abbey of Dryburgh to Grose's ‘Antiquities’ (i. 101–9). In 1791 he instituted an annual festival in commemoration of James Thomson, at his birthplace, Ednam, Roxburghshire, and on his grounds at Dryburgh erected an Ionic temple, with a statue of Apollo in the inside, and a bust of the poet surmounting the dome. On the occasion he placed the first edition of the ‘Seasons’ on the bust, and crowned it with a wreath of bays, delivering at the same time a eulogy on the poet (see detailed account of the proceedings with the earl's address in Gent. Mag. vol. lxi. pt. ii. pp. 1019–20, 1083–5). He sent an invitation to Burns to be present on the occasion, who declined, but sent an ode on Thomson. After the death of Burns in 1796, the earl placed in his memory an urn of Parian marble beside the bust of Thomson. Another bombastic exploit of the earl was to erect on the summit of a hill on his estate a colossal statue of Sir William Wallace, which was placed on its pedestal 22 Sept. 1814, the anniversary of the victory at Stirling Bridge in 1297. A more useful structure was a wire suspension bridge over the Tweed near the abbey, constructed in 1817, but blown down in 1850.
Buchan was a frequent contributor to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ the ‘Bee,’ and other publications, his usual signature when his contributions were anonymous being ‘Albanicus.’ He published separately:
- ‘An Account of the Life, Writings, and Inventions of Napier of Merchiston,’ written in conjunction with Dr. Walter Minto, 1787.
- ‘Essays on the Lives of Fletcher of Saltoun and the Poet Thomson, Biographical, Critical, and Political, with some pieces of Thomson never before published,’ 1792.
- ‘Anonymous and Fugitive Essays collected from various Periodical Works,’ vol. i. 1812.
Along with Pinkerton he projected the ‘Iconographia Scotica,’ 1798. His relation to art, letters, and antiquities was, however, in great part that of a fussy and intermeddling patron. On matters of art he kept up an indefatigable correspondence with Horace Walpole, who ‘tried everything but being rude to break off the intercourse’ (Letters, viii. 302). Burns addressed him in terms of elaborate respect, suggestive of ironical intention, and sent him a copy of ‘Scots wha hae.’ On antiquarian subjects Buchan corresponded frequently with Nichols. In 1784 he sent two letters to Nichols containing ‘Some Remarks on the Progress of the Roman Arms in Scotland during the Sixth Campaign of Africanus,’ which were published in 1786 in vol. xxxv. of the ‘Topographia Britannica.’ Among the correspondents who perhaps relished their intercourse with him most were the members of the royal family. In certain conjunctures of affairs he was accustomed to send the king a letter of advice or of approval as seemed most fitting in the special circumstances, grounding his right to do so on ‘my consanguinity to your majesty,’ a claim of relationship with which, as laying emphasis on his descent from the Stuarts, the king seems to have been sincerely flattered (see letters to various members of the royal family in Ferguson's Henry Erskine and his Times, pp. 493–501). It was one of Buchan's foibles to claim the nearest kinship with persons of distinction to whom he was in the remotest degree related. Thomas Browne, author of the ‘Religio Medici,’ a remote progenitor, he deemed worthy to be named his grandfather, and he ‘gloried’ in the ‘illustrious and excellent Washington’ as his ‘cousin’ and ‘friend.’ On the latter account he was in the habit of showing special attention to the distinguished Americans who visited this country, and in 1792 he sent to Washington, then president of the United States, an elegantly mounted snuff-box made from the tree which sheltered Wallace. Colonel Ferguson, in a note to ‘Henry Erskine and his Times,’ states that for many years the earl had interested himself in the establishment of what he called his ‘Commercium Epistolicum Literarium,’ or depôt of correspondence. The number of letters included in this collection was 1,635. They were sent to the Advocates' Library in the hope that they would be purchased, but this was declined, and they were bought by David Laing, who sold a portion of them to Mr. Upcott, the London collector. Those formerly in possession of David Laing are now in the Laing Collection, University Library, Edinburgh (No. 364 in List of Manuscript Books of David Laing, and No. 588 of Addenda). Two volumes have been recovered by the Erskine family, and there are also a few of the letters in the library of the British Museum.
Buchan, through Lady Scott, prevailed on Sir Walter to accept as a burial-place the sepulchral aisle of Scott's Haliburton ancestors in Dryburgh. During Scott's serious illness in 1819, Buchan endeavoured to force his way into the patient's room. He afterwards explained that he had made arrangements for Scott's funeral, which he wished to communicate to Scott himself. Buchan was to pronounce a funeral oration (Life of Scott, chap. xliv.) After attending the earl's funeral at Dryburgh, 25 April 1829, Scott expressed his sense of relief that he had escaped the ‘patronage and fuss Lord Buchan would have bestowed on his funeral had he happened to survive him’ (ib. chap. lxxvii.)
