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Ordinary Meeting, March 17th, 1868. 
Edw. Schunck, Ph.D., F.R.S., &c., President, in the Chair. 
E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., exhibited to the members an 
original letter of the late Sir Walter Scott, written many 
years ago to a gentleman residing in the North Biding of 
Yorkshire, on the subject of an old ballad entitled “ Jock 
o’ Milk ” 
Sir, 
You have doubtless by this time set me down as guilty 
of great ingratitude and unworthy of your farther corre- 
spondence for so long and unjustifiable a delay in answering 
your letter enclosing Jock o’ Milk. The truth is I have been 
absent from Edinburgh for some weeks, and since my return 
my professional engagements have obliged me to leave the 
tales of the East, West, and Middle Marches as quiet in my 
desk as the bodies of their quondam heroes rest in their 
graves. At length I have an opportunity to acknowledge 
your obliging favour. My Incredulity with regard to the 
Ballad you have been so good as to send me is not yet 
entirely obviated. If it is not entirely and radically a 
modern fabrication, the ancient verses are what the ffrench 
call beaucoup brodetfs. “ Virtue is its own reward,” trite as 
the sentiment is, can hardly be supposed quite so old as the 
reign of Dav d II. The Title of Duke was first introduced 
into Scotland in the Reign of Rob 11 3 d , and was only con- 
ferred upon immediate relations of the Royal family till at 
a very late period the Hamilton family got that title. 
Proceedings — Lit. & Phil. Society— Vol. VII. — No. 11. — Session, 1867-8. 
