1941 Bibliography of East Lothian

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EAST LOTHIAN EAST LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD NATURALISTS' SOCIETY 1936 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EAST LOTHIAN COMPILED BY JAMES H. JAMIESON F.S.A.SCOT. ASSISTED BY ELEANOR HAWKINS WITH 'INTRODUCTION BY w. FORBES GRAY F.R.S.E., F.S.A.SCOT. EDINBURGH PRINTED FOR EAST LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD NATURALISTS' SOCIETY 1936 l ~ ~· .[., ..C) ~.. ! :!:"" :·,. ;; : ~.· "~· ; . ' ''' '· l PREFACE THIS work aims at registering all books and lesser publications relating .to East Lothian; furnishing bibliographical particulars, such as size, number of pages, date, name ·of publisher, etc. ; and providing brief descriptive notes,· indicating the. scope and distinctive features of each item. In endeavouring to bring together the varied.publications of three centuries, it is inevitable that some should escape· notice, but every effort has been made, by diligent search ~n likely quarters, to make the biblio graphy as complete as possible. The magazine and newspaper articles included in the survey are, needless to say; only a selection. Besides public:;~tions exclusively. concerned with East Lothian, this bibliography includes general works. -in which the county is prominent. The biographical section records not only the printed lives of men born in East Lothian but those of others who, while not natives,.have by long residence or some other interest become identified with the district. As the main object is fo illustrate the history of the county, books written by natives on subjects unconnected with East Lothian are omitted, though an exception has been made in the case of loca~ poets and a few others. Space has also been devoted to numerous publications by Haddingtonians which, although their subject-matter is extraneous, contain memoirs of the writers. The publications in each section are arranged alphabetically under the names of the authors. _ Anonymous works are placed at the end. While care has been taken to insert each item under the most appropriate ·heading, strict classification has been found impossible owing to the varied contents ·of many. of the publications. But a detailed index has been provided, and should constantly be consulted. The figures in the descriptive paragraphs denote either the page-reference, or, if another publication is indicated, the number of" pages in such publication. An asterisk has been placed against certain publications which, though known to exist, have not been found. It is hoped that the legal section will prove specially useful. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a great variety of. cases affecting BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EAST LOTHIAN East Lothian came before the Court of Session. Much valuable historical data are to be found in the Information Papers, Petitions, Answers, and other printed documents connected with these litigations, and in order that some of the material may be available, the bibliography gives a list of those cases which either contain narratives and evidence relating to noted county families, or shed: light cm the conditions prevailing in the towns and villages in remote times. The Decisions recorded by Morrison, Durie and-Elchies, together with the Faculty Decisions, have been drawn upon, but the chief source of information has been the enormous collection of old Session Papers ·preserved in the Signet Library. These ·constitute a vast storehouse of untapped knowledge bearing· upon almost every aspect of local history. No attempt has been made to give particulars as to pursuer and defender, but information sufficient to identify the case and to indicate.its nature is provided. In the preparation of this work hundreds of publications have been inspected, mostly in the National Library of Scotland and the Signet Library, and the compiler desires to express his warm thanks to Dr Meikle and Dr Malcolm, the respective Librarians, and their staffs, for their willing aid and valuable counsel.- For similar help received in other quarters he is also grateful, and he wishes it were possible to make ampler acknowledgment of the services of those who inspected the various sections and gave him the benefit of their specialized knowledge. Finally, the compiler is indebted more than he can express to Miss Eleanor Hawkins .and Mr W. Forbes Gray, who have been associated with the compilation from the start, and have cheerfully borne a large share of the burden. J. H. J. iv ' . / . THE LITERATURE OF THE. COUNTY IN this Introduction to the Bibliogr.aphy of East Lothian literature is interpreted in its widest sense. The. aim is briefly to survey· the intellectual output of the county whether in the form of books or of ephemeral productions such as pamphlets, magazines, newspapers. Further, this essay will deal not merely with the· writings of those born in East Lothian, but with prose and poetry deriving their inspiration from the district, though the writers may not be natives. Any one tolerably familiar with the literature of the cour~ty must be impressed with the number of strangers who have come under the spell of the sylvan beauty of this countryside,. the charm of its pastori:ll, far-stretching uplands, the variegated splendour of its coast-line, .and have said so,. sometimes in glowing terms, in their published .~ritings. Nor must it be forgotten that East _Lothian has been the birthplace and training-ground of men pre-eminent in various walks of life, men :wh.ose influence has been extensively reflected in what has been written about the county. To take a single instance, it ·is certain that the literature· of this part of Scotland WO)-lld become rather attenuated if· the commanding and exhilarating personality of John Knox .were lost sight of. I If I begin my story with his.torical literature, it· is not because. I consider .it the most important aspect· of my subject, but because East Lothian, explain it as we may, has been associated with more· dis _tinguished pr.actisers of. tl;ie art of writing history than probably any other county in Scotland .. Walter Bower, John Major and Knox in :earlier times, William Robertson ·and John Home irt the. eighteenth century, and, in our own day, Peter Hume Brown, were all: either natives of the county or lived a c<;msiderable portion of their lives. within its confines. · " Bower, the continuator _of Fqrdun's history in the vblume generally known as the Scotichronicon, fakes us back to the first half of the fifteei;ith v BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EAST LOTHIAN century, ~hen those who wrote history, or what passed for history, are properly called chroniclers, implying thereby that accuracy was not their strong point. Bower was a native of Haddington, being born there in the year of the burning of Edinburgh by Richard II. Entering, it is believed, one of the religious houses of his birthplace, he became a monk at eighteen, and some time after r4r8 was consecrated Abbot of Inchcolm. The writing of the Scotichronicon occupied Bower several years, but when completed he found it so prolix that he penned an abridgment. "A most costly work, of wondrous beauty, and the pride of all that county," is Bower's characterization of the "Lamp of Lothian." Though perpetuating the monkish tradition," John Major was a more enlightened representative of medieval scholarship. Bower had been twenty years dead before Major first saw the light at the now vanished hamlet of Gleghornie, which stood within sight of Tantallon and the Bass. In the interval the art of historical narration had made some advance. At any rate Major was more critical than Bower, and his Latin History of Greater Britain, while betokening the patriotic Scot, is sufficiently broadminded to advocate thus early the advantages of a union with England. In order to benefit by Major's teaching, Knox attended Glasgow University rather than St Andrews, and when Major did remove to the latter seat of learning, Buchanan became a student there that he " might sit at his feet." Major, to the last, cherished the scenes of his youth, which are frequently referred to in his History. John Knox, the greatest of the sons of East Lothian, was primarily a man of action, but he has a secure place among the historians be longing to the county by reason of his History of the Reformation in Scotland. In spite of the fact that John Wesley found it unappetising, it is a work of genius, and certainly more revealing as regards the real character of the Reformer than any other book. " Had Knox not written this book," Professor Hume Brown truly remarks, " it may be safely said that he would not have been the figure he is in Scottish history." But it is rather late in the day to be commending Knox's History, and so I pass on. In the eighteenth century East Lothian again came to the front as the place from which emanated much of the best and by far the most remunerative historical writing of the period. Neither William Robertson nor John Home were natives of the county, but both served there as vi THE LITERATURE OF THE COUNTY parish ministers, Robertson at· Gladsmuir and Home at Athelstaneford. They belonged to the same school of theological thought, were con spicuous members of the Moderate party, and achieved fame as his torical writers. Robertson was incomparably the superior in delineating the past. In the manse at Gladsmuir he wrote the earlier portion of his History of Scotland, which brought him a European reputation and, indirectly, more money than had ever previously been earned by a historian. " How could I suspect," Horace Walpole wrote to Robertson, "that a man ... who, I was told, had passed his life in a small living near Edinburgh ... had not only written what all the world now allows to be the best modern history, but that he had written it in the purest English and with as much seeming knowledge of men and courts as if he had passed all his life in important embassies." John Home is in a different category.

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