Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew (1st ed. vol 3).djvu/113



In the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. VI. (1866-67), pages 284 to 310, there are printed:— “Notes relating to Mrs Esther (Langlois, or) Inglis, the celebrated calligraphist, with an enumeration of Manuscript Volumes written by her between the years 1586 and 1624. By David Laing, Esq., Sec. F.S.A., Scot.” I am permitted to present my readers with an abridgment of Mr Laing’s Paper. Nicholas Langlois and Marie Preset, his wife, fled to this country from the St Bartholomew Massacre; their infant daughter, Esther, born (probably in Dieppe) in 1571, was a refugee with them. They immediately, or soon after their flight, settled in Edinburgh. The rudiments of the art of calligraphy, which Esther brought to such perfection, she learned from her mother. On the anniversary of St Bartholomew in 1574, “9 Calend. Septemb. 1574 quo die multa Christianorum millia, duos abhinc annos in Galliis trucidatione perfidiosa, e vivis fuerunt sublata,” Nicholas Langlois wrote a Latin letter to Mr David Lyndsay, Minister of Leith, acknowledging his obligations. The letter is followed by a copy of some sets of verses, in which his wife exhibits her beautiful writing in various styles of penmanship. This artistic portion of the still existing manuscript is introduced by the announcement, “Uxor mea vario caracteris genere ilia pro viribus in sequenti paginâ, me suasore, descripsit;” and it is signed thus:— Marie Preset Francoise escrivoit à Edimbourg le 24 d’Aoust, 1574.

The City Treasurer’s accounts bear evidence of the kindness shown to this refugee family, and prove that he was enabled to open a French school:— 