1818.] Lord Woodhouselee. 415 



mously elected one of the Secretaries of the Literary Class — an 

 office which he continued to fill with zeal for many years ; and 

 in the execution of which he drew up that " Account of its 

 Origin and History," which is prefixed to the first volume of its 

 Transactions. 



In 1788 he contributed to the Royal Society a biographical 

 memoir of the late Robert Dundas, of Arniston, Lord President 

 of the Court of Session — a paper valuable, not only for the just 

 and vigorous delineation which it gives of the character of that 

 eminent Judge, but for the interesting account it affords of some 

 of the earlier branches of a family so long and so honourably 

 distino-uished in the lesfal annals of Scotland. 



In 1789 Mr. Tytler read a paper to the Royal Society upon 

 " The Vitrified Forts in the Highlands of Scotland." Of these 

 singular antiquities, the prevailing theory had been, that the 

 vitrification was produced in the process of their erection, and 

 that it was the substitute of a rude age for cement. The theory 

 which Mr. Tytler suggested was the reverse of this ; that the 

 vitrification was the result not of their erection, but of their 

 destruction ; and that it was produced by the efforts of enemies 

 in attempting this destruction by fire. The theory is certainly 

 not without some appearances of probability : it assimilates 

 sufficiently with the period of society to which such buildings 

 undoubtedly refer ; and Mr. Tytler was able to support it with 

 learning and ingenuity. Of the impression it made at the time 

 upon the Society, I am happy to be able to refer to an evidence 

 of no little weight, in a letter from our late illustrious associate 

 Mr. Smith to Mr. Tytler upon the subject ; and, although the 

 letter is very short, I persuade myself that it will not be unac- 

 ceptable to the Society, both because there are unhappily very 

 few letters of this great man remaining, and because it involves 

 also the memory of some other men whose names can never be 

 listened to in this place without emotion. 



" DEAR SIR, 



" I have read over your paper with the greatest pleasure. The 

 composition is what it ought to be, simple, elegant, and perfectly 

 perspicuous, and will be a very great ornament to our Memoirs. 

 Some of my chemical friends, however, are of opinion, that the 

 degree of vitrification which takes place in the specimens of these 

 forts is too great to be the effect of any accidental fire, such as 

 you suppose, and could be produced only by a great accumula- 

 tion of wood, heaped upon the wall after it was built. This is a 

 subject of which 1 am ignorant. You had convinced me, who 

 fancied that this imperfect vitrification was more likely to be the 

 effect of accident than of knowledge. The friends I mean are 

 Dr. Black and Dr. Hutton, who in evciy other respect entertain 

 the same high opinion of your composition which I do. You 

 had better converse with them : you may convince them, or they 



