fown as at the fame period, can yield nothing but a mixture, as unproductive to the cultivator, as it is unprofitable to the confumer. A LETTER FROM DR GUTHRIE OF ST PETERSBURGH TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF BUCHAN, ON THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF THE SCOTS. MY LORD, been, originally pronounced, (a very flight error in the person who first took it down in writing, or in the copyifts fince, would make the trifling difference,) you have immediately Scototes, which when pronounced fhort must be Scots. I am your Lordship's very humble Servant, MATTHEW GUTHRIE. Perceive that the firft Volume of the Tranfactions of the Antiqua rian Society of Scotland begins with an Inquiry into the name of the inhabitants; and beg permiffion to remark, that although the Greeks cal. led the nomade people, now known to us by the name of Tartars, by the appellation of Σχυθαι, which the learned author of the paper alluded to above, supposes might have been St Petersburgh, Sept. 5th. 1794. the Grecian pronounciation of the Celtic word Scuits, or wanderers; yet this was by no means the name they gave themselves, as Heroditus, in his fourth Book Melpomene, exprefsly tells us, that the Scythians called themselves Scolotes. Now fuppofing they were a people from the Celtic ftock like ourselves, which I have little doubt of, their real name fur. nishes a very fimple derivation of Scots, for by merely changing the into t, as it may have very poffibly P. S It is remarkable likewise that fome of the Scythian hords practifed the fame cuftom of painting their bodies, which we are affured by J. Cæfar, Pomp. Mela, Pliny, Tacitus, A. Marcellinus, and a number of other claffic authors, once obtained amongit the Celts in both South and North Britain. Thefe hords were the Dace and Sarmatians whom Pliny fays both painted their bodies like our forefathers. NOTICE OF THE CHARACTER AND WRITINGS OF PHILIP STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. From the first volume of the works of Horace Walpole Earl of Orford. EW men have been born with a brighter fhow of parts: few men have bellowed more cultivation on their natural endowments; and the world has feldom been more juft in its admiration both of genuine and improved talents. A model yet more rarely beheld, was that of a prince of wits who employed more application on forming a fucceffor, than to perpetuate his own renown-yet, though the peer in question not only laboured by daily precepts to educate his heir, but drew up for his ufe a code of inftitution, in which no fecret of his doctrine was withheld, he was not only fo unfortunate as to behold a total mifcarriage of his lectures, but the fyftem itself appeared fo fuperficial, fo trifling, and fo illaudable, that mankind began to wonder at what they had admired in the preceptor, and to question whether the dictator of fuch tinfel injunctions had really poffeffed thofe brilliant qualifications which had fo long maintained him him unrivalled on the throne of wit Even Lord Chefterfield's poetical and fashion. Still will the impartial examiner do juftice, and diftinguish between the legislator of that little fantastic aristocracy which calls itfelf the great world, and the intrinfic genius of a nobleman who was an ornament to his order, an elegant orator, an useful statesman, a perfect but no fervile courtier, and an author whofe writings, when feparated from his impertinent inftitutes of education, deferve, for the delicacy of their wit and Horatian irony, to be ranged with the pureft claffics of the courts of Augustus and Louis quatorze. His papers in Common Senfe and The World might have given jealoufy to the fenfitive Addifon; and though they do not rival that original writer's fund of natural humour, they must be allowed to touch with confummate knowledge the affected manners of high life. They are fhort fcenes of genteel comedy, which, when perfect, is the most rare of all productions. His papers in recommendation of Johnfon's dictionary were models of that polished elegance which the pe. dagogue was pretending to afcertain, and which his own ftyle was always heaving to overload with tautology and the most barbarous confufion of tongues. The friendly patronage was returned with ungrateful rude. nefs by the proud pedant; and men fmiled, without being furprifed, at feeing a bear worry his dancing maf ter. trifles, of which a few fpecimens remain in fome fongs and epigrams, were marked by his idolized graces, and with his acknowledged wit. His fpeeches courted the former, and the latter never forfook him to his latest ́hours. His entrance into the world was announced by his bon-mots, and his clofing lips dropped repartees that fparkled with his juvenile fire. Such native parts deferved higher application. Lord Chesterfield took no lefs pains to be the phoenix of fine gentlemen, than Tully did to qualify himself for fhining as the first orator, magiftrate, and philofopher of Rome. Both fucceeded: Tully immortalized his name; Lord Chesterfield's reign lafted a little longer than that of a fashionable beauty. His fon, like Cromwell's, was content to return to the plough, without authority, and without fame. Befides his works collected and published by Doctor Maty, his Lordfhip had begun "Memoirs of his own "Time."-How far he proceeded on fuch a work I cannot fay; nor whether farther than a few characters of fome eminent perfons, which have fince been printed, and which are no fhining proof that Lord Chesterfield was an excellent hiftoric painter. From his private familiar letters one fhould expect much entertainment, if moft of thofe published by Maty did not damp fuch hopes. Some few at the end of his correfpondence with his fon justly deserve admiration. NOTICE OF ROBERT LORD CLIVE. From the fame. TH licy a heaven-born hero, and whom policy alone would canonize, would never have been an author, if he could have filenced oppofition as completely as he removed opponents in India. Yet was he qualified, like Cæfar, either to write or conquer. Still one, who neither reverences Roman ufurpations in Gaul, nor Spanish massacres in Mexico, will never allow his pen to applaud the invafions and depredations of his countrymen in India. Suffered to traffic as mer chants, chants, we have butchered, starved, plundered and enflaved, the fubjects and provinces of lawful princes; and all the imported diamonds of the east out-blaze the crimson that ought to stain our cheeks, or the indignation that ought to have fired them, when more recent Machiavels have called for applaufe on their de Cannot vaftations. But as Cæfar's conquefts lifted the yoke on the neck of Rome, Indian gold has undermined the Englifh conftitution; for, when heaven inflicts heroes on mankind, it generally accompanies them with their confequences, the lofs of liberty-to the vanquished, certainly; to the victorious, often! GENEALOGY OF THE ABERCORN FAMILY. From Walpoliana, Vol. II. I HAVE fallen into fome mistakes for want of a proper genealogy of the Abercorn family. [The following little memoir, remitted to the editor by an ingenious correspondent in Ireland, will ferve to rectify thofe mistakes, and will at the fame time prove interefting to the admirers of the Memoires de Grammont, perhaps the moft witty and amufing of literary productions. Mr. Walpole's chief errors occur p. 75 and 273, in which he supposes George to be the eldest fon, and thus perplexes feveral of the anecdotes.] "James, fecond Lord Hamilton, married Mary, daughter of James III. and by her had James, third Lord Hamilton, firft Earl of Arran. His fon James was fecond Earl of Arran and Duke of Chatelheraut, whofe eldest fon James became infane, John, the fecond fon, was created Marquis of Hamilton in 1599. "The third fon, Claud, was, in 1585, created Lord Paisley, and his eldest fon, James, was made Earl of Abercorn in 1606 By Mariana, daughter of Lord Boyd, he had five fons and three daughters. "The three eldeft fons failing of iffue, the title of Abercorn afterwards fell to the defcendants of Sir George, the fourth fon. (Alexander, the fifth fon, became a count of the empire, and fettled in Germany, where his pofterity ftill remain.) "Sir George Hamilton, fourth fon of James, firft Earl of Abercorn, married Mary*, third fister to James, firft "Her nieces, daughters of James, Duke of Ormond, Lady Mary, wife of the Earl of Devonshire, and Lady Elizabeth, fecond wife of the Earl of Chesterfield, were the reigning beauties of the age. There are pictures of both in the present Earl of Ormond's cafile at Kilkenny. Lady Chefterfield was of a delicate form and low ftature; her daughter married John, Earl of Strathmore. "The fcandalous chronicles of thofe times charge her husband, the Earl of Chefterfield, with having caufed her to take the facrament upon her innocence, refpecting any intimacy with the Duke of York, and having then bribed his chaplain to put poifon into the facramental cup, of which he died. His fon, Lord Stanhope, by his third wire (father of Lord Chesterfield the author), married Gertrude Saville, daughter of the Marquis of Halifax. The Marquis and Earl quarrelled, and the latter made his fon bring his wife to Litchfield, breaking off all intercourfe between the families. Lady Stanhope had always on her toilette her father's "Advice to a Daughter:" her father-in-law took it up one day, and wrote in the title page," L2bour in vain." On her fide, the lady made her fervant out of livery carry in bis pocket a bottle of wine, another of water, and a cup; and whenever he dined or fupped in company with her father-in-law, either at his own houfe or abroad, the never would drink but of thofe liquors, from her fervant's hand, as a hint to the Earl, and fociety prefent, of what his lordship was fufpected of having effected by a facred beverage." 4. Thomas, a captain in the feafervice, died in New-England. 5. Richard, died a lieutenantgeneral in France. 66 wife of Henry, Earl of Stafford. Trædition reports that Grammont, having attached, if not engaged, himself to Mifs Hamilton, went off abruptly for France; that Count [George] Ha milton purfued and overtook him at Dover, when he thus addreffed him : "My dear friend, I believe you have forgot a circumftance that should take place before your return to France." To which Grammont answered, "True, my dear friend; what a memory I have! I quite forgot that I was to marry your fifter; but I will inftantly accompany you back to London, and rectify that forgetfulness." It is hardly requifite to add, that the witty Count de Grammont is not recorded to have been a man of períonal courage. "2. Lucy, married to Sir Donogh O'Brien, of Lemineagh. "3. Margaret, to Matthew Forde, Efq. of Coolgraney, Wexford., "(With his defcendant at Seaford, county Down, I faw the picture of Count [George] Hamilton, dreffed in the French uniform; the painting not near fo good as that in the Kingfland family.) "Frances Jennings, widow of Count Hamilton, was fecondly married to Richard Talbot, Duke of Tyrconnel. She died at his house in 6. John, a colonel, flain at the Paradife-row, Dublin, I think in the battle of Aghrim. "As Sir George Hamilton was governor of the caftle of Ninagh in 36.49, from that, and his affinity to the Duke of Ormond, it has been concluded that his children were all born in Ireland*. "He had alfo three daughters. "1. Elizabeth, wedded to Philibert, Count de Grammont, by whom fhe had a daughter, who became the year 1736. Her death was occafioned by her falling out of her bed upon the floor, in a winter's night; and being too feeble to rife or to call, was found in the morning fo perished with cold, that he died in a few hours. She was of very low ftature, and extremely thin; and had not the leaft trace in her features of having ever been a beauty.” REMARKABLE * He afterwards went abroad, and did not return till the reftoration, when he was created a baronet. Dougl. Peer. Sir George himself was probably born in Scotland. Any of his children, born between 1649 and 1660, may claim a foreign birth. Edit. I REMARKABLE INSTANCE OF NALVETE AND IGNORANCE. From the fame. Heard, while in France, a rifible inftance of naiveté and ignorance. Three young ladies, much of an age, were boarded in a convent, where they contracted a moft fond friendfhip for each other, and made up their little refolutions never to part as long as they lived. But how contrive this, when in a few years their parents would take them out of the nunnery, and would marry them to different hufbands? After repeated deliberations, it was discovered that the only way of remaining in conftant union was, that all the three should wed one and the fame hufband. Upon further inquiry and difcuffion this was observed to be contrary to law; and at length the wifeft head of the three obferved, that they might all marry the Great Turk. A letter was compofed in great form, the refult of the choiceft eloquence of all the three, explaining the tender friendship which united them, and the choice they had made of him for their hufband. They added, that as foon as they had received their firft communion, they would fet out for Conftantinople, and begged that all might be prepared for their reception. Delighted with this expedient, the three friends fent off their letter to the poft-office with this direction: To Mr Great Turk, at his Seraglig, Conftantinople. By Lyons. The oddity of the direction was the occafion of the letter being opened, and of the discovery of this great plot. LIST OF BOOKS PRINTED AT STRAWBERRY HILL. From the fame. ODES by Mr Gray, 1757. 1100, Mifcellaneous Antiquities, 4to. 1772. 4to. 500. |