2°* S. IX. April 28. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



321 



anyone bringing two documents in the State 

 Paper Office as evidence. 



The first is a letter of James I. to tbe bishops, 

 calendered under the date of Sept. (?), 1603. Its 

 true date is Feb. 1605. 



The other is a letter ascribed in tbe calendar 

 to Whitgift, and there dated Dec. 1603. Internal 

 evidence shows that it was written in 1625, and it 

 is now, I believe, removed to its proper place in 

 the collection. S. R. Gardiner. 



ANDREW MACDONALD. 



The following interesting letter from Alexander 

 Fraser Tytler (Lord Woodhouselee) to George 

 Chalmers, Esq. may be considered worthy of pre- 

 servation in " N. & Q." It contains some addi- 

 tional particulars respecting Andrew Macdonald 

 not generally known : — 



" Edinburgh, 23rd June, 1805. 



"My Dear Sin, — I sit down to thank you (which I 

 have too long delayed) for ) - our obliging letter of the 

 10th of May. The hurry of the Session business put it 

 out of my power to make the inquiries you wish ; and I 

 would not write till I could give you some satisfaction at 

 least on some of them. 



"With regard to Macdonald, his Christian name was 

 Andrew ; and I have been told by those who knew him 

 at school that his real surname was Donald, and that his 

 father was a gardener who lived in the neighbourhood of 

 Leith or Broughton. He was born in 1755, and educated 

 at the grammar-school of Leith, and afterwards at the 

 college of Edinburgh ; so that his father must have been 

 in good circumstances for his rank in life. He had pro- 

 bably been brought up an Episcopalian, and turned his 

 views to the ministry in that church. He was ordained 

 by Bishop Forbes of Edinburgh, and until he obtained a 

 chapel, he was for some time a private tutor to Oliphant 

 of Cask's children. How long he remained in that family 

 I know not; but in 1777 he was called to officiate in the 

 Episcopal chapel at Glasgow. I have always heard that 

 his conduct there was blameless and respectable till he 

 declared a marriage with a young girl who had been his 

 maid servant. This it seems was not approved of by 

 many of his congregation, who deserted the Chapel on 

 that account. Whether there had been any previous 

 licentiousness of conduct I know not, but the conse- 

 quence was serious to poor Macdonald. Though re- 

 taining the strictest regard for religion, he became 

 disgusted with his profession. He had published a poem 

 called Velina (Edinburgh, 1782), and a tragedy entitled 

 Vimonda before he left Glasgow ; and he now determined 

 to devote himself to the business of an author. Edin- 

 burgh was too limited a field : he remained there but a ' 

 few mouths, and in that period I met with him several 

 times in companies of literary people, when I thought his 

 manners were extremely pleasing, — simple, modest, and 

 unassuming, and his conversation that of a man of ta- 

 lents and good education. I regretted much his leaving 

 Edinburgh, and still more the disappointment of his 

 prospects on going to London. He went thither in 

 1787, and it appears barely contrived to obtain subsis- 

 ong the booksellers, I presume by writing for 

 tin- Magazii i or Reviews, lie was engaged likewise to 

 write an operator the little theatre in the liuymarkct, 

 but whether he finished it I am uncertain. His health 

 had been always delicate; and at length he was seized 

 with, consumption, which carried him off in the end of the 



year 1788 [1790]. He scarcely left wherewithal to burj- 

 him. As to his Works, I presume you know them. A 

 posthumous volume of Sermons [?] was printed after 

 his death which I have never seen. 



"As to Thomson, the author of Wlilst, I was not ac- 

 quainted with him personally, but I have applied to a 

 friend who knows his history, and has promised to give 

 me some brief account of him, which I shall send you. I 

 am likewise in the train of acquiring some of Mrs. Cock- 

 burn's poems [see"X. & Q." 2"" S. ix. 298.], but the lady 

 who has them being at present out of town, I cannot ob- 

 tain them till her return. I shall send you such of them 

 as seem to possess merit. Of the Essay on the Stage, 

 printed at Edinburgh in 1754, I never heard. 



" I thank you most cordially for the notices you sent 

 me relative to Lord Karnes. There was no Writer to 

 the Signet of the name of Dickson in the year 1720, so 

 Mr. Campbell in that particular must have been mis- 

 taken. 



" Pray was Monboddo a rival candidate for the sheriff- 

 ship of Berwickshire when Karnes bore that honourable 

 testimony to his character? If so, it was very honour- 

 able for the latter, and deserves indeed to be recorded. 

 But of what political heresj' was Monboddo suspected? 

 I wish you would explain this when you shall kindly 

 favour me with the information you promised about the 

 flax husbandry. 



" I have written this letter in some pain, lying on my 

 bed from the accident of a fall I met with a few days ago, 

 which bruised my back considerably, but happily missed 

 the spine. I trust I shall soon get well. Meantime, my 

 dear Sir, believe me with most sincere regard, ever your 

 very faithful and obedient servant 



m "Alex. Eraser Tytler. 



" P.S. The letter of Lord Albemarle is a great curiosity, 

 but must be used with some delicacy." 



There are a few inaccuracies in Lord Wood- 

 houselee's account of poor Andrew Macdonald, 

 whose biography would indeed add another pain- 

 ful chapter to the Calamities of Authors. He was 

 indebted for his education, not to "the good circum- 

 stances" of his father; but to .Bishop Forbes of Ross 

 and Caithness. The Bishop was warmly attached to 

 the interests of the house of Stuart ; and, accord- 

 ingly, when Prince Charles Edward, in September, 

 1745, descended from the Highlands, he joined a 

 small party of friends, who advanced to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Stirling, in order to pay their respects 

 to the representative of him whom they were still 

 inclined to honour as their sovereign. This led to 

 the imprisonment of the Bishop until after the 

 suppression of the unfortunate rising accomplished 

 by the victory gained at Culloden. The father of 

 young Macdonald was also from principle a friend 

 to the Stuart family ; and when the deprived pre- 

 late discovered in the son of the honest gardener 

 a genius above mediocrity, he contributed both 

 by advice and assistance to procure him a liberal 

 education. It was during his residence at Glas- 

 gow that Andrew Macdonald published anony- 

 niiiusly The Independent, a novel, 2 vols. 12mo. 

 1784. On reaching the metropolis his literary 

 abilities could only obtain for him a precarious 

 subsistence. Under the signature of Matthew 

 Bramble, he contributed to the papers many 



