Dundas, Henry (1742 — 1811)

For nearly 30 years he was the most powerful man in Scotland, and as the government election agent, controlled the election of nearly all the Scottish members of the House of Commons. He was a close and trusted friend and colleague of Pitt. Lord Cockburn, who was related to Dundas by marriage, described him as: 'the Pharos of Scotland. Who steered upon him was safe; who disregarded his light was wrecked. It was to his nod that every man owed what he got, and looked for what he wished.' Henry Mackenzie said that he had 'very little general knowledge... but... a great deal of invention and acuteness' and 'spoke broad Scotch'.

During the brief Whig administration, Dundas was impeached for having allegedly improperly appropriated public money. However, he was acquitted. Scott attended the public dinner in honour of the acquittal held in Edinburgh on 27^th June 1806. But one result of the trial was that, as Cockburn put it ' the mainspring of the Scottish pro-consular system' was weakened.

Romney, Reynolds and Raeburn all painted Dundas.