land, every convenience of life, to which I have

any title, or any inclination, to aspire.

"I must, therefore, make it my request to you, that you would present my humble respects, and most thankful acknowledgments, to the eminent person, at whose desire you wrote your last letter, (whose name, I hope, you will not be under the necessity of concealing from me,) and assure him, that, though I have taken the liberty to decline his generous offer, I shall, to the last hour of my life, preserve a most grateful remembrance of the honour he has condescended to confer on me; and, to prove myself not altogether unworthy of his goodness, shall employ that health and leisure which Providence may hereafter afford me, in opposing infidelity, heresy, and error, and in promoting sound literature, and Christian truth, to the utmost of my power."

up

Although secrecy was thus enjoined, at the period when the correspondence respecting the living took place, yet it is right that the name of the Right Reverend Prelate, who made this

most generous offer to Dr Beattie, should not be longer concealed, now that both are dead. Dr Thomas, at that time Bishop of Winchester, was the person, whose letter to Dr Porteus I now subjoin.

LETTER C.

THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER TO THE REV. DR PORTEUS.

Farnham-Castle, 24th July, 1774.

"It is now, I think, three weeks ago since I wrote to you. I then suggested a conversation that passed between us at Chelsea, relating to Dr Beattie, and my disposition to shew him some mark of my esteem and good-will.

"I have a living now vacant, of five hundred pounds a-year, in Hants, and I wish that you would sound him, with secrecy, upon the subject, and let me have a line from you as soon as you can. The living has been vacant a month; and I shall have no rest till I can dispose of it.'

The transactions which I have here related, respecting the Edinburgh professorship, and the church-preferment offered to him in England, form a somewhat remarkable period in the life of Dr Beattie, as they evinced the fixed resolution he had taken, and from which he did not deviate, of continuing, during the remainder of his days, at Aberdeen. We find him, indeed, paying occasional visits to Edinburgh and London, during the summer months of the Collegevacation. But these visits seem to have had no other object than his amusement, and the enjoying, occasionally, the society of his numerous friends at both places. He was likewise constant in his visits every summer to Peterhead,* a place

* Peterhead, a small town in the county of Aberdeen, situated on the most easterly promontory of Scotland; famous for a Chalybeate spring of the nature of the waters of Tunbridgewells, and for salt-water baths of admirable construction, which draw thither a considerable resort of fashionable company during the summer season, some in search of health, and others of amusement. But it is chiefly to the industry, the sobriety, and prudence of the inhabitants, that Peterhead, from being

to which he was strongly attached, and in which, as well as in the society of some friends there, he much delighted. He thought the air of the place particularly healthy, and useful to his constitution; "and I have often," says a friend, who gave me this information, "seen him stand for a

long time, on the adjoining promontory, inha"ling, in a fine day, the pure air from the ocean, "and enjoying the majestic prospect, expressing

'great delight in both." He had great confidence, too, in the tonic powers of the mineral spring, and of the salt-water baths; and his hope of being able to go through his professional duties with comfort, during the winter, was in exact proportion to the length of time he had been able to spend at Peterhead the preceding sum

mer.

merely an insignificant fishing-town, owes its rapid encrease in commerce, manufactures, and consequent population; so that, from two thousand four hundred and twenty souls, to which number only the inhabitants amounted, so lately as the year 1764, the town is said to have contained no fewer than four thousand one hundred in the year 1794, and is daily increasing. †

+ Statistical Account of Scotland, Parish of Peterhead, Vol. XVI. p. 7. and p. 563.

Nor was it on account of the waters, the baths, and the healthful air alone, that he was so greatly attached to Peterhead. He loved the people, and they loved and respected him; and there were several of the venerable old inhabitants of the place, for whose integrity and simplicity of character he entertained, and was often heard to express, a high regard. Although he by no means shunned the society of the numerous strangers, who flock to Peterhead in the course of the season, and sometimes dined with them at their common table, yet he spent much of his time alone, in study, or in the society of a few select friends. During the fine weather, he dedicated many hours to his favourite and healthful amusement, of walking in the fields, or along the seashore; and he used pleasantly to say, that there was not a road, nor a foot-path, not a rock, nor any remarkable stone, in the neighbourhood of Peterhead, with which he was not personally acquainted.

One of the chief employments, and indeed amusements, of his leisure hours, at this period, was the conducting, and superintending the education of his eldest son, whom he placed, first, at the usual public schools at Aberdeen, and after