1855. VISIT TO MELROSE. 275 



Abbey so ill as to attempt to draw it. Mr. Duncan Maclaren 

 is not a man easily deceived, and Dr. Brown belongs to a 

 profession famous for its acuteness. They both saw me 

 sketching, and it would be rude in me to contradict them. 

 However, I can't find the sketch anywhere in my portfolio, 

 otherwise I would send it. 



" The mutton here is excellent, and for a very good 

 reason; the sheep feed upon apples. You'll be saying 

 that's some of my nonsense, but it is not. I have been 

 studying the ways of the sheep that share the garden lawn 

 with me. We are now good friends, and they feed close to 

 me, taking me, as Jessie affirms, for a shepherd, whom in 

 my hat and plaid I much resemble. The lawn is in large 

 part an orchard, and my friends look out diligently for the 

 fallen apples, and munch them up as if they were turnips. 

 To-day the gardener mounted a tree, and fell to shaking 

 down the apples, whereupon a wise lamb stepped forward, 

 proposing to try their quality, and an altercation arose 

 between it and the gardener, ending in the victory of the 

 latter tyrannical person. You see the advantages of travel. 

 I might have remained long enough at Elm Cottage without 

 learning the singular fact in natural history I have just re- 

 corded. Nor is it the only one I have learned, as you shall 

 find when we return. It would be wrong to come back from 

 Sir Walter Scott's Land, and not romance a little. His own 

 house, by the way, is one of the least romantic we have 

 seen ; but the country is wonderful, wonderful, such a coun- 

 try as even Adam and Eve, when the fiery-sworded angel 

 drove them forth, might have wandered into with delight. 

 Luckily for you my paper is done, or you would have had a 

 rhapsody." Again he says, " You would admire the Abbey 

 garden. The old grey towers look over the walls, with the 

 ghosts of departed monks sitting sorrowfully on the broken 



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