ectations from
Glasgow and other mercantile places where trade is low at present. But

"Tidings did he bring of Africa and golden joys."

The _Magnum_ has taken extremely in Ireland, which was little counted
on, and elsewhere. Hence he proposes a new edition of _Tales of my
Grandfather_, First Series; also an enlargement of the Third Series. All
this drives poverty and pinch, which is so like poverty, from the door.

I visited Lady J.S., and had the pleasure to find her well. I wrote a
little, and got over a place that bothered me. Cadell has apprehensions
of _A_[_nne_] _of G_[_eierstein_], so have I. Well, the worst of it is,
we must do something better.[311]

_May_ 13.--Attended the Court, which took up a good deal of time. On my
return saw Sir Robert Dundas, who is better--and expects to be out on
Tuesday. I went to the Highland Society to present Miss Grahame
Stirling's book, being a translation of Gelieu's work on bees,[312]
which was well received. Went with the girls to dine at Dalhousie
Castle, where we were very kindly received. I saw the Edgewell
Tree,[313] too fatal, says Allan Ramsay, to the family from which he was
himself descended. I also saw the fatal Coalston Pear,[314] said to have
been preserved many hundred years. It is certainly a pear either
petrified or turned into wood, with a bit out of one side of it.

It is a pity to see my old school-companion, this fine true-hearted
nobleman of such an ancient and noble descent, after having followed the
British flag through all quarters of the world, again obliged to resume
his wanderings at a time of life equal, I suppose, to my own. He has
not, however, a grey hair in his head.

_May_ 14.--Left Dalhousie at eight to return here to breakfast, where we
received cold tidings. Walter has had an inflammatory attack, and I fear
it will be necessary to him to return without delay to the Continent. I
have letters from Sophia and Sir Andrew Halliday. The last has been of
the utmost service, by bleeding and advising active measures. How little
one knows to whom they are to be obliged! I wrote to him and to Jane,
recommending the Ionian Islands, where Sir Frederick Adam would, I am
sure, give Walter a post on his staff. The kind old Chief Commissioner
at once interested himself in the matter. It makes me inexpressibly
anxious, yet I have kept up my determination not to let the chances of
fate overcome me like a summer's-cloud.[315] I wrote four or five page