with any renewal if another takes place just now. Incendiary letters
have been sent, and the householders are in a general state of alarm.
The men at Jedburgh Castle are said to be disposed to make a clean
breast; if so, we shall soon know more of the matter. Lord William
Graham has been nearly murdered at Dumbarton. Why should he not have
brought down 50 or 100 lads with the kilts, each with a good kent[461]
in his hand fit to call the soul out of the body of these weavers? They
would have kept order, I warrant you.

_May_ 21.--Little more than my usual work and my usual exercise. I rode
out through the plantations and saw the woodmen getting down what was to
be felled. It seems there will be as much for sale as last year of bark:
I think about L40 worth. A very nice additional pond to the sawmill has
been executed. As for my _Tales_, they go on well, and are amusing to
myself at least. The History of France is very entertaining.

_May_ 22.--I have a letter from my friend John Thomson of Duddingston. I
had transmitted him an order for the Duke of Buccleuch for his best
picture, at his best price, leaving the choice of the subject and
everything else to himself. He expresses the wish to do, at an ordinary
price, a picture of common size. The declining to put himself forward
will, I fear, be thought like shrinking from his own reputation, which
nobody has less need to do. The Duke may wish a large picture for a
large price for furnishing a large apartment, and the artist should not
shrink from it. I have written him my opinion. The feeling is no doubt
an amiable, though a false one. He is modest in proportion to his
talents. But what brother of the finer arts ever approached [excellence]
so as to please himself?

_May_ 23, 24, _and_ 25.--Worked and exercised regularly. I do not feel
that I care twopence about the change of diet as to taste, but I feel my
strength much decayed. On horseback my spine feels remarkably sore, and
I am tired with a few miles' ride. We expect Walter coming down for the
Fife election.

* * * * *

[From May 25th to October 9th there are no dates in the Journal,
but the entry beginning "I have been very ill" must have been made
about the middle of September. "In the family circle," says Mr.
Lockhart, "he seldom spoke of his illness at all, and when he did,
it was always in a hopeful strain." "In private, to Laidlaw and
myself, his