[Andrew Duncan the elder, Scottish physician, Professor at Edinburgh University.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Andrew Duncan Sen') to an unnamed member of the British Cabinet, recommending Patrick Neill as Professor of Horticulture at Edinburgh.

According to Duncan's entry in the Oxford DNB, 'In 1809 he founded the Caledonian Horticultural Society, and in later years he was actively occupied in promoting the establishment of a public experimental garden.' 2pp, 4to. In good condition, on aged paper, creased. The recipient is not named, and the letter begins: 'Although I have already often interrupted important business of State, yet I trust you will once more, forgive an Octogenarian, when he can plead, that his principal temptation, to transgression, is an earnest desire to promote the publick good -'. He recommends to the recipient's attention 'the enclosed printed paper, respecting the Caledonian Horticultural Society'. If the recipient, as 'a member of the Kings Cabinet Council', can be 'in any degree instrumental in getting Mr Neil, Secretary to the Caledonian Horticultural Society, appointed Professor of Horticulture in the University of Edinburgh', he will, Duncan is convinced, 'do an essential servive to the whole British Empire'.