Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Introductory Notes on the Texts
- 1 Robert Boyle’s notes on his interview with Lord Tarbat, 3 October 1678
- 2 ‘A Collection of Highland Rites and Customs’
- 3 Robert Kirk’s The Secret Commonwealth and his ‘A Short Treatise of the Scotish-Irish Charms and Spells’
- 4 James Garden’s letters to John Aubrey
- 5 Samuel Pepys’s collection of letters on second sight
- 6 John Fraser’s ∆ϵυτϵϱοσϰoπια
- 7 Edward Lhuyd’s and Robert Wodrow’s questionnaires and the responses of John Fraser and John MacLean
- Textual Notes
- Appendix: Quotations of biblical passages cited in the texts above
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
7 - Edward Lhuyd’s and Robert Wodrow’s questionnaires and the responses of John Fraser and John MacLean
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 December 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Introductory Notes on the Texts
- 1 Robert Boyle’s notes on his interview with Lord Tarbat, 3 October 1678
- 2 ‘A Collection of Highland Rites and Customs’
- 3 Robert Kirk’s The Secret Commonwealth and his ‘A Short Treatise of the Scotish-Irish Charms and Spells’
- 4 James Garden’s letters to John Aubrey
- 5 Samuel Pepys’s collection of letters on second sight
- 6 John Fraser’s ∆ϵυτϵϱοσϰoπια
- 7 Edward Lhuyd’s and Robert Wodrow’s questionnaires and the responses of John Fraser and John MacLean
- Textual Notes
- Appendix: Quotations of biblical passages cited in the texts above
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
Lhuyd’s original questionnaire
Part of the Letter to ‹the Revd› Mr James Fraser Minister of Kirkhill in the Aird near Invernes:
Dated at Falkirk in Sterlingshire Dec.18 1699.
———But it lies not in their way to be so immediately assisting in the undertaking I am engagd in; in regard, they are strangers to the old Scottish Language & customes, the comparing of which with the Welsh, Cornish, & Armorican is one part of my design. I therefore make bold to addresse my self to you for your kind assistance; & intreat you that besides you’r own trouble, you would prevail with some friend or two (in regard it may prove tedious) to contribute their helping hand. In return I can only promise that if hereafter it may lye in my way to be serviceable to your self or any friend, in my station at Oxford, I shall very faithfully observe your directions, and if I shall understand that any new book there may be acceptable to you, I shall study to expresse my Gratitude. Now the Requests I have chiefly to make (so far as they occur to my thoughts at present) are as follows. /fol. 26v/
1. An interpretation of the Nouns in Mr Ray’s Dictionariolum Trilingue; with the Addition of the Verbs & Adjectives in the vulgar Nomenclatura into the Northern Ersh would be very acceptable.
2. A catalogue of the towns, castles, villages, mountains, vales, Lochs & Rivers, within ten (or twenty) miles; with an interpretation of such of these names as are indubitably intelligible; and queries or conjectures about some of the others.
3. Some account of the Barrows or artificial mounts; of monumental stones, whether those inscrib’d with Letters, or other carving; or those plac’d in a circular order, or vast stones placed on the tops of others pitch’d in the Ground.
4. An account of the Amulets & charms &c. viz. Adderstones, Toadstones, Cock-knee-stones, snail-stones, mole-stones, Lêag, Elf Arrows & the like; with any other Relations that may fall under this Head. And as many of those curiosities as may be procur’d without much expence, are earnestly desir’d. /fol. 27/
5. Any Coin, Fibula, or other old brasse utensil; or small stones of any peculiar figure (whether natural or artificial) would be no lesse acceptable.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Occult LaboratoryMagic, Science and Second Sight in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland, pp. 205 - 216Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2001