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MR EDITOR,

The original of the subjoined is among the papers of an old and loyal family in Ayrshire, whom I prevailed on to permit this communication. The letter seems an admirable companion to those Royal Epistles with which you have already favoured the public;^[1] but the comments that might be made on it are chiefly anticipated in your former Number. L. H. Glasgow, 2d March.

RICHT TRAIST FREIND,

We greit you herthe weill Having directit our other lres unto zou of befoir desyring zou according to the custome observit of auld be our maist nobill progenitours in sic caises to haif directit hither to the Queine our Bedfallow ane haiknay for transporting of the Ladies accompanying her Quhareupoun we vpoun zour stay haif tane occasioun to mervell Zit thinking to try forder the conceipt quhilk we hailf of zour affectioun in furtherance of honorabill adois as ony wayis concerne ws We ar movit as of befoir to visie zou be thir prētis Requeisting zou maist effectuuslie to deliver and direct hither with this berair ane haiknay to quhom we haif gevin our comission for the samyn effect In doing quhareof ze will do ws richt acceptabill pleasour to be rememberit in ony zour adois quhare we may gif zou pruif of our rememberance of zour guid weill accordinglie Othervise vpon the informatioune we haif resaivit of sic as ze haif we will caus the reddiest ze haif be taine be our auctority and brocht in till ws Hoping rather ze will do zour dewtie benevolenthe Thus luikeing that our desire tending to the custome observit of auld in sic caises sall be satisfeit and the berair not return empty We comit zou to the protection of God From Halirudhous the fyrst day of October 1590.

(Signed) James R.

MR EDITOR,

I observed, in the last Number of your Magazine, an article on the subject of Damping, signed "An Old Fellow," and being perhaps the most veteran Damper in Edinburgh, having belonged to the society upwards of sixty years, I presume, in name of all the Dampers in and about town, no despicable array, to thank your correspondent for the very handsome manner in which he has been pleased to notice a fraternity, of which your readers will probably think I have not been an unworthy member, after they shall have perused the following narrative.

The first time I had the pleasure of plying as a Damper, was soon after the appearance of the tragedy of Douglas. The nation, I mean the Scottish nation, felt proud of the success of their first, may I call it their first? legitimate drama; and Mr Home's vanity as an author was not inconsiderable. By dividing the merits, it was evident that it would be decreased in a much greater ratio than a half, so I whispered that the real author, mirabile dictu, was no less a personage than John, Earl of Bute. The inuendo was eagerly listened to; and poor Home, shorn of his tragic beams, was doomed to suffer all the rage of presbyterian persecution, while the unconscious peer was clothed in his literary splendour. Time, however, a gentleman who has always been a bitter enemy to the results of Damping, has officiously interposed, and rendered my whispers inaudible to posterity.

My next appearance was some time after the appearance of Ossian's Poems. The people were still more proud of their ancient than they had been of their modern bard; and I exerted my energies in moderating their transport, until I was actually called the modern Zoilus. Recourse was again had to my former expedient of dividing the merits, and I most boldly contended, that many of the best poems were written by the editor, though I knew that he could as well have written the Iliad. By this proceeding, I took a great deal of merit from our Gaelic Homer, and conferred very little on M'Pherson; thereby keeping the vanity of the nation rather under par, if I may use a mercantile expression in a literary concern. On a later day I furnished a brother Damper with some of his most plausible objections to the authenticity of Ossian's Poems, inspiring him with a style at

1. ↑ See No IX.