please, may be communicated to such of the inhabitants of the parish as you shall think fit." The minister here recommended by Leighton was evidently not acceptable to the heritors and people of Straiton, and he was not admitted to a parish until July 15, 1668, when he was inducted to Torryburn, on the presentation of Alexander, Earl of Kincardine. The following letter to Mr. Aird refers to Straiton, and was written prior to the one, sent to the heritors. "SIR Edinburgh, July 5, 1662. "Waving all other discourse till meeting, though you are possibly enamoured with your vacancy, yet if you find any return of appetite to employment in the ministry, I am once again to offer you an invitation, for there is a place or two now vacant at my dispose. 'Tis true 'tis by the removing of the former incumbents against their will: but you are not guilty of that by succeeding them, nor I by giving a call to any that will, for you may be sure they are not within the bounds I have charge of, but in other dioceses. There is one place indeed in my precinct1 now vacant, and yet undisposed of, by the voluntary remove of the young man that was in it to a better benefice, and this is likewise in my hand: but it is of so wretchedly mean a provision that I am ashamed to name it-little (I think) above 500 marks by year. If the many instances of that kind you have read have made you in love with voluntary poverty, there you may have it but wheresoever you are or shall be for the little rest of your time, I hope you are, and still will be, advancing in that blest poverty of spirit that is the only true height and greatness of spirit in all the world entitling to a crown, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Oh! what are the scraps that the great ones of this world are scrambling for compared with that pretension? I pray you as you find an opportunity, though possibly little or no inclination to it, yet bestow one line on "Your poor friend and servant, "R. LEIGHTON." 1 The following letter brings Leighton before us in the aspect of business, and is worthy to be compared with a previous letter (p. 212). He was certainly not exacting in his demands for what were his legal dues. Letter from Robert Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane, to Sir George Stirling. Edinburgh, March 20 (n.y.). "HONOURED SIR "Yow know well how painful and unusuall a thing it is to me to dispute these matters either by word or writt. I have wholly intrusted the clerk with that buisinesse (the renewal of a lease of teinds), and not limited him to any sume. If yow make it appear to him reasonable that yow give nothing, nothing bee it: whatsoever is my meannesse of estate and the ability God has blessed yow with, I am far from the meannesse of mind to plead that: but if the clerk inform you that others have given some acknowledgment for the very like buisinesse, and that though no new advantage accreases 1 Secretan's Archbishop Leighton. * The following charter still survives :— "23rd March, 1666. Charter by Robert Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane and Dean of the Chapel Royal, as superior of the subjects disponed, granting to William Maxwell, of Murreith, (Moureith), his heirs and assignees, that fishing on the water of Dee called the fishery of Culdooch otherwise called the "Dooches," with the fisher's croft and pasturage, etc., within the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, which had belonged to the late Sir John Vaus of Lungcastell, and been apprised from Patrick Vaus, his son and heir. The reddendo not given. Edinburgh, 23rd March, 1666. Witnesses, Hugh Paterson, W.S., George Hutcheson, the Bishop's servitor, and Alexander Pettigrew, writer, Edinburgh. Signed, R. Dunblain, Decan® Sacelli Regii." Bishop's round seal attached, but defaced. The Laing Charters: 2600: pp. 607, 608. to yow (for that is not vsuall in any leases), but only the continuance of the case yow have, and securing yow from being scru'd higher for so many years: if upon this yow be pleasd to give him any thing, it will help to discharge some litle charities that I have left vpon him to doe for mee; but if that please yow not, whatsoever yow doe shall not displease, "Sir, "Your very affectionate and humble servant, "1 The following letters were written to his relative, Mr. Lightmaker, of Broadhurst, Surrey, and his friend Mr. Aird, of Torryburn. To his brother-in-law (Mr. Lightmaker) on the death of his son. "I am glad of your health and recovery of your little ones: but indeed it was a sharp stroke of a pen that told me Love of your pretty Johnny was dead: and I felt it truly children. more than, to my remembrance, I did the death of any child in my life-time. Sweet thing! and is he so sweetly laid to sleep? Happy he! Though we shall have no more the pleasure of his lisping and laughing, he shall have no more the pain of crying, nor of being sick, nor of dying, and hath wholly escaped the trouble of schooling and all other sufferings of boys, and the riper and deeper griefs of riper years, this poor life being all along nothing but a linked chain of many sorrows and many deaths. Tell my dear sister she is now much more akin to the other world, and this will quickly be passed to us all. John is but gone an hour or two sooner to bed, as children use to do, and we are undressing to follow. And the more we put off the love of this 1" Historical Manuscripts”—Manuscripts of Sir J. Stirling Maxwell of Keir, Bart., p. 80. present world, and all things superfluous beforehand, we shall have the less to do when we lie down." "DEAR FRIEND To the Rev. Mr. Aird. "I trust you enjoy that same calm of mind, touching your present concernment, that I do on your behalf. I dare not promise to see you at Edinburgh at this time, but it is possible I may. I know you will endeavour to set yourself on as strong a guard as you can against the assaults you may meet with there from divers well meaning persons, but of weak understandings and strong passions; and will maintain the liberty of your own mind both firmly and meekly. Our business is the study of sincerity and pure intention; and then, certainly, our blessed guide will not suffer us to lose our way for want of light; we have his promise, that if in all our ways we acknowledge him, he will direct our paths. While we are consulting about the turns and new motions of life, it is sliding away, but if our great work in it be going on, all is well. Pray for "Dunblain, Jan. 13th." "Your poor Friend, "R. L. To the Same. "SIR "I long to hear how you dispose of yourself, if it be determined. If still in suspense, I still wish you the favourable impression of that hand to which I know you have delivered up yourself; if you be resolved upon a removal, and incline to the like charge here upon a fair call, I desire to know it by the first opportunity, for I hear there is somewhat of that kind in the West likely to be at my disposal; I would not have this unsettle your propension to stay where you are, if you find anything within you, for thorns grow everywhere and from all things below and to a soul : transplanted out of itself into the root of Jesse, peace grows everywhere too, from him who is called our Peace, and whom we still find the more to be so, the more entirely we live to him, being dead to this world, and self, and all things besides him. Oh when shall it be? Well, let the world go as it will; let this be our only pursuit and ambition, and to all other things fiat voluntas tua, Domine." "DEAR FRIEND To the Same. "Being at present not well, I shall say no more but that I take these communications as a singular act of the truest kindness and friendship, and heartily thank you for them, and am glad to find that there are some souls in this world truly sick of it all, that being, in my opinion, a very happy symptom and prognostic of a prevailing health—such a degree of it at least as may be had in the diseased, defiled cottages wherein we dwell, and may be to us a certain pledge of real beginning of that full health we look for at our removal, and therefore have so much reason to long and wish earnestly and sigh and groan for that day, and yet have no less reason to wait patiently for it. Pray for "Your poor Friend, "R. L. "March 21, 1669." The following letter to his sister, expressing his desire for retirement, indicates that even at Dunblane Leighton was conscious of the wide discontent in the country, and desired retirement from what seemed to him more and more an impossible situation. It was written probably about 1665 or 1667. "DEAR SISTER "Dunblane, April 19. "I was strangely surprised to see the bearer here. What |