'As to curious MSS, there is no such thing here; no varieties, but dull charters of religious houses, and canting lives of Presbyterian ministers. whatever the Bannatyne Club has printed, might as well have been left to the rats and mice, which have done more good in their generation than they have any credit for; and the club has had the overhauling of everything here. There are no poems but some Latin verses written by young lawyers; and as to letters, I do think the wise people of Scotland never wrote any, saving about money, and the secure hiring of servants'.