01], poor Anne was taken ill, and died
after a very short interval. Her temper, like that of her brothers,
was peculiar, and in her, perhaps, it showed more odd, from the habits
of indulgence which her nervous illnesses had formed. But she was at
heart an affectionate and kind girl, neither void of talent nor of
feeling, though living in an ideal world which she had framed to
herself by the force of imagination. Anne was my junior by about a
year.

A year lower in the list was my brother Thomas Scott, who is still
alive.[22]

[Footnote 22: Poor Tom, a man of infinite humor and excellent
parts, pursued for some time my father's profession; but he
was unfortunate, from engaging in speculations respecting
farms and matters out of the line of his proper business. He
afterwards became paymaster of the 70th regiment, and died in
Canada. Tom married Elizabeth, a daughter of the family of
M'Culloch of Ardwell, an ancient Galwegian stock, by whom he
left a son, Walter Scott, now second lieutenant of engineers
in the East India Company's service, Bombay--and three
daughters; Jessie, married to Lieutenant-Colonel Huxley; 2.
Anne; 3. Eliza--the two last still unmarried.--(1826.)]

Last, and most unfortunate of our family, was my youngest brother,
Daniel. With the same aversion to labor, or rather, I should say, the
same determined indolence that marked us all, he had neither the
vivacity of intellect which supplies the want of diligence, nor the
pride which renders the most detested labor better than dependence or
contempt. His career was as unfortunate as might be augured from such
an unhappy combination; and after various unsuccessful attempts to
establish himself in life, he died on his return from the West Indies,
in [July, 1806].

Having {p.012} premised so much of my family, I return to my own
story. I was born, as I believe, on the 15th August, 1771, in a house
belonging to my father, at the head of the College Wynd. It was pulled
down, with others, to make room for the northern front of the new
College. I was an uncommonly healthy child, but had nearly died in
consequence of my first nurse being ill of a consumption, a
circumstance which she chose to conceal, though to do so was murder to
both herself and me. She went privately to consult Dr. Black, the
celebrated professor of chemistry, who put my father on his guard. Th