FLETCHER OF SALTOUN FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES _The following Volumes are now ready_-- THOMAS CARLYLE. By HECTOR C. MACPHERSON ALLAN RAMSAY. By OLIPHANT SMEATON HUGH MILLER. By W. KEITH LEASK JOHN KNOX. By A. TAYLOR INNES ROBERT BURNS. By GABRIEL SETOUN THE BALLADISTS. By JOHN GEDDIE RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor HERKLESS SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By EVE BLANTYRE SIMPSON THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor W. GARDEN BLAIKIE JAMES BOSWELL. By W. KEITH LEASK TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By OLIPHANT SMEATON FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By G. W. T. OMOND FLETCHER OF SALTOUN BY G : W : T OMOND FAMOUS SCOTS: SERIES PUBLISHED BY: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS NEW YORK PREFACE In 1792 the eleventh Earl of Buchan published a volume of _Essays on the Life and Writings of Fletcher of Saltoun and the Poet Thomson_. It contains our only biography of Fletcher; but, though founded on original sources of information, it is frequently inaccurate, and must, therefore, be used with great caution. The author of the article on Fletcher in the third edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ (1797) mentions that the tenth Earl Marischal, when Governor of Neuchâtel, suggested to Rousseau that he should write the life of Fletcher. Rousseau was furnished with MSS. for this purpose; but nothing came of it, and most of the materials on which that work was to have been founded seem to have been lost. Some interesting documents, however, are preserved in the University Library at Edinburgh, including MSS. used by Lord Buchan, and a letter to him from Lord Hailes, who had evidently been applied to for information. (Laing MSS. 364.) Mr. F. Espinasse refers to most of the printed authorities for the life of Fletcher, in a succinct but exhaustive article in the _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xix. p. 292; and in the _Scottish Review_ for July 1893 (vol. xxii. p. 61) there is a very interesting paper on ‘Andrew Fletcher, the Scottish Patriot,’ from the pen of Mr. J. R. Donaldson. Many allusions to Fletcher’s conduct as a member of the last Scottish Parliament are to be found in the Godolphin Correspondence in the British Museum. (Add. MSS. 28,055.) I have to thank Mr. Fletcher of Saltoun for allowing me to consult a volume of _Recollections respecting the Family of Saltoun_, and for an opportunity of examining the library and visiting the scenes of Fletcher’s early life.