A Journey to London in 1840. 15.'j 



■soil of the late Joseph Cauvin, W.S. in Edinburgh, himself the 

 son of a Frenchman who had settled there as a teacher of his 

 native tongue. He, the W.S., was a brother of the late Gavin 

 Cauvin, long also a teacher of French, and who founded the 

 hospital at Duddingston which bears his name. Young Cauvin 

 early lost his father and was left almost penniless. He attended 

 the High School and uiade such jiroficienc) that he gained the gold 

 medal in the rector's class, the highest honour which the school 

 confers. He was bred to no j)rofession, but having gone to Ger- 

 many, as a tutor I think, he was boarded for upwards of three 

 years in the house of Professor Bauer, of Gottingen. He thus 

 made himself master of the German language and otherwise added 

 to his literary acciuirements. He returned to Scotland in 1838, or 

 the previous year, and lived with his mother at Portobello, having 

 no fixed employment but being nervouslv anxious about his future 

 course of life. The only kind of work he engaged in was the 

 traiTslation of several arti(des from the T'lerman into English for 

 Professor Jameson's Scienlific Journal. From \'icinage or 

 juxtaposition he became intimately ac(|uainted with Captain 

 Rol)ert Mackerlie, Keeper of Ordnance in Edinburgh Castle. I 

 believe they had been previously known to each other as Cauvin 

 and several of the Captain's family were at school together. This 

 worthy man felt a ileep interest in the fate of the young and 

 amiable scholar. He had him often at his house, which indeed 

 Cauvin regarded almost as a home. He enjoyed the most confi- 

 dential and endearing friendshij) of the Captain's whole family. 

 But he soon found that Portol)ello and all the friends that made 

 it dear must be left, and that he must gird up his loins and adopt 

 some mode of life wherebv to keep himself fr<jm want and to 

 elevate his condition. The field of literature was the only one to 

 M-hich he could attach himself. But this field, at best not very 

 productive, however interesting, is so hemmed in and enclosed 

 that admittance to it is very difficult even in the case of one who 

 has the highest claims. Among other plans that passed through 

 Cau\in's mind was one that he might try his fortune in Vienna. 

 He knew Itoth German and English and the literary stories which 

 both languages contained, and he flattered himself that as a 

 teacher of English, or by translations from that language into 

 German, he might get on in the world. Vienna accordingly was 

 all but decided upon. Mackerlie was distressed to see such a 



