etter trim now, and vastly better
spirits. The weather has been bad--for Davos, but indeed it is a
wonderful climate. It never feels cold; yesterday, with a little, chill,
small, northerly draught, for the first time, it was pinching. Usually,
it may freeze, or snow, or do what it pleases, you feel it not, or
hardly any.

Thanks for your notes; that fishery question will come in, as you
notice, in the Highland Book, as well as under the Union; it is very
important. I hear no word of Hugh Miller's _Evictions_; I count on that.
What you say about the old and new Statistical is odd. It seems to me
very much as if I were gingerly embarking on a _History of Modern
Scotland_. Probably Tulloch will never carry it out. And, you see, once
I have studied and written these two vols., _The Transformation of the
Scottish Highlands_ and _Scotland and the Union_, I shall have a good
ground to go upon. The effect on my mind of what I have read has been to
awaken a livelier sympathy for the Irish; although they never had the
remarkable virtues, I fear they have suffered many of the injustices, of
the Scottish Highlanders. Ruedi has seen me this morning; he says the
disease is at a standstill, and I am to profit by it to take more
exercise. Altogether, he seemed quite hopeful and pleased.--I am your
ever affectionate son,

R. L. S.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

_Hotel Belvedere, Davos, [Christmas 1880]._

MY DEAR COLVIN,--Thanks for yours; I waited, as I said I would. I now
expect no answer from you, regarding you as a mere dumb cock-shy, or a
target, at which we fire our arrows diligently all day long, with no
anticipation it will bring them back to us. We are both sadly mortified
you are not coming, but health comes first; alas, that man should be so
crazy. What fun we could have, if we were all well, what work we could
do, what a happy place we could make it for each other! If I were able
to do what I want; but then I am not, and may leave that vein.

No. I do not think I shall require to know the Gaelic; few things are
written in that language, or ever were; if you come to that, the number
of those who could write, or even read it, through almost all my period,
must, by all accounts, have been incredibly small. Of course, until the
book is done, I must live as much as possible in the Highlands, and that
suits my book as to health. It is a most interesting and sad story, and
from the '45 it is all to be written for the f