326 Mary Somerville. 



in me, such as I have felt more than once 

 as I read " Ossian " while travelling among our 

 Highland hills in my early youth. In one of the 

 grand passes of the Oberland, when we were in 

 Switzerland, we were enveloped in a mist, through 

 which peaks were dimly seen. We stopped to hear 

 an echo ; the response came clear and distinct from 

 a great distance, and I felt as if the Spirit of the 

 Mountain had spoken. The impression depends on 

 accessory circumstances ; for the roar of a railway 



train passing over a viaduct has no such effect. 

 ***** 



I lost my husband in Florence on the 26th June, 



1860 From the preceding narrative may be 



seen the sympathy, affection, and confidence, which 

 always existed between us 



[After what has already been said of the happiness my 

 mother enjoyed during the long years of their married 

 life, it may be imagined what grief was her's at my 

 father's death after only three days' illness. My mother's 

 dear friend and correspondent, Miss F. P. Cobbe, wrote 

 to her as follows on this occasion : 



" I have just learned from a letter from Captain Fairfax 

 to my brother the great affliction which has befallen you. 

 I cannot express to you how it has grieved me to think 

 that such a sorrow should have fallen on you, and that 

 the dear, kind old man, whose welcome so often touched 

 and gratified me, should have passed away so soon after 



