kindness in endeavoring to promote Mr. Watson's interest, I trust he will surmount any difficulty which may have occurred, as I think him a worthy man and an honor to his profession.

"The portrait which he painted of myself as President of the Royal Academy, I am highly gratified to find you intend placing in so honorable a station as your Lordship's collection, and adjoining to a picture from the pencil of Rafaelle, which circumstance, and in company too with the great Washington, I must ever consider as a most flattering testimony of your regard for the original. From your Lordship's attachment to the Fine Arts, and your liberality in promoting them, I am induced to mention the names of Wilkie, Allan, Geddes, and others, who have by their delineation of nature in the familiar occurrences of life, secured to themselves a lasting name in that country, so famed for its men of literature, science, and philosophy, and for its distinction in arms. These artists, combined with the talents of Raeburn and Watson in portraitpainting, and with those of Nasmyth for the truth and effect of his landscapes in portraying the romantic scenery of his country, will create a school for the Arts in Scotland, honorable in itself, and to the noblemen and gentlemen who have appreciated and encouraged the rising genius of that country.

I beg, my Lord, you will accept of the assurance of my sincere regard, and believe me your Lordship's obliged and obedient servant, BENJAMIN West."

The regard entertained by Lord Buchan for my father was sincerely returned, and was shown by the gift of an admirable copy by Nicholson of Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of himself, and by giving him an antique ring, the device on which he himself so highly valued that he caused it to be carved upon his tomb at Dryburgh. The device is emblematic of immortality, containing the caterpillar, the chrysalis, and the butterfly, surmounted by the words Oúk ěti Ovntós.

The Earl of Buchan died at Dryburgh in 1829.

ANNA SEWARD.

All men are ready to make generous allowance for the ungraceful motions of one who has lost a limb-it may be in the service of his country for in such a case the artificial member is a substitute, and not a voluntary addition; but to walk by preference on stilts, from the cradle to the grave, however easy the process may become, cannot be so comfortable for the elevated pilgrim as a more natural mode of progression, nor will he long command the wondering admiration of spectators, however dexterous and surprising his performance. Walter Scott records in 1810, the year after her death, that "Anna Seward has for many years held a high rank in the annals of British literature," while Mr. Lockhart tells us that "Scott felt as acutely as any malevolent critic the pedantic affectations of Miss Seward's epistolary style," and that “in her case sound sense as well as vigorous ability had unfortunately condescended to an absurd disguise." "When she wrote upon subjects in which her feelings were deeply interested, she forgot the 'tiara and glittering zone' of the priestess of Apollo in the more natural effusions of real passion. The song which begins —

"From thy waves, stormy Lannow, I fly,'

seems to have been composed under such influence." 2 Well 1 See Biographic Sketch prefixed to edition of her Poetical Works, 1810. Miss Seward was born in 1747, and died on the 25th of March, 1809.

2 Biographic Sketch by Walter Scott, p. 27, and vol. i. of Poetical Works of Anna Seward, p. 158:

"From thy waves, stormy Lannow, I fly;

From the rocks that are lashed by their tide;

From the maid whose cold bosom, relentless as they,

Has wrecked my warm hopes by her pride!—

Yet lonely and rude as the scene,

Her smile to that scene could impart

A charm that might rival the bloom of the vale

But away, thou fond dream of my heart!
From thy rocks, stormy Lannow, I fly!

"Now the blasts of the winter come on,
And the waters grow dark as they rise!

had it been for herself and others had she been always under

it.

Judging by the specimens of Miss Seward's earlier prose writing given by Sir Walter Scott in the extracts from her correspondence prefixed to his edition of her "Poems," her style appears to have been less artificial in youth than it afterwards became. In her later years she seldom condescended to use the language of ordinary life; instead of telling you that she had got a frank, she says, "I have succeeded in securing senatorial freedom for our correspondence,” and a second marriage is thus described: "I hear with concern that Hymen is lighting his torch with the sprays of a cypress wreath." She was much admired by many of her contemporaries, among others, it would appear, by my father and Sir Walter Scott, but I suspect there are few among the notable writers of her day whose works are now permitted to rest more peacefully upon our shelves than those of Anna Seward.

My father owed his introduction to Miss Seward's notice to her relative and his kind friend Mr. Henry White, whose brother, Mr. Thomas White, was her residuary legatee. Miss Seward's earliest letter in my possession is dated Lichfield, September 18, 1807, and is as follows:

"LICHFIELD, September 18th, 1807. "DEAR SIR, —Though most extremely obliged, I am absolutely shocked to receive a present from you at once so expensive and so wholly unmerited. "The Life of Beattie" appears in a formidably elegant and costly dress. Pray, believe me sighingly grateful.

"I have possessed 'Bruce's Poems' from the time they first appeared in 1770; the gift of one of his countrymen. He

But 't is well! - they resemble the sullen disdain
That has lowered in those insolent eyes.

Sincere were the sighs they repressed,

But they rose in the days that are flown!

Ah, nymph, unrelenting and cold as thou art,

My spirit is proud as thine own.

From thy rocks, stormy Lannow, I fly!"