A1$8 
of a dealer, as to order 20 cafes of books, 
which, taken feparately, are as unlike in 
their nature as cloth and cheele. ; 
Having thus ftated the obvious caules of 
the evil, it will not be difficult to point 
out in what way it may be removed. I 
advife, that, whenever a merchant wifhes 
to fhip a quantity of books, if he is not 
himfelf a literary man, that he requeft 
any literary friend to write out a lift of 
the moft interefting, valuable, and popular 
books; and if this order be faithfully 
packed, he may depend upon it, that he 
will foon find books, as far as their 
amount extends, to be one of the moft 
profitable articles of his trade. In occa- 
fional adventures, within my own know. 
ledge, in which the feleétion has been 
carefully made, the profit has never been 
lefs than two hundred per cent. 
The pleafure thus communicated to the 
fettlement to which the books are con- 
figned, and the ufeful knowledge propa- 
gated, ought alfo to be a confideration of 
weight with a re{pectable merchant. 
What I have faid relative to the necef- 
fity of making out a judicious lift on 
the part of perfons who export books 
from Great Britain, will apply, with 
equal force, to thofe bookfellers who re- 
fide in our foregn fettlements, and who 
import books from Great Britain, as their 
particular bufinefs. -I am, Sir, 
London, May 3. Your's, &c. T.P. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE Caftle of Dunnottar, from its 
i antiquity, its hiftory, its fituation, 
and now from the grandeur of its ruins, 
has attracted the attention of all who have 
travelled through the North of Scotland, 
either for information or for pleafure. 
I was aftonithed to fee an account of it 
by fome perfon, who, from ignorance of 
his fubjeét, feems but poorly qualified for 
the tafk ; and I was forry, that your va- 
juable Mifcellany fhould have been made 
the channel through which an erroneous 
ftatement was given to the public. Living 
in its immediate vicinity, I can vouch for 
the truth of what I now write, and will 
thank you to give it an early place in 
your Magazine. 
The fpring in one of the vaults is fo 
very brackifh, that nothing but the moft 
urgent neceffity could ever have induced 
the garrifon to ufe it; and, befides, the 
quantity of water is fo trifling, that it 
* could not have afforded a fufficient fupply. 
A very deep hollow, formed by nature, 
runs along the weft-fide of the Caftle, and 
divides it from the land, but acrofs which 
Cafile of Dunustiar.—Mer. Robsrtfor. 
[June 1, 
no draw-bridge ever was placed, as far as 
I can learn; indeed, the afcent to the 
gateway is fo narrow and fleep, that, be- 
fore the invention of cannon, a handful of 
men was fufficient to protect it from the 
attacks of a very powerful army, as long 
as the garrifon could be fupplied with: 
provifions. During the civil-wars, Mr. 
George Ogilvy, the Lieutenant-governor, 
and who about that time becarne the pro- 
prictor of Barras by marriage, was the 
means, affifted by the wife of the parfon of 
the neighbouring parifh, of preferving the 
regalia of Scotland. The Governor him- 
felf, a branch of the Marithal family, 
though abfent during the fiege, was amply 
rewarded ; Mr. Ogilvy was created a ba- 
ronet; but the poor clergyman and his 
wife, though the molt active agents in the 
bufinels, received no recompence whatever. 
The Caitle has undergone no repairs for 
many years, and is now, with a large 
eftate in the neighbourhood, the property 
of Mr. Keith, a gentleman of the law in 
Edinburgh, who claims his deicent from 
the family of Marifhal. As poffeffing the 
original records, and from his favourite 
purfuits, he is weil-qualified for giving 
an account of the Caftle of Dennottar, 
and I hope he will now confider himfelf 
as called upon to do fo. 
I am, Sir, your’s, &c. 
eG. Fr. 
EE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
I FIND by your laft Number, that 
your Correfpondent, Dr. Toulmin, 
afcribes §* the Enquiry into the Scripture- 
meaning of the Word Satan,” &c. to 
the late Rev. J. Robertfon, of whom you 
have prefented a Memoir in your Maga- 
zine for March. Ido not know on what 
authority this tract is fo afcribed, neither 
do I mean peremptorily to deny, that it” 
was the production of Mr. Robertfon. 
But I have always underftood, from the - 
time of its publication in 1772, to the 
prefent day, that it was written by a Mr. 
Barker, a clergyman, who was refident on 
a curacy, or beneficed, in Yorkthire. It 
was on the publication of this traét, that 
the late Dr. M 3,8 h (then 
fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge) 
was fo much difturbed at the objeét of the 
INQUIRER, whoever he was :—‘* Things 
(faid hein the college-hall) are stome 
to a fine pafs; the heretics are now about 
to infitt that there is no Devil: this is the 
final fubverfion of all orthodoxy ; and the 
confequence will be, that it will be better 
to be d—d than hanged.” Your's, 
May 3) 18026 Cen 
46 
