228 Fretp MEETINGS. 
and in some instances uncouthly lettered, have been set up against 
the wall for preservation. One of them bears the date 1669. 
Above the severely simple inscription on the tombstone of Car- 
lyle and his brother, Dr John, are carved the family crest—two 
wyverns—and motto, “ Humilitate.’’ It was noted that the coat 
of arms, somewhat varied in style, also appears on the back of 
the stone erected to the memory of his parents by a family 
“ gratefully reverent of such a father and such a mother ;’’ and on 
several other Carlyle stones scattered throughout the churchyard. 
“The Arched House ”’ was also visited, and the numerous articles 
connected with Carlyle which are appropriately preserved in his 
birthplace were examined with great interest. Several of the 
company also made a call on Mr Graham, merchant, and were 
privileged to see three letters in the autograph of Admiral Lord 
Nelson, which are family heirlooms. They were addressed to Mr 
Graham’s grand-uncle, Dr Graham, a naval surgeon, who served 
with the hero of Trafalgar on one of the ships which he com- 
manded. The first was written from Burnham, Norfolk, in 1790, 
when Nelson was awaiting appointment to a ship. In it he com- 
plains of being greatly plagued by prosecutions about “ these 
captures in the West Indies.’’ An action had been raised against 
him for £5000 on account of one captured vessel ; and while he 
was being defended by the Government, the action was a source 
of annoyance to him, and he contemplated the possibility that he 
might be put in prison if the decision should be given against 
him. He whose famous signal to his fleet has since become a 
historic trumpet-call to discharge the whole of duty, wrote to Dr 
Graham under the exasperation of that experience :—“ All this 
shews that one may do his duty too well.’’ Another of the letters 
was the first which the Admiral wrote with his left hand; and his 
correspondent used to relate that he practised writing with the left 
hand before he lost the right arm under a presentiment that such 
a calamity might overtake him. ‘The third letter acknowledges 
congratulations on his elevation to the peerage. Dr Graham had 
proposed to make him the compliment of a brace of birds, and the 
Admiral asked that they should be sent by waggon to London, a 
practical commentary on the changes in locomotion which the 
years have witnessed. 
From Ecclefechan the drive was continued by way of Kirtle- 
bridge and Eaglesfield to Springkell ; but on the way a detour was 
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