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`Beacone upon the Rock of European and Brittanick alchimie or The phisicianes philosopheres and chimist`s alchimie displayed or the minthouses defended against the grand imposture of transmutatione of mettalles by the universale cure. In a second letter to his Brittanick majestie Queen Anne of Brittaine and Irlande`; an unpublished alchemical treatise by John Leslie, written in the form of two letters to Queen Anne and one to the Duke of Queensberry.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.23.7.14
Scope and Contents
The work is undated but was probably written sometime in the early 18th century.
Dates:
?Early 18th century.
Book of autographs begun by Catherine E Moir, wife of David Macbeth Moir, 1829, and continued by her daughter Anne Mary Milligan, 1853, and her grandson, George Milligan, biblical scholar, 1872.
Item
Identifier: MS.10256
Scope and Contents
The album for the most part contains cut-out signatures of well-known nineteenth-century figures but there are also several letters notably of Charles Dickens, Fanny Kemble, Henry Siddons, Samuel Warren and Baroness Wentworth. Also included are autograph poems by Thomas Campbell and James Hogg. The poems of Hogg (folios 64-66) are "Lenochan's farewell", 'The Stuarts of Appin' and 'The poor man', all published in ‘The works of the Ettrick Shepherd' (London, 1873). The verses of Thomas...
Dates:
1829-1872.
‘Breviary of the Decisions of the Lords of Session ... and of the Acts of Sederunt, from June, 1661, to July, 1681, observed by Sir James Dalrymple of Stair.’
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.81.1.1
Scope and Contents
The Acts of Sederunt, 1661-1681, as in the printed ‘Decisions of the Lords of council and session’, are followed by a summary of Decisions arranged alphabetically according to subject. The text is apparently copied from an incomplete manuscript.At the end, inverted, is a copy of ‘Instructions and rules ... to the Commissaries, clerks, procurators fiscalls, and other members of the court of the whole ecclesiasticall jurisdiction,’ forwarded under cover of a Royal letter dated...
Dates:
1661-1681.
'Brief sketch of a correspondence with Sir Walter Scott, commencing in the year 1814', by Joseph Train.
File
Identifier: MS.3277
Scope and Contents
According to an 'introductory letter' to John Gibson Lockhart, 1833, Joseph Train wrote these recollections for the benefit of his children and sent them to Lockhart for use in his ‘Life of Sir Walter Scott’. The work, which includes transcripts of letters of Sir Walter Scott, some not printed in the Centenary Edition, gives an account of Train's relations with Scott, of his antiquarian researches and the objects which he presented to Scott, of Galloway traditions, some of which provided...
Dates:
1814-1841.
Cards and letters of Harry Lauder to W. Lockyer.
File
Identifier: Acc.14019
Scope and Contents
Includes two autographs and one signed photograph (1937) of Harry Lauder; programme of Command Performance at Balmoral Castle, 5 September 1924; some photographs probably of W. Lockyer and members of his family.
Dates:
1923-1929.
`Chronicle of Perth`, 1210-1668, also known as Mercer`s Chronicle and Fleming`s Chronicle, with other documents relating to the burgh of Perth.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.35.4.4
Scope and Contents
The `Chronicle` was compiled probably between 1600 and 1668 by more than one person. Though attributed to John Mercer, town clerk of Perth, only the latter part appears to be his work. From 1660 it is almost entirely a register of burials.
Other items in the volume are a fragment of a legal memorial, circa 1597, concerning the foundation of the King James VI Hospital in Perth (folio 1), and a group of letters concerning Royal Burgh affairs (1614-1628), all copies (folio 20).
Dates:
?1600-1688.
Collection of 26 letters of and to George Buchanan.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.15.1.6
Scope and Contents
Prefixed to the letters are:Buchanan’s autograph preface to his ‘Franciscanus’ (folio 1); Buchanan`s autograph paper on the reformation of St. Andrews University (folio 3); and,a scheme for an edition of Buchanan`s poetry (folio 13) (not corresponding to the arrangement in Ruddiman`s edition).At the end (folio 54) is a note of Alexander Pitcairne, stating that he has ‘received and borrowed from Mr. David Malcome twentie eight letters to and...
Dates:
1567-1581, and undated.
Collection of autographs formed by William Finlay Watson (died 1881), bookseller, Edinburgh.
Collection
Identifier: MSS.577-600
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of letters and documents in the autograph of literary, political, social, artistic, naval, military, and legal celebrities, chiefly covering the period from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth.
The first 2,300 items bear numbers given in the National Galleries. Certain letters, etc., have been retained for exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery; the series is therefore not continuous (see MS.595).
Dates:
16th century-19th century.
Collection of holograph manuscripts of authors of the early 20th century.
Series
Identifier: MSS.812-816
Dates:
Early 20th century.
Collection of letters and literary manuscripts submitted to Smith Elder and Company, publishers.
Record Group
Identifier: MSS.32001-32012
Dates:
1860-1902.
`Collection of Papers Experiments And Observations Relating to Husbandry, Grass, And other Branches Of Country Affairs,’ by William Baird of Auchmeddan.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.31.4.12
Scope and Contents
The collection was compiled over the years 1736 to 1756, and was written in the latter year (pages iii, 234). It is made up of extracts from books, copies of letters, and notes of the experiences of the writer.
Dates:
1736-1756.
Collection of state papers of the reigns of James VI and Charles I made by Sir James Balfour of Denmilne, Lord Lyon King of Arms.
Collection
Identifier: Adv.MSS.33.1.1-33.1.15
Scope and Contents
The collection is known both as the `Denmilne State Papers` and the `Denmilne Collection`. Less formally it is often referred to as the `Denmilne Manuscripts`.
Dates:
1548-1641.
‘Collections’ made by Robert Beatson, Doctor of Laws, containing a number of genealogical papers and copies of military documents which he probably used when engaged on compiling ‘Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain from 1727 to 1783’.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.3.21
Scope and Contents
The contents of the volume include:(i) Genealogical accounts in a variety of hands of a number of British peers, collected while Beatson was gathering material for his work on the English Peerage. (See also Adv.MSS.33.5.9-33.5.10). For another copy of the account of the family of Calder (folio 29), see MS.9982.(ii) An account, in Beatson`s hand, of the Parish of Dysart, his birthplace, undated (folio 57).(iii) Description of a Tour of Scotland made by...
Dates:
1785-1803, and undated.
Commonplace book of the Earl of Buchan.
Item
Identifier: MS.963
Scope and Contents
The comonplace book contains drafts of letters to the ‘Bee’, an inventory of the Earl of Buchan’s property, lists of Scottish portraits, an ode, ‘To the Shepherd of the Cot’, and notes and drafts of papers on the Scottish Peerage and other subjects. Included is a manuscript copy of ‘The New Order of Gooding and Manuring all sorts of Field Land with Common Salts’, by Archibald, afterwards 1st Lord Napier (said to have been printed by Robert Waldegrave), referring to the right to issue...
Dates:
1778-1791.
Composite manuscript consisting of two volumes (folios 1, 75) of copies, circa 1585, 1607, of papers, 1537-1606, in Italian and Latin concerning attempts to restore Roman Catholicism in England in the 16th and early 17th centuries.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.31.4.15
Scope and Contents
Each volume has a contents list (folios 1, 77) and the second volume has its own foliation added in an apparently later hand.The first volume (folios 1-74) consists of copies (in the same hand), made apparently in or about 1585, of the following:(i) ‘Discorso del Priore d`Inghilterra a Papa Pio V circa la Riduttione di quel Regno’ (folio 2), being an account by Sir Richard Shelley, Grand Prior of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, written apparently early in 1570,...
Dates:
1537-1606.
Composite volume made up in or about 1819 (the date of the watermark of the binder`s blanks) from five folio notebooks of Lieutenant-General G H Hutton.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.22.1.13
Scope and Contents
The contents of the volume are as follows:(i) Extracts, 1797, in the hand of the chief clerk, Robert Lemon, from the `Rotuli Scotiae` kept in the Tower of London (cf. folio 282). The extracts relate to the ecclesiastical antiquities of Scotland. The manuscripts were published, in two volumes, in 1814 and 1819. (Folio 1.)(ii) Copies by Hutton of charters of Newbattle Abbey (folio 32). The source is unidentified: they are in a different order from those of the cartulary...
Dates:
?1789-?1797.
Conclusion of Sir John Sinclair’s Ossianic correspondence (1821-1830).
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.73.2.27
Dates:
1800-1830.
Contemporary copies and translations of letters, mainly from Italy, reporting on European and Turkish affairs.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.19.1.20
Scope and Contents
Most of the documents are dated 1596. The subjects include Spanish policy in June and July of that year, leading up to the capture of Cadiz by the English (cf. ‘Calendar of State Papers, Domestic series ... 1595-1597’); a rising of janissaries in Constantinople; and events in Italy and eastern Europe. These are followed (folio 33) by miscellaneous papers, mostly concerning the siege of Montauban in 1621.
Dates:
1595-1761.
Contemporary copies of letters apparently written by a high-ranking member of the Army party, taking the form of a weekly newsletter from 12 December 1648 to 29 June 1649.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.7.15
Scope and Contents
There is no letter for 22 May, and that for 29 June is in a different hand. The author, who was strongly in favour of the execution of Charles I and of crushing the Royalist party, appears to have held a position of considerable authority. He was responsible for pardoning Laugharne and Powell, and accompanied Cromwell to suppress the mutiny in Whalley`s regiment in April 1649. It is possible that the letters were written by more than one person. They are apparently addressed to a...
Dates:
1648-1649.
Copies, 19th century, and original papers collected by Sir William Fraser, 16th century-1793.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.23.3.25
Scope and Contents
The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) Latin legal abbreviations, 16th century. (Folio 1.)(ii) Speech in Latin addressed to `domine doctissime coeterique commilitones mei suavissimi`, in praise of modesty. Late 16th or early 17th century. (Folio 2.)(iii) Transcript, 19th century, of the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 3 February, 1590, concerning the slaughter of David Taillor by William Spottiswood of that Ilk and others. Cf. ‘The...
Dates:
16th century-1793.
Copies by Sir James Balfour of royal letters and other documents in the Denmilne Papers.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.7.11
Scope and Contents
A list giving the references of the original manuscripts has been inserted.
Dates:
1586-1626.
Copies by Sir James Balfour of some of his own letters and two addressed to him.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.33.7.26
Scope and Contents
The letters are not in chronological sequence. Most of them express his friendship for his correspondent, but in one he comments on the reception of the new Service Book at St Giles in 1637 (folio 9 verso), and in another to Lord Elcho he advises on reading matter (folio 12 verso).
Dates:
1628-1643, and undated.
Copies, early 18th century, of autobiographies and other works of covenanters.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.5.19
Scope and Contents
The manuscript is apparently in the hand of John Elphinston: see Adv.MS.32.3.9, folio 78 verso. Several items in Adv.MS.32.3.9 are also in this hand.The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) Autobiography of John Livingstone, minister of Ancrum. It has been published from the version in Wod.Qu.XVIII in ‘Select Biographies’, i, pages 129-197. This manuscript has a few variants from the published version. (Folio 1.)(ii) `An Account of what past when...
Dates:
2nd half of 17th century-early 18th century.
Copies, early 18th century, of letters and memoirs of covenanters.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.32.4.4
Scope and Contents
The contents of the manuscript are as follows:(i) Letters, 1675-1677, of the preacher John Welwood. They are mostly addressed to Elizabeth Collace and her sister Katharine Ross, but there are also a few to the covenanter Richard Cameron. The letters, which are not in strict chronological order, are chiefly religious in nature, but there are occasional mentions of the persecutions in Fife, the Merse and Teviotdale. (Folio 1.)(ii) Memoirs of Katharine Ross. The...
Dates:
1675-early 18th century.
Copies, late 17th century, of letters, 1637-1638, of Robert Baillie, principal of Glasgow University, and of papers, 1638, concerning the Glasgow Assembly.
File
Identifier: Adv.MS.32.3.12
Dates:
1637-1638.