Walter Anderson (historian)


Walter Anderson, was a historian.
Anderson was for fifty years minister of Chirnside, Berwickshire. He was the author of a rare book, The History of Crœsus, King of Lydia, in four parts, containing observations on the Ancient Notions of Destiny; on Dreams; on the Origin and Credit of Oracles; and the Principles on which their Responses were defended against any attack, 12mo, 1755. It is chiefly a translation from Herodotus, with a serious discussion of the inspiration of oracles. It was ridiculed in the first Edinburgh Review, and in Smollett's The Critical Review. In 1769 he published a history of France under Francis II and Charles IX; in 1775 a continuation to the Edict of Nantes, and in 1783 another to the Peace of Munster. Each book, it is said, was paid for by the sale of a house. In 1791 he published a volume on the Philosophy of Ancient Greece.
He died 31 August 1800 at Chirnside.