Scope and Contents Autograph letter signed from William Dickinson (1745-1806) to his mother, reporting on his experiences of student life at Edinburgh, dated 28 November 1765, Edinburgh. Dickinson starts his letter by stating he is happy to hear about the recovery of his father; he then mentions "the two Gentlemen from Oxford" that came to his house. He is "very well pleased" with being at the University, "for Mr Ferguson (the Moral Philosophy Professor) is very clever and refin'd". He adds that he has had...

Content Description This is a manuscript volume containing notes of lectures by Hugh Blair, Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Edinburgh, taken down by an unknown student. It is dated 1770, and comprises 39 complete lectures.Hugh Blair published his lectures in 1783, but very few manuscripts of his teachings survive nowadays. He did not want any "bastardised" versions to survive, as he called them in his publications, and insisted in his will that all his personal papers...