I shall attempt it. I am glad that you find the English universities, &c., so liberally-minded now. I think I have read that Selden was refused a loan of a book by the college to whom he gave his manuscripts.

I am much obliged to you for your handsome offer of getting me copies of manuscripts from the English collections. If the articles, p. 86 and 234, in Goodall,* Vol. ii. are extant, I should be glad to be at the expense of a copy. I would also wish a copy of Earl Morton's Trial for Darnley's Murder: it is not in this country. A facsimile copy also of No. X. Vol. ii. p. 54, I would also wish to have. Mr. Gough was applied to by a friend of mine, and sent me the fac-simile copy of the subscription to it, very well done by a lead-pencil on oiled paper: but I would wish to have the whole; and the way he had used is possibly the easiest. I take it to be one of the copies which were left in England of these papers produced against Queen Mary, by Earl Murray or some other of that party. I am glad you have studied that controversy, and see it in the light it always appeared in to me. I have given Mr. Buchan, to send you, the last but one copy I had of the Rolls of Robert Bruce, which I had printed several years ago, and a charter

* Walter Goodall's Examination of the Letters said to be written by Mary, Queen of Scots, to James, Earl of Bothwell; showing, by Intrinsic and Extrinsic Evidence, that they are Forgeries: also an Inquiry into the Murder of King Henry. Edinburgh, 1754, 2 Vols. 8vo.

which I found among the Duke of Buccleugh's papers, and got him to give orders to engrave. I never saw any Scots deed or paper, in Saxon, Gaelic, or French prose, before Robert the Bruce's time, that I can recollect, and should wish to Some few charters we have. I have tried to come at Bulls from Rome; and, as several Rescripts, &c., are mentioned in the Corpus Juris Canonici, I think there must be many curious things there. Earl Buchan informs me he has a prospect of getting them.

see one.

If you are at any expense for me, I will pay it to Mr. Buchan the moment I know it. I do not far in such matters; but I am always willing to throw away a few pounds for amusement.

go

Thus your goodness brings you to the trouble certainly of a long letter, and perhaps of more still.

MR. PINKERTON TO THE EARL OF

BUCHAN.*

Knightsbridge, April 3rd, 1786.

I was afraid of being troublesome with my correspondence, else I should have answered the letter your lordship did me the honor to write me immediately. I do not know how to thank your lordship for the kind offer of lodging me at your house till I copied the manuscripts; but I shall

* Lord Buchan has indorsed this letter: "A curious letter from Mr. Pinkerton to the Earl of Buchan."

always be as grateful for the offer as if I actually had accepted it, which it was impossible for me to do. For, alas, my lord, I have quite other matters to mind than to copy Scotch manuscripts; and, since my countrymen seem so cold in the business, 1 shall allow them to go on in their old way.

I learn from your lordship's letter that you have misunderstood me as to the design. The Vita Sanctorum are by subscription. Winton I have

a copy of. Barbour I want no subscribers for; but only the manuscript to copy. I was also surprised at your lordship's mention of haste and inaccuracy in speaking of my Ancient Scottish Poems; for the short Essay prefixed cost me half a year's toil; and the toil and pains bestowed on the whole publication have struck those most versed in such matters here, as greater than have ever been exerted on a like occasion.

Indeed, every page shows primâ facie the pains taken. Your lordship also mentions several mistakes, but points out none. This is unusual with literary people; for it is a favor to point out a mistake; but to mention them without showing them, is unallowable. I can see your lordship differs in opinion about the camps of Agricola, &c.; and I know it is a common plan with my countrymen, to call all people mistaken who differ from them in opinion; but this idea is not found in any other country save Ireland, and the sooner we abandon such strong prejudices the better.

As to Antiquarian matter, my lord, I am glad to see, from your speech to our Antiquaries and

your Letters on Agricola's Camps, that your lordship is very little versed in them; and I may say to you, as the Harper did to Philip of Macedon, Heaven forbid you should know these matters as well as we!"

REV. DR. CHARLES O'CONOR * TO
MR. PINKERTON.

Belanaga, near Roscommon,
April 4th, 1786.

Through the kindness of my Lord Bishop of Dromore, and the conveyance of my learned friend Mr. Walker, an officer in our Irish Treasury, I this week received your letter of the 13th of March. It gratified me to find a gentleman of your candor and abilities employed on the Antiquities of the Ancient Scots, a distinct people among the other various tribes inhabiting our Britannic Isles; and it would add highly to my gratification, if I could supply you with any useful document on the subject—a subject of importance, but long under a cloud, thickened by prejudices from your country, as well as from our own: luckily, these prejudices begin to subside here, a circumstance which encouraged me to draw up a Prospectus on the Origin, Civil Government, and Manners of the Ancient Scots in their Heathen State. How it will be

This singularly learned Irish Antiquary, author of Columbanus' Letters, &c. &c., and Librarian to the Duke of Buckingham, died very recently.

It

received in the committee of Antiquities, belonging to our Royal Irish Academy, I know not. may fail of giving satisfaction from such hands as mine; but I doubt not of its success when the subject falls into better hereafter.

This I am bold to assert; for some materials of authentic information are still preserved among us. I say, some materials; for most of our historical details are irrecoverably lost. Our Archives deposited in the Monasteries of Ireland, have been consumed in the fires of the heathen barbarians of the North; who, in frequent incursions, despoiled France, Britain, and Ireland, in the 8th and 9th centuries. They demolished our nurseries of learning; and it was only on the reduction of their power here, that some Irish Patriots have set about collecting as much of our historical wreck as escaped. A collection has been made; but some of the collectors wanted critical skill in their choice: they, however, wanted not the art of flattering the vanity of a declining nation, by following such documents as gave the Scots too high an antiquity in this island. In consequence, they published genealogies with redundant generations, and gave us a correspondent catalogue of kings, who only obtained their titles by the courtesy of their several factions. They are confounded with the few monarchs who had a legitimate election, from the concurrence of the majority of the nation; and these injudicious publishers have put our titular kings in succession to each other, as a son would succeed to a father in modern monarchies. Such was the art employed to gain the Scots a high