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Notes
That by David Laing which accompanies his article on Lord Hailes in the Encyclopœdia Britannica (7th Edition, 1883). This article was also published as a separate octavo pamphlet, and a copy of this in the National Library of Scotland has a few MS corrections in Laing's hand. An important unprinted check-list of Hailes's publications is that given as an Appendix to Correspondence of Horace Walpole and Lord Hailes, ed. A. G. Hoover (Yale University Thesis, 1939). Neither of these lists is complete either for separate publications or magazine articles. Magazine articles not listed by either of the above have been starred * in the following list. There are twenty-seven starred items.
Edinburgh Magazine or Literary Miscellany, New Series, I. March), 1793, 167-169. 'Obituary notice of Lord Hailes.' cf. also Alexander Dalrymple to George Chalmers, 16th Aug., 1794, British Museum Add. MSS. 22900. f. 243.
A very considerable bulk of letters to Lord Hailes, a few letters by him, and a number of commonplace books and drafts of his published works have been preserved at Newhailes, near Musselburgh. Sir Mark Dalrymple, Bart., of Newhailes has made microfilms of these MSS available for study in the National Library of Scotland. Where I have used this material my reference, e.g. Newhailes 227, is to the microfilm number in the N. L. S.
David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan (1742-1829). This extraordinary man, best known as the founder of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, collected some of his magazine articles in Anonymous and Fugitive Essays collected from Various Works, Vol. I, Edinburgh, 1812. He planned a second volume, and his manuscript collection for this has been recently acquired by Edinburgh University Library. (Information from C. Finlayson, Keeper of MSS. E.U.L.)
Chief of these was Thomas Thomson (1768-1852). Thomson was one of Scotland's great record scholars and was a friend of Sir walter Scott. Thomson had the support of the family in his plan to write a memoir and produce an edition, but he never completed the work. Cf. C. Innes, Life of Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh, 1854): Bannatyne Club Publications, 99, p. 40 et seq. George Chalmers, the Edinburgh antiquary, also intended a life and took some steps to collect materials from William Cooke, Dean of Ely and Hailes's master at Eton, and from Alexander Dalrymple. Cf. Letter Cooke to Dr. Foster. 1795 (N.L.S. MSS, vol. no. 2956.) D. Laing's 'Miscellaneous Notes on Authors' (E.U.L. Laing Collection) tells us that one Thomas Edward Ritchie intended to include Hailes in a series of biographies and applied to Lady Hailes for permission. The work was not produced, though Ritchie wrote an account of a more famous Scot in his An Account of the Life and Writings of David Hume (London, 1807). I think it not impossible that Laing confused T. E. Ritchie with William Ritchie, (1781-1831) who planned, at the age of 21, a Biographia Scotica which he never completed, just as Hailes himself failed to complete his own projected work in the same field. Cf. D.N.B. (1885-1900 ed.), vol. 48, p. 325.
Buchan's usual pseudonym was 'Albanicus', but he also used a variety of others. Cushing, Initials and Pseudonyms (1886), p. 44 lists Richard Gough as using D. H. in the Gentleman's Magazine.
I have not included Hailes's well-known Mirror and World essays in my list. The World essays (1755) are nos. 140, 147, and 204. No. 140 was reprinted in the Scots Magazine, cf. Item 20. In Henry Mackenzie's Mirror (1779-1780) Hailes forwarded papers for the nos. 21, 46, 56, 62, 86, 97, 98. All the contributions were anonymous and Hailes informed Mackenzie, when the latter was preparing a collected edition, that he preferred them to remain so. (Letter 20th May, 1780. N.L.S. MSS, Vol. No. 124.) In N.L.S. MSS, Vol. No. 588, a draft of Essays 97 and 98 has survived, with considerable alteration either by the author or the editors. In the same volume can be found a single sheet which contains a paragraph which belongs to Essay 86, but which was presumably rejected before publication.
John Loveday (1742-1809). This was the younger Loveday, a scholar and antiquarian. Cf. D.N.B., vol 34, p. 162.
James Sibbald (1745-1803). For an account of this man cf. D.N.B. vol. 52, p. 179. and Scots Magazine (1803), p. 362. Apart from the two drafts mentioned in Items Nos. 10 & 11, no correspondence has, unfortunately, survived.
E. g., Memorials and Letters relating to the History of Britain in the Reign of James the First (Glasgow, 1762) & The Secret Correspondence of Sir Robert Cecil with James VI, King of Scotland (London, 1766).
Prof. A. G. Hoover visited Newhailes in 1939, and saw this specimen there. No such document has been filmed for the microfilm collection.
In those cases where the magazine article has no title, or a non-descriptive one, I have supplied one.
Hailes uses the phrase 'Marian controversy' in his letters as early as 1761. I know of no earlier example of its use to describe the huge literature based on the reputation of Mary, Queen of Scots.
One by C. Finlayson, Keeper of the MSS, E.U.L., who very kindly informed me of his find which led to further search.
Hailes tried to stimulate other writers to produce lives of eminent Scotsmen in the same format as he had produced his speciments, but with little success. The Earl of Buchan was one of his few supporters.
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