Horæ B. Mariæ Virginis, written in the thirteenth century on vellum by an Anglo-Saxon or Scottish scribe. Three hundred and twenty-five pounds.
The First and Second Series of Sir Walter Scott's Chronicles of the Canongate. An autograph manuscript presented by the author to R. Cadell. One hundred and forty-one pounds.
A collection of valuable and interesting correspondence and memoranda relating to the Rebellion of 1715, comprising many of the original letters and despatches from the Earl of Mar, etc. Ninety-nine pounds.
In 1882 Mr. Gibson-Craig issued, in an edition of twenty-five copies, Fac-similes of Old Book Binding in his collection; and in the following year a facsimile reprint of the Shorte Summe of the whole Catechisme, by his ancestor John Craig, accompanied by a memoir of the author by Thomas Graves Law, of the Signet Library. He also printed for the Bannatyne Club 'Papers relative to the marriage of King James the Sixth of Scotland with the Princess Anna of Denmark A.D. MDLXXXIX, and the Form and Manner of Her Majesty's Coronation at Holyroodhouse A.D. MDXC.'
ALEXANDER WILLIAM, TWENTY-FIFTH EARL OF CRAWFORD, 1812-1880
It is about three hundred years since the founder of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana died. John Lindsay, the Octavian, better known by his title of Lord Menmuir, the ancestor of the Earls of Balcarres, had a distinguished though but brief career. He was not quite forty-seven years old when he died. During his short though eventful life he took a leading part in State affairs, being much trusted by his Sovereign, King James VI. He was a man of varied talents—lawyer, statesman, man of business, scholar, man of letters, and a poet. He seems to have been familiar with Greek, and to have corresponded in the Latin language. Besides these he acquired a knowledge of French, Italian and Spanish. He accumulated many State papers and letters from distinguished persons both at home and abroad.[101] These, now known as 'the Balcarres Papers,' were presented by Colin, Earl of Balcarres, to the Advocates' Library in 1712. A summary account of them is given in the First Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Lord Menmuir's library is now represented at Haigh[102] by two volumes and three fragments, all of which bear his autograph. Lord Menmuir was succeeded by a son, who died whilst yet a youth and unmarried. The second son, David, who after his brother's death inherited the estate of Balcarres, may be termed the second founder of the library. The father's love of books and learning seems to have in a very large measure descended to the son. He added to the library until it became one of the best in the kingdom. A very charming letter from William Drummond of Hawthornden to David Lindsay, sent with a copy of the Flowers of Zion, which the poet had privately printed, is clear evidence of the terms on which Lindsay lived with his friends and fellow book-lovers. The original letter is preserved in the Muniment Room at Haigh, but the identical copy of Drummond's work has, alas! been lost sight of.
The small Book-stamp of the first Lord Balcarres.
The library of Sir David Lindsay, Lord Balcarres, continued at the family seat on the shores of the Firth of Forth until comparatively recent times. Sibbald in 1710 mentions the 'great bibliothek' at Balcarres. In Sibbald's time the owner, Colin, third Earl of Balcarres, had added many books to the library, and spent the evening of his days in the pursuit of letters. When Lady Balcarres, great-grandmother of the present Earl of Crawford, left Fife and removed to Edinburgh, whilst her son was in the West Indies, the greater portion of the library was literally thrown away and dispersed—torn up for grocers as useless trash, by her permission. Of the library collected by generations of Lindsays, all that now remains is a handful of little over fifty volumes. The books of David Lindsay, first Lord Balcarres, who died in 1641, are recognisable from his signature, and on many of them his arms are impressed in gold on the sides.