- / /
■
w
iff-
f
'n
■
HBpB
$i r4\^M. )M
m
■<■■■ '+'?■
*M
%x
. *>^> '~-'jM
•■*&.•;
'/m-.-e
LETTERS
FROM
BISHOP PERCY, $&
TO
GEORGE PATON.
LETTERS
/'
FROM
THOMAS PERCY, D.D.
AFTERWARDS BISHOP OF DROMORE,
JOHN CALLANDER of Craigforth, Esq. DAVID HERD, AND OTHERS,
TO
GEORGE PATON.
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED FOR JOHN STEVENSON,
87, PRINCES STREET,
M.DCCC.XXX.
i 0'? fi
PREFATORY NOTICE.
The contents of the ensuing volume are selected from the Paton Collection of Letters in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates ; and are now for the first time presented to the Public, as illus- trative of various points in the literary history of Scotland during the latter part of the last century. It is remarkable that what, from the name of the writer, might be presumed to be the most inte- resting, should in truth be the least valuable por- tion of the volume; and that the Letters of the amiable and accomplished Bishop Percy, though elegantly and correctly written, will probably be found to possess less attraction than the more hurried and less polished epistles of individuals far below him in talent and acquirements. Their careless- ness of style, disregard of embellishment, unre- strained freedom, and air of sincerity, confer an interest which never can belong to studied composi- tions, such as the vapid confidential Letters of Miss
815909
VI
Seward written for publication, or the dull, prosing communications of the author of Clarissa Harlowe.
Of the correspondents whose names appear in this volume, it is not necessary that much should be said. The first in order, and the most eminent, is, the revered Dr Percy, who, under the patronage of the Northumberland family, obtained considerable Church preferment, and finally was raised to the See of Dromore in Ireland. He is principally known for his " Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," in 8 vols, originally published in 1765, and for the " Hermit of Warkworth," and other successful imi- tations of the ancient ballad. He was the Editor of the Northumberland Household Book, of which so much is said in the Letters. It was not printed for sale, and was therefore an article in great re- quest with Bibliomaniacs ; but its pecuniary value is now greatly diminished, from the book having sub- sequently been twice reprinted. He also translated Mallet's Northern Antiquities, 2 vols. 8vo. 1770 ,* a work of great value. His other productions are of minor importance. A beautiful print of his Lord- ship will be found in Dibdin's Decameron.
Little can be traced of the history of David Herd, who, with the assistance of Paton, edited a curious collection of Scots Songs, (2 vols. 12mo.) in the year
vu
1772. It has been ascertained, however, that he came from the North of Scotland, having been born in the parish of St Cyrus in Kincardineshire. He was for many years clerk to Mr David Russell, account- ant in Edinburgh, uncle of the present Mr Claud Russell. Though usually termed " Writer/' he was not a member of any of the corporations ; and if he conducted any business on his own account, it must have been in the name of some professional friend. Upon his demise,* which happened on
• In the Scots Magazine for July 1810, the following notice of his death occurs :_« Lately, at Edinburgh, Mr David Herd writer, at the advanced age of 78. He was a most active in- vestigator of Scotish literature and antiquities, and enjoyed the friendship of nearly all the eminent artists and men of letters, who have flourished in Edinburgh within these fifty years! Runciman the painter was one of his most intimate friends ; and with Ruddiman, Gilbert Stuart, Fergusson, and Robert Burns, he was well acquainted. His information regarding the history of Scotland was extensive. Many of his remarks have appeared in periodical publications ; and the notes ap- pended to several popular works are enriched by materials of his own collecting. He was a man truly of the old school, in- offensive, modest, and unambitious, and in an extraordinary degree forming in all these respects a very striking contrast to the forward, puffing, and ostentatious disposition of the present age." The Edinburgh Evening Courant, in mentioning his demise, observes, « His information regarding the History and Biography of Scotland was extensive ; but though always ready to lay open his stores to other authors, it is believed he never
Vlll
the 25th June 1810, his library, which contain- ed many scarce books, was disposed of by auction. He left, it is understood, considerable property be- hind him, which fell to a gentleman in England, supposed to be a natural son, who the Editor has been informed died a Major in the army.
John Callander, Esq. of Craigforth,* was a Member of the Scottish Bar. He was the author of
published any thing in a separate form excepting a collection of Scotish Ballads." The sale of his books commenced on the 17th December 1810, and continued during the six following evenings : the produce of the sale was £254 : 19 : 10.
• The estate of Craigforth in Stirlingshire, originally belong- ing to Lord Elphinstone, had in the year 1684 been acquired by Mr Alexander Higgins, Advocate. Shortly after his pur- chase, he became much embarrassed, and, in consequence of large pecuniary advances made by John Callander, then his Majesty's master smith in Scotland, Mr Higgins conveyed all his right over the estate to his creditor. Since that time Craig- forth has remained in the Callander family, notwithstanding a strenuous but unsuccessful effort made by Mr Higgins to regain it. — Forbes's Session Papers, Advocates Library, p. 2467.
Mr Callander, who was a smith by trade, appears to have been an industrious money-making individual. It is tradition- ally reported in the county, that his good fortune was owing principally to a mistake of Government, by which a large sum stated in pounds Scotish was paid in pounds Sterling. There are Still preserved the law proceedings in a somewhat amusing suit, which had its origin in his passion for speculation. The laird
IX
various works which display great scholarship ; and in the Archives of the Scotish Antiquaries, of which Society Mr Callander was a Member, and Secretary for Foreign Correspondence, are to be found a great mass of his unpublished manuscripts. Among these is a series of annotations on Milton's Paradise Lost, of which the first book was printed in 1750 by way of specimen. In these notes he has been accused of plagiarism, and certainly the charge seems not to
of Leckie, a neighbouring proprietor, was in habits of intimacy with him, and at a convivial meeting the latter remarked to the former, (it having been rumoured that he was speedily to be married,) that he would not marry. Upon which it was pro- posed and agreed to, that Callander should grant a bond for 500 merks, upon which he would give him a bond for fifty guineas ifhewasnot " lawfully married" before the ensuing term of "Whitsuntide in 1G9G. Leckie did marry — but the marriage was a clandestine one, and Callander claimed fulfilment of the obli- gation, upon the ground that such was not a lawful marriage. The Court held, " the words lawfully married referred " not to the matter, but to the form of the marriage," and decided the case against Leckie.
The " Auld Laird," as the smith was termed in the neigh- bourhood, was, according to popular rumour, not very comfort- able in the other world, and many a story used to be told of his nightly visits to Craigforth, and of the alarm of the inhabi- tants when hq announced his entree by sound of hammer, for he always carried that necessary implement of his craft with him. His favourite haunt was a large room, which his descen- dant afterwards occupied as a Library,
be without foundation, as he appears to have bor- rowed more largely, than, without acknowledgment, was quite fair, from an old folio volume, the scarcity of which he probably thought was a tolerable secu- rity against detection.*
Mr Callander was for many years particularly dis- tinguished for his companionable qualities. He had a taste for music, and was an excellent performer on the violin. Latterly he became very retired in his habits, saw little company, and his mind was deep- ly affected by a religious melancholy, which entire- ly unfitted him for society. He diedt at a good old age, upon the 14th Sept. 1789* By his wife, who was of the family of Livingston of Westquarter, he had several children. His great-grandson is at present in possession of the estate.
* Hume's Commentary on Milton. Lond. 1690, fol. See the Report by Mr D. Laing on this subject in the last part of the Antiquarian Transactions, vol. iii. part i. p. 83.
•f- In the Scots Magazine will be found the following notice of his death :_" 14th Sept. 1789. At Craigforth, John Callan- der, Esq. of Craigforth, Advocate. This gentleman's ancestors acquired his estate by a droll mistake : being ferrier to King James VI. in Scotland, he made out his accounts in Scots money, agreeable to practice, which being sent to England, an order was made to pay it in Sterling money ; which he accord- ingly received, and with which the family-estate enjoyed to this
XI
As the Editor has elsewhere collected all the par- ticulars he could obtain relative to " Honest George Paton/' it is unnecessary to repeat what is already before the Public. Such information as has since been procured, will be found in the Notes to the pre- sent Volume.
It is here proper to mention, that the present se- lection is by no means the most valuable portion of the Paton Letters ; the entire correspondence be- tween him and Gough, the letters of Lord Hailes, Pennant, and Chalmers, are infinitely more interest- ing and important in every respect ; but as the pub- lication of these Letters would have been attended with considerable risk, it was judged expedient to
day was bought." This anecdote is, in so far as regards the period, decidedly erroneous ; for, as will be seen from the pre- ceding note, the family estate was not acquired till the com- mencement of last century. The mistake probably has arisen from confounding the " Ferrier" with one of his ancestors who held a similar appointment under the British Solomon, and of whom it is traditionally reported, that during some state cere- monial, in which his Majesty's tradesmen were to walk, some difficulty occurred in opening one of the doors at Holyrood, the hinges of which had gone wrong, Callander, who was dressed for the occasion, immediately stept out of the procession, and said, " As it was I that put them wrong, I am the fittest per- to put them right ; " which he accordingly did, and resuming his place in the procession, it proceeded.
Xll
ascertain, in the first instance, whether, by the suc- cess of the present Volume, a favourable reception might be anticipated for what might in that event come afterwards. Emolument is not to be ex- pected, and as the mere amusement of a few leisure hours, the labour of editing is more a pleasure than a trouble ; but the Editor undoubtedly does not wish to make any pecuniary sacrifice.
In limiting the number of the copies, the object has been to secure to such persons as may be induced to become purchasers, the certainty of not seeing the work exposed at book-sales, or included in a list of " Cheap Books" at a third of its original cost. It is not besides likely that any work, the publication of which is simply to preserve literary remains, would become popular, or that its circulation would be extended beyond those individuals who have a taste for such matters. To multiply copies, therefore, would produce no beneficial result ; and the Editor has no wish that an extra number, should put it in the power of any publisher to commit a breach of contract with his purchasers, by disposing en masse, as has been too frequently done, of those remaining1 unsold after the lapse of a few months, and thus greatly reducing the price of the volume. These are the reasons which have induced the impression to be limited to one hundred small, and ten thick paper copies.
Xlll
For Paton's Note Book, the Editor is indebted to the obliging kindness of Mr James Laing ; and a few extracts from it will be found in the Appendix. The account of the Edinburgh Booksellers by Dr Leyden is too amusing and characteristic to require any apology for reprinting, more particularly as it is an appropriate appendage to a book of literary gos- sip such as the present.
The Reader's forgiveness is entreated for a very few clerical errors, which unfortunately escaped no- tice. They are not material, excepting in two instan- ces, where the printer has been pleased to convert Lord Oxford into Lord Orford,* and Michael Lort into Michael Scot,t the wizard ! — a most injudicious change, as Lort was certainly no conjurer.
• Page 29.
f Page 189. The date of the letter should be 1789. In the Appendix, (p. 208.) the word Ferstane should bePenstane; but this is a mistake of Paton's.
LETTERS
FROM
BISHOP PERCY,
TO
MR. GEORGE PATON,
I.
Northumberland House, London,
April 30. 1768. SIR, Mr Lamb of Norham (who has been very
obliging in collecting literary curiosities for me)
has communicated to me the contents of a letter
you were so good as to write to him ; wherein
you very genteelly offer to favour me with the
sight of any curious poems in your possession ;
as also to assist me in collecting any thing of
that sort in your power. This offer is very
obliging, and too agreeable for me not to accept
of it. You desire me to inform you what sort
of pieces I am desirous of collecting. I answer,
all sorts of ancient poetry, whether printed or
manuscript, particularly those fine old Scotish Songs and Ballads which are so much admired for their simplicity and artless unaff'ecting beau- ties: Historical ballads would, in a more particu- lar manner, be exceedingly acceptable. Dr Blair will (at my request, which I have made him by this post) lend you three volumes of Ancient Songs and Ballads lately published in London, which will shew you, better than I can describe by letter, what sort of things, I am principally fond of; though any good old poetry will be accept- able, provided I have it not already. I shall now inform you what I am already possessed of, viz.
1 . Gawin Douglas's Virgil, folio.
2. Old Blind Harry's Poem of William Wallace, 4to.
3. The Old Poem concerning Robert Bruce, 4to.
4. Sir David Lindsay's Poems, (a bad edition, 12mo.)
5. The Evergreen, a Collection, 2 vols. 12mo.
6. Drummond of Hawthornden's Works, folio. 7- Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany.
8. The Charmer, 2 vols, of Songs, &c.
9. Many little Poems printed at Glasgow, as the
Battle of Harlaw,* Hardyknute, &c.
• This ballad is of very considerable antiquity ; and there
I should be very glad to borrow the Collec- tion of Scots Poems printed by Andro Hart, which you mention, or any thing else of the kind described by me above. It may be left with Dr Blair, (Professor of Belles Lettres in your University,) who will in a few days take a journey to London, and convey any thing to me, that you will please to send. I am, &c.
T. PERCY.
II.
Northumberland Housej Jan. 5. 176*9.* DEAR SIR, I received your very obliging letter, contain-
seems little reason to doubt that the version presently existing, is substantially the same one as that mentioned amongst the popular songs in the Complaynt of Scotland, 1549. " No copy of an earlier date than that in Ramsay's Evergreen, 1724, is known ; but it certainly had been printed long before his time. An edition printed in the year 1GG8, was in the curious library of old Robert Myln." See Early Metrical Tales, Edin- burgh, 1826, Preface, (p. 45.) ; in which valuable little work the best copy of the ballad is to be found.
* It is dated 1768, but this evidently appears to be a mis- take.
ing the Catalogue of Dr Clarke's books, and promising a future packet inclosed to Mr White the bookseller : Whatever you are so good as to send me, will be always acceptable, and be very gratefully received. As for the auction, there are very few articles in it that I want : If the following should be had upon very easy terms, I should be glad to see them, but do not want them much, viz.
Page 49, No. 1173, Bartholinus, &c. Svo. (2s. or
2s. 6d.) Page 81, No. 2284, Hardyknute, 1st edit, folio. [I have already had a transcript of all these MS. Notes, &c. but would give a small price for the original.] * Page 81, No. 2295, Fordun, 2 vols, folio. (10s. or 12s.)
I am, &c.
• The first edition of this beautiful fragment is generally sup- posed to have been the one in folio, which bears the following title : — " Hardyknute, a Fragment. Edinburgh : Printed by James Watson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, mdccxix." Twelve pages, very neatly printed, But the Edi- tor inclines to doubt this, as, from internal evidence, he suspects the original edition to be one in 12mo. (pp. 8.) without date, of which a copy is in possession of Mr David Laing, and seems
5
III.
London, Jan. 12. 1769. SIR,
I received the very kind favour of your let- ter, and the packet of books you were so good as to send me by the hands of my friend Dr Blair. I ought to have thanked you for these
never to have had a title. The Poem is styled " Hardiknute, a Fragment of an old Heroick Ballad," and commences thusi
* * * * ^ ________
And stately stept he east the wa', And stately stept he west ;
Full seventy years he now had seen, With scarce seven years of rest, &c. Besides an immense variety of minute differences, and some important and material alterations, the folio edition has three stanzas more than the one in 12mo. ; viz. ti. 2 concluding one — and the two commencing, " Sair bleeds my liege, sair, sair he bleeds," and, " Take aff, take aff his costly jupe." The folio being more enlarged and polished, it is a fair presumption that the less ample and ruder version was a first attempt. The fate of Dr Clerk's (for so his name was spelt) folio copy is re- markable. It was (it is understood) purchased by Lord Hailes, and given by him to Pinkerton, who, as is well known, un- successfully attempted to palm a second part upon the world as genuine. He again presented it to a gentleman in Edinburgh ; and in the transmission of his books from one house to another, this literary rarity (valued at five guineas !) was lost. Another copy is in the Advocates' Library.
6
obliging civilities more early, but trusted to your candour for indulgence, and deferred do- ing it till Dr Blair's return. By the Doctor I have returned such of the books as you were so good as to lend me, viz.
1. Collection of Godly, &c. Sangs, by Andro Hart.
£This is very curious, indeed ; but I cannot be- lieve it earlier than the Reformation : cer- tainly not King James (the) First's.]
2. James Watson's Collection, &c.
This I have in my own Collection.
3. Sir David Lindsay's Works.
This is a fine edition; much better than mine.
4. Gordon's History of Robert Bruce.
For the other pieces, which you were so good as to present to me, I beg you will accept my kind acknowledgments. I have nothing equal- ly curious to return at present ; but hope you will accept a little piece, which I lately printed for the use of my parishioners, intitled, A Key to the New Testament.
Should I print any more volumes of ancient Poetry, you may certainly depend upon a copy of the Book, and of my acknowledgments in the
Preface, for the obliging assistance you are so good as to afford me, both in picking up scarce things for my perusal, and in favouring me with such illustrations as occur to you.
The Battle ofFlowden* is a fine pathetic Ele- gy : Dr Robertson had favoured me with a co- py of it before. — The Jews Daughter, (which you say was transmitted to Mr Dodsley by a friend of yours for my use,) never reached me; and Mr Dodsley says he knows nothing of it. I wish you would prevail on your friend to try to recollect, or recover it, and send me another
c°py by y°u-
I shall be very glad to see the list of Scottish Poets you mention, or any thing else, which you judge to be curious: but what I chiefly want to recover are these fine old historical songs, which are only preserved in the memo- ries of old people, &c. ; these are in so perish- able a state, that I apprehend it is nearly as much merit to retrieve them from that oblivion
• Probably the Flowers of the Forest, by Miss Jane Elliot.
8
which they are falling into, as to compose them at first : I mean that the person who does this, will almost deserve as well of the world as the original composer : this merit your good offices will certainly have, and none will be more ready to acknowledge it, than Sir, &c.
P. S. I have returned Lord Hailes's speci- mens of the Godly Sangs, &c. having been for- merly favoured with a copy by himself, and thought you might possibly wish (in that case) to oblige some other friend with it.
N. B. Should you have an opportunity of picking up another copy of your edition of Sir David Lindsay's Poems, reasonably, I should be glad if you would secure it for me.
I have most modern Scotish publications, viz. Allan Ramsay's Works, 2 vols.
Tea Table Miscellany.
The Charmer, 2 vols. Blind Harry's Poem on Wallace, 4to. John Barbour's Poem on Bruce, 4to. &c. Indeed, what I want are rather collections of the common historical ballads, &c. such as are
usually sold by ballad singers : — Or else, such as are only preserved in the memory of old people.
IV.
Northumberland House, Feb. 9> 1 769.
1 owe you my best thanks, both for the obli- ging favour of your letter, and the very kind and valuable present of your book ; which is a very desirable addition, to my collection of an- cient songs and poems. I hope it will meet with all the encouragement its merit deserves ; so that you will soon be excited to give us ano- ther volume of the same kind.* I am very glad, in particular, that you insert so many beautiful fragments of old Scots ballads ; because it will probably be a means of procuring the other stanzas to complete them: for no readers of taste that see your collection, but will be de-
* This was the Collection of Scottish Songs usually ascribed to Herd, published in P2mo. 1769, and afterwards enlarged to
2 vols. l2mo. 1776.
10
sirous of furnishing you with the other parts, if they should hear of their being preserved in private hands ; and thus your publication of an imperfect fragment, will operate like an adver- tisement to procure you the remainder.
As to your kind offer about sending me the MS. of Hardy knute, if it should contain any very important improvements more than I pub- lished in my second edition of the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, I should be glad to see it; otherwise I would not give you so much trouble.
As to Forduni Chro?iicon9 I was in no great want of the book ; and this was the reason why I offered so low a price. I would perhaps go as far as 18s. or 21s. for a copy, if it should fall in your way ; otherwise I can do without it.
I shall be happy to make you some literary return for your obliging favours, and hope ere long I shall have an opportunity of that sort. I am, &c.
P. S. I could wish you had accompanied your Old Songs with a few historical or topographi-
11
cal notes : though I think you are so kind as to promise us something of this sort at the end of your next volume. But I should think the notes of each volume, had better have been printed at the end of the several volumes they belong to : this, however, may be so contrived as to be done yet ; it is but making your printer take care to give the notes of each volume on separate half- sheets, and then the binder may place them at the end of the volumes they re- spectively belong to.
Your notes should be of four kinds, [besides a general glossary to explain all the unusual words and phrases.]
1. To mention (where it can be done) the authors of the several songs or ballads ; or at least their antiquity, or any tradition concerning them.
2. To explain the history or story referred to in some of the historical ballads, where neces- sary.
3. To inform us in South Britain, where the particular scene or place lies, that is mentioned
12
in some of the pastoral songs : as for instance, in the old sonnet, intitled, The Broom of Cow- diknows, it would be satisfactory to all curious readers to be informed that Cowdiknows is the name of a very beautiful green hill that rises near the ancient Abbey of Melrose, not far from the banks of the Tweed, in such a shire, &c. &c.
4. Miscellaneous; either Explanatory, or Di- gressive : particularly to illustrate any allusions to the old manners, customs, opinions, or idioms of the ancient Scotch nation : These are now wearing out so fast, that if not preserved in such publications as these, they will be utterly un- known to posterity.
V.
Alnwick Castle, July 1 5. 1 769. DEAIl SIR, Youit kind letter, and obliging present of the three books, came safe to hand, and are entitled to my most grateful acknowledgments. They (as all your kind presents ever are) form a very
13
valuable addition to my small collection. I shall not rest till I endeavour to pick up some- thing that may not be altogether unacceptable to you. When I return to London in the au- tumn, I shall entreat your acceptance of two volumes 8vo. that will be then published by a friend of mine ; and beg you will let me know by a line where and how I can forward them to you. I should be glad if you would send me another copy of the Volume of Songs you lately obliged me with ; they are for a friend, from whom I will transmit the price as you shall di- rect, or rather I will desire my friend, Dr Blair, to repay you. I should be glad if they could be sent to me here, or left (directed for me at Alnwick Castle) at Mrs Parker's, at the Post- Office in Newcastle. I am, &c,
P. S. I am very glad that a second volume of the Old Songs is intended.
14
VI.
Northumberland House, Dec. 20. 17 69.
DEAR SIR, I received the very obliging favour of your letter, and am glad you have secured me Adlington's Apuleius ; but I cannot think of receiving it from you on any other terms than that of repaying you what it cost in the auction. I must, therefore, beg to be informed how much I am indebted to you for this and other books you have been so good as to transmit to me, otherwise you will render impossible for me ever to trouble you again.
Incapable as I am of making you any other return but those of a mere literary nature, I can by no means trespass upon your good na- ture in the manner in which your benevolence would invite me: but if you will point out any services of the same literary kind, by which I can return your obliging favours, you will then encourage me to apply to you again on similar
15
occasions to those by which you have already rendered me. Yours, &c,
P.S. I am obliged to you for the offer of procuring me Eginhartus ; but as the present possessor probably would not wish to be de- prived of his purchase, I would by no means rob him of it.
Apuleius may be sent in any parcel which the Edinburgh booksellers have to remit to our booksellers in London ; any of whom would pro- bably convey it safely, if it was directed to me at Northumberland House ; and by the same channel I must beg to remit you what I am in your debt, of which you will please inform me.
VII.
Easton Maudit, Nov. 17- 1770* DEAR SIR, I wrote to you a few days ago, and the very next post brought me your obliging letter, ac- companied with the curious copy of the first edition of Hardiknute, than which you could
H
not have made me a more acceptable present. Receive my best acknowledgments for so obli- ging a mark of your attention and regard.* I should be glad if you could inform me when the second enlarged edition of that beautiful poem appeared. Whether in a small separate publication, or in the Evergreen, published in 1724,*)* (wherein this poem is printed with the latest improvements.) — You will probably be able, without much difficulty, to ascertain this point. — I believe in my last I mentioned that any friend of yours that would inquire of the porter at Northumberland House, for a parcel directed for Mr Paton, would receive it ready
* See " Reliques," vol. ii. p. 96.
-|- The dateless copy was the first edition ; the folio one the second, — it was printed, thirdly, in the Evergreen, the text be- ing unwarrantably altered by Ramsay, to give it an antique ap- pearance. The fourth edition was published at London, by Dodsley, 4to. 1740, " with general remarks and notes," p. 36, (the orthography being again changed, probably to make it intel- ligible to the English reader,) — and, fifthly, Foulis of Glas- gow, put out an edition, 4to. Glasgow 1748, of which a copy, " with historical criticisms, remarks, notes, &c. MS. by the late David Herd," was in Blackwood's Catalogue for 1812, (No. 566.)
17
packed up for you. I am still detained by ill health in the country ; but a line may be direct- ed for me, under cover, to his Grace, at North- umberland House, as usual. I am, &c.
VIII.
Oct. 27. 1772, Easton Maudit, Near Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire,
DEAll SIR, I cannot defer thanking you for the kind fa- vour of your letter, and valuable present of the ancient charter, which were extremely accept- able. If the publisher of the Collection of Scots Songs, would send up by some safe hand his collection for the second volume for my inspec- tion and perusal, I will see what can be done, — let them be forwarded to me at Northumberland House.
I wish we had correct and neat editions of all the best old Scottish Poets ; but it is an un- dertaking that requires some little consideration. I should be glad to concur towards it in any shape.
18
I never saw the old pieces of Lindsay which you mention : they must be curious.
I wish it was in my power to give you a copy of the Northumberland Household Book, as they will not be sold : but it is not as yet in my power. His Grace* printed few, and the three or four which he allowed me to send to Edin- burgh, were chiefly to such as he had some par- ticular reason of his own for sending them to.
Should it hereafter be in my power, I shall
* This was Sir Hugh Smithson, Bart, who, by marriage with the heiress of the Perries, succeeded on the death of his father- in-law, Algernon Duke of Somerset, to the Earldom of North- umberland, and took his seat, 2d March, 1750. In the year 1766, his Lordship was raised to the Ducal rank. He died June 6. 1786. He restored Alnwick Castle, which was in ruins, and beautified and improved the surrounding demesne. The en- suing inscription occurs on a Gothic building erected by his Grace, upon the grounds ot Alnwick Castle, and is said to be the composition of the Reverend John Brand, (Secretary to the Antiquarian Society.)
1781. H. Dux Northumbrian. 1781.
Circumspice
Ego omnia ista sum dimensus
Mei sunt ordines
Mea descriptio
Multae etiam istarum arborum mea
Manu sunt satse.
19
be happy to place a copy in the hands of a gen- tleman to whom I am so much obliged for simi- lar favours. I am, &c.
IX.
London, Jan. 9tk, 1773. DEAR SIR, I heceived the very obliging favour of your last, and thank you for the trouble you were so good as to take in illustrating the old Poem of Peebles to the Play : many of the notes are quite new to me, yet very ingenious. If I am inclined to differ from you in opinion, it is with regard to the author and date of the Poem above mentioned : I do not see the least resem- blance between the style of this old song and the compositions of Sir David Lindsay ; and it surely bears all the marks of an earlier period. The language and idiom more ancient, more rustic, more native Scotch. But I shall reserve this subject for a farther discussion, and at pre- sent write a few lines merely to express my ac- knowledgments for all your obliging favours.
20
Whenever you have a convenient opportuni- ty to forward the Collection of Scottish Songs to me, I shall be extremely glad to see them : but would not have you give yourself too much trouble as to the time when. Indeed, Mr John Davidson (one of the clerks of the signet) is to send me up a manuscript, of which Lord Hynd- ford has procured me the loan out of the Ad- vocates' Library. It will be sufficient if the Songs, or any thing which you may have to send me, come along with that MS. Believe me to be, &c.
X.
London, May 1. 1773. DEAR SIR, Nothing but the very alarming illness of one of my children (who is, thank God, happily recover- ed) could have prevented me from acknowledg- ing your many obliging favours so long. Pittis- cottie"s History is come safe to hand, and is ex- tremely acceptable. The Paterculus you men- tion I do not want; and the little book of the Conflicts of the Clans (if that is what you mean
21
in your last) I have had some years ; but my copy has no preface, &c. and is printed at Glas- gow 1764. If any preface, &c. has been added since that time, I should be glad to see it. The Version of Ecclesiastes, in English verse, was made by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, son and father to two successive Dukes of Norfolk. You will find an account of him and his poeti- cal works in the first vol. of Mr Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, 8vo. — and in the first vol. of Athenas Oxonienses, by A. Wood, folio. — I am going to publish this Lord Surrey's Poems, and shall beg your acceptance of a copy: — but I can nowhere recover this Poetical translation of Ecclesiastes : it does not exist in any of our public libraries ; nor could I ever get sight of it in any catalogue for sale.
I have made a great discovery : I have found out that the old Poem of Peebles to the Play, was the composition of King James I. of Scot- land. I am indebted to John Major's History De Gestis Scotorum for this curious piece of in- telligence. See Lib. vi. Cap. 1 4. — His words
are: " Composuit . , . artificiosam cantilenam . . . Yas sen, &c. et jucundum artificiosumque il- ium cantum, At Beltayne> &c. quern alii de Dalkeith et Gargeil, mutare studuerunt : quia in arce aut camera clausus servabatur, in qua mulier cum matre habitabat.,,
There can be no doubt but the jocund and artificial song, at Beltayne, &c. is the old Poem of Peebles to the Play, as it begins with this line : —
At Beltane, quhen ilk bodie bondis To Peeblis to the Play ;
but the rest of Major's words are to me per- fectly unintelligible; as the first words of the other song he quotes are apparently corrupted, viz. Yas sen, fyc.*, I wish you would examine the passages in Major's book, and compare it in the different editions : as also, shew it to some in-
* In the Maitland Poems, Pinker ton has printed a Poem, which it is not unlikely may have been the one referred to by Major. It is a " Song on Absence," and commences
" Sen that (the) eyne that workis my love."
See vol. ii. p. 214, and notes (p. 425) thereon.
S3
genious antiquaries ; particularly my good friend Mr Davidson, clerk of the Signet, to whom my best respects. Be pleased to tell him, that I now hope to receive the old MS. collection of Poems, which was formerly Lord Hynd ford's. At the end of this month, or the beginning of the next, I shall leave London for the summer ; and consequently, if the book should come after that time, I shall not see it for many months, not to mention the danger it will run of being lost. I am, &c.
XI.
London, June 5. 1773. DEAR SIR, I have just received the parcel you have been so good as to send me, containing Bannatyne's MS. — Sir David Lindsay's Satires — and the packet for Mr Gough: which shall be most carefully delivered to him. I have but just peeped into the MS. and into Lindsay's Sa- tires : I see plainly that the MS. contains a complete copy of the Satires : but somewhat dif-
ferent from the printed edition. In the course of the summer, I shall examine both with due attention. I shall inform you of the result. Mr Gough was with me when I received the letter you had inclosed for him, which I presented to him. When you meet with the Paris edi- tion of John Major's History, I will be obliged to you if you will note the variations in the pas- sage of page 809, (edit. Edinburgi, 1740,) and favour me with them. In one of your former letters, you mention your being possessed of " Le Gry's translation of V. Paterculus, 12mo." I shall be much obliged to you for a transcript of the title-page : and remain, with a due sense of your many kind repeated favours,
Yours, &c.
XII.
Alnwick Castle, August 20. 1773. DEAR SIR* Since I had the pleasure of seeing you at Edin- burgh, I have been reading Mr Pennant's Tour through Scotland, 8vo ; and in page 93 of his
25
second edition 1772, he speaks of a Scotch Poet, whom I never before heard of, viz. Robertson of Struan, who had been in the rebellions of J 715 and 1745, and who (he says) left behind him a volume of elegies and other pieces.* I should be glad if you could inform me when and where they were printed, and what degree of merit they have : if worth buying, I should be glad if you would procure me the volume ; the price of which I shall, with thanks, repay you : being, with great regard, &c.
P.S. I hope you have performed your obli- ging promise in making excuses, for my not being able to visit my friends in and about
* It was a volume of a very miscellaneous nature, contain- ing poems of various kinds, some of them not remarkable for their delicacy. A portion of the contents had been printed from time to time in the humble guise of broadsides. These, and several ones remaining in MS. were for the first time collected together in one volume 8vo. Edin. (no date,) and " printed for Ch. Alexander, and sold at his house in Geddes's Close ; where subscribers may call for their copies." The author was implicated in both the rebellions 1715, and 1745 ; and yet, strange to say, his estate was ultimately sayed. He is supposed to have been the original of the Baron of Bradwardinc.
26
Edinburgh, in consequence of my short stay. From Edinburgh I went to Inverary, and got back to Alnwick Castle by Saturday night.
XIII.
Alnwick Castle, Sept. 19. 1773. DEAR SIR, I only deferred thanking you for your very obli- ging letter, till I could inform you of my having safely received the packet you were so good as to send, containing Struarfs Poems and the trans- lation of the preface to Anderson's Diplom. &c. 1 received them safely to-day, and am much obliged to you for so kindly procuring them for me ; but must beg you to let me repay you the cost, otherwise I shall be afraid to mention my literary wants to you another time. You have already laid me under so many obligations by your former obliging presents, that I am asham- ed to trespass still further on your good na- ture : nor shall I rest till I obtain a present of an Household Book for you, as a small pledge of friendship.
I should be very glad to peruse the second volume of Scots Songs, in MS. — but the trans- mission to this place is so uncertain by the waggon, which I apprehend does not come through this town, that I am afraid to let you hazard it. If you thought you could venture it to London, I would look it oveY at my leisure, and return it towards spring, or when I send back the ancient MS.
The three volumes* of old ballads, which were
* This was the celebrated collection which afterwards came into the hands of Major Pearson and the Duke of Roxburgh. The history of its formation and transmission is too curious to be overlooked. The first Earl of Orford and Mortimer, the munificent patron of literature, had resolved to form, and did form, perhaps the finest library of books ever collected in Britain by a private individual. In the gratification of this legitimate object, he spared no expense ; and as he was anxious to rival the famous Pepys Collection of Ballads at Cambridge, he set about gathering together such remains of the popular poetry of the country as could be procured ; his exertions were such that he soon surpassed the Pepysian volumes. Upon the dispersion of his books, Mr West became the purchaser of the ballads ; and at his sale, they were acqxiired by Major Pearson. In his possession, with the assistance of his friend, Isaac Reid, the collection re- ceived very great additions, and was bound in two volumes, with printed title-pages, indexes, &c. In this state it was bought at Pearson's sale by John Duke of Roxburgh?. After the indus-
in Mr West's sale, were bought by a friend of mine, Major Pearson ; they consisted of loose detached ballads collected into volumes — such as are still sold on stalls ; not one in a hun- dred of them fit to be republished ; and the best among them, were the same as what I had se* lected out of Pepys's collection for my former publication. I did not take notice of the 4to. piece, which you inquire after, (viz. The 3 Talis of the Preisth of Peblis,)* during the time of
trious exertions of two such skilful collectors as Pearson and Reid, the Duke despaired of enlarging the collection ; but he undervalued his own industry, as he soon added a great many to the two volumes, of which he wrote an additional index. Find- ing his success exceeded his expectations, he determined to add a third volume, which he accordingly did ; and amongst his acqui- sitions were seven ballads printed at Edinburgh in 1570, and a ballad quoted in Hamlet, of which no other was known to exist. A very imperfect copy had been printed by Bishop Percy, in his Reliques, from a copy taken down from memory by George Steevens. This invaluable collection, at the Roxburghe sale, produced the large sum of £477, 15s.
• West's Catalogue, No. 1H20, " the Thrie Tailes of the Thrie Priestesof Peblis, b. 1. imprinted at Edinburgh be Rob. Charteris 1G03," 4to. where it sold for 14s. (Id. It was proba- bly the same copy which Mr Gough afterwards possessed ; but which cannot now be found. There was a later edition in 18mo. supposed to be printed about the year 1630, of which a
91
the sale ; but in the course of the ensuing win- ter, I will make it my business to inquire who purchased it, and give you information on that head.
copy in a volume of early printed poetical pieces, (amongst which was Itoswal and Lilian,) was in the Library at Ditton Park. This precious volume had been found there by our illus- trious countryman, Sir Walter Scott, and its rarity and value pointed out to its noble owner, Lord Montague. His Lord- ship, properly judging that it would be most acceptable to the discoverer, (who had borrowed it,) told him that the volume should be his ; but taking it from him, he jocularly added, "you must come to Ditton and fetch it." Unfortunately the visit was deferred. In the meantime, his Lordship, to prevent accidents, had put up the treasure with Lady Montague's jewels, — a most unfortunate precaution, as will be seen from the following extract from a contemporary Journal ; for Ditton was destroyed by fire, and the jewels, which were in a secure place, entirely consumed. " April 28. 1822. At night a fire broke out at the west end of the mansion of the Right Hon. Lord Montagu, at Ditton Park, near Datchet. The family had just retired to bed ; and, before they could well extricate themselves, the flames had communi- cated with astonishing rapidity to every part of the edifice ; which being of great antiquity, wainscotted throughout, and in- tersected with numerous staircases, presented little opposition to the devouring element. The whole of the interior was con- sumed, leaving only a part of the outer walls standing. For- tunately no lives were lost ; but the family plate and jewels, to- gether with the valuable furniture and paintings, were entirely consumed. The fire was occasioned by the bursting of a flue
30
I am extremely obliged to you for being so kind as to send circular excuses to my friends, for not calling on them during my very short stay in Edinburgh. — After I left you, Mr Durant prevailed on me to accompany him in a tour to Inverary, in which we were exceedingly amused indeed. But it took up all my short time in Scotland ; for I did not return to Edinburgh till 10 o'clock on Friday night, and I set off for Alnwick at 4 o'clock on Saturday morning. It was after Mr Boswell was gone to bed on Fri- day night that I called at his door.
You are so good as to say you will try to get my time for keeping the old MS. extended :* it would be extremely acceptable, indeed. But
which projected from a patent stove, in the room adjoining that in which Lord and Lady Montagu slept, the furniture of which was nearly consumed before they discovered the danger they were in. His Lordship and family retired to an adjoining farm- house until they obtained carriages to convey them to "Wind- sor. This house was built by Sir Ralph Winwood, Secretary of State to James I. on the scite of a palace which had been occupied by Cardinal Wolsey ; it was for many years the resi- dence of the late Lord Beaulieu, at whose decease it came into the family of Buccleugh." * Bannatyne MS.
31
I fear the application will be without success.— You may, however, hint my wishes on that head to my good friend, Mr John Davidson ; to whom my kindest respects; at the same time tell him his old acquaintance, Mr Colingwood Foster of this town, would be much obliged to him, if he could procure him the last and best folio edition of Forduni Scoti-Chronicon : he forgot to mention it when he wrote to him lately. I am, &c.
XIV.
Alnwick Castle, Oct. 23. 1773. DEAR SIR, I received your obliging favour of last month, but have been prevented from answering it be- fore by a multiplicity of engagements. I shall be very glad to look over the collection of pieces provided for the second volume of Scots Songs, at my leisure, if it can conveniently be spared. Mr Foster of this town will be much obliged to you and Mr Davidson for procuring him a copy of the folio edition of the Scoti Chronicon
of Fordun, if such should fall in your way ; but he is in no hurry about it, and will be very well contented to await your leisure. At the same time he will be very thankful, if you or Mr Davidson could procure him a copy of Mr Foulis's fine folio edition of Caesar's Commenta- ries in Latin, printed at Glasgow, to accompa- ny Fordun. The Duke has no edition of the Essay on Macduff's Cross, &c. which you en- quire after. Indeed his Grace's library rather contains useful than curious books : He is not a collector of things in our way, and what anti- quarian books he has have merely got into his library by accident. You may expect more sa- tisfaction from your friend Mr Gough, than any person I know. However, when I am set- tled in town for the winter, I shall, with great pleasure, endeavour to procure you all the infor- mation in my power, on these or any other sub- jects that you will prescribe to me. I have looked over the Inscription of the Ring, and am of opinion that, except the first, second and fourth divisions, which I have attempted to ex-
53
plain, all the rest are merely ornamental Flour- ishes. If the second has any meaning, it is pro- bably |tx h& CR, the initials of Christus. The first is evidently the common old cypher 'JljS, which some interpret Jesus Hominum Salvator ; others JHS, the three first letters of the Greek lw**, Jesus. This will agree with CR for Cristus, as it was often defectively writ- ten by the ignorant monks. MR is evident enough for Maria, or perhaps Maria Regina. My own opinion is, that the whole is JES. CR. Jesus Christus, and M. R. Maria ; and that it is in vain to look for any thing further in this relique of antiquity.
Inclosed I send a letter, which I should be glad to have presented to the Gentlemen who have the care of the Advocates'* Library, thro' their Librarian. Be pleased to show it Mr Davidson, and if he thinks it will do, desire him to seal it up, and back it with his interest. Give my best respects to that gentleman, and all my friends at Edinburgh. I am, &c. D
34 XV.
To Mr Brown, the Faculty Librarian.
Alnwick Castle, Oct. 23. 1773. SIR, The very obliging manner in which I have been indulged with the loan of the MS. Collection of ancient Poems, I must ever acknowledge as a very peculiar favour: it has happened, how- ever, most unfortunately, that I have been dis- appointed in my expectations of obtaining suffi- cient leisure this summer to make the use of it I intended. My attendance on the Duke of Northumberland has occasioned me to be ab- sent from home much longer this year than usual, and if it would not be too much trespas- sing upon the indulgence of the gentlemen who have the superintendence of your excellent li- brary, I should be extremely grateful if they would allow me to retain the book a little longer than the time assigned. I make this request, however, with the greatest deference to them ; and be it granted or not, shall ever acknow- ledge myself, Sir, &c*
* This is the letter referred to in the preceding.
35 XVI.
Easton Maudidt, Feb. 6. 1774.
DEAR SIR, I blush to look back on the date of your obliging letter : but hope you will pardon my long silence, when I inform you it has been owing to my having left London before your letter reached it, which occasioned some delay ; and since I have been very much indisposed, and all writing forbidden me.
I had received your obliging letter, inclosing the further indulgence from the Governor of the Advocates' Library, and have the most grateful sense of their goodness, which I shall be careful not to abuse ; if I have neglected to express it, I beg you will convey my most re- spectful sentiments to those gentlemen ; which I shall endeavour to express myself when I re- turn their book.
My absence of six weeks from London has prevented me from seeing any of the books you have been so good as to send me ; but doubt not their being safe at Northumberland House,
36
where I shall expect to find them on my return to London in the course of next week. Be pleased to write to Mr Gough to desire him to send Lindsay* s Satyr es to me at Northumber- land House without delay, that I may compare the imperfect printed copy, with the compleat one in Bannatyne's MS. As the time draws near for my return of that MS. no time should be lost. I am truly sensible of all your most obliging favours, and remain, with great re- gard, &c.
XVII.
Northumberland House, March 24>. 1774. DEAR SIR, How extremely am I obliged to you on all occasions ! I was indeed under some solicitude lest I should exceed my time in detaining the MS. when your kind letter so agreeably re- lieved me from all my anxiety on that account. This further indulgence, which you have now procured me, is the more agreeable, as for these two months past my attention has been called
87
off from that and all other literary objects, by a severe illness in my family, which, after threat- ning the life of almost all my children, at length robbed me of one of them ; so that I have scarce looked into the MS. for some time past. Yet I should not have presumed to have troub- led the Librarian, with farther requests to have it lent me for a longer term. Which makes the favour so obligingly granted unasked, doub- ly welcome ; and I beg you will let that gentle, man know how truly sensible I am of his great politeness and generosity.
I have not a wish to detain the MS. longer than till next June : but as towards the end of that month, this family will be removing down to Alnwick Castle, there to spend the summer ; I should be glad if I may be allowed to keep and bring the MS. down with me into Nor- thumberland, (which I consider almost in your neighbourhood,) and thence to transmit it by some very certain and safe hand, which cannot fail to offer in the course of the summer ; ra- ther than trust it to the conveyance of a com-
mon carrier from London. Nay, it is not im- possible but before summer is over, I may be able to bring it with me to Edenborough, in a post-chaise myself, which will be still more sa- tisfactory, provided the gentlemen who favour- ed me with the loan of it, may not think. I de- tain it from them too long ; by waiting for such an opportunity.
Be pleased to mention this to them, and fa- vour me with their final directions, which I shall most implicitly observe ; and remain most gratefully, Dear Sir, &c.
P. S. I was much obliged to you for favour- ing me with the sight of the catalogue ; though I did not find any article, which I particularly wanted. I should be glad if you could favour me with Mr Lambe's Battle of Flodden ; but not without you suffer me to repay you for that and the other articles, you are so good as to procure me.
My best and kindest respects to my much- loved friends Dr and Mrs Blair.
39 XVIII.
Northumberland House, May 14. 1774. DEAR SIR, You must have thought me guilty of a very great neglect, to have let all your obliging fa- vours remain so long unacknowledged : but when they arrived, I was absent on a journey into Sussex, and after I came back I could not immediately get a frank, the Duke having the gout in his hands. Be pleased to accept my best thanks for the copy of the Poem on Flod- den Field ; but it has very much vexed me that I should fgive you the trouble to send me a copy out of Scotland, when I could have pur- chased one at our very door here in London : It was owing*to meer oversight and inattention that I so inadvertently consented to your taking that trouble upon you, and beg you for the fu- ture that you will not suffer me to act so fool- ishly and unreasonably by you. As the Duke is also much absent, I must for the future dis- continue using his privilege for the conveyance of any thing but meer letters ; for he was at
40
Newmarket when some of the packets came, and at the same time I was absent in Sussex ; so that the taking care of the packets for me created him a good deal of embarrassment and trouble. A single letter, with another single letter inclosed to any friend of yours in Lon- don, I shall very thankfully receive at any time under his Grace's cover, and will carefully for- ward as you direct ; but any other sort of pack- ets, or even catalogues, I must beg the favour to have sent by the carrier, and I shall with the utmost pleasure pay the carriage, be it what it will.
How shall I be able to make proper returns for so many obliging favours as you are conti- nually heaping upon me? I wish you would think of any of our London publications, that I might send you : at least I shall intreat your acceptance of a set of the new edition of my Ancient Reliques, which Mr Dodsley is going soon to commit to the press. I thank you a thousand times for the extension of my time of keeping the old MS. which you have procured
41
for me, and desire you will present my best thanks to the superintendent of the Advocates' Library for his very kind indulgence: what- ever pieces I publish from that MS. I shall cer- tainly (as in duty bound) present to you both and to the Library. I am, Dear Sir, &c.
XIX.
Alnwick Castle, July 21. 1774. DEAR SIR, I came here a few days ago, and brought with me Bannatyne's MS. which has been so long and so obligingly lent me out of your excellent Advocates' Library. I intend to devote a good part of my leisure time during my summer re- sidence here, to the final examination of this curious collection of Ancient Poetry, and then consign it to your care, in consequence of your most obliging permission to have it returned to the Librarian, whose great politeness and civi- lity I am highly bound to acknowledge, as I am that of all the other gentlemen who super- intend that most valuable repository.
4(2
1 flatter myself I shall be able to accompany it with a copy of the Household Book,* for your own acceptance, but this entre nous : for his Grace has so few left, and so many applica- tions from his friends, that it is difficult to pro- cure one : so that although I have long wished to obtain one for you, till now I have not been able to succeed.
Pray how does the publication of the 2d vol. of Scottish Songs, 12mo. go on ? You some time ago promised to procure me a sight of the ma- nuscript if it could be forwarded to me here ; I have more leisure to overlook it than I usually have in the South.
What other literary works are carrying on in Scotland ? What publications have you had lately ? What use do the booksellers and those at Glasgow mean to make of the liberty they have gained, by the defeat of our London book- sellers ? What new editions of English authors are they preparing in consequence of the victo- ry? Such as are elegant and cheap, one would be glad to purchase.
* The Household Book, however, was not sent.
■13
Adieu ! my dear sir, and fa vour at your lei- sure, with a line, Yours, &c.
P. S. Pray give my best respects to Mr Bos- well : tell him I left Johnson well, preparing to set out with Mrs Thrale for Wales, about a fortnight ago. He has begun to print the ac- count of his Tour through the Highlands.
Is there any sale of books going forward at Edinburgh? Your booksellers could perhaps forward a catalogue to our bookseller, Mr Graham at Alnwick ? Would you procure me a copy of the folio edition of Fordun at a rea- sonable price ?
XX.
Alnwick Castle, Aug. Q. 1774. DEAlt SIR, I am extremely obliged to you for your con- stant attention to every little pursuit of mine : As to the copy you mention of Surreys Poems, it will not be necessary, as I have more authen- tic ones, and of a much earlier date. Otherwise
44
I should, in consequence of your kind hint, ap- ply to Mr Gough myself, without suffering you to give yourself so much trouble. I have re- ceived Mr BelPs catalogue, which you have been so good as to send me, and should be glad if you could procure me the books mentioned on the other side, and get them sent to Aln- wick by Mr Bell, directed to the care of Mr Graham, bookseller, at Alnwick, in Northum- berland, by whom I will remit the money. I am, &c.
P. S. May I beg the favour of a line to in- form me, what of these books I may expect, and when? And if you have not already bought me the folio edition of Fordun, you need not now buy it : if you do buy Fordun, or cannot dispose of it again, then I would omit having Jbercrombie in the opposite list.
N.B. If No. 1480 contains the two parts, I should be particularly glad to secure that.*
* This was a copy of the " Vida de Lazarillo" priced at Is. ! ! The list of the other books has been omitted, as they are wholly of a common-place kind.
45 XXI.
Alnwick Castle, Aug. 18. 1774.
DEAR SIR, How much am I obliged to you for the innu- merable favours you incessantly heap upon me ? I have received Fordun's Scoti-Chronicon, and hope soon to receive the other parcels, both printed books and the MS. Songs. I am equally obliged to you with regard to Fordun, as if I accepted it in the kind manner you intended ; but as I never wanted it for myself, only to supply another person, I must beg to know what it cost you, that I may pay for it with the other books. This I must beg leave to insist upon. — I am, however, but too much obliged to you already for your many former favours.
I unluckily left your printed copy of Lind- say's Satirical Play in London ; so cannot re- turn it with the MS. which I will, if possible, endeavour to send before the end of the sum- mer: but I have got a com pleat transcript made by Allan Ramsay, and lent me by his son.
I know not whether I have thanked you for
your kind offer about Surrey's Poems : but the copy you mentioned is but an incorrect one, and I have some much earlier. — Pray give my best thanks to Mr Boswell, for his kind message about the MS. — Should it be necessary, I shall apply to him. I write in great haste ; but am ever, most truly, &c.
XXII.
Alnwick Caslle, Aug. 22. 1 774. DEAR SIR, My parcel, containing the books you were so good as to secure for me out of Mr Bell's sale, and also the MS. Collection of Songs, came safe. I am truly grateful for the trouble you are so good as to give yourself, on this and all other occasions, to oblige me. I have looked over the MS. Collection of Scottish Songs, and find most of them are fragments too mutilated and im- perfect to afford much pleasure to a reader in their present state ; and yet most of them con- tain charming hints, which might give occasion to very beautiful songs, if supplied and filled Up,
47
in the manner that old broken fragments of an- tique statues have been repaired and compleated by modern masters. I think I could fill up the breaches of some of them myself; and, by wait- ing a little, one might possibly recover more perfect copies of some of the others. In the meantime, it would be pity to delay the publica- tion of the 2d vol. of Scottish Songs till these discoveries are made. I wish you would per- suade the editor to collect all that are tolerably perfect, in this or any other collection : I would furnish him myself with a good number of old Scots songs and poems, all perfect and compleat, which have never yet been printed, and which I myself transcribed from an old manuscript at Cambridge, which was compiled by old Sir Rich- ard Maitland, ancestor of the Earls of Lauder- dale ; and many others might be transcribed by himself from Bannatyne's MS. when I return it ; all these would easily fill a 2d volume forthwith. As, in three or four years, I intend to publish a volume or two more of old English and Scot- tish poems, in the manner of my Reliques of
4s
Ancient English Poetry, I shall then insert some of these fragments, if the editor will give me leave to transcribe and fill up the deficiences of some of them in the manner I attempted be- fore ; and from my book he may reprint such of them as suit his subject and plan in his 3d vo- lume, in like manner as he did in his first vo- lume. Let me know what he thinks of this pro- posal, and write as soon as possible ; because, till I hear from you, I shall not presume to touch one of them. I am, &c.
P. S. As I make these things only the amuse- ments of my most idle and leisure moments, it will require time to compleat such fragments.
XXIII.
Alnwick Castle, Sep. 16. 177*.
MY DEAR GOOD SIR,
I should not have delayed to acknowledge the
favour of your former letter till the arrival of
your last of 12th instant, had I not been ab-
49
sent on a tour through Cumberland. I cannot express how much I feel myself obliged to you for your continual attention to gratify me in all respects. I shall be extremely glacl to see the parcel of old historical ballads, which you men- tion, in print and manuscript ; but could wish if possible they might rather be sent by the car- rier, than undercover to his Grace ; and, if you think the parcel too small, I would wait till some more favourable opportunity offer; but, unless it be a single piece or so, now and then inclosed in your letter, I would rather wish to decline having them sent under his Grace's covers, as he is often absent, and it is trouble- some to send packets after him, which are to come back again. I beg you will present my compliments to Mr Wotherspoon, together with the inclosed leaf, which contains an hypothesis that is certainly very ingenious and probable at least, — whether the Oratorio be immediately sprung from the old Mystery or not ? He does me great honour in referring to my slight pub- lications, and I shall be very glad to purchase his
50
book when published. I will transmit the Songs when I return to the South.
And now, my Dear Sir, I hope you will par- don my persevering in my desire to repay you for Fordun, as it is for another person, whom I shall not scruple to make pay for it ; and unless you do this, I cannot send it to him, but must return it to Edinburgh. Your great generosity in other instances sufficiently distresses me, and you will really render it impossible for me ever to trouble you with my petty commissions any more. May I beg the favour to trouble you with the inclosed letter to Dr Blair, to whom I could wish it may be delivered, at latest, when he comes to preach at his church next Sunday. I am, &c.
XXIV.
Alnwick Castle, Sept. 30. 1774. DEAR SIR, I see you will overwhelm me with obligations, which I cannot sufficiently acknowledge, though
51
I must most gratefully feel them. I really must be more guarded for the future, how I express my wishes and desires on any subject, as you are so uncommonly generous and assiduous in gra- tifying them. Accept a thousand thanks for your most valuable present, since it must be so; and direct me how I can remit you the money for the rest. Perhaps this will be best done by paying it in London to some bookseller who corresponds with your's at Edinburgh.
I shall be chiefly at Easton Mauduit till after Christmas, and shall be infinitely obliged to you for any old songs, ballads, or poems, which you may chance to pick up, either in print or manu- script.
If I can get time to finish my cursory peru- sal of the remaining songs in Bannatyne's MS. which was so generously lent me out of your Advocates1 Library, I will yet send it to you, before I leave this place ; (of which you may ex- pect advice whenever sent;) If not, as I am pressed for time, I will accept the kind indul- gence of your most obliging librarian, and de-
52
tain it a little longer to send it from London ; which last plan, if you do not hear from me soon, you may conclude I have adopted. Pray pre- sent my best respects and thanks to him for all his civilities ; and believe me to be, &c.
P. S. I shall use Mr Wotherspoon's obliging permission to keep the MS. Songs by me till wanted.
XXV.
Eastern Maiidnii, Nov. 30. 177*. MY DEAR SIR, I have long wished to do myself the pleasure of writing to you, but being here confined in the country, where I could get no frank, I could not allow myself to put you to the expense of post- age ; but at length I had an opportunity of for- warding this to Alnwick, and then I could de- lay writing no longer. I have received safe your obliging present of the old ballads, which have followed me into the south, and are a new proof,
53
added to innumerable others, of your kind atten- tion to me, and constant wish to gratify your absent friends.
A long indisposition has prevented me from availing myself, so much as I intended, of my Retreat in the Country for literary pursuits ; but I hope ere long to be able to resume that kind of amusements. The same causes have hinder- ed me from making the active inquiries you de- sired after Dr Alexander Monro Drummond ; but when I get fixed in London for the remain- der of the winter, (which yet will hardly be soon,) I will make all the inquiries in my power. As for Lord Algernon,* he is too remote to ap- ply to him ; for we have not yet heard of his getting to France. Be pleased to mention this, together with my kindest and best respects, to my good friend Dr Blair, who, in his letter to me, desired me to make the same inquiry. Tell him I have been drawn in to delay writing to him, in hopes I should have been able to an- swer his wishes on this subject long before now.
* Afterwards Earl of Beverley.
54
A lame leg, which I have had these five weeks, I fear will keep me long from London. In the meantime, Dr Drummond's friends surely might apply to Lord Winchelsea's mother, Lady Char- lotte Finch, at St James's Palace, London, and have their doubts resolved at once. I am, &c.
XXVI.
Easton Mauduit, Dec. 81. 1774. MY DEAR GOOD SIR, How kindly obliging are you to me upon all occa- sions ? I have been favoured with the two cata- logues of books, but shall not have occasion to trouble you for any articles in either of them. I am no less obliged to you for forwarding to me the card of my good friend Dr Blair, to whom I shall write at large, as soon as I can give him any authentic intelligence of Lord Algernon Percy; but the Duke and Duchess being at Bath, I am not in the way of hearing about his Lordship till we meet in London : then I shall express my kind sentiments to a man whom I
55
&o truly love and honour. I write in great haste, and therefore hope you will pardon the brevity of, Dear Sir, &c.
XXVII.
London, July 28. 1775.
DEAR SIR, I am much ashamed to think how long I have been indebted for a very kind letter, when I was favoured with a second mark of your most obli- ging attention. I hope you will pardon my si- lence, when I assure you that, for these three months past, I have been constantly chained down to the most disagreeable of all situations, and what absorbs the attention the most of all other, the attendance on sick friends. The Dutchess struggled for life many weeks, and when Providence decided the conflict most hap- pily in her favour (and during that conflict I was constantly down at Sion with her, and con- tinually in her anti-chamber,) the moment I could get a little respite, I was both seized with
56
a violent illness myself, and have had the still greater mortification of seeing a beloved wife reduced twice to the point of death, who even at this moment lies deplorably ill, and I fear in great danger. However, I have roused myself up, and would not any longer defer writing. I I have also sent away, carriage-paid, this day, by the Edinburgh waggon, (which puts up at the Bird and Bush, Edinburgh,) a little box containing, (1.) Bannatyne's IMS. Collection of Scottish Poems. (2.) The volume of MS. Songs sent me last year. (3.) A small parcel for my Lord Hailes. Your little printed volume in 4to. intitled, Sir David Lindsay's Satires, I have ven- tured to detain a little longer, till I can compare it with a perfect copy transcribed from Banna- tyne's MS. by Allan Ramsay, and lent me by his son. When I have examined it a little more, I will send it you in a second packet, together with some of the poems from Maitland, when I have had leisure to consider them, which I have not had once since I received your last MS. Collection of Songs, and only glanced my eye
57
cursorily over that volume, which I have now returned, without having had time (from my other avocations,) to make the least use of the contents. I hope now, in the course of next winter, to prepare a 4th volume of Iteliques for the press ; and when I have selected some of Maitland's poems for my own work, I shall see what I can spare for your friend's publication.
Should I any where meet with, or hear of the piece you mention De trium Regum JIUis, I shall not fail to give immediate notice, either to my Lord Hailes or to you.
I beg, Sir, you will present my most respect- ful thanks to the gentlemen, who have so kind- ly indulged me with the long loan of Banna- tyne's MS. out of the Advocates' Library, and to all who were instrumental in procuring me so great an indulgence : and accept yourself the best thanks of, Dear Sir, &c.
XXVIII.
Northumberland House, Feb. 29. 1776. DEAR SIR, Though so long an interval has intervened
58
since any letter has passed between us, do not think I can ever forget your many acts of friend- ship, or that I should not be extremely con- cerned to lose your correspondence : unfortu- nately I am so circumstanced, that, amidst the multiplicity of other letters, I am often driven to postpone those of my literary friends, till I find it difficult to resume the thread of the cor- respondence : I hope, however, you will per- mit me to reclaim it with you, and be pleased to inform me, how I can convey a set of my An- cient Poems to you, of which Dodsley has late- ly published a new edition : and though I have no share of the property of this impression, I have made interest to procure a copy for you. I am also ashamed, in the highest degree, to find that I have never paid a bill for books you bought for me the summer before last: this discovery I only made two or three days ago, in turning over some papers, when your bill stared me in the face ; but as I have lost the memorandum, which you favoured me with, in- forming where I could pay the money to your
agent, or correspondent, I hope you will par- don the omission, and give me a fresh direction without delay. Any letter for me, may be in- closed under cover to his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, at Northumberland House, London: I should be most happy, if at the same time you could employ me to execute any commission for you ; as I really feel my- self under so many obligations of this kind to you, that I long to discharge them by similar returns. I am, Sec.
XXIX.
Northumberland House, April 23. 1776. DEAR SIR, I eeceived your very obliging letter and the copy of the old ballad, for which be pleased to accept my grateful thanks : I have not received Eginharfs Life of Charlemagne which you men- tion, nor is it at all necessary. I have taken the liberty to send a copy of the new edition of the Reliques, &c. by Mr James Robertson, and hope you will accept them, as a small token for
60
the present, of that regard with which, I am, &c.
XXX.
Easton Mauduit, Feb. 5. 1777.
DEAR SIR, I have so often trespassed upon your good na- ture by long intervals of silence, and you have so constantly extended your pardon to me, that I am not altogether without hope of your indul- gent forgiveness at present, tho' I have so little right to expect it. The truth is, I am often so idle, and so busy, that one while I have no leisure to write to my friends, and at other times no ability ; which, though no good excuse, yet is an ingenuous confession ; and at least exempts me from one imputation, which would be unpardonable, that of disregard, or disrespect. Neither of these can ever be the case with regard to Mr Paton, to whose friend- ship I have been and am so continually obliged.
It is expected that all franking will be sup- pressed. I have received J. BelPs catalogue
61
for 1777: this was left for me at Northumber- land House, and I imagine came from you : Will you have the goodness to secure (and send by the waggon, directed to me at Nor- thumberland House,) the following articles ? viz.-— •
No. Folio, 86 Froisart, &c. 1
6d.
$95 Diodorus, &c. 7s.
>£l, 8s.
8vo. 2320 Vida, &c. Is.
2887 Gibbon's Essay, &c. 2s. 6d.
The money I will pay to Messrs Richardson and Urquhart, or to whomsoever else you please. (By the bye, I hope you received the last pay- ment which I made there last year.) I should be happy (though I so little deserve it,) to re- ceive the favour of a line, and to hear what in- genious works are going forward under your auspices. Be pleased to inclose to me under cover, (To the Earl of Sussex, at Easton Mau- duit,*near Castle Ashby, in Northamptonshire,)
* Henry Earl of Sussex, who dying without surviving issue, in the year 1799, the Earldom became extinct. The furniture, including the family pictures, a singularly valuable collection, was sold by auction upon the 6th of April 1801, and following
62
with a P in a corner of the direction for dis- tinction. I am, with great esteem and regard, Dear Sir, &c.
P. S. I should have written to you in the autumn, but ail my attention was then and has been ever since ingrossed by the fatal illness and subsequent death of the Duchess of Nor- thumberland, which has engaged me ever since in constant business.* You told me last spring
days, by Mr Smith, of Kimbolton. See Gentleman's Mag. for May 1801, p. 422. The cause of this sale was an un- happy family dissention, arising from the elopement of Lady Barbara Yelverton, his Lordship's daughter and heiress, from an inn at Barnet to Gretna Green, with Colonel Gould. This event was the cause of his subsequently marrying a second wife, in the hope of having children : but his wishes on this subject were frustrated, and the entailed estates and barony of Grey de Ruthyn, (a barony in fee) consequently fell to the issue of Lady Barbara.
* Her Grace died upon her birth-day, Dec. 5. 1776, aged 60. She was the lineal heir of the Percies. " Her extensive charities to the poor ; her encouragement of literature and the polite arts ; and her generous patronage of every kind of merit ; her warm attachment to her friends ; her goodness to her ser- vants ; not to mention her tender affection for her family ; made her death a public loss, and will cause it to be long la- mented." Brydges, vol. ii. p. 364. This praise is merited, al- though it does occur in a peerage, for, generally speaking, Ovid's Metamorphoses are nothing compared to those of a ge- nuine peerage writer.
63
there was a new edition of the Scots Songs in two vols, does it contain any improvements ? You also hoped to procure a Norn Song. Have you succeeded ? Pray could you inform me, who are executors of Mr Foulis of Glasgow ?
XXXI.
Northumberland House, May 22. 1777. DEAR SIR, You have been so particularly obliging upon all occasions, that I flatter myself you will ex- cuse my requesting the favour of you to pro- cure a copy of the Sermon here advertised, viz.
Just published. Price Gd. And sold by William Schaw and William Creech^ Edinburgh,
and Peter Tait, Bookseller, Glasgow ;
The Dominion of Providence of the Passions of Men :
A SERMON,
Preached at Princetown, on the 17th May 1776,
Being the General Fast appointed by the Congress through
the United Colonies.
To which is added,
An Address to the Natives of Scotland residing in America.
By John Witherspoon, D.D.
Resident of the College of New Jersey, formerly Minister
in Paisley.
64
tcjr It is not the intention of the editors of the present edition of the Doctor's Sermon and Address, to gain friends to his sen- timents. This is not likely to be the case with any who will peruse them with attention ; but to shew what artful means, and fallacious arguments, have^ been made use of by ambitious and self-designing men, to stir up the poor infatuated Americans to the present rebellious measures ; what an active hand even Dr Witherspoon has had therein ; and to convince his friends in this country of the truth of his being a chief promoter of the American revolt.
And be pleased to send it in one or more covers, directed to the Rev. Mr Lort, under an inclo- sure, — To the Lord Bishop of Chester, at Lam- beth, near London.
I have a further favour to request of you, that you will honour with your acceptance the two volumes of Captain Cooke's Voyage, which my bookseller had orders to send you last Mon- day, (carriage paid ; which I mention only lest you should be charged twice.) — I desired him to get good impressions of the plates, and hope you will admit them into your library, as a small tribute of that respect with which I am, &c.
65 XXXII.
Northumberland House, June 14. 1777-
DEAR SIR, Accept my best thanks for your ready compli- ance with my former request ; which, like other favours too readily granted, only brings fresh trouble upon yourself. I must once more beg leave to apply to you, to send two more copies of Dr Witherspoon's Sermon to the Bishop of Chester : be pleased to send them by different posts, and even in more covers than two or three, if there should be any danger of their ex- ceeding each the weight of two ounces.*
The Sermons need no other direction, but, " To the Lord Bishop of Chester, at Lambeth, near London," and require no internal cover.
* In the "Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement, for May 1777-» will be found some severe strictures on this celebrated sermon, which occasioned a paper in answer by some of Wither- spoon's friends, in the Constitutional M agazine, under the sig- nature of Coriolanus. This answer, from its personality and scurrility, had been refused admittance into the Weekly Maga- zine. In the latter, (June 1777?) appeared a reply, signed W. C. and dated Paisley, entitled, " A Supplement to Obser- vations on Dr Witherspoon's Sermon." F
6*C
At the same time, I should be glad to be favoured with a line from you, addressed to me Under cover, To his Grace the Duke of North- umberland, at Northumberland House, Lon- don ; in which I should be glad if you would give me some account of this Dr Witherspoon,*
• Witherspoon is said, in the meagre and imperfect account of his Life, prefixed to his collected works,',(9 volumes, 12mo. Edin. 1804-5,) to have been " lineally descended from that eminent man of God, the Rev. John Knox, well known as the prime instrument of spreading and establishing the reformed religion in this part of the United Kingdom." This " Reverend" John Knox, it is presumed, is intended to mean our venerable re- former ; but in what way Witherspoon derived his descent from him, is not pointed out. He was born on the 5th day of Feb. 1722, his father being then minister of the parish of Yester, about 18 miles from Edinburgh. He was sent very early to the public school at Haddington, from whence, at the age of fourteen, he was removed to the University of Edinburgh, where he re- mained seven years; at the expiry of which period, he was licensed to preach the gospel. It was proposed to nominate him assistant and successor to his father, in the parish of Yester, but this ap- pointment he declined, and accepted of the church of Beith in Ayrshire. Whilst there, during the rebellion 1 745-6, he took an active part in support of the reigning family, — he not only preached against the Jacobites, but, to evince his zeal, marched from Beith to Glasgow at the head of the militia, and was made prisoner by the rebels. During his confinement, he was so hardly used, as to be unable to discharge his ecclesiastical duties for a considerable time after his escape. Of this important fact
67
whose character and history are little known at this end of the island. Tho' I conclude he has made a noise in North Britain as well as New England.
in his history, his biographer takes no notice. He next ob- tained a call to Paisley, where he was much respected. He re- ceived many advantageous offers to change his charge, and at first rejected, the invitation of the trustees of the College of New Jersey in America, which he afterwards accepted. In the sketch of his life above noticed, many reasons are as- signed for his subsequent change of opinion, but the writer has overlooked one circumstance, which, no doubt, materially influenced him in his final resolution. Some young men in Paisley, on the Saturday (Feb. 1762) preceding the sacra- ment, were reported to have conducted themselves in a most profane manner ; one of them after dinner, it was alledged, had produced a token, and when asked where he had got it, said, 44 from Judas Iscariot," and that he would " play odds and ends" who should use it. In the evening of the same day, a variety of indecencies, equally reprehensible, occurred ; and Br Wither- spoon, to whom this scandalous conduct had been communi- cated, preached a sermon, (Seasonable Advice to Young Per- sons ; text, Psalm i. 1.) in which he took particular notice of the behaviour of these individuals, and pointed them out as highly censurable for their gross conduct. He next brought the matter before the kirk-session, when the accused express- ed contrition, and were ordered to be publicly rebuked before the congregation. This sentence being reversed upon appeal to the Presbytery, Witherspoon published the sermon, with a preface, declaring the names of the parties, and describ- ing the nature and extent of their offence. This gave »•' * ♦*
68
I suppose your friend is not yet come to Lon- don with the Collection of Songs, &c, but I beg you will not be anxious about it ; I have already received too many favours of that sort from you,
an action of damages in the Court of Session, in which the pur- suers represented the great detriment that had arisen to them by and through the preaching and publication of the sermon. Af- ter a litigation of many years, judgment was pronounced in fa- vour of the pursuers, (Feb. 1. 1776.) and damages (£150,) and full costs of suit were awarded. This decision is like that in too many other cases of equal importance, not reported, which is the more to be regretted, as if the reverend gentleman's statement in point of fact was correct, which, from the minuteness of the de- tail, the specification of the names of witnesses, and the partial confession of the parties themselves, it would appear to have been, — the award of damages can hardly be accounted for on any other ground than that the Judges had revived the " Old Compend of Scots Law," " Shew me the man, and I'll show you the law." The probability is, that although there might be good moral evidence of the truth of the charge, yet that there was not sufficient legal proof to establish it. However, one thing is clear, that the defender's position in relation to his mo- ther country, by embracing the side of the colonists, would not influence the court in his favour.
Dr Witherspoon arrived with his family in America in the month of August 1768, and instantly commenced his labours. The appointment was beneficial to the establishment, and, under the superintendence of so able a man, it soon became flourishing. In the contest between Great Britain and the colonies, the Doctor became as celebrated as a politician as he
69
to have the least right to be urgent for fresh ones. Adieu ! my dear sir, and believe me to be, yours, &c.
P. S. Lord Percv, who is arrived safe and well, gives us hope that the war will be termin- ated in the ensuing campaign.
XXXIII.
Alnwick Castle, Aug. 20. 1777. DEAR SIR,
1 was preparing to thank you for your most obliging present of the Scottish Ballads, in
2 vols, which followed me to this place ; when I received the additional favour of your very kind letter, inclosing the Norn Song.* The
had been as a divine. He was very early elected, and, it is be- lieved, remained a member of Congress until his death, which took place at his seat near Princetown, in New Jersey, on the 15th day of November, 1794, aged 72 years, nine months, and ten days.
* ** I do not remember if I left you a copy of a Norn Bal- lad which I got in Foula. I wish you would try if Dr Percy could make any thing of it. If you have no copy, I shall send an exact one, as I wrote at least, tho' I cannot depend on the or-
70
language is unknown to me ; and, as I fina from your account, that it is equally so to Mr Low,-f* who wrote it down from the mouth of
thography, as I wrote it from an honest countryman's mouth, who could neither read nor write, but had the most retentive memory I ever heard of. He, I am afraid, is by this time dead, as he was then old and much decayed ; but, when I saw him, he was so imich pleased with my curiosity, and now and then a glass of gin, that he repeated (it) and sung the whole day." Rev. G. Low to G. Paton, 27th Feb. 1776. What became of this Norn, or Norse Song, does not appear. It is perhaps the one printed by Barry in the Appendix to his Orkney Isles.
•J* The Reverend George Low, minister of the Gospel at Bir- sa, Orkney. Some particulars of the life of this excellent person, will be found in the Preface to his Fauna Orcadensis, 4to. Edin- burgh, 1813, (edited by Dr Elford Leach.) The following letter, descriptive of his feelings upon the death of his wife, oc- curs amongst the Paton Letters ; and, as affording the best proof of his goodness of heart and kindly disposition, is here given to the public : —
My Dear Friend, — Your letters have all come to hand, but at a time when my spirits were in no condition to answer them.
Alas, my friend ! Friday, 29th ultimo, saw me happy in the friendship of a prudent, affectionate, and beloved wife, likely to be a valuable companion for many years to come. Monday saw this jewel a lump of clay ; and Thursday I was obliged to blend the very half of my soul with the dust, together with our child. I need say no more ; you can feel for me. All my happiness in the world is interred with her. In a word, it seems to me an entire waste — when will it be morn in the grave ? Home,
71
the reciter, I think it is a great pity that he did not write down a translation of it (which should have been asliteral as possible,) from the mouth of the old Orkney farmer, who gave it him from memory. However, tho' he be dead, and tho' none of his countrymen can speak the Norn fa- miliarly, probably some old persons may be found, who can understand it when repeated. After all, if Mr Low should publish any ac- count of the^Orkneys, I hope he will not fail to print this song, which is perhaps the only speci- men now'extant of the poetry of those islands. However that may be, I beg you will believe
home ! everywhere her beloved shade follows me. A thousand happy circumstances thrust her forward into my imagination, that render day and night restless. I have not (rest?) two of the four-and-twenty hours since I lost her, which is like to be of the worst consequence to my head, and renders it at times far from clear. But it is next in my heart to say, I am, Dear Sir, yours, &c. &c. while
Birsa, 18th Dec. 1776. George Low.
The expense of the following, for the W(eekly) Magazine, shall be faithfully repaid you by me at meeting, which will be soon :— «■ Died at Eirsa, Orkney, December 2. Mrs Helen Tyrie, spouse to the Rev. Mr George Low, minister of that parish, esteemed by all who knew her.'*
12
that, for this and all jour kind favours, I re- main, &c.
XXXIV.
Easton Mauduit, July 20. 1778.
DEAR SIR, Tho' a long interval has elapsed since the sus- pension of our correspondence, I have been constantly wishing to renew it, and cannot de- lay any longer to make inquiries after your health, which I hope has not suffered since I heard from you.
Of this I cannot but wish to be informed, as soon as you can find leisure ; and also, to know what kind of literary pursuits have lately enga- ged your attention. Any information on the preceding subjects will ever be most acceptable to me.
In return, perhaps it may not be unsatisfactory to know, that the Bristoll Poetry, which, for these three or four years past, has so much en- gaged the attention of the critics at this end of
73
the island, is, to demonstration, proved to be modern, in an Appendix lately published by the ingenious editor of these Poems, (viz. Tho- mas Tyrwhitt, Esq. late Clerk of the House of Commons ;) and what is most astonishing, to have been written by a youth, who died two months before he was eighteen. If the volume of the Poetry, in 8vo. and the Appendix, fall in your way, they will much amuse you. Your's, &c.
XXXV.
Alnwick Castle, Sept SO. 1778. DEAR SIR, I should not have let your obliging favours re- main so long unacknowledged ; but, being for- warded to me in the south, it was sometime be- fore I could get them sent back to be here. I accept them very thankfully ; and consider them as most obliging proofs of your kind attention. The plan of the Bibliotheca Septentrionalis gives us to expect a curious work, which I wish the author health and spirits to accomplish. I remember Dr Johnson once told me he had in-
74
tended, in an early part of his life, to compose a Dictionary of English or British Antiquities, many articles in which must have suited this plan of Mr Callander's ; but I believe he never began it.
I thank you for the copy of the Scots ballad,
" The Duke he was a bonnv lad." I see it is
j
dated 1345, but this I suppose is only to be understood of the events recited : for as for the composition, it is certainly very modern.
In the same letter that inclosed " The Duke," you talk of sending me another fragment, but it is not yet come to hand, which I only mention lest it should have miscarried thro'' a mistake in the direction, as you talked of inclosing to me under cover to the Earl of Essex : Sussex is the name, (excuse my reminding you of it, and always to be distinguished by a P, or they mis- carry.) You ask about the Pepysian Collection of MSS. — Mr Pepy's library, which he bequeath- ed to Magdalene College in Cambridge, consists almost only of printed books, among which he has a large collection of Old English printed Bal-
lads pasted in five large folio volumes of blamv paper : — He has, indeed, one very curious vo- lume of Scots Ballads and Poems in MS., writ- ten by one of the Maitlands of Lauderdale,* about the time of K. James V. out of which I have transcribed a great part of the contents : Many of the poems are copies of the same that are in Bannatyne's MS. in your Advocates' Lib- rary. I am, &c.
XXXVL
Carlile, (the Deanry,) Nov. 27. 1773. DEAR SIR, I flatter myself you will excuse my long delay in acknowledging your last obliging fa- vour, in consideration of the multiplicity of busi- ness and variety of avocations, in which my late preferment has involved me, and which for some time to come, I fear, will leave me no lei- sure for those agreeable literary amusements,
* Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, Knight. Pinkerton, in 1786, printed a selection from the Maitland MSS. in two volumes, crown 8vo.
76
which have been the subject of your many obli- ging letters. Tho"* I am only come down here for a few days, and shall return southward al- most immediately, I would not allow myself to leave this place, without first paying my respects to you on paper, and touching on some of the points you mention in your last letter.
With respect to Mr Callander^s very exten- sive Work, I can only contribute my good wishes, that it may be brought to the requisite perfection ; as my present situation will, I fear, afford me no leisure for resuming those amu- sing disquisitions and researches, which some years ago I pursued with great pleasure. As for Dr Johnson, I do not believe he could afford much assistance now for a work of that kind, as his time has been otherwise employed for many years.
With regard to the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, I have a large fund of materials, which, when my son has compleated his studies at the University, he may if he likes it, distribute into one or more additional volumes : but I myself
77
shall hardly find a vacancy now from more ser'u ous pursuits, to carry them forward myself: I find not quite the same relish for those little amusing literary sallies, as I did 15 or 16 years ago when the former volumes were digested. However, I still find remaining so much of my wonted liking for these old pieces, that thus may afford me still a relaxation from graver studies ; and you will always much oblige me, therefore, by communicating any thing of that sort which may occur to you. As my residence with the Duke of Northumberland will now cease, it will not be advisable for the future to inclose any thing for me under cover to his Grace : but send it to Easton Mauduit under the direction to the Earl of Sussex, (with a P for distinction as usual.) I remain, &c.
P. S. — I am glad to hear that there is an in- tention of publishing Andro WintorCs Chronicle of Scotland, and other pieces of that sort : I wish they were seriously begun, and regularly pursued in a series without interruption till all your old MSS. were published.
78
XXXVII.
Northumberland House, Jan. 2. 1779. DEAR Silt, I received your last obliging favour, which, like all your former, demands my best acknow- ledgements for the very kind attention expres- sed in it. I only desire to set right one parti- cular ; I wished in my former letter to be un- derstood, as apologizing for the little assistance, which it would now be in my power to afford to such curious and ingenious disquisitions as Mr Callander's ; in short, wishing you to have it properly represented, that I should now have no leisure at all to promote those amusing re- searches by any contributions, and you seem to have taken my meaning just contrary as im- plying a promised assistance. I know not whether it is worth while to say any more about it, but I could not refrain from setting the mat- ter in a true light to you ; as I should be sorry to be thought to enter into engagements, which it is impossible for me to perform. Yours, &c.
LETTERS
FROM
MR DAVID HERD
TO
MR. GEORGE PATON.
Edinburgh, 7th July, ] 778.
DEAR SIR, I was favoured with yours last week, and should be happy in spending an evening any time with your conveniency ; but perhaps that will be better after the weather begins to cool a lit- tle— and we can get Mr Cummying* for a 3d hand.
As Mr Brown-}* is so good to indulge you
* James Cummying, Lyon Clerk, one of the Knights Com- panions of the Cape, and an intimate friend of Ferguson the Poet, who, with Runciman the Painter, Woods the Player, and Sommers the Biographer of Ferguson, were also members of that Society. For an account of this club, see Sommers' Life of Ferguson, p. 53. lie was also a fellow of the Society of Scot- ish Antiquaries.
j Librarian to the Faculty of Advocates.
80
with the use of Bannatyne's MS. I apprehend the first thing requisite can only be done by yourself — that is, to compare the printed copy of Sir David Lindsay's Satires with the origi- nal— and to mark down where the wants of the former are to be found in the MS. by a writ- ten direction to the person who is to copy it out, specifying the respective pages and lines of the page where he is to begin and end. When this is done, you will know the exact extent of the labour, which, perhaps, may not be so long as you suspect ; and if you had leisure to write it out yourself upon paper of equal size of the print, to be bound with it, it would be at- tended with this advantage, that you can rely with greater satisfaction upon the orthography being just. Few people would take the trouble of attending to the old spelling, or giving a vera copia of the words and letters where any ob- scurity is met with.*
I inclose you an old Ballad, which I got up- wards of two years ago from one William Bell, • Herd afterwards took all this trouble for hira.
81
who had picked it up in Annandalc ; it was all in detatched scraps of paper, wrote down by himself at different times, as he met with those who remembered any thing of it — part of these he had lost, and some of the remainder were il- legible, being chafTd in his pocket. /The verses I arranged, and marked some notes — and shewM them to Mr Wotherspoon when he was publishing the last edition of the Scots Ballads ; but he thought it too imperfect, and not of sufficient merit for having a place in the Collection. I should wish your opinion whether any thing of the Antique remains hid- den in it — for it has been confoundedly mo- dernised in the taking down. I did not at- tempt any alteration in the spelling — perhaps you may find a better method of classing the verses. You may shew it to any of your ac- quaintances who are curious in these matters ; but as it is the only copy, I would not wish it to be lost.
In Gierke snuff-shop in the Exchange, I pick'd up yesterday the inclosed description of
82
Ossian's Hall, but was rather too late ; it is mu- tilated, and would have been all immediately de- stroyed.— I am sorry I cannot furnish you with a complete copy.
I am sorry my time will not allow me the pleasure of perusing the manuscript in the li- brary. I am, &c.
Mr George Palo?i.
II.
D. Herd presents compliments to Mr Paton* Observes, from a note in the Appendix to An- cient Scots Poems, published from the Mait- land Collection by Pinkerton, that, after much labour and search, he has at last discovered in the museum, the celebrated Complaynt of Scot- land, but wanting the title, and two leaves, 3J) and 137, and that he means to republish it if any person will send him a fac simile of the title-page and a literal transcript of the said two leaves,, — it is believed Mr Paton, if he is willing, could supply him with these.*
* Of this book four imperfect copies were known to exist, but one of them has disappeared, viz. that belonging to John
83
Pinkerton likewise intends publishing Win- ton's Chronicle from the copy in the Museum,* and several other Scotish MSS.
He says, Thomas Lermont the Rymour wrote a metrical romance called Sir Tristam,-)* of great merit, about 1270, (this is long before Barbour and Winton,) that it is in no library in England, but may probably be in a MS. Collection of Romances in the Advocates' Li- brary, Edinburgh, mentioned by Dr Percy.
Gavin Douglas's Palice of Honour, an excel- lent poem, was printed both at London and Edinburgh, and is extremely scarce.j One would
M'Gown, Esq. W. S. whose books were sold by auction in 1803. It was not in the catalogue. Paton's copy was com- pleted from the reprint, and inlaid in 4to. by Mr Laing, and from him purchased for the Advocates' Library. Of the other two, one is in the British Museum, and the other was sold amongst the Roxburghe books.
* Subsequently published by Mr David Macpherson in 2 vols, royal 8vo. Lon. 1795.
f Now edited by Sir Walter Scott, Bart with Notes, &c. in one volume 8vo.
X A beautiful fac-simile reprint of this " excellent'' poem has been presented to the members of the Bannatyne Club, by J. G. Kinnear, Esq. as his private contribution ; the text of the Edinburgh edition of course was adopted.
84
think it should be in the Advocates' Library.— Pray did you ever see it ? And did you ever hear of or see Henryson's Fabils printed at Edinburgh by Andro Hart, 1621 .f We are never to meet. Edinburgh, 26lh March, 1787-
•J- The only copy of this edition known to exist was purchased by the Faculty of Advocates, at the sale of a portion of the li- brary of David Constable, Esq. for the sum of £19, 10s. (No. 410.) The condition is very wretched, and it is mutilated in many places. The title is as follows : " The Morall Fables of Esope the Phrygian, compyled into eloquent and ornamental Meeter by ltobert Henryson, Schoole Master of Dvmferme- ling. < Dulcius arrident scria picia Jocis.' ' Vt naufragii leva- men est portus: ita tranquillitas animi scu jocunditas est quasi vitee portus :' newlie reuised and corrected, Edinburgh," (date and printer's name torn away.) — It contains, after a prologue, commencing
Though feinzied fables and old poetrie
Be not all grounded upon trueth, yet then Their polite tearmes of sweete Bhetorie,
llight pleasant are vnto the eares of men : And als the cause that they first began Was to reproue the haill misliuing Of men, by figure of anothing. The following Fables : The tale of the Cocke and the Iaspe. (Fol. 5.)
The tale of the Vponland Mouse and the Burgesse Mouse. (8.) The tale of Sir Chantecleir and the Foxe. (13.)
The tale of the foresaid Tod his Confession to Frier Wolfe- wait-skaith. (22*>
S5
III.
Edin. 23d December, 1788. DEAR SIR, I herewith return you the four books you was so good to leave with me the last time I saw
The tale of the Sonne, and the Heir of the foresaid Foxe, called Father-ware. Alswa the Parliament of Foure-footed Beastes, halden by the Lyon. (28.)
The tale of the Sheepe and the Dog. (39.)
The tale of the Lyon and the Mouse. (44.)
The preaching of the Swallow. (53.)
• The tale of the Wolfe that gat the Neckhe'rring throw the wrinkes of the Foxe, that begyled the Cadgear. (64.)
The tale of the Fox that begyled the Wolfe throw the Shad- dow of the Moone. (72.)
The tale of the Wolfe and the Wedder. (80.)
The tale of the Wolfe and the Lambe. (85.)
The tale of the Padock and the Mous. (89.)
Each of these tales has a " moralitas" in verse appended. That there were earlier Scotish editions, although at present they have disappeared, seems quite certain, as in the sale catalogue of the library of Sir Andrew Balfour, M.D. (which was disposed of by public auction at Edinburgh in 1695,) there occurs a copy, said to have been printed at Edinburgh in 1570 ; and in the note book of expenditure for the years 1672-3, kept by Sir John Foulis, Baronet of Ravelston, and now in possession of his re- presentative, Sir James Foulis, Baronet of Woodhall, there oc- curs the following tantalizing entry. " Jan. 6. For Esops Fa- blis in Scots to Archie, with the cuts, Is. 7d." Whether this
86
you, that I may once more clear scores within the year, and return you thanks therewith.
Your New Testament is Coverdale's transla- tion, with St Jerome's Latin, published by Jo- han Holly bushe, 1st edition, 1537 ; as you will find by perusal of your Lewis's History of the Translations, from page 112.
was the same edition with that sold at Balfour's sale, is uncer- tain, but it was probably the one, (from the mention of cuts,) from which the transcript, preserved in the British Museum, dated in 1571, was made, as in the MS. the transcriber has uni- formly left a space for the wood cut before each tale. In 1599, llobert Smyth, Printer in Edinburgh, obtained a grant of the pri- vilege of printing the M Fables of Esope," and the " Testament of Cresseid," with other books : and after his death, this privi- lege was transferred by his widow, and his children's tutors, in 1602, to Thomas Finlayson, who, in 1G06, obtained a renewal of the grant for twenty-five years. Thomas Mack, a corre- spondent of the Rev. Robert Wodrow, thus addresses him, (12th Feb. 1702.) M I have sent you Rapine, only with this occasion of the bearer I designed to have sent it upon Wednes- day, if the bearer had not prevented me by coming down upon Tuesday ; receive also Esojfs Fables, to be delivered again to Mr Jameson." May not this have been an edition of Henryson ? The Bannatyne MS. contains ten of the Fables, — and Lord Hailes has printed " the Sheep and the Dog," and the " Pad- dock and the Mouse," with four of the Moralities, in his " An- cient Scotish Poems." An accurate edition of the entire works of the author of " Robyn and Makene," would be a most ac- ceptable present to the lovers of old Scotish poetry.
87
In the Geneva edition of the Bible immedi- ately preceding K. James's, the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, the 6th chapter and 9 th verse, is the word which we were searching for in the wrong place ; and yet it is not so in your Testament, though an older translation.
I pick'd up a copy of Percy's Song of Solo- mon at Martin's auction ; and this day I pur- chased Father Innes' Essays on Scottish His- tory, which stood in Elphingston Balfour's sale catalogue at 8s. I am, &c.
John Dowie's,* Tuesday Evening.
* Johnie Dowie's tavern in Liberton's Wynd, was a celebrat- ed evening rendezvous, in days of yore, of the worthy citizens of Edinburgh, where they assembled in small parties, and enjoyed themselves over a bottle of ale and a " saut herring." In the Appendix, will be found a very humorous poetical description of this " houfF," and of " the procedure held therein," written by the late Mr Hunter of Blackness, in which Paton figures as one of Johnie's best customers. For many years of his life, our friend invariably adjourned to take his bottle of ale and " gude buff'd herring," or u reisted skate an' ihgans," to this far-famed tavern, which was divided into little cells, each suffi- cient, with good packing, to hold six persons ; and there, with Herd, Cummyng of the Lyon Office, and other friends of the same kidney, the evening pleasantly passed away. These meet- ings were not unfrequently enlivened by the presence, at one pe- riod, of Ferguson the poet, and more recently of Burns. Let
88 IV.
Edinburgh, 19th Oct. 1789- DEAll Sill, I now present you with (the) charter of the town of Ayr, and return you six books, with a thousand thanks.
it not be supposed that honest George indulged in habits of in- temperance,— such was not his custom ; one bottle of ale would suffice for him, certainly not more ; and, when his usual system of privation is considered, it is surprising how mode- rate his desires were. He rose early in the morning, and went to the Custom-house without tasting any thing — between four and five he uniformly called at the shop of a well-known bibliopolist of those times, [which was immediately under the gallows,] from whom he was in the habit of picking up rarities, and refreshed himself with a glass of cold water. He then said, " Well, I'll go home and take my breakfast." This breakfast consisted of one cup of coffee and a slice of bread. Between seven and eight he adjourned to the usual place of meeting, and some of the dain- ties enumerated in the poem, and a bottle of " strong ale,'* formed the remaining refreshment of the day. The moment eleven M chapped" on St Giles', he rose and retreated to his do- micile in Lady Stair's close. His signal for admittance was the sound of his cane upon the pavement as he descended. In this way this primitive and excellent person spent the best part of his days. Upon a salary of £80 per annum, he lived contented, happy, and universally respected.
A portrait of Dowie (which is very like him,) will be found in the Scotch Magazine, for April 1806. He left, it is under- stood, a very considerable fortune.
Would it not be an object for those who pub- lish fac-simiJes of old Scotch charters, to have K. David I. to Salork, mentioned in Douglases Descriptions of the East Coast of Scotland, page 63?
I am wrong in saying Sir Rob. Sibbald re- ferred to his History of the Picks, which he had not published ; that is to be found in his Intro- ductio ad Historiam Veteris Scotia?, cap. 6, 7, &c.
Bowmaker's book, written at Inchcolm, and cited in Hay's Vindication of Elizabeth More, under the title of Codex Hay anus, p. 110, &c. I presume is lost ; but you know more of these matters. I am, &c.
DEAR SIR, I send you the book we were conversing about, Ben Jonson's fragment of the Sad Shepherd, completed by a modern anonymous author.*
• Francis Godolphin Waldron, 8vo. 1783. Of this continu- ation Gifford remarket — * The effort, though bold was laud-
90
In the appendix, among various matter, there are allegorical representations of the chief an- cient English Poets, and of two of the Scots — Barclay and Lindsay — from an old book, said to be printed in 1564.
I suspect the two last characters have been in- serted after the union of the crowns, in a new edition, which may have retained the date of the old copy.
Your opinion, after perusal, (I) shall be glad to hear.
The title of the Morality, or Dialogue, is de- scribed in page 162 and in 186. The two northern authors in page 193. I am, &c.
Edin. 5th May, 1792.
able, and the success highly honourable to his talents and inge- nuity. To say that he fell short of Jonson, is saying nothing to his discredit ; but, in justice to the modest and unpretending con- tinuator, it may fairly be added, that there are not many dra- matic writers in our language to whose compositions, the powers which he has displayed in his supplement will be found to be very unequal." Jonson 's Works, vol. vi. p. 244. Of the jus- tice of this critique, any person who will take the trouble to per- use either the work alluded to, or his still more beautiful drama of the Virgin Queen, (intended to be a sequel to the Tempest,) will not only be fully satisfied, but will be amply rewarded by the pleasure he will find in the perusal.
91 VI.
Edinburgh, 2? th Aug. 1792. DEAR SIR, When, after viewing the camp, you will remem- ber we were recounting at Balerno paper-mill, the number of mills that had been erected upon the Water of Leith, a small river of only 14 miles in length, which amounted to very near 100 of corn, barley, flour, and other mills. It was observed that very few falls on the water were left unoccupied, and these were all in the way of being immediatly taken up by mills now erecting for the paper manufacture, flax, and other modern improvements, by which not an inch of water would remain unemployed. This subject led to an enquiry, which was the oldest mill upon the river ?
The most ancient certainly were the corn mills, and of these the mills situate near the Dean, will be found the oldest, concerning which we have any evidence remaining. In the foundation charter of the Church of Holy Cross 1128,
92
K. David 1st grants to the canons " one of his milns of Dene with the tenths of his milns of Libberton and Dene, and those of his new miln of Edwynesburg and Craggensmark as far as they appertained to him, with all that belonged to Vineth White on the said rock, (to be held in free and perpetual alms.)" This rock, at the bottom of which the said new mill stood, and where there still continues a mill for grain, I think is that romantic precipice below the other mills of Dene which looks down the river upon the again famous mineral well of St Bernard, where the goddess of health is now fixed in her temple.
At what time water mills for grinding of grain began first to be introduced into Scotland, is a question that I have stated to some of your brother antiquists, but could never obtain any satisfactory answer ; it was certainly long before this time ; when there appears to have been mills even upon the small stream at Libberton ; the elevated situation of the waters in Scotland was very encouraging for the improvement;
93
but which, like all others, could not be univer- sal at first.
Mr Pennant, in his voyage to the Ebudoes, observes, that many centuries ago the legislature endeavoured to discourage the awkward hand mills so prejudicial to the landlords, who had been at the expense of others. In 1284, in the time of Alexander III. it was provided, that " na man sail presume to grind, quheit maish- lock or rye in hand mylne, except he be com- pellit by storme, or be in lack of mills quhilk sould grinde the samen. And in this case, gif a man grindes at hand mylnes, he sal giff the threttein measure as multure ; give any man contravenis this our prohibition, he sail tine his hand mylnes perpetuallie."
In the charters of the Kings succeeding to David I. mills with multures, &c. are frequent- ly to be found in all the cultivated parts of Scotland ; but you know before his time, we have few or none of these to guide us. Places of the designation of Milntown situate upon rivers and burns are numerous.
94
There is a curious passage in Wintons Chro- nicle: Duncan, King of Scotland, when hunt- ing, having strayed from his company after night, happened to come to the Myl of Fortevayt where the miliar entertained him curtasly — and afterwards this millar's daughter became his leman, &c. The castle at this village was for- merly a residence of the Pyctish Kings. Ken- neth the First, King of Scotland, took posses- sion of it, and dyed in it of a whistle in his a — e. Tradition of the country gives it to Male. Canmore, as the last of the Scottish Kings who inhabited it ; but there they are wrong again ; for you will find in Anderson's Diplo- mata a charter granted in it by Malcolm IV.
Lord Hailes, in his Remains of Christian An- tiquity, vol. 2d, page 70, on the Epistle of Dio- nysius, Bishop of Alexandria, to Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, has the following : —
Note. Millstones. " Hand mills for grind- ing corn were generally us'd in those times, al- though the use of water mills was not unknown.
See an ingenious note of Salmasius ad Lara- prid, p. 193."
Querns is the only name in the north of Scot- land that was given to hand mills.
I find the Encyclopaedia refers to the autho- rity of the History of Manchester by Mr Whit- aker, who says there was a water mill at Man- chester in the time of the Romans, and is of opinion that they had them at the other stations; so they would be earliest in South Britain, and later beyond the provinces. As there are scarce any thing in the antiquities of their country that remains unexplored by the English anti- quary, it is probable this subject respecting the introduction of water mills into England may be treated by some other of these gentlemen. If so, I wish you could direct me where to find it. I ever am, &c.
VII.
Edinburgh, 29th Nov. 1792. DEAR SIR, I am afraid I set you on a wrong scent, for it is not Chaucer, but Barclay, that Mr Plummer
96
enquires after ; — Here follows the paragraph : «* Alexander Barclay's native country has been much disputed. The authors of Biographia Britannica, look upon Bulleyn's authority as conclusive that he was a Scotchman. Vide that work, art. Bulleyn, (William) note 3. The translation of the Jugurthine War is done by the same Alex. Barclay. Please cause Mr Geo. Pa- ton look into the new edition of Ames, art. Pyn- son, to see for the date of the first edition. The authors of Biog. Brit, speak of the edition 1557 as the first, which must be wrong."
If you can make any memorandum concern- ing this against Monday night, I will be obliged to you.
He wants an article in Lackinton's Catalogue, No. 18807, Lilly's Anatomy of Wit, 1581, price 3s. C'd. — but which way to advise him to come at this I know not. I ever am, &c.
97
VIII.
Edinburgh, 22d Oct. 1793.
DEAR SIR, On examining Mr Astle's Plate of engraved seals of the Royal Burghs of Scotland, (inde- pendent of the letter-press,) there appears six dif- ferent seals with the names, &c. thereon, of the respective burghs, and all having obverses. But in the printed account the first is divided into two, and the reverse of Roxburgh is as- signed for Edinburgh; and no other reason given for making two seals of this one, but that the burgesses of Edinburgh are parties in the deed to which these seals are pendant. This, of itself, will hardly be sufficient for such con- clusion, unless the legend on the seal shall fur- ther confirm it, when explained ; which remains to be done by the Literati.
With many thanks I return the Work, which has given great pleasure, as well as in- struction, in the perusal, from the accurate, clear, and distinct manner in which Mr Astle has treated the subject. And always am, &c. H
98 IX.
Editu 2 1st July, 1795.
DEAR SIR, I had your favour this morning, with the Ork- ney fish, for which I return you many thousand thanks. I am really ashamed of your presents, having nothing I can think of to return.
Mr John Scott* has engaged to drink tea with me this afternoon about five o'clock, and if you would come likewise we would be very happy, and would adjourn together to some strong-ale office in the evening.
I am thinking of comparing your Philotus-f- with Pinkerton's copy, in order to advise Mr Constable which would be the best copy to print it from ; for which purpose I will have to trouble you some time or other for a sight of it, along with Pinkerton's publication thereof. Hoping it will be convenient for you to take
• Scott, a collector of curious prints, who is introduced in a gToupe of connoisseurs by Kay. His collection was disposed of by Mr Vernon, the picture-dealer, about the year 1807 or 8.
•£ A small edition in 18mo. printed about 1680 or 1682.
99
your tea with me in the afternoon, I remain, &c.
Tuesday forenoon,
X.
DEAR SIR, You will preserve the inclosed letter for me, for the gentleman's sake whose name is in the end of the 5th line.
If you find it convenient to dine to-morrow with Messrs Cockburn, Dalaway, Masterton, Scott, and your humble servant, the place is Hary Geddes's, at \ past three, where we will be happy to see you. I am, &c.
Wednesday , 4/A Nov. 1795.
At the foot of the letter occurs this notice in the hand-writing of Paton.
" Christopherus Irvinus abs Bon bosco, (or Bonshaw,) from the account of the present John Robert Irving, Esq. of Bonshaw, advocate, that gentleman's grand-uncle, Colonel Paulus Mmi- lius Irving, Governor of Upnor Castle, this only information has been procured,— that he was a
100
younger son of the family of Bonsliaw, a doctor of physic, and a professor in the University of Aberdeen.'" Possibly in one of these college re- cords, a particular account or time of his ad- mission, continuance, and death, with other anec- dotes of him, may be got there.
XI.
DEAR SIR, Ma George Retd call'd upon me to-day, re- questing a sight of the list of the Scotish Drama, in order to shew it to Mr Woods* the come-
* William Woods was originally bred a printer with Mr Henry Sampson Wooilfall, but his love of the drama induced him to relinquish this business, and to join an itinerant company at Southampton. In 1771* he made his entree on the London boards, (Hay market,) in the difficult part of Mahomet. Soon afterwards he went to Edinburgh, where he principally re- sided till his death. An interlude of his, called the Volun- teers, was acted (1778) with considerable success ; and a song, called " Row Dow Dow," sung by " Mr Woodroffe, in the Theatre, Glasgow,'* became very popular ; but for what reason is not very conceivable, as the words and air are equally wretch- ed ; it was, however, " Printed and sold by James Aird, at his Music Shop, Glasgow." In the year 1788, he was subjected to much annoyance, in consequence of the engagement of a per-
101
than, who has expressed a desire to see it, which I promised to let him have, as he possibly may be able to give some further information. You will therefore please to return it with your con- veniency to, Dear Sir, &c.
Wednesday afternoon, 3d Aug. 96.
son of the name of Fennel by the Edinburgh manager, to per- form certain parts usually allotted to Mr Woods. The public took the side of the latter, and the result was, that Fennel was compelled to leave the Edinburgh stage. He raised an action of damages, inter alios, against the following well- known persons, "John Wilde, Esq. Advocate, John Clerk, Esq. Advocate, (Lord Eldin,) James Gibson, Esq. W. S. David Cathcart, Esq. Advocate," (Lord Alloway,) &c &c. for conspiring and combining to prevent his acting. Amongst other remarkable charges in the summons, these gentlemen are positively averred to have written and transmitted the following ex- traordinary letter. " W. Fennel, Esq. Theatre Royal, Edin- burgh." " Sir, by G— d, if you Take any more of Mr Woods* Parts, you wold better not be in Edinburgh ; for by him that made you a gentelman, as you call yourself, I, will Brick every Bone in your Bodey, and use you like a scoundrell, as you are ; and in the Men time I am yours.
" A Gentleman."
" I should have a made appolgay for the pepp* and writing, but any thing is good anuaf for a villan."
This action was not proceeded with, in consequence of the pur- suer leaving the country. He published " A Statement of Facts," which is now scarce : he was certainly very unfairly treat- ed by the audience ; but with this Woods had nothing to do.
102 XII.
D. Herd presents his compliments to Mr Pa- ton. Yesterday, on looking into Mr Callander of Craigforth's Gaberlunzie Man, &c., he observed, that in the notes many of the words contained
The " Scotish Roscius," as his friends styled him, after thirty years service to the public, bade adieu to the Edinburgh stage up- on the 19th April, 1802, being his benefit night, on which oc- casion, after the play, (the Way to get Married, in which he acted Captain Faulkner,) he took leave of the audience in a fare- well address. No better proof of his deserved popularity need be adduced than the fact of his clear receipts that night amount- ing to £212, being nearly forty pounds more than Miss Dun- can obtained, although then in the zenith of her popularity in Scotland. He proposed to occupy all his leisure time by giving instructions in Elocution ; but disease did not permit him to carry into effect what he contemplated, and he enjoyed his retirement from the stage but a short time, as he died at his house, on Leith Terrace, on Tuesday the 14th of Dec. 1802, much and justly regretted. One of the public journals, in noticing his demise, remarks, " He was an excellent actor, and in some characters, such as Iago and Glenalvon, he was unrivalled."
He was the author of, 1. The Volunteers, farce, 1778, not printed. 2. The Twins, or Which is Which, comedy in three acts, 1780 : (an alteration from the Comedy of Errors,) printed, 12mo. 1 783, (in a Collection of Farces.) He also composed and delivered " an occasional Prologue," at the New Theatre, on the 19th February, 1793, when a comedy was performed by de- sire of the Most Worshipful and most Noble George Marquis
103
in the specimen communicated are explained. The learned editor must be well acquainted with this performance, which is address'd to him, but it is possible that at present it may have escaped him. And Mr P[aton] might take the liberty to inform his Lordship that he will find answers, if not solutions, to many of his words set down there. Monday morning,
XIII. i
D. Herd presents compliments * to Mr Paton. He received his obliging card with the curious pieces of information from the manuscripts, &a Inclosed is a farrago, which Mr Paton will easily see is meant to be transmitted by him to be communicated to Pinkerton, as part only of a letter of queries sent to Mr Paton by his
of Huntly, Grand Master of the Ancient and Honourable So- ciety of Free and Accepted Masons." In Sommers' Life of Ferguson will be found, p. 49, an Epitaph by Woods on his unfortunate friend ; and amongst Ferguson's Poems are includ- ed, ** Lines addressed (by him) to Mr Robert Ferguson on hi* recovery from severe depression of spirits.'*
104
friend in Edinburgh. This probably may bring on a correspondence with Pinkerton, wherein no doubt there will be questions in return for information, by which it may be learnt what he is about, and what old authors he intends first to publish.
Will be much obliged to Mr Paton for a sight of the map of Kincardineshire. Saturday morning, IQtk January.
D. H. intends to call at Dowie^ this evening
between 6 and 7 ; when, if convenient for Mr
Paton, will be happy to see him. Shall send down if first come.
A Collection of all the Poems wrote by that famous • and learned Poet, Alexander Pennecuik. Edin- burgh, printed and sold by R. Drummond in Swan Close. No date.* I have Part 1st and 2d of this ; the second
ends with the catch-word Part III. These I
* There is in the Advocates' Library, (Jac. V. 8. 20.) a MS. in 4to. called " The whole works of Alexander Pennecuik, Gent, volum 2d." It commences at page 215. Upon the boards is written, " Edinburgh, January 1759. Ex dono vidua J. Graham, Bibliopegi cum altero volumine." The first volume
105
got a long while ago from George Reid, who said he had them from James Reid, bookseller at Leith. And that this Rfobert] Drummond,
is not in the Library ; and it is not known in what way, or at what time, the Faculty of Advocates became possest of the se- cond one. There can be little doubt, that the greater part of the MS. is in the hand-writing of Pennecuik. The first Poem, which is addressed " to my Honoured Uncle, Alexander Pen- necuik of Romanno, M.D. upon the publication of his Miscel- lany Poems," occurs, with many alterations, " in the Streams from Helicon," p. 61 ; but a great proportion of the contents never seems to have been printed. One portion is evidently written by some other person — perhaps by Graham the book- binder, and consists partly of " Adversaria," and partly of tran- scripts. It is the same hand- writing as a folio volume of " Ad- versaria" in the Advocates' Library, erroneously ascribed to Sir Robert Sibbald.
Pennecuik has been overlooked entirely in Watt's Bibliotheca, although he was the author of various works, of which the fol- lowing is, it is believed, an accurate list :— Britannia Triumphans, in four Parts. 8vo. pp. 21. Edin. 1718.
Dedicated to Thomas, Earl of Haddingtoun. Streams from Helicon, or Poems on various Subjects, in three Parts, 12mo. Edin. 1720. The " second edition," bearing the " London" imprint, is just the Edinburgh one with a new title ; as the two last Parts are printed at " Edinburgh" by John Mosman and Company, " 1720." History of the Blue Blanket. 12mo. Edinburgh, 1722. Re- printed Edin. 1781, and again in 1826. Entertainments for the Curious, 6 Parts, very scarce. There was a copy in Herd's library with MS. notes by him, which
106
who, it seems, stood on the pillory, and died of grief before the 1755, is taken notice of by Hugo Amot in his History of Edinburgh.*
was purchased by Mr Blackwood, and in his sale catalogue for 1812, (together with the ensuing article,) is priced at £2, 2s. Corydon and Cochrania, a Pastoral on the Nuptials of the Duke
of Hamilton and Lady Ann Cochran. Edin. 1723. 4to. A Collection of all the Poems wrote by that famous learned Poet Mr Alexander Pennecuik. Edinburgh, printed and sold by R. Drummond, in Swan's Close. (No date.) 2 Parts. The following verses from the MS. may be taken as a fair specimen of Pennycuik's talents :—
Satyr e on Sir William Bennet of Grulibet, -who, after long attendance, told Mr Pennycuik that he would speak to him another tyme.
The man whom all men love I must rebuke,
For rudeness to our Poet, Pennycuik ;
Who's unmatch'd modesty all men admyre,
Altho' his pen is brimston dipt in fyre.
Humbly to you he made his first address,
To patronize his works rype for the press.
Cold was your salutation on the street,
As if he'd been the dust beneath your feet ;
It's true ye've got on hyer ground, — what then ?
The prince of Poets, is the prince of men ;
He shall record it to your lasting shame,
May never Poet eternize your name,
When you invoke Appollo to your ryme,
The answer be like yours, — another time.
• P. 368. His offence was, writing a libel against the Duke of Cumberland.
107
In a list of books printed at Edinburgh for James Reid, bookseller at Leith, 1755 ; annex- ed to my copy of the Fair Circassian, there is mentioned Pennecuik's Poems.
This may possibly be the same with the above.
Wm. Wood* informs me that the Collection in 1769— your copy I last saw — was printed for Coke, more than half a century Bookseller in Leith.
It seems the above James Reid was drowned in Leith harbour long ago.
I have at last seen Mr Gordon,-)- and delivered to him your note of old books ; he is to look and see. And I am to call on him on Tuesday, at the library, to know the result. I am, &c. Friday afternoon.
Perhaps I may give you a call this evening.
• Son of John "Wood, Bookseller. He died a few years ago.
•f Duke Gordon, under-keeper of the College Library. See Memoir of him by Professor Dalzell, Scots Magazine for Ja- nuary 1802, p. 18.
108
XIV. DEAR SIR, I return your books with many thanks. I have some suspicion of the very first poem in the Pennecuik Collection not being his — viz. the Edinburgh Cuckold. If you have Hadding- ton's Poems, pray look and see if it is not there — it makes Col. Charters * a cuckold maker, which indeed falls in about Pennecuik's time. The other poems belonging to Ramsay ,-j" Sjc.
* The celebrated Colonel Charteris of Amesfield, not of " im- mortal" but " immoral" memory. It is somewhat singular, that in one or two ancient MSS. of " Argyle's Levee," usually given to Lord Binning, this clever poetical jeu d'esprit is as- cribed to Charteris. This is possible, but not very probable, from Charteris being very illiterate, as will be seen from his letters, which are wretchedly spelt. Lord Binning's right of authorship, however, has been positively denied ; and it is stated on the authority of his brother, that he did not write it. See Edinburgh Magazine for April 1786, p. 218.
•f Allan Ramsay. In Wodrow's invaluable Analecta, the following amusing particulars, relative to a scrape he had got into soon after establishing his circulating library, are given :—
" May 1728. Besides this profannes is come to a great hight, all the villanous profane and obscene books and playes printed at London by Curie and otheris, are gote doun from London by Allan Ramsay, and lent out for an easy price to young boyes— servant woomen of the better sort, and gentlemen, and vice and
109
are easily distinguished. There is one indeed, " The Heathen Heroes, or Vulcan cuckolded by Mars," I know not who the devil is the author
of it.* I am, &c.
Saturday evening, 2d August.
obscenity dreadfully propagated. Ramsay has a book in his shop wherein all the names of those that borrow his playes and books for twopence a night or some such rate, are sett doun, and by these wickednes of all kinds are dreadfully propogat among the youth of all sorts. My informer, my Lord Grange, tells me he complained to the magistrates of this, and they scrupled at medling in it, till he mooved that his book of borrowers should be inspected, which was done, and they were allarumed at it, and sent some of their number to his shope to look through some of his books, but he had notice an hour before and had with- drawen a great many of the worst, and nothing was done to purpose. This, with the playes and interludes come doun from England this winter, of which before, dreadfully spreads all abominations and profaness and luednes, and a villanous obscene thing is no sooner printed at London than its spread and com- municat at Edinburgh." These *' obscene" works were just the fashionable plays, pamphlets, and books of the time, which were regularly got down ; and the pious Lord Grange, who thought nothing of kidnapping his own wife and confining her for life, was dreadfully shocked at the corruption of the morals of the virtuous citizens of Edinburgh. Lord Grange had been foiled in his attempt to exclude Tony Aston's comedians, — the good sense of a majority of the Scottish Judges having defeated him, — and he next tried to wreak his vengeance upon the vender of the plays, but with equal want of success.
• It has been assigned to Thomas (Cth) Earl of Haddington.
110 XV.
DEAR SIR, Mr Plum me r has returned the Keekiad,* with many thanks to you for it, and your observations on it. He has likewise sent me in a sight of the 2d volume of Pinkerton's Scottish Poems, from scarce editions, containing Lindsay's Interludes, desiring me to copy out from the Bannatyn MS. the lines omitted and left blank — and re- turn the same with the book to him next week.
If you are in possession of the printed play, (S. D. Lind. Sat.) what do you think of send- ing him a sight of it, and let him pick out what he wants himself? But I will see you before that time, when we can confer about this ; and am meantime, &c.
* A poem not deficient in humour, by Lord Dreghorn. From being privately printed, it is of rare occurrence. The hero was Mr John Jolly, a respectable tailor in Edinburgh.
LETTERS
FROM
JOHN CALLANDER, ESQ.
TO
MR. GEORGE PATON.
I.
Craig forth, March 12. 1781. SIR, Emboldened by your known readiness to help any poor scribler in distress, I venture to lay my case before you. I have just finished a par- cel of Notes on the Gaberlunzie Man, and Christ's Kirk on the Green, which, as traditions say, were written by James the Fifth. The gentleman who will deliver this is to be the printer, and as you formerly lent me your copy of Bishop Gibson's edition of the Kirk on the Green, out of which I transcribed several notes, I would again earnestly sollicit the favour of the use of your copy, as it is both fuller, and much more correct than any edition I have seen.
112
I need not say to a man of letters that your copy is extremely scarce,* and not to be bought, and your lending it to my publisher to perfect his edition, will lay both him and me under very particular obligations to your goodness. The book shall be well cared for, and most carefully returned. In my preface to this edition, I have endeavoured to place the origin and etymology of our language in a new point of view, and when I shall present you with a copy, suffer me to hope that you will give me your thoughts upon it. Meanwhile I remain, with real esteem, Sir, Your most obedient and most
faithful humble servant,
Jo. Callander.
Pray, what length has Mr Low got in his work ? I shall be happy to learn that any loose hints I sent you for his use were acceptable.
To George Paton, Esq, Edinburgh. * It is not quite so rare or valuable as was then imagined.
113
II.
Craigforlh, March 17. 1781.
MY DEAR SIR, I have no words to thank you properly for the valuable communications I received from your letter of the 14th ; the stile and humanity of which truly bespeak you to be a real lover of science, and I shall look upon the fortunate ne- cessity, which obliged me to apply to you, as a very lucky incident in my life.
I trust no harm can happen to your copy of Bishop Gibson's work from the composer, as I only want to print from it two or three stanzas of the Kirk on the Green, which Allan Ramsay has omitted in his blundering collection called the Evergreen. What of Gibson's notes I deemed to be of any use, are already transcribed into my MS. excepting those on the stanzas omitted by Ramsay, which I wish to add from your copy. I do mean this publication to be no more than a specimen of the Scoto-Gothic Glossary I am now compiling, and which is al-
114
ready grown to a considerable bulk. You will find in the preface to the little poems now print- ing, a short account of the principles I proceed upon, in my investigation of the structure, etymo- logy, and real meaning of the language of our ancestors. Principles so totally different from those of Skinner, Junius, Lye, Ruddiman, &c that I must expect my attempt to restore ety- mology, and settle it upon a permanent and in- variable foundation, will be looked upon as a hazardous and daring assumption. But I hope to obviate this accusation by the many proofs I shall adduce in support of my general theory ; and I demand no credence to be given to the general principles, unless they are found sup- ported by facts and examples drawn from every language we are hitherto acquainted with. The necessity of supporting my theory by these means, (which I judge to be infallible,) has obli- ged me to lengthen some of the notes in a way that may possibly tire some readers ; though others, who may wish to see etymology fixed on rational principles, will candidly make allowance
115
for an apparent necessity. My work will soon be brought to the bar of the public, and to their decision I leave its merits.
I am heartily sorry that I have not the honour of the Rev. Dr Piercy's acquaintance ; but if you, Sir, or any of your friends, would be so good as to procure me a transcript of the poem you mention as in his possession, I shall be most happy to publish it, and to add such illustrations as may tend to explain it. I ear- nestly beg to know, if I may indulge the hope of getting a copy of it ; and whatever expense may attend this request, I will most thanfully repay. You mention Joneus* Antiquitates Islandiae as a book lately published at London : the simila- rity of the names makes me imagine that it may perhaps be the same with Arngrim Jonas' Speci- men Islandiae Historkum, a copy of which I have, printed at Amsterdam in4to, anno 1643. But if it is a different book, I beg you will in- form me at whose shop in London it is to be sold, that I may get it down.
I am so poor a geographer, that I do not
116
know in what part of Scotland the village called Christ's Kirk on the Green is situated. I wish you could inform me concerning this, that my readers (if I have any) may not laugh at the ignorance of the Editor.
I heartily wish Mr Low all success in his in- tended publication, which I hope will clear up many things in that dark period of the Scottish history.
Can you inform me which is the most authen- tic edition of Pitscottie's History ? By authentic, I mean that edition in which the author's lan- guage has been least changed by ignorant transcribers and printers. I sometimes quote him in my Glossary, but with much hesitation, as I dare not trust to the edition I have.
Dear Sir, I beg you will pardon the interrup- tion I have now given to your better labours,, and that you will do me the justice to believe me, with the most real esteem and regard, your much obliged, &c.
117 III.
■Craig forth, 23d March, 1781.
MY DEAR SIR, The post hour approaches so fast, that it leaves me but a moment to thank you, in the warmest terms, for the very valuable communications con- tained in your favour of the 21st current. If you dare trust me with Joneus' Historia Orca- densium when it comes to hand, you will oblige me beyond expression, and I will return it to you within the week.
I must beg leave to refer entirely to you, what form or size my little publication should come abroad in, only I must inform you that I am quite of your opinion, that the notes ought to be under the text, and not at the end of the book, for the very good reasons you have assigned. Whitaker is not the single instance of writers putting their readers to great trouble in this way ; and Doctor Robertson has oft put me out of temper, in his History of Charles the Fifth, by a similar error. My notes on the Gaber- lunzie Man are pretty long ; but my plan of etymology being totally different from any thing
118
hitherto laid before the English reader, obliges me to take room, in order to develope a set of principles entirely new. I here expect a storm of criticism, but I am prepared for it. If you think that the length of the work will demand the quarto form, pray order it to be done in that way. I trouble you with a proof sheet I got to day, on which I have rendered the or- thography to the true Scottish dialect, and I beg you will order the printer to follow it uniformly. I have already put into my notes such part of Gibson's as I thought might be useful, and shall only trouble you to transcribe from your edition the stanzas of the Kirk on the Green which Ramsay has omitted, together with the Bishop's notes upon it. I have no words to form an apology for this trouble, far less to thank you for your, kindness of correcting the proofs as they are printed. I hope the trivia- lity of the publication will not provoke you to desert it. Be so good as to add a note under the title, telling my readers that the Kirk on the Green is the Kirktoun of Leslie in Fife, near to Falkland.
119
It is certainly no more than polite to ask Doctor Piercy"s leave to publish the Scotch Poem of Peebles on the Play,* even tho' your goodness can procure me a copy. It would be a valuable acquisition to me at present ; as by this means I could present the reader a new en- tertainment, and dismiss him Colla bocca dolce.
I would give any thing in the world for a sight of Winton's Chronicle of Scotland ; and if it can be had, I will send you my bond for any sum you please to name, that it shall be safely restored.
May I beg of you to send me by the Stirling Fly, which leaves Edinburgh every day in the week at eight in the morning, your copy of Sir David Lindsay,f which I shall not keep from
• Contained in Sir Richard Maitland's MS. of which Percy had made a transcript, afterwards communicated to and published by Pinkerton in 1782.
•j* Lyndsay's Poetical Works were collected and published, with Life and Introductory Remarks, by the late George Chalmers, Esq. 3 vols, crown 8vo. London, 1809. In a let- ter to Paton, dated 1st July, 1790, Chalmers writes, MI have a very fine copy of his (Lindsay's) Works, imprinted by Bas- sandyne 1574, and of his Works by Hart 1634. His portrait
120
you above eight days. I beg you will pardon all this trouble, and believe me to be, with the highest esteem and gratitude, yours, &c.
in his herald's surtout is on the title-page of the last. I should have been very glad to have sent you a copy of this last, had it been different from what you have got." This portrait, en- graved by Pinkerton, is in all probability fictitious. Paton's edition of Lyndsay's Satyre, of which so much has been said in the letters, was purchased by Mr Blackwood, bookseller in E- dinburgh, and is thus described in his sale Catalogue for 1812 : " No. 630, (4to.) Satyre of the three Estaitts, in commenda- tion of Verteu and vituperation of Vice; title, sixteen first and seven last pages, neatly written by the late David Herd, with some curious Notes by the late Bishop Percy and David Herd, £5, 5s. Charteris, Edin. 1602." There was a copy in the Earl of Morton's library, which was bought by Mr Thorpe, and is priced in his Catalogue for 1829, Part III. at £3 : 13 : 6. A perfect copy brought at the Duke of Roxburghe's sale £13, 5s. An edition of the Lyndsay's entire Works, printed by Henrie Charteris, at Edinburgh, 1582, 4to. and unknown to bi- bliographers, was in the library of David Constable, Esq. and at the sale of his books was bought for the library of the Faculty of Advocates at the enormous sum of £53. Charteris' first edi- tion, 1568, the most valuable of all the collected editions, at the Roxburghe, sold for £8, 8s. The Roxburghe copy of the Edinburgh edition of 1610, produced £14:3:6. Wodrow, in his Analecta (MS.) mentions that Patrick Simpson, minis- ter of Stirling, who originally was a schoolmaster, was converted from Popery by accidentally getting a copy of Lyndsay from one of his pupils, who had taken it to school with him. Simp- son's grandson was Wodrow's informant.
m
IV.
Craig forth, March 28. 1781. DEAR SIR, Youe most obliging favour of yesterday is be- fore me. My obligations to your generosity rise to such a number, that I foresee I shall soon become a Bankrupt, even in thanks. My publi- cation must certainly have the notes at the bot- tom of the pages. To an ardent reader, the turning over but two leaves is a most grievous interruption ; and I have been so often plagued with it myself, that I cannot think of making my readers as angry as I have been. May I beg of you thereafter to settle with Mr Robert- son the proper size of the 8vo, so as to have the notes below the text ? At the end of the Ga- berlunzie Man, there will be a few pages of Addenda, communicated by a learned friend ; which, I hope, will be agreeable to those who wish to have rational accounts of the structure of our ancient tongue. I am interrupted — ex- cuse loose hints. — Have you the same privilege
122
of letters post free, as my brother-in-law, Mr Alison, has in the Excise ? I would wish my frequent letters not to be chargeable to you. Millions of thanks for the books you sent me by Friday's Fly. I will not read but devour them. I earnestly beg you'll send, in the par- cel! you are to oblige me with, your copy of Bellenden's Version of Boethius' History,* for I have long hunted for it in vain. I am sadly hurried to day. Is the MS. of Winton's Chro- nicle of great length ? If a transcript of it could be got, for a moderate sum, I would stretch a point to obtain it.f Pray write me of this in your next. I beg you'll order the printer to stick to Ramsay's text in the Kirk on the Green, as it preserves the old Scots spelling better than Gibson's. It is only from old Scots books I can ascertain the Scots orthography. Will you do me the favour to send me a list
* Reprinted under the editorial care of Thomas Maitland, Esq. in 2 vols. 4to. at Edinburgh, 1821.
f A beautiful edition of Winton was published at London, 2 vols, royal 8vo, 1795, with Notes, &c By Mr David Mac-
123
of such old books as you have, and I will tell you what of them I possess ?
I will send you a receipt in proper form for what books you favour me with by the Fly, that whatever befall me, they may be safe to you. My Scoto-Gothic Glossary augments very fast. Allow [me] to expect that you will give me an opportunity of showing you this work in my cottage here. Good weather is now coming, and a little jaunt will do you good. This will be another favour added to the many you have conferred on your obliged servant, &c.
I sent the preface of [the] Gaberlunzie Man to the printer. — In it I have unfolded my new plan of etymology.* Will you permit the
* See ** Two Ancient Poems ; the Gaberlunzie Man, and Christ's Kirk on the Green, with Notes and Observations, by John Callander, Esq. of Craigforth, Edinburgh, 1782," 8vo. Former etymologists have not (says Mr Callander) attended to this great truth, " that the whole race of mankind formed at Babel one large family, which spoke one tongue ; they have considered the different languages now in use all over our globe, as mere arbitrary sounds — names imposed at random by the
1U
proof sheets to be sent you, for your correction ? I am causing the notes (to be copied) in a fair band for the printer's use. He will have them this week or beginning of next.
Geo. Palon, Esq. Custom- House, Edinburgh.
several tribes of mankind, as chance dictated, and bearing no other than a relation of convention to the object meant to be expressed by a particular sound. They were ignorant that the primeval language spoken by Noah and his family now subsists no where, and yet every where ; that is to say, that at the dis- persion of the builders of Babel, each hord, or tribe, carried the radical words of the original language into the several dis- tricts to which the providence of God conducted them ; that these radical words are yet, in a great measure, to be traced in all the different dialects now spoken by men ; and that these terms of primary formation are not mere arbitrary sounds, but fixed and immutable, bearing the strictest analogy to the things they describe, and used, with very little material variation, by every nation whose tongue we are acquainted with." In sup- port of this fanciful idea, he brings forward a number of words, of which one may be taken by way of sample of the rest. " Moon — Goth, mane ; Ulph. mana ; A. S. mona ; Isl. mana. The primitive is the oriental mun, enlighten, advertise. Hence Lat. monere ; Engl. monish, admonish; Pers. mah, the moon : The Turks write it ma; Gael, mana 4 Gr. pwn, and JEol. pava, Dan. tnaane ; Alams. mano. In the ancient Arabic, manat. Hebr. mcni, in Isa. lxvi. 2 ; and the Ameri- cans of Virginia say manish ; and in the Malabar dialect mena, a month. From man the Greeks formed ^av/«, madness, sup- posed to be by the influence of the moon. Hence our maniac,
V.
Books borrowed of Mr Paton :—
Collection of Pamphlets in MS. and printed, 4tos Belenden's Boecius, small folio. Sir David Lindsay's Satyre, 4to.
Do. Monarch, 4to.
Godly Sangs in the Ancient Scottish Language, 8vo.
Craig forth, April 3. 1781.
Then received in loan from George Patonr Esq. of the Custom House, Edinburgh : the above volumes, all which I oblige me, my heirs and successors, to return safely to the said George Paton on demand, and that under the penalty of twenty pounds sterling in case of failure, as witness my hand, &c.
My Dear Sir, Above I send you my receipt for the books your friendship has favoured me with, and which
a madman; menuet, minuet, sacred dance, and of very high antiquity, representing the movements of the sun and moon. The primitive mun, pronounced many signifies the hand and a sign. Hence mon, men, man, are applied to sun and moon, and to denote every thing relative to signs. Hence Lat mama and our month, &c. Introduct. pp. 5 and 6.
126
I received safe. May I beg your permission to take a transcript of Lindsay's Satyres, as I never can hope to meet with another copy ? Is it possible to obtain a transcript of what your copy wants in the beginning ? I hope you have had a conversation with my printer, and given him your orders relative to the size and man- ner of the publication. The Addenda are to be inserted at the end of my notes, by them- selves. The preface to the Gaberlunzie Man was sent a fortnight ago to Edinburgh, and I wonder what prevents Mr Robertson from print- ing it in the meantime. I earnestly beg you will set him to work upon it, as before he is done with it, the whole notes, which are now transcribing, will be with him. Those I wrote on the Kirk on the Green were sent him long ago. I observe that your copy of Belenden's Boethius wants still a proeme in verse, which I find in a copy sent me a few days ago from the Public Library at Glasgow. This I shall tran- scribe, that it may be added to yours ; and thus your copy will be quite compleat. I beg you
127
will take the trouble with your first convenience to look at Winton's Chronicle, and let me know what it would cost to make a copy of it, as I would be glad to have it.
Bad as Ramsay's orthography is, it is far pre- ferable to Gibson's, who has Englified our an- cient poet most infamously, and therefore I am obliged to follow it, for it is not in Lord Hailes' Collection. I have already directed my printer to a small type for the notes. The text, as you justly observe, should be much larger, after the model of the Variorum Latin editions.
When you have read my Preface, I beg to know your sentiments of my new plan of ety- mology. Being entirely unheard of in this coun- try, I expect it will be attacked without mercy ; but as I flatter myself it stands on the solid ba- sis of fact and experimental induction, it will not be easily shaken, and a candid enquiry into my principles is all the favour I shall ask from the public. I am, &c.
VI.
Craigforth, Friday evening.* DEAR SIR, I have just time to thank you for getting me the Kirk on the Green from Philip, and the bundle of books, which came safe by the carrier. Mr Robertson has wrote me to know if you would be so kind as look over the proofs of my Commentary, as he says his work is much re- tarded by sending the proofs backwards and forwards to me. As nobody is better fitted than my most worthy friend, Mr Paton, for the of- fice, might I presume to beg of you to do it ? The task is so disagreeable, but yet so neces- sary, that I must beg you to lay the one against the other. I know Robertson thinks it of im- portance to his sale to have the book printed, and sent to London before Parliament rises. Pray take compassion of a poor author, and his bookseller, and you will oblige, more than I can express, my dear sir, yours, &c.
• This letter has no date, but from its tenor should come in here.
129
VII.
Craigforlh, Friday, MY DEAR SIR, Your last most oblidging favor would not have remained so long unanswered, had I not been employed in answering some complimentary let- ters I have had from Lord Buchan, and other members of the Antiquarian Society, who, with- out any application by me, have done me the honor of making me a member of that honor- able, and I hope usefull fraternity. This favor they have done me will quicken my diligence in the prosecution of the Scottish language and antiquities, and hope soon to convince them that I am not idle.
As you know how needfull Swedish and Is- landic authors are to me, which cannot be had in this country, I would earnestly beg to know if any Swedish ships are soon to sail from the port of Leith, or that neighbourhood. I for- merly was well acquainted with Doctor Van Troil, when he returned with Mess. Banks and K
130
Solander from Island to Edinburgh, and now wish to renew our correspondence. May I beg of you to inform me of this, that I may prepare my letters for him ? I wrote a long letter some time ago to Chevalier Hire, the learned Rector of the Academy of Upsal, which I entrusted to the care of Mr Thomas Philipe, Bookseller, Princes Street, Edinburgh, but I now under- stand he neglected to forward it. May I beg of you, as a most particular favor, to get that letter from Mr Philipe, and keep it by you, till we find some ship going to Sweden to send it by, and also that I design to write to Doctor Van Troil, who I know will cheerfully send me some books in the Island language, which I greatly want ?
Your copy of Lindsay's Satyr is a perfect treasury of the purest Scots. I am beginning to transcribe it, but you would oblidge me, and the learned in general, very greatly, would you get me a transcript of the beginning, which is wanting in your copy, up to the 17th page, which begins with this verse, Gif ze think that sho thinks shame, then hyd ye bairns ine ;
131
and your copy also wants somewhat at the end, for it breaks off at this verse, p. 148,
Ane right sweir Swingeour by our Lady, Thou — — — —
I nothing doubt but it will be found entire in Bannatyne's MS. in the Advocates' Library, and I beg you'll cause a correct pen copy it for me, for I seriously think of giving a new edition of so great a curiosity. Pitscottie tells us this Satyr was condemned and destroyed by the clergy anno 1558. It does not appear to me that this poem was at all known to Bishop Ni- cholson, vide his Histor. Scots Library, p. 44, new edition in 1776, 4to. He would scarcely [have] omitted to mention so extraordinary a production had he known it.
What is Mr Robertson doing with my little publication ? I have no proof sheet yet, and I want, for a particular reason I shall tell you in my next, to have it done as speedily as possible. I am in hopes to prevail on our Society to be at the charge of transcribing Winton's Chronicle ;
132
but this is only to yourself: pray don't men- tion it to any body. Yours, &c.
Let me beg of you to send me what is want- ing in your copy of Lindsay as soon as possible. Pardon all this trouble, and please let me hear from you as soon as you get my letter to Che- valier Ihre from Mr Philipe.
VIII.
Craigforth, April 28. 178IV MY DEAR SIR, I am favoured with yours of yesterday, and cannot enough thank you for the care you are taking of my little publication. The corrections you have made upon it are perfectly just, and I beg you will order the spelling of the whole in the true and ancient orthography, as, gude for good, scho for sche, zowforyou, and the like. As you seem diffident of your own knowledge of the northern dialect, I judge there will be a necessity for sending the sheets to me, as I have no friend in Edinburgh to undertake this most
133
necessary part of the work, and errors here would make the whole unintelligible. But before the sheets come hither, I beg they may undergo your revisal.
Since you have been so kind to pick up Gib- son's Kirk on the Green for me, I make it con- science to withhold your copy any longer. Re- ceive it therefore by the Monday's Stirling Fly, addressed to you. Pray send for it precisely at three o'clock. In the same packet you will find the Sangs you favoured me with, the first book of the Paradise Lost with my notes on it, and my litteral version of the Epistle to the Ephe- sians, which you will please accept of, and two little pamphlets published by Fowlis at Glasgow. There is also in the same packet an- other copy of the Paradise Lost, and of the Epistle to the Ephesians, addressed to our So- ciety, which I beg you will send to Mr Balfour, Bookseller, to be by him presented to the Anti- quarian Society at their meeting on Tuesday first, with the enclosed letter. I beg you will pardon my giving you so much trouble, and be-
134
lieve me ever, with the truest attachment, My Dear Sir, yours, &c.
IX.
Craigfortk, May 7. (17)81. MY DEAR SIR, I only trouble you with my warmest thanks for your kind attention to the press. Your cor- rections are quite just, and I beg you will always follow your own corrections in future, without giving yourself the trouble to write them out to me. I am quite vexed at the badness of the Greek type, as it disgraces both the work and the printer. But there is no help for it, as Mr Rjobertson] has no other Greek fount. Tt is great misfortune to print any learned work in a coun- try where they never attempt any thing higher than a Catechism, or a Spectator. I earnestly beg you'll send me a copy of what is wanting in your edition of Sir D. Lindsay's Satyres from the MSS. If it has your approbation, I would
135
gladly reprint that poem, with a few notes.* It is very valuable, both as a history of the times,
• This project was never carried into effect. Chalmers has reprinted the play in his edition of Lyndsay's Works. It had been previously printed in a different form by Sibbald, the edi- tor of the Chronicle of Scotish Poetry, in crown 8vo. 1802, who died May 1803, and of whom the following character has been given in a Journal of the time : —
" Died at Edinburgh, in the 56th year of his age, Mr James Sibbald, bookseller, proprietor of the Edinburgh circulating li- brary— whose abilities as a man of most general learning and information, and more particularly in the antiquities of his coun- try, were universally acknowledged and respected. His productions in literature were numerous : but as his extreme modesty prevent- ed them from appearing in an ostentatious manner, or even in his name, they were not, perhaps, generally known to be his beyond the circle of his friends. The principal papers in the Edinburgh Magazine, which commenced in 1783, and was con- ducted by him for a good many years afterwards, bear sufficient testimony to his taste and learning, and procured him the ac- quaintance and attention of many of the first men of learning in that part of the kingdom ; and in particular of the late Lord Hailes, who contributed largely to his Magazine, and whose approbation alone might have been sufficient to establish his re- putation. A short period before his death, he published his principal work, a Chronological Series of the Poetry of Scot- land, from the earliest authentic periods down to the Union of the Crowns ; with a volume containing a general Glossary of the Scottish Language ; which last his friends are confident enough to hope, will be sufficient alone to perpetuate his memory as a person of the greatest attainments in the difficult field of Scot- tish antiquities."
136
and a fountain of the purest Scots I ever read. I was so highly pleased with the description of the Pardoner and his speech, that I transcribed it, and made Mennon print it in his Edinburgh Evening Post, where you will find it, in his last Saturday's paper. I hope you won't blame me for giving the public a little specimen of so elegant a poem. Pray read, and let me know if I have done wrong, and whether I may have your leave to publish the whole, which I wish much to do, as no money can find a copy of it at present.
I know nothing of the transactions of the last meeting of the Society. I beg you'll bid Mr Cumming write me. When are the Statutes of the Society to be printed ? Have you begun to collect books for our Museum yet ? Yours, most sincerely, &c.
I was really uneasy till I got yours, lest by some accident the pacquet sent you had been miscarried. I am glad you got it safe.
1ST
X.
Craig forth, May 9. 1781. MY DEAIt SIR, I am favoured with yours of yesterday, and re- turn you my sincerest thanks for your kind per- mission to reprint Lindsay's Satyre, which I mean to avail myself of, the moment you send me the lines that are wanting from the MS. I have looked into your copy — there are no vari- ous reading marked by Doctor P[ercy] on your copy. Only a short note in the Dr.'s hand- writing, dated London, 1776, explaining the form and structure of the play, and informing, that the entire poem is to be found in Banna- tyne's MS. (now in the Advocates' Library,) beginning at p. 164 of the MS., and there are considerable variations betwixt the MS. and the printed copy. Be not at all afraid of ever any printer getting your copy into his paws. I will watch over this precious relict as carefully as you can wish me. I have begun to transcribe jour copy, and as my amanuensis returns to
138
me in a few days, he will soon finish it. But I told you formerly, that your copy wants all pre- ceding page 17th. The first line at the top of that page is the following . —
Gif ze think that sho thinks shame, then hyde ye bairns eine.
Your copy ends with p. 148, and these two verses:—
Lo heir is Folie, sir, already,
Ane richt sweir Swingeour be our Ladie.
Many leaves of white paper are bound up at the end, which makes me imagine there is much to be added from the MS. I think you should add from the MS. the various readings, and in- sert them on the proof sheets as they are cast off, or give them me, and I will insert them in the notes 1 propose to add at the bottom of the pages. I should be glad to have your as- sistance in this work, by your writing the Life of the Poet, and inserting any notes you judge proper ; and thus, between us, we shall be able to usher our good old bard into the world with some advantage.
139
There are no various readings noted by Doc- tor Percy in your copy. I wish you would write him to send you these variations, (if he wrote them out,) and it would save us much trouble.
I beg earnestly you will put the transcriber to work, and send me what is wanting in your book, as correct as possible ; for I would choose to write my Notes from the beginning, lest I be found to write the same things twice over.
I almost wish I had printed the Gaberlunzie Man, &c. at Glasgow. It would have been far better executed by Foulis, who has a noble fount of Greek types. But he is an idle extra- vagant lad,* and not to be depended on. We must now do the best we can at Edinburgh. I shall send Robertson the two sheets of the copy (on which I have noted many corrections,) with the next proof he sends me. I wonder I got none to-day. I have not had a scrape from Cu- ming. I am desirous to know if the two gen-
* Andrew Foulis, the last of a family distinguished in the typographical annals of the last century ; and the person here al- luded to, died last year at Edinburgh in indigent circumstances.
140
tlemen I took the freedom to recommend, were admitted by our Society. I hope they are, for they will be most useful correspondents. I ever am, &c.
When do you think you can send me the extracts from the MS. ?
XL
Craigfortk, May 29. MY DEAR SIR,
I am quite ashamed of being now two letters in your debt. I told you formerly that my ama- nuensis had gone away to see his friends, and as he is not yet returned, I have not got Lindsay's poem copied out. However, that shall not pre- vent me transmitting the book to you, to have it collated with the MS. in the Advocates' Li- brary, for I am quite impatient to have the va- rious readings, as they must be under my eye while I write the notes, as well as the book it- self. But as I look upon your copy in the same valuable light that I do a MS. I wait for some friend going to Edinburgh, as I will not trust it to either carrier or fly, as the loss of it would
141
be irreparable to us both. His language is a perfect treasury of the purest Scots I ever read, and will give me ample room to illustrate, not only the manners, but the language of the fif- teenth century. I beg you will cause collate it the moment it comes, that I may have it quickly back, as I cannot begin my notes without it and the MS. collation.
Meanwhile I beg you'll set about collecting any materials you can for a life of the author, as it would appear ridiculous to send this valuable poem into the world, without saying something about the writer. Bnt I scarce know where to bid you go for information. Mackenzie and Nicholson* were most laborious blockheads. Perhaps some of our historians, Buchanan, Knox, Pitscottie, &c. may be of use to you on this occasion.
I had yesterday a letter from our Secretary, and I do most sincerely congratulate you on the
• This censure, however applicable to M ackenzie, is, in so far as regards Nicolson, extremely unjust, as he was a most ac- complished and learned individual.
142
admission of several members of great value added to our corps ; particularly the learned Major Vallancey of Ireland. I have just got a small tract of his, on the conformity betwixt the ancient Gaelic and Phoenician, which gives me the highest opinion of his erudition.
I beg leave again to return you my best thanks for your kind attention to my little pub- lication. Indeed I missed your hand in last proof sent me, where they had blundered sadly in the orthography, for want of your correcting pen. I ever am, with the truest esteem and re- gard, My dear Sir, yours, &c.
XII.
Craigforth, June 3. (17)81. DEAIt SIR, I have just time to bid you receive with this, your valuable copy of Lindsay's Satire, by my friend Mr Thompson of the Excise, and to beg youll get it collated as fast as possible. By the time it returns to me with the collations, I shall have got my present publication finished, and Sir
143
David will be my next task, and I hope you'll continue your kind assistance to me in this un- dertaking.
I ever am, with great regard, yours, &c.
XIII.
Craig forth, June 23. 1781.
MY DEAR SIR, In the packet which I received to-day contain- ing Fabian, I had the pleasure to find your fa- vour of the 20th, and I am really very angry with you for sending me the book, if you wish- ed to amuse yourself longer with it. If you mean to do so, let me know by post, and I will send it to you by the carrier next week, that you may keep it as long as you please.
Mr Robertson's Greek type is very poor, but as I have the proof sheets regularly sent me, I easily correct what is amiss in that article. Meanwhile, I must do him the justice to say, that his proof sheets (especially when overseen by Mr Paton) have given me less trouble than any publication I ever sent to the press.
I am exceedingly sorry to find that the tran-
144
scribing of Lindsay's Satire must be deferred till the rising of the Session. I am very impa- tient to see our venerable poet again, that I may endeavour to do him all the service I can. Meanwhile I intend to avail myself of the hint you so kindly gave me, by writing to Lord Buchan to give me some materials for a life of the author, which I shall beg leave to put into your hand to be digested into proper order.
Oblige me by writing in your next, what day is fixed for the next meeting of the Antiquarian Society, as I then intend to transmit some Manu- scripts* and other literary curiosities for our Museum ; and continue to believe me, with the most perfect esteem, my dear Sir, your obliged humble servant, &c.
XIV.
Craig forth, Aug. 7- 1781. Will my kind and indulgent friend, Mr Paton, forgive me for troubling him to present the in-
• For an account of these Manuscripts, see a paper by Mr D. Laing in vol. iii. part 1. 1828, of the Transactions of the Antiquarian Society.
145
closed to the President of our Society, with the MSS. which come by Jenkins the Stirling car- rier, in a large box directed to him ? The letter is left open for your perusal, and in it you will find an account of what the box contains. Pray seal it, and present it with the MSS. at the next meeting of the Society. Let me know if the box comes safe. — I must trouble you to send a servant to get the box from the carrier, who gets to Edinburgh to-morrow about noon. I hope the collation of Lindsay is now well ad- vanced. I am quite impatient to see my old friend again, and to do all in my little power to usher him into the world with the advantages this truly classical author justly claims. Write me what you are doing with him ; and believe me ever, with truest regard, My Dear Sir, yours, &c.
XV.
Craig forth, Oct. 29- [17]81. MY DEAR SIR,
I have long looked for a letter from you, to in- form me what you have got done with our good L
146
friend Sir David Lindsay. Winter is now fast approaching, and I wish to employ some can- dle-light hours in illustrating his incomparable Satyre. If you cannot get a regular collation made, I beg you may at least get what is want- ing in your copy supplied from the MS. in the Advocates1 Library. This can be no difficult task. Pray let me hear from you. Mr Robert- son seems to have forgot my little publication altogether. I have not had a proof sheet from him these three weeks.
I see advertised Mr Clerk's answer to Shaw's attack upon the Poems of Ossian. You will very much oblidge me to send me a copy of it by the Stirling Fly on Wednesday first.
XVI.
Craigforth, Bee. 3. 1781. DEAR SIR, Had my health been better, you would sooner have received my best thanks for your oblidging letter of Oct. 30, which I got with Mr Clerk's pamphlet. Shaw is an ignorant blockhead, and
147
the most impudent lyar I ever heard of. Mr Clerk has only done him justice.
I am rejoiced to find you have got the blank in your copy of Lindsay supplied from the MS. If you will trust me now with your copy, and the verses which were wanting at the beginning of it, I would immediately set to work with the notes, as this book will afford me ample room for explaining our ancient language, which I am em- ploying my time upon just now, and have already made a large collection from our oldest and best authors. Sir David's language is so pure, that his authority will be of the greatest [importance,] for ascertaining the just meaning of our ancient tongue. May I beg therefore that you will fa- vor me again with the use of your copy, and the beginning of it, copied from the MS. in the Ad- vocates' Library ? The Stirling Fly is a very safe conveyance, but I beg you may write me a line by post when you send it, that I may call for it directly when it comes. My best thanks are due to you, dear sir, for your corrections on the Kirk on the Green. Finding all the edi*
148
tions of the text very faulty in orthography, I wrote out a new copy as correctly as I possibly could, and have sent it to Mr Robertson to print, from which I hope will somewhat lessen your labour, for which I never can enough thank you. I have not had a proof sent me these three weeks. Believe me always, Dear Sib,
Yours, &c. JOHN CALLANDER.
MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS.
I. MR. WILLIAM SMELLIE TO MR. GEORGE PATON.
Edinburgh, August Q. 177*.
Dear Sir, I ask an immense favour. A character of the late George Drummond is to be given next number. Anecdotes are greatly wanted, and no man knows so many as Mr Paton. You need not take the trouble of making a composi- tion. Just say, at such a time he did or said such a thing.
Observe, that the character will contain many negatives ; as, he did not do this or that. So that this affords an opportunity of pointing out, in the strongest manner, any act of mismanage- ment, littleness, dishonesty, or oppression, that has occurred since Drummond left the stage. A hint is sufficient. Every thing that is bad in others will make a feather in Drummond's
150
cap.* This day or to-morrow I beg you'll spend half-an-hour in communicating knowledge to the ignorant. Yours faithfully,
William Smellie^
II. MR JAMES CANT TO MR WILLIAM COKE, BOOKSELLER, LEITH.
Dear Sir, In answer to Mr Paton's queries, to whom I am much obliged for the use of Fordun's Sco- tichronicon, I have carefully examined Mug- drum Cross, and have caused a rude draught of it to be taken, which you have inclosed.
The measures and distances are as follows in computed miles.
* The facts communicated by Paton were worked up by Gil- bert Stuart in his best style, and published in the Edinburgh Magazine for August 1774, The character will be found in the Appendix.
f The Printer. His Life and Correspondence (by the late Robert Kerr,) in two volumes, was published at Edinburgh, 8vo. 1811.
151
Miles. Yard*. From Perth, 6
From Exmagirdle, or Ecclesia
Magridin, . » - 5
FromAbernethy, the ancient Pic-
tish capital, - 2
From the Abbey of Lundores, 1 From the West Port of Newburgh, 590
From MacDuff's Cross south west, 1 560
From the river Tay, - - 185
Measures of the Cross and Pedestal,
Feet. Inches. Height from the Pedestal, - 119
Breadth, - 2 4
Thickness, - 12
Height of the Pedestal, - 2 2
Length, • - - 6 -
Breadth, - 3 6
The cross is considerably sunk into the socket of the pedestal, which is a solid stone. The exact measure in depth could not be taken.
The cross had extended arms worn away by the injury of time. It was dedicated to St Magridin, whose church, now called Exmagirdle, anciently Ecclesia Magridin, stands at the east end of the Ochil Hills in Strathern, five miles
15*
north-west from the cross, where Mr Carmichael of Polly has a seat.
The cross and pedestal are of free stone, the same with that of M'DufTs cross, and the an- tique steeple of Abernethy. Tradition says, that the stones were dug out of a quarry in the Lomond Hills, about five miles south. The figures and inscription which were on the east side of the cross, are quite defaced by the weather and old age, but the relicts of them are in basso relievo, and the table is easily seen by a cutting round the edges of the cross, one inch broad and half an inch deep. Old people at New- burgh, from the tradition of their fathers, say, that it was dedicated to a great saint named Magrin, and the lands of Mugdrum, where it stands, were dedicated to his church ; and they shew a cairn three miles east from the cross on an eminence, on which is an obelisk of rough stones or nodules, which is called Magrin's Seat. The d in Magridin, and in Caridin, a gentle- man's seat near Linlithgo, is quiescent, and is pronounced Magrinn and Carinn. Mugdrum,
153
now the seat of Mr Hay of Leyes, is evidently a corruption of Magridin. It is very probable that both this and M'DufTs cross were under the tutelage of the same saint, and seem to have been erected about the same time, viz. A. D. 1059, which is the date on M 'Duff's cross pre- served by Sir Robert Sibbald in his History of Fine, and we have these words preserved as part of the inscription on M'DufF's cross :* " Propter Magridin — et hoc oblatum."
From the Abbey of Lundores to Exmagirdle or Ecclesia Magridin, about six miles distance, there was a caseway the whole way. Vestiges of it in several places remain till this day. It was but lately that a part of it was discovered in Muir- mouth, where improvements by ditch and hedge began in that part of the muir belonging to the estate of Calfargie. Tradition says that the monks of Lundores went in an annual proces- sion along this caseway on a visit both to the nuns of Ecclesia Magridin and Elcho, and that the nuns at Elcho met them at Mugdrum cross, " Sec Cunningham's Essay on M'Duff 's Crow.
154
where they paid the devotion and saluted one another.
There is not the least appearance of any cemetery, tumulus, or church, nearer to this place than the Abbey of Lundores, which is above a mile to the east; the town of New- burgh, with its parish church, stand about the middle, betwixt the Abbey and Cross.
It appears plainly that there were no figures or sculpture, but on the top two crosses, which are also nearly defaced, and which I conjecture was part of the date. M'DufPs cross is no more ! It was broken in pieces by the Gothic reformers in their way from Perth to the Abbey of Lundores, which they also demolished A. D. 1559. The broken pieces of the cross were carried away by the people of Newburgh, and built into some of their houses, as it stood on the ground belonging to their town, but was ori- ginally the property of Macduff.
The people of Newburgh retain the tradition, that this cross was an asylum or Garth for casual homicide by any of the descendants of
155
the Thane's family, who, for a compensation, were obliged by the law to bring nine cows and a quey to the cross ; but if the murderer could not produce clear evidence of his being within nine degrees of blood to the Thane before the ordinary judge of Fiffe, no compensation could be taken, he wras condemned to die. Sir Ro- bert Sibbald says, that Spence of Wormiston pleaded the privilege, and proved himself to be with the degrees of consanguinity, before the judge, and gave the compensation for the slaughter of Kininmount, p. 92.* As there are several artificial cairns, or tumuli of earth and granite nodules at a small distance around the cross, it is conjectured that these are the burial places of those who pleaded the privi- lege, and failed in the proof of consanguinity. There is one larger Cairn than the rest fifty yards north from that cross. But superstition forbids the opening of any of them ; no person in the neighbourhood will assist for any con- sideration, nor will any person in or about * History of Fife Folio edition.
156
Newburgh travel that way when dark, for they affirm that specters and bogles, as they call them, haunt that place, and indeed it is not worth while to open the graves of malefactors. There is no food there for an antiquarian.
I have herewith given a sketch of the re- maining pedestal and the exact measures :«— -
|
Feet. Inches. |
|||
|
The height |
- |
- |
3 9 |
|
Length at the bottom |
- |
- |
4 7 |
|
Breadth at do. |
- |
- |
3 9 |
|
Length at the top |
- |
'- |
3 4 |
|
Breadth at do. |
- |
- |
2 8 |
|
Length of the socket where the |
i cross |
||
|
was fixed |
- |
- |
1 6 |
|
Breadth of do. |
m |
. |
1 0 |
There are in the pedestal nine bored holes, into which, tradition says, were fixed iron staples to which the nine cows were fixed, which the law obliged the criminal to bring to this cross. One on the north-east corner, three on the east side in a line, two on the south, and three on the west sides.
This is all the information I can give Mr Pa-
157
ton ; I wish it had been more satisfactory for his sake. I have another piece of antiquity in view in our neighbourhood, a Druid temple ; I have only to get answers from a gentleman to two or three questions, which I expect in a few days. If this will amuse Mr Paton, it shall be com- municated to him. I am,
Dear Sir, Your most humble servant,
James Cant.* Perth, 29lh Nov. 1774.
III. ALEX. RUNCIMANf TO MR GEO. PATON.
Mr Runciman's complements to Mr Paton ; is sorry the dementions of the Picturs in the chaple
• James Cant, the editor of " The Muses Threnodie, or Mirthfull Mourning on the Death of Mr Gall," with an Ap- pendix containing explanatory notes and observations, 8vo. Perth, 1784, 8vo.
•f* Alexander Runciman, the celebrated painter, was born in Edinburgh in the year 1736. He had an elder brother, John, who died abroad, and who by many was thought to excel him. His pictures, chiefly historical and conversation pieces, are in the first style, and are now very difficult to procure. Their fa- ther was an architect. Alexander, after serving an apprentice-
158
is fallen out of the way, but Alexander] R[un- ciman] can give a pretty near guese at the mat- ter, viz. the large picture on the top of the nich is thriteen feet high, and thrity broad at the bottom ; the form is a semicircle. The subject painted in it is the ascension of Jesus Christ, Luke the 14th cap. verse the 51. and 52. (and he was taken up into heaven, and they worshiped him.) The Figures are the twelve Apostles, and the three Maries, all the syze of life ; the Fi- gures nearest the eye are somthing larger below. Above the two small windows are two picturs
ship to John and Robert Norrie, (the former of whom was a landscape painter of eminence, in the year 1 755,) began to paint landscapes. In 1766 he set out for Italy, where he resided five years. Soon after his return, he projected and began his great work in the hall of Ossian at Pennycuick, (the seat of the Clerk family,) which he finished to the entire satisfaction of his em- ployer. His next capital composition was the picture in the late Episcopal chapel, Cowgate, Edinburgh, of which a descrip- tion is given in the letter. He died in affluent circumstances, 21st October, 1785. A portrait and biographical account of him will be found in the Scots Magazine for August 1802. The two letters, now for the first time printed, are worth pre- serving, as the only ones at present known to exist of this ad- mirable artist : the first is written in chalk.
159
eight feet wide and five feet high ; the picture on the right hand is Christ talking with the wo- man of Samaira at the well ; on the left is the Prodigally return, the figur's large as life, but only half length. On each side are two ovalls, seven feet high and five feet wide ; in that on the right hand is painted the Prophet Elias when he retired to the mountain ; in that on the left Hand is Moses with his Tables. The figures are something larger then the life, and are both sitting, all invented and executed by A. Runci- man. The searching for the measure is the reason Mr Paton did not get this sooner. Edin. Oct. 12. 1775. The Magazine shews the Portico.
IV. ALEXANDER RUNCIMAN TO MR GEO. PATON.
Sir, I beg you would not think me impudent in making the following request. I had this Spring given my promise to a gentleman (a German) to procure him a Solan goose, which, after I had got prepared for him, was by the mistake
160
of a servant maid destroyed, and the season is now past for procuring another ; I should there- fore esteem it as a particular favor if you have one, to give it me, and I assure you that next season I will most thankfully and faithfully return you another for it, as the gentleman is curious in Naturall History, and a stranger. I hope you will, if possible, enable me to keep my word to him ; he leaves this country very soon, and I should be sorry he had not what he esteems a curiosity, and would add to the collection he has made in this country a valuable aquisition. If you will let me know by a line if you can do me this favour, I shall take it as a very particular favour; if you cannot yourself give one, I shall take as the next favour to it, to tell if you know of any person that I could get one from. Dr Ramsay I have tryed, but the three he had, are all useless and destroyed, and I am not ac- quainted with any collectors else. I am, Sir,' Your very humble servant,
Alex. Runciman. Edin. Nov. 2. 1778.
161
V. GEO. CHALMERS, ESQ. OF PITTENCRIEFF,
TO MR GEO. PATON.
Sir, Mr Ainslie's map is now before me. It is allowed that the Fife lasses are vastly prolifick. Mr Ainslie shews that Fife is also vastly proli- fick in squires. The late Earl of Morton got a paper, about the Edinburgh New Bridge, wherein the architect was stated Esquire. " Who the devil made Mylne* an Esquire ? are you all Esquires together in Scotland ?" exclaimed he in his natural severity. My father told me this story very apropos, when we were surveying the Lairds of Fife in Monsieur Ainslie's map.
December 1775.
VI. GEO. CHALMERS, ESQ. OF PITTENCRIEFF,
TO MR GEO. PATON.
Dear Sir, Inclosed a few coins for your inspection; two of them scarce, a silver piece of Henry VIII.
* Mylne, of whom a portrait and biographical notice will be found in volume 9th of Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, p. 232, 3, M
162
and one of James VI. anno 1594 ; this last found at Dunfermline palace. Also a small copper fragment ; pray, Sir, what may it be, as I know- nothing about it ? Were these my own, you should be welcome to them ; but you may keep them for a week, and return them to,
Your most obedient servant,
G. Chalmers. Covenant CIoss, Edin. 21st Feb, 1777.
I had almost forgot your kind letter of the 7th, for which I am sincerely obliged to you. Am glad that the immortal Ainslie will at last produce his Map of Scotland.
Mr Philipe's plan is truly noble ; but I am afraid that, from the general poverty of the North Britons, he cannot expect any great suc- cess in his subscriptions here. England, there- for, is the proper place : perhaps even there it wont do, as they may think they are not inter- ested in a Scots publication ; but I hope I may
was of the family of Mylne ofBalfarg, a small farm in Fifeshire, part of which originally held feu of the Knights Templars.
163
be mistaken in these conjectures. Think it would be proper that Mr Philipe should also propose a subscription for only a particular number of his drawings. What I mean is this, many people may be willing to subscribe for the whole, but not able to do so. They may de- sire the drawings of a particular county or shire. One may choose Fife, another Lothian, and so on. By these means he may adopt his plan to moderate fortunes, and yet not hurt his original plan of subscription for the whole. If this hint is agreeable, you may mention it to Mr Philipe. This age is very nice, he cannot bestow too great pains on his drawings, engravings, &c. but from your manner of describing his plan, I foresee it must exceed my most sanguine expec- tations. God grant it may do so ! This wea- ther is bitter cold. Vale G. C.
It is unlucky you heard nothing about the groans, &c. Suppose the Society would treat them as chimerical ! Can't help it, they were founded on truth ; they were rather original / and perhaps not formally introduced ! Well,
164
amen, poor abbeys, cathedrals, palaces, castles, camps, roads, walls, &c. your groans, alas ! are of no avail !*
Pray do you know whose head the seal of this letter is ?
There is some plan about publishing another Canal paper in a few weeks, (this to yourself for the present.) When ready, you shall get some copies of it from G. C.
■ This seems to have been some communication to the Society: of Antiquaries, probably relative to the wanton dilapidation of Dunfermline Abbey, which is in the immediate vicinity of Mr Chalmers's estate of Pittencrieff; and this supposition is confirmed by the ensuing passage from a letter to Paton. " I have climbed through the whole ruins of Dunfermline. Enquired about the petition against Black. It had the desired effect ; the Exche- quer ordered him to rest from all his labours. The promoters of this petition are surely to be commended, but their astonish- ing stupidity cannot be accounted for. Why not send the peti- tion when William began or intended (?) these ruins ? They de- layed it untill they saw the north and east walls of the abbey, the north and east walls of the palace, the vaults levelled, and the house hinted at in the petition totally levelled. What made he of all this havock ? The beadle who shews the church and tombs, says, ** He sell'd the stanes, got siller for them, and made himself rich !" " What title had he to these walls ?" " The Marquis of Tweedale gee'd him them in a present." Wo date.)
165
VII. JOHN CLERK, ESQ. OF ELDIN, TO RICHARD GOUGH, ESQ.
Sir,
Fiiom the encouragement given me by Mr Pa- ton, I have been led to take the liberty of pre- senting you with a parcel of my Etchings from my own drawings taken from the life, which I hope you already have received through the means of my friend Mr Paton. But before I insist on your accepting them, I beg you will forgive me for troubling you with some little history of them.
At the age of forty-five years, when I began, I could never expect to arrive at any degree of merit in the art ; but having for a long time been in the practice of making sketches and views from nature wherever I went, I had collected a great many drawings, particularly such as take in a great extent of country. I was at last tempted, after long and frequent im- portunities of virtuosi friends, to attempt the
166
same manner in etching which I had followed in drawing. However, upon trial, I was much discouraged, not only with the expected disap- pointments in managing the Aqua Fortis, but with the incomprehensible difference I felt be- tween giving the same effect, with white lines upon black ground, and that which I had done with black lines upon white ground — by which you must see I mean the bright traces of the point upon the black-grounded copper, compared with the black inky lines upon white paper.- — To get the better of this difficulty, I have been led to make many trials, which has produced so very many diminutive plates as unfortunately I have made. Also at this time, from having very strong eyes for the nearest objects as well as for the most distant, I was driven to make use of spectacles, which brought me to a con- fined manner of etching very unlike the draw- ings, which are all large, and few lines expres- sing a great deal. Living in the country, I am obliged to go through the drudgery of not only preparing my plates, but of taking
167
or pulling off the impressions myself, having a small press for that purpose ; and lastly, from want of skill both in myself and those of this country, my plates are foul and full of scratches, as you must perceive.
From what I have said, you will not wonder at that variety of manner which you will meet with in almost every plate ; and as you must be a judge have sent several outlines, which if ap- proved of, a great many more plates could be executed in much less time. Having a great many drawings of places not yet attempted by any other person — particularly complete views of Edinburgh to the number of ten or twelve — Highland views, &c. both in Scotland and Eng- land,— a list of which, Mr Paton has been indeed soliciting me to make out, but whether this may be consistent with your plan I know not.
As soon as convenient, after my prints have come to hand, please favour me with a line, and if there is any thing that I can be of any ser-
168
vice to you in this country, please to command. I am,
Sir, Your most obedient and
Very humble servant,
John Cleek.* Edin. 6th July, 1779-
Mr Paton has promised me to forward any thing that you may be so kind as to favour me with.
* Author of a Treatise on Naval Tactics. His son, Lord Eldin, having discovered some of the plates, presented in 1825 to the members of the Bannatyne Club twenty-eight etchings by his father, chiefly of views in Scotland. In a short notice prefixed to this privately circulated work, his Lordship observes, " the late Mr Clerk of Eldin was a man of great information and ingenuity. Among many studies in which he em- ployed himself, he drew landscapes from nature with much cor- rectness and taste, and had made a large collection of interesting views, drawn by himself from a variety of scenes in Great Bri- tain. In 1773, when he was advanced in life, he began to amuse himself with etching his views on copper ; but the war having broken out, his mind became completely occupied -with the important events which followed, and before the year 1779? his attention was deeply engaged with the study of naval affairs. From that time he neglected his etchings, and soon afterwards produced his work upon Naval Tactics, to which he subse- quently made a number of additions."
169
VIII. EARL OF BUCHAN TO MR GEORGE PATON.
KirkhiU, 28th June, 1780. Sir, I am ashamed to have delayed so long execut- ing a commission sent me some time ago by my brother in law Mr William Frazer younger of Frazerfield, and for which your assistance would be very helpful to me, whom am almost constantly in the country at this season of the year.
Mr Frazer, who is a collector of Scotch anti- quities in the coin line, observed some time ago an advertisement concerning some repository being found containing a quantity of old Scotch coins, which if not owned, and for sale and comatible, he would gladly have a list of, and procure your aid to select any that might suit him ; for which purpose, or for any future opening that may happen, he proposes sending you a catalogue of the desiderata for the com- pletion of his collection.
Since I had the pleasure of seeing you, I
170
have been endeavouring, at a leisure hour, to digest a plan for the institution of a Society at Edinburgh, for the investigation of the Anti- quities of Scotland, which many ingenious per- sons in different parts of the country seem well dispos'd to promote. As a nucleus for this de- sirable Institution, I propose to invite a select number of gentlemen versant in the erudition and pursuits which are necessary for such a So- ciety, to meet on the first Tuesday of every month during session time, at my house in St Andrews Square, at five o'clock in the after- noon. Where, at the first proper meeting which can be procured, I shall take the liberty of offer- ing my sentiments on the nature and extent of the enquiries which might be thought admis- sible into the transactions of a Scotch Society of Antiquaries ; and at the same time, to sollicit the aid of better and more experienced judges to frame a plan of investigation, correspondence, scope of enquiry, social regulation, and whatever else may seem necessary for the effectual prose- cution of a plan which has unfortunately been
171
but too long of being brought to a bearing in this country. I shall in a few days transmit to you a list of those gentlemen whom I intend to invite, and beg you will mark with your friendly and intelligent pen any alterations or additions that may occur to you. I am, Sir, with regard,
Your obedient humble servant, Buchan.*
* A Memoir of his Lordship will be found in the New Scots Magazine for February 1830. He is entitled to more credit than is usually allowed him. By his laudable economy he re- trieved the fortunes of the ancient family that he represented— an example which it would not be unwise for many of our no- blemen to follow ; he paid off every farthing of debt left by his predecessor, — a step equally worthy of imitation ; he begrudged no labour which might advance the interests of science and litera- ture, and he spared no pains to promote the success of those whom he deemed worthy of his patronage. With these merits his personal vanity may be overlooked, and even his parsimony be forgiven, for we all know how difficult it is to eradicate early habits ; habits too, engendered at a period when their acquisition was a merit rather than a demerit ; for never let it be forgotten, that, besides gradually paying off debts for which he was not le- gally responsible, he for years submitted to the severest priva- tions, to enable him suitably to maintain and bring up his (sub- sequently distinguished) brothers Henry, and Thomas.
in
IX. THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Edinburgh, Nov. 2. 1780. Sir, Having long regretted that no Society has been formed in Scotland for the promotions of anti- quarian pursuits, connected with the study of our antient laws, history, and manners of the country, I beg leave to invite you to a meet- ing at my house in St Andrew's Square, on Thursday the 14th of this month, at seven o'clock in the evening ; when I shall take the liberty to convey to you, and such gentlemen as may honour me with their company, the idea I have formed of a plan, and of the objects for a Society of that nature.* I am, &c.
Buchan.
* John Nichols, Esq. writes Paton, Feb. 13, (1781.) " I hear, with much pleasure, of the establishment of an Antiquary Society in Scotland. Is Lord Buchan's Life of Crichton to be made public? I would print it at my own risque, if a copy •could be obtained."
17S
X. THE SAME TO THE SAME.
My Good Sir, Sometime since, I hinted to you that a cata- logue of books relating to the History, Laws, Antiquities, Natural History, Geography, To- pography, Arts and Manufactures of Scotland, including also the Biography of her eminent or useful citizens, would be usefull communications to our Society ; more particularly if rare or good editions of the works were noted, and the prices at which they might be picked up.
I beg leave to recomend this work to you, which might occupy from time to time a spare half hour, and if stuck by might be far advanced by your collections, from the Duke of Argyll's Catalogue, from the Advocates' Catalogue, your own, and other collections of that sort. This paper, with a few cursory remarks, I would have entitled Bibliothcca Caledonica. To this as an Appendix, might be added Desiderata Curiosa, from information from Balfour, Sib- bald, Nicholson, Gough, Gordon, Martin, Ma-
174
colm, Kaimes, Steuart, Dalrymple, Hailes, sparsirn. Mr Brown of the Lawyers' Library, will, I dare say, go hand in hand with you in this useful work.
I am, Sir, with regard,
Your obedient humble servant,
Buchan. St Andrew's Square, Edinburgh, March 9. 1782.
<
XL THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Edinburgh, February 3. 1787* Dear Sir, I received a notice yesterday from the Reve- rend Dr Hary Spence, Professor of Divinity in St Andrews, that Lieut. General Melvill, at my request, had caused a young man of the name of Douglas attempt a drawing of the Monu- ment of Archbishop Kennedy in St Saviour's College, which I hope may be suitable to the workmanship of the Tomb, and to Mr Gough's design. I returned on Tuesday from an excur- sion to Dryburgh Abbey, where I passed ten
175
days, and have made considerable progress in my operations at that place. I propose taking possession of my house on the 12th of June, the anniversary of my birth, when, if life re- mains, I shall have attained myjbrty-fifth year, after which I shall no more be seen in this circle, and but little in any other. I have been very active for these twenty-one years past, and having completed the years of majority, I mean to serve heir to Philosophy, and leave the field to others who are better suited to the times.
Just before I left Edinburgh for the South, I received a letter from Mrs Bedingfield of York, acquainting me of the death of her sister Miss Eleanora Swinburne of Capeatonhall, who has left me fifty pounds towards the preserva- tion of the venerable remains of the Abbey of Dry burgh. 'Tis the only legacy, or mark of dying friendship, I have ever received, and it shall be religiously applied. I mean on my own charges to rear an Urn of Dryburgh stone, which is very beautiful, to the memory of that generous Lady.
176
If ever you should find yourself disposed to retire from the smoak and bustle of Edinburgh, come to Dry burgh Abbey, and I will give you a cloyster in my garden (for the Abbey is ac- tually within its enclosure), and you shall be my Rousseau and I will be your Mrs Fitzher- bert. How few men there are now in this world to whom I would ever think of paying this com- pliment ! Tempora mutantur, sed nos non mu- tamur in illis. Tant pis pour nous.
I am, Dear Sir, with great regard, Your obedient humble servant,
Buchan.
XII. THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Drybargh Abbey, June 1. 179*. Dear Sir, Did Buchanan write Calvin's epitaph ? I have not his " Poemata Varia" here, and beg you will examine Ruddiman, and inform me in course of post, which will oblige,
Dear Sir, Yours, with sincere regard,
Buchan.
177
P. S. What are the lines by Drummond ad- dressed to Lord Sterling ? I have not Sterling's Works, and wish to have a copy of these verses, which I think are below his effigy in the book.*
XIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Dear Sir,
I see the Epitaphium Calvini and the Satyra
in Cardinalera Lotharingum in my copies vary
from those published in Buchanan's works, and
had been prima? curse, I suppose, given by the
author to his pupil Lord Mar, or Lord Inner-
teil. I expect to find more of Buchanan's
slighter works among my papers, and perhaps
some that have not appeared.-)*
Your sincere well-wisher. 8th June, 1791.
• At the bottom of this letter Paton has written: " In Buchanan's Miscellaneorum Liber, No. xxiv. is Jo: Calvini Epicidium. Can find no epitaph. Stirling's Works, the imper- fect copy, does not turn up to me at the time, &c. A variety of short poems are addressed by Hawthornden to him. Have not his Effigy. In Drummond's Works, Edin. 171 1, folio, of the poetical part, p. 44, is a long one, entitled, * A Pastoral Elegy on the Death of Sir William Alexander."
f From his Lordship's silence, it is probable he found no- N
178
XIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME.
S. Castle Street 34<, March 12. 1804.
My Dear Sir, As I meditate a Commercium Epistolarum, and litterary history of Scotland during the period of the last Century, I invite you, as my ancient friend, and a friend to litterature, to contribute your mite to its perfection.
Any letters, or copies of curious or interesting letters, from Pennant, Gough, or Nicholls, but
thing of any value. In the Catalogue of the libraries of Dr John Clerk, and his son Dr David Clerk, to which reference is made in the preceding Letters, p. 4. (but which at that time the Editor had not seen,) occurs the following, article 1242, " Homeri Ilias Gr: apud Turnebum ; — hie liber quondam erat Georgii Buchanani," 8vo. Par: 1554. This literary curiosity is, it is said, now at Auchinleck. The Clerk Library was rich in classics, the value of some of which were enhanced by the MS. Notes of Dr John Clerk. There were a few rare Scotish books, such as (2284) the first edition of Hardiknute, (2312) Sir Thomas Urquhart's Introduction to the Universal Language, 4to. Lon- don, 1653, (2364) Lauder's Poems, 4to. Breda, 1650, &c. One peculiarity about this auction is worth noticing, the time of sale being from " four to eight at night." Mr William Gibb senior, afterwards of the Advocates Library, was the auctioneer.
179
still more from Ruddiman, or Ty tier, or Wal- ter Goodall, and other antiquaries, or typogra- phers, or bibliographists, will be highly accept- able ; and whatever you are pleased to contri- bute, you will transmit to Dr Robert Anderson, Heriot's Green, Grassmarket, in this city, who holds my depot in the above-mentioned depart- ments. I am,
Dear Sir, with sincere esteem,
Your obliged humble servant, Buchan.
Any letters of Allan Ramsay the Poet, of Sir William Bennet of Grubbet, of the antiqua- rians of that interesting groupe in the last cen- tury, will be particularly acceptable.
XV. JOHN NICHOLS, ESQ. TO MR GEO. PATON.
August 25. 1781. Dear Sir,
I have sent to Mr Hutton's addressed to youy
a copy of Mr Clarke's valuable book on coins,
180
with Baujefs Appendix, half-bound. Price one guinea.
I have also sent (what I beg you to accept)- a part of the Reliquiae Galeanae, and a 4to. vo-. lume for the Society. That learned body claims, my .warmest acknowledgements for their favour- able acceptance of my intentions ; and I accept their honourable offer with great thankfulness. My name is John. I am greatly obliged by your information on Crichton, and am just as well pleased as if I had a copy of it ; my only wish was, that it might be given to the public. , I am at this time reprinting Mr Bowyer's Greek Testament, in a handsome, and I hope correct 4to. The time of finishing is yet far off — but the Gentleman's Magazine will an- nounce it.
I trouble you inclosed with a few additional leaves to the origin of printing, both for your own copy and the Society. If Mr Ged's*
* William Ged, celebrated for his discovery of stereotype printing, whose life the writer of the letter had published. Ged was originally a silversmith, and the following curious relique.of
181
daughter can sell more copies, she shall be wel- come to them as long as I have any. I printed only 250 copies. Mr Ruddiman's catalogue will be highly acceptable, as well as Mr Baine's specimens, which I have not got.
The republication of Mr Ames goes on slow- ly. The undertaker is Mr Herbert, a gentle- man well qualified, and who will make valuable additions. The Scots Poems I hope you have
his dealings in that line may be worth preserving. The ortho- graphy has been carefully preserved.
AccL Mr Pat, Anderson to Will Ged. 5th Sep. By ane siller hilted suord weghting 8 ounces I717. 4 drops att 5 shilling 4d per ounce 2 04 0
Making - - - 0 15 0
By ane gilt handle - - - 0 15 0
By ane blad with hougs skinn scabert and slip - - - 0 7 0
By ane pair buckls 1 oz. 1 dr. Making and pendices
4 9 8
Then received the contents of the above accompt, and discharges the same by me Wi lliam Ged.
Patrick Anderson was the son of the editor of the Diplomats Scotiae.
182
before now received. The gentleman who is the editor (entre nous, for he does not give his name) is Mr Pinkerton, who at this time is at Edinburgh.
I know nothing of Dr Blair's Chronology— Your channel will be through Mr Creech, or any other eminent bookseller at Edinburgh. Volume Vth of Archseologia may be expected by next St George day. I am, &c.
J. Nichols.*
XVI. JOHN NICHOLS, ESQ. TO MR GEO. PATON.
Dec. 3. [1785.] Dear Sir, By desire of our good friend Mr Gough, I in- close you in two covers, 6 sheets of a curious Treatise on Coins, which is to form my 35th Number. If your worthy President has not quitted Edinburgh yet, be so kind as to make
• The amiable and learned historian of Leicestershire, and author of Literary Anecdotes ; one of the most valuable works of the kind extant in any country.
183
my best respects to his Lordship ; and tell him I have printed his Letters on Agricola, and have got three of the plates engraved and the other three in hand. I had a dreadful battle with his brother last summer (the Hon. coun- sellor,) who, at an ejectment trial in Suffolk, was cruelly severe against antiquaries in gene- ral, and in particular against the Gentleman's Magazine,* and the History of Hinckley.t Yours very truly,
J. Nichols.
XVII. ROB. RIDDELL, ESQ. OF GLENRID- DEL, TO MR GEO. PATON.
Friars Carse, Feb, g. (No date.) My Dear Sir, I am going to make a request of you, which I am in great hopes you wont refuse. It is the
* See an account of it in the Gentleman's Magazine of July last. (J. N.)
•f- The nature of the attack is not given in the Magazine ; all that is there preserved is an abstract of the trial from the Bury Post, which related to the possession of an estate in Suffolk called Lowdham-hall.
184
loan of Scotland's Complaint, against her 3 sons, the Nobility, Clergy, and Commons, by Sir James Inglis, . Knight, printed at St Andrews in 1548. Also Wedderburn's Complaint of Scot- land, printed in 1549 — and the Black Psalms.* You told me you had them. I am very fond of that kind of reading. I am confident you wont refuse me, as I am very carefull of books, and when you deliver them to the Dumfries carrier, well packed up, take his obligation in writing, that he will deliver them safe. I will return them punctually at the time you fix for their return. You have favoured me with books be- fore, so you know me.
I have been much engaged of late in filling up an interleaved copy of Mr Gough's British Topography, which he sent me for that pur- pose. He meditates another edition. When you receive the Xth volume of the Archaeologia, you will find papers of mine on Ancient Forti- fication in Scotland, on the Vitrified Galwegian
• Most probably the " Book of Godly Sangs."
185
Forts, and on various pieces of antiquity, &c. &c. &c. "What is the reason that the Antiqua- rian Society of Scotland are so long in publish- ing their volume ? Tell me when it is to be out. Have you seen John M'Gowan lately? Pray how is he ? I heard he was poorly. It gave me very great pleasure at hearing of our worthy friend, Mr. Lawson De CardonnePs succession ; I wish it had been thousands for hundreds. Pray tell him I long to hear from him.
Have you yet seen the new historical prints of the Battle of Chevy Chase lately published? I am told they want costume. I lately got a great curiosity, viz. an original Portrait of James IV. The one he presented to the burgh of Irving, in Ayrshire, when he created it a royal burgh. Please inform me if you have lately met with any thing new. Did not you promise me a penny of John Baliol ? The pummel of his sword was found at Dalswinton Castle : I sent it to the Antiquarian Society of London, and they have engraved it for the X volume of the Archaeologia. It was known from a rude inscrip-
186
tion. I must now make an end of a long let- ter, and ever am,
Dear Sir,
your most obedient servant,
Robert Riddell.*
XVIII. JOHN DAVIDSON, ESQ. OF HALL- TREE, TO MR GEORGE PATON.
Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your handsome present. I do not know how to repay you, but must fall on some method to do it. In the meantime I beg you will be so good as to call at Laing'sj-f* Canongate, and get a Lackington's 1788 catalogue, and send it. The Parson J dined with me last day. He is very well. I am to give him a great Rhubarb root for the benefit
* Reputed author of the Bedesman of Nydside. London, 1790, 4to. He was, as is well known, a great friend of Burns ; and it has been stated to the Editor, upon very high authority, that the " Bedesman," if not the entire production of our im- mortal bard, was materially benefitted by his corrections and additions.
•f Mr William Laing, Bookseller, Edinburgh.
187
of his parish — it may work them all — so be it. My gardener is in town at present ; so if Lack- ington is sent to my house, I will get it soon. After all, I think he deals much in old Flo- douners, as your father I suppose, and I am sure mine, called the dusty, tatter'd, dirty, old shopkeeping folios. I was enquiring once about snails, and was told there were none at Bath- gate ; I fancy they are petrified there, men and snails, by the name Bathgate. The petrifaction is smittal. I once saw a travelling carriage go- ing very slow on the road, — " What's the name of your carriage, friend," says I, — " Why, Sir, the Stamford Fly," — " Friend," again says I, " you should change its name, and call it the Snail." — But as the Fly man look'd like a hor- net then, I made the best of my way. I fancy by this time you are wishing me, fly or snail, petrified, and so God bless you.
Yours truely,
John Davidson.* Stervartfield, SOtk Sept. [1788 r]
• Mr Davidson was by profession a Writer to the Signet j and
188
P. S. Please also to send J. Stewart's sale catalogue, if it is a new one.
XIX. CAPT. GROSE TO MR GEO. PATON.
Dear Sir, Sickness, the loss of a friend, and the prepar- ing to part with a son, most probably never to meet again, has so long prevented my writing to you, and sending those trifles I promised, and indeed which I have now only sent in part ; but this I know you will excuse, as well as the trouble I give you in delivering them out. I would have paid the carriage, but feared that would have prevented the delivery. The
for many years Deputy Keeper of the Signet. He died at Edin- burgh 29th December, 1797. He printed, but did not pub- lish, two tracts, — the one on the Regiam Majestatem, and the other on the Black Acts, 8vo. Tn 1771» he privately printed a thin 4to volume, entitled, " Accounts of the Chamberlain of Scotland in 1329, 1330, and 1331, from the Originals in the Exchequer, with some other curious Papers." Copies with the complete Appendix are very rare, as Number III. containing letters of caption 1564, with a fac simile of the " Signet," and of the signatures of Queen Mary and King Henry, is almost invariably wanting.
189
parcel consists of a packet and a roll for my good friend Mr. De Cardonnel; another for Captain Riddel! , which please to forward by the Dumfries carrier; the rest, as Lord of the Manor, I must beg your acceptance of. They are odd numbers of my English Antiquities, all of them first impressions, which are now not to be had. I have somewhere as many more, which, when I can find, I will send you in a parcel I am shortly to forward to Mr. M'Gown or Mr. Cardonell.
I have sent you a complete set of the Maps and Plans to the English Antiquities. — Adieu ! Yours sincerely,
J. Grose.* London, 20th Dec. 1789.
* There is a curious etching of Grose by Kay, but the like- ness is not very strong ; this at least is the opinion of Michael Scot, Esq. who, in a letter to Paton, dated 12th Nov. 1769, states, " I received the two packets from you, inclosing Mr Grose's prints, and the fine head of Mr Davidson ; the latter does Mr Kay much credit ; the former is not thought to resem- ble Grose so much as might have been expected, except from the neck downward. I have not seen him since his return hither."
APPENDIX.
No. I.
Johnnie Bowie's Ale; by Alexander Hunter 3 Esq. of Blackness.
A' ye wha wis', on e'enings lang, To meet, an' crack, an' sing a sang, An' weet your pipes, for little wrang,
To purse or person, To sere Johnnie Dowie's gang,
There thrum a verse on.
O Dowie's Ale ! thou art the thing That gars us crack, an' gars us sing, Cast by our cares, our wants a' fling
Frae us wi' anger ; Thou e'en mak'st passion tak' the wing,
Or thou wilt bang 'er.
How bless'd is he wha has a groat, To spare upon the cheering pot ; He may look blyth as ony Scot
That e'er was born : Gie's a' the like, but wi' a coat,
An' guide frae scorn.
But think na' that Strong Ale alone Is a' that's kept by dainty John ;
192
Na, na, for i' the place there's none, Frae end to end,
For meat can set you better on
Than can your friend.
Wi' looks as mild as mild can be, An' smudgin' laugh, wi' winken' ee, An' lowly bow down to his knee,
He'll say fu' douce, " Whe, gentlemen, stay till I see
" What's i' the house.'*
— Anither bow — " Deed, gif ye please,
" Ye can get a bit toasted cheese,
" A crum o' tripe, ham, dish o' pease,"
(The season fitten,) " An egg, or, cauler frae the seas,
" A fluck or whitten ;
M A nice beef steak — or ye may get " A gude buff d herring, reisted skate, " An' ingans, an' (tho' past its date>
" A cut o' veal ; " Ha, ha, its no that unco late,
" 111 do it week"
O Geordy Robertson, dreigh lounr An' antiquarian Faton soun', Wi' mony ithers i' the town,
What wad come o'er ye, Gif Johnnie Dowie shou'd stap down
To th' grave before ye ?
193
Ye sure wad break your hearts wi* grief, An' in Strong Ale find nae relief, War ye to lose your Dowie — chief
O' bottle keepers ; Three years at least, now to be brief,
Ye'd gang wi' weepers.
But gude forbid ! for your sakes a', That sic an usefu' man should fa' ; For, frien's o' mine, between us twa,
Right i' your lug, You'd lose a houff baith warm an' braw,
An' unco snug.
Then pray for's health this mony a year, Fresh three- 'n-a-ha'penny, best o' beer, That can (tho' dull) you brawly cheer,
ltecant you weel up ; An' gar you a' forget your wear,
Your sorrows seal up.
" Another Bottle, John."
" Gentlemen, 'tis past twelve, and time to go home."
No. II.
A Sketch of the Character of the late George Drum- mond, Esq.* by Gilbert Stuart, LL.D.
This respectable citizen entered early into public life. From his eighteenth to his eightieth year, he
• See page 150. O
194
was engaged in business; and, in the spheres in which he acted, no man could have acquired greater konour to himself, or could have procured greater advantage to his country. His expertness in calcu- lation, an acquirement always despised by those who possess it not, brought him into notice. It occasion- ed his being called to assist the committee, which, on the accession of Queen Anne, was appointed by the Parliament of Scotland, to settle the public ac- compts of the kingdom : and, by his diligence and skill, while accomptant-general of excise,* he esta- blished that accurate form and method, which now distinguish the transactions of that branch of the revenue.
During difficult and dangerous times, he main- tained, with firmness, the interests of civil and reli- gious liberty. His plans, his counsels, and his in- formation, rendered him useful to government.t
* He was named to this office in 1707*
+ He gave the first intelligence to the ministry of the arrival of the Earl of Mar ; assisted at the hattle of Dumblain, where he commanded a company of a regiment of volunteers ; and he dispatched to the magistracy the earliest notice of Argyle's vic- tory. His letter he dated, 'from the field, on horseback. While the celebrated Mr Addison was secretary of state, he kept up an interesting correspondence with him on Scottish affairs. He was no less active in the 1745. He raised regiments of volun- teers ; and, having attempted, without success, to keep the re- bels out of the city, he joined Sir John Cope at Dunbar, and was present at the battle of Preston.
195
Nor were his services forgotten. In 1715, he was named one of the commissioners of excise. But the duties of this office were not sufficient to exhaust his application. In 1717, he was elected a member of the town council of Edinburgh ; and having dis- charged, with uncommon applause, the intermediate offices of the magistracy, he wTas appointed Lord Provost in the 1723. To this important trust he was six times nominated ; and, in all his administrations, he exerted a public spirit and an activity, which had been unknown to his predecessors, and in which he has not yet been emulated by any of his successors.
No scheme for the improvement and advantage of his country was proposed, during the long continu- ance of his influence, which he was not, in the high- est degree, solicitous to promote. He knew well the full importance of his station, and he was ani- mated with an ambition to fulfil all its obligations. To advance the cause of learning, in particular, he applied the most indefatigable attention. It was chiefly, by his means, that the University of Edin- burgh was enriched with several new professions ;• and, to his anxious care in having it stored with men of distinguished eminence, it is indebted for the shining lustre which it now enjoys. He never once thought of prostituting academical honours to politi-
* Those of chemistry, the theory and practice of physic, mid- wifery, the belles lettres, and rhetoric.
196
cal purposes. It never once entered into his con- ception, that, to humour a few illiterate citizens, he might tarnish the glory of an illustrious seminary, and appoint to a department of literature, a Goth or a barbarian. But if, in the seduction of politics, he had been led to pledge his honour for the advance- ment of a man of decent accomplishments, to the prejudice of a superior candidate, he would not, in the hour of opposition and danger, have abandoned him with an abject baseness, or a wanton precipita- tion. Of the projects which he planned and car- ried into execution, for the ornament and advantage of the city, the Royal Infirmary, alone, is sufficient to ensure his fame. It owed its existence entirely to his enterprise. This elegant fabric he raised at the expense of thirteen thousand pounds ; and he was careful that the most salutary rules should be framed for its management. It receives about two hundred patients, who are treated with an attention and skill which do honour to no other hospital in the kingdom.
The scene in which he acted was not, perhaps, sufficiently extensive for his genius ; and he resem- bled little, in his behaviour and conduct, those un- worthy and incapable men, who are called so often to the direction of boroughs. In public he spoke with ease and with grace, and betrayed not igno- rance, nor inspired contempt. He had the dignity
197
which became a magistrate, not the insolence which undeserved prosperity confers on the ignoble. He did not distinguish his government by expensive liti- gations, and he enriched, to the dishonour of the community, no superannuated relations, whose ac- quisitions he expected to heir. He revived no op- pressive office ; his ecclesiastical promotions insulted not every clergyman of merit in the nation ; and he created no plurality of benefices. Though conscious of capacity and talents, he consulted with a friend on the propriety of all his measures. But, in the selection of an adviser, he mistook not the debility of dotage for the matured experience of age. Solem- nity did not pass with him for knowledge, nor gar- rulity for wit ; and he did not think of a favourite, whose sottish vanity was to reveal every topic of trust and of confidence. He wasted not the riches of hospitals ; he placed not a pride in violating his most solemn promises and engagements ; and he af- fected not a duplicity of which no man was the dupe. He acted with the great, but was not a puppet, which moved in obedience to their nod and their ca- price. No habitual meanness had fitted him for the lowest offices of corruption. To gain votes at an election, he did not now rave and hector like a bully, and now, soft and complacent, dispense the milk of adulation. In the hours of leisure, he found not a cowardly enjoyment in collecting the most ignorant
198
of the citizens, that he might give vent to a sarcas- tic raillery, which, in the debasement of servility and fear, they dared not to retaliate. He was not stained with ingratitude to his best benefactors ; he attempted not the destruction of the man who had raised him ; and, in fine, it could not be said of his actions, that the motives which directed them, were uniformly either flagitious or contemptible.
No. III.
On the Edinburgh Booksellers, by the late Dr John Let/den.
To the Publisher of the Scots Magazine.
SIR, Booksellers have been termed, with some degree of propriety, the midwives of literature ,* on the man- ner in which they perform their office, the healthy or sickly state of literature in a great measure de- pends, and for the exercise of their functions they are amenable to the public. To the public I there- fore appeal, through the intervention of your publi- cation, for the redress of an impropriety, which, if not timely corrected, may swell out into an abuse. The booksellers of this city are, no doubt, a respect- able set of men, and their plump and jolly visages show how well they fatten on the fields of literature. Literature, which to other men is the food of the mind, to them is the food of the body, and apparent-
199
ly a very thriving sort of food too. But let the pub- lic be on their guard with these literary accoucheurs, and beware of finding, among them, a rival to the fame of Edmund Curl. His is a fame that will never die. He is gibbeted to immortality in the full blazon of his literary infamy. But it is not my pre- sent purpose to compose a satire on the booksellers of this city ; I only intend to remind them of the duty they owe the public, in consequence of its pa- tronage. Notwithstanding the number of booksel- lers shops, that meet us by twos and threes, in al- most every street, the delay in procuring London publications of merit, is altogether astonishing. Every literary man in this city, who does not communicate directly with a London bookseller, must have expe- rienced the inconvenience resulting from this ne- glect. After calling a dozen of times at the book- sellers, his first answer is generally as good as his last. " The parcel which contains it, is on its way ;" and thus, the length of the journey chills the spirit of enquiry, damps curiosity, and extinguishes that ardour which ought to animate a literary man. Could any person, a priori, have thought it possible, that lately, all my enquiries after a copy of Kirwan's Geological Essays, would have been ineffectual ? I first called at a very elegant shop in the Parliament Close, and asked for Kirwan's Geological Essays. There was only a little boy behind the counter, and
200
while he retired to examine his shelves, I was ac- costed by a very civil intelligent gentleman, who in- formed me the book was not in the shop ; but who appeared very willing to enter into a discussion of its philosophical principles, in which I could only regret my inability to join him. While I lingered, we were joined by the other gentleman of the shop, who had not hitherto perceived me, having been as- siduous in his attention to half-a-dozen of young la- dies. When I entered, I had been extremely puz- zled with the words Mammy, Lammy, Tammy, which 1 overheard frequently repeated by the party ; but I soon perceived that this gentleman was a connoisseur in music and poetry, and had been eagerly contend- ing for the comparative merit of " John Anderson my Jo" and the Lammie.*
I immediately left this seat of the Muses, and next proceeded to a shop t on the right hand side of the square. The gentleman who, I presume, was Ma- jor Domo here, was standing in the middle of the shop, and superintending the packing of a large bale. He went round it and round it repeatedly, without appearing to see me ; and when at last he came for-
• The booksellers alluded to, were Messrs Manners & Mil- ler, the former of whom was for many years Librarian of the Faculty of Advocates.
t Belonging to Messrs Bell & Bradfute.
201
ward, and I asked for my book, he stood silent for some time, then looking askance, hut not to me, abruptly answered, " We hav'nt the book !"— step- ped back to his packing business, and I packed my- self off, afraid that I had popped into a Temple of Silence, instead of a Temple of Science.
My next attempt to procure the volume, was at a conspicuous shop near the Cross. Behind the coun- ter I found a handsome little boy. When I enquir- ed for my book, his eyes flashed eagerness to furnish it; he looked over the shelf appropriated to such books, and brought down Kirwan's Mineralogy, two volumes. By this time a good looking little gentle- man* advanced from the back apartment, half bow- ing, with his hands in his breeches pockets. Turn- ing to Mr QCreeclT|,t who was coming down the inte- rior stair-case, I informed him of the object of my research. " O ! Kirwan ! the very best author we have on Mineralogy. When he was in Scotland, I had the honour of introducing him to Dr Black, and was highly entertained with their conversation. They had a long discussion concerning Trap, our whinstone you know, and on the formation of the
* Mr John Anderson, now a respectable bookseller in Edin- burgh, and recently one of the Magistrates. At this period he was managing clerk of Mr Creech.
•f" William Creech, Esq. afterwards Lord Provost of Edin- burgh.
202
Giant's Causeway. We really, Sir, have no author who describes things, as they are in the specimens, so well as Mr Kirwan. I have a good many speci- mens myself, Sir, and am highly delighted with his descriptions. No Mineralogist should be without Mr Kirwan's books. Boy, show the gentleman Mr Kirwan." It is not the Mineralogy, but the Geo- logical Essays I want. " I really believe we have
not got it; Mr has neglected to send it down,
but we shall certainly have it soon. A propos of Mr Kirwan, I'll tell you an admirable story. He wished to see our columns of Basalt. You know the Giant's Causeway is composed of Basalt, and so is Arthur's Seat, and so is Salisbury Craigs, and so, I suppose, is Stonehenge, which is situated on Salisbury Plain. We sent the learned Dr R[]othera]m to conduct him. He studied under the great Linnaeus, Sir. Now where do you think the learned Doctor con- ducted him, Sir? Why to the top of Salisbury Craigs, Sir ; and Mr Kirwan returned, highly de- lighted with the prospect, without having seen a single column of Basalt."
My enquiries, though unsuccessful, had exhibited a curious specimen of the characteristic manners of our Bibliopolists. I resolved to pursue the investi- gation. The next shop I entered, was at no great distance ; and I found the master* engaged in a vio- • Mr Teter Hill.
203
lent discussion concerning the important topic of city politics. From the first moment, I augured badly for my Geological Essays ; and my conjecture was confirmed by the answer to my enquiry, " Kirvvan !
I never keep such d d trash." This courteous
retort staggered me completely, and I immediately left him to descant on the merits of the measures of Tarn Smith* a late member of the town council, whose attempts, like those of many other modern re- formers, have proved quite unsuccessful.
I proceeded down the street to another shop, and asked for the same book ; " Sir," said the gentleman behind the counter,^ with the most complacent civi- lity, " I have not the book, but I'll commission it for you; I am just sending off an order for London; and in ten or twelve days, you shall have it." I mentioned the inconvenience of the delay. " Sir," said he, " I sent over the whole town for it yester- day ; it is not to be had, but I'll commission it for you." Then, taking up a book from the counter, " Have you seen this, Sir ; this is by a gentleman of your profession ?" " I have seen it." — " But, here is one which you cannot have seen, though you must have heard of it. Much is expected, and it will an-
* Bailie Thomas Smith, whose attempts at reform in the year 1799 gave rise to a variety of pamphlets. f The late Archibald Constable, Esq.
204
swer expectation ; it only arrived last night. There is not another copy in town." * The entrance of an- other gentleman, gave me time to read the title- page ; when the facetious gentleman again accosted me, " They have been a queer set of folks, these Border gentry; Lady Harden' s Clear Spurs, and the Laird's Hay Stalk, is the finest story I ever read. Shall I send you a sight of the book ? We are all becoming Scotish again, Sir; Scotish poems, Scotish history, Scotish antiquities— every thing is Scotish, Sir; we may overhaul the Union itself, some of these days ; and here is the Scots Magazine, Sir ; the title ought to have been Scotish, as a great an- tiquarian says, who is going to throw great light on Scotish history, and will certainly demolish Pinker- ton the Pict : and here is his list of desiderata in Scotish song, Sir ; we are going to fill up all these desiderata. Upon this I pocketed the Magazine, and retreated rapidly from the overwhelming civility of this gentleman ; resolving, by your means, Mr Editor, to appeal to the public against this general deficiency of new publications of merit, in the shops of the Edinburgh booksellers ; against their devoting themselves exclusively to individual branches of li- terature ; and against this very summary method of
* This seems to have been the fir6t edition of the Border Minstrelsy, which was published in Kelso.
205
condemning or applauding books of merit, according as they fall in with their peculiar taste for philoso- phy, for music or poetry, for literary anecdotes, for city politics, or for Scotish, English, or Irish publi- cations. But my enquiries did not terminate here. Two gentlemen, I found, had been in possession of the book ; but one of them had exchanged it for Manson's Sermons, which he had again exchanged for " The Dance of Death ;" and the second* had sent his copy to Denmark, to be deposited in the King's Library. I was, therefore, necessitated to forego my book, and derive very little consolation from being presented, instead of it, with various ar- ticles of Icelandic literature, which I was carefully assured had been duplicates in the King of Den- mark's library. If Scotish literature was too deep for me, Icelandic literature was still deeper. My researches, however, if they did not enable me to proceed in my investigations of a theory of the earth, furnish me with a notable practical specimen of the characteristic manners of our booksellers here ; and as I have not " set down aught in malice," I hope they will be flattered with this view of their general por- traits, and I doubt not but they will readily recognise themselves.
A Geologist.
Edinburgh, Feb. 12. 1802.
• Mr William Laing.
20G
No. IV.
Extracts from one of Mr. Paton's Memorandum Books.
The glass of Westshield, (Denham, Baronet,) in which family it has remained several hundred years — got at Douglas Castle after the return of the army or company after an incursion into England ; — when making merry, (as the tradition goes,) Lord Dou- glass desired the Lairfl of Westshield to put it in his pocket, as it (had) fain from the table on the paved floor, and was taken up whole. It has the following date on it : (said to be of a more ancient date in the family,) 1 503. J. D. C. H. i. e. James Denham and Chath: or Christian Hamilton.— Something like the modern table water glasses used after dinner, — it contains more than 7 large wine glasses.
From Sir Arch. Denham.
That while Mr G. Buchanan was tutor to K. James VI. observing in his youth the barbarous unfeeling natural temper of the child with his play toys, &c. and being provided with a nest of sparrows, he took one or two of them and tore them limb from limb ; upon which Buchanan told him that by his early behaviour he indicated what might be expected in his manhood, so it became him to check that fero-
207
cions humour, or probably he would behave in a like manner to his fellow creatures or subjects, and so whipt him.
He took his last illness, and died in Kennedy's Closs, first court thereof on your left hand, 1st house in the turnpike above the tavern there; and in Queen Anne's time this was told to his family and friends, (who resided in that house,) by Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees, Lord Advocate.
N. B. William Hamilton of Wishaw's Notes on Buchanan are made on the English translation, which is full of mistakes, e. g. accusationis princeps Jacobus, i. e. that James was the chief or principal informer, or chief accuser.
To enquire about the MSS. of Hamilton of Wi- shaw, — if to be got. — Its said his brother counselor Hamilton at London got it, in order to publish it ; but being informed of this defect of his brother's want of knowledge of the Latin tongue, desisted from publishing these notes, so that possibly these may be now lost or destroyed.*
• This MS. is probably the one which occurs in the Album of the Bannatyne Club, p. 5, and is thus described : " Observa- tions on Buchanan's History of Scotland, " from a MS. in the possession of Thomas Sivright of South-house, Esq. supposed to be written by William Hamilton of Wishaw."
208
The family of Lamington is heir of line to the famous Wallace, as the Laird of Perstane, in East Lothian, married his daughter, and got the estate of Lamington by this heiress, and the paternal estate of Elderslie went to the heir of line or tailzie. Q. If Baliol is not Baillie?
There was an old family Stewart of Minio, neai Glasgow, as in the High Church of Glasgow ap- pears from a funeral monument on the left, on the entry into the church, engraved on a copper or brass plate on the wall, where 6, 8, or more generations are enumerated under the banner, (a figure of whom as reported, is cut out on said plate.) Q. if true ? The last of the family was a poor boy, who was sent into Edinburgh barefooted, with a letter to Stewart of Coltness. Being promising, Qie] was recommend- ed to the Duke of Hamilton, who took him under his protection, got some education, and afterwards went abroad to Darien, where he died. His mother was of the Whiteford family, and so poor that she retired to a town or place near to Dalserf, called Millown, where she earned subsistence for herself and son by spinning. This estate of Minto, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, was torn to pieces by adjudications, sequestrations, &c. and [[the family] is now extinct.
209
A sett of beggars travelled up and down the south and western parts of Scotland, and were never de- nied alms by any one — they always carried alongst with [them] a horn, and were styled Jocky with the Horn, or Jocky who travels broad Scotland. The rhyme used by them to be enquired after.
Mr Bannatyne, minister of Lanark, was governor to Earl Arran, (son to William Douglas, who married [the] heiress of Hamilton,) and Earl of Selkirk- got two blank warrants for Knights Baronets as his reward for attending Arran's education abroad, his pupil having feigned a letter from his father calling him home : — one of which warrants he sold to Sir James Carmichael of Bonnington, who gave him a hundred pounds for it, and was the first Knight of the family : the other unknown to whom he sold it. Mr Bannatyne bought the estate of Coras [Core- house,] as it of old had been the property of one of that name, but had not money to pay it, so went out of his family. He had a remarkably strong voice, [and] was clerk to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland.
Mr Nisbet began an account or History of the
ancient Families of Scotland, of which about a quire
was printed. This was given by Sir Archibald
Denham of Westshield, to Mr Chanceller of Shield-
P
210
hall, which he was to have restored to him again. N. B. Inquire of Mr W. Gibb of this. Suppose this to be the 2d volume of the System of Heraldry, for which vide the account of the Birnie family.*
• All these entries are in pencil.
FINIS.
\>
SVi
14 DAY USE
RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED
LOAN DEPT.
This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewals only:
Tel. No. 642-3405 Renewals may be made 4 days priod to date due. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.
REC'D LD JUL 2 5 72 -8 PM 8 0
LD21A-60m-8,*70 (N8837sl0)476— A-32
General Library
University of California
Berkeley
• . / / / 1
'\ /■■'/ / / t >■
I
t
i