Scope and Contents From the Fonds: John Rennie was one of the distinguished group of Scottish engineers whose work contributed so much to the industrial and commercial development of the United Kingdom in the early 19th century. With the exception of roads, in which he appears not to have been interested, and steam engines, which he promised Watt not to build - though he frequently constructed the accompanying machinery - there was very little in the field of engineering that lay outside the range of his activities. This...

Scope and Contents From the Fonds: Much of the collection concerns William Dunlop, Principal of Glasgow University, his son Alexander, Professor of Greek at Glasgow, and his grandson John, Tide Surveyor at Greenock. The papers of William Dunlop include material on the colony of South Carolina, the Darien Scheme, and the affairs of the Church of Scotland, while those of Alexander chiefly concern the University of Glasgow. The collection also includes diaries and literary works of John Dunlop of Gairbraid, the temperance...

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The drawings are in pencil, and there are also a few proofs of cards and posters designed by Leonard Smith.

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The portraits have been cut out of larger sheets or sketchbooks and mounted in albums. Most of the sitters are unidentified. In accordance with Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe's practice (see ‘Letters from and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe’, volume i, pages 21, 40) the heads are completed in watercolours but the rest of the figure and any background are usually only sketched in pencil.

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The portraits include a rare self-portrait of Joseph Mallord William Turner and a caricature of Joseph Ritson, 1803.

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The manuscripts of the Society of Antiquaries include the ‘Hawthornden Manuscripts’, MSS.2053-2067, the papers of William Drummond of Hawthornden and of his uncle, William Fowler.

Scope and Contents The text begins after the siege of Gibraltar (of which there is much discussion), and describes the writer's experiences at Gibraltar, 1787-1789 and later, in France (especially Toulon), 1791, in Elba and Corsica, 1793-1796, and at Naples, 1797, with intervals in England, to the battle of Cape St Vincent, 1797.Colonel Drinkwater apparently intended to publish at least the earlier part of these as a sequel to his ‘History of the late Siege of Gibraltar’ (London, 1785) (see...

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The reminiscences are continued from MS.20017 (Part 1), folio 15.

A small quantity of papers found loosely enclosed in MSS.20015: ‘Birthday scripture text book’, and MS.20018: Notebook containing an account by Mrs Haldane of her ancestors and her early years, have been placed at the end (folio 399).

Scope and Contents The scrap-book includes the drawing of Fenella dancing before Charles II (? by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe) (number 78), that of John Gibson Lockhart and others riding to Selkirk, 1823 (number 80), and the portrait of Charles Scott, 1820 (number 82), all reproduced in Andrew Lang’s ‘Life and Letters of ... Lockhart’, and a portrait of Tom Purdie, 1822 (number 79). The album also contains ‘Select Sonnets’ by George Huntly Gordon (printed, undated), with an autograph dedication by the author to...

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Except one sketch, dated 1858, all are undated, but were no doubt drawn between 1850 and 1860. The leaves are watermarked 1851.

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There are also a number of portraits and studies of flowers. Two of the sketches are dated 1863 and most of the watercolours are titled. At the end of the volume several playing cards and a sheet of Chinese writing have been inserted.

Scope and Contents The contents are as follows.(i) Miscellaneous papers, 1647-1781, consisting chiefly of letters and orders addressed to William Farquharson of Inverey by Middleton and others, in connection with the Royalist campaign in Scotland, 1647-1656. 'Archaeologia Scotia', volume v, appendix, page 57. (Folio 1.)(ii) Orders of General Monck relating to Sir Robert Campbell of Glenorchy and the McNabs, 1654-1655, with modern transcripts, and a chaplain's commission given to...

Scope and Contents From the Series:

Correspondence of Thomas Graham is chiefly with his factor, Henry Burt, concerning his estate of Balgowan, but includes also some letters from eminent friends and acquaintances not included in MSS.3590-3645. There are also papers of Mrs M E Maxtone Graham concerning the publication of her book ‘The beautiful Mrs Graham’, and typescript material and correspondence concerning a projected book on Lord Lynedoch.

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The autographs are of botanists, evangelical divines, and others, many being addressed to the Reverend Thomas Raffles, Liverpool, and to John Shepherd, Botanical Garden, Liverpool.

Scope and Contents The letters deal almost entirely with the affairs of the Gibson family and their relations (Balfours, etc.), but contain allusions to the state of trade and building in Edinburgh due to the war (folios 6, 10, 19). At folio 40a is a letter, 1794, of another son, John, merchant in Danzig, to his mother, describing the Polish rising of that year. The letters are illustrated by modern photographs of Pilrig House, Peggie's Mill at Cramond, family portraits, and Danzig. The volume containing them...

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Two unpublished letters, one of Sir Walter Scott to John Wilson Crocker and the other of Ann Scott to her granddaughter Jessie, are reproduced in the text. The volume also includes a pedigree, from which one leaf is missing, showing the descendants of Sir Walter and Thomas Scott, and portraits of Thomas Scott, his wife and his mother, as well as other family photographs.