384 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sbss. lxxix. 



There is no suggestion in any mention of him that has yet 

 become known that he had made any particular study of 

 Botany, or that he was more informed about plants for 

 medicinal purposes than the ordinary physician of the day, 

 who had to compound his own drugs, frequently also to 

 grow the plants from which the drugs were obtained. 

 Nevertheless, he was able to procure for himself in March 

 1715 the Household appointment which had been held by 

 Sutherland and which carried with it the responsibility of 

 keeping the Holyrood Garden and teaching there Botany 

 and Materia Medica. 



Then came the debacle of the Castle plot in September 

 1715. The histories say of Arthur that he was a recent 

 convert to the Jacobite cause. This may be true so far as 

 concerns any active share he may have taken in measures 

 for a Stewart restoration, but he came out of a Jacobite 

 nest. 1 His early associations were all with Jacobites. 

 Prudence in relation to material prosperity may have 

 induced dissembling of his real political thoughts, but one 

 must believe that the Jacobite spirit was there, and only 

 dormant until occasion called forth its exercise. 



Of the part he played in the carrying out of the scheme 

 of the conspirators we have his own account, written from 

 Rome as a report to the Earl of Mar in 1716. The sub- 

 stance of this has appeared in the Calendar of the Stuart 

 Papers, vol. iii, published by the Historical MS. Commission 

 in 1907. In the condensation necessary for its publication 



1 Wood (East Neuk of Fife, 2nd ed., 1887, p. 202) says the whole 

 family of Arthur were pronounced Jacobites. We have for this evi- 

 dence also in the intimacy that existed between the Arthur family and 

 the arch-Jacobite Dr. Patrick Blair. Thus Dr. Patrick Blair writes to 

 Petiver, the distinguished London apothecary : — 



"Dundee, November 28, 1713. 



" I cannot express my concern that I have received nothing from you 

 by this ship who has unloaded my drugs this day, especially what 

 belongs to Dr. Arthur with whom I am like to lose credit for having 

 taken his money and he having not yet got any of the effects." — Sloane 

 MSS. 3321, fol. 52. 



And again — 



"Coupar, February 27, 1714. 



" Dr. Arthur seems to be displeased with the parcel of Books you sent 

 by Falconer. I wish he had got the rest of his copies." — Sloane MSS. 

 3321, fol. 64. 



The Dr. Arthur referred to is probably Alexander Arthur, brother of 

 the Professor. See the pedigree at p. 381. 



