ALEXANDER GORDON, THE ANTIQUARY. 131 



of must be wliolly imputed to the stupidity and perverseness of the 

 printers. I corrected the sheets myself with all the care I could ; 

 and finding, when the book was finished, most of their faults still 

 left, I persuaded Mr. Gordon to stop the publication of it for a week, 

 whilst those sheets might be once more corrected and reprinted, 

 which he did ; but then returning from the press with some of the 

 old errata set right, and new ones added in their room, stop them 

 again he could not, having engaged a second time in the publick 

 prints to deliver them at a certain day to his subsciibers, which 

 promise having broke, upon pretence the map was not ready (though 

 the delay in reality was only to reprint the afoi*ementioned sheets), 

 he thovight he could by no means excuse another non-performance of 

 his engagements. I offered him to peruse every sheet of the whole 

 book as it came out of the press, for which he seemed very thankful, 

 but never sent me one, except those of the Appendix, containing our 

 letters. I wish it was not his, being persuaded that he was perfectly 

 right in all his notions which occasioned it, though you see as well 

 as myself that he is not clear of mistakes ; to which I must add, an 

 impatience of getting the work abroad upon the prospect of getting 

 a little money by it, his circumstances, as I believe, requiring and 

 prompting him to it. I hope also that it has been a recommendation 

 to him to some of our great men here, who, as he tells me, have 

 given him some reason to expect they Avill do something for him.. 

 He may urge in his defence that strong jilea of Res angtista domi 

 for his hasty publication, as he may that other of Vincit amor 

 PATRiiE, where his zeal for the honour of his country has sometimes 

 caused him to enforce his ai-gtiments too far." 



What author does not knov/ the grief of proofs returning from tlie 

 printers with new errors added in lieu of the old ones set right. Of 

 fame, as we have said, Gordon had some share in his lifetime, to say 

 nothing of the honours that awaited him in the pages of "The 

 Antiquary." In 1731, as we learn from one of his memoranda: 

 " Some lovers of antiquity in Holland being now printing a Latin 

 edition of my ' Itinerarium Septentrionale,' were desirous to know, 

 at the time they began the said work, if I could transmit to them 

 any additions and corrections for the original in English." If there 

 was nothing else to tempt to such a translation of his learned work, 

 there was his memorable parallel to the Julius Hoff, or Arthur's 

 Oon, of Caligula's Pharus in Holland, which, having these following 



