POKTEAITS. 28a 



portrait of a strong-featured; silvery-headed old man, one 

 Dr Wardiaw, of Glasgow, by a west-country artist of the 

 name of Macnee. I thought it the best portrait in the 

 Academy Exhibition. I am happy to say that (like your- 

 self) her most gracious Majesty the Queen was attracted 

 by the Professor's picture; and a person, who necessarily 

 knew, informed me that, on leaving the Academy one 

 day, she said, ' I must just have one other look at my dear 

 old man/ The said old man, I regret to say, dees not 

 seem to be gaining strength with the advance of the 

 season; and, I confess, I am somewhat apprehensive of 

 the effect which the anxiety and fatigue connected with 

 the labours of his class may produce next winter. Mean- 

 while, he is in the south of Scotland with his eldest son, 

 who has a farm and pleasant habitation by the banks of 

 the Esk, some nine miles from Langholm, in the Border 

 country. 



" By the by, I am not answering your letter at all. " I 

 never do answer letters, and hope this will be an addi- 

 tional reason for your writing them. I think somebody 

 mentioned that Derwent Coleridge had been down in 

 Westmoreland, and was staying for a time at the Knab. 

 He seems to have taken a long time to think about it — 

 having, if I remember rightly, been some fifteen years 

 without seeing his poor brother. But perhaps he knew, 

 or at least bekeved, his case to be hopeless. I have not 



