Page images
PDF
EPUB

MR. PINKERTON TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN.

Jan. 29th, 1793.

I have been so exceedingly occupied with domestic and literary affairs for these some months past, that I have almost omitted all epistolary correspondence. But I must no longer delay to inform your lordship, of whose favors I shall ever retain a grateful remembrance, that my three volumes of Scotish Poetry, dedicated to your lordship, were published last month. I am at a loss how to forward a copy: else I would have sent one long ago; and I await your directions in this.

Amid the distractions of modern politics I hope your lordship continues your literary pursuits. Your lives of Fletcher and Thomson I have read with great pleasure and instruction. If you can spare a leisure hour, I should be very happy to have a few lines on the present state of literature and politics in Scotland.

I know not if Mr. de Cardonnel be in Scotland or not. I called repeatedly at the Heralds' office about a business he recommended to me, but never found the person he mentioned. I did not write to Mr. de Cardonnel; because I had done nothing, and he had given me to understand that he was about to leave Scotland for a season. This I mention, that, if he be offended, your lordship may have the goodness to intercede for me, as I

have been obliged to him and should be sorry to appear ungrateful.

I am in London for a month or two; and my address is No. 120, Tottenham Court Road.

I have spoken to Mr. Nichols, who seems cold in the business of Scotish portraits, as he has many schemes on hand, to return the drawing of Alexander III.

MR. DAVIDSON TO MR. PINKERTON.

Feb. 13th, 1793.

I had your favor of the 29th ult. and am in daily expectation of getting your last publication, which the booksellers here tell me is on the road. A new book of Scotish poems published by you, promises me the utile and the dulce conjoined; which is a treasure to one of my age, confined much with a disease, often teasing, and sometimes torturing, as I have found the stone to be.

I observe well what you write about our old laws; but, except the copy of those of Robert the Bruce, I know of no authentic copies of those preceding James I. Messrs. Robertson, who keep the records here, think Skene has mistaken a copy in the record-house, which seems not at all authentic, for an original of those of Robert III.; which may have been the case, as he was not very

accurate.

VOL. I.

X

I observe with pleasure that you have found in a contemporary manuscript the laws of Robert II. and III. If these are different from what Skene has published, and you are pleased to favor me with them, I would publish them, merely to preserve them, and let the world know from whom they came. But the scraps in the Regiam Majestatem, different from Glanvill, do not strike me as authentic; and there seems not enough in the whole for a book. By the by, Lord Frederick Campbell has it in view, as I understand, to have a new edition of the whole Scotish acts published from the records. But the records contain none prior to October 9th, 1466. My worthy friend, Sir David Dalrymple, proposed to show me some things about our ancient laws and old manuscripts, &c. But, when I saw him at New Hailes, he was unwell and distressed with sore eyes, so he could not search for them; and I doubt now if I may find them easily, when I go to see his family: it will be therefore obliging if you will communicate to me your and his ideas about them.

I remember many years ago to have seen in the Paper-office, a manuscript with the dates or prefixes of some old Scotish statutes; but I think it contained none of the statutes themselves.

MR. W. G. BROWNE TO MR. PINKERTON.

Cairo, April 18th, 1793.

It is now not far short of nine months since I addressed to you a lame account of my attempt to discover the Temple of Jupiter. Part of that interval has been employed by me in surveying what remains of Egyptian antiquities between Cairo and the first cataract. Desirous as I was to make my observations perfectly at leisure, I should willingly have occupied there a much longer time, had I not, from a combination of circumstances, found it impossible. I have since passed from Kenné to Cossir, have taken a view of the vicinity of the lake Moris, and am now just returned from following the Israelites in Arabia Petrea; but without any design to enter into a disquisition relative to their miraculous passage through the sea. I was exceedingly anxious to trace what remains of the canal which united the Nile with the Red Sea; but, on my return from Arabia, when I proposed to myself to take that route, my expectations were frustrated by the unaccountable obstinacy and lying spirit of the Arabs, which all my efforts were unable to counteract. Should I be destined to return hither, another attempt shall be made. Thus, having in part completed since my return what previously to my departure I had been unable to accomplish, my protracted stay in Egypt is not an unqualified evil. I call it protracted, because, when at Assouan, I had endeavored to proceed to the south

ward; but found it impracticable, being unable to procure camels or any kind of assistance, and a war at the time subsisting between the exiled beys and the governor of Ibrim. I therefore returned hither, to wait the departure of some slave merchants who frequent Sennaar, by accompanying whom I have hopes of going farther towards the accomplishment of my wishes than I should be able to do in any other way. For more particulars I refer you to a future opportunity.

You will probably have heard the report of my being cut off at Kous; but I hope you will also have received the contradiction of it, and at an early period. Such an event indeed, in the present state of the country, there was some reason to expect; and two Greeks, travelling with some little merchandise, were decapitated by the cachif of that place, but a few days before my arrival there. The obstacles which occurred to me were confined to words only, and exchanging a few shots with the Arabs. We have here a copious supply of European news; yet I am truly ignorant of the state of affairs in that quarter. People in this region relate their dreams for authentic intelligence; and all their dreams issue from the ivory gate. All I know is, that the English King and the Convention of France are at war with each other; and that Louis XVI. was decollated. doubt not the French nation had reasons sufficiently strong for what they have done, but must forbear discourse on politics. They are, it is said, prosecuting furiously for libels; and, as a private letter has once been held libellous, I must con

I

« PreviousContinue »