Transactions. 7 



over, he had jjursued genealogy as if he had nothing else to think 

 of. The first volume of Frederick the Great was almost wholly 

 devoted to an astonishing inquiry into the doings and proceedings 

 of the ancestors of Frederick, and the genealogical accuracy of 

 which, he believed, was considered to be a marvellous feature. 

 But certainly the minuteness with which he dealt with the habits 

 and life and actions not only of Frederick the Great himself but 

 even of the minor actors in the great doings of that period was 

 most astonishing and remarkable. That was the only sort of 

 history which fifty years hence — unless it be for literary beauty 

 and grace — our far more enlightened descendants would consent 

 to read at all. He was satisfied that while the great histories, 

 like that of Gibbon — spreading over an enormous space and an 

 enormous time in the subjects with which they deal, although con- 

 tracted within comparatively narrow compass themselves — these 

 would be regarded merely as giving a general outline of history, 

 which would have to be filled in with more minute research. In 

 fact he believed the future of history would not tend, as people 

 anticipated some fifty years ago, to what was called the philosophy 

 of history — a task which had been attempted with signal failure as 

 far as he could judge— but would tend rather to what he called 

 the photographic methods, so as to enable us to see people again, 

 if possible, almost face to face, and to understand by a thousand 

 little things what was the meaning of the great things which they 

 did and among which they lived. If that was so, it must be 

 largely due to antiquarian labours, not directed merely to small 

 and very minor matters, but directed — at all events chiefly directed 

 — to human events and human records — it was to that source that 

 historians in the future would largely look. This part of the 

 country, he believed, was peculiarly adapted for inquiry of that 

 kind, because the history of the district to which we belong was 

 one cf the most interesting in the whole of the United Kingdom. 

 There was no district of which the history was more interesting 

 than the history of the county of Dumfries, if you looked at the 

 part it has borne in the past of this country. It was here that 

 almost the beginnings of Scotch monarchy were laid. Through 

 this county a large number of English armies came as invaders, 

 and a precisely equal number of English armies retired as fugitives. 

 Afterwards this district took an immense .share in the period of 

 the Solemn League and Covenant, and also in the conflicts of the 



