is very difficult; but your knowledge of history and of the antiquities of this country makes you equal to that task; and I hope your labor will meet with such a reception from the public as shall encourage you to finish that great work, which it seems you have in view, a complete history of Scotland from the earliest times to the reign of Mary. Go on, my dear Sir, and prosper. I shall be always happy to hear of your success.

THE EARL OF BUCHAN TO MR. PINKERTON.

Dryburgh Abbey, Oct. 23rd, 1789.

Having been much occupied, in the course of this summer, in conducting my works here and in West Lothian, I have had less leisure than usual to bestow on my favorite pursuits in literature; yet I have found time, by stealing it from the night, to read with great care and attention your truly learned and elaborate Inquiry into the History of Scotland preceding the commencement of the reign of Malcolm III.,

excellent writer had before given sundry smaller works, illustrating our history and antiquities, all of which are highly esteemed for the candour, love of truth, exactness, and industry, which pervade them. It is much to be regretted that he did not continue his Annals; and it is impossible to guess at the reason of the interruption, except that some indignant star seems to influence Scottish history and antiquities. But three centuries of our history illustrated by Sir David Dalrymple, form a great and pleasing acquisition."

on which, notwithstanding the violent disgust which I find it has excited among my countrymen, I can very freely give you my encomium, without either fearing their disapprobation or courting your esteem.

Born in an age of energy and improvement, I glory in being subject to its influence, and in being disposed to promote the expulsion of prejudices, which I may accidentally have contributed to establish; and I continue to desire to assist you in elucidating the true history of my country, to which, as deserving my affectionate attention, I shall always give my services, without forgetting what I owe to truth and to the general interests of humanity.

MR. PINKERTON TO THE EARL OF
BUCHAN.

Kentish Town, Nov. 10th, 1789.

I am honored with your lordship's favor of the 23rd of October, and am extremely obliged by the kind terms in which you speak of my work on our history. That it must shock many received prejudices among my countrymen is certain; and among these some, which, to use your lordship's expression, you may have accidentally contributed to establish. Your candid remark upon this occasion does your lordship the greatest honor; and it is to be hoped that your lordship will protect this work against narrow-minded malevolence; and be

assured that, if any Scotish man thinks that he is a warmer friend of his country than its author, he is mistaken. The "violent disgust," mentioned by your lordship, is perhaps not generally prevalent in Scotland. Your valuable friend, Mr. Dempster, is a warm friend of the work; and the Perth Academy has expressed approbation. But your lordship having been a patron of the Celtic school of our history, (the only one indeed known till this book appeared,) it is natural that many of those befriended by your lordship should be enemies of this work. I indeed lay my account with persecution, for not only having attacked national prejudices, but attacked them violently. Had the supporters of these prejudices been moderate, I should have been moderate too; but violent prejudices must be violently attacked; and there is surely no country in which prejudices are so violent as in ours. I am convinced, my lord, that old John Knox knew us very well; and, if he had not reformed us violently, he would never have reformed us at all.

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Your lordship will remember that you permitted me to dedicate to your lordship my Scarce Scotish Poems Reprinted." That work is now in the press, and will be out next spring. If your lordship wishes to see the dedication before it be printed, let me know, and it shall be sent. It will contain just compliments on your attention to our antiquities in general, and to my labors in particular.

Barbour will soon be published. I have dropt all thoughts of Wallace; and I wish much that

your lordship would recommend to the Morisons to print it from the same manuscript as Barbour. I have drawn out arguments for the twelve books, which are at their service. As Wallace is even more popular than Bruce in Scotland, there is no doubt but the edition would be a matter of gain, and not of loss. If Wallace were thus printed, very little remains to be done for our old poetry.

Your lordship having good friends at the Vatican, I am induced to mention a discovery, which I had from a gentleman just returned from Rome. There is in the Vatican a "Historia Britanniæ,' written by a Marcus, or Malchus, Anachorita, about the year 990, as appears from calculations in it. It is very short, and might soon be copied; and it certainly would be a matter of glory to import it into this country. If your lordship caused it to be published here, I should willingly superintend the press.

MR. DEMPSTER TO MR. PINKERTON.

Dunnichen, Nov. 25th, 1789.

Immediately on receipt of your favor of the 17th, I wrote to Mr. David Erskine, the first solicitor in Edinburgh, on the subject of your annuity. There is none to whom the wants of the great are better known; and, as he is an excellent antiquarian himself, I hope he will

*This curious work, which is in fact a rifacciamento of Nennius, has since been published with ample notes by the Rev. William Gunn.

enter with some keenness and kindness into your views, especially as they are so very becoming in a literary man.

I know no vendible sinecures which yield any thing like nine per cent. for money. Those about St. James's hardly give five; and in Scotland I do not know of any that are avowedly vendible, except some in Mr. Dundas's disposal, which are all offices of fatigue and attendance in the attorney line.

These are the hopes I have of being able to serve you; and I wish they may be well founded. When a man can give little assistance, he is proportionably ready to give advice. To this the following impertinence must be imputed; and I hope it will be forgiven:

The expense of housekeeping, however moderately kept, is, I know by experience, excessive in London, and worse in its neighbourhood. You are unmarried. Rather than leave Great Britain and London, the best kingdom, and the best residence for a learned man, and rather than go to Switzerland, where, except in Geneva, (a dear place) one is apt to tire, I should be tempted to become a lodger and boarder in London, somewhere near the Museum. I remember the present Professor Ferguson boarding and lodging most comfortably on a first floor at 18s. per week. His victuals were sent up to him, or the family table open, just as he pleased. Our friend, Thorkelin, I presume, lives on very easy terms in London; and to a man so spiritually employed as you, bodily considerations are not of much consequence.

The