In volume first, page cxxxviii--The author, Mr. Blair, was a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, and minister of the parish of Atholstonford, in the presbytery of Haddington. He was succeeded, if I mistake not, by the author of the tragedy of Douglas. His eldest son, Robert, is, at present, at the head of the Scotch bar. Another son is a merchant in Edinburgh: a third is professor of astronomy in the University of Edinburgh; and a fourth, who was a merchant in America, lives within a few miles of Mr. Pinkerton, at Turnham Green, if I mistake not; but he must be known to some of the loyalists of Mr. Parker's acquaintance, from whom Mr. Pinkerton may get exact information. I agree with Mr. Pinkerton as to the great merit of the poem; though it is undervalued by some scribblers in this country.

In volume second, page 418-The allegory is kept up from beginning to end, and with so much accuracy, that its beauty is marred by technical words, which none but seafaring people can understand. Scheittis, which in modern spelling is shytes, is the name of the ropes at the lower end of a sail; and, when a square sail is at right angles to the keel, the ship is then between the shytes, and sails with a stern wind, or, as it is called, before the wind. Sole is a mistake for sale. Bolwyn is the name of a rope which, at present, is called a bowling; and the three words which follow it are at present in use, with a different spelling; being all parts of the apparatus belonging to the sails of ships that have old-fashioned riggings. Sale ouir strek, that is, sail over straight;

that is, the shytes hauled too tight, in order to lose none of the wind. Bubbis is the striking of the sail against the mast by back winds. Lek is a leak. Pres, a press of sail, is still in use, for using every sail that will draw wind. Sloggis is a squall, or gust of wind, such as are commonly met with at St. Abb's Head, and Buchanness, in the north of Scotland. Mr. Pinkerton will not be surprised at my knowledge in these things, when he is informed that I have seen the rage of a storm in the Bay of Biscay, in a clear night, with thunder at intervals: the most magnificent scene, I imagine, that can be seen in this globe.

Various societies in Scotland, political, religious, and irreligious, are to celebrate, on the 5th of November next, the revolution which was effected by the Prince of Orange, an hundred years ago. I wish Mr. Pinkerton would write a song for the Revolution Club, of which I will make one on that day. Nobody will do it better. It must be to a tune that every body can sing, such as Purcell's "God save the King," or Thomson's When Britain first at Heaven's command." If Mr. Pinkerton will undertake it, his health will be drunk in a bumper by the Revolution Club; and I will send him a memorandum of the chief grievances from which the Scots were delivered by that great event.

66

I have troubled you with so many remarks and queries, that it will be a labor to answer them, unless you shall receive help from Mr. Pinkerton, or from the hand of one of Mr. Elmsley's young

men.

Be pleased to present my best respects to Mr. Pinkerton, and to Mr. Elmsley-alas! I cannot say to worthy James Ingram.

MR. PINKERTON TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN.

Knightsbridge, May 20th, 1788.

The bad state of your health, with which General Melville had made me acquainted long ago, gives me sincere concern; but I hope that the present spring, as a pleasant and convalescent season, will soon restore your lordship to your pursuits, to your friends, and your country.

I could not conceive, my lord, that Lindsay's piece should be so immodest. But it only forms one out of six poems meant to be published together; and all the obscene parts shall be castrated so I hope still that your lordship will have no cause to regret that the collection is inscribed to you. But, as I am at present occupied with Barbour, (as a relaxation from historical pursuits,) I must defer that collection for a year or two; and your lordship will have time enough to think of the matter.

When your lordship can attend to literary affairs, I should be much obliged if you would cause some of your correspondents near the spot to take a small map, or bird's-eye view, of the whole island of Icolmkill, as I wish to engrave it for the Vita Sanctorum Scotia, now in the press.

General Melville said he would write to your lordship concerning a small literary scheme I proposed to him, namely, to have a catalogue taken and printed of all the Gaelic manuscripts found in Scotland.

I dare say your lordship may know some person proper to undertake another scheme for illustrating our antiquities: to wit, a dictionary of names of places in Scotland, where antiquities and curiosities are to be seen, with brief descriptions of towns, &c. This, though a mere compilation, would be highly useful to travellers and others, and might be thrown into one or two small volumes.

A traveller informs me that Mr. Cummyng neglects the manuscripts of the Antiquarian Society shockingly; and, in particular, that Drummond of Hawthornden's are all in confused heaps. I hope your lordship will think the honor of the Society concerned in removing this charge, though also common to the Advocates' Library. If Drummond's answer to Camden be among these manuscripts, Mr. Nichols, I am sure, would gladly pay for a copy to print in the Bibliotheca Topographica.

DR. JOHN ANDERSON TO MR. PINKERTON. Glasgow, Aug. 5th, 1788.

I thank you heartily for your letter of the 9th of June last. It would have been answered sooner, but I was out of town; and the toasts and

subject of conversation for the Revolution Club were not ready till yesterday.*

TOASTS AND SUBJECTS OF CONVERSATION

FOR NOV. 5TH, 1788.

1. To the immortal memory of James II. King of Great Britain, who produced the best system of political liberty that has ever existed, though he possessed a violent desire, and the greatest advantages for rendering himself absolute !

2. May the Ministers of those times never be forgotten: Feversham, Jefferies, Kirk, Wright, Lauderdale, Hatton, Sharp, Aberdeen, Queensberry, Perth, &c.!

3. Never-fading honor to the memory of such as suffered for supporting the rights of human nature: Pilkington, Ward, Russell, Sydney, Barnardistone, Rosewell, the grandson of the great Hampden; the 251 persons condemned at Taunton, Mrs. Grant, Lady Lisle, Prideaux, Cornish, Coke, Compton, Halifax, Nottingham, Mordaunt, Jones, Montague, Charleton, Nevil, &c.; the twelve Magistrates of Edinburgh, More, Argyll, Weir, Spencer, Baillie, Carstairs, Burnet, &c.; the 2000 persons who were outlawed under the pretence of holding intercourse with rebels; the multitudes who were put to death without any trial !

4. Blessed be the memory of the Prince of Orange, who saved his own country from ruin, restored the liberties of Britain, and supported the independency of Europe; who was the friend of civil liberty, of religious toleration, of the brave, and of the honest, even among his enemies!

5. Everlasting renown, in all the nations of the earth, to the Convention of Scotland, which voted, That King James, by his mal-administration and his abuse of power, had forfeited all title to the crown, and therefore they made a tender of it to the Prince and Princess of Orange; while the Convention of England only voted, That he, having violated the fundamental laws of the constitution, and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, had abdicated the government, and that the throne was thereby vacant.

6. Health to consistent Jacobites, who ought to respect the