ired, and started
to my clothes. My father had been up before daylight, and had resorted
to the steeple. I ran into the garden. Within ten minutes after firing
the first cannon the whole prospect was filled with runaways, and
Highlanders pursuing them. The next week I saw Prince Charles twice in
Edinburgh. He was a good-looking man; his hair was dark red and his eyes
black. His features were regular, his visage long, much sunburnt and
freckled, and his countenance thoughtful and melancholy.

In October of the same year I went to Leyden, to study at the university
there. Here there were twenty-two British students, among them the
Honourable Charles Townshend, afterwards a distinguished statesman, and
Mr. Doddeswell, afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer. We passed our
time very agreeably, and very profitably, too; for the conversations at
our evening meetings of young men of good knowledge could not fail to be
instructive, much more so than the lectures, which were very dull. On my
return from Holland, I was introduced by my cousin, Captain Lyon, to
some families of condition in London, and was carried to court of an
evening, for George II. at that time had evening drawing rooms, where
his majesty and Princess Amelia, who had been a lovely woman, played at
cards.

I had many agreeable parties with the officers of the Horse Guards, who
were all men of the world, and some of them of erudition and
understanding. I was introduced to Smollett at this time, and was in the
coffee-house with him when the news of the Battle of Culloden came, and
when London all over was in a perfect uproar of joy. The theatres were
not very attractive this season, as Garrick had gone over to Dublin; but
there remained Mrs. Pritchard, Mrs. Clive, and Macklin, who were all
excellent in their way. Of the literary people I met with I must not
forget Thomson, the poet, and Dr. Armstrong.

In June, 1746, I was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Haddington,
and was ordained minister of Inveresk on August 2, 1748. There were many
resident families of distinction, and my situation was envied as
superior to that of most clergymen for agreeable society. As one of the
"Moderate" party, I now became much implicated in ecclesiastical
politics. Dr. Robertson, John Home, and I had an active hand in the
restoration of the authority of the General Assembly over the
Presbyteries.

_II.--Literary Lions of Edinburgh_

It was in one of these years that