, ADMIRALTY, LONDON.

EDINBURGH, 4th February, 1818.

MY DEAR CROKER,--I have the pleasure to assure you the
Regalia of Scotland were this day found in perfect
preservation. The Sword of State and Sceptre showed marks of
hard usage at some former period; but in all respects agree
with the description in Thomson's work.[86] I will send you
a complete account of the opening to-morrow, as the official
account will take some time to draw up. In the mean time, I
hope you will remain as obstinate in your unbelief as St.
Thomas, because then you will come down to satisfy yourself.
I know nobody entitled to earlier information, save ONE, to
whom you can perhaps find the means of communicating the
result of our researches. The post is just going off.

Ever yours truly,

Walter SCOTT.

[Footnote 86: _Collection of Inventories and other
Records of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewel-House, etc._
Edin. 1815, 4to.]

{p.210} TO THE SAME.

EDINBURGH, 5th February, 1818.

MY DEAR CROKER,--I promised I would add something to my
report of yesterday, and yet I find I have but little to
say. The extreme solemnity of opening sealed doors of oak
and iron, and finally breaking open a chest which had been
shut since 7th March, 1707, about a hundred and eleven
years, gave a sort of interest to our researches, which I
can hardly express to you, and it would be very difficult to
describe the intense eagerness with which we watched the
rising of the lid of the chest, and the progress of the
workmen in breaking it open, which was neither an easy nor a
speedy task. It sounded very hollow when they worked on it
with their tools, and I began to lean to your faction of the
Little Faiths. However, I never could assign any probable or
feasible reason for withdrawing these memorials of ancient
independence; and my doubts rather arose from the conviction
that many absurd things are done in public as well as in
private life, merely out of a hasty impression of passion or
resentment. For it was evident the removal of the Regalia
might have greatly irritated people's minds here, and
offered a fair pretext of breaking the Union, w