The Account Book of Sir John Foulis of Ravelston: 1671-1707 —— 1671-1707

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ISBN: 9781332291342 出版年：2018 页码：586 John Foulis Forgotten Books

Sir John Foulis possessed the qualifications to make a daily summary of his life and actions interesting and instructive; he presents us with facts, and such facts as fill up the details of a busy, cheerful, and well-ordered life. He belonged to a class which took its tone from the court, and gave a tone to the trading class, then rapidly rising in the social scale. He held an Official position in Edinburgh, and he had also a country house not far from the city, and he thus attended to his public and private duties both in town and country, and found relaxa tion in country sports and in urban conviviality: he had dealings with all sorts and conditions of men, and recorded these dealings with scrupulous minuteness. Nor do we only meet with dry facts; as we follow his life day by day, and year by year, we learn to know him as the husband, the parent, the friend, the employer, and to feel an interest which puts life into the picture, and adds to its power. Married four times, and having a large family by his first wife, there are no evidences of family friction; his children congratulate him on the occasions of his later marriages, as we learn from the drink money given to the bearers of their letters. The connections of his wives are his companions in his convivial hours, and he does his duty by such stepchildren as the widows he marries bring under his care. Of the welfare of his own children he is most careful. The eldest son, Archibald, known by the name of Primrose instead of Foulis, died in youth, before he had entered on the management of the Dunipace estate, which he inherited from his mother's father, Sir Archibald Primrose.