[V] He was born in 1768, and was named after James Hay, Earl of Errol, our author's early patron.
[W] Writing from Edinburgh, 28th May, 1784, to his niece, Miss Valentine (now Mrs. Glennie), Beattie describes the sensation caused in that city by the performances of Mrs. Siddons. He says that he met her at the house of Lord Buchan; that he played to her many Scotch airs on the violoncello, with which she was much gratified; and that "she sung 'Queen Mary's Complaint' to admiration, and I had the honour to accompany her on the bass."--Forbes's _Life of Beattie_, vol. ii. p. 324, octavo ed.
I am informed, by the incomparable actress in question, that the quotation just given contains an utter falsehood, which, when Forbes's Life of our author first appeared, in 1806, she read with astonishment. She remembers perfectly having been introduced to Beattie at Lord Buchan's, but she is quite certain she did _not_ sing either Queen Mary's Complaint or any other song; and she observes, that if she _had_ sung to his accompaniment, the circumstance would have been so striking that it could not possibly have escaped her recollection.
Qy. Has Beattie's letter been mutilated, the person who transcribed it for the press having by mistake omitted some lines? and do the words "she sung," in the concluding sentence, refer to some other more musical lady, and not to Mrs. Siddons?
[X] He was so named after Mrs. Montagu. From one of Beattie's letters, dated 1789, it appears that she had made a handsome present of money to her godson.
[Y] I possess a copy of it which bears the following inscription:
"To William Hayley, Esq., in testimony of the utmost respect, esteem, and gratitude, from J. Beattie. 1st January, 1796."
On one of its fly-leaves the ever-ready pen of Hayley has written the subjoined sonnet:
TO DOCTOR BEATTIE, IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS VERY INTERESTING PRESENT.
"Bard of the North! I thank thee with my tears For this fond work of thy paternal hand: It bids the buried youth before me stand In nature's softest light, which love endears. Parents like thee, whose grief the world reveres, Faithful to pure affection's proud command, For a lost child have lasting honours plann'd, To give in fame what fate denied in years. The filial form of Icarus was wrought By his afflicted sire, the sire of art! And Tullia's fane engross'd her father's heart: That fane rose only in perturbed thought; But sweet perfection crowns, as truth begun, This Christian image of thy happier son."