made a shift
To drive ambitious care adrift;
And now in years and sense grown auld,
In ease I like my limbs to fauld.
Debts I abhor, and plan to be
Frae shochling trade and danger free,
That I may, loos'd frae care and strife,
With calmness view the edge of life;
And when a full ripe age shall crave,
Slide easily into my grave.'

In 1742, finding himself in a position to take more ease than his busy
life had hitherto permitted to him, he bought a piece of ground on the
Castlehill, overlooking the valley of the North Loch, and there erected
that curious house, with its octagonal-shaped frontage, copied from a
Neapolitan villa, and designed by his son Allan, which so long was an
ornament on the northern slope overlooking the New Town of Edinburgh.
From his windows a reach of scenery was commanded, probably not
surpassed in Europe, stretching from the mouth of the Firth of Forth on
the east to the Grampians on the west, and extending far across the
green hills of Fife to the north. The poet, however, becoming alarmed at
the expense he was incurring, altered his son's design after the
building was half completed. In consequence, the mansion presented a
very quaint appearance. Tradition states that Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun
(afterwards Lord Milton) first detected the resemblance to a goose-pie.
Be this as it may, Allan was grievously vexed by the comparison, and one
day, when showing it, in the pride of his heart, to the witty Lord
Elibank, who duly admired its unrivalled prospect, he added, 'And yet,
my lord, thae toon wits say it's like naething else than a guse-pie.'
'Deed, Allan, noo I see ye intilt, I'm thinkin' the wits are no' sae far
wrang.' History does not record Allan's rejoinder.

Scarcely had he entered his new mansion, however, expecting to enjoy
there many years of domestic happiness and peace, than the great sorrow
of his life fell upon him. In March 1743, his faithful and loving
partner, who had stood by him amid all the storm and stress of his busy
career, was taken from him, after thirty years of unbroken affection and
devotion. She was interred in the Greyfriars Churchyard, as the cemetery
records show, on the 28th of March 1743. So intense was her husband's
grief that he, who for many another had written elegies instinct with
deep sympathy and regret, could not trust himself to write of her, 'lest
I should break doon a'thegither into my second bairnhood.' Alas! po