Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/30

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. I. JAN. 8, 1910.

the Provost and Baillies, to find wine-

lasses. These he procured from " Lawrance tottis booth " to the amount of "twenty-nine punds Scottis," "for which payment the said Lawrance Stott does dayly trouble him."' This appeal one is pleased to find noted by the Lord Treasurer as paid in full.

Another document, consisting of some 52 pages foolscap, is an account of " Money Spent on the Fortification of Leith," together with the names and amounts paid to those employed. This is in 1639, by order of the Committee of Estates ; and it is of interest to note that ' Haydn's Dates, 8 ed. 1892, gives the 1560 fortification, but does not mention that of 1639, upon which James Loch, commissioned by the " Comit- tie," expended 12,400Z. sterling.

A MS. rime of 148 lines, entitled 'The Slow Policie, by The Man of the Moone, s pre- sumably written about 1642, criticizing Charles's Court and advisers, will in all probability be gladly welcomed by the antiquaries of Scotland.

It is at present only possible to dwell briefly upon any period, for after the many hundreds of papers dealing with the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries one must pass on to a most valuable sequence of the Jacobean, wherein are letters and " calls to arms n signed " James, " and addressed to the Stuarts of Appin, the last written just before Culloden. The flight after Culloden carried these letters to the Continent, where they remained for up- wards of thirty years before their apparent secret return to " Anne Stuart, spouse to David Loch, merchant in Leith."

At this point the question arises whether it was not David Loch and his wife who aided Ardsheil in his escape from Holland. The present Duke of Argyll in his account of this in ' Adventures in Legend J mentions a Leith merchant as discovering Ardsheil in an inn in that country, and in the plan of escape the merchant sends for his wife, who arrives to exchange garments, or rather to clothe Ardsheil in hers, and so effect his successful disguise and return to Scotland. The family relationship is here established, which, by the way, is missing from the ' Jacobite Peerage l ; and Ardsheil being a big man, it is possible that Anne Stuart was of a size somewhat corresponding.

The continuation of this sequence takes the form of a schoolboy letter, written by John Erskine from school at Edinburgh in 1749 to his aunt Frances Erskine, spouse of James Loch of Drylaw, and accompanying

her rooster, which had been lent to the boy for his school sport to fight the " Whigs* cocks," and which " comes with a bell around his neck a badge of victory."

The last of this sequence is by the Earl of Mar in 1824, who in a letter to James Loch, M.P., expresses " the thanks of an old man " for the trouble taken and kindness shown in securing the restoration of his title. Here another question arises relative to Burke, who gives the Earl of Mar as joining the Prince of Orange. If there is undeniable proof of this, it seems singular that the title and estates should have been confiscated,, had the allegiance been transferred, unless it was after the " Call to Arms " letter dated 1715-16, which bears the signatures of both " James " and " Mar." This would perhaps account for the confiscation, but the restoration not taking place till over a. century later, the joining of William seems open to doubt, and the questioning of the point must be allowed as pardonable curiosity.

The period 1796 to 1809 has already been lightly touched upon in the volumes of ' Brougham and his Early Friends,' recently issued privately ; but it abounds with letters of great literary and political interest awaiting the necessary encouragement for publication, while others deal extensively with Napoleon's threatened invasion.

Sir Walter Scott and Miss Edgeworth also appear, and it is curious that the former in mentioning the heirs to the ancient estate of Linlithgow repeatedly writes the name " Pope." The letter, although short, is of a humorously strong and characteristic nature. Thomas Campbell has left the original MS. of some of the early stanzas of ' Gertrude of Wyoming ' ; and the birth of the University of London is also described in the corre- spondence.

To catalogue this surprising accumulation in full would not be giving it more than it really merits, but the interest exhibited in it up to the present has not proved of a nature sufficient to warrant even a brief record, which, however, has been begun in the hope of its receiving the necessary encouragement.

The offer of a loan exhibition to Edinburgh is. at present awaiting the acceptance of the authorities of the " good towne," whose space, even now, is insufficient for showing their own possessions, so that they may reluctantly decline the offer. The thanks of all lovers of antiquity are due to Mr. H. B. Woodcock, of the firm of Messrs. Darling & Pead, for the preservation of the collection.