ot without trying to
exchange it for something else. I do not know how it is with
you--but I do not feel myself quite so _young_ as I was when
we met last, and I should like well to see my only brother
return to his own country and settle, without thoughts
{p.101} of leaving it, till it is exchanged for one that is
dark and distant.... I left all Jack's personal trifles at
my mother's disposal. There was nothing of the slightest
value, excepting his gold watch, which was my sister's, and
a good one. My mother says he had wished my son Walter
should have it, as his male representative--which I can only
accept on condition _your_ little Walter will accept a
similar token of regard from his remaining uncle.--Yours
affectionately,

W. S.

The letter in which Scott communicated his brother's death to Mr.
Morritt gives us his own original opinion of The Antiquary. It has
also some remarks on the separation of Lord and Lady Byron--and the
"domestic verses" of the noble poet.

TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., LONDON.

EDINBURGH, May 16, 1816.

MY DEAR MORRITT,--I have been occupied of late with scenes
of domestic distress, my poor brother, Major John Scott,
having last week closed a life which wasting disease had
long rendered burthensome. His death, under all the
circumstances, cannot be termed a subject of deep
affliction; and though we were always on fraternal terms of
mutual kindness and good-will, yet our habits of life, our
taste for society and circles of friends, were so totally
different, that there was less frequent intercourse between
us than our connection and real liking to each other might
have occasioned. Yet it is a heavy consideration to have
lost the last but one who was interested in our early
domestic life, our habits of boyhood, and our first friends
and connections. It makes one look about and see how the
scene has changed around him, and how he himself has been
changed with it. My only remaining brother is in Canada, and
seems to have an intention of remaining there; so that my
mother, now upwards of eighty, has now only one child left
to her {p.102} out of thirteen whom she has borne. She is a
most excellent woman, possessed, even at her advanced age