Series 1 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society (First volume)

INTRODUCTION
75
For twelve years Sir Thomas Hope kept a Diary, containing
more or less minute chronological memoranda of his official
as well as of his private correspondence, and incidental allu¬
sions to the passing occurrences of his time. It has been
printed and issued by the Bannatyne Club, in 1843, under the
editorship of the late Dr. David Laing.1 In the prefatory
note to this volume Dr. Laing remarks : ‘ A collection of the
letters of this distinguished person would probably afford
additional illustrations of his own character as well as of the
momentous events of his own time. Very few of these are
at present known to exist; ’—a remark which has suggested the
printing of the following twenty-four letters, which have been
found since the issue of the Bannatyne Club volume. Nine
of these (Nos. i-vni and xvn) are among the mss. bequeathed
to the University of Edinburgh by Dr. Laing himself. The
other fifteen have been preserved among the valuable family
papers in the possession of Alexander Erskine Murray, Esq.,
Sheriff-substitute of Lanarkshire, Glasgow, a lineal descendant
of Sir Thomas Hope, through his daughter, the wife of Sir
Charles Erskine of Alva, to the latter of whom most of them
have been addressed. The thanks of the Society are due to
the Senatus of the University and to Mr. Erskine Murray, for
placing them at its disposal for reproduction in the present
volume.
It only remains to refer briefly here to the correspondents
to whom these letters are addressed.
John Murray, afterwards Earl of Annandale, was the eighth
and youngest son of Sir Charles Murray of Cockpool, in Annan¬
dale, Dumfriesshire, and Margaret his wife, the eldest daughter
of Hugh, fifth Lord Somerville. At an early period of his life
Edinburgh, 1883, vol. i. p. 146. The notice of Sir Thomas Hope in this work
is probably the best and fullest sketch of him, and of the chief events of his official
life, which has appeared.
1 A Diary of Ihe Public Correspondence of Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall,
Bart., 1633-1645. From the original in the library at Pinkie House. Printed at
Edinburgh, mdcccxliii.