Chapter Maxwell to Melville of M by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

and Oriental Languages. He wrote many poems, but his chief work was his Diary, an original authority for the period, written with much naïveté, and revealing a singularly attractive personality. Melville, who for his part in Church matters, had been banished to England, died at Berwick on his way back to Scotland.

Melville, Sir James (1535-1617).—Historian, son of Sir John Melville, of Hallhill, was a page to Mary Queen of Scots at the French Court, and afterwards one of her Privy Council. He also acted as her envoy to Queen Elizabeth and the Elector Palatine. He was the author of an autobiography which is one of the original authorities for the period. The MS., which lay for long hidden in Edinburgh Castle, was discovered in 1660, and published 1683. A later edition was brought out in 1827 by the Bannatyne Club. The work is written in a lively style, but is not always to be implicitly relied upon in regard either to facts or the characters attributed to individuals.