Manuscripts and Special Collections
Ne C 1839 : Letter from Morpheus Landlowper, Edinburgh [Scotland], to Henry Pelham; 10 Dec. 1746.
the World perhaps better than you do and it is the Sensibility
of our Wrongs that has rous'd us to Arms". And here they gave
me a distinct Catalogue of all the pretended Greivances for 20
Years by past and concluded with their own particular Case as
follows, "Have we not been" sayd they "like slaves rob'd of our Arms,
our Defence, the Birth right of every free Agent, Have they given
us anything in return for them but scorn and Contemp? Have they
encouraged us in any Branch of trade, Manufacture, or Fishery
and if any sham Law has been carry'd over their Bellys Has it
not been always clog'd with so many difficultys and Provisoes
that it render'd it of no Effect. We will have" said they "a King of our
own who shall have no seperate Interest from ours, he shall owe
his Crown to us and in Gratitude he will make our Country
his H-r-nk-ws-n". In short they talk'd so wildly on these
Matters and made such Game of me for being so simple as to
beleive that our Laws Libertys or Religion were in Danger th[a]t
if they had not otherwise been very civil to me I should have been
frightned out of my Witts with their Way of talking. They were
at great pains methought to wheedle me to kiss their Prince's
hand for so they called him, But by what Authority I know not.
But I told 'em roundly that I would as soon kiss the Pope's Toe,
still they kept up their good Humour and smil'd at the Prejudice
of my Education. The story was told to the P-ce [Prince] and he often
jok'd me about the Pope's Toe, and indeed to tell the Truth he
us'd to make as free with his Holyness as anyone about him.
In short the longer I was with them methought I lik'd them
the better. But I thank God it was only a Dream. As for the
P-ce himself (for as I am still as it were a Prisoner in Imagination
and that it would not be mannerly to name him by any other
Appellation than the form of speech used there) he is handsome,
he is manly sedate and quick, he has a good deal of Cheerfulness
but not many Words, he likes better to hear others talk than like
some Baboons I have seen to engross the Conversation to himself,
he cares not for eating above once a Day or for more than three
hours sleep of a Night. He does all his Business and writes his
