er and her sisters gave him the nickname of
the "black bull of Norr'away," in allusion to the northern position of
Balmuto. Mrs. Boswell was gentle and ladylike. The son had a turn for
chemistry, and his father took me to see what they called the
Laboratory. What a laboratory might be I knew not, as I had never heard
the word before, but somehow I did not like the look of the
curiously-shaped glass things and other apparatus, so when the son put a
substance on the table, and took a hammer, his father saying, "Now you
will hear a fine report," I ran out of the room, saying, "I don't like
reports." Sure enough there was a very loud report, followed by a
violent crash, and on going into the room again, we found that the son
had been knocked down, the father was trembling from head to foot, and
the apparatus had been smashed to pieces. They had had a narrow escape.
Miss Boswell led a dull life, often passing the winter with her mother
in that solitary place, Balmuto; and when in Edinburgh, she was much
kept down by her father, and associated little with people of her own
age and station. The consequence was that she eloped with her
drawing-master, to the inexpressible rage and mortification of her
father, who had all the Scotch pride of family and pure blood.

This year we remained longer in the country than usual, and I went to
spend Christmas with the Oswalds of Dunnikeir. The family consisted of a
son, a colonel in the army, and three daughters, the youngest about my
age, a bold horsewoman. She had talent, became a good Greek and Latin
scholar, and was afterwards married to the Earl of Elgin. More than
seventy years after this I had a visit from the Dean of Westminster and
Lady Augusta Stanley, her daughter; a very charming person, who told me
about her family, of which I had heard nothing for years. I was very
happy to see the Dean, one of the most liberal and distinguished members
of the Church of England, and son of my old friend the late Bishop of
Norwich.

* * * * *

When I returned to Edinburgh Mr. Nasmyth was much pleased with the
progress I had made in painting, for, besides having copied several
landscapes he had lent me, I had taken the outline of a print and
coloured it from a storm I saw at the end of our garden. This picture I
still possess.

Dr. Blair, minister of the High Kirk of Edinburgh, the well-known author
and professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University, an