Record

MS 30 - James Beattie, Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic, poet, essayist and moral philosopher: papers
- 2 - Correspondence to James Beattie

Collection	GB 0231 University of Aberdeen, Special Collections
Level	Item
Ref No	MS 30/2/669
Title	Robert Arbuthnot to James Beattie from Edinburgh
Date	5 August 1792
Extent	1 Item
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	It was more difficult than Arbuthnot expected to find a servant to fit to attend Mrs Beattie and Willing to do so. Mrs Arbuthnot now thinks she has one, a woman of about forty. She wants £8 of uearly wages and Mrs Ramsay will not receive a servant for less than £18 a year. Arbuthnot has delivered Beattie's manuscript to Creech, who promises it will be printed expeditiously and proof sheets sent regularly. Thanks Beattie for sending corrected copy ot James Hay Beattie's Ode on Peterhead. Arbuthnot feels even James Hay Beattie most juvenikle pieces show no sign of want of experience not ignorance of the world or of mankind. Arbuthnot thinks the French are going to the devil. Was Beattie not sorry to hear that his worthy and venerable friend Dr Reid was so weak as to remit money to the National Assembly? hopes Laing will profit from his account of the mineral water of Peterhead. The Ode will make a fine conclusion
Access Status	Open

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