| Administrative History | John Hope (1725–1786), physician and botanist |
| Description | Letter from John Hope to David Skene in which he introduces 'Mr. Urquhart, a keen and successful botanist'; he discusses the activities of Freer who has added four score plants to his collection including the rubus arcticus and the osmunda crispa; he saw a great many rare plants in Mr. Walker's collection at Moffat; he asks what Skene has found that summer so they could exchange specimens; he sends a specimen of rheum palmatum which he then describes; he describes additions to buildings at Edinburgh including a 'new bridge for the communication to the North', a grand hall or library for the College of Physicians, a 'large, commodius and magnificent repository for the records of the nation founded in a proper area in Heriot's Work Gardens' and a museum in the University; he informs Skene that Lord Kames will 'charge himself with your affair against December', 31 August 1765. |