presence, a fascinating manner, and a sparkling wit, but he was by far the most eloquent speaker at the Scotch bar in his time. Lord Brougham bears the following remarkable testimony to Erskine's powers of advocacy: ‘If I were,’ he says, ‘to name the most consummate exhibition of forensic talent that I ever witnessed, whether in the skilful conduct of the argument, the felicity of the copious illustrations, the cogency of the reasoning, or the dexterous appeal to the prejudices of the court, I should without hesitation at once point to his address (hearing in presence) on Maitland's case; and were my friend Lauderdale alive, to him I should appeal, for he heard it with me, and came away declaring that his brother Thomas (Lord Erskine) never surpassed—nay, he thought never equalled it’ (Life and Times, 1871, i. 231). While Lord Jeffrey, in his article in the ‘Scots Magazine’ (1817, new ser. i. 292), records that Erskine ‘could not only make the most repulsive subjects agreeable, but the most abstruse easy and intelligible. In his profession, indeed, all his wit was argument, and each of his delightful illustrations a material step in his reasoning.’ Though he possessed strong political opinions, and never swerved from his allegiance to the whig party, he was popular in all classes of society, for ‘nothing,’ says Lord Cockburn, ‘was so sour as not to be sweetened by the glance, the voice, the gaiety, the beauty of Henry Erskine’ (Life of Lord Jeffrey, i. 93). But perhaps there is no better testimony to his worth than the well-known story, to which reference is made in the inscription on the tablet lately affixed to his birthplace: ‘No poor man wanted a friend while Harry Erskine lived.’
Erskine, on 30 March 1772, married Christian, the only child of George Fullerton of Broughton Hall, near Edinburgh, comptroller of the customs at Leith. She died on 9 May 1804, and on 7 Jan. 1805 he married, secondly, Erskine, widow of James Turnbull, advocate, and daughter of Alexander Munro of Glasgow. By his first wife Erskine had several children, one of whom, viz. Henry David Erskine, succeeded as twelfth earl of Buchan on the death of his uncle in 1829. There were no children by the second marriage. The present Earl of Buchan is Erskine's grandson. A portrait of Erskine by Sir Henry Raeburn was exhibited in the Raeburn collection at Edinburgh in 1876 (Cat. No. 166), and has been engraved by James Ward (see frontispiece to Fergusson's Henry Erskine). Several etchings of Erskine will be found in Kay (Nos. 30, 58, 187, and 320). In an ‘Extempore in the Court of Session’ Burns contrasts the style of his friend Erskine with that of Ilay Campbell (Kilmarnock edit. 1876, p. 274). According to Watt, Erskine published an anonymous pamphlet entitled ‘Expediency of Reform in the Court of Session in Scotland,’ London, 1807, 8vo. It consists, however, only of a reprint of two earlier tracts and an introduction. Erskine's ‘Emigrant, an Eclogue occasioned by the late numerous Emigrations from the Highlands of Scotland. Written in 1773,’ attained great popularity, and in 1793 was published as a chapbook. A copy of this poem was reprinted in 1879 for private circulation by the late Mrs. Dunmore-Napier, one of Erskine's grandchildren. Few men have enjoyed in their lifetime a wider reputation either for their oratory or their wit than Erskine, and it is much to be regretted that neither have his speeches been preserved nor a complete collection of his poems and witticisms made. Some of his verses appeared in Maria Riddell's ‘Metrical Miscellany,’ the first edition of which was published in 1802, and several of his pieces and many of his witticisms will be found in Fergusson. The Faculty of Advocates possesses a volume of manuscripts containing ‘a Collection of Mr. Erskine's Poems, transcribed about the year 1780. They consist of “Love Elegies dedicated to Amanda,” 1770; pastoral eclogues and fables; “The Emigrant,” a poem (with a few corrections in the hand of the author), along with some epigrams and miscellaneous pieces, including translations and imitations of ancient classical writers, partly dated between the years 1769 and 1776.’
[Fergusson's Henry Erskine (1882); Omond's Lord Advocates of Scotland (1883), ii. 163–74; Chambers's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen (1868), i. 547–8; Kay's Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings (1877), i. 124–8; Anderson's Scottish Nation (1865), ii. 166–71; The Georgian Era (1833), ii. 542–3; Foster's Peerage (1883), p. 102; pamphlet without title containing the resolutions moved by Erskine at the meeting in Edinburgh on 28 Nov. 1795, and the correspondence concerning the election of the dean for 1796 (Reports, Faculty of Advocates, vol. ii., in Brit. Mus.); Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. vii. 41–2, x. 9–10, 62, 218, 4th ser. iii. 296–7, 5th ser. xi. 369, 6th ser. x. 20; Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament, pt. ii. 226, 238.]
ERSKINE, JAMES, sixth Earl of Buchan (d. 1640), was the eldest son of John, second or seventh earl of Mar [q. v.], by his second wife, Lady Margaret Stuart, daughter of Esme, duke of Lennox. He married Mary Douglas, countess of Buchan, daughter and heiress of James, fifth earl of Buchan, and as-
