Laurel Bank, Jan. 18, 1851.
Dear Douglass:—
I remained in Edinburgh a day or two after the date of my last letter, which gave me an opportunity of seeing some of the lions in the way of public buildings, &c., in company with our friend Wm. Craft. I paid a visit to the Royal Institute, and inspected the very fine collection of paintings, statues, and other productions of art. The collections in the Institute, is not to be compared to the British Museum, London, or the Louvre, at Paris, but is probably the best in Scotland. Paintings from the hands of many of the masters, such as Sir A. Van Dyke, Tiziano, Vercellio and Van Dellen, were hanging on the wall, and even the names of Reubens and Titian, were attached to some of the finer specimens. Many of these represent some of the nobles, and distinguished families of Rome, Athens, Greece, &c. A beautiful one representing a group of the Lomellini family of Genoa, seemed to attract the attention of most of the masters.
In visiting this place, we passed close by the monument of Sir Walter Scott. This is the most exquisite thing of the kind, that I have seen since coming to this country. It is said to be the finest monument in Europe. There sits the author of Waverly, with a book and pencil in hand, taking notes. A beautiful dog is seated by his side. Whether this is meant to represent his favorite dog, Camp, at whose death the poet shed so many tears, we were not informed; but I was of opinion that it might be the faithful Pearcy, whose monument stands in the grounds at Abbotsford. Scott was an admirer of the canine tribe. One may form a good idea of the appearance of this distinguished writer, when living, by viewing this remarkable statue. The statue is very beautiful, but not equal to the one of Lord Byron, which was executed to be placed by the side of Johnson, Milton and Addison, in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, but the Parliament not allowing it a place, it now stands in one of the Colleges at Cambridge. While viewing the statue of Byron, I thought that he should have been represented with a dog by his side, for he, like Scott, was remarkably fond of dogs, so much so that he intended to have his favorite, Boatswain, interred by his side.
We paid a short visit to the monument of Burns and Allen Ramsay, and the renowned old Edinburgh Castle. This building is now used as a barack of Infantry. It is accessible only from High street, and must have been impregnable before the discovery of gunpowder. In the wars with the English, it was twice taken by stratagem; once in a very daring manner, by climbing up the most inaccessible part of the rock upon which it stands, and where a foe was least expected, and putting the guard to death; and another time by a party of soldiers disguising themselves as merchants, and obtaining admission inside the Castle gates, and contriving to prevent them from being closed, were soon reinforced by a part of men under Sir Wm. Douglass, and the occupants of the castle were soon overpowered.
We could not resist the temptation held out to see the Palace of Hollyroad. It was in this place that the beautiful but unfortunate Mary Queen of Scotts resided for a number of years. On reaching the palace, we were met at the door by an elderly looking woman, with a red face, garnished with a pair of second hand curls, the whole covered with a [illegible]. She was very kind in showing us about the premises, especially as we were foreigners, and she expecting an extra fee for politeness. The most interresting of the many rooms in this ancient castle, is the one which was occupied by the Queen, and where her Italian favorite, Rizzio, was murdered by the assassians in the fray of Domly.
But, by far the most interesting object which we visited while in Edinburgh, was the house where the celebrated reformer John Knox, resided. It is a queer looking old building, with a pulpit on the outside, and above the door are the nearly obliterated remains of the following inscription. This was probably traced under the immediate direction of the great reformer. Such an inscription put upon a house of worship at the present day, would be laughed at, but here it is: "Lufe. God. Above. Al. And. your. Nichbour. As you. Self." I have given it to you, punctuation and all, just as it is.
The general architecture of Edinburgh, is very imposing, whether we regard the picturesque disorder of the building in the old town, or the symmetrical proportions of the streets and squares in the new. But, on viewing this city that has the reputation of being the finest in Europe, I was surprised to find that it had none of those sumptuous structures, which like St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey, York Minster and some other of the provincial Cathedrals, astonish the beholder alike by their magnitude and their architectural splendor. But in no city which I have visited in the Kingdom, is the general standard of excellence better maintained.
I am not sure, my dear friend, whether I mentioned in my last letter or not, the attendance of Wm. Craft and myself at a splendid Soiree of the Edinburgh Temperance Society, and our being voted in life members by the whole audience, in the most enthusiastic manner. I will here give you a part of the speech of the President, as reported in the Christian News. This should cause the pro-slavery whites, and especially negro-hating Sons of Temperance, who refuses the colored man a place in their midst, to feel ashamed of their unchristian conduct. Here it is, let them judge for themselves:
"A great feature in our meeting to-night, is that we have beside us two individuals who, according to the immaculate laws of immaculate Yankeedom, have been guilty of the tremendous crime of stealing themselves. (Applause.) Mr. Craft, who sits beside me, has stolen his good wife, and Mrs. Craft has stolen her worthy husband, and our respected friend, Mr. Brown, has cast a covetous eye on his own person. In the name of the temperance reformers of Edinburgh—in the name of universal Scotland, I would welcome these two victims of the white man's pride, ambition, selfishness, and cupidity. I welcome them as our equals in every respect. I welcome them as our equals in every respect. (Great applause.) What a humiliating thought it will be, surely, for our American friends on the other side of the water, when they hear (and we shall endeavor to let them hear) that the very man whom they condsider not worthy to sit in a third class carriage along with a white man, and that too a district of country where the very aristocracy deal in cheap sham[ ] - (great applause,) traffic in tallow candles, and spend their nights and days among raw hides and train oil—(applause)—what a humbling thought it will be for them to know that these very men in the centre of educated Scotland, in the midst of educated Edinburgh, are thought fit to hold even the first rank upon our aristocratic platform. Let us, then, my friends, lift our voices this evening in one swelling chorus for the down-trodden slave. Let us publish abroad the fact to the world, that the sympathies of Scotland are with the bondsmen everywhere. Let us unite our voices to cry, Down with the iniquitous Slave Bill!—Down with the aristocracy of skin!—Perish forever the deepest-dyed, the hardest-hearted system of abomination under heaven!—Perish the sum of all villanies!—Perish American slavery. (Great Applause.)"
But I must leave the good and hospitable people of the Scotch Capital for the present. I have taken an elaborate stock of notes, and may speak of Edinburgh again.
I left William and Ellen Craft, (the latter of whom has just come to Edinburgh,) and took the Glasgow train, and after a ride of two hours through a beautiful country, wish its winding hills on either side—its fertile fields, luxuriant woods, and stately mansions laying around us, arrived in the muddy, dirty, smoky, foggy city of Glasgow. As I had had a standing invitation from a distinguished gentleman with whom I became acquainted in London, to partake of his hospitality, should I ever visit Glasgow, and again receiving a note while in Edinburgh renewing the invitaiton, I proceeded to his residence at Partich three miles from Glasgow. This is one of the loveliest spots which I have yet seen.—Our mansion is on the side of Laurel Bank, a range of the Kilpatrick hills. We have a view of the surrounding country.
I must conclude by making a remark or two about the great meeting in the City Hall on Monday, Jan. 6th. As you have before this received the report of the meeting thro' the newspapers, I shall content myself with merely saying that it was one of the largest demonstrations I have attended on the subject of slavery in this country. With a member of Parliament in the chair, and almost any number of clergymen on the platform, the meeting had a most respectable appearance.
From report I had imbibed the opinion that the Scotch were not at all enthusiastic. But if I should judge from the enthusiasm which characterized the City Hall demonstration, I should place them but a little behind the English. The Fugitive Slave Law, and the names of Daniel Webster were received with shouts of hisses when mentioned.
The day after the Glasgow meetings, we paid a visit to Paisley, a town six or seven miles distant from Glasgow, where we had a good meeting.
I find many warm friends of yours here; and they spoke of Mr. GarrisonGarrison, William Lloyd

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-79) was the foremost white abolitionist of the nineteenth century and was credited with the discovery of Douglass as a speaker at an antislavery meeting in Nantucket in 1841. He began his career as an apprentice printer on the Newburyport (Mass.) Herald at the age of thirteen. Garrison became editor of the Newburyport Free Press in 1826, but the paper closed within a year. He was then associated with a series of periodicals in Boston that advocated reform before Benjamin Lundy offered the young journalist the opportunity to write for his antislavery newspaper. Garrison joined Lundy in editing the Genius of Universal Emancipation in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1829, during the last year of the paper's 1821-1830 run. In 1830 a libel suit against the editors forced the paper to close and landed Garrison in jail. After his release, he courted the wealthy merchants of New York and Boston in order to start the Liberator (1831-65), a weekly journal based in Boston in which he advocated an immediate end to slavery. Garrison's brand of abolition condemned any institution that would tolerate the existence of slavery, including churches, political parties. and even the United States itself and any scheme aimed at removing black people from the country. Instead, Garrison hoped to raise the public's awareness that slavery was morally wrong and thereby force its end in an almost millennial moment of emancipation. His approach appealed to both white and black antislavery advocates but earned him many enemies among those only moderately opposed to slavery and slaveholders alike. Seeing the need for greater action and organization beyond the pages of the Liberator; Garrison joined with other abolitionists to form the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831. Two years later he helped found the larger American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1833 he established ties with English abolitionists after a trip to Great Britain, and he later brought the noted and notorious speaker George Thompson to the United States for a tour. Garrison also dedicated himself to women's rights, encouraging women to enter the public sphere by inviting them, via the Liberator, to form female antislavery societies. In addition to the thirty-three women's antislavery societies that flourished by 1838, Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society welcomed women as well as blacks into its ranks. However, female delegates were excluded from the World's Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 in London. The issue of women's participation in the antislavery movement and Garrison's absolute refusal to turn to politics to end slavery caused a division in the American Anti-Slavery Society. Brothers Lewis and Arthur Tappan, who opposed women's acting as speakers and who hoped to use politics toward abolition, broke with Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society, forming the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, or the "New Organization" in 1841. Garrison's ideas were so closely associated with the "Old Organization" that the American Anti-Slavery Society became known simply as the "Garrisonians." With the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, Garrison believed that he had accomplished his life's work and that of the antislavery movement. He then resigned from the presidency of the American Anti-Slavery Society and closed the Liberator. Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children, 4 vols. (New York, 188589); Henry Mayer, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery (New York, 1998); James Brewer Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison and the Challenge of Emancipation (Arlington Heights, Ill., 1992); John L. Thomas, The Liberator: William Lloyd Garrison (Boston, 1963); Dictionary of American Biography, 20 vols. (New York, 1928-36), 7:168-72. , J. N. Buffon, H. C. Wright, and yourself, with a seeming pleasure at having made your acquaintance. One good-natured Scotchman remarked a few days since, "That Douglass is a clever and eloquent man. I thought he was too hard on our Free Church; but, after all, I don't know as he was." It has been raining here for the past fortnight, and as the sun has just made its appearance from behind a cloud, and as every member of the household is running to the windows to see the sun, I must close this and join them.
Yours right truly,
W. W. BrownBrown, William Wells

William Wells Brown (c. 1814-84) was born a slave in Lexington, Kentucky, but escaped to freedom in Ohio in 1834, taking the name Wells Brown from a Quaker man who aided his escape. After settling in Cleveland, he worked on a Lake Erie steamboat, from which he helped many fugitive slaves escape to Canada. In the 1840s he moved his family to New York, where he began lecturing for the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society and the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (1843-49). Brown was active in universal reform movements advocating temperance, women's rights, and prison reform. Brown studied medicine informally, but chose to remain active in reforms instead of committing to professional medical practice. In 1847, Brown published his first book, Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself, and moved to Boston. From 1849 to 1854 he traveled and lectured in Europe, meeting many prominent figures and publishing two more books: Three Years in Europe; Or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met (1852) and Clotel; Or, The President’s Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States (1853), the first novel known to be written by an African American. After friends in England purchased his freedom in 1854, he returned to the United States to continue his work in the abolitionist, temperance, woman suffrage, and prison reform movements. He also wrote four books about African American history, including The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements, which appeared in 1863 and ran through ten editions in three years. During the Civil War, Brown joined Douglass in recruiting blacks for the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Lib., 12 January 1855; London Lancet, 6 December 1884; R. J. M. Blackett, Beating against the Barriers: The Lives of Six Nineteenth-Century Afro-Americans (Ithaca, N.Y., 1986), 45, 48, 95-96, 101-02; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 35, 42, 50-51; DAB, 3:161; DANB, 71-73.