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ANTICHAMBER WRITING-OFFICE.

47 David 2nd, King of Scotland, dated 1330, seemingly a fine original, but rather defaced by time.

48 Robert 3rd, King of Scotland, dated 1390, repaired in 1633; a very poor copy.

49 James 1st, dated 1424 repainted 1632

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These six are miser-
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larly Robert 3d, and

the James's.

54 Portrait of a handsome young man, seemingly a king, prince, or knight; with small feathers and pearls in his cap, dressed in a rich habit of ermine, on one side, and fleur-de-lis on the other, with a collar in which are escallop shells, and a St. George pendent on his breast, without name or date of any kind: appears to be the same workmanship with the foregoing.

55 Margaret, daughter of Christian, King of Denmark, and Queen of Scotland, dated 1460-appears to be original. 56 Mary, Duchess of Longueville, Queen of Scotland, dated 1514-seemingly an original.

57 Annabella Drummond, daughter of the Knight of Stobhall, and Queen of Scotland, dated 1390-appears to be original.

58 Maria, Queen of Great Britain, anno 1635—very old, and much sunk in.

59 John Campbell, of Glenlyon.

LARGE EAST ROOM.

60 Margaret of Argyle.

61 Sir Ewen Cameron, of Lochiel.

62 General M'Nab.

63 N. B.-Since writing the above, a portrait of James 4th is found, of the same workmanship with the rest of the James's; dated 1489, and copied in 1633.

64 Also a portrait of Archibald Campbell, first Lord of Argyle, aged 36.

64 Robert 1st, King of Scotland, 1306-seemingly original, or a very good copy; but in bad preservation.

DR. THORKELIN TO MR. PINKERTON.*

London, Sept. 2nd, 1786.

As I have long wished to be acquainted with you, I won't permit any moment, leading to the aimed point, to eschape, or go in vain.

I will also accept your kindful invitation tomorrow, and render my due thanks to the Eternal Being for the restitution of your health, dear for every of your friends.

GEN. VALLANCEY TO MR. PINKERTON.+

I have the pleasure of introducing to you Mr. Young, a fellow of Trinity College, the gentleman to whom Dr. Usher delivered Mr. Lorimer's Memoirs of the Psalter of Cashell. Mr. Young had taken great pains to discover this manuscript, previous to the search I made: he will inform you of our bad success. I am not yet convinced that

* Grimr Johnson Thorkelin, LL. D. Keeper of the Archives at Copenhagen, and author of Fragments of English and Irish History, &c.

The following letter was inclosed in this.

the Psalter, or an abstract from it, is not in the library: the manuscripts are many, and contain miscellaneous matter without indexes: to search them thoroughly would require a month; and it is by great favor the librarian attends you in the manuscript room for half an hour; and by the College Laws he must not quit the room when any person is in it. This obstacle to our inquiries is not to be got over; and unless Mr. Young, or some other person residing in the college who understands Irish, will take the trouble on themselves, I despair of accomplishing the task.

I have frequently turned to your list of Pictish Kings with desire of complying with your request, in deriving their names from northern dialects. From the Gloss. Suio-Goth of Ihre, from the Icelandic Dictionary, from the Scytho-Goth of Verelius, and from the Swedish and Danish Dictionaries, I can make no sense of the names. From the Irish and from the Persic most of them are to be analysed.

This strengthens my former assertion that the Picts were not the Cruitne, as the Irish and Erse translate the word; but that the Cruitne were Crotoni, from Croton in Italy, as the Irish History declares; that colony of Pelasgian Scythi, who settled there after the time of the original Hercules, who was a Scythian. My Vindication of the Irish History, (which will be out in a fortnight with a list of Errata a yard long, owing to my dwelling in the country,) I hope, will set this in a clear light; and, previously to your perusal of it, I wish you would read the distinction Richard

son and Jones have made between the Northern and Southern Scythians, people who, from the first descent from Caucasus, became as distinct nations as the Chinese and Americans-even at enmity with each other; one leading the wandering life of the Tartars; the other descending to the South, mixing with the Jews, Canaanites, Arabs, &c. dwelling in towns, and improving in the arts and sciences. Monsieur Bailly has well described both in his Atlantide. From what has been observed, I conclude that the lists of Kings in the Pictish Calendar, are not originals at the beginning, but a forgery of some Erse or Irish seanachy: and the names at the latter end appear to be genuine Northern, as Drust, from the Suio-Gothic Dristig, Audax; or corrupted from Drott, Dominus, Drottset vel Drozt, Drost and Droriet, "nomen præcipui olim regni Officialium, quique secundum regem primas in imperio peragit partes." (Ihre.) Bred, from the Suio-Goth: Braede, ira, animi fervor, or from Brodd, cuspis. Bryta or bryda, frangere.

These are evidently Northern names; and I believe those in the beginning to be forged.

DR. O'CONOR TO GENERAL VALLANCEY.*

Belanaga, Sept. 23d, 1786.

Your friend, Mr. Pinkerton, being curious to

* To this letter was subjoined the Duain which is the subject

peruse the Duain I mentioned to you, on the first Scottish Kings in North Britain, I request you will remit it to him with my best respects. I am long in arrear to him; and, as you are acquainted with the crazy state of my health, I make a second request, that you will impress him with the truth, that nothing but my infirmity prevented an earlier attention to the transcript he required from me.

The Duain was composed about the year 1070, in the reign of Malcolm Canmor. In the course of ages, it did not escape faults and mutilations from ignorant transcribers, particularly in the middle parts, wherein the succession of kings is not only defective, but deranged. In the first period, however, from the year 503 to 719, the list of eighteen monarchs in the Duain corresponds exactly with our Irish annals. In the last period, from the reign of Gregory to that of Malcolm Canmor (through a succession of thirteen monarchs) the same exactness is observable also. The defects and deragements in the Duain are only visible from the year 719 to 895. The loss of a genuine copy of the whole is to be regretted; as, in the Catalogue given by Buchanan, till he comes to the reign of Malcolm I., A.D. 946, there can be little or no dependence.

of it, in the original Irish, and also an English version; but as both the one and the other, accompanied, indeed, likewise with another version, have been printed in the second Volume of the Antient History of Scotland, p. 321, I have not thought necessary here to repeat them.

it

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