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Steven

L.25, 1907

PREFACE.

As the last series of the Tales of My Landlord will probably call the attention of the public towards the biography of the Marquis of Montrose, it has been deemed expedient to republish this translation of Bishop Wishart's Memoirs, adding a few Notes to those already subjoined, and increasing the original Appendix with various interesting documents, some of which are now for the first time printed.

For these the Editors are indebted to the liberality of the Honourable Mrs Stewart Mackenzie, eldest daughter and heiress of the late Lord Seaforth, by whose permission such letters in the archives of her.

noble family as were esteemed illustrative of this volume are laid before the public. Those written by the Marquis of Montrose are in a large hand, and bear seals with various devices. On one is a horse, on another a lion, and on a third are two rocks, with a chasm between, and a lion mounted on one pinnacle, with this motto,-" Nil Medium."

Various other additions have been made to the Appendix from printed sources; and to the kindness of Robert Graham, Esq., Advocate, the Editors are indebted for the loan of a beautiful portrait of Montrose, engraved by Matham, and prefixed to the edition of Wishart's Memoirs, printed in the year 1648. An accurate copy forms a Frontispiece to this volume.

It only remains to subjoin the short sketch of Wishart's life, as given by Bishop Keith.

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"George Wiseheart, of the family of Logy in Angus, was minister at North Leith, and deposed anno 1638, for refusing to take the Covenant. Some correspondence having been afterwards discovered betwixt him and the royalists, he was plundered of

all his goods oftener than once, and thrown prisoner into the nastiest part of the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, called the Thieves' Hole; being delivered thence, he went beyond sea, and accompanied the Marquis of Montrose in foreign parts in quality of his chaplain. Then, after the fall of that illustrious person, he became chaplain to Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia, sister to King Charles I., with whom he came over into England anno 1660, to visit her royal nephew King Charles II., after his Majesty's happy Restoration. Soon after which Mr Wiseheart had the rectory of Newcastleupon-Tyne conferred upon him, where he was held in great veneration for his unspotted loyalty. Upon the restoring of Episcopacy within Scotland, he was preferred to the See of Edinburgh, into which he was consecrated 1st June 1662, at St Andrews, where he continued till death took him away, anno 1671, and was buried in the Abbey church of Holyroodhouse, under a magnificent tomb, with an inscription upon it."-Catalogue of Scottish Bishops. Edinburgh, 1755.

Edinburgh, July 1819.

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