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Read December 1, 1859.
My Dear Uncle,—For some years past I have occupied my leisure time in collecting information of such of my countrymen as have dwelt in Denmark, or of whom memorials may here he found. These have been partly made use of in a small work entitled "Copenhagen and its Environs," published by me a few years ago for the use of English travellers.
The turbulent and ambitious Earl Bothwell naturally came within the sphere of such research, in which I availed myself of the information contained in a MS. of the late learned Icelander, Mr. Thorliefr Gudmundson Repp, kindly placed by him at my disposal. This MS. was, by the command of Queen Caroline Amalie of Denmark, grand-daughter of the sister of George III., compiled from documents discovered by Mr. Repp in the Royal Privy Archives of Copenhagen; and a summary of this MS. concludes the book above alluded to.
As an introduction to the principal subject of this letter it may be advisable again to make use of this summary:—
"After parting with Queen Mary on Carberry Hill, near Edinburgh, Earl Bothwell wandered about in the west and north of Scotland, probably in disguise, but, at all events, so as to elude the search of the Regent Murray's party, and at last reached the Orkneys and Shetland isles, where, as bearing the title of Duke of Orkney, conferred on him by the Queen, which carried with it seignorial rights, it would appear he deemed concealment less necessary. Bothwell soon found, however, that he had deceived himself in supposing that he was safer in the Orkneys than on the Scottish continent; for, the regent having despatched some ships of war in pursuit of him, he narrowly escaped capture by hurriedly embarking with some of his moveables on board of two vessels which, lying at Ounst in Shetland, he hired to convey him to Denmark. For this country he set sail; but, being driven by stress of weather to the coast of Norway, he was
