In connection with this great work Lhuyd experienced the same discouragements which often beset similar works of learning. He was told by some considerate critic that his volume would meet with but a cold reception; for it consisted “only of etymology and Welsh and Irish vocabularies.” The critic exclaims, “Now there are not half a dozen or half a score in the kingdom that are curious in that way. The world expected, according to his promise and undertaking, a natural history, which is a study of established request, and that a great many are curious in.” But Lhuyd has in the published list the names of two hundred lords, knights, and gentlemen of learning and distinction belonging to England alone. This was something to begin with for such a work, and must have been rather a disconcerting refutation of the critic’s remark about “half a dozen” readers. It is quite possible that this complaining critic looked forward to an interesting dissertation on the strange human animals that inhabited in those days Lorn, Mull, and Islay, and other Celtic parts. He and others could scarcely realise to themselves that the Celtic barbarians who dwelt in those distant regions could write and talk good English; and in their leisure hours exercised themselves in the composition of Latin verse or Gaelic poetry. Lhuyd was accompanied everywhere on his travels by David Parry, A.B. of Jesus College, Oxford, who wrote a small section of the work. It is a very interesting picture that the travels of these learned Oxonians in the Highlands suggest seventy or eighty years before the mighty Johnson visited the Western Isles, which in earlier ages were so well known throughout the ecclesiastical world. Here is a specimen of Latin verse from the pen of a Highland minister two hundred years ago:— IN EDV. LUIDI GLOSSOGRAPHIAM. Quid si reversus spiritus afforet Jam Buchanani, nobile callidi Tentare plectrum, pristinumque Officium renovare chordis? Antiqua tellus, dic, age, Scotia, Quem destinares Tu, facili Virum Ornare versu; quem parares Non humili celebrare cantu? Luidus priorum qui Britonum decus, Poscit Camœnas; pulvere sen diu Fœdata purgator reponat, In superam referatque lucem. Sive Ille morsu temporis improbo Exesa fida restituat manu, Atque acer Interpus recudat In veniens renovata sæclum. Sive Ille vocum exquirere origines Longo recursu gestiat, et suo A fonte deducat, redire Ad veterem faciatque ritum. Quamvis dolendo pressa silentio Jam Buchanani conticeat lyra, Stat fama Luido, vendicantque Perpetuam sibi scripta laudem. ANDREAS FRAZIER, _Eccl. Scot. Presb._