316 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. X. 



correspondent. A note to one of them, dated March 

 23d, contains the following inquiries after truth : " I am 

 lying in bed, with a beautiful warm blister on one side, to 

 keep the cold out, so that I can't venture upon a big sheet 

 of paper. . . . The weather here has been very inclement, 

 and the fields, whilst I write, are white with snow. Two 

 months of such weather are more than we are accustomed 

 to, and you may judge how little it suits us, when I men- 

 tion that I have only once been in the garden for the last 

 three months, so cold has it been. Who is Mr., or is it 

 Mrs., or Miss Zero, who is always getting up or down in 

 the cold weather ? Is Zero black or white, lady or gentle- 

 man, young or old ? I am told that Zero is a mad milliner, 

 who insists on dressing everybody in white, and painting 

 their noses blue. Is that true 1 Why is she always letting 

 somebody get above her, or putting somebody below her ? 

 Is she a school-girl, and a dux or booby ? Is she at school 

 with you? Tell me all about her? They say she has 

 something to do with the freezing point. What's it ? Is it 

 the point of the nose, or the end of the fingers, or the tip 

 of the ear ? Write me about these curious things. . . . 

 Vivo is at present in deep mourning, having lost, by death, 

 Lady Fanny Squirrel, to whom he has long been engaged 

 to be married. Poor fellow, he has waited long, and we 

 hoped it was to have ended otherwise. He talks wildly at 

 times about life being a burden to him, but I don't perceive 

 that his appetite has suffered ; and if any other dog sets 

 up chat to him, he draws his sword, and is at him at once. 

 He announces his intention of erecting a monument to the 

 memory of his peerless Fanny, and then he will join the 

 army, and spend the rest of his life fighting against the 

 Turks, i.e. the Cats." 



The lectures in the Philosophical Institution,-* already 



