2"" S. V. 117., xMak. 27. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



251 



the habitat of that worthy man, which had been 

 revealed by the poet's genial pleasantry on the 

 word Stoa, and thus translated, "e^ subducam,'" 

 &c. : — 



•' And tliat I may withdraw myself for a short time 

 from the tumult of the city to your rural mansion, as to 

 the renowned portico of Zeno," &c. 



There are other evidences of the extraordinary 

 qualifications of the learned A.M. for the task he 

 undertook, but the above may suffice for the 

 present. 



Was Milton eve?' divorced from Ms first Wife ? 

 — Warton {Milton's Minor Poems, 2nd edit. p. 

 338.) speaks of Tetrachordon as having been pub- 

 lished " in consequence of his (Milton's) divorce 

 from his first wife." Is not this an inaccuracy ? 

 Did Milton take any steps even towards obtain- 

 ing a legal divorce ? 



Alexander Gill — Mitford (in his Life of Mil- 

 ton, p. iii.) seems to confound the father and the 

 son, both of the same name, inasmuch as the ex- 

 pression in the text, " Milton was admitted into 

 St. Paul's School, under the care of Alexander 

 Gill," would seem to indicate the father, while the 

 note on the passage evidently refers to the son, 

 who indeed, and not the father, was Milton's es- 

 pecial friend and tutor. Lethrjediensis. 



LETTER FROM GEORGE CRAWFURD, ESQ., TO JAMES 

 ANDERSON, ESQ. 



Crawfurd is well known to Northern antiqua- 

 ries as the author of the earliest Scotish Peerage. 

 Even at this period his work may be usefully con- 

 sulted. He married a daughter of Mr. Anderson, 

 and it would appear a coolness had taken place 

 between the father and daughter. Anderson had 

 a very large family, and his Diplomata Scotice had 

 involved him in liabilities from which he was never 

 able entirely to extricate hiuiself. He was one -of 

 those unlucky persons who trusted too much to 

 promises from men in power, which were never 

 realised. He gave up a very lucrative business 

 as a Writer to the Signet to attend exclusively to 

 his Magnum Opus ; and was the more induced to 

 take this rash step by receiving the appointment 

 of Postmaster-General in Scotland, an office he 

 held for a comparatively short time. 



Crawfurd's valuable Topographical Account of 

 the Shire of Renfrew was reprinted some years 

 since. In the Library of the Faculty of Advo- 

 cates there is a volume of collections in his own 

 unmistakeable handwriting, relative to the family 

 of Crawfurd. That clever but unprincipled 

 man, Simon Lord Lovat, availed himself mate- 

 rially of the genealogical knowledge of Crawfurd 

 in his contest before the Court of Session for the 

 peerage of Lovat with the heir of line who had as- 



sumed the title. Some curious letters which 

 passed between the genealogist and his client will 

 be Ibund in the Miscellany of the Spottiswoode 

 Club (a very curious and entertaining work, in 

 2 vols. 8vo., almost unknown in England) ; from 

 which it appears that, after the wily Highlander 

 had got all he could from Crawfurd, he treated 

 him in the most cavalier manner. 



The notion of a decision by a Scotish law 

 Court on a peerage case, after the Union, may 

 startle English lawyers, but such was the fact : 

 and we may observe, that as the Court of Session, 

 while Scotland was a separate kingdom, was the 

 only competent Court for trying questions of peer- 

 age, and as that right was not taken away by the 

 Articles of Union, the proceedings were perfectly 

 regular. Indeed the judgment of the Lords of 

 Session was the only title under which Lord Simon 

 held the Barony of Lovat. 



" Dear Sir, 



" I heartily wish you a good new year, and many of 

 them, that you may live long to the advantage of your 

 family and the benefit of your countr}'. Both my Avife 

 and I are mightily surprised that as often as 1 have writ- 

 ten to you, I have never got the least line of an answer, 

 which affgcts my wife exceedingly. Neither of us are 

 sensible that we have disobliged you any manner of way 

 to have deserved your having utterly forgot us this long 

 whyle; especially Peggie, [who] was so ill before her 

 delivciy, and has recovered but very slowly since. I 

 pray God forgive those who (I) judge may be ill instru- 

 ments in creating of misunderstandings amongst so near 

 relations. But neither mj' wife nor I am sensible that 

 we have any way of late failed in our duty to provoke 

 you to so total neglect never to inquire what was become 

 of 3'our poor daughter, who says she knows not that she 

 ever wilfully or artingly disobliged you in her whole life, 

 and I think she is a very affectionate and dutiful child. 



" Dear Sir, for God's sake let all umbrage be removed, 

 and allow me to behave as a son-in-law ought to do to a 

 father, that has such a value to him, and that may be 

 such a real benefit to me. My wife designes to come in 

 to see you. I offer my most humble duty, and am, dear 

 Sir, your obedient son and most humble servant, 



" Geokge Crawfukd. 



" [Jany.] Glasgow, 1723." 



In the Scots Magazine there occurs this notice 

 of his death : 



" 24 Dec. 1748. At Glasgow, George Crawfurd, Esq., 

 author of Tlie Peerage of Scotland and several other 

 curious pieces." 



J. M. 



BACON S ESSAYS. 



{Concluded from p. 206.) 



Having some suspicion that Mb. Singer undel'- 

 rated the amount of archaisms and verbal ob- 

 scurities to be found in Bacon's Essays, I made 

 a cursory survey of them within the last two or 

 three days, and found them sufficiently numerous 

 to justify my recommending that a list or glossary 

 be appended to the next edition. I subjoin some 



