Life and Correspondence of David Hume, Volume I (of 2)

[408:2] Colonel Abercrombie.

[409:1] From the original at Kilravock.

[410:1] MS. R.S.E.

[411:1] "I presume this was 'Douglas;' and the expression, 'he now discovers a great genius for the theatre,' I suppose was meant to imply Mr. D. Hume's opinion of its being better fitted for the stage than Agis."—Mackenzie.

[411:2] Mackenzie's Account of Home, p. 102. The original in the MS. R.S.E.

[413:1] "Lives of the Lindsays, or a Memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarres, by Lord Lindsay." Hume's correspondent was James, the fifth earl. He had had the misfortune to be "out in the fifteen," and though a zealous and hardy soldier, he in vain attempted to rise in the army; and at last retiring in disgust, he betook himself to learned leisure. In the pleasing work above referred to, he is thus picturesquely described: "Though his aspect was noble, and his air and deportment showed him at once a man of rank, yet there was no denying that a degree of singularity attended his appearance. To his large brigadier wig, which hung down with three tails, he generally added a few curls of his own application, which I suspect would not have been considered quite orthodox by the trade. His shoe, which resembled nothing so much as a little boat with a cabin at the end of it, was slashed with his pen-knife, for the benefit of giving ease to his honest toes; here—there—he slashed it where he chose to slash, without an idea that the world or its fashions had the smallest right to smile at his shoe; had they smiled, he would have smiled too, and probably said, 'Odsfish! I believe it is not like other people's; but as to that, look, d' ye see? what matters it whether so old a fellow as myself wears a shoe or a slipper.'"

[414:1] Mackenzie's Account of Home, p. 175.

[416:1] He does not, however, mention it in any of the subsequent editions of his History.

[417:1] Scott of Scotstarvet's Staggering State of Scots Statesmen.—A collection of contemporary characters, drawn by a shrewd but bitter and unscrupulous observer.

[417:2] MS. R.S.E.

[417:3] Evidently the Philosophical Society. It was instituted in 1731, chiefly as a medical society; but, in 1739, its plan was so far enlarged, as to admit of the above comprehensive denomination.

[418:1] Sic in MS.

[418:2] Lit. Gazette, 1822, p. 745. The original is in the MSS. R.S.E.

[419:1] This name changed to Randolph, after the first representation.—Mackenzie.

[420:1] Changed to Norval, before the tragedy was brought on the stage.—Mackenzie.

[420:2] Mackenzie's Account of Home, p. 100.

The following paper made its first appearance in The Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle, a few years ago, when it was edited by Mr. Hislop, a gentleman said to be well acquainted with theatrical matters. It is here repeated, not as being believed, but because having excited some attention when it first appeared, it found its way into some books connected with Scottish literature.

"It may not be generally known, that the first rehearsal took place in the lodgings in the Canongate, occupied by Mrs. Sarah Warde, one of Digges's company; and that it was rehearsed by, and in presence of the most distinguished literary characters Scotland ever could boast of. The following was the cast of the piece on the occasion:—

"The audience that day, besides Mr. Digges, and Mrs. Warde, were, the Right Honourable Patrick Lord Elibank, Lord Milton, Lord Kames, Lord Monboddo, (the two last were then only lawyers,) the Rev. John Steele and William Home, ministers. The company, all but Mrs. Warde, dined afterwards in the Erskine Club, in the Abbey."

The reader must take this statement at its own value, which he will probably not consider high. The "cast," has no pretensions to be a transcript of any contemporary document; for Dr. Robertson was not then Principal of the University, but minister of the country parish of Gladsmuir; and Ferguson was not a Professor, but an army chaplain, with leave of absence, spending his time chiefly in Perthshire. Lord Kames, spoken of as "only" a lawyer, had been raised to the bench in 1752.

[421:1] This last appears to have been suppressed. The publication of the others is mentioned further on.

[422:1] MS. R.S.E.

[423:1] Account of John Home, p. 24.

[424:1] There is an amusing traditional anecdote, with which this periodical has some connexion. Dr. Walter Anderson, minister of Chirnside, having caught the fire of literary ambition, made the remark to Hume, one afternoon when they had been enjoying the hospitalities of Ninewells: "Mr. David, I daresay other people might write books too; but you clever fellows have taken up all the good subjects. When I look about me, I cannot find one unoccupied."—"What would you think, Mr. Anderson," said Hume, in reply, "of a History of Crsus, king of Lydia? This has never yet been written." Dr. Anderson was a man who understood no jesting, and held no words as uttered in vain; so away he goes, pulls down his Herodotus, and translates all the passages in the first book relating to Crsus, with all the consultations of the oracles, and all the dreams; only interweaving with them, from his own particular genius, some very sage and lengthy remarks on the extent to which there was real truth in the prophetic revelations of the Pythoness. This book, which is now a great rarity, was reviewed with much gravity and kindness in The Edinburgh Review. It was more severely treated in The Critical Review, edited by Smollett, where it is said, "There is still a race of soothsayers in the Highlands, derived, if we may believe some curious antiquaries, from the Druids and Bards that were set apart for the worship of Apollo. The author of the History before us may, for aught we know, be one of these venerable seers, though we rather take him to be a Presbyterian teacher, who has been used to expound apothegms that need no explanation."