_infra_.

'Dear Sir,--I am honoured with your letter, and should have been
particularly happy in an opportunity of being useful in assisting a
compleat edition of Lord Fountainhall's interesting manuscripts. But I
do not know of any in the Advocates' Library but those which you
mention. I think it likely I may have mentioned that a large chest
belonging to the family of another great Scottish lawyer, Sir James
Skene of Curriehill, was in our Library and had never been examined. But
I could only have been led to speak of this from the similarity of the
subject, not from supposing that any of Lord Fountainhall's papers could
possibly be deposited there. I am very glad to hear you are
busying yourself with a task which will throw most important light upon
the history of Scotland, and am, with regard, dear sir, your most obedt.
servant,

'WALTER SCOTT.
'_Edinr., 19 February 1815._'

After a further interchange of letters in 1816 the matter slumbered till
1822 when there appeared a volume entitled _Chronological Notes of Scottish
Affairs from 1680 till 1701, being chiefly taken from the Diary of Lord
Fountainhall_ (Constable, 1822), with a preface by Sir Walter Scott, who
had evidently forgotten his correspondence with Sir Thomas.[10] The volume
in reality contained a selection, comparatively small, from Fountainhall's
notebooks in the Advocates' Library, with copious interpolations by the
author, Robert Mylne (who died in 1747), not distinguished from the
authentic text of the notes, and greatly misrepresenting Fountainhall's
opinions. The next stage in the correspondence may be given in Sir Thomas's
own words:--