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[Montrose 1928]
February 15th 1929
Auckland Castle Bishop Auckland.
My dear Buchan,
I would not thank you for your book until, by reading it, I had formed some notion of the greatness of my obligation. Indeed, when once I had started to read 'Montrose' I found myself so firmly held that, at the price of neglecting many urgent things, I had to complete my reading. You have given me immense pleasure, and done me no slight
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service. Be sure that I am very grateful to you.
Your opening chapters are an astonishing achievement of compressed learning and pellucid statement. They interested me the more as I had been reflecting on the profound differences which marked off the course and consequence of the Reformation in Scotland from those of the Reformation in England.
It is greatly creditable to you as a true Scot to exhibit so frankly the repulsive features of the early Presbyterians. I have even thought that Scottish Christianity in the xviith century was the least recognizable version of Christ's Religion which modern history presents.
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I suppose one ought to regard it as no less paradoxically barbarous than the Christianity of the earlier Middle Ages.
Again thanking you for your admirable book, & for the inscription which adds much to its value.
I am,
ever most sincerely
Herbert Dunelm:
John Buchan Esq. M.P.
