580 ARTILLERY COMPANY IN SCOTLAND AT THE TIME OF THE UNION. 
Before saying anything about the Captain of the Artillery Company 
it is necessary to mention that the superior officers of the Artillery 
Company had their commissions from the King, or Queen, direct and 
not from the Master-General of the Ordnance. And the inferior officers 
of the said Company appear to have been generally appointed by the 
Commander-in-Chiet in Scotland as will be shown presently.: As regards 
their pay the Artillery Company were paid by the Lords of the Treasury 
in Scotland who seem to have been worse paymasters than the 
Honourable, though impecunious, Board of Ordnance in England. 
Captain John Slezer is believed to have been a Dutchman but of his 
parentage and early career nothing isknown. Nor has the date of his 
coming to Scotland been yet ascertained. In his account of himself as 
given in his Petition, or Case as it was then termed, setting forth the 
unjust. treatment he had received at the hands of the Government, he 
speaks of himself as “a foreigner who had been honoured by the 
patronage of Charles II. and the Duke of York.” It is certain that 
Slezer was Captain of the Scots Artillery Company for at least a quarter 
of a century and that he was a remarkable man who made himself a 
name in the world but whose fame, unfortunately for himself, was 
posthumous. ‘That he was a zealous artillerist is abundantly proved 
but, curious to say, it was not as a soldier that he won distinction but 
as an engraver on copper and as atopographer. The labour of his life 
was his Theatrum Scotie showing the “ancient and present state of 
Scotland” with folio engravings of palaces, castles, noblémen’s seats, 
&c., with descriptive letter-press.  ‘I'his valuable and interesting work, 
which has gone through several editions, bears witness to Slezer’s skill 
as an engraver, ‘The latest edition! contains a preface by the Rev. John 
Jamieson, D.D., giving a biographical. sketch of Slezer’s career which 
is taken. almost entirely from “the stated Case of Captain John 
Slezer,” printed in 1708, and a copy of which is given in the first 
edition of Theatruwm Scotiz now preserved in the Advocates’ Library, 
Edinburgh. Dr. Jamieson’s admirable review of Slezer’s life only 
commences-in-1690 before which date this writer owns there are no 
landmarks to be found bearing on the subject in question. But since 
the learned Doctor wrote the above biographical sketch several of 
Slezer’s letters on military matters have been unearthed and printed 
by the Historical MSS. Commission.?. These letters.carry us back 
to the year 1681. when Charles II. thought fit: to: give.a fresh 
impetus-to-Artillery matters in Scotland by augmenting the “Train ” 
in that kingdom. With this end in view the Hon. John Drummond, 
Master-General of the Ordnance in Scotland, acting as the King’s 
mouth-piece, issued ‘Instructions for J. Schlezar, Lieutenant. of 
Artillery ” to the following effect : pee 
_ His Majesty having appointed some gunners to.‘be levied for the 
attendance of his Train in Scotland “and there being none sufficiently 
qualified to be found in this kingdom at present”? Mr. Schlezar was 
1 Theatrum Scotia, London, 1874, folio. 
_? MSS.of Chas. Stirling Home Drummond Moray, Exq.—Historical USS. Commission, Report 
X., Part I., pp. 182-136 
