FROM DALRYMPLE 26 SEPTEMBER 1764 103 it more than once in his possession, but he tells me he has searched for it in vain; not satisfied with this I have desired him earnestly and he has promised to search for it again. At the worst, I can get his catalogue of all the prints that Smith could collect together when selling a set of his works, but I am afraid this will not be satisfactory, for I remember well that Smith acknowledged in his catalogue that he had not all his prints at hand. Will you give me leave, Sir, to suggest to you that it is a pity your Strawberry Hill editions are not of one size.3 One would wish that your own works were uniform. Your Royal and Noble Authors would not I think make a much thicker quarto than your Anecdotes of Paint ing, and it is a work which from its nature is capable of additions. Doctor Robertson tells me that David Hume has got a sight of James II's journal,4 but whether he will be allowed the free use5 of it or if allowed will take the trouble of marking all those minute particulars which point out a character I cannot say. I am promised by Lord Napier6 the use of a large collection of papers which belonged to a Mr Brisbane/ who acted as an agent in France during the reign of Charles II. It is possible that they may contain some curious particulars, for I have seen evidence of his being in the confidence of some of King Charles' ministers. As I have mentioned King Charles, it reminds me of transcribing a letter of his8 which I
3. The Anecdotes of Painting and the A History of England Principally in the Life of Lord Herbert are in intermediate- Seventeenth Century, Oxford, 1875, vi. 29- size 4to, Gray's Odes and Lucan in large 45; C. L. Grose, A Select Bibliography of 4to, and the Royal and Noble Authors in British History 1660-1760, Chicago, [1939,] 8vo. p. 305. 4. Hume saw these MS memoirs of James 5. For Hume's dealings with Father Gor II in the Scots College at Paris (Letters of don, principal of the College, in connec David Hume i. 417). For HW's account of tion with the MSS, see Letters of David them, when he saw them at the College Hume i. 453-5. See also HW to Hertford 15 March 1766, see Du DEFFAND V. 358-9; 5 Oct. 1764. see also an account by Lord Shelburne, 6. Francis Napier (formerly Scott) (ca dated 23 Nov. 1771, printed in Scottish 1702-73) succeeded as 6th Bn Napier of Historical Review 1921-2, xix. 327-8. The Merchistoun in 1706, when he assumed the original MSS have now disappeared, having name of Napier. probably been burned at Saint-Omer dur 7. Lord Napier's grandfather, John Bris ing the early years of the French Revolu bane (ca 1638-84), 'employed by Charles tion (C. J. Fox, A History of the Early Part II upon various missions and embassies to of the Reign of James II, 1808, pp. xix-xxv; the Courts of France, Flanders, and Por letter by Charles Browne Mostyn in tugal' (Scots Peerage vi. 427-8). Monthly Magazine March 1804, xvii. 8. Dalrymple's transcript survived with 101-3). P°r comment on the authenticity of his letter, and is printed below. Dalrymple several supposed transcripts and excerpts later included it in his edition of Samuel from the memoirs, see Leopold von Ranke, Pepys's Account of the Preservation of King