printed before publication; as it possibly may happen that I can furnish some illustrations. Do not let Mr. M'Gowen rest till he sends you the transcript; for, with the best inclinations possible, he is an unaccountable procrastinator.

You mistook me if you suppose that I reckoned Sir John Bruce to be the author of Hardyknute: it was his sister, Lady Wardlaw, who is said to have been the author: all that I know on the subject is mentioned in Bishop Percy's Collection : if you wish to have the original edition with the supplementary stanzas in the hand-writing of Dr. John Clerk, the copy is at your service. Sir John Bruce was a steady Whig; but I will not say any thing as to his sister's opinions: at any rate I should not wish to have my authority quoted as to the supposed political opinions of any one. I shall furnish you with the name of the lady, and of her husband, at full length. I know nothing particular about her, excepting this, that she was the mother of many handsome daughters, and that she had a turn for design in landscape.

When I wrote to Dr. Birch, I did not know the meaning of Scotorum pultis.* I afterward learnt that it respected the opinions of Pelagius. By the way, how came Pelagius or Morgan to be a Scotus?

I am much obliged to you for your intended present of Maitland's Poems: I suspect it is on shore in Lincolnshire.

• Scotorum pultis, (Scotch pottage,) is a term applied by St. Jerome to the heresy of Pelagius, and is also used by some councils.

From your letter, I can form no judgment of the Vita Sanctorum: I hope you do not depend on Camerarius. I have met with some of Camerarius' Saints in some other low country collection by an Irishman, but have no remembrance of his name, or of the title of his book.

I remember, that, on very incorrect and illauthor of a different

As to Winton's Chronicle, I wish that the publication of it may answer. consulting it, I thought it informed. Barbour is an kind most of the facts in his metrical Chronicle have been collected from the information of eyewitnesses: this you will see at large in my Annals. From this scrawl you will see how much I am hurried.

P. S. I should advise a publication in quarto: separate tracts will go together that way, which, singly, cannot constitute a duodecimo volume; but of that you will judge for yourself.

DR. PECKARD TO MR. PINKERTON.

Magdalen College, Cambridge,
Dec. 9th, 1785.

I have received your most elegant present of the two volumes of ancient Scottish Poems, for

• Antient Scottish Poems, never before in print, but now first published from the manuscript collections of Sir Richard Maitland, of Lethington, Knight, Lord Privy Seal of Scotland, and a Senator of the College of Justice: comprising Pieces Written from about 1420 to 1586, with large Notes and a Glossary,

which I return you my sincere thanks. I am much obliged by the honorable notice you have taken of me; but indeed you far overrate the poor civilities I had it in my power to show you. I wish I had been able to have made them of greater importance; but, situated as I then was, nothing more was at that time in my power. I see you mention an Elegy of Mr. Smollett's with praise. If it is an Elegy in which there is the expression, the sheeted ghosts; it was not written by Mr. Smollett, but by a friend of his, and a most intimate and most beloved friend of mine, Mr. Thomas Crawfurd, at that time one of the Scotch exhibitioners of Baliol College, Oxford, who afterwards lost his life, most unfortunately, in the East Indies. If on any future occasion it should be in my power to be of service to you, I shall be happy in the opportunity.

2 vols. 8vo. 1786. In Nichols' Illustrations of Literature, iii. P. 669, Mr. Pinkerton is styled, in relation to these poems, a second Chatterton, and it is stated that all which was said of their connexion with the manuscripts of Sir Richard Maitland is fictitious. Reference too is made to the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lvi. p. 147–150, which I have now no opportunity of consulting, in support of this opinion. But, surely, the present letter is a decisive answer to such a charge: Pinkerton was no fool; and it would seem to be an act of consummate folly, after having been guilty of such a forgery, to send it to the individual who was best qualified to detect it, and who indeed could scarcely fail to do so.

LORD HAILES TO MR. PINKERTON.

Dec. 26th, 1785.

I doubt much whether Barbour's manuscript will be allowed to go out of Scotland: perhaps Lord Buchan may procure that permission; for his brother, Mr. Henry Erskine, is just now elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates; and his interest may accomplish what nothing else can.

I have neither eyes nor leisure to collate manuscripts: the transcripts made from Bannatine were by myself, before the inflammation of my eyes began to distress me. Your Lives of Scottish Saints is on a good plan: perhaps Turgot's work * is fuller in Papenbroch than in Surius; † and perhaps, in the same enormous work, there may be a fuller account of David the First, by Ailred, than what Twisden published.

Your Collection of Poems came to my hands a few days ago I thank you for it. I have not had leisure to read much of it. I wish that the indecent poems had been omitted: the obscurity of the language, however, will make them less offensive.

It surprised me not a little to see you, in your Essay, declare war against the Old Testament,

Turgot, a monk at Durham, and afterwards Primate of Scotland, is said to have been the author of the Historia Ecclesia Dunhelmensis, published under the name of Simeon of Durham.

+ Papenbroch is one of the principal writers in the voluminous Acta Sanctorum: Surius published a work in 6 vols. folio, entitled De probatis Sanctorum Historiis.'

but what you say will do little harm; for it is plain that you have not studied the subject sufficiently. What you say of the similarity of style throughout the Old Testament convinces me that you have never read Lowth de Hebraicâ Poesi, or his Translation of Isaiah :—it is not incumbent on me to enter into a discussion of that subject, or of others of the like nature.

But I would seriously recommend it to you to set down what you have said in the shape of queries, and then subjoin your answers: this will show you that you have been in too great a hurry. The queries to be thus: who was Bayle? who were the wisest Rabbis? when did they live? how should their authority be the best?

This is for yourself, and not written with any view of obtaining an answer.

I have only to beg, that, in your future publications, my name may not be mentioned as a correspondent of yours: at least, while you can perceive no difference between Jehovah and the Demons of barbarous nations; or between the religion of the Jews, and that of the Hottentots.

I have read over the Preface to Le Grand very attentively: - all that he says relating to your

Francis Douce, Esq. author of Illustrations of Shakspeare, and Ancient Manners, a man than whom no one possesses a