Deloraine's place; some of my frds thought y' this was a good occasion for my great frds to fix my family and Peerage; but I must have patience. Sir Rob. Rich, y' frð, gets Deloraine's horse, and Coll. Cathcart gets Rich's dragoons, and Coll. Handgrave gets Cathcart's Regiment. Brigad de Bourgay comes down in Bavell's place. All ye members are going up fast, and they expect a hot battle against y' frd Sir Rob. at the Sitting; but I hope he will defeat his enemys. I wish you perfect health in this new year, and in more. many I drink a bumper to it almost every day of my Life; and I am wt a most sincere Affection and respect, my Dear Laird of Culodin, Edin 5th January 1731. Your own old Slave, LOVAT. My Dear Laird of Cullodin, No. CLV. Lord Lovat to M' John Forbes. I HAD the honour of your letter of y 15th, with the Attestation enclosed in it, but two dayes after the Post returned for Inverness. I give you, D' Sir, a thousand thanks for your frdly and affectionat expressions towards me and my Children; It is realy what I shall alwayes expect from my dear John Forbes, of Culodin, who supported my Interest, and stood up for me, even in the tyme of my most desperat circumstances; and I bless God, I cannot accuse myself of ingratitude; for I can freely declare, y' I never had the least occasion to serve your interest, or any y was concerned in you, but I run to serve you wt as much zeal and cheerfulness as I would do my own family; so, dear John, their is no love lost; and as I am most sensible of the essential services you have done me both in Scotland and England, on signal occasions; so you may assure yourself that there is not a Forbes of your family, except your brother, who loves your person more affectionatly, nor none of them would ventur their blood sooner to serve you than I would do while I have courage and breath.— After what I have said, I take the freedom to tell you, yt I am convinced, if you know really the unworthy manner in which I have been insulted by the Chisolms, after doing the most essential services to the Chisolm and to his family, you would as soon offer to throw me from the Bridge in the River of Ness, as you would desire me to consent to put those villans at liberty, who beat and insulted some of my men and relations. I do assur you, Dear Culodin, the whole design is to affront me in setting those villans at liberty, and hope y' you never will go into yt; for it is but highly just y' they should willingly make a Campagne or two in Holand, since I save them on y account from transportation; and those fellows w the two Camerons yt I have in your prison will be such a good complement for honest Arthur, y' I hope it may contribut to get him a company now y' the Dutch are going to raise ten thousand men of additional troops; and I shall take care y' they will not be expensive to Arthur till they are in Holand, and then they will be worth themselves. Your Cusin Hughy is to let me know this week, when the Capt of Arthur's Regt goes off, or sends over his men ; and then I'll send an order to carry those fellows and the Camerons wt a guard of the forces to this place, and deliver them myself to y' Cap' for my Dear Arthur's use; and I most humbly intreat for your assistance and authority in this affair, since sincerely my honour is concerned in it. I give you joy for dear Hughy's being assessor in Tom Erskine's place. I do assur you, that I wrought like a tiger for Hughy, and my labour was not useless, nor in vain. Provost Lindsay acted like your brother in the affair. I saw a letter of my L' Advocat's yesterday, y' says y' all ye stories against ye ministry ministry vanished like smoak, and y' frå Sir Rob. triomphes; so drink his health as I do your's just now in a bumper; and I am, w' a most sincere zeal & most affectionat Respect, Dear Sir, Edin', 29th January 1731. Your most obed', most obliged, and most humble Serv', LOVAT. P. S. Notwithstanding yt all that hears it, and my L Roistown himself, approves much of y great and generous offer y' brother, my Lord Advocat, made to Fraserdale's family in his own name & mine, to put an end to all difference, yet I am told y' Fraserdale's so high and mighty y' he will not hear of it; however I am exonered, and so is my La Advocate, who will soon let them know, as he said to my Lord Roistown, y' they used him ill as well as me, and y' he never would hereafter 'allow me to make them any offers. While MacLeod keeps the one & Sir George Stewart the other at rack and manger, they never think of their family or children. I have done my part. Adieu. Dear Duncan, No. CLVI. Sir Tho' Pringle to the Lord Advocate. I SEND you inclosed the inscription, which, upon revising, I cannot alter, and yet am not thoroughly well pleased with it. Tho' we are got out of the Gothick taste in most other things, yet I think we continue in it as to inscriptions; & it was only in complyance to the prevailing taste that I writ it; for I cannot help liking the old plain Roman way; in which it was sufficient to tell the person's name & character in plain prose; & any elogium after it, was in Verse. If mine do not please, I should be sorry if they pitched upon that one published in M' Pope's Name: the Latin is so obscure, that it may very well pass for an ænigma; & tho' the English distich is very pretty, yet I would rather see it shine in a Collection of Epigrams than on S' Isaac's monument, By the by, if they are not pleased with mine, I should not like to read it in the Newspapers, especially with my name at it. I am surprised that neither Halley nor D' Frend have tryed their hand on that subject: especially the last; of whom I have seen several good performances of that kind, tho' they are generally too prolix. I wrott to M' Logan, of Dunbar, as I told you I would do, both in your name & mine, about his Uncle M' Cunningham's papers; & I have since had an evening's conversation with him; the sum of which was, that his Uncle has not left one single scrape of any thing ready for the press, or even in any tolerable order. His notes on Horace are written on the Margin of six Volumes; whereof three are the text of Horace, as he published it; and the other three are his animadversions on Bentley. The use of all these, I am promised against next week: the Lord have mercy on the patients till I have done with them! His notes on Phædrus are likewise only on the margins of two Editions of Phædrus; but he thinks them fuller than the others, & is talking of giving them to M' Ruddiman, if he will be at pains to putt them in order & publish them. He has marginal notes upon several other authors; as Virgil, Statius, Quintillian, Cicero ; any of which he offers to send me after I have done with Horace. His Notes on the Corpus are larger than any of the rest, & not writt on the margin, as the rest. His Copy of the Corpus is interleaved with clean paper; SQ so that there is a leaf of written notes, for every printed leaf. He told me, the Advocat's Library has applyed to him to have it; but he has given the curators no answer as yet, nor did he seem determined when he spoke to me. What will surprise you most is, that he has left nothing of his scheme of the Christian religion. M' Logan told me, he had inquired at him about it when he was in his perfect senses; but that he declared to him that he had never putt it in writing, & that he would dictate it to him any day, for he had it all in his head, & that it could be contain'd in four or five sheets of paper; however, every day that Logan press'd him to do it, he found always some reason for shifting it, till he was incapable of doing any thing. I congratulate you on your successfull experiment of Sobriety: your irregular meals may do harm; but even when you putt Dinner & Supper together, it will be enough to change your Rule of 3 to 4. I am sorry for poor Will. Aikman. If he gives too much way to his Melancholy, he may cast himself so far back in the bad season as not to reach the good. Pray let me have some polls [politics] in your next. I hear, all go's swimmingly with the Governor, & that he is on the point of surmounting all difficulties. I hope you will keep a medal of S' Isaac's for me. I SENT you a long letter last post, with S' Isaac's inscription; but I could not help trying to mend it next morning; especially the line I liked worst; in the place of which I have put two, & upon that account transposed another; which is all the alteration in the inclosed. I am very fond of the Alteration (however little you think of it), as well on account of the phrase, as that it expresses better the nature of the Newtonian Philosophy in opposition to any other. If the inscription is thought too long, or is really too long for the space on the Monument, I think the lines I have inclosed betwixt these[] may be omitted. I have gott two Volumes of Horace, with Cunningham's marginal Notes; but the hand is so bad, & the lines so closs on one another, that I have difficulty to make sense of them, tho' I perceive no siglæ, or secret marks, among them. However, I design to give true pains, & you will see probably the fruit of my labours when you return. Ed'. Feb. 2, 1731. Your's, H. S. E. 'Isaacus Neutonus T. P. Dear Sir, Quod lucida tela diei Quod severiore calculo Quod ultimorum caligo temporum Acceptum referat grata posteritas.] æquavit animi candor, Mortali vix ut fas sit propius attingere superos. No. CLVIII. Lord Lovat to Mr John Forbes. I TRULY long to know how you are after your last week's cavalcade. I am afraid y' your kind heart to your friends will at last send [you] to the other World; and tho' I love y' B' Duncan very well, yet I sincerely declare I never wish or desire to see any other Laird of Culodin than my Dear John Forbes, who was always my warm and stedfast friend sinc ever I had any use for a frd; for which I shall be thankful while their is breath in me. My bearns are very well, and will be your humble servants. I am much indisposed sinc I saw you at y' own house; many marks apear y shew y1 the tabernacle is failing; the teeth are gone; and now the cold has so seiz'd my head, y' I am almost deaf w' a pain in my ears; those are so many sounds of trompette y' call me to another world, for which you and I are hardly well prepared; but I have a sort of advantage of you; for if I can but dy w' a little of my old French belief, I'll get ye Legions of Saints to pray for me; while you will only get a number of drunken fellows, and the Innkeepers and tapister Lasses of Inverness, and M' McBean, y' holy man, &c. I beg you let me know what accounts you have of my dear Duncan's health; I hope he will not cost you and me any more teares, which his first sickness made us shed very bitterly together. I am heartily glad y' you saw Willie Baillie, your worthy good frd's son, behave so well; it will be worthy of you to give him all maner of protection and encouragement. Whether sick or heal, I ever am w' an unalterable Affection & Respect, My dear Laird of Culodin, Beaufort, 10th April 1731. Your most faithfull Slave, LOVAT. P. S. I take the freedom to send you some tarmichens, and a black cock y' I got last night from Glenstrafain, where you have mounted the highest hills as cleverly as any Scotchman ever did. Adieu. No. CLIX. No. CLIX. My Dear Laird of Cullodin, Lord Lovat to Mr. John Forbes. I AM as much vex'd as any man alive at the escape of y' murdering villan y stab'd y' nevew and my cusin; and if the Jailor was my relation, I would concur to send him to the Plantations; for he must have plainly contrived and effectuat his escape, and no doubt he has been sufficiently bribed for it; for which he should suffer. It is pretty lucky yt just now, as I received your letter, I have two of my trusty serjeants w' me; Alex. Erchet's son, and William Fraser, son to Dulcraig. I send them this minute to march all night, the one by Straobench, and the other by Glenmoristown; so y' if he goes either of those ways, they will have a fair chance to seize him. I order all my Company y' are to the Westward to join them; and I command to make the same diligence as if my Life depended on it; and I know they will be faithful and actif. But my plain opinion is, that he will, when it's dark this night, cross Ness about Borlum or Delifour, and go straight on to Tullidanside, where he is safe; for none in y' country will lay hands upon him, except Col' Grant or Capt. George met him in the teeth. I tell what I truly think, because I would give any thing to have y villan seized and punished. If I am able to ride, I am to meet Col. Grant on business of our Company's at Dalrachnys on Wednesday night; and you may belive I'll know if he has gone to y' Country; and I will wait of you on Tuesday afternoon at Culodin. But I am so very much indisposed now, y' I am afraid I will not be able to keep my appointment with Col. Grant. You may be sure, D' Culodin, y' what vexes you vexes me, tho' a Fraser was not at all concerned in the matter; and I will always make your quarrel my own; for I am, while there is breath in me, w' much Love & Respect, My dear Laird of Culodin, Your most faithful Slave, } Beaufort, 25th April 1731-seven at night. S LOVAT. No. CLX. M' Delafaye to the Lord Advocate. My Dear Lord, Whitehall, July 10th, 1732. YOUR most obliging Letter of the 5th instant was brought me Yesterday by a flying pacquet. Expressions of kindness from so valuable a friend are a cordial to one who, in the midst of a crowd, leads y Life of a hermit; a stranger to the world, & ye ways of it. Having an Opportunity of sending to Claremont, I have got a further reprieve for Joseph Hume, wh I send by flying pacquet; & lest yo former reference should be lost, I will desire of my Lord Duke of Newcastle to sign a duplicate of it, & send it you by y post. This is y second time that the man's life has been in danger, by y want of attention of those who solicit for him; for it is not yo business of yo Officer here, nor indeed could any Officer watch the progress of every affaire that passes thro' their hands into those of other people. Pray, in such a case as this, where circumstances unforeseen and meerly accidental happen, could not ye Lords of justiciary take upon them to prolong a reprieve? I ask purely for information: for as to ye present business, your Compassion & humanity has secured y Man once more. The continuation of y reprieve will come soon enough. R 2 Your |