ART. III.-Concilia Scotia: Ecclesia Scoticana Statuta tam Provincialia quam Synodalia quæ supersunt, 1225-1559. Edinburgi, 1866. 2 vols. quarto.

BEFORE noticing the remarkable work whose title is prefixed, we must say something of its author, who was dead before this last product of his learned industry was in the hands of the public. Thinking that such a man ought not to be allowed to pass away without some more lasting memorial than is afforded by the obituary column of a newspaper, we propose to devote a few pages to tell the general reader something of the life and qualities of one who stood alone in the department of letters which he cultivated.

JOSEPH ROBERTSON, born in 1810, was a native of Aberdeenshire. To speak more precisely, he was of a family of small tenants or yeomen, if we may use a word not native to us, settled in the Brae of Mar, between Dee and Don. The designation of the class to which his family belonged is of little consequence. Perhaps the English yeoman is not to be found in Scotland, or found only with a difference.' The well-to-do farmer of England, if, by some rare accident, he wishes to push his family fortunes out of his own sphere, looks to a shop in the neighbouring town, or gathers a little money and sends a son out to Canada or Australia. Some other channels may tempt him, if he is ambitious; but the last of all to be thought of, is the laborious and secluded life of a man of letters and learning, without even the Church for a remunerating object. Thanks to our cheaper education, thanks also perhaps to a traditionary feeling for scholarship among our people, this is different with us; and the education which Robertson got at school and college is enjoyed by multitudes of his own rank who are never heard of for any learning or literary accomplishment in after life. His classical scholarship was in fact very homely, and amounted to nothing more than a power to read and write grammatically Latin prose, and to enjoy and quote with pleasure Virgil's Æneid. He had no more Greek than Shakespeare, and of modern tongues he was well read only in English and Scotch, with a grammatical knowledge of French. Such was the apparatus of arms with which he had to carve his way to reputation or fortune. We don't mean to follow him through the stages of his journey upwards, though not a step that he took but was honourable. At school he was the bold boy, renowned for feats of strength and daring; at college (Marischal College), a leader of the Burschen. On leaving the

hardly appreciate this kind of poetry. Vers de société, in the narrowest acceptation of the word, were written by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and by Mademoiselle de Scudéry, but these ladies were exceptions to most rules, and exceptional even among authoresses, while on Lady Mary the well-bred philosophical air which should distinguish drawing-room verse sat ill, and beginning by being coarse she ended by being bitter. Of late, our lady writers, great as has been their success in fiction and in devotional poetry, have hardly attempted the poetry of elegance. Englishwomen in general have not that conversational ease and self-control which are requisite; they either express their feelings with great passion in their books, or they are modestly reticent: they never appear to trifle about the tender passion, and, considered as writers, are curiously devoid of humour, George Eliot' standing almost alone in the possession of that gift. The absence of precise education and of scholarship makes women insensible to the artistic charm of highly-finished poetry: thus they are often taken with the weakly religious, the sensational, or the unintelligible style, and the demand creating the supply, does real harm to poetry considered as an art. That which is of the highest order has other aims, and must, we know, be looked at from other points of view than the merely artistic; but as regards this, the lighter or secondary sort of poetry, which for lack of another or better name we have called the poetry of elegance, it were to be wished that writers and readers would go to school in the English undefiled of this Lyra Elegantiarum. They will find there the best of models when they want to banter or to flirt, or it may be to whisper into the ear of society a bit of good-humoured and not too tedious advice.

ART. III.-Concilia Scotia: Ecclesia Scoticana Statuta tam Provincialia quam Synodalia quæ supersunt, 1225-1559. Edinburgi, 1866. 2 vols. quarto.

BEFORE noticing the remarkable work whose title is prefixed, we must say something of its author, who was dead before this last product of his learned industry was in the hands of the public. Thinking that such a man ought not to be allowed to pass away without some more lasting memorial than is afforded by the obituary column of a newspaper, we propose to devote a few pages to tell the general reader something of the life and qualities of one who stood alone in the department of letters which he cultivated.

JOSEPH ROBERTSON, born in 1810, was a native of Aberdeenshire. To speak more precisely, he was of a family of small tenants or yeomen, if we may use a word not native to us, settled in the Brae of Mar, between Dee and Don. The designation of the class to which his family belonged is of little consequence. Perhaps the English yeoman is not to be found in Scotland, or found only with a difference.' The well-to-do farmer of England, if, by some rare accident, he wishes to push his family fortunes out of his own sphere, looks to a shop in the neighbouring town, or gathers a little money and sends a son out to Canada or Australia. Some other channels may tempt him, if he is ambitious; but the last of all to be thought of, is the laborious and secluded life of a man of letters and learning, without even the Church for a remunerating object. Thanks to our cheaper education, thanks also perhaps to a traditionary feeling for scholarship among our people, this is different with us; and the education which Robertson got at school and college is enjoyed by multitudes of his own rank who are never heard of for any learning or literary accomplishment in after life. His classical scholarship was in fact very homely, and amounted to nothing more than a power to read and write grammatically Latin prose, and to enjoy and quote with pleasure Virgil's Eneid. He had no more Greek than Shakespeare, and of modern tongues he was well read only in English and Scotch, with a grammatical knowledge of French. Such was the apparatus of arms with which he had to carve his way to reputation or fortune. We don't mean to follow him through the stages of his journey upwards, though not a step that he took but was honourable. At school he was the bold boy, renowned for feats of strength and daring; at college (Marischal College), a leader of the Burschen. On leaving the

University he began the serious business of life in an Advocate's or law-agent's office in Aberdeen. He was not, perhaps,

'A clerk foredoom'd his father's soul to cross,

Who pens a stanza when he should engross.'

He even derived some benefit afterwards from a little acquaintance with the language of law-process; but he did not relish his occupation in the attorney's office, and soon left it. However, he never for a moment lost courage, and turned without difficulty to each new means of living that offered. Like so many men who have run a literary course, Robertson first found a vehicle for his thoughts, and a shadowy hope of remuneration, in a local magazine. Then he was editor of a provincial paper in Aberdeen. These first occupations may have had some influence upon his after life. The editor of a provincial paper, if he is good for anything, and if he would please his readers, must dabble in local antiquities; and the antiquities of Aberdeen, town and county, soon obtained a foremost interest in the mind of Robertson. But there was from the beginning a bias to one pursuit, which gradually encroached upon the other occupations that he had recourse to, rather of necessity than choice. His mind from the first had been turned to history. The first jeu d'esprit of his magazine days was a historical squib, which he called The Last of the Pechts,' and wherever he found an opportunity he willingly overflowed into historical inquiry and discussion. That he was saved from the vagueness into which historical discussion had run in Scotland, was chiefly owing to the rare good sense that was innate in him, but partly to an occupation that soon filled a great part of his time.

When the Spalding Club was instituted in 1839, for the investigation of northern historical antiquities, Robertson took a large share in the editorial work. Several volumes of personal memoirs, and of Scotch history, were given to the world, with all the accuracy befitting historical works, and with the careful research and elucidation which were soon found to mark whatever Robertson put his hand to. But the work which was to give the best training to his own mind, and to prepare him for historical undertakings of greater magnitude, was a collection. of parochial antiquities of the Northern Counties, begun under the direction, and at the expense, of the late Lord Aberdeen, the statesman Earl of Aberdeen. The plan of the book was to class under each parish the extant charters and documents of any antiquity regarding it, and for this purpose private charterchests, and chartularies of bishoprics and monasteries, were laid under contribution. One object was to abolish the race of fabling antiquaries and pedigree-mongers. Nothing was to be

admitted but actual evidence, such evidence as the nature of the facts allowed. Accuracy was everything, and it required care and accomplishment of various kinds. Such an occupation gave a definite direction and limits to the scope of Robertson's studies, a thing of much importance to every student.

It may seem to some, perhaps to most of our readers, a dreary enough occupation. The charters and law transactions showed little more than who gave and who got the land, with only a glimpse now and then of curious tenures and peculiar rural customs. There was one source of local history, hitherto quite unexplored,-vestiges of old tradition; and a mind like Robertson's, rating tradition only at its worth, still valued as facts the received traditions of each age. These he found in the breviaries and old church books, and ancient lives of now forgotten saints, compared and joined on to existing names of places, customs, superstitions, often unwittingly drawn from such old sources.

As they stand, these Antiquities of the Shires' contain the territorial history of the district. They show the transmission of land, the growth and succession of families, the settlement and history and antiquities of parish churches. They require nothing but to be cast into a narrative form to make excellent county histories, after the best manner of those delightful books in England. The qualities required for compiling such a collection, the education necessary, is only to be acquired, here in Scotland, by the laborious process of self-instruction. There are no teachers with us for such a study. Even books which abound in other countries are wanting with us. The dictionaries of Ducange and Carpentier, the mighty volumes of Mabillon; and the Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique; the work which forms a little library of itself-L'Art de Vérifier les Dates, are not enough. Scotland has a law language and a charter language in many points peculiar. Our tenures and customs were different from France and England, and the first of all qualifications for a historical antiquary among us is to know the manners of the people and their language. The accomplishment which costs so much study, so much practice, was

1 First of all, the old charter must be read, and printed correctly. It is a mistake to think that a knowledge of old hand is sufficient for this purpose. Many letters in old charters, like u and n, and t and c, are identical; many words in old charters are written in a contracted form, and require to be extended according to the sense of the sentence. The editor, therefore, must know Latin grammar, and be familiar with middle-age Latin, the language of charters. He must be acquainted with the names of persons and places of the district, the measures, money, customs of the age, as well as the antique phraseology of feudal law. Most old charters are undated, and to fix their periods is a mystery by itself, requiring a good library, much study, and continual practice.

VOL. XLVII.-NO. XCIII.

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