Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36 | Page 2

Lauder.
Eight volumes came into the possession of the Faculty of Advocates,
and under their auspices two folio volumes of legal decisions from
1678 to 1712 were published in 1759 and 1761.[6] In 1837 the
Bannatyne Club printed The Historical Observes, 1680-1686, a
complete MS. in the Advocates' Library, and in 1848 they printed two
volumes of Historical Notices, 1661-1688. These are after 1678
selections from the same MSS. from which the folio of 1759 was
compiled, and the additions to the text of the folio are not numerous,
though the historical matter, which was buried among the legal
decisions, is presented in a more convenient form. But from 1661 to
1678 (about half of vol. i.) and especially from 1670 (for the previous
entries occupy only a few pages) the notices are all new and many of
them of considerable interest. In printing these volumes, which I
believe are acknowledged to contain some of the best material for the
history of Scotland at the time, the Bannatyne Club carried out a design
which had been long cherished by the late Sir Thomas Dick Lauder,[7]
though he did not live to see its complete fulfilment, and he was helped
in his efforts by Sir Walter Scott. The story[8] is worth telling more
fully than has yet been done. In the winter of 1813-14 Sir Thomas, then
a young man, met Sir Walter at a dinner-party. Sir Walter expressed his
regret 'that something had not been done towards publishing the curious
matter in Lord Fountainhall's MSS.,'[9] and urged Sir Thomas to
undertake the task. In 1815 Sir Thomas wrote to Scott asking about a
box in the Advocates' Library believed to contain MSS. of
Fountainhalls. Sir Walter replied as follows:--
[6] See Mr. David Laing's Preface to the Historical Notices, p. xx,
Bannatyne Club.
[7] Author of _The Moray Floods, The Wolf of Badenoch_, and other
well-known books.
[8] The original correspondence was bound up by Sir Thomas in a

volume along with Mylne's book (see _infra_), and is in the possession
of Sir T.N. Dick Lauder.
[9] Letter, Sir T.D. Lauder to Sir W. Scott, 22nd May 1822, 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:--
[10] The preface and Mylne's interpolations are appended to Mr.
Laing's preface to the Historical Notices.
'Having been much astonished to learn, from a perusal of the foregoing
review,[11] that Sir Walter Scott had stolen a march on me, and
published a Manuscript of Lord Fountainhall's, at the very time when
he had reason to believe me engaged in the work, and that by his own
suggestion, and being above all things surprised that he had not thought
it proper to acquaint me with his intention before carrying it into effect,
I sat down and wrote to him the following letter, in which, being aware

how much he who I was addressing was to be considered as a sort of
privileged person in literary matters, I took special care to give no
offence, to write calmly, and to confine myself to such a simple
statement of the facts as might bring a blush into his face without
exciting the smallest angry feeling. I hoped, too, that I might prevail on
him, as some atonement for his sins, to lend a helping