University of Glasgow in 1813, and in 1829 appointed Governor of Dumbarton Castle. He was noted for his vigour in his old age. He travelled frequently, visiting Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. In 1841, aged 94, he travelled through France to Genoa and Rome. His riding-horses were sent on to Rome, and he rode frequently in the Campagna. He died at his London home in Stratton Street on 18 December 1843, aged 95, after a very short illness: he rose and dressed himself on the day of his death. He was buried near his family home in a large and specially commissioned stone vault in Methven churchyard. The barony of Lynedoch died with him. Bessie Bell and Mary Gray In 1645, Bessie Bell, daughter of the Laird of Kinvaid, was on a visit to Mary Gray, at her father's house at Lednock, now called Lynedoch, when the plague broke out in the country. Taking alarm at the report, the two young ladies, in order to avoid the deadly infection, set to work and built themselves a bower, which they "theekit wi' rashes" according to the ballad, in a very retired and romantic spot known as the Burn Braes, about three-quarters of a mile west from Lynedoch House. Here they lived in safety for some time, whilst the plague raged with great fury. But, ultimately, they caught the infection from a young gentleman of Perth, who, it is said, was in love with the one or the other. According to custom in cases of plague, the bodies did not receive the ordinary form of sepulture. It seems that they were allowed to lie in the open and "beik fornenst the sun", as the ballad avers, until the flesh had disappeared and only the bone skeletons remained, when these were taken with safety and put beneath the green sod of the Dronach-haugh, at the foot of the brae of the same name, and near to the bank of the river Almond. After the Lynedoch estate passed into Graham's possession in 1787, on his return from a pilgrimage abroad he found that the wall erected round the graves by Major Barry half a century before had fallen into a dilapidated state. He had the remains of the wall removed and a neat stone parapet and iron railings, 5 feet high, placed round the spot and covered the graves with a stone