The following account of this distinguished lady is taken from
Boswell's Life of Johnson by Mr. Croker:--
"Lady Margaret Dalrymple, only daughter of John, Earl of Stair,
married in 1700, to Hugh, third Earl of Loudoun. She died in
1777, aged ONE HUNDRED. Of this venerable lady, and of the
Countess of Eglintoune, whom Johnson visited next day, he thus
speaks in his JOURNEY:--'Length of life is distributed
impartially to very different modes of life, in very different
climates; and the mountains have no greater examples of age than
the Lowlands, where I was introduced to two ladies of high
quality, one of whom (Lady Loudoun) in her ninety-fourth year,
presided at her table with the full exercise of all her powers,
and the other (Lady Eglintoun) had attained her eighty-fourth
year, without any diminution of her vivacity, and little reason
to accuse time of depredations on her beauty.'"
*
"Lady Eglintoune, though she was now in her eighty-fifth year,
and had lived in the retirement of the country for almost half a
century, was still a very agreeable woman. She was of the noble
house of Kennedy, and had all the elevation which the
consciousness of such birth inspires.
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