CHAPTER VL 



SOMERVILLE FAMILY DR. SOMERVILLE'S CHARACTER LETTERS 

 JOURNEY TO THE LAKES DEATH OF SIB WILLIAM FAIRFAX 

 REMINISCENCES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 



[With regard to my father's family, I cannot do better 

 than quote what my grandfather, the Rev. Thomas 

 Somerville, says in his " Life and Times " : " I am a 

 descendant of the ancient family of Somerville of Carn- 

 busnethan, which was a branch of the Somervilles of 

 Drum, ennobled in the year 1424. Upon the death of 

 George Somerville, of Corhouse, fifty years ago, I became 

 the only male representative of the family." There is a 

 quaint old chronicle, entitled " Mernorie of the Somer- 

 villes," written by James, eleventh Lord Somerville, who 

 died in 1690, which was printed for private distribution, 

 and edited by Sir Walter Scott, and gives ample details 

 of all the branches of our family. Although infinitely 

 too prolix for our nineteenth century ideas, it contains 

 many curious anecdotes and pictures of Scottish life. 



My father was the eldest son of . the minister of Jed- 

 burgh, and until his marriage with my mother, had lived 

 almost entirely abroad and in our colonies. It was 

 always a subject of regret to my mother that my father 

 never could be induced to publish an account of his im- 

 portant travels in South Africa, for which he had ample 



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