2110-2-9-32

John Buchan, Esq., c/o Messrs. Thomas Nelson & Sons, Parkside Works, Dalkeith Road.

21 Tistle Street, Edinburgh 20th. Novr., 1913.

Dear Mr. Buchan, I read your "Life or Lord Ardwall" at a sitting with great interest. You refer to his hospitality at Ardwall, but the dinners he used to give in St. Colme Street and Moray Place were nearly always something different and more enjoyable than ordinary Edinburgh dinner parties. He often had some especially interesting guest, such as Sheriff Nicholson, who sang in Gaelic and in English songs relating to the Highlands and the Faeds, who told stories of Galloway or incidents they had picked up in their sketching tours. On page 76, you might be held to give Samuel Rutherford the credit for the authorship of the hymn "The Sands of Time are sinking". If you refer to Dr. Andrew Bonar's last edition of Rutherford's Letters you will find a copy of the poem at full length with a reference to the passages from which Mrs. Cousin wove out her poem. I have thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I am, Yours sincerely, James MacDonald