or five years old, and myself. One evening while my brother
was lying at play on the floor, he called out, "O, mamma there's the
moon rinnin' awa." It was the celebrated meteor of 1783.

Some time afterwards, for what reason I do not know, my father and
mother went to live for a short time at Inveresk, and thence returned to
Burntisland, our permanent home.

* * * * *

[This place, in which my mother's early life was spent, exercised so
much influence on her life and pursuits, that I am happy to be
able to give the description of it in her own words.]

* * * * *

Burntisland was then a small quiet seaport town with little or no
commerce, situated on the coast of Fife, immediately opposite to
Edinburgh. It is sheltered at some distance on the north by a high and
steep hill called the Bin. The harbour lies on the west, and the town
ended on the east in a plain of short grass called the Links, on which
the townspeople had the right of pasturing their cows and geese. The
Links were bounded on each side by low hills covered with gorse and
heather, and on the east by a beautiful bay with a sandy beach, which,
beginning at a low rocky point, formed a bow and then stretched for
several miles to the town of Kinghorn, the distant part skirting a range
of high precipitous crags.

Our house, which lay to the south of the town, was very long, with a
southern exposure, and its length was increased by a wall covered with
fruit-trees, which concealed a courtyard, cow-house, and other offices.
From this the garden extended southwards, and ended in a plot of short
grass covering a ledge of low black rocks washed by the sea. It was
divided into three parts by narrow, almost unfrequented, lanes. These
gardens yielded abundance of common fruit and vegetables, but the
warmest and best exposures were always devoted to flowers. The garden
next to the house was bounded on the south by an ivy-covered wall hid by
a row of old elm trees, from whence a steep mossy bank descended to a
flat plot of grass with a gravel walk and flower borders on each side,
and a broad gravel walk ran along the front of the house. My mother was
fond of flowers, and prided herself on her moss-roses, which flourished
luxuriantly on the front of the house; but my father, though a sailor,
was an excellent florist. He procured the finest bulbs and flower seeds
from Holland, and kept each kind in a separate bed.