Manuscripts and Special Collections
Ne C 1839 : Letter from Morpheus Landlowper, Edinburgh [Scotland], to Henry Pelham; 10 Dec. 1746.
Sir,
If I was to write to you on News or Politicks It is ten to
one in these suspicious times if my Letter should come to stand, and yet
considering the Freindship that subsisted betwixt us when I had the
pleasure of being with you in Jamaica I should be looked upon as
unkind if not ungrateful If I did not make some Enquiry about your
Health and Welfare in these perilous times and at the same time
study to entertain you with something tho' ever so trivial to spin out
my Epistle to a reasonable Longitude. As for News I say it would
not only be dangerous to meddle in since every Letter now a days
on that subject is constructed to contain in it a plot. But besides it would
be idle since every thing that happens in this Countrey is most faithfully
and ingeniously communicated to the Publick by the dayly Gazetteer,
the dayly Advertiser and the St. James Evening Post. Permitt me
then to fool away the Remainder of this Letter in narrating to you
a Dream of my own which I do verily beleive had never any Existence
but in my own Imagination and which for Want of a better subject
I shall literally relate to you as I dreamt it.
As you know I am remarkably zealous for the Protistant Succession.
I dreamt I enlisted myself Volunteer under the Banner of G-l C-pe [General Cope]
in his Expedition to the North and as we marched from E-nb-g with
full 400 Carts methought the Army was so well provided with every
portable Implement th[a]t no Officer could complain he was oblig'd to leave
behind him his Scrulore, Bass Fiddle or German Flute. When I beheld
the Magnificence of this Procession What a pitiful Figure thought I
to myself must the D-ke of A-g-le [Duke of Argyle] have made in the Year 1715
when he marched against the Rebels with double the Numbers of Forces
and had all his Baggage carry'd by 100 horses only and how infinitely
must we have encreased in riches since that time to be able to make so
important a Parade.
When we arrived at Falkirk, methought we were throwughly sensible
that we had forgot nothing that was necessary either for Subsistence
or Convenience or for Destruction or Defense except a few Muskett
Bullets to pepper the H-l-d-rs [Highlanders] with. But that was a Matter
of no Consequence since there was then no Enemy near us and since
we had only about 18 miles to send back for them to the C-tle of
E-nb-g [Castle of Edinburgh]. Some indeed thought we might save ourselves the trouble
of sending back since if the H-l-d-rs did not run away from us
we should run away from them, yet the wisest Heads thought it
