hearing for it a second night, which I could not effect. I still was in hopes of carrying the point; but, when the farce began, the storm was renewed; and nothing would pacify the audience but the giving out another play. The repetition would have only been wounding your feelings, which, I can assure you, I consulted at least as much as I did my own; for my interests were concerned in its being acted on this night. That the piece should not have answered our wishes I most truly regret upon every account.

MR. WEBER TO MR PINKERTON.*

Perth, April 7th, 1813.

I was particularly gratified to receive your mine ralogical directions relative to our tour, and shall endeavor to comply with them as far as we can. I will take particular care to search for the circus on Mull, and try to exculpate M. Faujas. I have admired the palace at Scoone very much, particularly the large quantity of fine oak. Dunsinane is a very interesting hill; and the ditches round the castle very discernible, as well as one cutting

Henry Weber, Esq. author of the Battle of Flodden Field, 1809, 8vo, and editor of Metrical Romances of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, published from antient manuscripts, with an Introduction, Notes, and Glossary, 1810, 3 vols. 8vo., also of the Dramatic works of John Ford, and of those of Beaumont and Fletcher, both of them accompanied with an Introduction and Notes.

through the surface, and dividing it into an oblong and the half of a circle. The hill, if I judge right, consists of micaceous schistus, with a kind of brown tufa, and many pebbles of quartz. This morning we shall take a view of Kinnoul Craigs, where a cave is shown, asserted to have contained Wallace.

We propose to go on foot all the way as far as Caithness, and to return by the isles of Sky, Mull, and Staffa. We have about thirty letters of recommendation to different lairds and clergymen, and shall certainly make out a journal, my companions being very good draughtsmen. I shall endeavor to pick up some minerals for you: perhaps you will give me directions where to look for them. We have a Highland piper from Sky, who gained the second prize in the competition here, to attend us the whole way; and he will serve as our interpreter, and also amuse the Highlanders.

I am sorry to understand that you were so little pleased with the latter part of the catalogue of your Voyages and Travels. But I must beg of you to recollect that the whole of Europe was corrected by Berchthold's catalogue, and that the rest of the work depended almost entirely upon the French catalogue of Richardière, which was very incorrect as to English, and many of the other works of the kind. I had at that period no connexion with any bookseller but Mr. John Ballantyne; and he could furnish me with the loan of no books, after he began his first sale. No doubt the delay must have inconvenienced you; and to that I plead guilty.

MR. DEMPSTER TO MR. PINKERTON.*

St. Andrew's, June 8th, 1813.

On my coming here last night your interesting letter reached me, followed me indeed from Dunnichen, of the 4th instant. As Calisthenes said to Parmenio, "you have been born to struggle manfully with hardships." Matrimonial ones are common. I have been luckier in that lottery; but my sweetheart at first, and my nurse at last, after thirty-six years of servitude, left me childless three years ago, which has edged my paper and clothed my person with black ever since.

Were you never so rich, I durst not put a finger into your purse; but you have opened your mind liberally to me and mankind, which could not have happened with a more ample credit at your banker's. I am glad you are among us, and disposed to spare me a little of your time. You shall hear how mine is engrossed. An old friend has attended me here, and occupies my only spare

* In this letter was inclosed one from Mr. Dempster to Lord Melville, evidently intended to serve as an introduction for Mr. Pinkerton to that nobleman. In it he says, "all that concerns me and my family Mr. Pinkerton knows; and I hold myself in readiness to post to Melville House, as soon as I shall be informed of the time of his visiting your lordship. I am desirous of meeting a very learned man, whom I esteem, but never saw. He is the most sensible, I might almost say the only sensible, writer on our Scotch antiquities. He has carried, I will not say a flambeau, but a lamp, into a very obscure period of the Scotch history, and a very remote one."

cell. A new one, who has bought an estate in my parish, purposes passing with his wife and family some part of this month at Dunnichen, which must shorten my time here. It is therefore at Dunnichen I hope you will come to me. I'll tell you the precise day I shall, please God, be there. By a line you'll let me know the moment you intend coming to me. Convenient telegraphic coaches bring you to Forfar: there take a chaise I shall have ready for you at the new inn (Barricks) to convey you four miles, and bring you to me. I long much to meet with you. Three years prisoner in France! Geographer and historiographer of the rest of the planet! Rummager into the rubbish of Scotch trash, to bring us out some gems, though dusky, to enrich our cabinets!!!

Poor Thorkelin's library! I am glad he has survived it. He has preserved a great share of it in his brains. That little treatise on the Slave Trade had more sense and learning in a few pages than were contained in all the declamations that subject produced. Till we meet I should be happy to hear from you. Is the state of your bodily health improved?

THE REV. DR. STUART* TO MR. PINKERTON.

College, Aberdeen, Oct. 20th, 1813.

I was duly favored with your letter the other day, and am very happy to find that you have returned in safety from your northern tour among the Celtic barbarians to your more comfortable residence in Edinburgh.

I herewith send you, by a private opportunity, a rude engraving of our new bridge, which is tolerably accurate, and I hope will answer the purpose intended. I also send copies of my drawings of the two stones at Newton,† although I

*Rev. John Stuart, D. D. Professor of Greek in the Marischal College at Aberdeen.

+ Mr. Pinkerton also published engravings of these two very remarkable stones in the second edition of his Inquiry into the Early History of Scotland; and, in the advertisement prefixed to that edition, p. 13, he gives the following description of them: "One of the most interesting monuments of this kind has been recently discovered at Pitmachie in Aberdeenshire, being the second stage from Aberdeen on the road to Huntley. Here, in a small thicket near the toll-bar, were two stones of small-grained granite (while the others are mostly red sandstone subject to decay) and rising about six feet above the ground. Both these stones are represented in the annexed plate; but the one with a serpent is now removed to the adjacent house of Newton. That which remains presents the inscription annexed, which is reduced from a fac-simile of the natural size, executed under the eye of the proprietor, and repeatedly examined by Professor Stuart, to whom the author cannot sufficiently express his sense of his kind assistance on this and other occasions. The letters are about an inch and a