the morning. It is well we
made a forced march of about one hundred miles, for I think the snow
would have stopped us had we lingered.

[_Abbotsford_,] _November_ 26.--Consulting my purse, found my good L60
diminished to Quarter less Ten. In purse L8. Naturally reflected how
much expense has increased since I first travelled. My uncle's servant,
during the jaunts we made together while I was a boy, used to have his
option of a shilling per diem for board wages, and usually preferred it
to having his charges borne. A servant nowadays, to be comfortable on
the road, should have 4s. or 4s. 6d. board wages, which before 1790
would have maintained his master. But if this be pitiful, it is still
more so to find the alteration in my own temper. When young, on
returning from such a trip as I have just had, my mind would have loved
to dwell on all I had seen that was rich and rare, or have been placing,
perhaps in order, the various additions with which I had supplied my
stock of information--and now, like a stupid boy blundering over an
arithmetical question half obliterated on his slate, I go stumbling on
upon the audit of pounds, shillings, and pence. Why, the increase of
charge I complain of must continue so long as the value of the thing
represented by cash continues to rise, or as the value of the thing
representing continues to decrease--let the economists settle which is
the right way of expressing the process when groats turn plenty and eggs
grow dear--

"And so 'twill be when I am gone,
The increasing charge will still go on,
And other bards shall climb these hills,
And curse your charge, _dear_ evening bills."

Well, the skirmish has cost me L200. I wished for information--and I
have had to pay for it. The information is got, the money is spent, and
so this is the only mode of accounting amongst friends.

I have packed my books, etc., to go by cart to Edinburgh to-morrow. I
idled away the rest of the day, happy to find myself at home, which is
home, though never so homely. And mine is not so homely neither; on the
contrary, I have seen in my travels none I liked so well--fantastic in
architecture and decoration if you please--but no real comfort
sacrificed to fantasy. "Ever gramercy my own purse," saith the
song;[418] "Ever gramercy my own house," quoth I.

_November_ 27.--We set off after breakfast, but on reaching Fushie
Bridge at three, found ourselves obliged to wait for horses, all being
go