invasion; and this also being accepted,
the whole arrangement was shortly completed; when Charles Maitland of
Rankeillor was elected Major-Commandant; (Sir) William Rae of