seizing J. Frank. Black Frank. Sir W. intending to do it himself.

Tuesday. 1. Story of Maida's foot-marks, and the custom of the Border people tracing animals by this.... 2. Of Southey, W. S., and the visit of a gentleman to dinner. Ponies' and horses' feet behind. 3. Old woman wanting justice a wee swee'd..... 5. Ghost at Howard-Castle. 6. Lady Scott's dog. Ugly beast. It's not a beast, Madam. 7. Praise of Macpherson's map. 8. Variorum Classics. 9. Present at Wat's execution, beheading with a loaded pistol in his pocket.

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Wednesday. 1. Anecdote of Charles Scott and the old woman at the Inn at the Falls. Pistols found unloaded. 2. Of Mrs. Siddons laughing, never saw so young a head upon such old shoulders.' 3. W. S. reading Shylock and Richard the IIIrd. Key found at Hermitage Castle. Lord Soulis and bugle-horn, and old horse-bridle bit. 4. Children compared W. S. to Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Excellent novels. We'll all take some gruel. 5. Anecdotes of the gipsies at the fair, and of the murder by Kennedy a gipsey, and of Kennedy's being taken by Irving, another gipsey, whose father K. had murdered. Kennedy's father had been killed by an Irving. Similarity of the old woman (tall gaunt hag in the cottage) to Meg Merrilies reading her Bible. Found two leaves of the carritch turned upside down. Sordidness of Shylock admirably put, in mixture of revenge with his avarice."*-How well, by the way, do these heads

* In the pocket of the same memorandum book, I find a loose memorandum which seems to relate to the same visit:-"Anecdotes. About Mungo Park's brother striking the dirk thro' the board. 2. About one of the Laidlaws, factor to a West-India Merchant, and the Macra's, firing his house. 3. About the speech of Sir W.'s Grandfather to his father, who dined with the descendant of the Pringle. Ancestors' blood under his nails. the armoury anecdote of the red deer in the pass. Dallas' lassaing an Indian. 6. Of the trial of an Englishman and Scotchman

4. Ancestors' dirk . . .

5. Anecdote of warrior

of Sir Walter's conversation illustrate some remarks of Basil Hall, who spent the ensuing Christmas at Abbotsford! “Had I a hundred pens, each of which at the same time should separately write down an anecdote, I could not hope to record one half of those which our host, to use Spencer's expression, 'welled out alway.'".... "It is impossible to touch for an instant on any theme, but straightway he has an anecdote to fit it."... "At breakfast to-day we had, as usual, some 150 stories. He is, in the matter of anecdote, what Hudibras was in figures of speech,- His mouth he could not ope, but out there flew a trope.'"-Basil Hall's journal of a Christmas at Abbotsford is worth the reading. It makes you feel as if you had been there." Yesterday being Hogmanay," he writes, (Jan. 1, 1825,) "there was a constant succession of Guisards-i. e. boys dressed up in fantastic caps, with their shirts over their jackets, and with wooden swords in their hands. These players acted a sort of scene before us, of which the hero was one Goloshin, who gets killed in a 'battle for love,' but is presently brought to life again by a doctor of the party. As may be imagined, the taste of our host is to keep up these old ceremonies."* I extract this passage, because I find in my friend's memorandum-book, (already quoted,) the little drama itself, as he took it down "from the recitation of four little boys at the gate of Abbotsford." The Champion's' boast, 'I fought at the battle of Quebec,' is sufficient to show that the composition has no claim to antiquity.

So much for the origin of Tytler's great work, on which he expended about eighteen of the best years of his life,

at Carlisle two packmen. 7. Of the trial in the Caithness family for Witchcraft and poisoning. 8. Of Axlecleugh and the Druidical place of worship, and Lady S. 9. Of the tradition in the Laidlaw family, as to throwing the ashes of a calf on a running stream. 10. Of the adder stones. 11......." * Lockhart's Life of Scott, vol. v. p. 385, &c.

The first volume appeared in 1828, the last in 1843. At the period of which we are speaking, however, this vast undertaking was but looming in the distance. An incident of far deeper interest interposed between the conception and the first instalment of his History,-I mean his marriage with Rachel Elizabeth, second daughter of Thomas Hog. Esq., of Newliston.

The younger son of this gentleman, to whom Tytler was always exceedingly attached, recals in affectionate language the first occasion on which he was introduced to his future brother-in-law. "It was in the spring of 1825, at a small party at Sir Alex. Maitland Gibson's who at that time resided with his family in No. 129 Prince's Street. There were very few persons there. Mr. Tytler was I think the only stranger present. I was much struck by his appearance. He was singularly gay, and his gaiety was accompanied with an ease which was new to me then, and which I have never seen equalled since. He was dressed in the height of the fashion. What struck me most in his appearance was that he seemed so much older than he really was. He was singularly pale and old looking,-a circumstance which I have since attributed to his elevated forehead, which even at this time gave him the appearance of premature baldness. Twenty years after the time I now speak of, Mr. Tytler appeared more fresh and young than he did when I first met him. He lost the extreme paleness of his countenance, and became to a certain extent ruddy; at all events, he acquired a healthy complexion.

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About this time, (1824-5,) he became an occasional visitor at our house at Lauriston, and subsequently at Newliston, where we had the pleasure of his society occasionally for weeks together. Little happened; but there was affection between all parties, and a more experienced eye might have seen a mutual attachment springing up

between my second sister Rachel and himself. Our evenings were passed most delightfully, for we were old-fashioned people with old-fashioned hours. My Father, with the manners of the French Court half a century preceding the notion of Revolution, living in the country among old woods, whose masses of foliage and venerable width of trunk are, as some one has remarked, the best instructors,—my Father, I say, as a gentleman of the old, now very old school, lived a regular life according to the fashion of his early days. At all events, he dined at four, (as he breakfasted at ten,) and the consequence was that we had long and enjoyable evenings.

"By me, certainly, those evenings were enjoyed; and Mr. Tytler had no small share in enhancing the enjoyment; whether by reading aloud, or by suggesting passages for others to read. Right well do I remember the delight I felt in being first introduced to the exquisite music of Milton and Shakspeare, which formed our standard reading. In after years, we had an amicable controversy on this head : I, standing up for the superior music of Milton's verse; and he, undertaking to produce equally musical specimens of versification from Shakspeare."

If what follows had not been sent me by the lady's brother, I should have hesitated to go on transcribing. "January 11th, 1826, was the dénouement of P. F. T.'s courtship. I remember being a witness, though at a distance; and I have often laughed since at the thought that the fire of his love must have been hot indeed; for the day and place both required it. The day was bitterly cold, the coldest in the year, and the climax of a severe frost with which the year was ushered in. The place was by the side of a canal or artificial piece of water at Newliston, which had been frozen over for some time. P. F. T. had not long left the ice on which he had been skating, (by the way, he was a most graceful skater,) and no doubt he was warm enough; but it

was,

I should think, an ill chosen moment for a declaration." -So far, Mr. Hog.

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we

"For nearly two years before," (writes Miss Tytler,) had become aware of his attachment to this beautiful Rachel, for beautiful and accomplished she was; and her pursuits, particularly in music and painting, were most congenial to his own. She was 22 at the time of her marriage; but she had lived almost constantly in retirement, either in the country at Newliston; or during the winter months in her Father's house at Lauriston, which went by the name of the Convent. We heard of her constantly, but never saw her till she was engaged to my brother. He himself, after being introduced to her, found it very difficult to penetrate those convent walls; but the old gentleman, after he had recovered from the first shock of seeing a young gentleman. frequently calling, on what appeared to him very frivolous pretences, became so fond of my brother, that soon no pretence whatever was necessary; his visits appearing to give equal pleasure to all parties."

At the end of a week, he wrote as follows to his sister, Mrs. Baillie Fraser, at Moniack.

"Prince's Street, Thursday, 19th [Jan.] 1826.

"My dearest Jeanie,

"I sit down to write to you on so new a subject, that I scarcely know how to begin; but to you, my own Jeanie, I must write, because I know you and James will deeply feel anything which makes me happy.

"I am going to be married; and the object of my whole little plans and wishes, for the last two years, is under the kind providence of GOD, realized. I find myself in possession of the sweetest, kindest, and most faithful heart that ever dwelt in a human bosom; and this, united to the purest religious principles, to the most solemn feelings of the sacred