under the care of his father's intimate friend, Alexander Earl of Dunfermline, brother of the Earl of Wintoun, and Chancellor of Scotland, to whose "faithful friendliness" and guardianship he had commended him on his deathbed.* An early attachment seems thus to have sprung up between himself and Lord Dunfermline's third daughter, Lady Sophia Seyton, his future spouse.† He was but twenty years old, when the whole family were plunged into trouble and perplexity by the fatal encounter on the High Street of Edinburgh between the young Laird of Edzell and the Master of Crawford, in which Lord Spynie was slain. The following letter will show how peculiarly painful his position was between the hostile parties, with both of whom he was equally connected-his elder sister Catherine being the wife of Sir John Lindsay of Balinscho, Lord Spynie's brother. The letter was addressed to him by Sir John almost immediately after the catastrophe : "Right honourable and very loving brother! "I received your letter. I pray you to have me excusit that I tuik not my leave at you afore my coming out of Edinburgh; for the slaughter of my brother movit me sa meikle that, in guid faith, I wist not what I did. Advertise me, with the bearer, how soon ye think to make out of the country, that I may come over and take you be the hand; for I will assure you, ye shall have me, so lang as I live, als faithful ane brother to you as any man in the warld shall have. I will request you to send me word in writ, that in case anything happen to fall out betwix the House of Edzell and us, that I may ever find you ane faithful brother, except I failzie (fail) to yourself in particular, for they could not have devisit to have done so evil ane turn to me as they *Testament, already cited.-Lord Dunfermline is described by John second Earl of Perth as endued "with most virtuous, learned, and heroic qualities," and as "having spent a great part of his youth in the best towns of Italy and France, where all good literature was professed,— ‚—a man most just and wise, deserving greater commendation than paper can contain." Autobiography, Miscellany of the Spalding Club, tom. ii. p. 396. Her mother, Lilias Drummond, being the daughter of Lord Menmuir's sister Elizabeth, Lady Sophia was thus Sir David's cousin-german, once removed, but, owing to Lady Drummond having married long before Lord Menmuir, they were nearly of the same age. have done. But I will not break my guid will from yourself, nor none of your bairn-teem.* "Sa, to meeting, I rest "Your brother ever to be commandit, “Woodwray, 26 Aug. 1607. "S. JOHN LYNDESAY. "Not forgetting my sons', John and Alexander's, commendations, wha, I hope, God willing, shall be men to serve you." -A letter which could not have been read without sympathy, though coming from one familiar with bloodshed, and belonging to an age of violence with which the young heir of Balcarres had no sympathy. But, as I have already remarked, the strongest contrasts of character flourished side by side in those days of transition. The following month brought him a more agreeable missive-a "licence" or permission from the King for "our lovit David Lindsay of Balcarres" to "pass furth of the realm of Scotland to the realm of France, or ony others parts beyond sea he please, there to remain for the space of seven years next efter the date hereof, that in the mean time he may attain to learning and haif the insight of their languages and behaviour,"†-a permission he instantly availed himself of, and turned to good account during his residence in France and elsewhere. He returned to Scotland in, or before, 1612,-received the honour of knighthood, married, and from that moment devoted himself to the pursuit of science, letters, and domestic happiness. Nor were the Muses deaf to his summons. He was learned,—he added to his father's library till it became one of the best then to be met with in Scotland, and found in it ample compensation for a life of ambition. Wisdom was the pursuit and delight of his life," he thought that day misspent," says his daughter-in-law, "on which he knew not a new thing." Natural philosophy, particularly chemistry and the then fashionable quest of the elixir vitæ and the philosopher's stone, occupied much of his attention, but it was the spirit of science and philanthropy, not of lucre, that "Bairn-teme. Brood of children, all the children of one mother." Jamieson, + Licence, &c., 24 Sept. 1607. Haigh Muniment-room. Letter to Colin Earl of Balcarres from his mother. Ibid. animated his researches; and during the last year of his life we shall find the guardian of his daughter-in-law admonishing her, on her marriage with the Master of Balcarres, not to set her heart on expensive trifles, lest the kind-hearted alchymist should impoverish himself in his anxiety to gratify her. Ten volumes of transcripts and translations from the works of the Rosicrucians and others, models of correct calligraphy, "which I remember seeing," says one of his descendants," in our library, covered over with the venerable dust (not gold dust) of antiquity," survived their author, but have now dwindled to four, which still hold their place in the library of his representative, along with his father's well-read Plato-the favourite author, I have little doubt, of the son likewise. His love for mysticism and occult science may probably have been imbibed during his early travels on the continent. It is not impossible indeed that he may have become a brother of the Rosy Cross"-if indeed that celebrated Society ever existed,its labours having been professedly devoted to the glory of God and the good of mankind. But a spirit of method, order, and practical common sense mingled in his character with these more imaginative influences, in very unusual combination. 66 The following letter from William Drummond, the classic bard of Hawthornden, Sir David's friend and brother book-lover, bears witness to the excellence of his library, his assiduity in augmenting it, and the liberality with which, like Peiresc and Grollier, he valued his literary treasures by the pleasure the communication of them afforded his friends. It accompanied a copy of the 'Flowers of Zion,' which the poet, it would appear, had printed privately; a fact which, if I mistake not, has escaped the notice of modern bibliographers : "Sir, "To the right worshipful Sir David Lindsay of Balcarres, Knight. 'July 26, 1622. "Though I be not ever able to acquit, yet do I never forget, received courtesies, but most when they are bestowed by the worthiest and such as is yourself,-to whom I have been many times obliged, and last, when in your house you so kindly received me with the sight of your library, and gift of your Amiratus.† I * Lady Anne Barnard, + Probably some work of Scipio Ammirato. would often since have answered your book, though unable those other courtesies, but, considering what a difficulty it were to send you a book which ye (perhaps) had not already, or a new one, ye having so good intelligence abroad, I have been bold to present you with this of mine own, which, though of small worth, is a new one, and only singular in this, that it is not to be found in any library, I having caused print only some copies equalling the number of my friends and those to whom I am beholden, which are not, the world knows, many,-among whom I have ever esteemed and found you. Thus, if my error will not admit defence, it may excuse, proceeding from the affection of him, Sir! who desireth in what is within the compass of his power to serve you, "WILLIAM DRUMMOND. "My humble duty and service remembered to your all-worthy lady." Nor is the following letter, addressed to Sir David some years earlier by the celebrated Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet, less interesting in a literary point of view : "My humble duty premittit, your accustomed kindness to me makes me at this present to presume thus far with your worship; the occasion whereof is this. At the desire of Sir William Alexander, of Menstrie,* and mine, Mr. John Rea, our auld minister, has undertaken the collecting and setting togidder of our Scottish poets, in the imitation of the French and Italians, whereof we have gadderit (gathered) a good number already, and I am doing all that I can to get in those that we want, among whilk there is ane whilk your worship hes, viz. Bodius' † Answers to the haill Epistles of Ovid, whilk I will entreat your worship to do me the favour as to send me with this bearer. It shall be safely keepit to your worship, and honestly redeliverit. And likeways that ye wald be pleasit to luik out any epigrams either of your father's or Chancellor Maitland's, whereof I know ye have * Afterwards the celebrated Earl of Stirling. † Mark Alexander Boyd's. "Sent to him, and sindry other papers."-MS. Note by Sir David. numbers, and either send me them now, or acquaint me be your letter whereof ye can be able to help us in these, for we know they were baith excellent in that airt. And finally, gif ye have any others good written poesies of our countrymen, to communicate them also with me, who shall be answerable to your worship for the redelivery of them upon my credit. As likeways, if ye have any of Melvin's* printed verses. I hope, Sir! your discretion will appardon my boldness in this behalf, seeing it proceeds from so honest a cause and tends to so good an end as the honour of our country, whilk I know your worship respects als much as any gentleman in the samyn, and wha yourself yield to few of your estate in that métier of learning. So, my humble service rememberit to yourself, and attending your will in thir particulars, I rest "Your humble servitor at command, "Thridpart, 5 April, 1615." "J. SCOTT OF SCOTTISTARVETT. The scheme indeed dropped to the ground, and it was not till twenty-two years afterwards that the Delicia Poetarum Scotorum' appeared at Amsterdam. I cannot however suppress a sigh in transcribing this letter-a sigh of mournful regret-that the representative of Sir Michael Scott should not have anticipated his clansman of the Border, and enwreathed an "Evergreen" of the ancient ballads and poems, historical and romantic, then existing in the vernacular tongue of Scotland. But sighs are unavailing. The tendency of the age was to classic composition, and indeed, till that age, the unsettled and shifting character both of the English and Scottish dialects seemed to justify the creed so beautifully expressed by Waller, "Poets that lasting marble seek Must carve in Latin or in Greek; We write in sand-our language grows, And, like the tide, our work o'erflows." Even on the few Scottish writers who wisely dissented from this doctrine, and foresaw the glorious destiny of English, this classical bias exercised a deep and trammelling influence. Drummond of *Andrew Melville's, |