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As it pleases me to find my Behaviour has merited your
approbation, so at y^e same time does it still more rejoice & make
me proud to hear how singularly well you distinguish your
self in y^e world upon all occasions given you in your Professi-
on, & particularly (as I'm inform'd) in y^e late Tryal of Captⁿ.
Green & his Crew; where, they tell me, you were of y^e Counsell
for y^e Prisonsers.—The shining Virtues of Ancestours, when
they have been clouded over by time, do too often prove
feeble exhortations to their distant Posterity; but I am happy
in having so affectionate & able a Cotemporary to guide
me in y^e paths of our Ancestours, & to excite me in so pa-
thetical a manner to an imitation of them.—The Wounds
I received at Hochstet were so severe by having broke my
uppermost Ribb with y^e Colar-bone & Shoulder Bone, that I
have continued to this day under y^e Chyrurgeon's hands, tho'
I thank God not under y^e Physician's too; for I have all along
kept my health perfectly well. I propose to leave London this
week in order to go to Aix la Chapelle for y^e recovery of the
use of my Shoulder, w^ch is luckily y^e left one.

My Mother & Brother present their humble Service to you, &
pray my affectionate Respects to your Lady Mother & y^e rest of
our Relations wth you.

To
M^r. John Spotswood
Advocate at M^r Valenge's Book-Seller
near y^e Cross.
Edinburg
Scotland

17 Aprill 17[05]