FLETCHER OF SALTOUN
BY G : W : T OMOND
FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES
FLETCHER OF SALTOUN
FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES
The following Volumes are now ready—
THOMAS CARLYLE. By Hector C. Macpherson
ALLAN RAMSAY. By Oliphant Smeaton
HUGH MILLER. By W. Keith Leask
JOHN KNOX. By A. Taylor Innes
ROBERT BURNS. By Gabriel Setoun
THE BALLADISTS. By John Geddie
RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor Herkless
SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By Eve Blantyre Simpson
THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor W. Garden Blaikie
JAMES BOSWELL. By W. Keith Leask
TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By Oliphant Smeaton
FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By G. W. T. Omond
FLETCHER OF SALTOUN
FAMOUS
SCOTS:
SERIES
PUBLISHED BY:
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
NEW YORK
PREFACE
In 1792 the eleventh Earl of Buchan published avolume of Essays on the Life and Writings of Fletcherof Saltoun and the Poet Thomson. It contains our onlybiography of Fletcher; but, though founded on originalsources of information, it is frequently inaccurate, andmust, therefore, be used with great caution. Theauthor of the article on Fletcher in the third edition ofthe Encyclopædia Britannica (1797) mentions that thetenth Earl Marischal, when Governor of Neuchâtel,suggested to Rousseau that he should write the life ofFletcher. Rousseau was furnished withmss. for thispurpose; but nothing came of it, and most of thematerials on which that work was to have been foundedseem to have been lost. Some interesting documents,however, are preserved in the University Library atEdinburgh, includingmss. used by Lord Buchan, and aletter to him from Lord Hailes, who had evidently beenapplied to for information. (Laingmss. 364.)
Mr. F. Espinasse refers to most of the printedauthorities for the life of Fletcher, in a succinct butexhaustive article in the Dictionary of National Biography,vol. xix. p. 292; and in the Scottish Review forJuly 1893 (vol. xxii. p. 61) there is a very interestingpaper on ‘Andrew Fletcher, the Scottish Patriot,’ fromthe pen of Mr. J. R. Donaldson. Many allusions toFletcher’s conduct as a member of the last ScottishParliament are to be found in the Godolphin Correspondencein the British Museum. (Add. mss. 28,055.)
I have to thank Mr. Fletcher of Saltoun for allowingme to consult a volume of Recollections respecting theFamily of Saltoun, and for an opportunity of examiningthe library and visiting the scenes of Fletcher’searly life.
Mr. E. Gordon Duff, librarian of the John RylandsLibrary, Manchester, and Mr. R. A. S. Macfie havefor some time been engaged