2nd s. VIII. Dec. 10. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



463 



LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10. 1859. 



No. 206. — CONTENTS. 



KOTES :_Lord T.ovat and the Invasion in 1719, 463 — Ilunsrerford 

 Family, by CI. Hopp«r, 464 — Book-notes and Fly-leaf Scribblings, 

 by Joseph Kix, &o., 76. — Mathematical Bibliography, by James 

 Cockle, M.A., F.K.A.S., 465. 



MiNon Notes :_ The late Duke of Wellinaton — Mottoes on Rings — 

 " Camden Miscellany " — Origin of the Title of Vilaiu Quatorze — 

 Unpublished Letters, 466. 



QUERIES: — Old English Plays, by J. O. Halliwell, 467 — Aubrey 's 

 " Wiltshire Antiquities," by Rev. J. E. Jackson, lb. 



Minor Queries: —Sea Breaches — Peter Tliellusson's "Will — Provin- 

 cial Printing Presses — Lingard's " England : " Edinburgh and Quar- 

 terly Reviewers — Highland Regiment Rt Battle of Leipsic — Regis- 

 tration without Baptism — Greek Dial — Lightning and Fish — 

 "The Misers," by Quintia Matsya — Pilgrim Plowdeu — " Domiuus 

 rcgnarit il ligno," Sc, 468. 



Minor Qurries with A.vswkbs : — irchbishop Juxon and Family — 

 " Elispirid" — Flower de Luce and Toads — Colonel Kirke — Mary 

 Queen of Scots— Hildesley's Poetical Miscellanies, 471. 



REPLIES: — The Early Editions of Foxc's Book of Martyrs, by J. G. 

 Nichols, 472 — Hildershara, Arthur and Samuel, by Rev. J. E. B. 



Mayor, 474 — " Syr Tryamourc," by Rev. J. Eastwood, lb James 



Anderson, 475 — Stratford Family, 477. 



REPiins TO Minor Qufriks : — "It " for "its" or "his"— The Piny 

 performed in Bishop AVilliams'g House on a Sunday — Monumental 

 Brasses subsequent to 1 688 — Rubbings of Brasses — Bearded Women 

 — Ix)max or Lomas — " Cutting one s Stick " — " Night, a Poem" — 

 " The Style is the man himself," &c., 477. 



Notes on Books, &c. 



J50te«f. 



tOKD LOVAT AND THE INVASION IN 1719. 



On Lord Lovat's trial, in 1746, it was charged 

 against him by the Attorney- General, as proof of 

 '^^ general disposition, behaviour, and conduct," 

 that — 



" In 1710, when a Spanish Invasion was undertaken in 

 favor of the Pretender, and Spanish Forces were actually 

 landed in the North, the Prisoner thought proper to en- 

 gage in it ; and while the Earl of Seaforth was raising 

 his men to assist in it, the prisoner himself wrote a letter 

 to that Earl, with a promise to join him with his clan ; 

 but before he had actually done it, that attempt was 

 defeated." 



The Lord High Steward objected to receive 

 evidence on a point not charged in the indict- 

 ment, but was I presume overruled ; for the wit- 

 ness, Kobert Chevis, deposed that — 



" Mj' Lord Lovat told me of a letter he had written to 

 the late Lord Seaforth [Lord Seaforth died in 1740] to 

 encourage and desire him to come down with his men ; 

 and that he, Lord Lovat, would join him with all his, in 

 favor of the Pretender. ... He [Lovat] said the letter 

 was first shown to Chisholin of Knockford ; and after 

 that it was delivered to my Lord Seaforth. . . . Mr. 

 Chisholm made affidavit of it, which was sent up to 

 Court. 



•' Did Lord Lovat acquaint you Avhether/'he heard of 

 such an affidavit being transmitted ? ' He did.' 



" Did he tell you what he did upon that occasion .' 



" ' That he went immediately to Court, and got him- 

 self introduced there. And Lady Seaforth, being then in 

 London, she applied to him to do something in favor of 

 her son, which he then absolutely refused till her son 

 should return him that letter, which being done, he 

 shewed it to a certain friend, who read the letter, and 

 who told him that there was enough to condemn thirty 

 lords there, and threw it into the fire.' " 



Mr. Burton, in his interesting and able Life of 



Lord Lovat, tells the story as told by the witness 

 Chevis, and adds : " All traces of the perilous 

 communication were now obliterated." Not "all," 

 as I shnll show. Meanwhile it must be admitted 

 that this hearsay — this report of a conversation — 

 ought not to have been admitted in evidence 

 against a man on trial for his life ; and assuredly 

 the affidavit of Chisholm was not considered as 

 proof in 1719: for, according to the newspaper,. 

 Lovat was so successful in his explanation, that 

 the king consented to stand godfather to his child,, 

 and named Col. Grant his proxy. 



Yet that the evidence of Chevis was true, is, I 

 think, proved by the letter I forward, which has 

 unmistakable traces of the fact. It has no date 

 and no address, but is in the handwriting of 

 Lovat, and as it descends to us from the Coun- 

 tess of Seaforth, there can be no doubt that it 

 was addressed to her son. It must have been 

 written after Chisholm's affidavit, probably after 

 the battle of Glenshields, 10th June, 1719, when 

 Seaforth was at hide and seek and endeavouring 

 to escape to France ; and Lovat's postscript — " I 

 soon go from this" — refers probably to his start- 

 ing " immediately to Court." I presume that the 

 letter had not been returned wh»n, according to 

 the evidence, Lovat was in London, and applied 

 to by Seaforth's mother. It is certain that the 

 lady was at that time in London : from Jan. 1719 

 to Jan. 1721, letters were addressed to her at 

 "Powis House, Ormond Street, London;" and 

 the dangerous document was probably returned 

 through her, as stated by the witness Chevis. 

 This, however, is mere speculation : but I can- 

 not doubt that the "certain paper" — the return, 

 of which was so anxiously requested — was the 

 letter referred to by Chevis, and named in the affi- 

 davit of Chisholm of Knockford, and Chisholm 

 was probably the base cousin. 



" Dear Cousin, — I had the honor of yours, and I never 

 had another thought of you but that you was a man of 

 entire honour incapable of doing any ill or unhandsome- 

 action : but I thouglit that if by chance you had a paper 

 that might be by accident troublesome to me, you would 

 be so kind and just as to send it me: since you know 

 that I gave proofs, and always will, that you have no re- 

 lation on earth that loves j-our person or interest better 

 than I do. However, since you desire the relation of 

 your cousin's base transactions, as the reward of giving 

 me a paper that would please me, I desire that you send 

 that paper as soon as possible to the bearer of your last 

 letter, that I may have it ; and if I do not give you more 

 satisfaction than j-ou ever can get by another, or more 

 than you know or can expect, then I will not blame yoit 

 to say of me what j'ou please ; for I have found out the 

 secret details of that affair, which 3-ou could never ima- 

 gine, which is abominable before God and man. I know 

 she and he did aud does all they can to ruin your repu- 

 tation, but hundreds will tell you how strenuously I stood 

 up for you, and I did you but justice. But I can tell you 

 what will confound both ; but it must be on the two con- 

 ditions promised: first, that I get up a certain paper j 

 and next, that you will promise upon honor never to 

 name the author of your information, though I fear the 



