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Scottish literary papers in the Laing Collection, including manuscripts by William Drummond, Robert Fergusson, John Galt, Anne Grant, James Hogg, John Home, and Francis Jeffrey.

James Dalrymple (18th century)

  • MS poems, c.1774 (La.III.801)

Gavin Douglas (c.1474?-1522)

  • Virgil's Aeneid (‘Lawd, honour, praysyngis, thankis infynyte’), fragment, 3 leaves of MS, written ca. 1530 (La.II.655)

William Drummond (1585-1649)

  • ‘Circuit aboue the circle of our thoughts’, holograph (La.III.365)
  • ‘Dum tua melliflui specto pigmenta Libelli’, fragment of MS Latin stanza, holograph, addressed to Michael Drayton (La.II.320)
  • Polemo-Middinia inter Vitarvam et Nebernam (‘Nymphae quae colitis highissima monta Fifaea’), copy (La.II.69)

William Dunbar (1460?-1520?)

  • Extracts from Dunbar's Poems (belonged to Geo. Chalmers), 18th-19th centuries (La.III.476)

Laurence Dundas (1662-1734)

  • Some Odes of Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Englished by Mr. Laurence Dundas, Professor of Humanity in the College of Edinburgh, and also by Mr. John Martine, schoolmaster in Perth', 18th Century (La.III.459)

Sir David Erskine (1772-1837)

  • 6 letters from Erskine to David Laing, 1825-1836 (La.IV.6 Ers. 1; La.IV.17)

Ralph Erskine (1685-1752)

  • ‘Extracts, chiefly from the Sonnets of Rev. Ralph Erskine’, 1726 (La.III.460)
  • Letter from Erskine, 11 November 1738 (La.II.258)

William Falconer (1732-1769)

  • Two autograph signatures attached to advertisements of his Marine Dictionary, 1768 (La.II.329)

Robert Fergusson (1750-1774)

  • Songs and a Poem, 3 items, 1 a transcript: 'How Happy a State does the Cape-Knight Possess', 'A Mournful Ditty from the Knight of Complaints', 'Just now in fair Edina lives' (La.II.334)
  • 'Poem: 1781 Jan. 4, on seeing Alexander Runciman's Work' (La.IV.26, f. 118)
  • ‘The Progress of Knighthood, by the Knight of Precentor’ (La.III.464, p. 83)

John Finlay (1782-1810)

  • ‘Wallace’, two stanzas of a poem, with a note by John Smith, 1845 (La.IV.6)

William Finlay (1792-1847)

  • ‘The Widow’s Excuse’, poem (La.II.348)

Sir William Forbes (1739-1806)

  • 5 letters from Forbes to James Cumming, 1782-1783, and undated (La.II.82)

James Baillie Fraser (1783-1856)

  • Letter from Fraser, 1823 (La.II.422/102)

John Galt (1779-1839)

  • 2 letters from Galt to Drury Lane Theatre, 1813-18, with 1 leaf of Galt’s 'Tribulations' (La.II.277)
  • Letter from Galt to W. Tait, 1836, with 1 leaf of a story beginning, ‘Be not afraid was my answer’ (La.II.589/7-8)
  • Letter from Galt to Alexander Young, 1835 (La.II.509)
  • Letter from Galt to a bookseller, 1817 (La.II.423/124)

Alexander Garden (c. 1585-c. 1642)

  • ‘The Lyf, Doings and Deathe of Bishop Elphingston', 1619 (La.III.443)

George Gilfillan (1813-1878)

  • 2 letters from Gilfillan, 1856-1864 (La.II.354; La.II.585/3 f. 3)

Robert Gilfillan (1798-1850)

  • Letter from Gilfillan to Rev. Henry Scott Riddell, 10 August 1836, with a biographical note on Gilfillan by Riddell, 1865 (La.II.353)

Willison Glass (19th century)

  • Letter(s) and/or poem(s) in La.II.585

Anna Gordon, Mrs Brown of Falkland (1747-1810)

  • ‘Popular Ballads, a faithfull transcript written from the recitations of his aunt, Mrs Broun of Falkland, by Mr. R. Scott, Professor of Greek, Kings College, Aberdeen [i.e. Robert Eden Scott (1769-1811)], etc., with correspondence in reference thereto’, undated (La.III.473)

James Grahame (1765-1811)

  • 2 letters from Grahame, 1 of them to A. Peterkin, 1805-1806 (La.II.166)
  • Lines addressed to the Rev. James Grahame, holograph of John Jamieson, 29 December 1825 (La.II.338)

Anne Grant (1755-1838)

  • Collection of poems made by Anne Grant, including some of her own composition, 179[-?] (includes two autograph poems by Francis Jeffrey, 1794-1795) (La.III.797)
  • Correspondence of Anne Grant, 1801-1830, with recipients including Catherine Maria Fanshaw; includes poems by Grant, chiefly written for Scots or Welsh airs (La.II.357)
  • Letter from Grant to Charles Doyne Sillery, 1835 (La.II.585)

James Gray (1770-1830)

  • Scots poems, from Gray’s manuscripts, 1810, transcripts made for George Chalmers; originals formerly in the Advocates Library, now in the National Library of Scotland (La.III.450/1)

Alexander B. Grosart (1827-1899)

  • 84 letters from Grosart to David Laing, 1846-1877 (La.IV.17)
  • Letter from Grosart to S.C.M., 1876 or 1877 (La.IV.17)

Basil Hall (1788-1844)

  • Letter from Basil Hall to Sir Walter Scott (La.III.584/72)
  • Letter from Basil Hall to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe (La.II.587/10)

Thomas Hamilton (1789-1842)

  • Letter from Hamilton to Rev. Mr Graves (La.II.423/136)

William Hamilton (1704-1754)

  • Poems of William Hamilton of Bangour, Esq. (La.III.451)

James Hannay (1827-1873)

  • 3 letters from Hannay to Peter Cunningham, 185[-?]-1855 (La.II.646/116)
  • Letter from Hannay to Laing (La.IV.17)

James Hedderwick (1814-1897)

  • Memorandum, holograph, 22 March 1865 (La.II.355)

Henry, the Minstrel (fl. 1470-1492)

  • Blind Harry's 'Wallace', black letter; with MS notes by D. Macpherson and others, no date (La.III.776)

Robert Henryson (1430?-1506?)

  • 'The Thre Deid Pollis' (‘O sinfull man, in to this mortall se’), copy, early 17th century (La.III.488)

Robert Heron (1764-1807)

  • ‘Journal of my Conduct’, 1789-1798, with a letter from Heron to Colin McFarquhar, 1791 (La.III.272)
  • 3 letters from Heron to Robert Dundas, Lord Advocate, 1793-1798, and undated (La.II.500-501)
  • Letter from Heron to Robert Dundas, Lord Advocate, 1798 (La.II.269)

Thomas Kibble Hervey (1799-1859)

  • 3 letters from Hervey to Messrs Smith and Elder and 1 to Mr Elder, with a receipt from Smith and Elder (La.II.648/109-112)

James Hogg (1770-1835)

  • 5 letters from Hogg to David Laing, 1820-1832 (La.IV.6 Hog. 1-5)
  • List of contributors to Hogg's proposed periodical 'The Spy' (La.IV.6 Hog. 6)
  • ‘Wallace’, poem, not autograph (La.II.216)
  • Letter from Hogg to William Laidlaw, 1801, transcript, La.III.584/13

Archibald Home (1705?-1744)

  • Poems of Archibald Home Esq., late Secretary and one of H.M. Council for the Province of New Jersey, North America., no date (La.III.452)

John Home (1722-1808)

  • 'Agis', fragment of Act 4, scene 1 and Act 5, Scene 1, with verses sent to a lady and a printed invitation to Home (La.II.713)
  • 'Corrections suggested for Professor John Walker’s "Natural History of the Island of Icolumbkil"', La.III.575 (pocket)
  • 'The History of the Rebellion Which Broke Out in Scotland in the Year 1745', fragment of a draft (La.II.165)
  • Letter from Home to Messrs Cadell and Davies, 17--? (La.II.589)
  • 2 letters from Home, 1 to General Campbell and 1 to ‘my dear George’, 1772 and undated (La.II.214)
  • Letter from Home to George Murray, 1770 (La.II.503)

David Hume (1560?-1630?)

  • 'Vincula Unionis sive scita Britannicae id est De Unione insulae Britannicae tractatus secundus', autograph calligraphic MS by Esther Inglis, 1605 (La.III.249)

Henry David Inglis (1795-1835)

  • Letter from Inglis to Mr Mackay, undated (La.II.511)

Alexander Irvine (1773-1824)

  • Gaelic Poems, collected by Irvine, 1802 (La.III.475)

David Irving (1778-1860)

  • Receipt for a Surtees Society publication, signed by Irving, 1838 (La.II.282)
  • 21 letters from Irving to David Laing, 1827-1860, with draft of letter from Laing to Irving (La.IV.17)
  • 11 letters from Irving to J. C. Walker, 1805-1809 (La.II.599)

Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850)

  • Two poems addressed to Miss Mary Grant, 1794-1795 (in La.III.797)
  • Verses addressed to Miss Wilson (afterwards Mrs Jeffrey), 1800 (La.II.357)
  • Letter from Jeffrey to Sir William Drummond, undated (La.II.591/4)
  • 2 letters from Jeffrey to David Laing, 1834-1842 (La.IV.6 Jef. 1-2)
  • 2 letters from Jeffrey to Sir Walter Scott, 1806-[1817] (La.III.584/15, 35)
  • Letter from Jeffrey to ‘John’, 11 January 1836 (La.II.278)

John Johnston (c.1570–1611)

  • ‘De Coronis Martyrum', by John Johnston, A.M., transcript, 18th-19th century (La.III.480)
  • Autograph letter to Francis Young, 29 February 1600 (La.II.186)

William Kennedy (1799-1871)

  • 5 letters from Kennedy to T. Thomson, 1818-1820 (La.II.511)

Sir Robert Kerr (or Carr), 1st Earl of Ancram (c. 1578–1654)

  • Original version of Psalm 145, translated from Buchanan (La.II.321)