1840-42. INVALID LIFE. 145 



"Seafield, August, 17, 1842. 



" MY DEARLY BELOVED, How fares the world with you 1 

 Except in my dreams I get no account of your ways and 

 welfare, for all the channels by which intelligence of you used 

 to reach me are dried up, and for anything I know to the 

 contrary, you may be changed into Mrs. J. T. or Mrs. D. R. ; 

 and the arrival of this epistle may be the cause of a dreadful 

 domestic scene and half-a-dozen duels. However, make up 

 your mind to this, that the moment such intelligence, duly 

 authenticated, reaches me, I shall commence an action for 

 breach of promise, and make a clutch at your hoardings. 



" In such a predicament, not knowing whether to address 

 you as miss or matron (though determined whatever betide, 

 to claim you as my Janet), I am reduced to the painful 

 necessity of either speaking of myself, which is anything 

 but pleasant to a man of my modesty, and may, moreover, 

 not be so acceptable to you as it once was hem ! or of 

 seeking out some common topic whereon I may enlarge for 

 our mutual edification. 



" Of myself, I will only say this much, that whether you 

 are pleased to hear it or not, I make daily invisible progress 

 in amendment ; though I grieve to say that the classicality 

 of outline, of which I spoke in a former letter as developing 

 in my features, is not so apparent as it was, and my nose is 

 as red as ever. I now flourish upon my crutches and 

 make daily excursions to the sea-side, where they plant a 

 chair, on which I sit and meditate on the ladies bathing 

 and the other wonders of the great deep. 



" But I have got something better than the crutches to 

 progress with ; my good uncle (these uncles and, above all, 

 aunts are the great blessings of creation) has most kindly 

 purchased a little horse, which he sends down to us, along 

 with a comfortable gig, and I go whisking over the 

 country, to Dalkeith, Musselburgh, Prestonpans, Cramond, 



