Abbotsford Club > Historical memoirs of the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a portion of the reign of King James the Sixth

xxiv PREFATOrvY NOTICE.
Enghnul, flie bewails her miffortunes, an.l iay- (lie wept at writing; and
indeed the paper is fpoiled a little, with a Imill blank of three or four
words. I faw one from Lochloven, when liu> .vas prifoner, which made
myfelf tear at reading.
" There is a colledlion of originall Letter.^ and writts from 1568 to
1580, of thirteen volumes in folio, very neceffary for a hiftory. I cannot
infert them in a letter; and feveralls in King Charles' time. Nixt, I faw
a colleclion of Letters, Journals, and many other Papers, in four volumes
in folio, finely bound, all writt by the late King James;* beginning about
the time of his father's imprifonment (with feveral letters from his father
to him), continued to 1698. They are very pointed, when he was in the
array under Turrane's command ; and, generally, very handfomely done,
though not fo well writt as his father's, whofe writt is very fine.
" There was a large book fliowen nixt, writt extreamly fine, with various
collours on parchment, and many figures, as the feafons of every moneth,
and countrv affairs in every moneth in the kalendar. It has belonged to
fome Religious Houfe of thofe days, with abundance of legends, and
other ridiculous fables. It bears itfelf writt in 1431 ; but it is fo very
fine I cannot but fufpecl it.
" I faw, lafl:ly, a manufcript of Fordon, with R. Bruce's Teltament.
It is all writt by himfelf, with fome lines difcovering, by every firfl, letter
of the line, his name. The writt is good, and on parchment. As to the
Library here, there is nothing extraordinary in it, and but few books of
value."
In the absence of more minute inl'oimation relative to the
Scots College at Paris, an eye-witness having commnnicated
to the Gentleman's jNIagazinef some very interesting particulars,
the following brief extract is now made from that useful work : —
" It was decreed, during our abode at the Scotch College, that the books
* 'I his lias evidently been eitlier tlie original, or duplicate copies, of the same series of
historical collections which had been deposited by King James II. in charge of the Scots
College at Douay.
t Gc7it. Mag. Nov. 1798, Ixviii. part ii. 937- Letter by an Eye-witness.