Fountainhall's MSS. From this I am led to believe, that the circumstance
of my having been engaged in the work since 1814 must have escaped your
recollection, otherwise I think you would have informed me of _your_
intention or inquired into _mine_. In the winter 1813-14, I had the
happiness of meeting you at the table of our mutual friend, Mr. Pringle
of Yair, where you expressed regret to me that something had not been
done towards publishing the curious matter contained in Lord
Fountainhall's MSS., urging me at the same time to undertake the task.
Having also soon afterwards been pressed to perform this duty by Mr.
Thomas Thomson, Mr. Napier, and several other literary friends, I was
led to begin it, and Lord Meadowbank having presented my petition to the
Dean and Faculty of Advocates, they were so liberal as to permit me to
have the use of the MSS. in succession at Fountainhall, where I then was
on a visit to my Father, and where I transcribed everything fit for my
purpose. Emboldened by the remembrance of what passed in conversation
with you at Mr. Pringle's, I took the liberty of trespassing on you in a
letter dated 18th February 1815, to beg you would inform me whether you
knew of the existence of any of Lord Fountainhall's MSS. besides the
eight Folio volumes I had then examined. You did me the honor to write
me an immediate reply, in which you stated that you knew of no other
MSS. but those I had mentioned, and you conclude by saying, that you
were glad to hear that I was busying myself in a task which would throw
much light on the history of Scotland. In May 1816, whilst engaged here
in arranging and retranscribing the materials I had collected for the
work in the order of a Journal, I met with a little difficulty about the
word FORRES, which the sense of the passage led me to read FORREST,
meaning ETTRICK FORREST. Knowing that you were the best source from
which true information on such subjects was to be drawn, and presuming
upon your former kindness, I again addressed you, 23rd May 1816, begging
to know whether I was right in my conjecture. To this I received a very