The following extract from a letter to the Rev. Mr. Whitaker, dated
December 20, 1784, takes us back to an earlier age.

"Poor Dr. Johnson's remains passed my door for interment this afternoon.
They were accompanied by thirteen mourning coaches with four horses
each; and after these a cavalcade of the carriages of his friends. He
was about to be buried in Westminster Abbey."

In the same year the Rev. Alexander Fraser of Kirkhill, near Inverness,
communicated to Mr. Murray his intention of publishing the Memoirs of
Lord Lovat, the head of his clan. Mr. Eraser's father had received the
Memoirs in manuscript from Lord Lovat, with an injunction to publish
them after his death. "My father," he said, "had occasion to see his
Lordship a few nights before his execution, when he again enjoined him
to publish the Memoirs." General Fraser, a prisoner in the Castle of
Edinburgh, had requested, for certain reasons, that the publication
should be postponed; but the reasons no longer existed, and the Memoirs
were soon after published by Mr. Murray, but did not meet with any
success.

The distressed state of trade and the consequent anxieties of conducting
his business hastened Mr. Murray's end. On November 6, 1793, Samuel
Highley, his principal assistant, wrote to a correspondent: "Mr. Murray
died this day after a long and painful illness, and appointed as
executors Dr. G.A. Paxton, Mrs. Murray, and Samuel Highley. The business
hereafter will be conducted by Mrs. Murray." The Rev. Donald Grant,
D.D., and George Noble, Esq., were also executors, but the latter did
not act.