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SIX

Somerville Family – Dr Somerville’s Character – Letters – Journey to the Lakes – Death of Sir William Fairfax – Reminiscences of Sir Walter Scott

[With regard to my father’s family, I cannot do better than quote what my grandfather, the Rev. Thomas Somerville, says in his Life and Times: – ‘I am a descendant of the ancient family of Somerville of Cambusnethan, which was a branch of the Somervilles of Drum, ennobled in the year 1424. Upon the death of George Somerville, of Corhouse, fifty years ago, I became the only male representative of the family.’ There is a quaint old chronicle, entitled ‘Memorie of the Somervilles,’ written by James, eleventh Lord Somerville, who died in 1690, which was printed for private distribution, and edited by Sir Walter Scott, and gives ample details of all the branches of our family. Although infinitely too prolix for our nineteenth century ideas, it contains many curious anecdotes and pictures of Scottish life.

My father was the eldest son of the minister of Jedburgh, and until his marriage with my mother, had lived almost entirely abroad and in our colonies. It was always a subject of regret to my mother that my father never could be induced to publish an account of his important travels in South Africa, for which he had ample materials in the notes he brought home, many of which we still possess. Without being very deeply learned on any one special subject, he was generally well-informed, and very intelligent. He was an excellent classical scholar, and could repeat long passages from Horace and other authors. He had a lively interest in all branches of natural history, was a good botanist and mineralogist, and could take note of all the strange animals, plants, or minerals he saw in his adventurous journeys in the countries, now colonised, but then the hunting-grounds of Caffres34