There is a good collection of portraits, fome in every chamber by Sir Peter Lilly and Sir G. Kneller, particularly a very graceful figure of the Dake of Monmouth in the character of St John laying his hand on a lamb; there is a garden in the modern taste, but nothing extraordinary. Afer leaving Edinburgh, I faw nothing worth mentioning to your Ladyship, but the fituation of Lord Haddington's, which tands on an eminence by the fea, and has a boundless profpect of it all behind, in the bottom B there is a hollow funk below the shore in a femi-circular fhape that makes a kind of hay, and receives and emits the tide at each erd; at high water the waves breaking on the shore, tomble over into this balon in the form of an immenfe cafcade. About a mile land, in February 1506. His father died young, and left his family, which confifted of five sons and three daughters, in great poverty. Nevertheless, James Heriot, George Buchanan's A uncle having obferved in him fome marks of genius, took the charge of his education, and fent him to ftudy at Paris. He there applied himself to Latin poetry, partly by inclination, and partly as that was the principal branch of the Belles Lettres then cultivated in the univerfity at Paris. He had fcarce been there two years, when his uncle died. Indigence, and an illness with which he was attacked, then obliged him to return to Scatland. After living a year at home, for the recovery of his health, he went into the army, with a defign to learn the art of war. This was probably in the year 1523, when John Duke of Albany, viceroy of Scotland, carried fuccours from France into Scotland a gainst the Englh, with which however, he could not take the fort of Wek on the Tweed; as Buchanan fays (in his life) that on account of the fnows that feli, he drew off his army without attempting any thing. D in the fea there is a great rock cal. C Twenty miles from henee, I came to Berwick, and there took leave of Scotland. Berwick is a small peninfula, the town is furrounded with a wal! raised of green turf, that together with a castle formerly ferved for a tout for. tification, and (till affords a delightful walk to the inhabitants, for below, the river Tweed runs along a deep valley, in a ferpentine form, and paffes into the fea through a noble bridge of nineteen arches. Here the now fell which I was forry for, because the Bishoprick of Durham, through which I paffed, is reckoned one of the finest counties in England, but the (now came luckily for your Ladyship to fave you the trouble of any more of my obfervations. I am, &c. E G He fell ill again, and kept his bed all the winter; but being recovered at the beginning of the year 1524, as he was then in his 18th year, he refumed his ftudies, and was fent to St Andrew's, to Rudy under John Major, who then taught Logic there, or ra ther, as Buchanan fays, Sophistry, or the art of difputing, in the manner of the schools. In the fummer folfollowing, Major went to Paris, and Buchanan followed him thither, though it feems he had no high opinion of his tutor's learning, as he has fmartly ri dieuled it in an epigram As Luther's tenets were then the chief fubject of difcourfe at Paris, Bue chanan there began to imbibe the doctrine of the reformers; though he did not profefs it either through fear, or because he had not yet examined their fyftem. He lived there aimoft two years without any employment, fo that he could fcarce find fubbftance; but at length in 1526 he was made regent in the college of St Barbe, and taught grammar there, being then twenty years old. He continued in this office about three years, before the expiration of which, Gilbert Kennedy, Earl of Caffils, took him into his family, where he kept him five years, and carried him with him into Scotland about the year 534 Buchannan had a design of returning to France in order to purfue his ftudies there, but K. James V. detained him to be tutor to one of his natural fons, who was afterwards the famous James Earl of Murray. Bu-A channan, who, on account of his religious fentiments, or of his polite learning, to which the Monks in ge neral then were enemies, was no friend to the Cordeliers, had written a fatyrical elegy against them, entitled Somnium. In it he pretends, that St Francis had appeared to him, and invited him to turn Francifcan, but that he replied, that he was by no means qualified, as he could be a flave to no 'man, nor could become impodent, a cheat, a beggar; and that befides, very few monks were faved.' g D The Cordeliers having had a copy of this poem, complained of it, and as C that was not fufficient to ruin him, they accufed him of herely; a charge of which, they at that time ufually a vailed themselves to deltroy those whom they hated; as indeed is ftill their practice. The behaviour of the Monks confirmed him more than ever in his attachment to Lutheranism. In May 1537, King James V. carried from France into Scotland, Magdalen of France, and the Partifans of Rome, were very apprehenfive that that princefs might have the fame tenets as Margaret Queen of Navarre, who bad had the care of her education; but the death of that princefs, which happened foon after, difpelled these fears. The king having difcovered a confpiracy, and being perfuaded that fome Cordeliers had behaved with infincerity on that occafion, ordered Bucbanan to write against them; not knowing that he before had had a quarrel with them. He therefore wrote against them, but with fome caution, and made ufe of equivocal expreffions, in order to defend himself, if neceffary, by a favourable conttruction. With this, the king was not fatisfied, and infifted on his writing against the Monks with more energy. He then compofed his Francifcanus, the beginning of which he delivered to the king. 'Tis a piece wholly fatyrical, and in it Buchanan has comprised all the ill that could be faid of the Monks in terms as clear and ftrong as poffible. He has rather imitated the style of Juvenal than that of Horace, and bites much more than he rallies. After such a desperate attack, it is no wonder that the Cordeliers employ E F ed all their efforts to ruin him. The king who was weak and fickle, fuffered him, with many others to be arrested at the beginning of 1539, for herefy. But his friends having informed him that Cardinal Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrew's, was labouring to detroy him, and had offered the king money, in order to detach him from his intereft, he thought it not prudent to wait in prifon for his fentence. So, deceiving his guards, he escaped by his chamber window, and withdrew into England. However, En. gland was not a place in which he could live with fafety; and the Partifans of Rome, and those who favoured the opinions of the Reformers were burned there at the fame time, and at the fame ftake. Buchanan thought he had better retire into France, whofe cuftoms and manners, to which he was ufed, were far more fuitable to him. Accordingly, he went thither, but finding that Cardinal Beaton was ambaffador there, he was afraid to stay at Paris, and therefore went immedi ately from thence to Bourdeaux, to which place he was invited by Andrew de Govea, a learned Portuguese. There he taught three years in the college that was juft founded there, and the fame year, prefented in the name of the college, fome beautiful Latin verfes to Charles V. as he paffed thro that city in his way to Flanders. Buchanan wrote at Bourdeaux four tragedies, which were afterwards printed at different times; but the first of them, which was John the Baptiff, was printed the laft; excepting the Medea of Euripides. He wrote them in compliance with the custom of the college, which required the ftudents to act a tragedy every year; and with a view of diverting them from allegories, of which they were then very fond in France, and of inducing them to imitate the ancients. Thefe having fucceeded better than he expected, he employed more atGtention on Jephtha and Alceftis, design= ing to publish them. However Buchanan was not without uneasiness at Bourdeaux. Cardimal Beaton wrote to the Archbishop of that city, and defired he would cause him to be apprehended; but fome of Buchanan's friends, to whom the Archbishop had accidentally given the cardinal's letter, warded the blow; and the king of Scotland being just dead, Beaton was obliged to return thither, where he had not leisure enough enough to think of Buchanan; befides that, there happened a great plague, which prevented any fearch being made after hereticks. A Some time after, the king of Portugal wrote, to Govea, to invite him to Coimbra, where he was founding a college; where were taught polite literature, and the elements of Arif totle's Philofophy. He defired him to find out and to bring with him into Fortugal perfons qualified to teach in this college. Govea applied to Buchanan, who agreed to go, and the B more willingly, as the rest of Europe was at war, or preparing to enter into it, and as many of his friends were also going into Portugal. He even carried his brother Patrick thither with him, and left they fhould have any trouble on account of Franeifeanus (which has already been mentioned) he took care to acquaint the king of Portugal with it, and to make an apology to him for it before he left France. after, in 1551, in a Candian fhip bound to England, where he fafely arrived. It was in the reign of Edward VI. an Era in which the Proteftant religion began to be established in England. Buchanan thought that the state of affairs in that country was too doubtful and unsteady, for him to remain there; though very advantageous offers were made him. He therefore again went into France, at the beginning of the year 1552, a a few days after the emperor Charles V. had railed the fiege of Metz, on which Buchanan wrote a fine ode. On his arriving in France, he alfo made fome elegant verfes in praife of that kingdom, and in difpraife of Portugal. It seems probable, that being incenfed with reafon against the monks, he then too wrote several fatyrical pieces C against them, which are inferted in his Fratres Paterrimi. About the year 1555, Charles de Coffe, who was filed the Marshal de Briffac, to whom the year before he had dedicated his tragedy of Jephtha, fent for him into Piedmont, where he commanded for the king of France, and entrusted to him the education of Timoleon de Coffe, his fon; with whom Buchanan continued five year, viz. till 1560. During that time, the Count de Briffac could not have totally engaged him; as he fays, that it was chiefly in this interEval that he applied himself to the When he and his friends arrived in Portugal, which was in 1547, every thing at firft fucceeded well, and they D had no caufe of complaint during Go vea's life, who had interest and was their protector. But he dying in 1548, the foreign regents began to be made uneafy; and Buchanan was one of those who fuffered the most. He was accused of his Francifcanus, of having eaten flesh in Lent, and of having faid that St Auguftine was more favourable to the opinions of those who opposed the Romish church, on the Eucharift, than he was to the doctrine of that church.' There were alfo witneffes, who depofed that they F had heard credible perfons fay, that Buchanan had no right notions concerning the Romih religion. This was fufficient to occafion his being fent to the inquifition, where he was confined a year and a half, and from whence he was not released, but on condition that he fhould receive infruction. For this purpofe, he was fent for fome months to the Monks, who treated him very humanely; but who knew not what Chriftianity was. There it was that he began his trandation of the Pfalms of David into Latin verse. On his being released, when he asked the king for a passport. to return to France, his majefty endeavoured to detain him, and fettled upon him fo much a day till he should provide for him. This uncertain expectation could not make him stay in Portugal. He embarked fome time G H ftudy of the Holy Scriptures, and of the controverfies which divide Chriftianity.' 'Tis probable that he then alfo began his books on the sphere, which he dedicated to his pupil. From that time, the reformed religion was established in Scotland, especially after the foreign troops had been fent home, and the house of Guife had no more authority there.. Though Buchanan fays, that he applied himself to the ftudy of divinity during the last years of his refidence in France, yet he did not cease now and then to compofe fome excellent verfes. Such is the ode which he wrote on the taking of Calais, by the Duke of Guife, January 8, 1558. Francis Dauphin of France, efpouled Mary Queen of Scots, at the end of April in the fame year, and Buchanan made their Epithalamium in fome very beatiful lines, highly panegyrical on both of them. But the fineft paffage is his elogium on the Scotch nation, which no one has praised so well, before or fince; as no one has done it more honour by his writings. He The Life and Writings of BUCHANAN. He did not return to Scotland till after 1560, and there he publickly joined himfelf to the reformed church. For fome time after this, he feems to thave been employed in collecting and publishing his poems, of which the molt confiderable is, his incomparable A tranflation of the Pfalms in verfe; which has been, and always will be admired by all who have any talte for fuch works. The comparison that has been made of Beza's paraphrase with our author's, does no great honour to the former. B 215 the Scotch, which he dedicated to the Camden, in his annals of Elizabeth, at It is furprising that he fhould fay towards the end of his life, that he was made preceptor to king James VI in the year 1565,' fince that Prince was not born till the 19th of June 1566. It must be owing to an error of the prefs, or to inadvertence, as it is very unlikely that he should be c named before hand preceptor to the infant that should be born in case it fhould be a boy. Buchanan wrote this life at the age of 74, or about the year 1580. It is almost furprizing, that he mentions only his being employed in 'the education of James VI. without taking any notice of the other works that he published, nor of what happened to him in Scotland. He only Tays, that he was one of those who went on an embally into England, from the King of Scotland, in 1568, in order to give an account of the motives that had induced the Queen E. to abdicate the crown in favour of her fon. In 1564 he made fome elegant verfes on the marriage of that Princess with Lord Darnly, and also on a diamond in form of a heart, which Mary fent, the fame year, to Elizabeth Queen of England. În 1566 he celebrated the birth of King James, and foon after his baptifm. books as falfe, and he himself laDmenting before him to whom he had been preceptor (James VI) often 'tuffered condemnation, (as I have been told) for having written in fo 'inveterate a manner against a Queen to whom he had obligations. Being at the point of death, he wished to live a little longer, till he had effaced the itains which his flander had caufed; by fpeaking the truth, and even by fhedding his blood; unless (as he himself said) these were idle words, as he seemed to be in a dotage occafioned by his age." Thefe are literally the words of Camden, whofe barbarous and confused ftile is not fo easy to understand or tranflate as the pure Latin of Buchanan. Being in England in 1568, with the Earl of Murray, he laboured to convince Queen Elizabeth that Mary was really accellary to the death of the King, her husband. With that view, be wrote a book, which Camden says, was entitled, Detectio, or the discovery of the King's murderers. He fent allo fome pretty verfes to Elizabeth, and to fome English ladies, who had made him pre'fents, as appears from what he lays. His falary as the King's preceptor, must have been very small, or he mult have been a bad oeconomist, as he often complains of his poverty, and openly begs in these and other po. ems. In 1579, he published his dialogue on the Right of the Kingdom among F To do juftice to all the world, it fhould be known that Camden published, in the reign of James VI, the first part of his Life of Elizabeth, which he was not at full liberty to fay all he Godown to the year 1589, and that might think on the fubject of Buchanan, fuppofing he had had a good dpinion of him. It was King James's interest to decry the author, for two very good reafons: The first is, that, after Mary's death, when that Prince enjoyed without difficulty the kingdom of Scotland, and as foon as he was King of Great Britain, he could have wished that all the ill that was feid of that Princefs might be for ever H for A B forgotten; as what had been publish- D As to the report of his repentance, it probably came from the King himfelf, or from fome of his courtiers. Camden too readily believed it; tho' he might have had other reafons to g diftruft it, befides what I have mentioned. It might also happen, that the King, who was a child when Buchanan died, did not understand what Buchanan faid, or might be deceived by others. that he was then in his dotage, or that the weakness of age rendered him more fearful; and not, when he wrote his hiftory, fome years before, with fo much ftrength and eloquence. All Europe therefore was convinced of Buchanan's fincerity; and Thuanus did not scruple to relate, in his hiftory, all that paffed in Scotland just as Buchanan had related it. Camden indeed informed Thuanus that he had been misled by Buchanan; but had Camden his information from perfons less partial than_Buchanan?' Is he more to be depended on than thofe who were then in Scotland? Did he not obey the King through weakness, or had not he himself paffions? This may be faid in general against Camden's authority; but if it be more diftinctly confidered, it will plainly appear, that, on this occafion, he acted like a good fubject, but a bad hiftorian. There is extant a letter from Thuanus to Camden, in which he thanks him for fome remarks that he had made on the beginning of his history, and begs his advice how to relate what happened in Scotland in 1561, becaufe that part of his hiftory was then printing. He wishes to give offence to no one, but nevertheless to fpeak the truth; and is afraid that Buchanan may have written with too much vehemence: in fhort, he promifes to follow Camden's advice. It muft be obferved, that Mary's dif putes with Elizabeth began in great measure after that year, and that Mary then returned to Scotland after the death of Francis II. Camden was, it feems, not at leilure to fatisfy Thuanus, or he could not procure from the court the memoirs that he wished; for Thuanus's volume, which was at the prefs, was all printed of before he received any advice from England. This appears from two other letters of Thuanus, which prove that he paid no regard to what Camden wrote to him, nor altered his hitlery accordGing to his advice. In the latter, written many months after, Thuanus thanks him for some remarks he had fent him, and adds, that he could have wished that Camden had fent him an abstract of what paffed in England at the time of which he had ⚫ written the hiftory. By these means H' (proceeds he) in following your 'fteps, I could more eafily have obfeived the moderation which fome · perfons perhaps will wish I had ob⚫ ferved in regard to Scotland, and I fhould All this repentance of Buchanan F might alfo be a mere fable arifing from fome offence that had been given him by fome of the oppofers of the Queen. It is at least certain that Buchanan's last books, and especially those pallages against the Queen of Scots, how no figns of dotage. I would not offend the memory of Camden, who befides ought to be efteemed for the fervices he has done to the Republic of Letters; but, with all his good fenfe, he has produced nothing which, in folidity of thought, or beauty of ftyle, or method, is comparable to the xixth and xxth books of Buchanan. If he wrote thus in his dorage, his dotage is more valuable than all the judgment of Elizabeth's hiftorian, and if he really faid what this laft has made him fay, every one will believe |