Aberdeenshire

 

Serious Fergophiles may wish to check out the family estate at Pitfour, near MINTLAW in Buchan. It's in OLD DEER parish, inland from Peterhead, but wee Pattie spent very little time there - his parents lived mostly in/around Edinburgh and Gilmerton. In 1763, he convalesced (from what was probably TB in the leg) at Pitfour, in the care of an elderly spinster aunt. Fortunately, they got on well in terms of witty dialogue, though Aunt Betty wasn't pleased at his efforts to pole-vault over walls, despite his lame leg! The old lady died in March 1781, in her 83rd year: the news in December of her nephew's death a cruel blow at the end of her life.Pitfour House was knocked down over 70 years ago. But there are some follies built by his illegitimate nephew Admiral George Ferguson - including a Greek temple where he allegedly kept alligators (not advisable in Buchan).

Rebel General Hugh Mercer was a medical student at ABERDEEN University (which is still standing - parts are Mediaeval), but bunked off in 1745 to be an army surgeon for the Jacobites. He died of wounds after Princeton in 1777. Ben Rush treated him by bleeding, then noted "loss of blood" as a contributory cause of death... With 18C medical practice of that kind, if poor old Mercer had wished to continue killing redcoats, he could have simply enlisted as a British army surgeon, and been paid by the government for doing so...! "Trust me, I'm a Doctor" was NOT a phrase to be trusted in the 18C!