Soc.), pt. v. pp. 216–19. A third effort has for title ‘The Undoubted Art of Thriving, wherein is showed (1) That a million £ sterling … may be raised for propagating the trade of the nation, &c., without prejudice to the lieges … (2) How the Indian and African Company may propagat their trade, &c. (3) How every one, according to his quality, may live comfortably and happily, &c.,’ 8vo, Edinburgh, 1700. In an address to James, duke of Queensberry, lord high commissioner to the parliament of Scotland and to the parliament generally, Donaldson again mentions his poverty and hope of reward for his ‘project of making notes to pass for currant-money,’ which occupies the first part of the book. At the end comes a pathetic intimation that his ‘Husbandry’ was not received ‘with that approbation which he humbly conceives it deserveth.’ Donaldson's other writings are: 1. ‘Certain and infallible measures laid down whereby the whole begging-poor of the kingdom may be alimented at much less charge than they are at present; and begging entirely supprest,’ 4to, Edinburgh, 1701. 2. ‘Money encreas'd and credit rais'd; a proposal for multiplying the tale of money, by coining a certain quantity of lye-money out of a third part of the plate of the kingdom, whereupon a national bank may be erected to the great encrease of money and credit’ (anon.), 4to, Edinb. 1705. 3. ‘Considerations in relation to trade considered, and a short view of our present trade and taxes, compared with what these taxes may amount to after the Union, &c., reviewed’ (anon.), 4to (n. p.), 1706. 4. ‘A Letter from Mr. Reason to the high and mighty Prince the Mob’ (concerning the Union), 4to (n. p.), 1706. 5. ‘A Panegyrick upon the mysterious Art of Malting and Brewing’ (in verse), 4to, Edinburgh, 1712. 6. ‘A Panegyrick upon the most ancient, curious, honourable, and profitable Art of Weaving’ (in verse), 4to, Edinburgh, 1712. 7. ‘A Panegyrick upon the most honourable, ancient, and excellent Art of Wright-Craft’ (in verse), 4to, Edinburgh, 1713.
[Prefaces to Works; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Cat. of Printed Books in Library of Faculty of Advocates, ii. 638–9.]
DONALDSON, JAMES (fl. 1794), writer on agriculture, resided at Dundee, where he practised as a land surveyor. He was also agent for the Earl of Panmure. His chief work is ‘Modern Agriculture; or the Present State of Husbandry in Great Britain,’ 4 vols. 8vo, Edinburgh, 1795–6. He also drew up for the board of agriculture the following county surveys: 1. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Banff,’ 4to, Edinburgh, 1794. 2. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the Carse of Gowrie in the County of Perth, with Observations on the Means of its Improvement,’ 4to, London, 1794. 3. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Elgin or Moray,’ 4to, London, 1794. 4. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Nairn … and the Parish of Dyke, and part of Edenkeillie in the County of Elgin and Forres,’ 4to, London, 1794. 5. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Northampton … to which is added an Appendix, containing a Comparison between the English and Scotch Systems of Husbandry as practised in the Counties of Northampton and Perth,’ 4to, Edinburgh, 1794. 6. ‘General View of the Agriculture of the County of Kincardine, or the Mearns,’ 4to, London, 1795.
[Cat. of Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, ii. 639; prefaces to Works; Donaldson's Agricultural Biography, p. 69.]
DONALDSON, JAMES (1751–1830), the founder of Donaldson's Hospital, Edinburgh, was the son of Alexander Donaldson, an Edinburgh bookseller, who is frequently mentioned in Boswell's ‘Correspondence with the Honourable Andrew Erskine,’ and who incurred the wrath of Dr. Johnson by opening a shop in London where he sold pirated editions of popular works (Boswell, Life of Johnson, ch. xvi.). James Donaldson was born in Edinburgh on 10 Dec. 1751, and ten years later is said by Mr. Erskine to have very much wanted correction. ‘The eldest son, when I was there [at Donaldson's shop], never failed to play at taw all the time, and my queue used frequently to be pulled about’ (Letter ix. in Boswell's Correspondence with Erskine). His somewhat uneventful life was passed almost entirely in Edinburgh and the neighbourhood. From his father he inherited about 100,000l., and this sum he more than doubled by judicious investments in the funds. His town house was in Princes Street, Edinburgh, on the site now occupied by the New Club, and to his country seat, Broughton Hall, about half a mile from Bellevue Crescent, was attached a fine garden, which after his death was converted into Zoological Gardens. He was proprietor and editor of the ‘Edinburgh Advertiser,’ a tory bi-weekly newspaper founded about 1764, and now extinct; but it is uncertain when he first became connected with the paper. The earliest number in the British Museum is dated 13 May 1785, and is described as ‘printed by and for James Donaldson, and sold at his printing-house in the Castle Hill,’ and he was at that
