Record

CollectionGB 0231 University of Aberdeen, Special Collections
LevelItem
Ref NoMS 30/2/567
TitleRobert Arbuthnot to James Beattie from Edinburgh
Date24 April 1788
Extent1 Item
Administrative HistoryRobert 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
DescriptionAbout helping Cooper. Arbuthnot does not really approve of changes to his aunt Mrs Arbuthnot's house. Liked toss and tumble of books - Shaftesbury and Butler beside each other. Dalzell has Aeneid discourse which was highly commended. Intention to publish it in second volume of Philosophical Transactions. Arbuthnot sent Evidences to son William in West Indies. Does Beattie intend to publish James Hay Beattie's didactic poem? Wonderful performance showing poetic genius, and knowledge in philosophy rare in someone twice his age
Access StatusOpen
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