at, we should take carriage and ride home along the banks of the
river. In our carriage were Mr. S. and myself, Dr. Robson and Lady
Anderson. About this time I commenced my first essay towards giving
titles, and made, as you may suppose, rather an odd piece of work of it,
generally saying "Mrs." first, and "Lady" afterwards, and then begging
pardon. Lady Anderson laughed, and said she would give me a general
absolution. She is a truly genial, hearty Scotch woman, and seemed to
enter happily into the spirit of the hour.

As we rode on we found that the news of our coming had spread through
the village. People came and stood in their doors, beckoning, bowing,
smiling, and waving their handkerchiefs, and the carriage was several
times stopped by persons who came to offer flowers. I remember, in
particular, a group of young girls brought to the carriage two of the
most beautiful children I ever saw, whose little hands literally deluged
us with flowers.

At the village of Helensburgh we stopped a little while to call upon
Mrs. Bell, the wife of Mr. Bell, the inventor of the steamboat. His
invention in this country was about the same time of that of Fulton in
America. Mrs. Bell came to the carriage to speak to us. She is a
venerable woman, far advanced in years. They had prepared a lunch for
us, and quite a number of people had come together to meet us, but our
friends said that there was not time for us to stop.

We rode through several villages after this, and met quite warm welcome.
What pleased me was, that it was not mainly from the literary, nor the
rich, nor the great, but the plain, common people. The butcher came out
of his stall, and the baker from his shop, the miller, dusty with his
flour, the blooming, comely, young mother, with her baby in her arms,
all smiling and bowing with that hearty, intelligent, friendly look, as
if they knew we should be glad to see them.

Once, while we stopped to change horses, I, for the sake of seeing
something more of the country, walked on. It seems the honest landlord
and his wife were greatly disappointed at this; however, they got into
the carriage and rode on to see me, and I shook hands with them with a
right good will.

We saw several of the clergymen, who came out to meet us, and I remember
stopping, just to be introduced to a most delightful family who came
out, one by one, gray-headed father and mother, with comely brothers and
fair sisters, looking all so kindly and