212 TIMOTHY PONT 



Linlithguo', all the rest of his papers passed to his 

 heirs, described by Straloch as homines ad hcec inepti 

 men of no wit in such matter who allowed them to 

 be damaged by vermin and neglect. 



When the ' salmond-like instinct ' of King James at 

 length brought him back to Edinburgh in 1617, he 

 heard of the valuable collection, and directed that it 

 should be purchased from Timothy's heirs; but this 

 was not done, it seems, for Straloch declares that the 

 papers and maps passed into the hands of certain 

 persons who were determined to keep them from the 

 public. There they lay, through the troubled years 

 that followed, until Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet (1585- 

 1670), a leader to be honoured in the revival of Scot- 

 tish literature, got hold of them, and committed them 

 in 1642 for revision by Gordon of Straloch and his son 

 James, parson of Rothiemay, who prepared them for 

 publication in the great atlas by Blaeu of Amsterdam. 



Font's work could not have been entrusted to more 

 competent and sympathetic editors. Aloof from the 

 convulsion of civil war, father and son applied them- 

 selves to the congenial task, until in 1645 Sir John 

 Scot took the papers to Amsterdam intending to 

 superintend their publication personally. Six years 

 had still to run before they were produced in the fifth 

 volume of Blaeu's Atlas, under due privilege of the 

 Emperor Ferdinand in. and Oliver, Lord Protector of 

 the Commonwealth. Had Pont but survived to behold 

 this noble folio, meet crown to his life-work, how 

 eagerly he would have opened the volume how 

 tremulously with just pride would he have turned 



