Edinburgh. 35 



the kirk in the afternoon. The minister in ques- 

 tion was Mr. Wemyss, who had married a younger 

 sister of my mother's. 



* * * * * 



When I was about thirteen my mother took a 

 small apartment in Edinburgh for the winter, and I 

 was sent to a writing school, where I soon learnt 

 to write a good hand, and studied the common 

 rules of arithmetic. My uncle William Henry 

 Charters, lately returned from India, gave me a 

 pianoforte, and I had music lessons from an old lady 

 who lived in the top story of one of the highest houses 

 in the old town. I slept in the same room with 

 my mother. One morning I called out, much 

 alarmed, " There is lightning 1" but my mother said, 

 after a moment, " No ; it is fire !" and on opening 

 the window shutters I found that the flakes of fire 

 flying past had made the glass quite hot. The next 

 house but one was on fire and burning fiercely, 

 and the people next door were throwing everything 

 they possessed, even china and glass, out of the 

 windows into the street. We dressed quickly, and 

 my mother sent immediately to Trotter the up- 

 holsterer for four men. We then put our family 

 papers, our silver, &c., &c., into trunks ; then my 

 mother said, " Now let us breakfast, it is time enough 

 for us to move our things when the next house takes 



D 2 



