and have a due sense of your goodness on this and other occasions. It will take some little time to find out a proper engraver of some substance to undertake the work, and perhaps I may not succeed; but I shall in this case be equally obliged by your lordship's condescension.

I am indebted to Dr. Anderson for his handsome permission to my friend; and the condition was previously intended, though I forgot to mention it, or imagined it implied.

Being a homo umbratilis, of a hypochondriac, unsocial disposition, I have hitherto abstained from any intention or exertion to become a member of literary societies; but, having received a diploma of election as an honorary member of the Royal Society of Icelandic Literature at Copenhagen, under the patronage of the Prince of Denmark, and being about to be elected a member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Norway, under that of the Danish king's brother, I should wish to be a member of your Antiquarian Society at Edinburgh, as I am of that of Perth. I must confess I should prefer such titles from my own country to those from any other; but I leave this matter entirely to your lordship's discretion, and believe that your lordship will not propose it, if not certain of success; for I have, it seems, enemies at home, who prefer what is sweet in the mouth to those bitter draughts which invigorate the body.

THE EARL OF ORFORD* TO MR. PINKERTON.

Berkeley Square, Dec. 26th, 1791.

As I am sure of the sincerity of your congratulations, I feel much obliged by them, though what has happened destroys my tranquillity; and, if what the world reckons advantages could compensate the loss of peace and ease, would ill indemnify me, even by them. A small estate, loaded with debt, and of which I do not understand the management, and am too old to learn, a source of law-suits amongst my near relations, though not affecting me, endless conversations with lawyers, and packets of letters to read every day and answer,--all this weight of new business is too much for the rag of life that yet hangs about me, and was preceded by three weeks of anxiety about my unfortunate nephew, and a daily correspondence with physicians and mad doctors, falling upon me when I had been out of order ever since July. Such a mass of troubles made me very seriously ill for some days, and has left me and still keeps me so weak and dispirited, that, if I shall not soon be able to get some repose, my poor head or body will not be able to resist. For the empty title, I trust you do not suppose it is

*The Hon. Horace Walpole succeeded to the title of Earl of Orford, Dec. 5th, 1791, upon the death of his nephew, George, the 3rd Earl. He died, unmarried, Mar. 2nd, 1797, at the age of 79.

any thing but an incumbrance, by larding my busy mornings with idle visits of interruption, and which, when I am able to go out, I shall be forced to return. Surely no man of seventy-four, unless superannuated, can have the smallest pleasure in sitting at home in his own room, as I almost always do, and being called by a new

name.

It will seem personal and ungrateful too, to have said so much about my own triste situation, and not to have yet thanked you, Sir, for your kind and flattering offer of letting me read what you have finished of your History; but it was necessary to expose my position to you, before I could venture to accept your proposal, when I am so utterly incapable of giving a quarter of an hour at a time to what I know, by my acquaintance with your works, will demand all my attention, if I wish to reap the pleasure they are formed to give me. It is most true that for these seven weeks I have not read seven pages, but letters, states of account, cases to be laid before lawyers, accounts of farms, &c. &c., and those subject to mortgages. Thus are my mornings occupied in an evening my relations and a very few friends come to me; and, when they are gone, I have about an hour to midnight to write answers to letters for the next day's post, which I had not time to do in the morning. This is actually my case now. I happened to be quitted at ten o'clock, and would not lose the opportunity of thanking you, not knowing when I could command another hour.

I by no means would be understood to decline your obliging offer, Sir: on the contrary, I accept it joyfully, if you can trust me with your manuscript for a little time, should I have leisure to read it but by small snatches, which would be wronging you, and would break all connexion in my head. Criticism you are too great a writer to want; and to read critically is far beyond my present power. Can a scrivener, or a scrivener's hearer be a judge of composition, style, profound reasoning, and new lights and discoveries, &c.? But my weary hand and breast must finish. May I ask the favor of your calling on me any morning, when you shall happen to come to town? You will find the new-old lord exactly the same admirer of yours.

DR. THORKELIN TO MR. PINKERTON.

Copenhagen, January 18th, 1792.

Nothing but illness could have prevented me from returning my warmest thanks to you for your very kind letters of Oct. 24th and Nov. 26th. Nothing indeed else could have withheld me so long from testifying the inward joy which I sincerely feel on account of the increase of your family, and the prosperous state which your family enjoys, and which, I pray Heaven, you may long share with the best partner, and those blooming roseate pledges of conjugal affection which surround you.

Voluspa and Diarium Wadstenense I have got for you, and will send both in the spring. Colgan's Acta and Trias are not to be had here; nor can they be suffered to go abroad, even if they should appear; because these legends are wanted in every one of our libraries. I am certainly willing to translate the Russian Annals of Nestor, provided I could get an editor who would pay the labor. In the mean time I am setting about to publish the ancient laws of Norway and Iceland, under the auspices of his excellency Count Bernstorff, and the Royal Society of Sciences, who have done me the honor of receiving me as a fellow. For which reason I have been obliged to write an essay, without which the society does not admit any body. The subject of my writing is the state of Ireland, previous to and about the coming of the Ostmen to that unhappy country. Your introduction has on this occasion been of much use to me, which I will not fail to acknowledge, and at the same time concur publicly in that praise, which every man of solid erudition pays it as due among us. The chamberlain, Suhm, is entirely of your opinion, which is no small encomium. He is at present divided between his History of Denmark in the 13th century and Scriptores Danici. He requests me to give you his best compliments, and to conjure you to publish, as soon as possible, your History of Scotland.

As to the rest, you will see, about September next, a large body of the Icelandic Annals from the birth of Christ to the middle of the 13th century; and perhaps the fourth volume of Suorro will then