202 KICARDUS CORINENSIS. 



born in 1723, and was therefore barely fifteen at tlie date of this sup- 

 posed royal invitation. We may therefore still adhere to the more pro- 

 bable account that he accompanied his father, in the suite of the 

 Princess Louisa, in 1743. 



"As for Bertram," continues Professor Munch, '' he seems to have 

 been rather a worthy man. His father, a silk-dyer, is said to have 

 immigrated into Denmark with the people and menials accompanying 

 the English Princess Louisa. In 1744, he established himself at 

 Copenhagen' as a hosier. His son, the Bertram in question, was a 

 student, a kind of protege of King Christian YI. From papers in the 

 Eecord Office of the Academical Council at Copenhagen, it appears 

 that he gave in to the said Council a petition, dated 5th July, 1747, 

 requesting that he might be inscribed as a student, although belonging 

 to the Anglican Church. He meant to excolere Mstoriam, antiquifates, 

 philosopliiam, et mathesin. On the 2Brd March, 1748, he petitioned 

 the King that he might be appointed to lecture puhlice on the English 

 Language. There exists still in the Library at Copenhagen a frag- 

 ment of Bertram's treatise on Cnut the Great ; " and it may be added 

 that the literary characteristics of this manuscript are said to furnish 

 very poor evidence of the scholarship of their transcriber. It only 

 remains to state that Bertram died January 8th, 1765, in his forty- 

 second year; and Dr. Stukeley survived him less than two months. 



A certain authority and weight has heretofore been given to " Pro- 

 fessor" Bertram, which it now appears was wholly without foundation. 

 At the date of his letter to Dr. Stukeley he was not even an under- 

 graduate. He was only petitioning for admission as a student at the 

 University of Copenhagen; and his professed transcripts of the Kichard 

 MS. were the product of an undergraduate's pen. As to his professor- 

 ship, with its high sounding title : it does not appear to have amounted 

 to much more than the tutorial work to which many a Scottish under- 

 graduate resorts under similar circumstances, with a view to eke out his 

 slender finances, and help him on to his degree. 



Nevertheless there is a certain appearance of scholarship, and some 

 facility in Latin composition, involved in the concocting of the Kichard 

 MS. which might be supposed to surpass the powers of an under- 

 graduate. He quotes some fifteen or sixteen ancient authors, includ- 

 ing Diodorus Siculus, Livy, Strabo, Cffisar, Pomponius Mela, Virgil, 

 Pliny, Lucan, Tacitus, &c. Most of his references' may indeed be 

 found, as already stated, in Camden ; and the remainder could readily 



