had a very great run of businefs. This brought him into an hasty and incorrect manner. Nicolas Hude was unemployed at London for several years after his coming from France in 1685, till William duke of Queensberry brought him to Scotland, to work for him at Drumlanrig. Hude's genius inclined to historical painting; but for a livelihood he painted portraits. Hude was not an unsuccefsful imitator of Rubens. In 1703 Jean Baptiste Medina, a native of Brufsels, was brought from London by some Scots noblemen, and soon after he was knighted by the duke of Queensberry, being the last man knighted by the commifsioner. Medina at first applied to history, but af terwards to portraits, in which he equalled any of his predecefsors. His manner is easy; and he succeeded better in men than in women's pictures. There are a vast many good portraits of his hand in Scotland; particularly at the surgeon's hall, Edinburgh. Paton, a miniature drawer in black and white, lived about this time, and did several portraits from life, and copies, with a good deal of likeness and exprefsion. In 1712, on the death of Sir John Medina, William Aikman returned to Scotland, and for 13 years was in good employment. John duke of Argyll was his patron, and persuaded bim to go to London, where he much improved himself by imitating Sir Godfrey Kneller. He died 1731. Aikman's picture is in a gallery of the duke of Tuscany. Richard Wait, a scholar of young Scougal, profefsed painting portraits from 1708 to 1722; but his genius led him to paint pieces in still life. Wait's cotemporary was George Marshall, scholar of Scougal and of Sir Godfrey Kneller. He died in 1732. John Alexander, a descendant of Jamieson's, spent his youth at Florence. He executed several historical pieces at Gordon castle. He published prints from drawings of Raphael's pictures in the Vatican. Alexander's favourite subject was copying Mary Queen of Scots. Towards the latter end of his life he began a historical painting of her escape from Lochleven, but he did not live to finith it. John Medina, son of Sir John, has made an excellent copy of Queen Mary's picture. Norie's gepius for landscapes entitles him to a place in the list of Scotch painters. Queries respecting the above. 1. What house of the Erroll family was destroyed, 1586. ? 2. What evidence is there of the picture of James V.'s natural son being burnt there? 3. Where is the copy of that picture now? 4. Is there evidence that Sir Antonio More really come to Scotland; or, might he not have done the family picture alluded to when lord Seton was abroad? 5. Do any pictures remain of More's hand in other families which are properly vouched to have been painted during his residence in Scotland? 6. From what authority are all the portraits of Mary said to be done in France; or, did he never sit for her picture after her return? 7. In whose pofsefsion are all the portraits of James VI. done before he left Scotland? 8. Whose property is the full length of Charles I. by Jamieson ? 9. Where is the historical picture of Mary's escape from Lochleven? INDEX INDICATORIUS. Linlithgoensis, encouraged, as he says, by the inserting of the inscription from A Rider, requests that the following lines may obtain a place for preservation. The person to whom they refer, he says, was a man who made some money by the quill in that borough, and when he died, his relations thought it proper to cover his remains with a gravestone containing a character that they thought suitable; but a neighbour thinking it might perhaps suit another as well as him wrote the following lines, which he imagined contained a more appropriated character. They are here inserted because of the sly epigrammatic point, which every reader will perceive. It seems the gentleman used to subjoin to his signature the words Scribo Lenlithgoensis. Here lies the body of John Easton, Who many a good fat hen did feast on And din'd at other folk's expences. SENTIMENT. The world's a pilgrimage of care, Beneath the ermin'd robes of state, The peasant who to labour goes, C. G. To CORRESPONDENTS. The note by specnlator is received. But though the Editor has every inclination to oblige his correspondents, he finds it impofsible. The communications now by him, form such a mafs as would require a very great length of time to look over them all, so that he can only promise to pick out a paper that is a great way back, when he makes an occasional revisal of the whole, which he can only do at considerable intervals. This answer may apply to several others, as they will respectively perceive. The interesting verses by M B. S. are received, and shall appear soon. Some slight inaccuracies appear. But no detect in the opinion of the Editor is so great as common thoughts dressed up in feeble inenargitic language, though that should even be flowing and harmonious, |