[3] In 1785, he purchased the estate of Lynedoch or Lednock, situated in the valley of the Almond, where he planted trees and oak coppices, and improved the sloping banks bordering the stream.

[3] Fond of horses and dogs, and distinguished for his skill in country sports, he rode with the foxhounds, and accompanied the Duke of Atholl—who subsequently became his brother-in-law—in grouse-shooting and deer-stalking on the Atholl moors.

[5] In a 1772 by-election, Graham stood as a Whig a candidate for Perth, in opposition to James Murray of Strowan, brother of the Duke of Atholl, but was defeated by a majority of only six votes out of 100.

[9] Graham spent the next eighteen years as a quiet country gentleman, spending his time on riding and sports, studying the classics and making occasional visits to London and Edinburgh.

Then, drawing his sword, which at the time formed part of a dress suit, he threatened to run the man through if his associates, who were holding the horses' heads, attempted to come to his assistance.

[11] Her sorrowing husband hired a barge to take the casket to Bordeaux but near Toulouse a group of French soldiers opened the coffin and disturbed the body.

[12] Sir Walter Scott, in his The Vision of Don Roderick, refers to the romantic motive which led the grieving husband of Mrs. Graham to devote himself to a military career:[11] In early 1793 he wrote to Charles O'Hara, seeking passage to Gibraltar, of which the latter was lieutenant-governor and sailed aboard the Resistance with Lord St Helens, ambassador to Spain.

In a general order referring to the repulse of an attack by the French on an important fort, Mulgrave expressed "his grateful sense of the friendly and important assistance which he had received in many difficult moments from Mr. Graham, and to add his tribute of praise to the general voice of the British and Piedmontese officers of his column, who saw with so much pleasure and applause the gallant example which Mr. Graham set to the whole column, in the foremost point of every attack".

The garrison was reduced to the greatest extremities from want of provisions, and Graham undertook the perilous duty of conveying intelligence to the Imperial General Alvinzi, at Bassano, 50 miles (80 km) distant, of their desperate situation.

[16] He left the fortress wearing a country cloak over his uniform and on 24 December, amid rain and sleet, he crossed the Mincio in a boat that was repeatedly stranded due to the darkness.

He travelled by foot during the night, wading through deep swamps, and crossing numerous watercourses and the Po, in constant danger of losing his way, or of being shot by the French pickets.

[19] Returning to spending some time in the discharge of his parliamentary duties, and in attending to the improvement of his estates, Graham was sent to Ireland with his regiment, after which he was deployed to the West Indies, where he remained for three years.

However, his support for the attitude of the Whig Ministry for Roman Catholic emancipation was not in line with the electors of Perthshire, at the time a small body of men, and on the dissolution of Parliament in May 1807, he declined to seek re-election.

Raised to the rank of lieutenant general on his recovery, he was sent to Spain with a new commission, to take command of the British and Portuguese troops in Cádiz, at that time surrounded by a large French force.

As William Napier remarked, while "money, troops, and a fleet—in fine, all things necessary to render Cádiz formidable, were collected, yet to little purpose, because procrastinating jealousy, ostentation, and a thousand absurdities, were the invariable attendants of Spanish armies and government".

[21] To raise the siege, Graham decided to launch an attack on the rear of the investing army, and in February 1811, he sailed from Cádiz with a force of approximately 11,000 soldiers, including 7,000 Spanish troops under General La Pena.

However, before the British force could emerge from the wood, he was shocked to see the Spanish troops under La Pena retreating from the French left wing, which was rapidly advancing up the hill.

Nothing less than the almost unparalleled exertions of every officer, the invincible bravery of every soldier, and the most determined devotion to the honour of his Majesty's arms in all, could have achieved this brilliant success against such a formidable enemy so posted".

"The contemptible feebleness of La Pena", according to William Napier, "furnished a surprising contrast to the heroic vigour of Graham, whose attack was an inspiration rather than a resolution—so sure, so sudden was the decision, so swift, so conclusive was the execution".

"Had the whole body of the Spanish cavalry", wrote Graham, "with the horse artillery, been rapidly sent by the sea-beach to form on the plain, and to envelop the enemy's left; had the greatest part of the infantry been marched through the pine wood to the rear of the British force, to turn his right, he must either have retired instantly, or he would have exposed himself to absolute destruction; his cavalry greatly encumbered, his artillery lost, his columns mixed and in confusion; and a general dispersion would have been the inevitable consequence of a close pursuit.

[26] His visit to Scotland had the effect of restoring his eyesight, and in May 1813, he rejoined the army at Frinada, on the frontiers of Portugal, bringing with him the insignia of the Order of the Garter to Lord Wellington.

In this almost desperate state of the attack, General Graham ordered a heavy fire of artillery to be directed against the curtain wall, passing only a few feet over the heads of the British troops in the breach.

Taking advantage of an explosion on the rampart caused by the fire of the guns, which created confusion among the enemy, the assailants gained a footing on the wall, and after a bloody struggle, which lasted two hours, forced their way into the town.

[28] At the crossing of the Bidasoa separating France and Spain, General Graham commanded the left wing of the British army, and, after an obstinate conflict, succeeded in establishing his troops on French territory.

In his dispatch to Downing Street he wrote: "My Lord, It becomes my painful task to report to your Lordship, that an attack on Bergen-op Zoom, which seemed at first to promise complete success, ended in failure, and occasioned a severe loss to the 1st Division, and to Brigadier-General Gore's brigade.

It is unnecessary for me to state the reasons which determined me to make the attempt to carry such a place by storm, since the success of two of the columns, in establishing themselves on the ramparts, with very trifling loss, must justify the having inclined the risk for the attainment of so important an object, as the capture of such a fortress.

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.

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.

[11] 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.