150 LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 



as that wliich we have preserved for the permanent use of rising 

 generations, in his Tales of a Grandfather on the early history of 

 Scotland." 



III. To the European or Continental MS. relics described in snh- 

 division III. of " Leaves they have Touched," I now add a document 

 bearing the autograph signature of the poet Goethe, iu his capacity 

 as one of the Commissioners appointed for a special purpose at 

 Weimar in 1790. It is a paper of some length, relating to a 

 deduction to be made in moneys due to the public treasury from the 

 estate of oue defunct. It appears to be a quaint specimen of official 

 red-tapeism, and it reads as follows, as kindly translated for me by 

 Mr. Vander Smissen : " The Princely Amt und Unter Steuer 

 Directorium (Board of Assessors) will see from the annexed copy of 

 Docunient in what manner the heirs-at-law of the late District 

 Commissioner, Aulic Councillor Lenz of ISTiirnberg have offered a 

 compi'omise of 30 p. c. as a final settlement of the Ilmenau assess- 

 ment claim against the Lenz estate, amounting to 590 R. 4 k. The 

 aforesaid offer having been accepted on behalf of the Commissioners 

 in a reply transmitted this day to the Councillor of Legation at 

 Niirnberg aforesaid, and it being still required that the calculation 

 in this matter should be made up as soon as possible. Therefore the 

 Princely Amt und Unter Steuer Directorium is hereby directed by 

 the Commissioners to supply what is required in this case, and thus 

 to finally settle the matter in question, and to write off the balance 

 to Profit and Loss account. We herewith also return to you the 

 Assessment documents sent in with your Report of 15th April a. c, 

 as enclosLire sub + . Given at Weimar, the 29th June, 1790. The 

 Commissioners appointed for the Inspection of the Assessment 

 Department of Ilmenau of the Principality of Saxony, J. W. v. 

 Goethe, C. G. Voigt." 



IV. My fourth subdivision embraced MS. relics of eminent Oxford 

 and Cambridge men. These I now supplement by the following, 

 transcribed from the originals ; all of them, however, from the hands 

 of Cambridge men. (1.) A note of the present Astronomer Royal, 

 George Biddell Airy, formerly Plumian Professor of Astronomy at 

 Cambridge, to Mr. G. Y. Fowler, who has been commiinicating with 

 him on some new method of correcting the compass on board of ii'on 

 ships: "Sir," writes the Astronomer Royal from the "Royal 

 Observatory, Greenwich, London, S.E., May 18th, 186i," "If you 



