Robert Arbuthnot to James Beattie from Edinburgh 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 5 August 1792