6

ron', Sir, but I will be sure to give him the message. They three send back their love to you. Rob read all your letter through, and then my answer down unto it.' That was all the length I had come to when I went to give him your message. I had not time to read your letter yesterday. As soon as ever Rob had read one page he put his nose to the edge, and I turned over the leaf for him. He begs me to enclose a lock of his hair by way of remembrance, which I hope you will get safe. I could not get any of Cæsar's, or else he would have wished me to send one also. I will write to you again soon. I have not forgotten the repetition. Believe me,

"My dear tutor,

"Your dutiful pupil,

"A. W. CHISHOLM."

"P.S. You forgot Jack, but he has not forgotten you. On second thoughts, I returned, and got some of Cæsar's hair; he appeared quite happy at the thought of sending to you this small token of his love. Rob

1 Rob Roy, Cæsar, and Oberon, were the names of three favourite ponies.

was quite glad too. When I first opened the letter in the stable, Rob very politely stood back, as he knew it would not be well-bred to read a person's letter without his leave. Jack begs to send some hair; Cæsar's is white, in coloured paper. Duncan would have sent some, but he says he was afraid of conveying the jaundice to Cambridge, and infecting your studies."

The only other document which the writer has been able to find, which throws light upon this period of the Chisholm's boyish days, is a paragraph in the Inverness Courier, which he here inserts, because he has reason to know that the circumstance which it relates was his own spontaneous act.

"CHISHOLM OF CHISHOLM. We have learned, with much pleasure, that young Chisholm of Chisholm has lately sent twenty guineas to William Fraser, Esq. of Culbockie, to be distributed among the poor of Strathglass. We understand also, that he gave twenty-five pounds last year for the same purpose; and that both these donations were

sums placed at his disposal by his guardians, as prizes on account of his exertions at school. Many of our readers must recollect, that on attaining minority', this youth most honourably renounced that privilege of an heir of entail, which frees him from liability for the debts of his predecessor. These early and repeated instances of liberality testify at once the goodness of the young Chief's disposition, the excellence of his heart, and his attachment to his people and the Highlands, and, we think, fully justify the most confident expectations, that he will in after life continue to display those qualities which have graced his youth, and which, we trust, will long adorn the important station in society which he is hereafter to occupy."

At the end of the year 1825, Mr. Ollivant resigned his charge; and upon their return to Eton in the year following, the Chisholm and his brother were placed under the tuition and in the house of the Reverend Edward Coleridge. The two qualities which presented themselves most prominently to Mr. Cole1 See pp. 29-31.

ridge's attention, on his first acquaintance with Alexander, were his great piety, and his faculty of passing from the most sportive to the most serious mood with grace and effect. The former Mr. Coleridge justly attributes to the great care which had been taken with his early education by those who preceded him; and, as a remarkable proof of this, he observes, in a letter to the writer of this Memoir, that, when Alexander was first entrusted to his charge, he was able to repeat one hundred and fifty-eight chapters of the Bible by heart. The preceding pages will have already shown the pains which had been taken to store his mind with Scriptural knowledge; and the richness and copiousness of Scriptural language which, in after years, characterized the prayers daily offered up by him amid his household, may reasonably be ascribed to the

same cause.

Mr. Coleridge speaks also of the earnestness and regularity with which, to his knowledge, the young Chisholm pursued his private devotions, and the courage with which he adhered to them, in despite of the taunts and scoffs which oftentimes tempt boys to be

ashamed of observing such duties. The simplicity and gentleness of his nature, his daring courage, his quick sense of honour, sustained and strengthened by his sense of duty, his abstinence from idle and profane language, and from ungentlemanlike and immoral conduct, these were also his characteristics, which Mr. Coleridge affectionately remembers, and to the reality of which he bears sincere and ready testimony.

To say that the Chisholm felt deeply the obligation which he owed to the kind and watchful care of Mr. Coleridge,—that he sincerely and gratefully acknowledged this, and rejoiced to avail himself of every opportunity, presented to him in after days, of renewing and strengthening the bonds of friendship then formed,-is but to add another link to that chain of testimony which freely and gratefully is borne by so many of the foremost of Britain's sons, in honour of that excellent preceptor.