The life at Minto, with its many contacts, was a life in which such a faculty could grow to perfection.  The daughters, while sharing much of the boys’ lives at Minto, saw a great deal of the people upon the estate.

The intercourse between the family at the House and the people of Minto village was of an intimate and affectionate nature.  Joys and sorrows were shared in unvarying friendliness and sympathy, and to the end of her life “Lady Fanny” remembered with warm affection the old village friends of her youth.  Kindly, true-hearted folk they were, with a sturdy and independent spirit which she valued and respected.

She only remembered seeing Sir Walter Scott on one occasion—­when he came to visit her parents.  She was quite a child, and it was the day on which her old nurse left Minto.  She had wept bitterly, and when Sir Walter Scott came she hardly dared even look at him with her tearful countenance.  She always remembered regretfully her indifference about the great man, whose visit was ever after connected in her mind with one of the first sorrows of her childhood.  She regretted still more that in those days political differences unhappily prevented the close and friendly intercourse which would otherwise have undoubtedly existed between the Minto family and Sir Walter Scott.

A word or two must be said upon the religion in which she was brought up, for from her childhood she was deeply religious.  Like her love for those nearest to her, it entered into everything that interested or delighted her profoundly; into her interest in politics and social questions and into her enjoyment of nature.

The Mintos belonged to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.  The doctrines of this Church are not of significance here, but an indication of the attitude towards dogma, history, and conduct which harmonizes with these tenets is necessary to the understanding of her life.  For this purpose it is only necessary to say that this Church belongs to that half of Protestantism which does not lay peculiar stress upon an inner conviction of salvation.  It differs from the evangelical persuasions in this respect, and again from the Church of England in finding less significance in ecclesiastical symbols, in setting less store by traditional usages, and in a more constant and uncompromising disapproval of any doctrine which regards the clergy as having spiritual functions or privileges different from those of other men.  In the latter half of her life she came gradually to a Unitarian faith, which she held with earnestness to the last; and the name “Free Church” became more significant to her through the suggestion it carried of a religion detached from creeds and articles.  Many entries occur in her diaries protesting against what she felt as mischievous narrowness in the books she read and in the sermons she heard.  She sympathized heartily with Lord John Russell’s dislike of the Oxford movement.  There are many prayers in her diaries and many religious reflections in her letters, and in all two emotions predominate; a trust in God and an earnest conviction that a life of love—­love to God and man—­is the heart of religion.  Her religion was contemplative as well as practical; but it was a religion of the conscience rather than one of mystical emotions.