The Project Gutenberg eBook, Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36, by Sir John Lauder, et al, Edited by Donald Crawford

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Title: Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36

Author: Sir John Lauder

Release Date: July 17, 2004 [eBook #12930]

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUBLICATIONS OF THE SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY, VOL. 36***

E-text prepared by Robert Connal and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made available by gallica (Bibliothèque nationale de France) at http://gallica.bnf.fr

PUBLICATIONS OF THE SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY, VOLUME XXXVI

LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL'S JOURNALS

MAY 1900

[Illustration: LORD FOUNTAINHALL.]

JOURNALS OF SIR JOHN LAUDER LORD FOUNTAINHALL WITH HIS OBSERVATIONS ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND OTHER MEMORANDA

1665-1676

Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by
DONALD CRAWFORD
Sheriff of Aberdeen, Kincardine, and Banff

[Illustration: SIR JOHN LAUDER, FIRST BARONET.
(Lord Fountainhall's Father.)]

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

JOURNALS:—

I

Journal in France, 1665-1667,

II

1. Notes of Journeys in London. Oxford, and Scotland, 1667-1670,

2. Notes of Journeys in Scotland, 1671-1672,

3. Chronicle of events connected with the Court of Session, 1668-1676,

4. Observations on Public Affairs, 1669-1670,

III

APPENDIX

i. Accounts, 1670-1675,

ii. Catalogue of Books, 1667-1679,

iii. Letter of Lauder to his Son,

PORTRAITS

I. LORD FOUNTAINHALL

II. SIR JOHN LAUDER, first Baronet, Lord Fountainhall's father

III. JANET RAMSAY, first wife of Lord Fountainhall

IV. SIR ANDREW RAMSAY, Lord Abbotshall

All reproduced from pictures in the possession of Lady Anne Dick Lauder.

INTRODUCTION

THE MANUSCRIPTS

There are here printed two manuscripts by Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall, and portions of another. The first[1] is a kind of journal, though it was not written up day by day, containing a narrative of his journey to France and his residence at Orleans and Poictiers, when he was sent abroad by his father at the age of nineteen to study law in foreign schools in preparation for the bar. It also includes an account of his expenses during the whole period of his absence from Scotland. The second,[2] though a small volume, contains several distinct portions. There are narratives of visits to London and Oxford on his way home from abroad, his journey returning to Scotland, and some short expeditions in Scotland in the immediately following years, observations on public affairs in 1669- 70, and a chronicle of events connected with the Court of Session from 1668 to 1676; also at the other end of the volume some accounts of expenses. The third[3] may be described as a commonplace book, for the most part written during the first years of his practice at the bar and his early married life, but it also contains some notes of travel in Fife, the Lothians, and the Merse in continuation of those in MS. H., and a list of the books which he bought and their prices, brought down to a late period of his life. These manuscripts have been kindly made available to the Scottish History Society by the owners. The first is in the Library of the University of Edinburgh. The second is the property of the late Sir William Fraser's trustees. The third has been lent by Sir Thomas North Dick Lauder, Fountainhall's descendant and representative.

[1] Referred to as MS. X.

[2] Marked by Fountainhall H.

[3] Marked by Fountainhall K.

It was Lord Fountainhalls practice, during his whole life, to record in notebooks public events, and his observations upon them, legal decisions, and private memoranda. He kept several series of notebooks concurrently with great diligence and method. In all of those which have been preserved there is more or less matter of value to the student of history. But at his death his library was sold by public auction. The MSS. were dispersed, though their existence and value was known to some of his contemporaries.[4] Some are lost, in particular the series of Historical Observes, 1660-1680, which, judging from the sequel, which has been preserved and printed by the Bannatyne Club, would have been of great value. According to tradition the greater part of what has been recovered was found in a snuff-shop by Mr. Crosby the lawyer, the supposed original of Scott's Pleydell, and purchased at the sale of his books after his death by the Faculty of Advocates.[5]

[4] Preface to Forbes's Journal of the Session, Edinburgh, 1714.

[5] MS. Genealogical Roll of the Family of Lauder by the late Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, in possession of Sir T.N. Dick Lauder.

Eight volumes came into the possession of the Faculty of Advocates, and under their auspices two folio volumes of legal decisions from 1678 to 1712 were published in 1759 and 1761.[6] In 1837 the Bannatyne Club printed The Historical Observes, 1680-1686, a complete MS. in the Advocates' Library, and in 1848 they printed two volumes of Historical Notices, 1661-1688. These are after 1678 selections from the same MSS. from which the folio of 1759 was compiled, and the additions to the text of the folio are not numerous, though the historical matter, which was buried among the legal decisions, is presented in a more convenient form. But from 1661 to 1678 (about half of vol. i.) and especially from 1670 (for the previous entries occupy only a few pages) the notices are all new and many of them of considerable interest. In printing these volumes, which I believe are acknowledged to contain some of the best material for the history of Scotland at the time, the Bannatyne Club carried out a design which had been long cherished by the late Sir Thomas Dick Lauder,[7] though he did not live to see its complete fulfilment, and he was helped in his efforts by Sir Walter Scott. The story[8] is worth telling more fully than has yet been done. In the winter of 1813-14 Sir Thomas, then a young man, met Sir Walter at a dinner-party. Sir Walter expressed his regret 'that something had not been done towards publishing the curious matter in Lord Fountainhall's MSS.,'[9] and urged Sir Thomas to undertake the task. In 1815 Sir Thomas wrote to Scott asking about a box in the Advocates' Library believed to contain MSS. of Fountainhalls. Sir Walter replied as follows:—

    [6] See Mr. David Laing's Preface to the Historical Notices,