| Administrative History | James Hay Beattie [1768-1790]. Eldest son of Beattie. Named, with permission, after Beattie's patron James Hay, Earl of Erroll. His childhood is lovingly recorded in many letters, which show that Beattie was always a deeply involved parent, and in the memoir Beattie wrote shortly after James Hay's death. His childhood and adolescence were marred by his mother's mental illness, and her total disasppearance from his life when he was aged about eleven. He attended Aberdeen Grammar School, and then Marischal College from 1781 to 1786. He considered entering the church, but Beattie secured his appointment on 28 Spetember 1787 as his own assistant and successor. James Hay sometimes taught the Arts class, but was already ill with tubercolosis, of which he died on 19 November 1790. His father assembled a substantial volume of his prose and verse, printed in an edition of 200 copies for circulation among his friends in 1794, and subsequently published with Beattie's own poems in 1799 |
| Description | Letter from James Hay Beattie, Gordon Castle, to James Dun, telling him that he had received his letter; saying he is in good health and James Beattie has recovered from his cough but still suffering from rheumatism. Letter mentions rat bites and James Hay's shooting of rats and young crows with his gun: "The Ratbites are much fewer now than they were when you was here; and they indeed hardly ever to be seen, except sometimes in a fine evening. I have only killed two of them all the time I have been here, although I am provided with an excellent Gun, and am very assiduous in searching for them. It is now the season of the young Crows; I have shot a great many of them with my Gun. I have shot two with the air gun, which shoots with such exactness, that it is hardly possible for a tolerably good shooter to miss a Crow with it in the top of the highest trees here, although the bullet it shoots is not much longer than a Pea".
James Hay writes about his studies and says he mostly shoots, walks and sometimes draws. Also letter talks about James Hay's intended trip to Aberdeen; defending his grandfather's garden from the sparrows and asks about the Peacock and his 'old freinds [sic] the cats'. James Hay writes that his grandfather desired him to send verses, epigrams, epitaphs or anecdotes; and James Hay transcribes an Epigram, which is in Italian, French, Latin, English & 'abroad Scotch' and from the 'Window of an Inn':
"In questa casa trovarete
Tout ce que l'on y peut fouhaiter
Vinum, panem, pisces, carnes,
Coaches, Chaises, Horses, Harness,
Coal and candle, wife and bairnies"
James Hay provides a translation of the Italian line, which he received from his father: "In this house you will find". |