of Cambusnethan, which was a branch of the Somervilles of Drum,
ennobled in the year 1424. Upon the death of George Somerville, of
Corhouse, fifty years ago, I became the only male representative of
the family." There is a quaint old chronicle, entitled "Memorie of
the Somervilles," written by James, eleventh Lord Somerville, who
died in 1690, which was printed for private distribution, and edited
by Sir Walter Scott, and gives ample details of all the branches of
our family. Although infinitely too prolix for our nineteenth
century ideas, it contains many curious anecdotes and pictures of
Scottish life.

My father was the eldest son of the minister of Jedburgh, and until
his marriage with my mother, had lived almost entirely abroad and in
our colonies. It was always a subject of regret to my mother that my
father never could be induced to publish an account of his important
travels in South Africa, for which he had ample materials in the
notes he brought home, many of which we still possess. Without being
very deeply learned on any one special subject, he was generally
well-informed, and very intelligent. He was an excellent classical
scholar, and could repeat long passages from Horace and other
authors. He had a lively interest in all branches of natural
history, was a good botanist and mineralogist, and could take note
of all the strange animals, plants, or minerals he saw in his
adventurous journies in the countries, now colonized, but then the
hunting-grounds of Caffres and other uncivilized tribes. He was the
first white man who penetrated so far into the country, and it was
not without great risk. Indeed, on one occasion he was sentenced to
death by a Caffre chief, and only saved by the interposition of the
chief's mother.

My father's style in writing English was singularly pure and
correct, and he was very fastidious on this topic--a severe critic,
whether in correcting the children's lessons or in reading over the
last proof sheets of my mother's works previous to their
publication. These qualities would have fitted him very well to
write the history of his travels, but he disliked the trouble of it,
and, never having the slightest ambition on his own account, he let
the time for publication slip by. Others travelled over the country
he first explored, and the novelt