| Administrative History | Robert Arbuthnot [1728-1803] was a member of a distinguished Jacobite/ Episcopalian family. He was brought up and later owned Haddo-Rattray House, north of Peterhead. He was a merchant and then a banker in the firm of Arbuthnot and Guthrie, which failed in 1772. He then moved to Edinburgh where he bacame secretary of the Board for the Encouragement of Manufacturies and Fisheries in Scotland. He befriended Beattie after Beattie moved to Aberdeen in 1758, and became for some years his principal poetic adviser and promoter. He negotiated on Beattie's behalf and often in conjuction with Sir William Forbes, with the booksellers over several of the publications |
| Description | Sorry about Beattie's health and vertigo. He must not indulge a disposition to despondency. Arbuthnot very much confined to house, except to visit Forbes twice a week. Forbes' asthma bad, also swelling of legs. Dun's conduct ungrateful, unfeeling, and unnatural, expecially to Beattie who always treated him with more attention than he was entitled to. Refers to an affair which has shocked and confounded him [William Greenfield's disgrace]. Guilt very deeply aggravated by his being a teacher of youth and a clergyman. Will talk to Creech about Beattie's letter to Dilly, to whom Arbuthnot thinks he should write again. A pity if plan to publish poems were neglected or delayed. Warm reference to Mercer. |