land, in her paffage to that country she kept her eyes conftantly fixed on the French coaft, and breathed out her expreffive forrow at quitting it in the following elegant verfes:

Adieu, plaifant Pays de France!
O ma patrie

La plus chérie,

Qui as nourri ma jeune enfance :
Adieu, France! adieu nos beaux jours!
La nef qui déjoint nos amours,
N'a eu de moi que la moitié;
Une part te refte, elle eft tienne:
Je la fie à ton amitié,

Pour que de l'autre il te fouvienne.

In the year 1564, Buchanan made fome ele gant verfes upon the marriage of Mary Queen. of Scots with Lord Darnley, and alfo on a diamond ring in the form of a heart, which Mary fent in the fame year to Elizabeth Queen of England. They are published in an account of the life and writings of George Buchanan, by Monf. Le Clerc, and may be thus translated :

This gem behold, the emblem of my heart,
From which my Coufin's image ne'er shall part!
Clear in its luftre, fpotlefs does it shine;
As clear, as fpotlefs, is this heart of mine!
What though the ftone a greater hardnefs wears,
Superior firmness ftill the figure bears.

This

This ring was prefented by King James the First to Sir Thomas Warner, and is now in the poffeffion of the great-grandfon of Sir Thomas.

By the kindness of Mr. PLANTA, the reader is prefented with the first letter that this unfortunate Queen ever wrote in English. It was written, most probably, in the fummer or autumn of the year 1568, and was addreffed to Sir Francis Knollys:

"Master Knoleis, y hauu har fum news from "Scotland, y fend zou to da the double of them. "y wreit to the Quin my gud fifter, and prey zou "to do the lyk conforme to that y spak zester"nicht unto zou, and fut hasti anfur y refer all to

66

zour discretion and wil lipne beter in zour "gud dalin for me nor y con perfuad zou nemli "in this langafg excus mi ivel wretein for y

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nevver ufed it afor and am hafted ze fchal fi "mi bel whuilk is opne it is fed Saterday mi "unfrinds will be vth (with) zou y fey nothing "but traft weil and ze fend one to zour wiff ze

may afur her schu wald a bin welcome to a pur stranger hua nocht bien aquanted with her " wil notcht bi over bald to wreit bot for the "aquantans betwix ous, y wil fend zou litle "tokne to rember zou of the gud hop y hauu in 66 zou ques że fend a met meffager y wald wyfh ze " beftouded

bestouded it reder upon her nor ain uder. thus my commendations y prey God hauu zou

<< efter

" in his kipin.

"Your asured gud frind

"Excuf my ivel wretein

"MARIE R.

"the furft time."

Ronfard, the celebrated French Poet, addreffed fome verfes to Mary. She presented him with a filver cup emboffed, representing Apollo and the Nine Muses, thus infcribed:

"A Ronfard l'Apollon de la fource des Mufes."

One of Mary's MS. letters ends with these melancholy words, " Car je fuis preffée de "mourir."

The following copy of verfes, written by this beautiful and unfortunate Princess during her confinement in Fotheringay Castle, is presented to the Public by the kindness of a very eminent and liberal Collector.

Que fuis-je, belas? et de quoi fert la vie?
J'en fuis fors qu'un corps privé de cueur;
Un'ombre vayn, un objet de malheur,
Qui n'a plus rien que de mourir en vie.
Plus ne me portez, O enemys, d'envie,
Qui n'a plus l'efprit à la grandeur :
J'ai confommé d'exceffive douleur,

Voltre

Voltre ire en bref de voir affouvie.
Et vous amys qui m'avez tenu chere,
Souvenez-vous que fans cueur, et fans fantes,
Je ne fcaurois auqun bon œuvre faire.
Souhaitez donc fin de calamitey,
Et que fus bas etant affez punie,
J'aie ma part en la joie infinie.

The verfes are written on a fheet of paper by Mary herself, in a large rambling hand. The following literal tranflation of them was made by a countrywoman of Mary's, a Lady in beauty of perfon and elegance of mind by no means inferior to that accomplished and unfor tunate Princess.

Alas, what am I? and in what eftate?

A wretched corfe bereaved of its heart;
An empty fhadow, loft, unfortunate:
To die is now in life my only part."
Foes to my greatnefs, let your envy reft,

In me no tafte for grandeur now is found:
Confum'd by grief, with heavy ills oppress'd,

Your wishes and defires will foon be crown'd. And you, my friends, who ftill have held me dear, Bethink you, that when health and heart are fled, And ev'ry hope of future good is dead, 'Tis time to wish our forrows ended here; And that this punishment on earth is given, That my pure foul may rife to endless blifs in Heaven.

In her way to Fotheringay Castle, Mary ftopped a few hours at Buxton, and with her diamond

diamond ring wrote on a pane of glass at the inn

of that place,

Buxtona, quæ tepida celebrabere numine lympha,
Buxtona, fortè iterum non adeunda, vale!
Uncertain, in the womb of Fate,
What ills on wretched Mary wait!
Buxton, my tribute (whilst I may)
To thy fam'd tepid fount I pay;
That fount, the cure of ills and pain,
Which I fhall never fee again!

Many curious MS. papers relative to Mary Queen of Scots are to be met with in the Library of the Scots College at Paris. The last time that David Hume was in that city, the learned and excellent Principal of the College fhewed them to him, and asked him, why he had pretended to write her history in an unfavourable light, without confulting them. David, on being told this, looked over fome letters which the Principal put into his hands, and, though not much used to the melting mood, burft into tears. Had Mary written the Memoirs of her own Life, how interesting must they have been! A Queen, a Beauty, a Wit, a Scholar, in distress, must have laid hold on the heart of every reader: and there is all the reafon in the world to fuppofe that she would have been candid and impartial. Mary, indeed, completely contradicted the obfervation made by the learned Selden in

VOL. I.

M

his